The CORE Education eFellowship Awards recognise innovative e-learning practice by New Zealand teachers.
View more stories from CORE Education eFellows in the eFellows EDtalks channel
The CORE Education eFellowship Awards recognise innovative e-learning practice by New Zealand teachers.
View more stories from CORE Education eFellows in the eFellows EDtalks channel
Jo Fothergill, a 2011 CORE Education eFellow, researched how ICT could help her students find their voice and explored what 'writing' actually is. She challenges us to consider 'If you always do what you've always done,you'll always get what you've always got."
Hi my name's Jo Fothergill, I'm a teacher of year five students at Raumati Beach School on the Kapiti Coast.
I decided to apply for an eFellowship this year because I had an interest in literacy and reluctant writers and how ICTs might help them find their voice. I see it as being something that is a start. It is a project that I have started that I will continue working on. I don't believe that I've found a definitive answer, it is something I am still looking at.
I hate writing by hand. It is just something that totally puts me off. And if I have a choice I won't write by hand and I've discovered for me that the joy of writing comes in being able to reflect about my writing. And it is a process that is a lot deeper and has a lot more meaning because I can do it in a form, in a medium that doesn't restrict me. And I have discovered that for a lot of my students the same thing applies.
They may be competent writers but the real joy and the real expression of creativity comes when they have a freedom, when they can write from home, when they can write when they're on holiday and they've got an idea, the next idea for their story. They go online, they go into their Google Docs and away they go.
One of the things that I looked at is what is writing anyway? Is writing always pen and paper? Is writing always words? Perhaps writing is painting a picture or creating a dance. So writing is not always what we've traditionally thought of writing as being. And I think the challenge for teachers is to see that not all children see the same way, and not all children can write the same way.
James Nottingham talks about intraverted and extraverted thinkers, people who talk to think and people who think to talk. And I think this really applies when it comes down to writing, whether it is traditional writing. Some children can sit down and they can write. Other children have to go away, have a bit of a play, and come back and do their writing. And some of the work that one of our new entrant teachers has been doing has proved that by giving kids that opportunity to do another activity before they write, they come to writing prepared. They've got their ideas, they're ready to go.
The other thing that really strikes me is the quote, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got". And I think about writing and I look at how some teachers are doing writing and it is no different to how my kids did it when they went through school, and they're in their 20s now. And I think that that's a shame because I know that for one of my children, handwriting is fine, she is really captivated with it. For my other child - he hates it. If he has to do it by hand it's a right pain, much prefer to do it using a computer. And I think that if we deny our kids the opportunities to express themselves, to find their voice, and to express it in the way that is best suited to them, then we are actually doing them a huge injustice.
Jo Fothergill, a 2011 CORE Education eFellow, researched how ICT could help her students find their voice and explored what 'writing' actually is. She challenges us to consider 'If you always do what you've always done,you'll always get what you've always got."
Hi my name's Jo Fothergill, I'm a teacher of year five students at Raumati Beach School on the Kapiti Coast.
I decided to apply for an eFellowship this year because I had an interest in literacy and reluctant writers and how ICTs might help them find their voice. I see it as being something that is a start. It is a project that I have started that I will continue working on. I don't believe that I've found a definitive answer, it is something I am still looking at.
I hate writing by hand. It is just something that totally puts me off. And if I have a choice I won't write by hand and I've discovered for me that the joy of writing comes in being able to reflect about my writing. And it is a process that is a lot deeper and has a lot more meaning because I can do it in a form, in a medium that doesn't restrict me. And I have discovered that for a lot of my students the same thing applies.
They may be competent writers but the real joy and the real expression of creativity comes when they have a freedom, when they can write from home, when they can write when they're on holiday and they've got an idea, the next idea for their story. They go online, they go into their Google Docs and away they go.
One of the things that I looked at is what is writing anyway? Is writing always pen and paper? Is writing always words? Perhaps writing is painting a picture or creating a dance. So writing is not always what we've traditionally thought of writing as being. And I think the challenge for teachers is to see that not all children see the same way, and not all children can write the same way.
