#edchatNZ Blogging Meme

Home from the absolute MAGIC of #edchatnz I am delighted to continue the connecting, reflecting, sharing, growing and learning in this blogging meme.  Thank you to Justine for challenging me for this adventure.  

If you get included in the blogging meme: copy/paste the questions and instructions into your own blog then fill out your own answers. Share on twitter tagging 5 friends.

1. How did you attend the #Edchatnz Conference? (Face 2 Face, followed online or didn't)

I was extremely privileged to attend both days face to face, travelling a round trip of 2,940km.

2. How many others attended from your school or organisation?

CORE was extremely well represented: Mark Osborne, Karen Melhuish-Spencer, Becky Hare, Michael Lintott, Carolyn Wilson, Catriona Pene, Tania Coutts, Sarah Dwan, Margot McKeegan, Nicki Tempero,  (11 – sure hope I didn’t miss anyone!  Please let me know if I have)

3.How many #Edchatnz challenges did you complete?

·      Endless selfies and grelfies;

·      Selfie with presenters;

·      Selfie with kids;

·      Tweeted like a nutter – retweeted and shared;

·      Danced on a chair;

·      Made a MAGICAL sculpture in Design Thinking;

·      Talking to anyone and everyone from everywhere;

4. Who are 3 people that you connected with and what did you learn from them?

Pam Hook – loved the simplicity and power of her session.

Craig Wilson – love the power of booktrack to create a different reading experience for our learners.  I think this is an area to explore with all learners.  (and I love my booktrack T-shirt – thanks)

Mandy Heim & Chhaya Naraya – sharing the story of the power of developing real relationships with all students, sharing the Alan November story;

5. What session are you gutted that you missed?

Nanogirl - Boost your Science Teaching Confidence but I am trying to catch up and know we will connect face to face sometime soon!

6. Who is one person that you would like to have taken to Edchatnz and what key thing would they have learned? 

I would have loved to have taken Pauline to #edchatnz!  She would have connected with so many educators and loved it!

7. Is there a person you didn’t get to meet/chat with (F2F/online) that you wished you had? Why

Agh, there are so many people I wished I’d met face to face!

Richard https://twitter.com/iPadWells I love your reflection on the conference - #Edchatnz – NZ leads Education

8. What is the next book you are going to read and why?

"Who owns the learning?" by Alan November as shared by Mandy Heim & Chhaya Naraya

“Key Competencies for the Future” by Rosemary Hipkins, Rachel Bolstad, Sally Boyd and Sue McDowall, as it is our first book for the inaugural #edubookchatnz this term – just ordered! 

9. What is one thing you plan to do to continue the Education Revolution you learnt about at #EdchatNZ?

Connect, share, learn, challenge, reflect and do it visibly!  I am blogging more, sharing more, connecting more….

10. Will you take a risk and hand your students a blank canvas?

As a team member, I will share this journey and encourage us to use a blank canvas when facilitating in schools.

Who do will I tag with this meme:

I tag:

Mandy Heim https://twitter.com/HeimMrs

Jennie Lyall https://twitter.com/Jackbillie35

Allana Taylor https://twitter.com/kiwiallana

Katarina Reedy https://twitter.com/BubblesReedy

Fiona Grant https://twitter.com/FionaGrant

Telling my story…

Today, inspired by Jane’s blogpost on Focusing Stories, hot on the tail of the MAGIC of #edchatnz I want to reflect on my storytelling.

Early in 2012 Jane empowered me to tell my story.  Up until then I did not realize or belief that I had a story to tell!  Jane, thank you for helping me see myself in the story I told. 

Stories I have shared:

Student Designed Learning Spaces

Educamp Dunedin

Something to Tweet about

Creating Learning Spaces

Putting Learners at the Heart

With each of these stories I have always believed that it is Jane at the other end of the lens who has made the story! Jane's questioning and interest in my journey has always made me really reflect and inquire into my practice.

It is with great delight that I reflect on Jane’s recent CORE blogpost. 

“I have been interested in the process that schools go through when they let us into their place to help them tell their curriculum story. I find the whole process of 'storying' intriguing. By sitting down and taking the time to explore their own school story individually, and then telling the story to each other as they tell it to us, you can see new possibilities opening up.”

Through storying Jane empowered me see to the story, feel the story, and indeed be even more than I believed my story could be.

“Greer Cavallaro Johnson mentions that 'people construct identities through their talk in interaction with others' (2009, p270). This is evident when you place a video camera in front of someone. They are not only telling you the story of their curriculum change, but also their place within that change. It is interesting to see them explore this narrative through a different lens. They have been active in the process, but the process of storying allows them to see what their place was in that process, and to reflect on the experience.”

By being active in the process, by sharing a story, by believing in my story and the story of my learners I am able to reflect on the journey, rewind the story and imagine more to the story. 

Jane talks of the interactional process of storytelling.  Thank you Jane for enabling and empowering me to dig deeper into my story and my journey.  Thank you for helping me see the journey through other lens.  Thank you for the opportunity to write new chapters in my story.   

As I fly home from #echatnz I am so incredibly focused on the power of telling, sharing, creating, living your own story.  Thank you for helping me see storying as professional learning, reflection, change, and growth. 

