Baby News!

On Tuesday 8 November, while many of you were enjoying the final Lead Teacher day for 2011, Logan Charles Sanders arrived into the world weighing a healthy 8 pounds 11 1/2 ounces.

He is doing really well, I am getting used to motherhood and am very lucky to have a fabulous husband helping out!

Thank you for all of your kind wishes and support

Looking forward to seeing you all for the start of the 2012 school year.
Karla and Logan

Funky Schools and Lectures are Homework........

Exploring what the future school environment might look like - an agile learning space?  St Monica's Funky school is pushing the traditional classroom environment.  Is this what our future classrooms might look like.  Full story link is HERE



A few posts ago there was an article on the flipped classroom where teachers focus on student interaction in the classroom and leave 'lecture' style work for outside the classroom (homework).   Have been thinking - in the age of personal digital devices are we wasting valuable relationship building and interaction time by putting individual students in front of individual devices in the classroom when they can this at other times?  Not suggesting that we don't use technology in the classroom (in appropriate and effective differentiated ways) but are there are some things that students might be better doing with their personal technology else where than in the classroom?  Here is an article that explores this idea in action
Lectures are Homework!  What do you think?

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Internet Filtering....

After having had had a couple of interesting discussions with a couple of schools recently about internet filtering I was sent this link advocating the removal of internet filtering in schools -  and it has got me thinking about this again - how much should schools do?
What does your school do about filtering and why?  Has filtering got in the way of anything you have been trying to do with students?

Are the teachers in your school comfortable  with the idea of more open access and do the teachers feel they have the strategies and knowledge to work with, and advise students (of all ages) in Digital Citizenship.

I feel we should be having conversations with all learners in our school around cyber safety and appropriate way to work digitally.  (I don't mean giving them rules .......)

Ditch Internet Filters?   Hmmm - what are your thoughs  Link here

images courtesy  @Microsoft