Journal
Monday, June 9th 2008
Today is a public holiday for the Queen's Birthday so I got quite a bit done. Tomorrow I take my first classes at my new school (Elwood Primary School). I understand that the other staff members at the school won't be working on this project with me. This is not through lack of cooperation in any way but simply because my plan is still evolving.
It will be up to me to incorporate my objectives during my own Performing Arts sessions and then look towards wider implementation once I have a plan than the other teachers can see. I could show them my own animations from Animating Best Practice but the real issue is "How can this be implemented by primary school children?"
Tuesday, June 10th 2008
I'm enjoying this new school as the staff and students are great. My only concern is about how I'll find the time to get the children involved in animation etc. My plan at this stage is to show them the types of things they can do and then consider working in small groups in other parts of the school with the older grades which are more autonomous. I'll also need to find out more about the network here as that is likely to change when all the new cabling is put in.
Thursday, June 12th 2008
I've had most of the school now and I'm comforted by the fact that the children are very capable and enthusiastic. My concern about the limited time I can spend with each grade is less of a problem now as I should still be able to get enough examples from the children to make a case study work. Apparently our new network will be fibre optic so I'll wait until it's in place before I try to initiate any student work.
Friday, June 13th 2008
I have just ordered a new computer for the school Film Festival. After my first week of teaching, I have a clearer idea of how things fit together. We were given some advance reading in preparation for next week's staff meeting. It related to technology and pedagogy so it was relevant to my research. Most of what it said was unhelpful as it assumed that social networking was the new direction for learning and teaching rather than content and publishing. I believe social skills are one of the main reasons children go to school and that social networking should not automatically replace it. A false dichotomy was also sugested between web 1.0 and 2.0. I'll investigate this further over the weekend.
Monday, June 16th 2008
Further investigation about Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 confirmed what I suspected about this false dichotomy. An interesting book by Andrew Keen called The cult of the amateur pointed out that without quality control there is a lot of rubbish on line. I am not wanting to regulate content but to craft it to produce high quality work through the design process. I also got onto the network today for the first time.
Wednesday, June 18th 2008
At the staff meeting the required reading wasn't so much a part of it. I did get to have a good chat at lunchtime today though with our principal. She agreed that we need to decide how technology can be beneficial rather chasing fads for the sake of being "current". I hope to get a chance to show her my work soon to give her a better idea of what I have in mind.
Thursday, June 19th 2008
A Grade 6 boy brought in a CD of original songs he had recorded himself, multitracked on various instruments. It was very impressive and also pleasing to me as it was something he chose to do in his own time as he was motivated to do it.
Monday, June 23rd 2008
I'll be taking this computer home at the end of the week for the school holidays. I'm also hoping to meet with my University supervisors and actually start showing them my HTML layout for their input.
Tuesday, June 24th 2008
One of the assistant Principals mentioned that I might be able to share my research at the Staff Meeting this afternoon. I'm happy to do that but I hope it's not a long meeting where everyone has had enough for the day. Either way, I'll keep it brief as I believe good communication should be succinct.
Friday, June 27th 2008
School is over now for another term! I didn't end up getting to share at the staff meeting but I have been scheduled in for next term. The computer that I thought had been ordered had actually not as yet so it was left to me to chase it up. Apparently, ordering a PC without Vista was too difficult and no one could tell me if the required model has a firewire connection or not. I decided to get an iMac instead so it's worked out for the best. I pick it up next Tuesday.