Drop In Centre - Planning for Passion and Direction Forward

For a while now I've been wanting to open a drop in centre for our youth. Our youth are hungry - hungry for love, encouragement, appreciation, guidance, direction and of course, kai.

We have an incredible amount of services here in Rotorua. I don't know much about how they all work together - I know that they must do - but surely there is a step missing.

I think my plan is the step missing.

We have an incredible youth centre in the middle of town. They have great programmes and opportunities for our kids. The majority of these programmes cost money though and our kids don't often have the money to do them, let alone a bus fare there.

For our kids out here - there is very little direction and focus. Not much to keep them busy. Therefore, those that do get into trouble, will.

Our youth don't have many positive role models. There is an awesome organisation called Big Brothers and Big Sisters which now have a branch here in Rotorua. The last time I researched though they only catered for the primary and intermediate aged kids.

There is an awesome group of people doing sports in the suburbs and keeping our kids out of trouble.

Our youth need more support in staying busy and finding their passion. At our schools we have different clubs and sports for those inclined. There is and always has been a massive group of kids who don't have a direction, no focus and definitely no support towards their goals.

Our youth need mentoring. They need support and encouragement.

There are so many services helping the kids. I just am unsure whether the services are catering all the kids out there.

An audit needs doing - to figure out what services are being used, what services are even out there.

I need to figure out how best to decrease the amount of youth in youth prison and ensure better outcomes for all youth.

My plan has and always will be a drop in centre. But there's more to it. It needs to be an overarching programme that works with all of the other people to create positive, supportive and more direct support.

An Open Message: Tatou Tatou

I wrote this post back on the 11th March. I never put it here. I should have but I didn't.
Anyway here it is... after tonight's weeny shock at seeing one of my students in his colours with the other members at the supermarket... think tonight is just as pertinent as any to share this. If anything it hardens my resolve to find a way through to this particular class where it's such an issue daily.

An open message to all gang prospects, gang members who entice younger high school students and their leaders who allow this to happen:

Every day I am happy to see my students walk through the door of our classroom. I am passionate about wanting them to learn and believe that they can achieve. To push them forward to be the best possible them that they can be.

The issue I see every day is my students kowtowing to my other students in hopes to become a new member or within their mode of operandi as prospects. These students happen to be among my wide list of awesome students and it breaks my heart that they only see this as a possible future for themselves. That they give up working on their beautiful art and creative writing or drama and dance because it supposedly doesn't help in their future lives.

Our students deserve more than this. They deserve whanau who believe they are capable of achieving more than they ever possibly dreamed of. Our students try their very best in class and work hard to learn the behaviours appropriate in each class and at school. They push themselves to please us as sometimes we're the only happy face to see them during their day or they trust us and believe that we'll have their best interests at heart.

Whanau, I know you all want the best for them too - but at the end of the day - we need to break the cycle. And it starts with all of us. To find a place of calm and understanding and know that there is a better place out there for them. To let them be free to make their own choices (albeit whether that means they choose to stay in the gang as that's the only life they know).

Believe in them. They are more than what you may see. They are talented and wonderful kids who ache to have someone tell them this. They crave encouragement. They literally sparkle when you encourage them and tell them you believe in them. Let them see the world and all its joys and hardtimes too. But most of all - let them be kids. Don't force them into something because that's how it was for you.

I'm proud to teach our students. I care about each and every single one. I will always do my absolute best to advocate for the safety and happiness of every one of my students - past, present and future kids.

Just give them a chance to see the opportunities awaiting them.

Naku noa,

Alex Le Long

NPeW: ELearning Meeting 2.0

Today was really cool. I always enjoy seeing our staff collaborate and share and do so in an openly supportive environment.

The point of this meeting today was to gather some ideas as to how the school was coping/doing/succeeding in certain areas: technology, engagement, learning and measurement.

I really wanted to be in on all of the sessions... maybe not so much the measurement one....  but alas I still haven't figured out how to clone myself to be in many different places at once. So I put down that I'd go to the Learning session when we had our last meeting.

I was actually quite surprised mainly because there is such a range of where people feel we're at but also lots of honesty and positive feedback. I wish though that we would have been able to be a bit more constructive to improve the situation rather than side step major mines as we continued the discussion with Sue. I was super happy with how Sue facilitated the session. Always admire how she portrays herself in her role, her quiet but also methodical way of encouraging and supporting us to probe deeper and further than our previous surface answers. I loved that she notices the body language too and can identify areas where people are feeling left out and develops key focal points on them as she goes around the group to involve them in the discussion and think more clearly about the issue at hand.

