sustainable decadence

.... is it a feeling
a state of mind
immediate and future physical reality

breakfast of bagels bulging with produce of earth and ocean
omelettes fluffy and golden
rich, strong, black organic coffee
fat buttermilk pancakes, bulging with blueberries and drenched in organic maple syrup

the creek chortling away below us

brightly coloured birds building their nests

warmth, laughter, appreciation

sunlight penetrating the morning chill, seeking space between majestic redwoods,
playing on skin, dancing on any available surface

delightfully indulgent sustainable decadence

11,000 photos with tales to tell, moments of life suspended in an in/tangable memory of plastic and computer chips, sustainable digital media decadence

Question 3

Scope and Sequence
Teaching Programme
Assessment Programme

Scope:

this is what you are going to include in your teaching programme so as to address focus areas and cover the content requirements for a particular stage of learning. Content requirements include essential content plus other links and extrapolations from related content areas that are incorporated into the teaching programme. This additional content allows for greater depth and breadth of study in each syllabus area, eg incorporating cross curriculum content such as I.T, Careers, P.D.H.P.E. within a Food Technology programme.

Sequence:

determines when a unit of work is taught in the context of the syllabus content, and the duration it is to be taught for. It is used in a lesson by lesson framework. In effect it is a timeline for the implementation of units of work within the syllabus content.

Scope and sequence plans provide an overview of units of work that may be taught in any given stage of a syllabus eg Stage 6 English Syllabus.

There are important factors to consider when preparing a scope and sequence plan:

• • syllabus content
• • mandatory hours
• • the needs, interests and abilities of the students
• • most effective use of existing and available resources and facilities within the school and wider community
• • provision for a range of experiences throughout each stage of learning that increases in challenge and level of sophistication
• • areas of community significance
• • where possible or relevant, themes and topics can be drawn on from everyday situations

Teaching Programme:

This is a teaching plan that integrates the essential syllabus content in a variety of units of work that will enable the teacher to cover the scope of the content within the indicated timeframe. It is not essential to cover all content but it is important that each unit of work is designed to address content from each stage. A teacher may need to transfer outcomes and content across stages to ensure that the needs of all students are addressed.

A teaching programme for a unit of work should:

• • identify outcomes
• • identify context, theme, topics and focus areas of the unit
• • select relevant syllabus content related to outcomes and organise it into a logical sequence according to context
• • establish the criteria for providing evidence of learning, eg. through observation during teaching and through learning and assessment activities. This will assist the teacher to make judgements on achievements in relation to outcomes and identified content.
• • be a plan for the teaching, learning and assessment activities providing the desired evidence of learning
• • be student centred and promote the development of knowledge, skills and understanding of the subject area
• • use creative, stimulating, meaningful and inclusive teaching and learning experiences to present content in the most appropriate context to promote student learning and development of higher order thinking skills
• • plan to provide maximum opportunities for feedback throughout any teaching practice
• • provide adequate teacher evaluation and reflection on the programme to assess the degree that the unit of work remained focused on the proposed outcomes and to identify evidence of learning early in the process so suitable adjustments can be made, if required, to assist learning and ensure a successful degree of progress is obtained from the learning experience

Assessment Programme:

this is a plan of assessment, integrated into the teaching/learning programme and formulated to assist the teacher to know whether to move on to the next phase of learning or whether students need to consolidate knowledge, understanding and skills.
An assessment programme should:

• • emphasise interactions between learning and manageable assessment strategies that promote learning
• • clearly express, for both student and teacher, the goals of the learning activity
• • provide a clear rubric for success within the learning activity
• • reflect the view that assessment helps students learn and is not designed just to achieve a better mark
• • provide ways for students to use the feedback from assessment activities to enhance their learning experience
• • assist students to take responsibility for their own learning
• • be inclusive of all learners and their strengths within specific learning styles whilst cultivating the exploration and familiarity of less developed learning styles.
  

