The Teacher Toolbox » Shameless Self Promotion

Subversion is a Necessary Part

Adrian — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:42:35 +0000

A few years back after giving a keynote to a rather large group of educators, one of the ‘invited officials’ beckoned me over.

“I like you & I especially like your quote, ‘Subversion is a major part of innovation and it is our job to subvert’. Come sit by me.”

This conversation has always reminded me of Dorothy Parker’s, ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit by me.’

Farmville – Lost Black Sheep

Adrian — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:49:05 +0000

When it comes to Farmville sheep wandering across my Facebook news feeds I’m starting to believe catharsis is so much more fun than rationality

Feel free to send this to anyone who you think needs to see it. hehehehe

Youngest Conference Presenter

Adrian — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:09:13 +0000

I recently took my son to a ICT in Education Conference where he led a group of
teachers through three half hour workshops on video game making, stop motion
animation & movie making using a Flip video.

Whilst I had a few reservations about this the experience turned out to be a
wonderful learning opportunity. Real audience, sense of purpose, connection,
planning, rehearsal, networking, value of his talents and soooooo much more.

He received some great feedback from those that attended his session and here is an email
a delegate sent to his school and to me.

Good Morning

I attended a National Computer Conference ( ELH ) in Lorne over the weekend. I am from a
school in Perth Western Australia. There were 250 professional teachers and technicians
attending from around the country. The conference is a well known and very highly regarded
by professionals in the area on Education and IT. One of your students Samuel Bruce was
co-presenting with his father Adrian. The presentation went all day from 9.30 - 5 pm
and he was inspirational. Samuel demonstrated programs and assisted IT teachers in many
of the applications he has used and mastered. I was in awe as this young boy spoke with
authority and passion about his presentations. He and his father's presentation was one
of the best at the conference sessions and I would love it if you could commend Samuel
with a merit award or commendation in front of his peers.

It made me reflect on my own teaching and how I can accommodate children like Samuel
in my class sessions when they have far better skills than I have and can teach us
all so much.

Thank you for allowing him to attend.

Mrs Jo P

Ed Tech Crew Podcast – A Guest Spot

Adrian — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:15:20 +0000

Last month when the rug rats were snug in their beds I had the pleasure of chatting via Skype with the Ed Tech Crew lads Darrel Branson & Tony Richards for their podcast.

We had a great chat and covered all sorts of stuff including the growth & nature of my website, personal learning goals, creative process and a few pieces of software

Feel free to download the podcast from The Ed Tech Crew website and leave a few thoughts like this kind listener.

Expanding Learning Horizons 09

Adrian — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:06:45 +0000

Who hoo, my son and I have just had our proposal for a 4 hour workshop accepted by the good people at ELH 09. This makes the 4th year in a row that I have been accepted for this conference and I’m pretty stoked to be asked back again. So for all those who missed out last year it might be time to hit your principal up for some funding to head to Lorne Victoria in August

Personal Learning Networks – EQ Magazine Article

Adrian — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:04:54 +0000

Last year I wrote an article for the Australian education journal EQ Magazine entitled ‘Keys to the Virtual World’ and now the time has come upload it to my website.

Beyond the school gate exists an awe-inspiring virtual place where a person can take almost complete control of their own professional development. It is a place devoid of filters that allow you to purchase a Russian bride but block the evils of lego.com. A place where staff politics, ill conceived arguments and small mindedness fall by the wayside to the pursuit of evidence based ‘best practice’. A world inhabited by passionate educators & ‘switched on’ learning communities. The world I speak of is that of the modern digital Personal Learning Network or PLN.

Read more about Personal Learning Networks

Email Newsletter Update + Moving Schools

Adrian — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:58:54 +0000

The company that was looking after my email newsletter has decided not to continue offering their free service & as a result I’ve been looking for new options.

Last night I sent out my first newsletter with a piece of software hosted on my website and so far it seems to have worked fine.

Tonight I’m sorting out all the broken links to the subscription service and should have it all fixed in an hour or two. Do let me know if you find a broken link.

Secondly, I’ve noticed with the end of the school year here in Oz many people have moved on and will need to resubscribe if you have used your school account. Please pass this info around your collegues.

Cheers

Adrian

PS I’m going to get the new email subscription page working well first and then make it look pretty

Last PD Sessions for 08

Adrian — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:06:34 +0000

Tomorrow I’m running some workshops in Kingscliff which is a beautiful part of our country.

The sessions are all about raising awareness of just some of the freely available software that is out there and how teachers might use it creatively. We cover a lot of possibilities in a very short time and teachers always come away with a plethora of practical ideas, a lot of inspiration and some realistic goals.

After tomorrow I’m then hoping to have a quiet Xmas with the family, work on the website throughout January and then get back into the workshops at the end of January.

Top 11 Educational Downloads – October

Adrian — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:36:56 +0000

October was another HUGE month for adrianbruce.com. 82 979 individuals made 124 869 visits to my site viewing 480 456 pages. They downloaded 46 973 Word resources and 16 953 Acrobat files. Widen those doors people, it’s time to truck my head through. hehehehe

The most popular downloads were -

1. Printable Snakes & Ladders – this is a blank template for making reading games.
2. Change 3 - a printable word card game for learning about long vowel sounds.
3. 4 in a Row - a printable word game that kids love. Includes a blank template.
4. 3d Shape Game - a printable concentration game that focuses on the properties of 3d shapes.
5. Reciprocal Reading Cue Cards – my modifed teaching prompt cards for this powerful comprehension strategy.
6. ‘Here’ Question stems – for the 3 Level Guide Reading Strategy
7. Place Value Charts - (I really should finish the decimals charts)
8. The T Puzzle - a problem solving activity but please stop asking for the answer. I’d hate to rob you of the ‘A-ha’ feeling
9. Square Pyramid Net – I’m sure this was all the Uni students out on prac
10. Phonics Posters – A Few Things for Word Walls
11. Symmetry Webquest – A Visual Reference for Learning About Symmetry

I’m thinking that this translates to a lot of time saved by teachers and a fair amount of learning of skills on the part of students.

Dropping Into New York

Adrian — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:16:45 +0000

I’d just like thank David Warlick for the opportunity to Skype into his keynote in New York to discuss the benefits of blogging with students.

I hope the delegates received a little food for thought and enjoyed my Aussie accent

Here are the dot points I made for the guest spot. I hope they made sense as the clock approached midnight here in Oz.

Chatting with Dave in NY

- increased motivation to want to write because of ‘audience’

- biggest ‘movers’ = special needs students – exposed to models of writing – motivated to finish pieces – love the feedback via comments

- draft process = winner – peers conferencing- discussion of writing – ‘How best to say something’

- real purpose – authentic audience

- teacher models problem solving – ‘If we are going to advocate producing lifelong learners then surely we need to demonstrate being one ourselves’ – ie How do you use this new technology? – uploading plays, podcasts, inserting pictures etc.

- Give this stuff a go – don’t be afraid to fail but fail forward.

cheers

Adrian

(Note to self – learn how to record Skypecasts hehehehe)