TimeToast - Drawing a Timeline to Document Key Events in Chinese Cinderella

Came across this tool called TimeToast, that allows users to create events that appear in a timeline. Thought that before I start the unit on Chinese Cinderella, it might be useful for the students to note down the important events that happened to Adeline. These are examples of what the girls did: This is helpful to check if the girls have read the book closely and also gives them the opportunity to know the key events.

Quote from Percy Jackson

Was reading Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse (2008, Puffin) and came across this paragraph on p.148.

Apollo sighed. 'You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning in only clear through the search.'

I think I will share this with my girls when we commence the poetry unit in late Term 3!

TitanPad - Writing Descriptions

I have heard about TitanPad for the longest time and as the girls have not received their devices, I brought them to the Green Lab for an exercise on writing descriptions. This is an example of what they did: As the girls were still getting used to the platform, I didn't manage to get them all to give one another feedback on the platform because its beauty lies in that different users can give their comments and edit and they would be reflected in another colour. How cool is that?! But I managed to get them to give feedback through another means.

Google Spreadsheet - Quick Analysis + Evaluation

It is the first week for the Secondary One students in my school. To slowly get them into the scheme of things like using ICT for learning, I got them into groups of fours to analyse another group's "spiced up" version of a sentence they have picked out of a box. The objectives of the lesson were to:

1. Pick out how the sentence has been "spiced up" with adjectives, adverbs or even a change of verb.
2. Evaluate that group's "spiced up" sentence in terms of its effectiveness in creating a mental image of the moment being described.

Here's an image of what they did.

A quick analysis and evaluation of an "improved" sentence

Reflections of Staff Seminar Dec 2012

Commencement Speech "You are not special"

Our principal shared this during the year-end seminar and the messages that resonated most with me were:

1. If everyone is special, no one is. (This sets me thinking that with the announcement in September that all local schools are good schools, then this would imply that no schools are good right? Haha, am I thinking too much?)
2. Love your work and believe in it. 
3. Avoid self satisfaction. This means we should not get complacent. Things could always be done in a better way.
4. Think about the more important things. The thing is, do we know which things are important?
5. Climb a mountain so that you can see the world and not for the world to see you. (I love this as the perspective with which we look at things do shape the way we do things. Linked to item 4)

These shall guide me for 2013 and I look forward to an amazing 2013!

Web Whiteboard - Drawing Mathematical Modes of Representations

NIE is conducting a study on how mp3 is being translated into teaching and learning practices and today my Math lesson was observed.

To conclude whether students have grasped the main concepts taught i.e. mean, median and mode (3Ms) and the various of modes of representation (e.g. dot diagram, stem and leaf), I brought in M&Ms for each student so that we work with real data.

All the information were captured via a Google Spreadsheet.

Students had to open their own packet of M&Ms and input the data into the cells. Data can thus be analysed at the group level and the class level.

The girls then worked in their groups to draw a dot diagram based on the group data and to draw another diagram using the class data. I explored getting the students to draw their diagrams using this web 2.0 tool (awwapp.com). This is a sample of the students' work. 

Students also had to find the 3Ms based on the data and input their responses into a Google Form. I then discussed what the students had done using their responses. The happiest thing I heard was this student saying that we should have more of such lessons. Well, I told her I would love to, if I had more time ;p

PD-ICT: Digitally Immersed in the Challenges of Learning

I came across this article entitled "Digitally Immersed in the Challenges of Learning" and found that the ideas shared by Shelley Terrell resonating with me because I found myself most engaged when I realized I am learning something through the experiences I was going through.

1. Name three things you learnt from the article.
2. Describe two changes you intend to make professionally.