SCRATCH

Okay. Someone mentioned SCRATCH to me earlier this year and I filed it away in my “maybe one day” pile. Well that one day has happened.

I have a group of 11 year 3 and 4 kids that come and see me once a week for two hours. So far this year we have done a couple LEARNZ field trips which were great for creating the mood for the year, although they didn’t really align with what was happening in the classrooms. Then we entered the Webchallenge which really challenged the kids and got them doing a lot of research as well as design. It had left me in a little of a conundrum as to what to do this term…

Hark back to the “maybe one day” file in my head. I went to the MIT website and downloaded the free version of the software as well as checked out some of the work done by an overwhelming majority of kids. It looked fun. It looked challenging. It looked like something I’d want to do.

Until I played with it. To be honest I found it a bit difficult and ended up with a picture resembling a pig turning round in circles. Then a devious little plan entered my head. I could get the kids to use SCRATCH and I wouldn’t know how to use it so then they WOULD have to figure out how to solve any problems. I announced it to the kids. Showed them the pig in circles. Got them excited by it. Showed them some of the stuff other kids had done. Told them they could go and have a play with it.

“Miss Wills, how do you…”

“No Idea”

“What do you mean?’

“I don’t know how to use this, you have to figure it out yourselves.”

“say What?!?!?”

“You need to be able to figure out something new using the skills you already have. One day, in the not too distant future, the stuff you are using now won’t be around and you’ll have to teach yourself how to use the new stuff!”

Now the conversation doesn’t start with “Miss Wills, how do you..?” but with “Does anyone know how to…?”

Kids are loving it, parents are being forced to download it at home…and I know that I can’t cheat and tell them the answers….

We will be uploading the games they are making onto the website before the end of the term for you to play but until then, I shall sit quietly in my room and watch them create.

Scratch working screen shot

EHSAS Scholarship

I’ve been lucky enough to have been awarded a scholarship for the coming year.  I’ve never applied for a scholarship, let alone won one so am still feeling a little in la-la land over it.  EHSAS stands for extending higher standards across schools and our cluster’s (7 schools in the central Auckland region) focus is on professional coaching and mentoring as a form of professional development.

So I wrote my proposal entitled “Professional Dialogue Using Web 2.0 Technologies”.  Why?  To be honest I feel that I have gained so much since entering the blogosphere and been reading, writing and conversing with other professionals.  My practise has evolved along with my reading and writing and I feel that I have gained so much that I want it to become something that my colleagues  also can share in.

At present whenever something like blogs, podcasts or aggregators are mentioned, eyes glaze over and I am left feeling like I am trying to teach some lost Amazonian Tribes Language to people who speak a different language to me.  I want people to realise that there is some really great stuff out there, but more importantly that they can be authors as well as consumers of the information.

I also want to bring the clusters together.  It’s about breaking down the boundaries – this time physical distant and time – between educators for a common goal.  The more people involved in a conversation the more rich, more diverse and more challenging it becomes.

I know for the most part, this exercise is something of a contrived situation.  It’s something I have done personally by my self in the last six months.  Something I truly wanted to be doing as opposed to my school telling me that this is what I should be doing.  So I am hoping that as the next year progresses I shall be able to share my own passion for conversations and professional dialogues with people who at this point in time haven’t even considered being an author of information.

I shall be creating a new blog to record my year on the scholarship.  Not just yet but soon….