Teaching with KidsedchatNZ

Using our class twitter account to participate in KidsedchatNZ this year is showing an engagement in writing and reading as well as building great tuakana/teina relationships between the junior and senior students.

Students enjoy taking part, sharing their thoughts and ideas with other classes.

Some chats that we already have been involved in includes topics such as 'Greatness' with KidsedchatNZ, 'Learning about Digital Citizenship' and 'Making Connections'.

I have also written an article for VLN Primary School about KidsedchatNZ which can be read here.

~ "Writing should be meaningful for children, that an intrinsic need should be aroused in them, and that writing should be incorporated into a task that is necessary and relevant for life." - Lev Vygotsky ~

"WALT" or not?

What is the use of the WALT (We Are Learning To)?

The need to have this displayed or introduced before every lesson is very evident in some schools.  When I came across this picture in 2013, I just had to re-tweet it on Twitter.  I would have never imagined that (almost after a year I've posted it) my post would still attract some feedback!

What is your view on using the WALT?

~ "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us to new paths" - Walt Disney ~

Tweeting & Blogging at Connected Rotorua meeting

The theme for our fifth Connected Rotorua meeting was Tweeting & Blogging.  

The evening started with Alex, sharing her "The Twittersphere - How do I get involved" presentation. She explained what twitter is and why you should use twitter as an educator.  To help people get started on twitter, she also shared a list of her favourite NZ and International Tweachers.

Annemarie then discussed the protocol and security of blogging.  We were reminded that our school owns intellectual property - even the student blogs.

The evening concluded with me, talking about using Kidblog with NE & Year 1 students as an ePortfolio.  I ensure we tag posts, which makes it easy to monitor progress over time and also to use as additional information for OTJ's.

I also talked briefly about my students' participation in KidsedchatNZ, a twitter chat for NZ schools .  I am not letting the fact that some of my students are still learning to read and write hold us back to participate. To overcome this 'barrier', I organise parent help for our participation.  Tweets are projected on the SmartBoard, which we read out loud, students respond to questions and a parent types it for them.

My last 'tip' for the evening was that if you have a personal blog, tag your posts with the appropriate RTC 1-12 as evidence that you meet the criteria to be a Fully Registered Teacher in NZ.

~ "Most great learning happens in groups. Collaboration is the stuff of growth" 

- Sir Ken Robinson ~