Syllabus outcomes are central for decisions about the learning to be undertaken and to provide the evidence of learning that is to be collected using assessment activities.

The B.O.S. syllabus advocates “assessment for learning”,

encouraging assessment activities that enhance learning and recognise that learners use their current understanding to discover, develop and incorporate new knowledge, understanding and skills. The assessment for learning guidelines help teachers and students to know if their current knowledge, understanding and skill level is a suitable basis for future learning.
Each unit of work within a syllabus document provides programming stimulus for selected syllabus content and provides guidance on how assessment activities can be integrated into a teaching and learning sequence.

Evaluation:

What is taught in any learning programme is a synthesis of scope and sequence, teaching and assessment programmes, the syllabus document, the teaching practice and the personal ability and characteristics of the teacher, the students understanding, school and community resources and facilities and any philosophical belief that an individual school might embrace. How rigidly this is adhered to is determined by other factors such as whether the school and /or an individual student is wanting or needing to meet the outcomes as determined by the B.O.S.

The syllabus document is a thorough and broad platform that leaves room for innovation and creativity in its application and delivery but the content outcomes and assessment parameters, particularly for the S.C and H.S.C are very limiting.
The scope and sequence is, in effect, the overview or big picture of how the components of the syllabus are managed in terms of the whole. This is an excellent format to utilise as it provides the teacher with clear guidelines to effectively organise into a cohesive document all information, practices, activities and outcomes for delivery within a predetermined time constraint. This document will not only help keep the teacher and learning practices on track, but it is also used to provide continuity to a class if a relief teacher is required for a lesson and as a record for future reference.

The teaching programme sets out how each aspect of the scope and sequence is delivered and it is within this document that the teacher can be creative with the delivery of the lesson content. This works effectively for most stages.

An exception to this is the year 10 S.C content which is basically driven by a linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence orientated test assessment. This greatly restricts the opportunities for teachers to deliver the content necessary, and provide the variety of experiences that are often required, to ensure that all students dominant intelligence is met therefore establishing the opportunity for all students to succeed in these tests.

A similar situation occurs with the year 12 H.S.C .
The teaching and assessment programmes can be delivered using creative teaching practices but the outcomes criteria must be met to provide the best assessment results possible. H.S.C. does provide scope for the pursuit of personal interest areas within the assessment format but B.O.S syllabus content and all information relative to the course outline must be adhered to to ensure maximum opportunity for success within the B.O.S theoretical parameters.

As with the S.C. this takes the form of linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence orientated test assessment. In both instances this elitist form of outcomes testing disadvantages and even negates the potential success for students with a different dominant intelligence reference. This is quite a disappointing culmination to 13years of a basically well thought out systematic distribution of knowledge.

To put information into action is to know it to a much greater depth than is often demonstrated by the simple regurgitation of spoken or written information. I think that the parameters for success could be more inclusive of our varied but equally valuable intelligence modalities and that more validity for the consistent and progressive development of ‘essential’ human capacities could be forthcoming.
It is a failing in our system when we accept students of medicine who have the ability to obtain a high band 6 yet have a poor understanding of compassion, hope and faith, or law students whose level of integrity, moral standing and sense of justice is severely lacking but allowed because of inequitable measures for success that negate virtue as a necessary parameter.

The assessment programme does allow us to make judgements on the effectiveness of our scope and sequence and teaching programme and adjust this if necessary. Assessments can be made in a variety of ways, eg observation, questioning, peer evaluation, self evaluation and more structured assessment activities. This can also assist in supporting student regulated learning. These programmes should always provide a clear rubric for success, and by integrating learning and assessment, a teacher is able to choose aspects of a students performance to record. Assessment information is also valuable for the teacher to use to provide information to parents, other teachers (especially replacement ones) and also the individual student.

Question 2

ASSIMILATION....

ADAPTATION....

EQUILIBRATION....




