Presenting to Kormilda College

On Tuesday, the Head of English at Kormilda asked me to present to the faculty on my research findings. Booked this in for term four. I hope to have a wiki up and running then where the whole of Year 10 can discuss their reading. This will then be an online reading journal. 

Presentations and PD updates

It's amazing how much I miss blogging on this each day. The past two weeks back at school have been busy catching students up on work not handed in during my absence. The Birth Order Research collaborative writing I have used in my Year 10 and Year 9 classes has already started to work. One student handed in 500 words of accurate and clearly argued writing and I have not had more than two paragraphs from him previously. Very happy. The two Year 10 classes have responded well although are a bit more suspicious about being given the freedom to mark each other's work. There was a burst of enthusiasm when we wrote the "What makes Good Writing" checklist. Definitely not used to that at this grade level! One Grade 10 student is patiently showing me how to use the wiki I have set up. I've prepared some ideas on how to improve the delivery of PD to staff for Curriculum Team and I have asked that the English teachers and I get an hour or two together at the end of term so that I can show them the new ideas for English curriculum before next semester.

Success!

Presented for a full hour to my colleagues in different departments introducing the Puente writing ideas from Robin Turner, the social networking thesis and slides covering my research goals.

Thanks for listening!

Presenting Professional Development findings to Curriculum Team on Thursday. 

First day back in Australia

Checking my school emails before going back to school tomorrow I see that there is a staff PD meeting tomorrow. Despite the fact that I'm not scheduled to present, I'm going to hijack the start with my 'teaser' Powerpoint based on Robin Turner's highly persuasive thesis. 

Reading strategies deficit at University level

Met with my family member whose a linguistics expert at Cal State and teachings student teachers and she discussed with me the deficit she sees in the ability to read complex texts and determine the author's voice as separate from another quoted source. This links back to the lack of focus on informational texts in our classrooms. Misty also directed me to look at the use of the word "Dude" and compare it to our "Mate" - that's Monday's lessons planned then! I'm off to search "Dude Budweiser campaign" on Youtube before cabbing out to the airport. The sun may be setting on the research trip, but in a way the journey is just beginning to communicate everything I have learnt and put it into action!

Interviewed New York Educators and participated in my first ever Webinar!

Thank you to Cait and Maria for spending so much time discussing Teacher Training principles, NCLB, cultural benefits of being an Australian teacher and the PD cycle that they follow in over 500 schools in the New York area. They provided some great ideas including examining the Striving Reader's initiative and the CD resource to train teachers in Grades 6-9 Literacy strategies. 

Yesterday evening I participated in an amazing webinar about the use of wikis in classrooms and I'm indebted to Jennifer Barnett of Alabama for sharing her resources. 

Today I am packing for the flight back to LA where I've got a night in a hotel waiting for my Melbourne flight. 

Australian United States Services in Education

Meeting 'Aussie' (see title) this morning to discuss literacy initiatives in schools across the 5 boros. Registered for the Freedom Writers Webinar tomorrow looking at Microsoft online tools for teachers.

Registered for a wikispaces Education Webinar

Wikispaces Education Webinar: Introducing Jennifer Barnett and Her Classroom Wiki

 this appears to be the answers to the technology question I have! Now I've just got to work out what 'PT' means and if New York is on it! Sent invitations to my colleagues in Darwin to join me on this, and my LA colleagues Barbara and Emily. We can make this happen even if we are Digital Immigrants!

32degrees North / 64degrees West

An exhibition on Bermuda's Black Artistic Legacy made up for the fact that the Historical Museum tracing the slavery and emancipation in Bermuda's history was closed yesterday! This year sees Bermuda and her people celebrating the 400th anniversary of occupation but the Black Artistic Legacy did not start until the 1930s because for centuries Bermudians were too busy surviving to pursue artistic expression for its own sake.  Charles Lloyd Tucker is widely recognised as Bermuda's first black trained artist, who has international acclaim for his work.