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Moving Time…
I have loved being an edublogs supporter but with current changes I have decided to move on . I am trying out blogger and wordpress at the moment, but am quite happy with blogger for now.
So, from now on posts will be at Heymilly.
I have loved being an edublogs supporter but with current changes I have decided to move on . I am trying out blogger and wordpress at the moment, but am quite happy with blogger for now.
So, from now on posts will be at Heymilly.
This year we have decided to shift the class blog over to blogger. For the past year I have listened to many people talk about the benefits of using a certain blogging site over the other - namely the one they favour the most. Each site seems to have a range of bonuses that make them unique over the others.
In the holidays I did alot of research looking at a range of pluses and minuses of using a range of different systems.
The most popular sites for classroom blogging seem to be:
A few people seem to be making a shift away from Edublogs due to their new supporter system which is a more user pays system for extras such as video uploading etc. Edublogs have been and are still a stealth supporter of educational blogging.
The decision to trial blogger as a class blog site was made for a few reasons - the main benefit was being able to use a site and all its possibilities free and the second being that it was to be ad free.
I would be interested to hear more from people who have, have not or are considering made a switch to another blogging site. Why you made or will not shift and how you are finding the transition if you have?
Today I found this handy little site called Favicons From Pics, through the Ning website, that creates a favicon and an animated favicon from your pics.
A favicon is the little picture that shows next to the URL in your address bar like below…
It’s great for helping people identify your site through a huge list of bookmarks!
Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act assumes Guilt Upon Accusation
In 11 days the Copyright Amendment Act will come into pass that allows any person or company to have their internet connection and websites cut off without any evidence or fair trial.
Go figure how this at all can be allowable by law - but in 11 days it will!
Black out your avatar, sign the petition or post a link on your blog to show your support to change this Admendment!
For more info click here and check out Creative Freedoms site.
I have been tagged by Mr Woody and DigitalLearning so it’s time to take it on… The Great 7 things you may not know about me Meme…. It’s debatable whether these things will be great or not, but here it goes! 
7 Things You May Not Know About Me
1. I’m Vegan - If you read this blog you may know this as I have recently put a few things up about vegan events around Auckland. Being vegan isn’t a chore… it’s not hard… and yes I eat more than grass and no thanks I don’t just need to eat that green salad. :P I have been vegan for around 10 years and as my parents have learnt it is no longer a "fad i’m going through".
Being vegan means eating no meat, seafood, cheese, eggs, milk, wearing no wool, leather etc. Basically using nothing that comes from an animal. Everyone has a different reason for being vegan and I think that this is no different from having the choice to eat meat. I went vegan for the animal rights side of the coin and I still sit there today. I don’t preach veganism to people - it is my choice. But if you ask - I will answer your questions, just be prepared for what you may learn!
If you want to find out more about being vegan and what we eat, you could check out An Auckland Vegan blog and The Sisters Vegan or comment/msg me for more!
2. I love music & my fave music is Punk & Hardcore: One of my biggest passions is music. When I was a teenager my love of music was punk and hardcore and it still is. My tastes have definitely broadened to involve anything with a good beat like dub, electro etc but I consistently love Punk/Hardcore. I love going to live gigs/shows and there is nothing better than roaming around dancing and singing at a show. My all time favourites shows over and over again were Sommerset gigs. Kings Arms in Auckland is a great place to catch a bunch of good local and international live bands! Fave bands include: Rise Against , Rancid , Sick Of It All , H20 , CIV , Fugazi , At The Drive In , The Mars Volta , Madball , Living End , Balance , Sommerset , Antagonist AD amongst SO many more! Check them out! I’m always up for hearing new music too, so pass it on!
3. I love drawing, doodling, photography and designing: I keep an A5 art book normally with me and doodle now and then when something pops in my head. I dropped maths etc at the first chance so that I could take up Art History along with Graphics, Design, Printmaking and more! :) One of the coolest things i’ve created is at my mums school. I designed, drew and painted a massive mural that took up the back wall of their library, it’s of a whole lot of book characters heading to the library.
My main artistic passion now is Photography - I often get given stick by my mates cause i’ll be the one asking for a group photo or lagging at the back taking some random shot. I would really love to get a good DSL one day and get into it more. For now its the trusty Kodak and Olympus helping me out!
4. When I was 16 I shaved ALL my hair off: I actually don’t have any pics of me after I shaved it off which is a bit crazy… but here is a pic of my hair just before I shaved it off.
My hair came to by bum - I shaved it to a number 1 - which is just off a baldy! I shaved it to raise money for SAFE which is an animal rights group in NZ. Once it started to grow back I wore it in spikes. I also dressed very boysey - studded belts, dickies shorts etc.
My mum was in her staff room at her school and a lady started talking about this ’scary girl’ from Girls High that had spikes etc that had scared some of the 3rd formers… Mum laughed cause that was me. Funny story cause if you know me, you know i’m short - most the 3rd formers were taller than me and i’m anything but scary!!