Key facilitator tips right there!!

Both Sue and Donella give me the encouragement needed to move forward, to keep pushing and more importantly to believe in myself. Am glad that I've found these two mana wahine that inspire me ao often.

Anyway!

Throughout each session there were key points I noted down:

- need more engagement with whanau and the community in moving towards BYOD and to keep our community involved, engaged and interested just as much if not more than our staff at the moment.
- need to identify where key areas in school are that are desperately needing access points. Maybe doing a heatmap might help? Particularly with our big Nelson blocks...
- need to ensure our staff have adaptive confidence. Love this phrase!!
- need to build digital competencies in both staff and students
- need to upskill staff and offer upskilling sessions to students too
- need to identify our baselines and get our student interviews begun to see how we move forward and our own process
- need to remind ourselves that we're all at different stages and we all need to collaborate and awhi each other.

Many more ideas to come but that are mine for now until we continue the discussion tomorrow :)

Huge thankyou to the Auckland researchers that came down  -including Helen Timperley!!  :) So cool!!

Always a huge thankyou to NPeW for supporting us in moving forward.

Pat Snedden - Keynote 3 - Manaiakalani and Historical Background on the need for Equity - #ULearn15

Amazing speaker!!

My notes:


Storified Tweets:

Collaborative Notes:

Presentation Slides:

Overall Takeaways:

Heights eLearning Workshop Session

Am still buzzing after the workshop yesterday. By the middle of our session we had 68 teachers signed up to using Google+ and joined up to our staff development community.

We have even more now. 76 at the last check.

We didn't get through all of the slides. We did get through a couple of our aims that session though -creating a google+ account, using Padlet, accessing the community on G+ and using Class Dojo.

At least with this session - we could see who was visibly struggling. We could see the ones that were bored and knew what to do and were fine and there were those ones who just needed an extra nudge.

What we didn't get to was the continuum so that we can make up ability groups. The idea of the continuum was merely to show who felt confident and less confident and pair them up so that they would have someone to bounce ideas off of.

I really would have liked to go over the Docs stuff though.

I think that we'd planned so much we didn't really think of the 'students' in front of us - in regards to their ability levels.

At different points I was going too fast - and that was to me a simple logging on to the G+ account.

From yesterday you could see who had read their emails and who hadn't too. Because I'd given relatively easy instructions for setup and for the day.

I think that our next step is to find out when our next session is. Then we can plan appropriately. It will need to become more of a 20/20/20 time though.

20 mins full staff workshop. 20 mins self choice on a topic they want to learn more about. 20 mins playing and learning and reflecting time.

What I'd like to see happen next is a timetabled session for eLearning. Even though we've got the G+ community up and running now - it's going to be hugely important to have those face to face (f2f/ktk) meetings so that they can ask and learn faster. 

Also - I would be really keen to develop that eLearning Hub more in depth with the collaboration of the eLearning committee too. I think we need to figure out our staff's ability levels though. 

It was quite clear yesterday that we're going to have to do QUITE ALOT of upskilling throughout the staff. 

Main areas of focus at the moment:

Basics:

Logging in and getting around the GAFE platform

Using Gmail, G+ and Drive effectively

Privacy and sharing settings

Helping each other

Sharing failures and successes

Intermediate:

How to use Drive and G+ to build collaboration between staff for PLD, staff and students in class, student collaboration in and out of class

How to set up Classroom and send out announcements, assignments, change pages etc

How to set up a Google Class Site and create skeleton of site with different pages and sitemap

GAFE apps and add-ons, extensions

Helping each other

Sharing failures and successes

Extended:

Building Class Site - adding and embedding

Connecting G+, Classroom, Sites and Drive together to allow free flow of information and develop a classroom setting

Helping each other

Sharing failures and successes

Pro:

Teaching others

Sharing on G+

Modelling but allowing staff to learn on their own

Modelling that making mistakes is OKAY and actually really useful because we learn from them

Developing "best practice" 

Sharing progress and encouraging failure for the sake of learning

Learning

Using G+ to gain more information

Helping each other

Of course there are plenty of other things and areas that can go into these categories. For now - they'll do. I really just want some feedback on the session and find out where the staff want to go next in terms of their own learning. What specifically do they need/want to know and how best can we organise ourselves to efficiently help and upskill our staff. 

