A long time

It's been a long time since I blogged. Indeed, I am glad that I took my time in coming here again.
All this while, this blog was a part of an assignment - a means to score marks. Now that this semester is over and done with, I can get down to penning down, or should I say typing down my true thoughts.
This one year has been a time of learning, re-learning and un-learning. I had to learn how to move about a new city, how to cook edible food and lots of other how's too. I had to re-learn what it means to be independent and what it means to trust once again. But the most important learning was in the process of 'unlearning'. I had to unlearn 'how to write stuff', 'how to do stuff' and above all I had to unlearn my so-called 'professional style of working'.
It has been a difficult year since every thing was new and I no longer had my safety net of family and friends with me any more. It's not easy being away from home in a new country where every thing from food, clothes, language, and culture is different.
In the next few weeks, I hope to talk about incidents that happened during my practicum, my stay in an uni-sex residence and my interaction with people from all over the world.
For now I shall get back to searching for part-time jobs on the internet. Here's hoping something pans out for me.

ePortfolios - their use

An electronic portfolio or ePortfolio is a collection of data that has been collected and organised to resemble a physical folder, but is online or electronic. The portfolio has documents, data diagrams, pictures, images, videos, multimedia information, blog entries and related website links relevant to the ePortfolio owner work.

ePortfolios are dynamic. They expand as the work done by the user increases. Some times, these folios can cover years and years of work. Such folios are excellent especially if the person needs proof of the work done by him. It is not bulky and can be accessed from any corner of the world. The user can provide or deny access to viewers depending on his privacy settings.

ePortfolios are gaining precedence in schools now since they improve the ICT skills of students. Also, they minimise wastage of paper resources since they can be maintained as online folders. Indeed, with the presence of the Ultranet, all teachers, parents and stake-holders have access to students’ information. They are an online data bank that provides information on the progress of students over the years.

ePortfolios are also used by teachers and other staff in schools as proof of work completed. Indeed, I have just worked on my own ePortfolio that covers the following areas:
-Introduction
-Educational Philosophy
-Curriculum Vitae
-Reflection on Practicum
-Curriculum Material
As stated earlier, ePortfolios are dynamic and will grow according to the work done by the user.

ePortfolios cover a wide range of domains from VELS. These are as follows:
-Personal Learning: Students seek and use teacher feedback to develop their content knowledge and understanding and reflect on how their prior knowledge has changed.
-English: Students produce, in print and electronic forms, a variety of texts for different purposes using structures and features of language appropriate to the purpose, audience and context of the writing. They begin to use simple figurative language and visual images.
-Communication: Students develop their skills in organising ideas and information logically and clearly to suit their purpose and the needs of their audience. For formal presentations they begin to select appropriate forms for sharing knowledge and influencing others.
-Design, Creativity and Technology: Students begin to record their progress using words and images.
-ICT: Students develop and maintain a digital bank of evidence that demonstrates their learning. This requires students evaluating, selecting and organising files that showcase their learning and that are up-to-date and structures in an orderly way. Students apply file management procedures that assist in securing their files and in allowing the easy retrieval of files by using naming conventions that is meaningful.
(http://www.vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vels/using.html#)

As teachers, we are expected to provide the following support to students while creating ePortfolios:
-technology for easy creation
-easy access to created ePortfolios for staff, parents, stake holders and students
-knowledge banks or data bases that enable students to understand what is expected of them
-clear cut instructions and assessment rubrics for ePortfolio creation

ePortfolios are ‘Proof of work done’ and should not be created for the sake of curriculum completion. It’s an on-going process that enables every one concerned to know the progress made by students.

Let's read using picture clues - Rebus Stories

We are aware of the important role played by literacy in improving the communication skills of our students. It is important that students learn to write, speak, read and listen effectively from Preparatory in school.
One way in which teachers can make ‘learning to communicate effectively’ easy is by using ‘Rebus Stories’. Rebus stories are stories that are narrated using pictures for specific words. These pictures are used through out the story to depict a particular word or character.
Rebus stories are fantastic for Kindergarten to Preparatory students. Indeed, they can be used by Preparatory students to write stories of their own. You can use ‘Rebus Stories’ even for the higher grades but remember to use challenging pictures with interesting story lines for the higher grades.
Rebus stories enable even students who are struggling with reading to ‘read’ the story since they recognise the pictures that are used for specific characters and words. You can introduce familiar stories in the beginning and then move on to more complex stories that will challenge the reading skills of students.
One way by which to make learning fun with ‘Rebus Stories’ is to help students create their own ‘Rebus Story’. Students can do this by following the procedure below:
1)Ask your students if they know what ‘Rebus Stories’ are: Start by asking students if they know what a ‘Rebus Story’ is. Create a concept map based on the information given by the students. Brain storm ideas on what ‘Rebus Stories’ are based on the concept map.
2)Read a ‘Rebus Story’: Choose an age appropriate story and read to the students. Ensure that they get to see the pictures used for the characters and words. Give students the chance to predict what the words represent.
3)Ask students to choose an appropriate story: Give students time to choose a story and create a story board based on the story line.
4)Ask students to choose specific pictures for specific words and characters: Ask students to choose the characters of words that they will be using pictures for. Based on the chosen characters and words, they can browse the web to determine appropriate pictures either through clip art or google pictures.
5)Ask students to create the ‘Rebus Story’: Once students have created the story line and chosen the pictures, they can write the story and introduce the pictures into the story line. Once this is done, they can print their story.
6)Ask students to share their ‘Rebus Story’: All students can share the story that they have created. Indeed, they can collect all the ‘Rebus Stories’ and create a booklet.
The advantage of using ‘Rebus Story’ as stated earlier is that all students can read the story inspite of the level of literacy. These stories help to increase the confidence of students. They improve the communication skills in terms of writing, reading and speaking. If you were to get the students to work in groups, then the listening skill also gets taken care of.