5. I am an obsessive Aunty: by this I mean that I LOVE my nephew Os. He is my first and only nephew/niece so far and I am utterly in love with him. I think he is the best child EVER! I don’t need to tell you why, cause he just is.
6. My friends refer to me as the Human Party Pill: i.e. I have a tendency to get a little bit excited about things and have a WHOLE lot of energy. This is super true - but I also blame my awesome friends and family who just show me how amazing life is! Look at this bunch - how could I not get excited?!
7. I love tattoos and tattooing: I think it is an amazing art form and that good tattooists are highly skilled and amazing. I only have one tattoo, but many more planned. Tattoos are such a personal thing that I think what people get tattooed on their body is their choice and suits them. I think its silly that some people look at tattooing in a bad way - it’s just another art form and form of expression. A beautiful tattoo that is well inked is an amazing thing!
So there you go! 7 things you may, or may not have known about me. Funny that this took longer to write than a normal post! Hope you enjoyed reading it whether they were new things or not. So, to continue on this Meme I tag the following gorgeous people:
I had been previously sent a link to it through twitter a while ago for someones tumblr page. I did what seems to happens to alot of links… opened it, looked at it briefly, ‘delicious’ed it for later. I’m glad the later time came though (as with a bunch of links, their ‘later’ is still to come!) as I discovered a simple, easy to use way of sharing photos, videos, ramblings and more.
Tumblr’s dashboard layout is simple.
Choose what you want to do - click on it - write, upload or add the url and create your post. It’s that simple. I’ve been using it to host random videos, images and quotes that I find around the place. It gives me a place to upload my 365/2009 photos that I want to as they are easily linked from flickr .
The available themes are funky and easy to change via the Theme Garden. There are a bunch of goodies which allow you to upload and post your content or links straight to your tumblr page via dashboard widgets (mac users), iPhones.
All in all, a very simple, user friendly design!
Yes, it’s been a while i’m afraid.
Between moving flats, Christmas, New Years and the gorgeous kiwi summer this blog has been a little neglected.
There will be posts coming in the next few days - HOORAY!
Photo: Heymilly
Flickr image sourced under CC: Image by: -Chad Johnson
I’m very lucky - my school allows me to shine. They have recognised strengths in me and allowed me to follow paths and create new paths along the way. At times this does and doesn’t work.
See full Plurk and follow up comments here.
Then a comment hit me today, that directly related to this. It did exactly that - hit me. Because I wasn’t expecting it to be said. Yet at this point in the conversation, others were being encouraged not to shine for the sake of others - why?
Shining isn’t about making others look bad.
It’s not about being the best.
It’s about doing what you see fit for yourself and your students.
For teachers, shining should show that they are truely passionate in what they do and are proud of it. Isn’t that what we fight to see in our students everyday? Isn’t what we want, an education sector that is filled with passionate teachers who strive to improve their own practice for their students and can shine because they are truely passionate for their work and students?
Often this statement of not shining for others, connects with the use of technology in classrooms. Using technology and being able to use it well in a class is not a sign of "making people look bad" nor is it to prove who is the most ICT saavy. It’s used because the teacher recognises the benefit it offers their students.
I think and truely believe we need teachers who shine, in all areas, whose passion for teaching pours through them and out to influence those around them - be them students or colleagues. It’s amazing in LParisi’s plurk to see and hear of so many teachers who are encouraged not to shine for the sake of others.
I discussed the notion of this idea with a colleague, who promptly forwarded me the following quote.
It is worth a read:
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won’t feel insecure around you.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
- Excerpt from Marianne Williamson
If we are seeking our students to shine in themselves - isn’t it a give in that we should be modelling this "shine" factor to our students. Acceptance is a wonderful thing.
Wix is a fantastic tool to use to create a range of web elements, tools and pages that can be easily embedded into almost anything. I have created a couple of pages that I use inside Knowledge Net and today I redid one of those pages.
Wix is great as a tool as you are able to start from scratch and completely develop your own page using a range of animations, pictures, uploads, music, graphics and more. You can layer elements to make it more techy or keep it simple. It also offers a massive range of pre-made templates that you can easily use to create your own. The templates provide all the opportunities of starting from scratch but with the simplicity of being able to use the ‘replace’ key that replaces template stuff with your own images.
You can import your own images easily (though I seem to have problems at school with this), enter the URL of an image or search through the flickr search function - just be aware of Creative Commons with this!
The page below is an example that I made today from a template:
Aucklanders!
Today there will be a vegan food fest held from 10am to 4pm at the Swanson Sanctuary - 57 O’Neills Road.
There will a bunch of workshops, information but most importantly lots of food! The wonderful people from the Taste & See Castle will be there so head along to get your fix!
Photo: Thegrocer Flickr CC
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