I was going pretty fast a bit of the time but felt like I was going slow most of the time. 

After talking to Rachel and Noelene at the Dojo Dinner last night - I realise that full staff PLD is just not going to be as effective. We know that full staff PLD doesn't work that well. What we do need to ensure though is that our staff feel safe and comfortable - but that they're also allowing themselves to come out of their comfort zones. 

I really wish that I had taken a picture of the staff yesterday. They all had their laptops and it was truly awesome seeing them all participating. If they weren't able to connect yesterday during the session - they did so afterwards. It was pretty impressive to see actually. The fact that they all were there - going with it. Definitely a better outcome than I'd originally thought. 

A few crucial moments:

- Digital Citizenship Teaching Moment. While on Google Slides - staff found the Group chat and I made use of the moment to tell them that they weren't showing DC skills. That they were:

1) not doing what I'd asked them to do.

2) did something that was completely irrelevant to what we were going to do

3) were off task

4) being inappropriate and bullying online

Great opportunity to see that though. The main point I was trying to get at was that you could see who was on the Slides - but they did that. Showing how quickly we need to be teaching these skills because our students don't know... and apparently neither do our teachers! haha

- Realising that there were people in the room that could help the rest and that I didn't have to do it all by myself - we'll need the eLearning team to build those skills too. 

- Being aware of the WIDE range of abilities in the staff. We need to ensure that no-one is being left behind and it's VERY hard to make sure that doesn't happen when we don't know who feels comfortable or not confident yet with tech. 

I'm looking forward to our eLearning Committee meeting this coming Tuesday to get some feedback and really hope that we can develop on these four areas to ensure that we have continued to build up our staff in an on-going development. 

The main thing though is building growth mindsets. If they can do that - then they're more likely to keep trying and not giving up. 

At first I was slightly overwhelmed - then I got back into it - like I usually do when doing PLD teaching. I love it. I'm glad that I've been allowed to share with the staff and build them up too. So so awesome. 

Looking forward to hearing the feedback from staff this coming week. 

Hopefully they'll have a play with our eLearning community on Google Plus over the long weekend. :)

Reflective Teaching - Days 4-6

September 4- The thing that you love the most about teaching.

I love that I can enable students to begin to change their opinions of themselves, and allow them to see a beautiful future ahead of them.

September 5- Post a picture of your classroom. What do you see? What is one thing that you don't see but would like to?

A blank Yellow wall. A new space for my students in my house tutor group class - KAL. For all of Kowhai house students to be proud of. Me and H put up a length of yellow fabric on the wall on Thursday. It beckons. I will be printing off photos of my HTG and other pics that show success :) Of course with the subliminal reminder that Kowhai=Success! ;)

September 6- What does a good mentor "do"?

Awhi's you. Makes sure you feel confident in teaching, asssessing and has those difficult conversations before they become an issue. Being aware of the dreams and aspirations you have so that you can achieve them by showing you possible routes in getting there. Challenging you to do better, but scaffolds that challenge until they can take away the step ladder.

Helps you to identify key areas to work on and has an open discussion forum where you can continue to improve your practice as an educator.

Enables you to feel part of something bigger and lets you in on their visions too so you can see where we're going as a collective.

Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori 2014

And it begins! Looking forward to the influx of reo Māori on the airwaves, through tweets, blog posts and facebook posts.

Here is a small insight into the many take (topic, concern) and raruraru (issues) around why it's important - thanks to NZTalkback Radio and Tamati Coffey and Hinemoana Baker. 

My wish for NZ: to be a bi-lingual country where her citizens can feel comfortable switching easily between reo Māori and reo Pākehā in conversation, signage, newspapers and other forms of media.

What's yours?

Taku haerenga akoranga - My learning journey

Most of you have read of my mighty haka on the dinghi... but what you might not know is that I've been a part of a Kapa Haka roopu (Maori Culture Group) since I was five years old. 

Unfortunately when I was growing up I wasn't taught much in the way of te reo Māori, or tikanga Māori... much of what I learnt I still feel is common knowledge (ie. don't wear hats inside, take shoes off when you go inside, never EVER sit on a table - especially if it will be used for kai, don't yell at the beach, never put your hairbrush or hair accessories on the table, no-one is allowed to touch your taonga unless you have given permission, you can't buy a pounamu for yourself - it has to be given to you... etc). I was taught many of these things as I was growing up - but to me it just seems like everyone knows the reasons behind it... which all goes back to tapu.