Constructivist
Theory of Education





Jean Piaget 1896-1980

1. Sensorimotor stage (birth - 2 years old)--The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight (object permanance).

2. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7)--The child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations.

3. Concrete operations (ages 7-11)--As physical experience accumulates, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage. For example, arithmetic equations can be solved with numbers, not just with objects.

4. Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15)--By this point, the child's cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning.

Looking at Piaget’s four stages of development and how a child moves through them has given clear indications that a child has an experience of his or her environment based on existing constructs that they have formed from past experiences. If the new information is assimilated easily the child maintains a state of mental equilibrium, if not, the child alters their present cognitive structure moving through a stage of disequilibrium to accommodate the new experience. Equilibrium is regained and a more complex level of cognitive development has been reached. Piaget’s research indicates that a child cannot undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so.

Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934

"The child begins to perceive the world not only through its eyes but also through its speech.
And later it is not just seeing but acting that becomes informed by words. "

"Thought is not merely expressed in words; it comes into existence through them. "

'A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought unembodied in words remains a shadow."

"A word is a microcosm of human consciousness.

Vygotsky's Central question:
How do humans, in their short life trajectory, advance so far beyond their initial biological endowment and in such diverse directions?

Vygotsky’s theory differentiated between our higher and lower mental function stating that “humans have the capacity to continue to develop intelligence” and that it is through social and cultural interaction, that our higher mental function is developed. Our lower mental functions are of genetic inheritance and as such are innate mental abilities.

There are many interpretations of what constructivist education is but one common thread is that “development of understanding requires that the learner actively engages in creating meaning .
(The Impact of Constructivism on Education).

Thus, constructivists shift the focus from
"knowledge as a product to knowing as a process.”

Constructivist education is inclusive of both Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories. The Stages of Development are reflected in the structuring of classrooms from pre-school through to senior school. This is predominately through biological development and chronological age, and the curriculum and syllabus documents are indicative of natural/normal biological developmental expectations. Constructivism then goes on to embrace the creative reality of humans and recognises the cognitive and social learning processes.

This is suggestive of Vygotsky’s theory that “

Cognitive skills and patterns of thinking are not primarily determined by innate factors, but are the products of the activities practiced in the social institutions of the culture in which the individual grows up. Consequently, the history of the society in which a child is reared and the child's personal history are crucial determinants of the way in which that individual will think.

In constructivist education, it is also recognised that supporting the biological development of a child by providing scaffolding within a safe learning environment, and challenging the students abilities with new experiences therefore driving them into their ZPD to form new concepts via assimilation, accommodation and equilibration, the skills attained will exceed what could have been achieved alone. This is a direct indication of Vygotsky’s. His recognition of the Zone of Proximal Development and the importance of the students interaction with people in their environment to awaken their internal developmental processes as an essential feature of learning is reflected in the classrooms of today. Whether it be teacher, parent or a peer of the student who has previously mastered the particular function, the student requires the assistance of someone else, to support in this knowledge scaffolding process, to link new ideas with existing knowledge to form new and more complex mental constructs.

It is important to mention von Glassersfeld's concept of viability.......

........... 'It is through checking out our understandings and perspectives with others that we develop a sense of the viability of ideas. This process of idea testing can be seen in the classroom of teachers who value students' ideas and promote the process of critical thinking.'


In “The Learning Revolution” (pg 133 chpt 3), Jeannette Vos

“The more you link the more you learn”. …the brain stores information by making great use of associations. Every person’s brain has an association cortex. It can link up like with like, from different memory banks”




.....whichever association method is used, if we can add humour and emotion there is a greater chance of the information being transfered to our long term memory, because the filter in the brain that transfers information to our L.T.M. is closely linked with the brains emotional centre. Linking associations with as many senses as possible seems to help L.T.M: sight smell sound touch taste.




