The Go Zone

Stress isn't the problem, lack of recovery is. 
That was part of the ideas Mark Mckeon presented today at the CPPA seminar.
Apt for the times here in Christchurch.
Give yourself a guilt free treat a week and one biggy every 3 month. Guilt free in the fact that you do not need to think about work when you're doing it!!!! You don't!

Learn to switch off and let things go.

Set up your Go Zone to deal with the important things.

In the three ways of thinking- about everything, about just the next thing in front of us, in the zone- the Go Zone uses focusing on the next thing (on that list).

What is the Go Zone?
A dedicated time in your week where you will work on a prioritised list (written before the Go Zone) in a specified time free from distractions, phone, clutter and, dare I say it, coffee.
With a good posture and clear mind work at the list and stop when the buzzer goes off. 4 times a week would be great. Anytime would be good.
That will see you more productive than our other zones.

The Slow Zone. General life, everything and anything being tossed at us in general day living and dealing with it as is where is etc.
The No Zone. That guilt free time where you don't think about work and do real life stuff for you and and your loved ones. And especially for yourself. One No Zone to every Go Zone session.

Other tips:
Get excercise in your life.
Brings your heart rate down. (We proved it with a minute walk!!)
Get sleep.
If you're waking with things on your mind get it on your list and off your mind you can't do anything about it at 3 in the morning.
Don't clock watch. Wake before your alarm (set it just after you want to get up as a back stop.
Don't nap after 3pm as this will affect your night sleep.

I've now set aside two Go Zones in my week that will be monitored by Faye from St Joseph's Rangiora.
Makes ya accountable, and I will do it.

Go on treat yourself to no guilt, no work time. And then be more productive.

Gifted and Talented

It's been a while.

Had the pleasure of being at a Jenny Smith seminar for gifted and talented.

She blew a few MYTHS out of the water first.

1. Gifted children don't need provision ie school works for them.
2. Being gifted is the ability of work produced.
3. Providing support will alienate the gifted child ( It will in fact create peer support)
4. Providing for gifted make other learners feel bad. (Peer identity is very valid).

Next we had a go at defining gifted and talented. 

There is a wide range of definitions from being a "Mozart" to being "bright".

The Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (Gagne) was offered. 

Giftedness- possession and use of outstanding natural abilities, called aptitudes, in at lleast one ability domain to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of age peers. 

Talent- TALENT designates the outstanding mastery of systematically developed abilities, called competencies (knowledge and skills), in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of age peers who are or have been active in that field.

As one person suggested, you can be gifted but not be talented. The step between having those gifts and developing them as a talent is where parents and teacher are responsible. This is allowed (or not) depending on environment, intra personal skills and developmental processes allowed for. It also is depends if the gift is a passion of the individual. 

Features of Gifted Children may include:

• Curiosity and wide knowledge base
• Advanced verbal skills
• Excellent observation and memory
• Preference for adults and older children
• Heightened sensitivity
• Little patience or need for repitition
• Independent and creative thinkers
• Work well in the abstract
• Can get frustrated and act out or withdraw if bored misunderstood. 
• Above average ability in reading, understanding of maths concepts and ability in languages. 
• Lack of physical maturation may affect fine motor coordination and difficulties in producing work. 
• Easily sidetracked by  more interesting ideas
• Can be a perfectionist

The speed of learning was a theme that popped up throughout the day and is a feature of giftedness. 

Assessing for Gifted and Talented children needs to include a few of the following.

• Understanding of the child from the parent. Listen to them
• Observation in open ended choice based activities.
• School work
• Tests such as PAT, SEA and TOSCA
• High achievement in competitions such as Australian maths, ICAS etc.
• If in doubt after that a Educational Psychologist could test.

A number of masks may hide giftedness.

• Physical and emotional dyssynchrony- Uneven development Eg difficulty of coordinating writing with their natural fast mental rhythm and creative ideas.
• Learning disabilities
• Gender issues- Eg areas of ability (Maths and science may not be a passion for boys even though they may excel, girls may understate their ability to find peer acceptance at an early age)
• Cultural and social issues. 

How can Giftedness be addressed

Acceleration

Enrichment

Differentiation

Learning Contracts and Inquiry

Outside clubs and activities.

Questioning in the Classroom

Within the normal class setting Gifted children are helped to develop their talents by the role of Good Questions in teaching, thinking and learning. Dead questions reflect dead minds.