Games students play!!!

What’s the most common complaint that teachers have about their classes?

If you and I were to ask ourselves that question then the answer would be ‘BOREDOM’. Most often, students have blank looks on their face or are just not interested in classes. There are several external and internal factors influencing the interest level in a class. However, if students’ interests are flagging because they are doing ‘Black Line’ activity sheets or listening to the teacher talk, then it’s time to change.

ICT in classrooms follows a three-fold path and that is:
-ICT for visualising thinking
-ICT for creating
-ICT for communicating

Students are expected to work on all three when using ICT. However, it pains me to say that at my last practicum, I did not see ICT used for visualising thinking. Also, I felt that the NetBooks, NotePads, Computers and Laptops were not tapped for their maximum potential. Except for using MS Publisher to create posters and brochures or to access websites, I never saw students create designs or use tools such as database software.

I believe the lack of knowledge about S/W and H/W amongst teachers is to blame for the non-tapping of ICT resources. This’ further influenced by the fact that there are teachers who suffer from ‘Cyber-phobia’ – a fear of computers or ICT. But these are unjustifiable reasons for not learning. It is imperative that we are aware of the potential of computers since our students’ future depends on it.

There are several websites available for teaching topics such as Humanities, Arts, Mathematics, etc. Some of the websites are:
-www.buildyourwildself.com (Great for Preps – Grade 3 to learn about animals and their conservation)
-http://catchmentdetox.net.au/ (Applicable for Grade 5 – Grade 6 to learn about conservation of resources, especially since it is an on-going game that involves strategies, pooling of resources, financial analyses, etc)
-http://myths.e2bn.org (Apt for Grade 5 – Grade 6 to create stories on ‘myths and legends’. However, some of the graphics and stories are gory and am unsure whether all students would be unaffected by it)
-http://ziptales.com.au (Apt for Preps – Grade 4 to create stories ranging from fairy-tales to folk-lore, i.e. work on Arts, Literacy, ICT and Humanities. However, this is a site that requires subscription. Personally, I have never liked subscribing to websites since I am unsure of how effective they are in protecting my information.)
-https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/primary/pages/Default.aspx (Apt for Grade 3 – Grade 6. This website is well laid out and is very user-friendly. Also, there are no unwanted advertisements or pop-ups since it is maintained by the DEECD. There’s a wide range of material for various domains such as Science, Arts, Literacy, Mathematics, etc.)

As you can see from the first picture on this blog, I have been playing around with the ‘www.buildyourwildself.com’ website. Though it was interesting to go through the various animals and play around with changing the features on my cyber-self, I have to say that it was not very entertaining. However, I believe the Prep – Grade 3 students will be more than glad to spend 15 – 20 minutes on this. The time could be changed depending on the level of learning and skill that the students are at.

I did try to work on the ‘www.catchmentdetox.net.au’ game but I have to say that I was quite inept at it. But I am sure that students in the concerned age group would find it not only interesting but also quite addictive. I felt that the game involves strategies and planning that will keep students occupied for ages. The best feature about this game is that it is educational and can be played at home or anywhere else other than only at school.

As said earlier, I am not very keen on the ‘www.ziptales.com.au’ or the ‘www.myths.e2bc.org’. The former as it involves signing onto their website and the latter because I found their graphics quite gory. Indeed, I would be more than glad to sign off both websites to the ‘Middle Years’ or ‘Secondary’ students.

A data bank of websites for easy learning is always good to have for reference’s sake. However, I would prefer it if as teachers we invested more in S/W and H/W that students can access to create their own websites or games relevant to the domain they’re working on. This way, they can improve their ICT skills and equip themselves for a better future.

There are various S/W such as Microsoft Photo Story 3, Windows Live Movie Maker, Corel Digital Studio 2003, iStopMotion, etc. The important thing is to discuss with people who are aware of such S/W and H/W so that one can make a calculated and educated decision with regards to investing in technology that will improve our students’ learning skills.

Till then, I guess I will have to work with what I have and ensure that I do my utmost to improve my students’ learning using those tools that I have access to.

Lights, Camera, ACTION!!!

Ever wondered how to keep students occupied? Or have you felt helpless even as your carefully prepared lessons disintegrated before your eyes as students were bored with the Power Point Presentation or ‘Black Line Masters’ that you had created? Ever looked at those teachers, who seem technically rooted, and felt jealous seeing their movie clips and interactive presentations?

If the answer to any of the above is ‘yes’, then it’s time to learn how to improve your presentation skills. We live in a world where every thing from food to even recreation is fast. People have no time for following the ‘tortoise style’ of doing things. Aesop’s fable of ‘slow and steady wins the race’ no longer applies since you and I will be left far behind.

There are tonnes of ways by which you can improve your presentation skills. The important thing to remember is, “why are you creating the material that you are working on?” Are you attempting to impress your students? Are you looking for a promotion? Or are you creating media-savvy learning material so that students are challenged and occupied?

