Scribbler's Den

Hunter vs Farmer - Seth Godin writes a marketing article about whether we (and students) are a hunter or farmer.  Read with the classroom in mind.

Teaching To The Test - The effects of the Australian My School website.

Improve Student Writing - Twelve Tips

Networking Sites - Should schools block them?

Coming of Age - The experience japanese teenagers have when they 'become' adults.

Moodle - A video using lego to explain the Moodle education software.

Twitter Uses - Way your business or school can use twitter.

Books Should be Uncomfortable - John Spencer examines the way we race is taught with the novel.

Assessment Strategies - A comprehensive collection and analysis of assessment strategies.

What Great Readers Do - A lesson on video by Angela Maiers.

Sins of a Veteran Teacher - Sven deadly sins applied to the teaching profession.

Build Your Own Games - Simple word based games for revision.

Reasons to be a Teacher - 100 of them all categorised for you.

Prezi - A slideshow ... sort of.

Popularity and Teaching - An story about teacher student relationships.

A colleague and I have attempted to start a writer's club at school for our year 8 & 9 students.  There is a similar thing happening on our other campus (we have a split campus) with another teacher for our senior students.  Our first meeting was on Thursday and we had 5 students turn up.

All five students said they had friends who also wanted to come but were, 'too scared'.  i wonder why these students felt 'too scared' to come along.  Maybe they were scared of being saddled with a ton of work or perhaps they didn't like the idea of working with myself or my colleague.  Some writers like to operate 'lone wolf' style too don't they?

At the end of the meeting all five students assured us at the end of our discussion that these friends would be along next time.  I hope they do.

The meeting itself went well.  We showed the students our 5 point focus plan and gave them some of our ideas but we really stressed that the direction of the club was entirely up to them.

Our 5 point focus plan was as follows;

1. Encouragement - motivation and social support that comes with being a member of a club
2. Advice - writing specific aid when requested and the pooling together of talent & expertise from different writing fields
3. Support - peer consultation and feedback
4. Produce - Get those projects finished
5. Publish - Local print media &/or online websites or blogging

We stressed that we did not want their writing or our meetings to be viewed as homework.  We want our weekly meetings to be fun and without the pressure or angst that often comes with deadlines or school work.  We also stressed that we did not want to be 'used' as editing machines.

The most favourable feedback from the group came when I offered to create a website to showcase their writing.  I also offered to show them how to create their own free blog using Tumblr, Wordpress, Blogger or Joomla.  I encouraged them to use not only my website but also their own personal website platform for publication.

Interestingly there was some debate about the focus of my website.  Some students wanted all students their age (regardless of their school or country of origin) to be able to publish their work on the website.  Others felt the website should be restricted to our school or the local region at least.  Time will tell which way the project will head in.

I really want this club to be successful.  I want it to become established in the school.  This will mean a lot of work and I feel committed to it already.  I also have little or no experience with running a club or society.  I know Seth Godin has written a fair amount of material about being a leader and working in a 'tribe'.  I will be looking at his work over the next week for tips and hints to help our Writer's club.

Of course I would also like to hear from you too if you have any ideas or advice for us.  What can we do to make this club a success?

By the way, the website I have in mind for the group is www.cyberscribblers.com.  It is unfinished at the time of writing this so keep an eye on it.

You can tell from the increasing array of categories on Scribbler's Den that I am struggling to pigeon hole my posts.  So, to try and fix this, I am creating yet another category.  The irony does not escape me.  This new category is the Journal category and in it I will put the random events from my teaching experience.  Enjoy:)

Walking into class the other day my eyes were drawn to the contents of a student's backpack.  I don't normally spy on student belongings but I couldn't help myself.  He was fiddling around in a zipped compartment and I think he was either turning his phone on or off.  Phones attract my attention because I am a gadgetphile.  Is that a word?  Anyway I love gadgets.

What took me aback was that beside his phone was a packet of cigarettes!  This student is just out of Year 9 and starting his first senior year in Year 10 (15 years of age).  Way too young, in my mind, to be smoking.  Later when I checked the contents of the packet I saw that he had rollies inside (roll your own cigarettes).  Does this mean he is a practised smoker?

I am compelled to report an infraction of this kind to my administration and because of his remorseful attitude upon being busted I chose a member of the administration staff I thought would be fair to him.  The ball is still rolling on this one so I don't yet know what the consequences of his actions will be.

I have two questions about this incident.  Firstly why is he smoking when everything around him is screaming don't be an idiot?  Media, his peers and staff would all advise him against risky behaviour like this.  Is it attention seeking behaviour?  It must be because he surely can't really be ignorant of the addictive qualities of smoking let alone the carcinogens his body would be ingesting.

Secondly I wonder at how his behaviour in class will be.  Will he take out his frustration and anger at being caught on me?  I hope he won't become a destructive influence in class but his tendency toward rebellious behaviour is clearly already manifesting itself.

Time will tell.