With the advent of the computer age, the multiple links now simultaneously available via the slipstream of information technology and the speed and ease with which students are able to interface with it blurs the lines of student/teacher roles. Instead, this is one of the emerging areas where students are the facilitators of technological skills exchange. The constructivist view of education is moving further away from an instructivist model where the teacher was the sole educator in a classroom The teacher is moving more towards the role of facilitator, providing the appropriate scaffolding for learning, constructing rubrics as an indicator of success and encouraging and supporting social and collaborative interaction. The understanding that everyone has unique, innate gifts, talents and perspectives to offer and by providing a safe, relaxed yet stimulating learning environment, the teacher/facilitator is able to achieve a higher standard of learning within the classroom. A safe, relaxed, inclusive, empowering and stimulating learning environment, where analysis, critical reflection and creativity is common practice is much more conducive to learning.

On pg 133 and 171 0f The Learning Revolution, fear is recognised as a precursor of the ‘blotting out our memory banks’. With fear, adrenaline is released into the body and the brain ‘downshifts’ into a primitive survival mode. It is when our brainwaves are in an alpha and theta pattern, characterised by feelings of relaxation, concentrated alertness and well-being that great feats of super memory and heightened powers of concentration and creativity are achieved.

Thus, supporting the picture of the emerging ‘ideal learning environment’,
recognition of developmental stages of a child,
the importance of social interaction for learning
and
the scaffolding to facilitate this learning, including information and social/environmental constructs do provide the underpinning of constructivist education and highlight the importance of the marriage of Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories.

Reflective Journal

My reflective journal is going to start back to when I had taken on the guardianship of my present class 12.

We were in yr8 2002, I had a large class of, predominately boys
and this day happened to be one of their “big” days. I couldn’t seem to bring them in to a working atmosphere in the classroom. It was afternoon, they had been playing sport at lunchtime and they were red in the face, hot and sweaty. I yelled at them. Not your average voice raising but a full bodied yell! I felt something inside my head shift and to be honest, it stopped the students and they quietened down but I realised that I had just been incredibly aggressive. To them, yes, but to myself also. I continued teaching the lesson but I remember reflecting afterwards that if I didn’t discover different strategies soon to work with this “big picture” that the boys often brought into any class that they were in I would have to rethink teaching as a vocation.

Margaret Wheatley’s article on “Solving problems free from aggression” reminded me of this situation and the dilemma I faced. Wheatley talks of this in conflict resolution and even though I didn’t have a situation of students directly attacking one another, I did have strong conflict of interests where there were students who were ready to come in and wanted the lesson to start, wanted to learn and students who were still acting like they were screaming around on the ball court. I quickly came to realise that the quieter students were also intimidated by their “out of it” peers. This created an incredibly stressful and unstable working environment for all of my students. I also realised that my class needed a learning atmosphere where a strong sense of form predominated. This form needed to have clear lesson outline ie. the students needed to know what was expected of them in every lesson. Humour, humility and creativity were also key ingredients as these students were smart, wild and very good with their practical making skills.
Our high school was very young at this stage. We had our first yr 12 in their final year, new teachers who had never taught secondary students before (they were teachers of adults) and we had very inadequate facilities in the school.
We had only 8 computers in the library so when computer lessons were on three quarters of my class were “hanging around” without any other lesson structure being provided for them.
I decided that if I talked to my collegues and we found a strategy that could be used in all classes from computer studies to textiles to English then the students could come to be familiar and safe within this form or routine.
The lessons where the teachers could naturally adopt this strategy started to work really well. My class enjoyed working and achieving. That was a good start. The lessons where this didn’t happen were something else.