I hope that you answered ‘yes’ to the last question because then you are on the right track to becoming an excellent educator like Jaime Escalante or Sir Ken Robinson. The important thing to remember while creating material is that it has to educate and generate interest amongst students. Immediately, students should want to research on the topic of learning further.

Learning material can be made interesting and one of them is to create movies or video clips. There's a range of software available to teachers nowadays. But as a teacher, it is imperative that the content is appropriate for the age group it is targeted at. Some of the websites that provide movie-creation services are:
-www.digitalfilms.com
-www.dfilm.com (now known as dvolver)
-www.toondoo.com
-www.abc.net/rollercoaster/rollermache
-www.xtranormal.com



All these websites are user-friendly. They require a valid e-mail ID and password so as to log onto the website. Once in, you can follow the instructions and create your own story board. You can add characters, speech bubbles, costumes, back drops, music, change camera angles and even move the characters around.

I used ‘www.digitalfilms.com’ to create a story on ‘Cyber Bullying’ and 'www.xtranormal.com’ to create a mock-interview between David Letterman and myself. I did use ‘www.dfilm.com’ to create an animated video clip on relationships.

There are certain issues that will crop up when using these websites and they are as follows:
-Inappropriate advertisements and animation characters
-Body image issues amongst students on seeing the characters in the videos or movies
-Not all age groups are interested in animation clips
-Chunky movements in certain websites that result in the animation looking antique
-Not many backdrops or features. This will result in stereotyped video clips

These websites make it easier to create content that students will be interested in. But, remember not all of the characters or advertisments in the websites are appropriate for students. Some of the advertisements as well as the content are adult-rated and cannot be viewed by school students. Indeed, I found some of the characters could result in ‘body image’ issues amongst students.

As stated, some of the animation seem out-dated like the huge servers that would fill entire floors in the 1970’s. Also, I found the lack of variety in features resulted in some of my presentations looking no different from the ones created earlier. So students felt that they were looking at the same thing over and over again.

Though I seem to be placing a spoke in the wheel of creativity, I still would like to say that such websites are very useful to create content that students would find interesting. I found that investing in Windows Live Movie Maker not only made it easier to create content for my classes but also made them look more professional.

If you are seriously contemplating a career in teaching, then I would suggest that you invest in software and hardware that will enable you to improve your mode and style of delivery of content. You will notice a marked improvement in your students’ standards of learning.

Cyber Safety

What’s the power of ‘Online Games’ over our students? Why do they like playing these games? Who are the students who prefer learning through ICT than through other teaching tools? When do students spend time online? Where do students access the internet or web? Which sites are more interesting to students? How do students access the information available to them on the Net?

As teachers have we asked ourselves these questions? What are we doing to protect our students from ‘Cyber Bullying’, ‘Paedophiles’ and other dangerous elements out in the Cyber world? Are we doing our utmost in terms of ‘Duty of Care’ or are we turning a blind eye to our students’ safety once we leave school?



At MacLeod College, I had the opportunity to sit through a presentation by a DEECD trainer on ‘Web Safety for Students’. That was an ‘eye-opener’ or should I say ‘eye-popper’ for me. I never knew words like ‘sex-ting’, ‘flashing’, etc. Neither did I know that most students as young as 13 have a Facebook account. The first question that popped into my mind was, “Why would these kids need a Facebook account?” I can understand adults wanting to keep in touch with each other since they live in busy worlds or worlds apart. But why would students who see each other every day want a ‘Social Network’ address?

The answer lies in the question. Students now want to ‘socialise’ at all times since they feel isolated and lonely. The following reasons were given by students for being on the Net at unearthly hours:
- Need to socialise
- Need for a new identity
- Need to escape from family- or school- related problems
- Feeling of power over one’s destiny
- Feeling of power over another person

I don’t know whether the students realised the importance of protecting themselves, but I sure understood the importance of protecting them. My father says, “Children will be children because they believe that the adults will protect them at all times.” I believe in what he says. It is our duty to protect the students who come to us for education or learning of ‘life skills’.

I believe in what Greg said in his presentation on ‘Protection of students online’. I will be following the same process to ensure that my future students are aware of the dangers out there on the Net. I know that it is not possible to prevent them from using the Net. But it is possible to create an awareness of how to protect themselves from ‘Cyber Crimes’.

The process is as follows:
Lead: Through cyber policies and procedures, help students to understand the importance of protecting themselves. These policies and procedures need to be in place before students and staff can access information using the school’s network system.

Educate: This is done through presentations, discussions, constant reminders, brochures, posters etc that will help them to question themselves and their actions. As teachers we need to remember that we are responsible for the safety of our students.

Manage: It is imperative that we manage our network systems. For this to happen, we would need an excellent ICT support system in place. Also, we would need to educate our students on appropriate and inappropriate websites, pictures, advertisements, etc so that they can keep us informed if any inappropriate material gets through the ‘Firewalls’ and other ‘Spam S/W’.
Also, we would require a support system in terms of counselling if students access information that is inappropriate using the school’s network systems.

Support: Provide adequate support in terms of S/W and H/W knowledge and use to students, staff, parents and other members of the education community so that every one’s aware of technology that students may or may not access while learning. As teachers it is imperative that we are aware of not only ‘learning based S/W and H/W’ but also other S/W and H/W dealing with games, social websites, etc so as to have a heads-up on what our students access.

Empower: ‘Knowledge is empowerment’. As stated above, “it is imperative that we are aware of what our students’ access”. Constant updates on information, PD’s on Cyber information, discussions, etc can empower teachers, parents and students to become aware of how to use the Net safely.

