Ross Todd rocks!

It's not very often that MrsPotts is able to sit still for hours on end listening to one person speak.
Short. Attention. Span. So much so that at conferences I try to sit near the door for a quick get-away if my attention isn't grabbed and held in the first five minutes!   (On reflection it's probably just a bad habit I've developed!)
A-ha! Today was different. I sat and listened to just one person - Dr Ross Todd @RossJTodd - All day.

I'd heard him speak before and he is such a nice man that he even said he remembered meeting me at the IASL conference in 2008 at the University of California at Berkeley, USA: "World Class Learning and Literacy through School Libraries"
He was great then... and was even more interesting today as he spoke about evidence-based practice for school libraries. It was about how libraries impact on student learning and how we can set about gathering evidence (data) and using this evidence for continued development and continuous improvement. There was a model of the school library as a 'dynamic agent of learning' amongst the heaps (yes, heaps!) of slides. He talked about gathering evidence in our schools & posed more than one question for us to consider including; What differences do my school library and its initiatives make to student learning outcomes?

Dr Todd challenged us, questioned us, talked at us and with us (in small groups) and at the end of the day, asked for our specific ideas on our EBP action plans. WHEW! He did not draw breath!
I sat in my seat all day.

ISTE12 sharing time

Hi there folks...Having recently returned from the amazing experience that was ISTE2012 in San Diego http://www.isteconference.org/2012/ Mrs Potts has decided that it's time to share.
I reckon that every second person at the conference had an ipad... maybe everyone! Did I mention there were somewhere between fifteen and twenty thousand people at the conference? Just A-mazing (ah, not only the size of the conference but how many ipads that is!)  It was pretty mind-blowing just to be there amongst it all.
Overall... fantastic keynotes (Sir Ken Robinson, Marc Prensky (digital natives guy) along with the scientist who plays a scientist on The Big Bang Theory, & Dr Yong Zhao -more about him later) great poster sessions, kids presenting and talking about their learning with technology; sessions on absolutely everything,  from apps to Google, QR codes , using ipads, videoing, connecting, sharing, social media in all its forms, flipping classrooms, creativity and so on and so on... and for any library folk who just might happen to be reading, a game show with Joyce Valenza, Doug Johnson's hilarious t-shirts and Dr Lesley Farmer. Whew!
The good news is my friends that you can check out the keynotes and other stuff from the conference too. I follow iste12 on facebook and it's great. They are now putting up links to lots of things and today's one is this

Post about Dr. Yong Zhao, #ISTE12 keynote speaker. "test scores do not reflect teacher ability or student's future"http://ow.ly/caywi

I could go on, but for now my garden beckons while the sun's shining and before the weeds really take charge.
There'll be more about iste12 so watch this space. Happy rest-of-the-holidays from Mrs Potts

Check these out!

Hi everyone & yay for the Queen I say! Found this site http://edtechideas.com/2012/06/01/49-cool-summer-sites-for-kids-and-teachers/

which could take up a bit of time in the next day or so. There are some goodies here so please share if you find anything useful. I'm already a fan of ReadWriteThink and tried out the virtual piano #25 [the resulting sound being 'interesting" to say the least!!]. As for #32 I bet kids would love it!

Flipping Bloom's Taxonomy

Recently I've written about twitter, student engagement, wordle and prezi (among other things) and now MrsPotts thinks it's time for a little reflection on how the challenges-to-myself are going!
First up it's Twitter.. haven't got to that (yet!)  but I've been thinking that this really could be a great way to connect with our parents and to keep them informed about what's happening in the library and beyond. How this happens in reality is open for discussion and suggestions welcomed...
Some Yr 3 & 4 Kids came into the library to make a Wordle about dinosaurs which they'd been reading about. They had fun trying out all of the different styles and were very pleased with themselves at the finished products.
Am pleased to report that "Prezi" is taking off!  I love it when I show kids and teachers something new which I think is interesting/cool and they give it a go.
And to conclude for today, Bloom's taxonomy flipped... I like! check it out here
http://plpnetwork.com/2012/05/15/flipping-blooms-taxonomy/
I have no idea who Shelly Wright is (or her credentials for that matter) but I like the fact that she's given me something new to think about. Flipping classrooms... mmm let the games begin!
Ciao from MrsPotts

Some more new tools to play with

In the US it's coming up to end of the school year and subsequently 'reflecting on the end of the year' is a theme in lots of the articles I follow. The one I'm going to post today talks about "The power of these Web 2.0 tools to support new and even veteran teachers in reflecting on the school year -- and having fun doing it -- is a true 21st century gift"   MrsPotts favourites...fun and gifts!!  there are also some new web2 tools I've never heard of to play with! penzu.... capzies... who comes up with these names. Have a great weekend my friends         http://www.edutopia.org/blog/school-year-end-review-lisa-dabbs

Twitter anyone?

I saw an article the other day by someone in the media who said that Twitter was really annoying and no use whatsoever. I'm not sure, so thought I'd give it a go. My daughter the blogger http://www.heartbreakpie.com/ showed me how she uses twitter effectively last night. I'd used google to find the cheapest price for a grocery item for her, which was not that easy to do as it turned out.  It's ok mum I've put it out on twitter she informed me casually. Done! I'm off to Farro this evening to pick up the afore-mentioned items!
So today when I saw Senga's blogpost http://sengaw.wordpress.com | http://sengasbooks.wordpress.com   about these cool recordable pegs I thought I'd sign on to my long-lost twitter account and share!

National Library... awesome resource

National library is a wondeful resource and this is a great time to remind myself to take some time to check out the digital resources. This link for starters...

http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/developing-your-library/tools-and-guides