Last semester I did a subject on computers in schools and I am doing another next semester. It took an interesting look on the role of technology and education now and in the future. It discussed basing whole units of work on sites such as moodle and lams. Eg, my last assignment for the subject I had to base a whole unit of work on rainforests using only computes for year 6 kids.
I know you are pretty tech savvy, so I was just wondering if you were a computers teacher or if you used a lot of technology in your lessons?.
Sydney 11/02/2003
Sydney 14/02/2003
Sydney 07/11/2006
Sydney 18/11/2006
Sydney 22/11/2009
EV Sydney 18/03/2011
EV Sydney 19/03/2011
EV Sydney 20/03/2011
Melbourne 24/01/2014
Sydney 26/01/2014
EV Sydney 13/02/2014
Gym Just kidding, he would have been the smartist gym teacher in the world.
Originally I was teaching English, Media & Computing. (Excuse my typos as I type on my laptop in a dark room )
But I've also taught Home Economics, Phys Ed (gym), Woodwork, Mechanics, Drama, Music, Maths, and Science (I was the go-to guy when they couldn't get a regular teacher during the teacher shortages). Most of the last 5 years of my career though I worked with the hardcore touble making kids. I left education altogether in 2007.
I started in 1993 but very early in my career I moved into student services and support for about half of my time. I resigned back in 1999 and since then have done various contract stints at the local high school, usually in admin or student services. I worked on a number of alternative programs with those deemed 'hard to teach', or involved in the justice system at a young age or from shitty homes.
My last teaching program was where I ran a program for at risk (and largely truant, and drug dependent students) where we lifted their attendence from about 30% to 95% (above state average for all students) and got them into worthwhile jobs, by giving them an alternative program. We took them out of their regular core subjects and custom made classes to address their needs. I took them for 'Managing Money where I taught them how to make the most of what they had and how to budget etc; 'Cooking For Blokes' which was teaching them how to look after themselves in the kitchen, make healthy but interesting and satisfying food and how to avoid fast food, how to cook for a date and impress the girl, how to be king of the BBQ and so on; 'Kick Boxing' where I taught them how to do full contact mix martial arts with each other which while was violent and risky, taught them respect and comradere; and 'Men's Health' where we discussed all kinds of issues.
We won a statewide award for this program yet the administrator who fought against it was the one who received the award and got to use it on her resume even though she had fuck all to do with it other than being my line manager. I still remembrr having to coach her for what to say when she went to receive the award and how to explain how we were having the successes we were having because she had no idea at all. Then the following year, when they were looking for areas to save money, the program was cut and the next gerneration of at risk kids just went into regular classes where they caused havoc.
Last semester I did a subject on computers in schools and I am doing another next semester. It took an interesting look on the role of technology and education now and in the future. It discussed basing whole units of work on sites such as moodle and lams. Eg, my last assignment for the subject I had to base a whole unit of work on rainforests using only computes for year 6 kids.
I know you are pretty tech savvy, so I was just wondering if you were a computers teacher or if you used a lot of technology in your lessons?.
I've never used the programs like moodle and lams but I did I built a ezine website using joomla and had high school kids produce their own e-zine. They all had to create five articles over the course of the year for the project:
1. A Film or album review
2. A narrative
3. An interview/feature on anyone of their choice from the local community.
4. A Research/investigative piece.
5. An opinionative piece on a current topic
They also had to keep a fortnightly blog on the site where they could write about anything they chose or respond to a given 'what if' (usually zany) stimulus if they preferred: "What if sharls could fly", "What if nose haird grew as long as head hair", "What if you..."
They were also encouraged to leave feedback (using a comment system) on at least two other students' work per week.
Unfortunately this was my last innovative project and looked like it was going really well up until the point I pulled the pin and left education.
I tried, but generally most schools over here limit their students' use of the net and the filter block many worthwhile sites. They also do not allow schools to upgrade their systems and are still using IE6 which sucks big time. Add to this the computers we were using were so cheap and nasty and underpowered or vandalised, you'd spend half your time getting them working.
Add to this that our school would regularly get rude letters from the department because we'd gone over our bandwidth allowance (fuck we were working in the dark ages) and so they'd block images and multimedia from time to time or I'd get a bollocking from the prinmcipal and a please explain why kids from my class were using so much bandwidth.
Right now the state ed dept is putting into place even more draconian regulations in regards to internet usage and even expecting teachers to police facebook, myspace and msn bullying that happens away from school - even though these sites are blocked in school.
Alright then, when Paul become P.M, i'm moving to Australia!!!
in a footnote i had an uncle who moved to Australia in his early 20's who past away last year, but lived there very happily for 30 years or so, when i was a young teenager he was visiting and i asked him, why do you live there? why not come back to U.S.A., it's awesome here, were the leading country in the world ( i was 14 ) he said "Well Australia reminds me of all that was good in America, 20 years ago,( say the late 60's early 70's) and i want to live my life in that kind of place" to which i replyed ( being a young shithead know it all ) "Ya well you know, it's all gona get screwed up, just like America someday, but it just 20 years behind"
to which he replyed "Ya but i'll take those 20 years". I thought that was weak when i was 14, but now i'm 35 and i know just what he was saying. You guys took guns away from citizen's, i wish we would.
