New children to Vardon Idea

An idea that came from the conference was a first day at school book/power point.  The idea is that a senior child follows the new child for the day taking photos of where their bag goes, where their class is, who is their teacher, who they played with, where they are allowed to play etc  The senior child then creates a power point that gets printed and binded into a book that can go home with that child.

This was done only for new entrant children.  I think that this would be a great idea for any new child regardless of which syndicate they are joining.  We could have templates of the power point for each syndicate as it will vary between syndicates.

The power point could also be emailed to the family so they can share it with other family members.  Or it could be done in google docs power point. It could also be uploaded onto their class or personal blog, or the information could be used for the information about me part of their blog.

I think this will be a great idea.  Great practice for our children in photography and power point skills, as well as design and layout and as well as relationship building.

Using paint to teach symmetry

using paint to teach symmetryI used google docs presentation to create this presentation and it looks really boring.  I prefer normal powerpoint as it has all the bells and whistles.  Anyway here it is so have a go at making your own butterfly.  Use this link if you are having trouble viewing the powerpoint "using paint to teach symmetry"

Ulearn conference - twitter reflection

Wow what an amazing conference! So many new ideas, thoughts and technologies to think about. Where to start?

TWITTER - So who's on twitter? If you aren't then I seriously recommend you do. when I first signed up for twitter last year I did it just because and I never used it. I saw it as a social thing and thought I really don't want to be that person that tells everyone that I'm putting on my socks through twitter. Then along came Ulearn. Well needless to say my perception of twitter has totally changed.

How can you use twitter for education

• Can't quite find the answer?  Looking for a resource? Tweet it.  Add an educational hash tag e.g.#ulearn11 and ask away.  That's what I did.  I asked Ipods vs cameras and flip videos and got great opinions and ideas from teachers all over the country.  Great way of networking.  I've even been invited to a school in Pukekohe to see how they use Ipods.
• Studying photography or art? or looking at authorship with children?  Why not find an artist, photographer or author on twitter and get them to comment on work your kids do. or follow them on twitter and get their updates and pics they may tweet.
• Want to learn about another country? Link up with a school from another country and tweet about the weather, happenings, timetable etc

So I challenge you to give twitter a go or search through twitter for tweets related to education and generate your own opinion.  @asriparkinson #ulearn11