Participate: It is important the not only students and staff but also other members of the community such as parents are aware of the internet, intranet and ultranet. Awareness is the key to knowing how to use the cyber resources available to them in a responsible manner.

At the end of the day, as teachers, we can only hope that students and parents realise the dangers out there in the Cyber world. This realisation will create awareness on how to use the Net in a safe manner. The policies and procedures set in place for Cyber use are not there to deter people from the Net but are there to ensure that they have the upper-hand at all times when it comes to being tech-savvy.

Wanna Publish – Then Paint

“A picture conveys more than what a thousand words can say”.

But imagine if there were no pictures. How would one convey the information that one wants to? This is how I felt when I realised that I could not upload the pictures that I have onto my blog directly. Neither did I know how to upload pictures. You see, when it comes to technology, I am not very bright. I am one of those people who thinks that she will have to go to the same cyber café where she first opened a ‘hotmail’ account since it is not accessible anywhere else.

By now you must have realised how tech-savvy I am. And to add further to my bruised self-confidence, I am training to be a teacher in a country where every thing is based on computers. The first thing that Greg spoke about during our workshop was creating a blog. Then he spoke about adding pictures. By then I think I had passed out from sheer terror. However, I have noticed that Greg always follows what he preaches (thanks for small mercies). So, not only did he speak to us about following the integrated inquiry planning stages, but also ensured that he followed them during the workshops.

So, the first thing that I got to learn was that I had to create a blog and add pictures. The second step was getting us to find out more about this. So, I spent some time looking at the blog website and feeling sorry for myself. By then I had decided that my classmates were talking in a language that I did not fully comprehend what with all the ‘blog postings’, ‘cyber safety’, ‘privacy settings’ and other jargon floating around the workshop.

But then I had nothing to fear since help was at hand. When we had done all that we could to ‘find out’ more about blogs, Greg got us to discuss our findings. The more I listened to my classmates, the less scared I was about the entire workshop. Indeed, I think it was during this stage that I had decided I would work on the blog rather than create another ‘WebQuest’ for this paper.

Once I had got over the fear, I got down to writing about ‘Inspiration’ tools and had even created a ‘Concept Map’ on ‘Inspiration Tools’. But I had still not figured out how to add this on to my blog post. Greg then got us to follow the below steps to publish our pictures. The steps are as follows:
1)Choose the picture that you would like to post and align it carefully on the screen so that it is visible
2)Use the ‘PrtScrn’ tab on the keyboard to take a snapshot of the screen
3)Open a new MS Paint document and paste the snapshot of the screen on to the document using the command ‘CTRL + V’
4)Delete those sections that are not required
5)Save your picture and automatically the document will be converted into a .JPG file
6)Upload your picture using the ‘upload’ tab on your blog
7)Align the pictures so as to increase aesthetic appeal
8)Post your information onto your blog

Once we had completed the ‘Going Further’ stage, Greg got us to discuss further about the use of MS Paint and Blogs in schools in the ‘Making Conclusions’ stage. We then spent time discussing how we could take it further for teaching purposes in the ‘Taking Action’ stage.

Now, I sound like a pro when it comes to using MS Paint for publishing pictures on my blog. I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn so much about blogs and MS Paint because it helped me to help my students when I was on my practicum at MacLeod College. Indeed, I follow the same planning stages as stated by Greg in my classes as it helps students to gain knowledge and understanding at a pace that is comfortable to each one of them.

Mathematics in Excel

Microsoft Excel is a Windows spreadsheet application that is used mainly for mathematical purposes. MS Excel is used by accountants, financial analysts, data entry operators and quality management analysts for statistical analyses and interpretation. This is how I perceived MS Excel as. That was before I got to see its use in our work shop and at MacLeod College.

The first time I became aware of how I could use MS Excel in teaching was during the ‘M&M Data analyses’ exercise that was done by Greg in our work shop. I had fun not only speculating on how many colours there might be in the box but also in predicting how many would there be in each colour. All the speculation and prediction did not help me in coming anywhere close to the original colours or numbers.

During this exercise I was wondering what the connection was between the M&M’s and the use of computers. It was then that Greg asked us to create a bar diagram using MS Excel based on our findings. I realised that I could create two diagrams, i.e. one that would show my prediction and another one that would show the findings.

It is important that as a teacher, we should scaffold learning so that every student is comfortable with using technology responsibly and to its maximum potential. This can be done in the following way:
Step 1: Explain the features of the software
Step 2: Provide examples
Step 3: Allow students to experiment with the software and its features
Step 4: Give students an activity that will allow them to use the software
Step 5: Bring students back for a time of sharing and peer correction
Step 6: Give students a platform to show-case their work
Once this is done, students will find it easier to work on any software.

MS Excel is easy to use as it has been created to be user-friendly. However, when I went to MacLeod College, I was in for a surprise. MacLeod College uses MacBooks and Apple computers. They even have NetBooks. Indeed, they use a PDA to mark attendance every day. I was amazed at the technology that was available to the students and staff in this school. I had to re-learn the software available on MacBooks before I could get the students to work on the systems, especially since I had no notion of what software was available on Apple computers.

However, I shall come back to talking about the use of MS Excel in schools or rather in MacLeod College. The students here were very tech-savvy. They used computers to not only create brochures, posters (using MS Publisher) but also were comfortable creating Podcasts, mini-movies, etc.

