Ever had one of those days?

This morning I thought I knew what was in store for me - get up early, drive out to a community agency, teach for the day, drive home late, stay late at work finalising lesson planning for tomorrow and Thursday...but it didn't happen that way.

I had tried confirming that I was to teach at this agency today as planned late last year, without success, as no one answered my e-mails or phone messages left on answering machines. As there were 17 or so people involved in the class and I would not be at all popular if I failed to show and they were expecting me, I drove the 55kms out to the agency. The day was glorious - sunny and cool - the country was green and lush from all the monsoonal rains we had had. The joy of driving through such beautiful country is pretty special! There was little traffic, and no rush.

When I arrived at my destination, sadly there was no eager group of students ready to come to a class, but really I was blessed already by the unexpectedly peaceful interlude, so contentedly got back into the car for another lovely drive back to base. Then I had the gift of all the afternoon hours to prepare for the following days, without pressure, and could go home at a decent hour.

Ever had one of those days when you felt as though you were being paid for doing something wonderful, not just for working? This was one of those days for me :-)

March plans

Thanks for the preview of the March get together for TROPIC people, Martha! It's something to look forward to. I am especially looking forward to seeing everyone again and also to the promised guest speakers. Have been asked to do an observation by a Teacher in H&CC, so will endeavour to get that done before our meeting.

TROPIC - a stunned reaction

Back at work - back at promoting TROPIC to Teachers both new and veteran. I offered TROPIC to people in our Faculty meeting today - over 60 people present. One thing that was said bothered me - it was said that TROPIC would tell Teachers only what they were doing RIGHT. They may need 'a peer' to tell them the 'hard' stuff about what they were doing WRONG. My immediate response was to say I hoped all Teachers saw TROPIC observers as their peers who were not coming in to tell them what they were doing wrong, but to have a professional conversation between 'equals'. I don't see TROPIC as a way for an 'expert' to tell an experienced or even beginning Teacher what they are doing 'wrong'. It is not a mentoring system. It is a system of peer observation and reporting on what is seen in a classroom. It's a tool Teachers can use for self-reflection. It's also a way to access ideas on different ways of achieving behavioural results in classrooms.

Maybe this 'telling people what they are doing wrong'idea explains why not many Teachers access TROPIC?

Holidays

It is so pleasant to be home for awhile, not going to work every morning, and yet....I find myself thinking about how I am going to do things at work this year and planning things out in my head.

We acquired a second hand laptop this summer and I am imagining all sorts of work uses for it. It is a bit hit and miss at work about who can have laptops when - there are not ever enough of them to 'go around' so the ones we do have are under-utilised in the name of having to be certain of resources being available when planning lessons - so now I will have sure-fire access to one. This is great news for me with all the Power Points I use in video conferencing, and for helping students understand how to access and use Janison's. I'll be able to download stuff on my 'stick' to be worked on at any location, can take business stuff with me everywhere, can be mixing my personal and work life even more - something I seem to want to do. When I want a complete break, I just leave all technology behind and go off bushwalking somewhere.

Can't think of any other uses except to annoy hubby in bed by continuing to work there after a certain hour... any ideas for other WORK uses would be much appreciated :-)

Haven't been thinking too much about TROPIC and how it can be furthered - will have to direct my daydreaming that way for awhile and see what comes up.

TROPIC & Marking

Marking - and entering results. That's nearly all this week has been and all next week will be. I was happy some TROPIC people could come to the VC this week and talk about what is happening around Qld - and even beyond. Look out Tasmania, eh Martha!? It was great to hear there had been some activity on the Wiki - will have to have a look. Congratulations on all the work everyone is doing - Jillian, I take my hat off to you with your challenges. I didn't get to hear if Sarah Jane was alright after that evacuation order - hope the building is still standing and you are alright, SJ. Peter, it was great to have you at the VC and Jean too. And how good to see veryone else's faces!! I am looking forward to our f2f in March already :-D

Stay sane in the next couple of weeks everyone. This too shall pass.....

Wikis seem to be the 'in thing'

Wikis seemed to take a back seat in the ether world till just recently. Lots of people seem to have discovered their worth all of a sudden, or is it just me finally catching up? Thanks you, Martha, for starting a TROPIC wiki. And thank you, Val, for your invitation to a focus group on social learning via a wiki. Thanks also for the invitation to join the Connected Learning Communities wiki, Wendy. I am hoping they will help people to interact more than blogs do and have left a couple of comments to help the process along. And here's some Dancing Lady orchids, interacting all together on one stem.

