Elise is a dear colleague. She has been teaching (only) for two years (English and ESL courses) and is one of those teachers that make me want to push for some kind of merit system of pay and/or recognition. I could go on about Elise here but suffice to say – she is an absolutely …
Tag Archive: 4. Teaching
Jun 09
Grow a Moodle
I have been thinking about and scouring the net for ‘best’ models of trying to get teachers to use Moodle for some time. I have tried a few things myself with mixed success until the most obvious thing hit me. There are gigabytes of info on ‘growing gap between the teachers and students in using …
Jun 04
10 minutes ahead
Oh, the orbital language of ‘21st century skills’ and ‘leadership’. If you are an educator keen on using technology and wanting others to join you and benefit from it, don’t try to get them to move into “21st century” – just get them to move 10 minutes ahead to the point where they have just …
May 20
You Yankee bastard
A few days ago, Phyllis Zimbler Miller, LA-based author of the novel Mrs Lieutenant about the lives of wives of officers in Vietnam War contacted me (via Twitter via Daniel Needlestone from UK!) and expressed interest in the We Remember Vietnam War project I am running with my Year 10 class. She asked me to …
May 09
Just do it
This Thursday I had the privilege of hearing one of my dearest and friendliest, uber-connected locals Sue Waters giving a keynote on PLN at the EDNA workshop. Great stuff – she managed to bamboozle the audience and have them eating out of her hands at the same time! After her gig we shared a quiet …
Mar 18
One sentence
Good news travels fast. ‘Sticky’ ideas even faster. In her recent comments, fellow teacher and moodler Mary Cooch (known also as @moodlefairy) mentioned how the staff at their school spend a couple of minutes of their weekly meetings talking about their use of Moodle in the classroom. I loved the idea and in the brief …
Mar 14
Can you teach me Moodle?
This afternoon a staff member walked up to me and said: “Tomaz, I have been meaning to see you about Moodle. You really need to teach me about how to use it.” This of course is music to my ears as the resident moodler. But then I returned what is now becoming a standard line …
Mar 07
What is a Zoodle? Moodle at the zoo
Cool morning, sunny +26 C day and the fantastic Perth Zoo were our playground yesterday for a bunch of our Year 9 classes. The excursion is a centrepiece of the term looking at endangered species of SE Asia and particularly Indonesia. Sadly, not all students came along for various reasons. We wanted to make the …
Mar 05
Using Moodle Glossary to stop spoonfeeding students
I am getting a little tired of ‘spoon-feeding’ and doing the heavy lifting for my students. So, in a fine constructivist tradition, here is a little activity I have just pulled off in my Philosophy and Ethics class using Moodle’s Glossary activity to get them thinking. I got students into groups of three, one is …
Oct 09
Top 5 myths about teaching with Moodle
If you are trying to introduce Moodle to teachers or staff at your school or a similar organisation, you have or you will probably hear at least some, if not all, of the five statements below in some shape of form. I deliberately called these ‘myths’ because they simply do not stack up when compared …
People say…