• Questions are needed to promote critical thinking. High level thinking within Bloom's Taxonomy.
• Don't be afraid of closed question (convergent) that can channel children's ideas or bring to a particular focus. Open ended question produce divergent ideas helping children to predict, construct, generate, design, create and develop ideas. 

But this type of questioning will assist all learners. 

In thinking about catering for the Gifted in a class I was often reminded of the Inclusive Classroom initiative with dyslexia; if you implement not only will the targeted children benefit but the whole class.

Finally Jenny suggested we consider:

• Working with the learner's energy
• Educating citizen's for the future
• Thinking about the idea of Renzulli and that teaching for the gifted and talented will benefit all and have social capital. 

Enjoy the links, and if you want anymore details colleagues, come and see me.

The Swell Season

In These Arms from banjo bandstand on Vimeo.

Ken Robinson- Schools killing creativity.

Check this link out here. Sir Ken Robinson discusses creativity, and how schools are killing it. Food for thought.

ulearn Day 3 You Can't Fool Us!

You Can't fool us! Indeed.

Breakout 6 was a look at how to make sure that the websites learners visit are valid. Presented by Penny Harrison and Jenny Armitage.

Good ideas showing criteria children can use when using websites.

Delicious.com is a place where you can place your bookmarks in the cloud.

Hey, here's the link that Penny and Jenny were using at the Breakout using their delicious.com folder. I'm sure they won't mind. (Like all the other generous presenters. )

Make the most of it.

They suggested C.A.M.P.E.R as way of evaluating (Consequence/Constancy. Assumptions/Accuracy. Meaning/Main Points. Prejudice/Point of View. Evidence/Examples. Relevance/Reliability.)

ABCDE was another Author. Bias. Content. Duplication. Edited

There are others on the link.

Then I bowled on into Allanah King's podcasting website. Using macs she showed the versatility of garageband for podcasting and using podmatic.

Allanah is up for the Interface magazine blog of the year. Vote for her 'cause if ya need help in this area she gives it freely an quickly. Legend!

Anyhoo, tried to find quick way for podcasting for pc. Myna (Audio Editor) and Audacity are good in conjunction with Window Movie Maker. Myna is good because you can do a straight audia podcast with no image and no movie maker if you wish.

The system I have been using seems ok. Until we get software perhaps. I did look at Podium in the exhibit hall.

Lunch was great everyday, and today catching up with Gordon an old T-Col mate, now head of ICT at Kaitao Middle School in Rotorua. Also vote for him in the other category for Interface Mag competition.

In the afternoon keynote speaker, Margaret Carr, did well to hold the attention of everyone.

Her content was superb however.

The idea of "possible self" was forwarded. Here's random notes.

Possible Selves – what we might, could and are afraid of becoming. What the role of the school in discovering self/selves?

Quoting James Paul Gee – in particular his writings on literacy. Encouraging people to read his writing. Value of the gaming world for children to ‘play as [being?] experts’

Role of the teacher is to encourage and nurture possible selves for children.

“Education is not about children achieveing their potential – it is about them GROWING their potential”

concept of learning dispositions, relating them to Key Competencies.

Being ‘ready, willing and able’ to exhibit the dispositions/KC’s is important.

Learning pathways will be travelled by chidlren in their own ways. Incoming dispositions (etc) have an impact on them, as does what the teacher and other adults do:
A. Agency/Authoring – children should have the opportunity to manage and reporting/reflecting on their own learning. ‘Flow’ and its impact on learning. Learning stories as way of doing this and children working on their own.
B. Breadth. making connections in the learning.
C. Continuity. making the learning public and track it over time. Going back and forth to the learning (serendipity) a huge amount of time is needed to do a good job of learning stories but is probably worth it.
D. Depth. deep learning and imbedded. The development of their own language in that learning. Constructing own opportunities for their favourite goals. Giving something new a go.

I see a potential here for video is incredible.

Watching my two kids 3.5 years and 15 months. They are learning at a huge rate. She tinkers, plays, babbles (communicates), he plays asks questions, explores, explains and reasons....

Analysing video of them thinking and tinkering is incredible. Can this work in the classroom. Hell yes. Children could respond with their own reflection and thoughts on where to next too.

Exciting eh?

Is this diminished when children enter school? I hope not.

Cheers to all for getting me to ulearn this year.

Brilliant.

Myna pod

Mike's pod.egg on Aviary.

Just been trying Myna as an audio editor. Some pluses and minuses. I think I'll need a bit more tinkering (learning!) before I decide where to go. And yes all you mac users, it would be easier with itunes.

testing video blog