CENZ15 and the Core Badges

Stoked!




When I went through the list of badges it was awesome to see just how much I've actually done - based on the descriptions and whether I'd actually earned them or not. Very cool.




Here's the link to my list of badges: http://badges.core-ed.org/#/badges/29db943819c4209739aedf49fe39f61073d87ade17c6063b43fae93f78fb378e




Uploading now so I can add the link to my prof site later.

Inspiration and Refinding Passion

I say I'm a learning sponge. I soak up bits and pieces that interest me. Let other bits seep out and away... I enjoy learning and sharing. Develo0ing ideas together with others and challenging myself to understand other people's points of view.

Living with the dog and the cat, phone calls home mostly to talk about the weather differences and any raruraru going on - kind of leaves me bored.

I search and search for inspiration. Hold it tight to me when I find it and then when it goes away... I'm forced to find the next thing. Because it's not enough anymore. I'm not inspired by what I do. I used to be. I can be. But at the moment... it's routine.

Checking in on assessments, marking assessments and inputting assessment data for students to gather credits. The juniors I can still be innovative with but even they have lost motivation.

After the holiday break where I spent a considerable amount of time learning... I came home absolutely buzzing. Because I'd had such an awesome experience. Because I'd met so many fabulous people. Because I'd learnt and remembered that I can elicit change and inspire others.

I'm frustrated and apathetic.

I try to do bits and pieces where I can.

I feel like I'm lacking in inner inspiration and jeez - it's only Thursday night - week 1 - Term 4. And yes - sure it's Term 4 but - I don't know. I just need something more. Craving that something that I'm not currently getting and wondering how I can hold onto that feeling that I can actually inspire and be inspired.

Perhaps I'm just tired.

Even if being tired is just the problem - I think there remains the underlying issue that my inspiration battery isn't recharging automatically anymore. It's draining quicker than before and I hope that my next big learning with the MindLab will kickstart that inspiration truly and totally. Because we need it. I need it.

Things are still moving too slowly. I'm still too impatient. There are just so many cool experiences and opportunities out there. For my students and for me. And I need to figure out how to capitalise on all of them to ensure the best output and learning for everyone.

Think this has been weighing on me for a while now. Just had a massive breath let out and feel a lot less heavy on the shoulders and in the mind.

How to recharge and keep my battery charged?

I wonder whether Aristotle or Grant Lichtman have any whakatauki for me...

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:

Designing Innovative Learning Environments - Breakout 4 - Mark Osborne - #ULearn15

Probably the most practical session and I seriously needed this after all of the thinking about enviroments that I'd been doing that day! Brilliant session. First time I was able to check out Mark Osborne's korero and it was incredibly refreshing.

Notes here:




Storified Tweets:

Collaborative Notes here:


Overall Takeaways:

BYOD Journey at Waitakere College - Breakout 6 - Lee Devenish, Shona Smith and Catalina Espinoza - #ULearn15

Really enjoyed this session! Came in a little bit late but had just finished a really cool conversation with the Canvas LMS exhibitor. Will blog about that soon too!

Super impressed with the quick turnaround of the journey to BYOD for the whanau at Waitakere College. It gives me hope that we can do it at Heights too!!

Overall Site info: https://sites.google.com/a/waitakerecollege.school.nz/professional-learning/ulearn-2016

Presentation Slides: https://goo.gl/g7W0km


Storified Tweets:

Collaborative Notes:



They shared this too:

The most amazing Google Form that was used to collate data from staff in order to upskill them and to see how well they have changed their practices over a year of BYOD implementation.

This is embedded so that I can create a modified copy for our own school. 

Please do not fill this in as it will skew the Waitakere data.

Overall Takeaways:
Sincerly impressed by the efforts of Lee in his role as e-learning facilitator. Really need to talk to him more about how he's done it.

Love that he broke the session down into categories:
- Strategic Overview
- Growing the Leadership
- Infrastructure/Hardware
- Growing the Teachers
- Growing Digital Citizens
- Equity Issues
- Platforms, tools and software - what they used to support the learning
- Practicalities

Tauatanga - Breakout 5 - Wharehoka Wano

From the minute I sat down to listen to this korero I was fully engaged. Beautiful whakaaro!!!!!!

Notes:

Storified Tweets:

Collaborative Notes:

Overall Takeaways:
Truly impressive korero. Felt fully involved and included. Some interesting whakaaro around the idea of fixed term units - which aren't allowed to be that way due to our collective agreements. As a result there are limited opportunities to become acknowledged for leadership potential because people tend to hold on to units rather than share them around.

#LibraryCheerleaders or Has the Grim Reaper got its eye on Libraries - Breakout 3 - Paula Eskett

Absolutely LOVED this breakout. Was exactly what I'd hoped it would be. So glad that I ditched the taster I was going to check out and went to that one instead.

My tweets were frantic, notes ecstatic and overwhelmingly stoked at being part of collaborative change.

There are just so many cool things that we could do with our spaces in our libraries. They will never die. They always evolve. But our practices need to evolve to be able to create more beneficial and effectice spaces for our students and our staff to learn in.

I loved the aspect of community hub for learning - where all are welcome to come in. I think that we need to truly rethink what we've been doing and think about what the next steps are for us.

Paula was incredibly passionate, driven and totally positive. Beautifully presented and am a total new fan of her work. Am hopeful we can ask her to come help when we redesign and rethink the future of our library at school too.

She gave some great ideas, challenged our thinking and more importantly made us evolve our perception of what future libraries have for us.

She made mention of the libraries in Alexandria. They've stood the test of time and will continue to do so. We just need to reimagine how we use them.

Still loving the idea of the library as a gateway to knowledge, rather than just a repository of knowledge.

Here's the notes I took:

The Storified Tweets:

Paula's presentation sans the copyrighted photos that were uber cool that she'd gotten permission to use from the owners: 

Reminded me of the simplistic aspect of asking for permission and being granted access rather than stealing and using and hoping for the best....

Here are the links to all of the documents she discussed during the presentation from LIANZA and other organisations:

Overall Takeaways:

Am just so inspired. Really interested to see how we could rethink our space. Our library as a hub. How we might use it for tutorials to build elearning skills and build on understanding of staff and students alike. How our library can truly become a hub. How we could use it for meetings and how we need to empower our students to take ownership and accountability in the library. How we could reimagine how we currently use the space and rethink the purpose. How we might bring in more students to the library and how it might be used for music events!! How we need to think about catering for those students whose love for reading just isn't there but who still need the spark. How we might use social media to cater to our audience and truly become a hub for all thst is happening in our library. Using past and current and future students to help in the redesign and thinking about what works and what needs changing.

I really really wish that there had been more of our teachers at the conference - rather than just me. Such an awesome experience.

I honestly feel empowered to try and help facilitate change. It's necessary to breathe life back into our libraries. To make our students feel welcome and believe that the space is theirs too.

I really really wish that I could have spent longer in this breakout and had more power to enable a change in something as big as a redesign of our school library. I need to stop saying that I'm "just a teacher". We have the power to change things and we just need to work together to enable this to be a possibility. If we can do this - we can do anything.