I was the textiles and food tech D&T teacher and all of my students loved to make things so I drew up a Major Design Project outline for them. We looked at the design process and the outcomes I wanted them to achieve and we discussed the “why” of doing what they first looked at as an extra lesson. I worked with them most mornings doing a quick evaluation of where they were with their chosen project and any free time ie lessons without a teacher turning up, rainy lunchtimes or sports afternoons was spent working on their chosen personal project.
The students came up with an amazing assortment of projects from a huge bird aviary, a timber bed and a game not only invented by the student but the board and players were beautifully constructed out of wood.
For myself, I looked at every lesson I was teaching and realised that the D&T subjects I taught were great as in, the students worked well individually, collaboratively and their level of achievement was very high. Quite often we would be working well into lunchtime, only because they wanted to. I needed to work on the main lesson subjects where more academic demand was put on the students.
The lessons that worked provided me with an arena to teach to the students different strengths (Gardner’s M.I.). In the textiles room I would physically point out and name the parts of the sewing machine, demonstrate its basic functions on a swatch of material and draw on the board different stitches and techniques that each student had to execute to achieve their sewing license. Students were given a book where they copied the basic sewing/O.H&S rules into and once they could demonstrate competence on the machine they could put their swatch into their books where their design work would also go and experiment further or move in to the smaller groups being show the use of an overlocker. Competent students naturally moved into teacher/assistant mode as they helped less capable students and as the class progressed there were different stations of activity operating at any given time and with students assisting each other in the process. The group would stop and come together when a new skill or stage of the design process needed to be outlined to the group. We had an extremely small room and I had up to 15 students working in there at any given time, some wanting to stay and work on at lunchtime. Why did this work with such difficult facilities? After reading Wheatly, Gardner and Blooms Taxonomy I can now say that the harmonious and collaborative environment free of stress where everyone was able to learn something new and fun and useful, a situation where the lesson “breathed” ie we all came in together and focused on the next part of the scaffold that would get them to their final outcome and an arena where socialising and helping each other became an integral part of the lesson was obviously a win win situation for all of us. The students also could see that as they grasped the fundamental skills and understood the process of the what and why of the lesson they were then able to evaluate their work and make decisions that would influence the process and outcome of their personal design . They analysed designs and techniques and had a say in the extent of their application of their skills beyond meeting the lesson outline. I tried this plan in other classes I taught and have found that this is the best model for me to work with . The aspect of the D&T lessons that I failed to mention earlier was that I felt very comfortable, knowledgeable and passionate about this subject, particularly the creative, sculptural aspect of textiles which made it easy for me to turn the students on to it and also for me to be comfortable/excited about them wanting to explore a new idea within the lesson content.

Some of the other classes I have been asked to teach I have not been able to digest the amount of foundation information that I would have liked and so I have found that, even though I have a love of the subject, I am hesitant in case I give the students the wrong information.
An example of this was an English class I was asked to teach to year 6 at the beginning of this year. I wasn’t sure of the content that was required, I had a brief discussion with the head teacher of the English department, wrote out the information she gave me and then attempted to make it my own. I found that when I went into that class I was still unsure of myself. None the less, I delivered the lesson. I wasn’t happy with it because it felt dead to me. The class seemed to understand the content and were able to apply the information/concepts to their tasks but for me the lesson didn’t breathe and the discussions that took place within that lesson were very dry.
I check in with the English “head” as often as I can to discuss with her what I have been doing and what I propose to do to ensure that I have the syllabus and lesson content in order and to look for clues/strategies to help me to help the students so that they can not only be more than adequately prepared for the increased work load in secondary school but they will begin to develop a love for it. I am hoping that techniques such as brainstorming, essay writing, sentence sequencing, using a dictionary, and descriptive/creative writing are becoming second nature to them therefore freeing them up to explore and hopefully embrace the other aspects of the English curriculum.

I realised very quickly that no-one likes to be yelled at which suites me just fine. If that was the way to deal with a class, even if it did work, I would not be teaching because that is not the way I am comfortable relating to anyone. I have found that to address a student by their name or to approach them and talk quietly to them are examples of much more respectful and harmonious ways to reach an unsettled student
It is wonderful to see that the more a student is learning the more comfortable they become which helps to create a safer and more productive and creative learning environment.