What I was taught while growing up instead, was tikanga of the Cherokee and a lot of that equates to the tikanga of Māori - in particular the importance of the whenua (land and placenta), of the Earth Mother (Papatuanuku), how the atua could give or take as they pleased and how important it was to give thanks before partaking of kai - especially that of which you have killed yourself. I learnt a lot of the sacred traditions: rain dances, how to create a good smudge stick, the importance of knowing who you are and where you come from, and of course a resounding awareness that some people may not ever understand you or your people. 

In recent years I have been making these positive connections more and more because for a long time I was angry that I wasn't brought up as Maori. I was... but I wasn't. Does that make sense?

At the end of the day though... I am resoundingly grateful to my Mum for teaching me these practices of the Cherokee, she being a mana wahine, tohunga etc in her own right and feels a close connection with the earth and all things around her. If you ever get the chance to meet her... you'll know what I mean. 

What still frustrates me... though I am learning to accept it... is that she will probably never get her pronunciation of reo Māori correct. And this comes back to the incarceration of Reo Māori and the fact that it has only been an 'Official' language of Aotearoa/New Zealand since 1987. Because of this - many in Aotearoa have this innate pathological feeling that they do not want anything to do with it - for many many reasons.. of which right now is not the time nor place to go into it. But regardless - this is why Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori is so important. 

I remember a few of my kaiako (teachers) throughout my reo Māori learning journey - at five and upwards til I was 13 - I was taught by mainly those from our rohe (area) in which I grew up. I learnt that dialect quickly through waiata-a-ringa (action song), waiata tira (choral, sung without actions), waiata poi (sung with poi) and through haka. 

At 12, I, with my roopu (group) performed at Turangawaewae marae in front of Te Ariki Dame Te Atairaangikahu herself... our tino ataahua, our taonga...Our Māori Queen. To this day, as many others do too, I still feel her loss. 

At high school (age 13) I was taught still in the rohe of Ngāti Hauā/Piako/Waikato by a kaiako from the East coast. I thought it was awesome learning through the rākau (sticks, blocks) to remind myself how to do my mihimihi and pepeha... 

What wasn't awesome was that a girl in my class didn't think it acceptable for a 'white girl' to be learning reo Māori, much less to be in the school Kapa Haka roopu... That experience is one that stopped me from continuing with te reo and my beloved roopu for the rest of my high schooling career. I regret not standing up to her, and wish I had instead pushed her away from me in the corridor and with my chin up, walk out and keep going to my reo Māori class and try outs for Kapa Haka. Seeing her in town still gives me chills, but now I think I scare her... perhaps like I did back then. Because she didn't know me and who I was - nor did she know that saying, "You're too white to do Kapa Haka" would continue to stop me from doing things Māori for a very long time.. 

Having a kaiako from the East coast made it slightly difficult to my ears later on when I re-started my learning journey as a university student because I had originally learnt the word for Pōwhiri with the WH which we used at primary and intermediate. But then with the kaiako from the coast at High school we used it... without the WH. And then when I went to Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (Highly recommend it too btw)... I was taught by a series of kaiako who all had different dialects... and once I learnt why I couldn't quite understand people when they said pōhiri it all started to make sense. Dialectical differences is what helps make Te Reo Māori rich and beautiful - as well as the fact that it is poetic and rich with descriptive language and of course, love.

Since starting at TWOA I have learnt SO much. It's taken a while, with moving from Hamilton to Auckland, and then down here to Rotorua... but finally, last year - I completed my Diploma in Te Ara Reo Māori. I was meant to continue this year with Te Au Pikitanga... a fully immersed course, but it didn't seem to get underway. I will continue that instead next year. As well as Kura Reo (learning te reo Maori during the school holidays).  

The problem with the learning journey overall that I have found, is that it is increasingly difficult to keep the reo fresh and used in my mind and on my tounge... if I don't actually speak everyday with someone in te reo Māori. 

That is why my wish is for those living in Aotearoa/New Zealand to have Reo Māori be more fluent and USED in everyday life. To have it more visual through signage on roads has been a great start, but it isn't everywhere. Like Tamati Coffey said in his Newstalk panel earlier this morning (link above) - it is great that Taupō now has a macron (tohu tō or pōtae/hat) on the O... However - for those who don't know that it needs one... it becomes difficult for correct pronunciation... 

