Google Edu on Air

This past weekend I had the great honour to be a presenter on the ANZ section of #GoogleEduOnAir. Thank you to all the presenters and the viewers for making this an awesome experience. 

The link to view the presentation is below. 

Navigating G Suite

As stated in my presentation I have written a Year 6-10 Digital Tech curriculum and I will happily share it on here in the next few weeks. Just waiting for approval to run it in my classes. 

Hitting the ground running

We are almost half way through Term 4 and lots has been happening in the Digital Technologies class, not to mention the usual teaching moments as we near the end of the school year.

The program keeps growing and hopefully I will have the curriculum documents finalised by Week 10. 

Making Drawbots

  

Makey Makeys with Play Doh

Later this term I will be presenting at Google Education on Air. I'm so excited to be representing both my school and GEG Canberra. It truly is an honour to be the only teacher in Canberra presenting. 

 

 

Final trip for the year

This evening I returned home from Queensland. I was there to judge the Australasian Pacific Finals of Tournament of the Minds. 

For me, the best part of ToMs is seeing how our future leaders problem solve, work as a team and perform. Over 500 children from all states and territories in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand made it to the Gold Coast for the event. 

Sadly my home territory did not take home any honours or win their discipline but the memories they have gained will be life long. 

I look forward to ToMs 2017 and the opportunity to judge again at the APFs in Adelaide. 

 

Team ACT at the Opening Ceremony of the APFs 

(Outback Spectacular, Gold Coast)

So what did I take away from #uLearn16?

In a nutshell, lots. 

I learned that what I want to teach and what I need to teach are close but still not close enough to the DigitTech curriculum. It has given me perspective and pushed me into the right direction.

It's even got me planning what to do on for my Term 4 GEG Workshop in Canberra - a forum to share and discuss ideas for 2017.

So my first few days back at work have been filled with ideas and planning for 2017, but also focussing on what I need to do this term. 

And today I learned that from 2017 I will go from 1 class of ICT to 3, across Years 6-10. Add to that some work with Year 5 and it will be a busy year filled with great experiences. 

What can I say? I love my job. 

  

Examples of work - Makey Makeys, Drawbots and CargoBot coding

Day 1 #uLearn16

Entry into the Energy Events Centre, Rotorua

Today is the first day of #uLearn16 and I have already been blown away by the respect for culture. Students from Selwyn Primary School, Rotorua performed tradition songs for us, the opening was in Maori and we. all participants, got to sing as well.

As a Darug woman, with little to no language due to the arrival of the British in 1770, I was moved to tears by the respect - how language and culture is taught without question to all students.

My goal for today is to network and learn about innovation in the classroom. Going to a conference in another country can be daunting, but the plus is that it is close to home. And the first time I haven't had to purchase an electric plug adaptor! It's the little things that count.

So Rotorua, I am here. Ready and willing to learn.

Getting started with blogging

I thought I'd bite the bullet and start blogging. 

I got started because my friend Amanda is presenting her blogging adventures at the Adelaide GAFE Summit in a few weeks. I saw what she had accomplished and thought "I need to do that too". 

So what's this blog about? Basically it is my journey in implementing GAFE and Digital Technologies in my school. 

Teaching ICT doesn't have to be scary or boring, in fact my motto has, and always will be, "If it's not fun, we don't do it". 

I love to learn. So much so that next week I will find myself in Rotorua at the #uLearn2016 Conference. It will be my seventh conference since March 2015, and my second international one. I was put onto this conference by the lovely Fiona Grant, one of the GEG NZ Leaders. 

Curriculum wise, there is still so much to do but I am trialling new things with students each week. Some of the work I've done with the kids can be seen below. 

I'm a big advocate on playing to learn. Throw in some questions and there you have it - computational thinking in action! 

Nis x

 

Makey Makeys and Spheros/Ollies