Note: Some of my reflections have been stimulated by Glassers writings.

Question 1

Personal characteristics …….. Use of teaching and learning theory ………… Relationships with students and colleagues………… A critical reflective orientation………

These qualities are all vital, interrelated and constantly redefinable attributes of a teacher.
Personal characteristics are the qualities I would see as the most important starting point to build the picture of qualities I aspire to within a teaching framework.

• Hattie talks about students and teachers accounting for 80% of the variance of achievement in the classroom. What the student brings with them is a given (50%) and it is the teacher (30%) who can provide a solid platform for students to understand and synthesise new information (links/connections) by:

• constant learning and knowing with passion their subject area,
• reflecting on their teaching practices and student responses,
• evaluating the effectiveness of these methods/practices,
• collaborative discussions with colleagues,
• analysing and adaptating of their methods of teaching.

The desire to do this: the love and respect for children; the ability to deliver the information in a way that is stimulating, engaging and encourages deep thinking in the students; the ability to anticipate a situation and improvise and the humility to seek help is part of a persons makeup is what informs and inspires me and therefore I can see no point in being a teacher if I didn’t have or want to work towards those personal qualities that drive me.

• Within personal characteristics lies the orientation either away from or towards critical reflection. Without orientation towards critical reflection an essential aspect of higher order thinking would be lacking. Looking to Blooms Taxonomy, and the higher order aspects of thinking for a teaching programme and lesson plan -ie evaluation (eg. of lesson content and teaching practices); analysis (eg. of the effectiveness of content and practice and where it could be changed and improved on for a multitude of reasons); and synthesis (eg. integration of all aspects of your lesson content, practices, new learning, collegial collaboration etc)...all require the desire for and the implementation critical reflection, objective and subjective.

• Being creative and innovative as a teacher so as to provide a safe stimulating learning environment which is an inclusive, rich and fertile arena for students to learn in, requires critical reflective practices and willingness to learn and change on the part of the teacher. We ask this of our students, and my experience tells me that the teacher not only has to have a sound and thorough knowledge of their subject and its potential to inform other curriculum and life areas, but also be willing and wanting to learn and in doing so, to instil and foster this quality in their students.


Healthy relationships with colleagues are essential to the health of a school and to fostering expert teaching standards. Within a collegial body there exists a vast pool of resources eg:

• the wealth of life experience
• the diversity of perspectives
• the consciousness of common goals and core values
• the subject knowledge and experience within the same faculty or within other curriculum areas
• all providing possibilities for deeper representation of an individual teachers teaching programme and lesson content.
• The recognition and utilisation of each other as a valued resource also promotes inclusiveness and empowerment of the individuals within the collegial body which adds to their sense of value within the school and wider community.

A healthy relationship with the class as an organism and with individual students within that organism is vital.
To take the time and be genuinely interested in each student, to know them by name and have some level of personal representation to them, their family or environment, gives the students a sense of value. This in turn promotes a sense of inclusiveness and safety which is empowering to them, allowing for more risk taking, creativity and transformation within their learning experience
Knowing each students also allows a teacher to individualise learning within the broader context of the lesson by recognising the different learning/ memory representations, (multiple intelligence) that a student accesses to provide themselves with a known context for new information to be added to

The use of teaching and learning theory is also invaluable.
To begin with one must cultivate a deep and broad understanding of a core subject and its corresponding syllabus documentation, and then not just overlay, but constantly weave into it, different perspectives on teaching and learning theory brought forth through many streams of observation, reflection and knowledge including collegial input and student observation; and then deliver this constantly evolving and transforming tapestry with passion, creativity and anticipation of a symbiotic experience. This is what teaching and learning within a healthy, conscious community is all about.