Yeah life is sweet here, I must say. We all have our political axes to grind and pet peeves, but this is the lucky country. I love visiting America and other countries, but no matter how rich I ever got (unlikely) nor wherever my travels take me, this is the only place I could ever live and feel free.
Comments
Last semester I did a subject on computers in schools and I am doing another next semester. It took an interesting look on the role of technology and education now and in the future. It discussed basing whole units of work on sites such as moodle and lams. Eg, my last assignment for the subject I had to base a whole unit of work on rainforests using only computes for year 6 kids.
I know you are pretty tech savvy, so I was just wondering if you were a computers teacher or if you used a lot of technology in your lessons?.
Sydney 14/02/2003
Sydney 07/11/2006
Sydney 18/11/2006
Sydney 22/11/2009
EV Sydney 18/03/2011
EV Sydney 19/03/2011
EV Sydney 20/03/2011
Melbourne 24/01/2014
Sydney 26/01/2014
EV Sydney 13/02/2014
Originally I was teaching English, Media & Computing. (Excuse my typos as I type on my laptop in a dark room
But I've also taught Home Economics, Phys Ed (gym), Woodwork, Mechanics, Drama, Music, Maths, and Science (I was the go-to guy when they couldn't get a regular teacher during the teacher shortages). Most of the last 5 years of my career though I worked with the hardcore touble making kids. I left education altogether in 2007.
I started in 1993 but very early in my career I moved into student services and support for about half of my time. I resigned back in 1999 and since then have done various contract stints at the local high school, usually in admin or student services. I worked on a number of alternative programs with those deemed 'hard to teach', or involved in the justice system at a young age or from shitty homes.
My last teaching program was where I ran a program for at risk (and largely truant, and drug dependent students) where we lifted their attendence from about 30% to 95% (above state average for all students) and got them into worthwhile jobs, by giving them an alternative program. We took them out of their regular core subjects and custom made classes to address their needs. I took them for 'Managing Money where I taught them how to make the most of what they had and how to budget etc; 'Cooking For Blokes' which was teaching them how to look after themselves in the kitchen, make healthy but interesting and satisfying food and how to avoid fast food, how to cook for a date and impress the girl, how to be king of the BBQ and so on; 'Kick Boxing' where I taught them how to do full contact mix martial arts with each other which while was violent and risky, taught them respect and comradere; and 'Men's Health' where we discussed all kinds of issues.
We won a statewide award for this program yet the administrator who fought against it was the one who received the award and got to use it on her resume even though she had fuck all to do with it other than being my line manager. I still remembrr having to coach her for what to say when she went to receive the award and how to explain how we were having the successes we were having because she had no idea at all. Then the following year, when they were looking for areas to save money, the program was cut and the next gerneration of at risk kids just went into regular classes where they caused havoc.
Sad how the system really works.
I've never used the programs like moodle and lams but I did I built a ezine website using joomla and had high school kids produce their own e-zine. They all had to create five articles over the course of the year for the project:
1. A Film or album review
2. A narrative
3. An interview/feature on anyone of their choice from the local community.
4. A Research/investigative piece.
5. An opinionative piece on a current topic
They also had to keep a fortnightly blog on the site where they could write about anything they chose or respond to a given 'what if' (usually zany) stimulus if they preferred: "What if sharls could fly", "What if nose haird grew as long as head hair", "What if you..."
They were also encouraged to leave feedback (using a comment system) on at least two other students' work per week.
Unfortunately this was my last innovative project and looked like it was going really well up until the point I pulled the pin and left education.
I tried, but generally most schools over here limit their students' use of the net and the filter block many worthwhile sites. They also do not allow schools to upgrade their systems and are still using IE6 which sucks big time. Add to this the computers we were using were so cheap and nasty and underpowered or vandalised, you'd spend half your time getting them working.
Add to this that our school would regularly get rude letters from the department because we'd gone over our bandwidth allowance (fuck we were working in the dark ages) and so they'd block images and multimedia from time to time or I'd get a bollocking from the prinmcipal and a please explain why kids from my class were using so much bandwidth.
Right now the state ed dept is putting into place even more draconian regulations in regards to internet usage and even expecting teachers to police facebook, myspace and msn bullying that happens away from school - even though these sites are blocked in school.
And someone mentioned summer holidays... hahaa
in a footnote i had an uncle who moved to Australia in his early 20's who past away last year, but lived there very happily for 30 years or so, when i was a young teenager he was visiting and i asked him, why do you live there? why not come back to U.S.A., it's awesome here, were the leading country in the world ( i was 14
to which he replyed "Ya but i'll take those 20 years". I thought that was weak when i was 14, but now i'm 35 and i know just what he was saying. You guys took guns away from citizen's, i wish we would.
http://www.google.com.au/images?q=dunsb ... =en&tab=wi
This is where I live.