A bit of phonetics for you:

A - as in: cup, arm, are

E - as in: egg, steer

I - as in: big, see, Rio (it sounds like E does in English basically - but also like the i in big)

O - as in: or

U - as in: moon

Now when a macron or tohu tō is used on top of a vowel sound - it means that that vowel is doubled or elongated. For example: Taupō

To say 'Taupō' - the blended vowel sounds of 'au' and the blended consonant and vowel sound of 'po':

au - as in: toe

pō - as in: paw

So - say Taupō - (toe/paw) - BUT - remember that the ō has a macron - which means that the O is elongated... so toe/paaww

Want to know how to add macrons while typing? Click this link.

If you enjoyed learning about reo Māori... the basics can be found through many of the institutions in NZ (Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Te Wānanga o Awanui-a-Rangi, Te Wānanga o Raukawa), and through Auckland University, Waikato University, Victoria University etc. 

Personally I enjoyed learning through the Wānanga o Aotearoa because I learnt at my own pace... very quick in that first year and more steadily and then faster as the next years continued... and because they have AMAZING resources. When I say amazing... I truly mean it. Also - having the opportunity to learn at night time while doing my degree, and last year while teaching was immensely helpful. I learn better at night too... Should really give myself the nickname of Whaea Ruru (Morepork) haha. I'm punny as... Miss L.. Miss Owl... haha. 

More info here:

Learn Te Reo Māori Online:

Te Kupu o te Wiki - Word of the Week - In partnership with Te Taurawhiri and Radio NZ - Definitely check this one out!
Kupu o te Ra - Word of the Day - Sign up to register for an emailed kupu hou each day!

Toku Reo - Te Reo Māori Channel  Programme - Amazing. 

100 Māori Words every New Zealander MUST know - NZHistory.net 

Te Pūmanawa - Teaching Te Reo Maori through technology - Free apps :)

Korero Māori - loads of resources and clips :) 

Resources:

Te Taurawhiri/Maori Language Commission 

Te Kete Ipurangi - Teaching Resources and for the General Public too :) 

Proposal for ULearn 14, Conferences and Presenting

The proposal for ULearn14... 

I've said everything I needed to say. I need to add a bit of bolding on the fees section perhaps, but I've added info on current research and policies - including the Min of Ed's recent Future Focussed policy/report from Friday just gone.

Regardless of whether I will be able to have the registration fee partially funded or not - I'll still go. I'll just have to be really onto it with saving money - rather than putting it all onto bills straight away.

Finished writing my proposal last night... not sure what else I need to put into it. Have attached the SPANZ report and the basic 10 Ministry of Education guidelines for future-focussed learning.

At the moment I'm thinking about trying to sort out both ideas for presentations next month.

CLESOL Conference - 10-13th July (I'm presenting via webcam with Sonya Van Schijiks on the 12th)
- My experiences teaching bi-lingual students

NZATE Conference - 9-11th  July
- Workshop on Twitter and use as a teacher/educator

Both presentations can only come from my own experiences, and from what I've learnt from others in the process.

I'm worried that my experiences, brief and therefore in my opinion, inconsistent as a strong proof for evidence and clarity, will not be valued. Worried too that there will be possible backlash. This worry is what has since prevented me from making any surefire ideas about what exactly I'll say at the CLESOL presentation.

I feel like the Twitter one will be an easier - though in a lot of ways also more difficult mainly because I see the reactions and can gauge how my workshop attendees are feeling and how it's all going.

A difficult part for both is that I don't even know how long I need to talk for.

I suppose another difficult part is this is the first time I've been given the chance to show what I know in the world of teaching.

Up until being given the opportunity, I've been 'gun-ho' in sharing my thoughts. I'm quite a shy person when I'm put in the spotlight.. until I get to know people then it's hard for me to stop talking.

I'm also a competitive person, and with these opportunities, I'm really only competing against myself.

Queen's Bday Weekend - Monday

Had a great talk with a colleague today at school while meant to be marking.. at least I managed to get my planbook sussed and thought through the next few stages of a few assessments and differing classes. The stage challenge crew are looking fantastic! Can't wait til the actual competition!!



Despite being encouraged by lots of people (twitter and school colleagues, mentors and whanau) -  there is still that self-doubt niggling at the back of my mind.. but to be honest... I can do this. I can. I just need to get organised... and possibly get another sleep under my belt.