Indicators such as providing feedback to students to monitor their learning; planning the lesson thoroughly to then allow for flexibility, spontaneity, responsiveness; and the adoption of a more problem solving role towards students is- according to Hattie - part of an integrated and working model of the expert teacher.


To be alive is to be learning.


Teaching is the axis from which society rotates on, in ever expanding circles.
If, as teachers, we can offer inclusiveness as the foundation of a learning community we have the potential to raise the consciousness of our society by
promoting entrepreneurial behaviour
empowerment of individuals who are risk takers, reflective in their attitude, who dare to make mistakes.

Informed choice, freedom and responsibility, creativity and transformation become the harbinger of a healthy and vital community and prepare the way for the dissolving of the exclusive, elitist and aggressive dogma driven guise that has provided refuge for fear and isolation, mistrust and dis-ease on the microcosmic and macrocosmic level of mankind, the earth and beyond.

“Humility is admitting that I don’t know the whole story.
Compassion is recognizing
that you don’t know it either.”

Wheatly.

let the exam begin!!

introduction to teaching and the curriculum framework

blooms taxonomy

check out blooms taxonomy ,
have a look at the powerpoint presentation
lesson ideas
wikkipedias take on bloom
and then a blooming whole lot more with some good Sample Questions to work with.
what about some pretty pictures
a look at why the picture of blooms taxonomy structure has changed

winter festival farewell

A friend commented recently on the fast learning curve that we undertake on becoming a parent. Minus the handbook, we are immediately thrust into situations that no one can really prepare us for, as parent and child, being unique individuals, become part of a synergistic experience.
Becoming a class guardian in a steiner school is a similar experience. One that, until undertaken can never be explained, but similar to a parent in that, when our students are ready to step out into the world as conscious, participating young adults we can feel a great sense of satisfaction
The dragons (2006) in "the flight of the phoenix", a potent symbol of transformation.

concept map

The latest and last field trip for the class of 2006 (computer willing?)


Field trips provide for: Social experiences - team work, boundaries for the group and individuals, environmental and life experiences etc.
Cultural experiences - exchange, history,customs, disease eg high incidence of malaria in Vanuata, diet, housing, traditional dress, language etc.
Scientific _ geography, geology, marine, social, ecological, environmental, biology etc.

student graph

useful tool for keeping students marks readily available and adjustable according to tasks given.

maya animation

a technological tangent, strange, weird but fecund with potential as a tool for learning.

a glimpse of "country"

The site, "digital songlines" has the potential to be of great interest for Australians and overseas visitors. Digital technology is being used as a vehicle to assist in the preservation of knowledge of the Aboriginal history and culture. By involving custodians, elders and communities in this movement to bring past into present and on into the future, their songlines could not only be disseminated in a manner which maintains respect and cultural sensitivity for individual tribes but also provides an edgy modern day medium for aboriginal youth to find their way to marrying their unique culture with the 21C.

blog spot and friend

BLOG SPOT!! Ever been in one? … I wonder if Alice felt like this before she took the plunge? I just took a walk, although plunging was imminent, and in I went, into the world of inspiration, creativity and great examples of

copy paste..... copy paste..... copy paste..... copy paste.....

to the abode of a fellow blogger … ?

hmm … fel / ogger?

And so there I found myself, with my blog SPOT, which was still hanging about, but now I was teetering on the edge of “the zone” [of, proximal development], and her doorstep.

My blog SPOT = I was trying to see where I imagined I could go (read, analogue refugee e-challenged and therefore artistically and creatively frustrated), but, I had a blind SPOT. Similar to driving an old Chevy that wasn’t retrofitted with the latest software. Both SPOTS possess the potential to hinder the freedom of movement in our fast moving technological age whether on the road to Dunedoo or on the road to new and exciting realms. But there’s nothing like the imminent end of semester exam to move a SPOT or two.