Stephen Downes' October keynote address in Aukland

I have unlimited broadband this month thanks to a new deal with Telstra so am listening to all kinds of things I usually can't easily get to. One of them was Stephen Downes' talk about the difference between groups and networks, and how groups create walls and barriers and exclusivity while networks tend to break down these concepts and allow different kinds of information flow/connectivity. And he related it to how we learn, among other things. It was interesting - thanks, Stephen.

While I was listening to the talk, I also looked at the beautiful pictures Stephen Downes had uploaded of New Zealand - kind of echoed the message in that most pics that struck me were the vista pics - the ocean, the forests, the views of mountains and rolling hills. No walls there. Try it and tell me what you think. Here are the links:

• Slide shows: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?journal=3529
• Talk: http://www.downes.ca/files/audio/nz3.mp3

And I thought I needed to upload a Tableland vista of my own. New Zealand and Canada don't have ALL the beauty spots in the world, though who could decide which one topped them all? This is a picture taken from a verandah at Skybury, outside Mareeba.

Breeze

Tonight I joined a group of Teachers to talk about how to use the Breeze application. It was my first experience with Breeze and for the most part, it worked. I did drop out a few times and we had some patches of not being able to hear each other, but it was good to talk and be allowed to share a few web pages - I showed everyone this blog, so if any of you have come visiting, please do say hi!
The participants tonight told me about Wikispaces and also about a wiki called "VTE models for embedding innovative practice in elearning" . I have joined both sites, or requested to be allowed to join :-)
Like the EdNa groups I subscribe to, I think I will learn much more than I will be able to contribute. I believe I am on the very edge of e-learning/m-learning 'pool' and am content to absorb some of the things that are happening - for now before diving in. I am sure more can be done with the Janison sites I host, and in encouraging students to use the spaces we have.

TROPIC talk

I had a chance to talk to a Teacher about TROPIC this week. It didn't result in getting a chance to do an observation, but it was a conversation. There are a couple of new Teachers on board now who won't know about TROPIC, so there are more opportunities just waiting for me out there, right?
I let Martha know about the conversation. It's all activity!
How are you all doing, anyway?

EdNa groups

I have been subscribed to some threads in the EdNa community for a few months now and am picking up so much from them. There are always so many interesting links and ideas floating around there. I find it a good place to learn about how to access the repositories of international conferences and happenings around e-learning and m-learning. I don't always 'follow' every post or thread but the ones that interest me open up so many more possibilities and thoughts. If you have not tried 'lurking' and posting comments on some of these threads, you may find a conversation that interest you, too.

EdNa posts about e-learning & m-learning

Lately I have been getting some interesting information about the developments around the English speaking world in e-learning (electronic learning environments) and m-learning (mobile electronic learning environments). There have been so many changes to technology and the use of it that I was not aware of. It is really helpful to be reading about how others are using technology in learning contexts. You can find this group on EdNa at

# Groups
# Networks
# Forums
# M-learning
# M-Learning: Back to Basics

and here is the link to EdNa:

http://www.edna.edu.au/

I hope everyone is getting some observations done. I am looking forward to our next f2f meeting to hear all about your experiences :-)

Brisbane was GREAT!

Hello to all of you who have come to check out this blog, especially those who just completed an amazing two days talking about all things TROPIC-al! That means YOU, David, Meredith, David, Karen, Martha, Peter, Deb, Keith, Bob, Michelle, Jean, Gillian, and Lisa! What a wonderful workshop that was. It is a priviledge to be associated with you all. I am really looking forward to having more contact via blog, chat, VC, e-mail or whatever we think is appropriate. I hope some of you will start reflective blogs too and we can really benefit from our TROPIC community( in between F2F meetings, of course :-) - we do still have to decide on the amazing venue for the next one, right??)
And I haven't forgotten that there are others who are part of this community - Barbara, Errol, Deanne, Mary, Colleen, Sarah-Jane, Robin, Stef, Jill, Amy, Ann, and anyone else who I have not seen for awhile. Welcome to this space.
If you want to start your own blog, go to www.blogger.com and follow the directions for making your very own. Or pick any of the other excellent blogging spots available for free on the web. Then let us all know how to read your blog, so we can bookmark it as a favourite and start commenting on your postings.
See you 'round (or I'll be seeing you, in the gerand!)

