Tech Tools for Teachers #22 PrimaryPad

Each week Simon Collier and I collaborate on an email newsletter for teachers called Tech Tools for Teachers. Click here to find an archive of past newsletters and to subscribe. This week we review the site PrimaryPad http://primarypad.com/ PrimaryPad  is a tool that allows students and teachers to collaborate on a word-processor style document. Despite […]

Tech Talk Tuesdays and Classroom 2.0 LIVE

Last week, I posted about my top ten ways to engage in online professional development (PD). Tonight I participated in one of my recommended forms of PD (which I don’t get to as often as I’d like) –  the Victorian Education Department’s Virtual Conference Centre. While there are a wide range of sessions every day […]

Top 10 Ways to Engage in Professional Development

Not so long ago, professional development for teachers meant a one of excursion to an off-site location. Teachers were the passive recipients of professional development. Times have changed. A teacher no longer has to be the expert in the classroom and a teacher no longer needs an expert  to develop their skills. Professional development for […]

A Double Milestone!

This post marks a special double milestone, and…. I started this blog on 14th March 2009 and initially I was motivated by the benefits that self-reflection bring. It wasn’t long before I discovered the joys of reaching out to people and developing an interactive audience. Thank you to everyone who reads my blog and I […]

Social Media Monitoring

Last week I posted about Denis Masseni’s report “Why Schools are Spooked by Social Media.” An interesting component of this report was on social media monitoring. That is, monitoring the internet for mentions of a particular keyword (such as your school). This is a good way to take defensive action if negative mentions occur and […]

New Page: Educational Blogging

I am often asked for information about blogging with my class so I have decided to compile the posts I have written on educational blogging on a new page. Here you will find information about setting up your class blog, establishing rules and guidelines, educating parents about blogging,  teaching commenting skills and more. What sort […]

Why Schools are Spooked by Social Media

I was pleased I was listening to ABC Radio Melbourne this morning when I heard the next segment was going to be about social media in schools. While I braced myself for a flood of ill informed callers harping on the negatives of Facebook and the like I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. Denis […]

Sites for Integration Aides

Monday 9th August is a statewide curriculum day for Ultranet implementation in Victoria. For readers who are outside of Victoria, Australia, the Ultranet is a  $60.5 million online portal for teachers, students and parents in Victorian government schools. Read my post on my initial thoughts on the Ultranet here. I am a Lead User at […]

Super Teacher Worksheets

Super Teacher Worksheets is a useful site for primary school teachers if you’re looking for simple printable worksheets. Some of these worksheets are free. Membership to the whole site costs $20/year. The worksheets are divided into categories such as math, reading, writing, social studies, science etc. These are then broken down to sub categories.  Super Teacher Worksheets […]