James Nottingham talks about intraverted and extraverted thinkers, people who talk to think and people who think to talk. And I think this really applies when it comes down to writing, whether it is traditional writing. Some children can sit down and they can write. Other children have to go away, have a bit of a play, and come back and do their writing. And some of the work that one of our new entrant teachers has been doing has proved that by giving kids that opportunity to do another activity before they write, they come to writing prepared. They've got their ideas, they're ready to go.
The other thing that really strikes me is the quote, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got". And I think about writing and I look at how some teachers are doing writing and it is no different to how my kids did it when they went through school, and they're in their 20s now. And I think that that's a shame because I know that for one of my children, handwriting is fine, she is really captivated with it. For my other child - he hates it. If he has to do it by hand it's a right pain, much prefer to do it using a computer. And I think that if we deny our kids the opportunities to express themselves, to find their voice, and to express it in the way that is best suited to them, then we are actually doing them a huge injustice.
Jo Fothergill, a 2011 CORE Education eFellow, researched how ICT could help her students find their voice and explored what 'writing' actually is. She challenges us to consider 'If you always do what you've always done,you'll always get what you've always got."
Hi my name's Jo Fothergill, I'm a teacher of year five students at Raumati Beach School on the Kapiti Coast.
I decided to apply for an eFellowship this year because I had an interest in literacy and reluctant writers and how ICTs might help them find their voice. I see it as being something that is a start. It is a project that I have started that I will continue working on. I don't believe that I've found a definitive answer, it is something I am still looking at.
I hate writing by hand. It is just something that totally puts me off. And if I have a choice I won't write by hand and I've discovered for me that the joy of writing comes in being able to reflect about my writing. And it is a process that is a lot deeper and has a lot more meaning because I can do it in a form, in a medium that doesn't restrict me. And I have discovered that for a lot of my students the same thing applies.
They may be competent writers but the real joy and the real expression of creativity comes when they have a freedom, when they can write from home, when they can write when they're on holiday and they've got an idea, the next idea for their story. They go online, they go into their Google Docs and away they go.
One of the things that I looked at is what is writing anyway? Is writing always pen and paper? Is writing always words? Perhaps writing is painting a picture or creating a dance. So writing is not always what we've traditionally thought of writing as being. And I think the challenge for teachers is to see that not all children see the same way, and not all children can write the same way.
James Nottingham talks about intraverted and extraverted thinkers, people who talk to think and people who think to talk. And I think this really applies when it comes down to writing, whether it is traditional writing. Some children can sit down and they can write. Other children have to go away, have a bit of a play, and come back and do their writing. And some of the work that one of our new entrant teachers has been doing has proved that by giving kids that opportunity to do another activity before they write, they come to writing prepared. They've got their ideas, they're ready to go.
The other thing that really strikes me is the quote, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got". And I think about writing and I look at how some teachers are doing writing and it is no different to how my kids did it when they went through school, and they're in their 20s now. And I think that that's a shame because I know that for one of my children, handwriting is fine, she is really captivated with it. For my other child - he hates it. If he has to do it by hand it's a right pain, much prefer to do it using a computer. And I think that if we deny our kids the opportunities to express themselves, to find their voice, and to express it in the way that is best suited to them, then we are actually doing them a huge injustice.
The CORE Education eFellowship Awards recognise innovative e-learning practice by New Zealand teachers.
View more stories from CORE Education eFellows in the eFellows EDtalks channel
Anne Kenneally (@annekenn) has been on a year long learning journey visiting classrooms around New Zealand. Anne has decided to create a radically different learning space for her learners from the one they are used to. We talk to Anne at the beginning of 2012 as she awaits the arrival of her students to start her trial of 'doing learning differently'.
Joel Dodd is a CORE Education eFellow and is head of faculty for mathematics at Okato, a coastal Taranaki secondary school. In this EDtalk fromULearn10 Joel discusses the loss of a centuries old paradigm for teaching and what is replacing it. Joel argues that students need to be equipped to generate, store, access, find, process, interpret, and report information.
Linda Lehrke, a 2011 CORE Education eFellow, researched how assistive technology can help students with special education needs become competent learners. She provides the challenge that we need to understand the learner and stop worrying about the disability; we need to explore how technology can open up learning for our students; and we need to challenge our assumptions and beliefs that are barriers to student learning.
