Thursday 14 February 2013

Week 2 and it's all systems go!

Oddly enough, I am really having fun being back as a full-time classroom teacher. I loved being the Manaiakalani facilitator last year, it was awesome but stressful. Now I have a full load and am trying really hard to be as creative as possible without losing sight of what I am supposed to be doing and why.
One thing that is bugging me though, is why can't I decide on a format that I like for my site? Do I put all of the activities up for the kids by embedding them? By creating them as docs and sharing them? By putting it up on the board? A combination of all of these?
It is not easy to give the students free-reign with science. I can't just say "Go find out" because not everything works that way. Practicals for instance. Could be interesting though...
The site is a work in progress, and probably always will be because I find new things I want to do, new layouts I want to try, new gadgets I want to add. It is also difficult because only about 60% of all my students don't have their netbooks  yet, due to holiday breakages etc.
One nice thing I have tried this year is taking my year 10 classes outside for a lesson in plant propagation- no netbooks required! It was pleasant getting our hands dirty and doing something different. The students had for the most part never planted anything before in their lives, and found it a novel experience. I want to do more creative things again this year. Sadly I forgot to photograph the kids in action because I was so wrapped up in showing them how to take cuttings and plant etc. However, we have also dissected some flowers and I remembered to grab some shots!
These are the various parts of the flowers we dissected all stripped out 


Beautifully and correctly labelled by Fiu


Agapanthas ovary showing the seeds


Taking pics with a netbook

The 'before' shot





It's wonderful being able to take a picture of student work and upload it to the web and share it with the student so easily. The digital environment in the classroom really allows us to have so much more creativity! Happy days! Well that's plants sorted, now on to human reproduction...

2 comments:

  1. Loving this - Valentine's flowers with a new twist :)

    Thanks for sharing your week

    Dorothy

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  2. I'm impressed with netbook camera. Not a bad image. Did you use the chromebook or AsUs

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