I have seen them using MS Excel to explain tessellations that were based on placing biscuits and wafers on graph sheets. Also, they have used MS Excel in their integrated class on ‘Natural Disasters’. I had asked them to create a bar diagram on the number of ‘Natural Disasters’ that had hit Australia between 1980 and 2010.

The great thing about allowing students to use technology is that they can become independent learners. However, I have to issue a word of warning since I learnt this the hard way. Not all students will work on the computer responsibly. I had allowed a student access to a Netbook so that he could create a poster. Later I found him playing ‘Solitaire’ rather than working on the poster. So, be it using MS Excel or creating a poster using MS Publisher, we as teachers have to ensure that our students use the technology available to them in a responsible manner. But that is a one-off incident and so should not deter teachers from using the technology available to them to improve learning amongst their students.

Microsoft Publisher - Let the fun begin

Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Office Publisher as it is officially known is a ‘desktop publishing’ application from Microsoft. It is an excellent application for creating pages and designs using templates that help a person to create his/her own brochures, booklets, certificates, visiting cards, invitations, etc.

What can this do for a teacher or for a student? That’s the question that always pops into my mind whenever Greg shows us a new application or software that can be used to create stuff.

The Microsoft Publisher can help a student to improve his/her presentation of material. I have just completed the creation of a ‘Web Quest’ along with my colleague. Our topic for the Web Quest was from the ‘Civics and Citizenship’ domain and we concentrated on learning standards pertaining to the government of Australia.

I am so glad that we got to learn about Microsoft Publisher because we have included it in our Web Quest as a means to complete one of the activities. We believe that it is possible to use this application to improve the creativity of students.

Each time, I am impressed by the immense possibilities that computers have in facilitating knowledge. At the same time, I am appalled at how little we use them as teachers.

Are we afraid of computers? Is that why we allow our students to play games on them without really using them as a means to teach a lesson or ‘earn time on the computer’ if they have been good? Or, are we afraid that our students will be smarter than us when it comes to using technical gizmos?

We live in a world that is more digitalized than ever. Though computers cannot take away the aesthetic appeal of paints or crayon or any of the other art materials, they can help students to get over their fear of creating and presenting material for their assignments. It is easier to use a template in the beginning than starting from scratch for those students who find it difficult to ‘put pen to paper’ so to speak.

I am not asking teachers to computerise every activity that they introduce in their classrooms. At the same time, I believe that it is time for us to embrace the immense possibilities of the internet and the applications of computers. I believe education is a means to making learning independent of teachers. We are only facilitators. We are not there to molly-coddle our students. So if that means using computers to generate more independent work, then so be it.

Though I have not mentioned the various templates and possibilities of Microsoft Publisher and instead have spent more time talking about the importance of using applications to facilitate knowledge, it is of primary importance that the reader understand the importance of using applications to improve learning in his/her classroom.

I hope that I have not only enumerated on the use of Microsoft Publisher but also made teachers understand the importance of being more tech-savvy.

"Food Danger" - Using food to learn about Microsoft Excel

Have you ever thought of using food to teach Mathematics? Maybe not! I never thought that I could ever use M&M's so as to teach Data to my students. In my country, we call them Gems and they are only manufactured by Cadbury's. The good news is that most students in India don't have food allergies and we have still not reached the stage where parents would sue us if something untoward were to happen to their children.

There are various stages to using food in a mathematics class. Each stage is explained as follows:

Tuning In: Give one M&M packet to each group. Students look at the packet and answer questions such as “what colours are there in the packet?”, “how many will be there in each colour?”, “which colours will have more and which colours will have less?” This is a prediction exercise.

Finding Out: After the prediction exercise, the students open the packet and find the answers to the questions asked. They compare their speculative answers with the real answers.

Sorting Out: Once the students have determined the answers, they are asked to create a bar diagram using the information that they have. Students will have to create two bar diagrams, i.e. one that will show the ‘before’ information and another one that will show the ‘after’ information.

Going Further: Students are then asked to discuss amongst themselves the reasons for why certain colours have more while others have less. Also, students could find out why there is only ‘n’ number of colours instead of a larger choice.
I found that talking about ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ colours along with the difficulty of creating a wider variety of colours in food production helped students gain an insight into the notion of ‘profit’ in food production. (A little bit of Humanities – Economics)

Making Conclusions: Once students derive the answers to the above questions, they discuss and arrive at a consensus on the topic. Most often students realise that primary colours are more common while secondary colours are lesser in number. Indeed, red is the most common followed by teal/blue. Talking about the cost of food production helped the students to understand why these colours are more common.

Taking Action: Based on their findings, students then moved on to working on using MS Excel to create bar diagrams for other data based on Natural Disasters in Australia.

Using food to learn about the use of MS Excel for creating bar diagrams is an excellent method to introduce the mathematical topic - ‘Data’. However, as a teacher I had to ensure that my students had no allergies before I could do this. Indeed, I found that I could use biscuits and wafers M&M’s especially while teaching ‘tessellation’ to the students. From this exercise, I learnt that it always helps to teach using methods that students will relate to rather than attempting to force them into understanding concepts about data.

Inspiration and Aboriginal Stories

Today, we will be looking at the use of aboriginal stories and how to incorporate that into Inspiration.

Greg asked us to visit the following website where there was a plethora of aboriginal stories: www.abc.net.au/dustechoes

However, he did state that we needed to be careful about the stories since some of them might not be acceptable to all age groups. Some of the stories involved children either being eaten or murdered.

So, I realise that as a teacher I will have to take a call as to what is relevant for my students. Here on I will be talking as a teacher and reiterating what Greg asked us to do in the class.

