Learning Gems

Teachers have always shared material and ideas (some better than others, it’s true) and now the Internet has made sharing much easier for all of us.

I must admit to being a slow sharer; I always thought my work and ideas unworthy until I was encouraged by several colleagues. However, once I started sharing I was unstoppable!

A light bulb moment

Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me that as a blogger, I now have a way to share materials with a wider audience and, hopefully, save someone a little bit of time or, even better, inspire them!

So here goes…

Sharing some recent ideas:

Literature Discovery Festival

I’m quite pleased with this idea…feel free to use it if it suits your school situation. I decided one week to celebrate literature and reading was simply not enough! Rather than one ‘Book Week’ I decided my school needed a three week festival to celebrate books, reading, writing, literacy…etc. It includes author visits. During the festival I am running a daily quiz and several competitions including:

Fifty-word story competition: I’ve run this completion before and was quite surprised how well it worked.

Bookmark book review competition: Designed this sheet yesterday to simplify the book review process .

I hope the above handouts and ideas are useful to you and save you little bit of time!

During the festival I am also running an adapted version of the reading game. (The link is a Powerpoint presentation explaining the game.) I have adapted the game to suit my school library.

Enjoy!

PS: Please let me know if you find these ideas useful.

What a journey!  Twitter, Voicethreads, Diigo, del.icio.us, YouTube, Second Life…the list goes on (and on!)  I’ve been so busy exploring the learning potential of these tools that I almost forgot the relatively simple pleasure and excitement generated by a visiting author.

I recently invited popular author, Archie Fusillo, (The Dons, On the Mat, Bruises…) to work with students in Years 9 and 10.  His writing workshops were a huge success and the air was abuzz with that ‘learning vibe’ or hum that teachers everywhere recognise.   The students loved him.  They laughed a lot but were also challenged to examine the writing process and reflect on the ‘sound’ of good writing. 

Archie is funny, down-to-earth and a natural storyteller.   His visit provided a positive learning experience and a timely reminder for me…’Learning Gems’ take many forms and it’s important to find a balance between face-to-face interaction and the wonders of Web 2.0!

I wonder how many teachers have seen their schools purchase new ‘Wow-factor’ technology only to find it used to continue and reinforce outdated teaching methods. In the wrong hands a PowerPoint presentation can be just as monotonous as an hour of ‘chalk and talk’. Similarly, an e-learning course can be little more than an online presentation of black-line masters if not constructed to be engaging and stimulating.

In my opinion one of the best things about the 2.0 shift is the way many educators are now using technologies for different types of teaching and learning. Thinking has changed. Educational opportunities emerge almost daily and I recently discovered something with enormous potential: Inanimate Alice, interactive “multi-sensory” storytelling.

As a teacher-librarian I have been quite sceptical about the benefits of e-books, especially in terms of their ability to encourage students to read. Online books do not conjure up cosy images of reading; they still need to be read in the ‘traditional’ way. However, Inanimate Alice is different and I believe it represents the future of e-reading and online storytelling.

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