Positivity is key.

To Blog...or Not to Blog...

It's a funny thing this blogging. As I've said in previous posts - I've been blogging for a while now.

But what's most interesting is the result it has on a tired brain - perhaps mainly because when I'm tired I can be the most talkative person in the room... and sometimes it means that my brain is at it's best - like those early hour posts I seem to be getting into the habit of writing.

Right now I'm thinking about the need to use an e-portfolio app to control my collation of data. Though I don't know how much different it would be to using this as my data collector..

In essence, I use this blog mainly for reflections now and tend to use my journal for writing notes when at PD events. Before I used the journal for both which made it a bit messy and full of information that took a long time to collate and decipher - particularly in regards to the registered teacher's criteria.

When I'm less tired I'll look at these links in more depth...

http://www.core-ed.org/about/media-releases/breakfast-seminars/why-use-e-portfolios-core-breakfast-seminar-nick-rate
http://exitticket.org/teacher-self-assessment/
https://www.theschoolinthecloud.org/dashboard
https://www.pond.co.nz/#/provider/register

Got home from #educampHB about four or five hours ago. Am ABSOLUTELY knackered now though. The HUGEST thankyou to @1MvdS and @Mrs_Hyde for letting me tag along! Met some wonderful people, met Twitter friends f2f and followed a lot of new people on Twitter too. Learnt so much. It was completely inspiring - particularly in the way that it was an 'unconference' - check this link out for more info on NZ Educamps.

Have a few docs I can share on Google docs if anyone is interested? Just let me know. I wrote quite a bit while in the presentations. Check out my earlier tweets on the Smackdown. :P

Definitely get involved!

Am looking forward to the 3rd week of June - 16th-17th am attending PPTA committees; 18th I'll be heading to the EduIgniteHamilton; 19th Connected Rotorua.

And then the following month is the English Conference! And am hoping I can find the money to get myself to ULearn14 as well. Will be an amazing opportunity.

This Yes Year has turned into it's own crazy thing now and am enjoying every minute. Thankyou to all those who read my blogs, tweets, statuses, posts or simply share and RT what I've said. I truly appreciate each and every one of you!

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou,

Alex :)

Who I am and What I do...

Who I am and what I Do…

This question is a difficult one to answer merely for the fact that it encapsulates who I am absolutely.

While sitting in my grandfather’s chair from his and Nana’s lounge suite it’s hard to not think about him. My post I was attempting to write just before was erased as if by magic. A blinking green light on my phone was all I had staring me in the face while I tried to make my phone respond. For that reason alone… I will write this post a bit differently to how I began the last one.

PBL: Idea Development and Evolution

I always believe that a fully immersed beginning is the best way to get anything done. In other words I've come to enjoy - no longer loathe - the 'pushed in deep water and expected to learn how to swim' type learning. Mainly because I feel like I work well under pressure - even though I take a while to find my fins.

After #teachmeetnz this afternoon, I was back on Twitter... yes again.

And was discussing Project Based Learning after a colleague's talk about Future Built Classrooms and if it's not built for the future - how to make your classroom an environment where future learning could take place.

So here I am again - though with a bit more confidence - though still not sure how it will work. The confidence merely comes from others who know what they're doing!

Importance of PLNs, PLCs and a VLN - Working Title for the Longest Post ever on this Blog...

Where would I be today without technology? Most likely reading a book to get out of the world I was in. Now that's not to say I don't read any more.. because I do. I just don't seem to have as much time as I used to for reading. Perhaps this is because I'm constantly reading my phone or laptop... whichever is in front of me.

To me this isn't a problem... except that I'm not actually reading fantasy novels or historical fiction as much as I used to. Some of you may think this is an added bonus because I should just be reading scifi instead.... But when it comes down to it... I think I've grown up a bit. I still love reading. I still love writing. If I didn't, I wouldn't put so much effort into cultivating my online presence and the multiple sites and journals and blogs I read on a daily basis.

With this thought in mind and the multiple others I seem to be having late at night lately... I wonder where we will be in five years, ten. Twenty even. Because at the end of the day, this is where our students will be and where they're headed in such a short amount of time.

Four things to discuss:
1) Cultivating an Online Presence
2) Staying True to Yourself
3) Digital Citizenship
4) Seek Relevant PD