Based on the stories, the students need to use Inspiration to create a 'Concept Map' as to what they understood about the story. The teacher only gives them an over-view of what is expected. This will enable students to work on their creative skills. It will give them an insight into the fact that not everyone thinks the same way and that it is good to be different.



As can be seen from the concept map that I have created, my view of the story is more literal. I have chosen to use the same characters as in the story and have used clip art instead of the original graphics from the story board.

However, a colleague of mine chose to use the characters from the story board and created a concept map that is a 'visual treat' to the eyes. Another colleague chose to create a concept map that was a combination of the characters from the story board as well as the clip art from Inspiration that is very colourful.

Inspiration tools are excellent for enabling a student to 'go wild' with his/her imagination. The possibilities are immense especially when they discover the use of the 'Print Screen' button on their keyboard. This button helps them to paste a 'Screen shot' of their work onto any Microsoft document and then 'Copy-Paste' it onto their Inspiration document.

Limitations to working on Inspiration are based on the individual and not on the software. However, as a teacher I notice that once a person has figured out the possibilities of Inspiration, he/she will stretch his/her skills from then on.

www.quia.com

Quia is pronounced as 'key-ah' and is short for Quintessential Instructional Archive. The website provides a variety of tools including:
* Templates for creating 16 types of online activities using our own content.
* A complete online testing system with automatic grading, immediate feedback, and detailed reporting.
* Online surveys for gathering student and teacher feedback.
* A class Web page creator to share Quia activities and class announcements with students and parents.
* Access to millions of shared activities and quizzes in over 300 categories.
* ...and more!

The website allows teachers to either subscribe for an annual membership or take a 30 day trial package that is free. I believe it would be great if teachers were to buy the product since it is absolutely mind-blowing.

The product allows for kinaesthetic learning that includes other learning styles such as visual, auditory, inter-personal, intra-personal, etc. Also, the activities can be graded up or graded down depending on which 'Higher order' or 'Lower order' skills the teacher's targeting.

What I found fascinating was the fact that it minimises 'Teacher Talk Time' since students can interact with the computer and learn online. The product can easily be incorporated into various streams of learning irrespective of the subject that is targetted.

I did work on creating various activities but I have to say that they are woefully unprofessional. I did attempt to create another activity on 'Cultural Awareness' but even that seems like the work of a child who is just now learning how to use the Web. I believe constant playing with the tools in Quia will help in improving my skills in creating relevant activities for my lessons.

I would suggest this website to all teachers and will ask them to incorporate it into their lesson plans since it is relevant to the 'New Age' generation of learners who are more proficient than us in the use and usage of computers and their jargon.

Design Briefs - why use them; and how to use them effectively

'Design Briefs' help teachers, students and other users to provide solutions for problems.

Previously, design briefs consisted of a four way process, i.e. Investigate, Design, Produce and Evaluate. However, it has now been simplified into a 3 way process, i.e.
- Investigate and Design
- Produce
- Analyse and Evaluate

In order to understand how to use this, Greg got us to first work on 'problem solving' on paper. The challenge was to create a frog that could jump using cardboad, a picture of a frog, sticky tape and rubber bands. The clinch was to use all the materials in order to achieve the desired result.

Behnaz and I had to follow a series of steps before we could arrive at the solution.
1) Brain storm possible solutions to the problem on the A3 sheet
2) Create the prototype using the materials given
3) Test whether the prototype achieved the desired result, i.e. whether the frog jumped or not
4) Ensure that all materials were used, especially the rubber bands
5) Change the prototype if necessary to achieve the desired result
6) Ensure changes were noted in the A3 sheet
7) Successfully launch the finished prototype before the entire class, explaining the changes instituted using appropriate and relevant terminologies

As stated by Greg, doing the experiment enables us as teachers to realise the importance of using right terminologies so as to expand our students vocabulary. Based on Greg's statements, I realised the following while doing the experiment:
- The design brief on A3 sheet will help students to mindmap on the task for the day.
- The use of A3 sheets helps them to look at ICT beyond computers. ICT is more multi-disciplinary than imagined.
- The activity helps students to realise that there are more than one ways of doing things. There is no just 'one' right way. Students realise that the exercise is about discovering different or a variety of approaches to solving an issue.
- Part of the reflection will help students to realise the importance of rough drafts before creating the final copy.

During the 'Show and Tell' stage, I realised that it is important for us to sign-post our work in such a manner that others can realise how important it is to us. In the same manner, I realised that we could add value to our students' work if we were to display them prominently in the class. However, I would ensure that students realise the importance of taking pride in their work through submission of work that is not sloppy or haphazardly completed.

Another important issue that I would be looking into in terms of 'Classroom Behaviour Management' is when students are explaining their work or rather when they are presenting their work, I would get the entire group to talk since it is a collobarative effort, especially if they have more than one solution to the problem. Allowing everyone to talk will help students to work on their presentation skills.

Also, as a teacher, I would ensure that students do not change their opinions at the last moment after having taken a look at other people's work. This will result in a de-valuing of the students work. I will reiterate the fact that there are no right or wrong ways. All ways are right as long as the frog jumps.

I liked what Greg said about looking into extensions for the activity. I've seen that happen during my practicum as well as during my field work. My mentor teacher has always been ready with extensions if students were to finish their work early. Based on what I saw, I learnt to be pre-prepared for my own lessons and had extensions ready while taking classes.