Time for more TROPIC input

This week I am going to get a chance to see how the Teachers we introduced to TROPIC are getting along. It will be a chance to talk about both the 'big picture' of peer observation in classrooms for the whole of TAFE, and the nitty gritty of how peer observation works. We'll be reviewing the way we do the observations, and the feedback we all give together will result in making adjustments to the process, perhaps. It will be a chance for 'time out' to reflect, to gain other's perspectives, to not be interrupted. It is such a great realisation that we are developing a way for Teachers to have professional conversations, to mentor each other, to think about pedagogy and give each other ideas about practical things we can do to develop effective classroom experiences, both for us and for our students.
I was able to complete a peer observation last week. I thought it went well except for the time I had to give feedback. That was inadequate. The Teacher and I were interrupted on two occasions when feedback was attempted. Now I won't get a chance to talk more about it till I come back from this week's trip. I hope the time gap doesn't leave the Teacher unsettled or 'hanging'. I did give some feedback - it was just not as full as I would have liked. I did leave a doorway open for us to talk about the Microskills further, by leaving a copy of same with the Teacher to browse through at their leisure, and I will make a point of getting back to that Teacher as soon as I can when I return. It's still not an ideal situation though....
Will reflect more here when I get back.

Just nicked this great photo of the fantastic Teachers who underwent the TROPIC training with us in Brisbane this June. (Martha, thank you for publishing it on your blog!) It certainly was enjoyable and challenging and stimulating to be with such a group of enthusiastic people who now have even more power to change things in their own settings. I look forward to hearing about their experiences with Teachers Reflecting on Practice in Classrooms.

Writing for the web

Just found this great link to some common sense ideas for writing on the web - I got it from Stephen Downe's OLDaily newsletter (people can subscribe to that by going to http://www.downes.ca/news/index.htm). This article has ten tips for catching and maintaining people's interest on the web and is written by Mark Bernstein. You can find out more about him by going to his article titles 'A List Apart' at http://www.alistapart.com/stories/writeliving/

Idle Blogging Comment

Blogging seems a pretty lonely business at times. I wonder if students who use them feel the same? I guess if you are blogging for a course, then others are going to read and post comments. A blog in the wild has to take its chances :-)

TROPIC training

It was great to run a training session for 16 Teachers interested in learning about classroom profiling. Their interest and enthusiasm was so encouraging. We get so few chances for professional conversations about how we teach. It's a treat to get such a chance with such a great group of people.

Blogging

I have been reading posts on e-learning topics from EdNa, and have been thinking about blogs and their uses. I can see how they are useful educationally for posting assessments, reflections, and for having discussions based around topics of interest. In general though it seems most bloggers post alone - they get little feedback on their reflections. Blogs really do seem to serve a reflective purpose, but don't generate much actual discussion or exchange between minds. Forums seem to be better at doing that, especially when you can have new comments posted to you by e-mail. I am much more likely to read forum postings that are e-mailed to me, rather than check everybody's blogs every day. I guess you can have blogs that send new comments to you via e-mail too. It is kind of nice to have a reflective journal online however.

Easter Monday

A rainy day with no where to go - no shops open that I know of, and no tourist sights to see due to the cyclone damage. Another cyclone is beginning to build to the north of us, and we have received the first warning. Do we have enough butane/candles/gas/batteries? Reminder to self: Must find time to do an emergency shop tomorrow.

It must be a day for planning semester 2!! So I have done some. It does give me a sense of satisfaction to have done the programming and a few other administrative tasks. Have been thinking about the logical order to deliver subjects in. I have been delivering subjects each week of the semester to date, but it is looking more and more like having blocks of delivery would be a good idea. I wonder if the students could cope? TNQ TAFE has always had to ocnsider the distance learner, the isolated pockets of learners and the working learner, so delivery has tended to be spaced out to allow people to work around their work and home schedules as well as cope with travelling. Maybe a student survey canvassing their preferences would be a good idea. I will develop something simple to hand out next week. I know from an adult learner's perspective, it is good to allow people time to process information, which is an argument for keeping delivery as it is.

Marking will come next. Students deserve to have feedback asap, and I have a bundle of assignments to go through.

Debriefing

Today I held my first 'normal' class since the cyclone hit. It was a small class as I had received apologies from some and not heard at all from others, who are probably still without power and/or phones. The ones who came needed to debrief and tell their stories about what had happened to them and to their friends. They are incredible people - nearly everyone told how they had quickly chipped in and helped other people they considered to be in greater need than themselves by volunteering or just being there for people. There is a lot of gratitude in this community about the miracle of there being no deaths and few serious injuries (though one of my students had received a head injury and had been hospitalised for a time because of that). The stress of the event was discussed - effects being noticed in themselves and in others were brought out. One student told how a neighbour had been stressed to the point of having a mental health episode and noticing with dismay the unkind reaction of those around him.

They are also learning on 'fast forward' how the community works which fits in exactly with their studies.

We eventually could talk about their studies and even got through the lesson, amid cups of tea, biscuits and more stories. They are learning and they are living their learnings. It is an amazing thing to watch, for me.