A storify of my tweets over the two days of #edchatnz

SOLO Taxonomy Storify by Pam Hook

What a wonderful follow up...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Pauline

What a pleasure and a privilege to stop over in Christchurch on the way home from #edchatnz and celebrate with a very special friend!  So much laughter and fun!  GOOD TIMES!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Pauline! on PhotoPeach

#edchatnz Reflecting on a MAGICAL two days...

WOW on board flight NZ551 bound for Christchurch!  Time to reflect on the MAGIC of the past two days...

Danielle had a dream...

She believed in her passion for education...

She knew that her family and friends didn't want to talk about education 24/7...

So her dream became a reality two years ago with the inception of #edchatnz.

#edchatNZ is a community for New Zealand educators across all sectors to discuss all things education. Please feel free to use this hashtag to share anything relevant about New Zealand education. #edchatNZ conference Friday, 8 August 2014 at 9:00 AM - Saturday, 9 August 2014 at 3:00 PM (NZST) Auckland, New Zealand

In April this year Danielle's dream reshaped to allow for the MAGIC of #edchatnz online to become a f2f reality.  

"The steering committee has pulled together the #edchatnz conference in 18 weeks. Yes, you read correctly: 18 weeks. Our first official minutes were dated 3/04/2014."

So, yesterday, at the amazing Hobsonville Point Secondary School the MAGIC began as educators arrived from 8am. Words can't really convey the feeling of hugs as connections are restored, hugs as new connections are made and the tangible pulse of the potential of this inaugural event.

I have always held the belief that online is fabulous but face to face is MAGIC. The upward spiral is evident when we meet a tweet face to face for the first time, but we have a shared journey, a kindredness, a virtual connection. Online connections make the face to face connections more meaningful which in turn make future online connections more meaningful - a true upward spiral of success.

From the very first moments in the darkened auditorium listening to the student on the piano, to the Hobsonville learner sharing her poem, to the Hobsonville primary students sharing their learning journey, their agency, through every workshop... this conference focused on transforming opportunities for our learning.

With the most important space in the classroom or school being the space between the teacher, leader, learner's ear's this conference truly connected us, challenged us, empowered us, engaged us. We were given agency to make the learning over these two days work for us. We were challenged, motivated and inspired by each other. We had fun!!! So much fun!

I really find it hard to encapsulate the MAGIC of these two days in a blogpost, because it is so much more than a blogpost is possible of sharing.

So many opportunities for us as educators to make a difference in the everyday life of our students!!!

A HUGE thank you to Danielle, for having a dream, believing in the dream and making the dream a reality. As 300 educators gathered, how far will the ripples flow? Conservatively each educator has opportunities to impact on thirty learners, meaning a very real possible impact on 9000 learners immediately. Then, what of those following the stream from afar and indeed globally? What is the potential reach of the goodness of the past two days? It is phenomenal! It is MAGIC!!!

Thanks to Hobsonville Point Secondary School for the amazing venue!

Thanks to every tweep who is in my PLN and who is such a part of who and what I am everyday.

Thanks to everyone who connects, cares, shares, gives...

Where to now? Counting down til October! Connected Educator Month is going to be the most incredibly powerful opportunity for local, national and global connections on a scale not seen before in New Zealand.  

• What are you going to do to embrace the MAGIC of this opportunity?  
• What are you going to explore in your area?  
• What are you going to connect with?
• Who can you engage with?

Can you:

• Run or attend an educamp?
• Begin or reignite an e-teach group?
• Join #edubookchatnz?
• Run or attend an #eduignite?
• Attend Ulearn?
• Run a techni breaki at your school?
• Blog your journey?
• Share your T@I?
• Attend or start up a local f2f group?
• Join in a webinar?
• Join and contribute to the vln?
• Join or connect with a new group through social media?
• Support learning and connecting at a local retirement home?
• Support a collaboration between ECE, primary, secondary or tertiary groups?
• Become a mentor?
• Find yourself a mentor?
• Join a quadblog group?

These are a few ideas I have. What could you do? Please share your ideas in a comment and let's really connect and collaborate for the good of all!

Education Book Club #edchatnz

Education Book Club

An idea dreamt up on twitter - another dream becomes a reality here at #edchatnz

As teachers, we all love to talk, to tell stories, to learn.  Sharing the story and the learning journey!

@edubookchatNZ

http://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/key-competencies-future  as first read!  WOOHOO

possible next reads...
Invent to learn - Gary Stager and Silvia Martinez
Classroom Habitudes - Angela Maiers
Change - Richard Gerver
The Third Teacher - Richard Long
Boy writers - Ralph Fletcher

Haiku writing for prizes... woohoo

Thanks to you all for yet another MAGIC MAGIC session...

#edchatnz Tips and tricks for Google Apps

Tips and tricks for Google Apps making life... easier

Ever expanding Google eco-system!!!
Google for Education website!

Chrome extensions and apps - explore and find ones that work for you!



Selectable images in Google draw is something I have to explore further...
Highlight the area, make it transparent and add a link! Check out Chris Betcher's video in presentation.

Oooh looking forward to exploring Youtube editor!!!

MAGIC session thanks AMY!!!