Using 'Design Briefs' helps a teacher to work on the following areas:
- Safety issues: How to use scissors so as to not hurt others
- Technological issues: How to use the computer effectively or how to use a photocopier, etc.
- Scaffolding techniques: Before getting students to work on the design briefs, it is important to scaffold the activity by explaining what the A3 sheet is for. Though design briefs are used for Years 4 -6, it can also be used in the lower years as long as the activity is well-scaffolded.
- Learning Outcomes: Explain the various areas or domains of VELS that this can be used in.
- Higher Order Skills: Design briefs help students to work on their higher order skills.
- Problem Solving Skills: The activity helps with problem solving too. For example: you can tell the students that they cannot use more than 3 cms of sticky tape. So, students start working on problem solving the issue.
- Verbal Skills: The activity helps in improving their language too. The students have to use the right vocabulary if they have to be understood by the others.

Design briefs are fantastic for positive and holistic problem solving techniques. The process is circular as there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answer. The process helps students to continue working on the activity till they achieve the result required. So, all students have the ability to continue working on the activity till they achieve the required result.

My Insight Into Inspiration

'Inspiration' is an excellent tool for learning by students.

Of what I have seen of it from the few minutes that I got to play around with it, I realise that there's so much that one can do with it.

I like the idea that students can learn on their own using this particular learning tool.

However, as a teacher I believe I will have to scaffold an activity so that students can use this tool to its maximum potential.

The tool provides students with images that are already edited and so they will not see a picture that they should not.

However, I do realise that if I am adding hyperlinks, I will have to constantly monitor it to ensure that the URL works and has not had any malicious/inappropriate content added on to it.

I believe this software will enable students to use it across most domains and areas of learning in VELS. I sure can see it being used not only to learn more about the various subjects that 'Inspiration' provides pictures on; but also can be used to learn about concept maps, mind maps, ICT, etc.

I believe this will unlock a world of creativity to students who are more attuned to the 'Information Age' than most teachers in schools.

I have to say that every time I learn something here in Australia, I think to myself, "If only my students back home had this, they could work wonders with it and learn so much."

My beliefs regarding a pedagogical approach to impacts of ‘ESL’ on learning and teaching

An ESL student is a student for whom English is a second language. He or she speaks another language at home other than English. There are various terminologies used for defining ESL students such as students of EFL (English as a Foreign Language), LOTE (Languages Other Than English), ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), EAL (English as an Additional Language), EIL (English as an International Language), ESP (English for Special/Specific Purposes), EAP (English for Academic Purposes), LEP (Limited English Proficiency) and of course the more sensitive and politically correct terms of ELL (English Language Learner) and CLD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse).

ESL students either migrate to Australia or are temporary residents in Australia. People would migrate to Australia as returning residents, family members, permanent residents, citizens, refugees, and asylum seekers. Temporary residents would be visitors, diplomats, business professionals, workers and students. All children from the age of five have to attend school in Australia if they are in Australia for more than six months and if their parents have either migrated or are temporary residents in Australia.

An ESL student faces several obstacles to learning that are related to complete or partial unawareness of the English language, a thick accent that makes it difficult for others to understand, influence of the primary language on the use and usage of the English language, cultural differences, lack of knowledge, disrupted study, lack of study space, one or both parents lacking fluent communication skills in English, different curriculum, different teaching styles, comprehension of different English dialects and accents, etc. In extreme cases, the ESL student might be traumatised by the changes and face psychological and emotional scarring.

“Historically, Australian policy has focused on assimilation, resulting in the loss of many languages and cultural practices. However, in the early years of the new millennium society has come to view the increasing diversity more positively, and has tried to include and adapt to the changes and influences from other cultures.” (Hill, Susan., 2010, p. 341.) It is this assimilation that has enabled ESL students to feel comfortable in their learning environment. However, there are impacts in various areas when there’s an increase in ESL students in the school.

The impacts of ESL students’ presence in the school are as follows:
- ESL Students: Most often they are the most affected by the changes as stated earlier. This could result in lowered learning skills and long-term impacts on personal development.
- Other Students: Sometimes, other students might find it difficult to understand or relate to students of a different cultural as well as language background. This would result in misunderstanding and resentment too.
- Teachers: The presence of an ESL student in the classroom requires the teacher to prepare and change the lesson plan to make leeway for slower learning. Most “teachers are not ready to integrate these students into the mainstream classroom.” (Clair, Nancy., 1995, pp. 189.) It was found that “given demographic trends and the limits of pre-service teacher preparation programs regarding ESL students, mainstream classroom teachers will continue to share in the education of ESL students without adequate preparation.” (Clair, Nancy., 1995, pp. 190.)
- School: The presence of ELT students in a school will influence the performance results in NAPLAN and www.myschool.edu.au. Also, there will be infrastructural changes such as language labs, literary resources, etc, and requirement for teacher resources so as to enable improvement in learning of the ESL students.

Irrespective of whether ESL students can or can not communicate fluently in English, there are two things that I believe are their expectations. These are best stated by Beare and Sir Ken Robinson. Beare says through the words of a young girl - Angelica, “…I will admire you for being able to look forward with me and to help me define what I need to learn”. (Beare., 2001, p. 11.) Sir Ken Robinson in the Youtube video on ‘Do schools kill creativity?’ says, “What are we educating them for?”