Cognitive tools to help us navigate our way around a blind SPOT:

SUBJECTIVE TOOL
1. (a) Look in rear view mirror, can’t see. Look over ones shoulder, can’t see. Put on the blinker and move cautiously to the [L] or [R] as indicated. Still can’t see but here goes. Meet with smooth transition to next lane. Cool!
(b) Horns blasting, tyres screeching and aussie superlatives being flung out of windows as fingers gesture and arms flail about... hmm
(c) Or, a bit of a bang. Not cool!
2. Wide-angle rear view mirror that, in theory has been created to eliminate those pesky SPOTS, but could still place one in an awkward situation. See 1.

OBJECTIVE TOOL
3. Computerised sensing devices that warn the intrepid traveller of 1. thus allowing a smoother [read safer] transition and avoidance of such interruptions.
4. Total computerisation ie, autopilot which, theoretically, will eliminate all human error including all our SPOTS!!

So, back to my blog SPOT - which had only recently revealed itself as my brief window of opportunity to blog had finally arrived. You know that window? The one that says now you can move, change lanes, try something different etc. Well there it was, and I couldn’t see clearly where or how I had to go, as quickly and smoothly as possible because of SPOTS on my window. More hmmm…
I had the cognitive tool ..... computer..... lacking ……
a collaborative and distributed work environment.

Now, back to doorstep teetering. There’s Alice”, Z.P.D. in one hand and the doorknob in the other, ready (actually excited, because “friend on the floor" is cleaver, creative and a perfectionist) to plunge headlong into the world of blog where artist writer researcher creator explorer analyst activist …. can play.

And there she lay, stretched out on the floor, papers strewn about, thoughts in multi colours - glyphs/writings - moments thrown out and captured before they escaped… to possibly be collected and carefully placed together as a snapshot of THAT part of her learning.

I can imagine the smile on Vygotsky’s face as friend and I set off on a journey together. Social interaction was prolific. There were discussion with house mates and phone conversations about blogs and potential creations. We were all in our Z.P.D. ready to assimilate something new into our pre existing cognitive structure and we established the scaffolding which would provide us (actually, that was more for me) with tools to allow for different possibilities of expression. We explored other bloggers sites and commented on what worked or didn’t .eg. some blogs may have been literally interesting but for those with a predominant visual intelligence there was little on offer to entice them in (Gardner: Multiple Intelligence).

I left, Z.P.D excitedly held in one hand and walked home to add another blogging moment to cyberspace.

field trips, another exciting opportunity to be in "the zone"...

ACTION RESEARCH… in action Class field trips are a very obvious and accessable example of action research. The think, talk, plan, act cycle is used by the teacher to research and establish a program suitable for the students age and pedagogical requirements. Desired outcomes, budget, time constraints and subject area are all taken into account to provide an extremely effective distributed learning environment for both students and teachers / supervisors. The teachers / supervisors often then adopt the role of facilitators and or students as both planned and unplanned experiences are presented to individuals and the group. Previously organised guides adopt the role of teacher and unexpected experiences are to be expected, particularly when there are so many individuals travelling as a group An excellent learning experience for all. A great example of this is our year 9, 2003 “desert trip”. Our class journeyed approximately 14,000ks in one month. We left the north coast of N.S.W. heading NthW, or so we thought. Actually, we were no more than 1hr along the Pacific Highway when we discovered that the foul, burnt rubber smell we were noticing was coming from our hired trailer. Brand new but evidently never road tested. The left side had collapsed enough to allow the wheel hub to rub on the tyre. So, our dawn start and fabulous pre planned, systematically organised packing of the trailer was soon tossed out the window and into the car park of the nearest shopping centre.

So, the best laid plans were changed, and instead of having 7hrs of white lines and landscape behind us we had 3 attempts at packing and unpacking the trailer only to change it for a smaller, less efficient but tried and true one. We left Brisbane around 1pm.

..where was that amenities block?

a storyteller from the bush

... a little bit of fire and a little bit of stick...

... insect.

no sunburn for this girl.