All Blog Posts (9)

Following the excellent Weaving Technology conference that was held in Wagga last October I composed a few ideas regarding the thought or process or getting started with technology in the classroom. I blogged about these ideas here on my main blog ~ Watershed. Essentially, when starting out with technology in the classroom I feel it is useful to keep the following three rules of thumb in mind... 1. Choose an aspect of the curriculum with which you hold… Continue

What are people's experience with virtual classrooms ? WiZiQ offers a virtual Classroom that doesn't cost $100,000 for a site license. That's what attracted me to the WiZiQ VC platform. Mark www.WiZiQ.com is an online teaching platform, which provides a free virtual classroom environment… Continue

Some axiomatic statements about what my learning environment would be like if my IB students all had laptops (any platform): * nearly all if not every handout would be in pdf format, thus saving paper I'm nearly there already with www.mrfaught.org * the door would open to many collaborative projects within a prescribed IB unit. here is a great example of this * Web 2.0 would be the ocean in which we would swim * Google Docs would allow cross platform, real time collaboration... forget microso… Continue

Decided to abandon web.mac.com and go with Adam Clark's suggested provider ipowerweb... a great change!! i have my own domain name and loads of space (1.5 tb). At first, i wanted to try wordpress, but have decided to manage my site in html like normal. i prefer the micromanagement approach. everything has gone smoothly and i have had to call customer service for ipowerweb twice and each time was quick and successful. I am very happy with this switch and it sets me up well for next year. new site… Continue

attended the international schools summit hosted by apple yesterday afternoon. I know this is dissing a sacred cow... but i was underwhelmed... the presentations weren't really very good (Patrick Newell's presentation was the best of a marginal class), and, it seemed like a big marketing session for apple machines and applications... with little of use i could take away. Apple better get in gear with web 2.0... or they'll be left behind. That all being said, it was nice food. and, i'll sell my f… Continue

papers 1,2 and 3 are finished for the students, my colleague and I are happy with the questions. the students told us that they had a good selection to write on. the new syllabus changes take effect starting next year and will examine in 2010. one more year of Stalin as the prescribed topic and then on to the Interwar years. Thinking of starting a ning for each class next year... we'll see. another busy weekend to begin to wrap things up and focus on next year. Continue

paper three revision tonite with the HL... many topics on the chopping block. Hitler, Russian Revolution, Mussolini, League of Nations, Post Stalin USSR, Interwar. 30 question... they pick three to write about. Continue

Went in @4pm with a group of my IB History students (school was out that day) to help them answer any last minute questions... some seemed so unsure of themselves, but they have really 'got it' over the last months. There must be a way to utilize a blog/wiki/other w2 tool to help them with revision. Perhaps a revision Ning. I've really tried to reach out to them and provide information easily with the website, etc. And, I've tried to train them in critical thinking skills over the two years... t… Continue

To get my certification renewed in Ohio, i need to take some college credits. I called the Ohio Department of Ed's Certification Department and inquired about the requirements, which were posted on a website, but were not clear enough for my questions. It turns out i can take grad hours AND undergrad hours (I need 9 semester hours) to satisfy the requirement... AND I can take these courses pass/fail... and my school's PD fund will pay for the lion's share of the cost. This is all interest… Continue