How many of us are looking forward and seeing a better future for the ESL students? We need to see a future that is far from the sound of violence, poverty and competitiveness that these students have left behind in their countries. I believe that all ESL students decide to move to Australia because they or their parents believe that life in Australia will give them that one chance to prove themselves; a chance to make a difference in their own as well as in the lives of others.

It has to be noted that ESL students do not follow the same ‘Learning Blocks’ as First Language Speakers when it comes to learning the language. Most First Language Speakers would have followed the following steps in learning a language:
Infancy – early cries, ‘visual conversations’, telegraphic speech
Early childhood – three word sentences, grammar development
Middle Childhood – increasing vocabulary, meta-linguistics awareness
Adolescence – more complex language use, abstract thinking reflected in language
(Bentley, Ian., 2010)
This can be figuratively shown using language blocks as follows:



Keeping this in mind, it is imperative that we equip ourselves like Socrates ‘to educate’ and not to teach/train these students. Socrates asked questions rather than gave answers. Peter Brougham says “Education is the kindling of a flame.” (Brougham, Peter., n.d.) This is based on the ‘Constructivist Approach’ to learning as this is more conducive to learning than the ‘Transmissive Approach’ which is more teacher-centered than learner/student-centered.

The ‘Constructivist Approach’ allows for open-ended questions, longer wait period for students to answer the questions, an obvious interest in the students answers, an opportunity for students to justify or elaborate their answers, a delay in judgement by accepting all answers neutrally, flexible methodology for students to arrive at answers, excellent feedback methodology for students, an emphasis on reasons and principles of understanding, encouragement of students to work out ‘what’ to do on the spot, and minimal copying and transcribing. (Baird, Ed., JR, Northfield, JR. p. 74.)

It is important for teachers to determine the learning requirements and styles of students before creating lesson plans. There are various ways in which students learn and these can best be explained using Benjamin S. Bloom’s taxonomy. Bloom’s taxonomy helps as a planning tool to determine whether there is an eclectic mix of learning skills in the lessons. Students move from a lower order of thinking to a higher order of thinking. So, a student who is capable of ‘Applying’ what he/she has learnt has mastered the lower order skills of ‘Analysing’, ‘Evaluating’ and ‘Creating’. It’s possible to create activities and learning opportunities that will work on ESL students moving from lower order skills to higher order skills as in the revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 67-68.)

Another theory that can be used to improve educating ESL students is Howard Gardner’s ‘Multiple Intelligence’ theory that states that students have a mix of learning styles. The various learning styles are as follows: verbal/linguistic, visual-spatial, musical, inter-personal, intra-personal, bodily-kinaesthetic, logical/mathematical, naturalist intelligence and existential intelligence. (Gardner, Howard., 2005, pp. 7-8.) It is possible to nurture and strengthen these intelligences so that students can improve their learning styles and also to ignore or weaken these intelligences so that students do not improve.

Howard Gardner, however, says that, “Multiple intelligences should not in and of itself be an educational goal. Educational goals need to reflect one’s own values, and these can never come simply or directly from a scientific theory.” (Gardner, Howard., 2003, p. 9.) There’s a veritable smorgasbord of theories available to teachers to read and use in improving their educational methodologies. However, all this will fall flat, if it does not take into account the requirements or learning styles of the students.

Having figured out the various styles in which ESL students might learn, it is important to figure out what the curriculum has to be. The curriculum needs to move from learning the basics of English language to proficiency in using the language to communicate. The curriculum has to be based on an assessment for determining language level amongst the ESL students. I have found it useful to move from ‘the known to the unknown’ always. I have used this methodology while training ESL students in India. I have got them to communicate about their lives, their immediate environment, family and friends and then moved them into more complex topics that require stating an opinion about current affairs, news, etc. Though the topics of discussion have been eclectic, the methodology of learning has always been based on moving from ‘Receptive Skills’ to ‘Productive Skills’ on a daily basis.

My methodology of teaching is as follows. The daily routine starts with an introductory ‘Lead In’ activity that gives students an idea/clue of what the day’s lesson is all about. Based on this clue/hint, there is the ‘Reading/Listening for Gist’ activity that focuses on a broad over-view of the topic. The next ‘Reading/Listening for Specifics’ activity focuses on the appropriate area of learning for that particular day. The learning acquired is then assessed on a daily basis through ‘Post reading/listening tasks’ that will be based on ‘Productive Skills’. The assessment results will help the teacher to either scale up or scale down the next day’s activities.

Based on the curriculum, I have found it useful to change the learning environment also. I have realised that the best lesson plans are defeated if the learning environment is not conducive to learning. Most often, I make sure that ESL students have access to all learning materials and that everyone can see me when they are seated. Another important fact that I exercise is to keep my talk-time less and ensure that students have enough and more opportunities to talk amongst themselves. I have found it productive to use several interaction forms such as ‘individual work’, ‘pair work’ and ‘group work’. This ensures that ESL students and First Language Speakers have ample opportunities to practise their communication skills with each other. This ensures that there are opportunities for positive feedback too.

I believe that time will ensure that these ESL students will gain fluency in the English language. It is important that as a TESOL teacher, I should at all times and in all ways provide an environment of learning that is positive and encouraging. This industry is such that one may or may never see the positive impacts that one has on one’s students. The same thing can be said for negative impacts too. The hard work that one puts into lesson plans, curriculum development, assessment methodologies and self-development training may or may not see the productive impacts. This is because most students never return to meet their primary school teacher to tell him/her what they have achieved over the years. But if I can make a difference in a student’s life, then I will do all it takes in my power to ensure that I have the tools to make that difference.