An+Engaged+Teacher

**My Learning at Schools Conference.** The thoughts of Ross Webb Conferences are always a challenge of knowing what balance needs to exist between self interest and group interest materials which generally range from Ministry Updates to Teaching Practice and Theory. If you want to enjoy yourself there will be compromise. Well I am pleased to say this was one of the best I have attended from a number of perspectives.

The thought provoking presentations by Key Note Speakers on topics such as Engagement and Leadership provided many pearls of wisdom for managing change, creating environments of discomfort to force thought, discussion and growth, and engaging we the adults as well our students. I particularly liked Thomas Hoerr when he said,

> > I would recommend the links provided elsewhere in this Wiki to enjoy the notes from some very talented and inspiring speakers. > > The Workshops provided a bit of fun and refreshment of skills as well as re igniting my past directions > > **The Virtual Lesson Project presented by Steve Martin** > He has created his Year nine course online. > It began as an Outside the classroom direction and has ended up being a blend of mix of home, class, and community learning with students building their own lessons with guidance. The resources are reviewed by the students and available to the students anywhere any time. > Students engaged in the development of their own learning are developing excellent skills of enquiry and the support they need is provided by an anytime conection to their teacher via email. Interestingly this was not over used by the students. Small steps have meant the teacher is not overloaded and once the students became familiar with the format they drew together the resources, Identified how they were meeting the key competencies and brought a range of individual solutions for assessment. With ownership of the learning has seen change occuring in the motivation of the students. > > This is a direction we will be exploring with our Ultranet. > Microsoft Office Tools played a big part > All Students had to have hotmail accounts > Web 2.0 tools such as Dipidy, Globster, Go Animate
 * Have I offended the people I want to offend?
 * Am I making new mistakes? Make new mistakes!
 * Am I practicing the balance that I preach?


 * Practicals**
 * Virtual Feild trips from Learnz.** Lots of resources here. Been there before but plenty of new resources
 * I-Movie.** will be taking the place of things like powerpoint in future. Have used it before and this new format is so user friendly
 * TKI Revisited.** Check out the free software
 * Marvin,** Animation with an Australian Theme but with some Kiwi features. Free to schools
 * Robocup,** Everyone likes a challenge and programming a robot is loads of fun.

Each of these were fun and in their place would be engaging for students. Tons of learning opportunities.

Good food, good team, good social opportunities, good review and discussion.