A Busy Day and ideas

It has been a busy day down here, taking part in all three jobs.

1) First was the NZC Teacher Only day which I must say I have learnt a lot from, not only about the NZC and how it will impact our curriculum and unit planning, including more of the vision and key indicators through to how to include the DTG model. With the DTG, it became apparent that not everyone knew what it is about and how it came into being. The DTG is the Digital Technology Guidelines. We probably spent an hour looking into the DTG website and presentations that have been used previously to explain its purpose and get people thinking about the process, getting away from the assessment driven to the knowledge driven and knowing your students. This then started the sharing from the teachers, we talked about how we have designed our programmes, what is coming up, resources that we use and how we have developed our courses. It also came out that June 9th will be an interesting day with the new Computing Unit Standards being released. I have made notes to contact certain people to ask then questions about there course and development in the future.

2) Had emails from old job wondering why staff could not access the subject choice information. This was due to the staff member was not allocated anything due to I was not told to allocate him anything. Other issue was that I typed in a staff member incorrectly. I have also had to make a modification to the program that allows staff members with full access the ability to print off all the subjects with information so they can enter it into the curriculum guide. I may have to go through and do some design issues with this later on.

3) Went into new job and helped move stuff around, we have the 4 metre long plus copier being moved tomorrow into the new shop, this will then allow the guillotine to be moved at the same time. It is really starting to open up and we are creating new spaces all the time. It will be interesting to see how this new space will be utilised.

It seems that I also may have seven days of teaching coming up, will be teaching gamemaker to year 10 students. I look forward to this prospect, as well as I learned something today, you can run the gamemaker files within gamemaker you do not have to create a exe file every time. So when I get back to my old job we may just install gamemaker on the network as a package and use it this way, rather than the way I have been doing it for a while.

Another thing that I have started thinking about is developing contexts for students learning, I have a couple so far with developing material for a barista competition. But I have started thinking outside the square about a few of them now. I went for a drive at the weekend to Cable Bay, through this I saw a familiar man made structure, we used to go for a walk down around Bluff Hill and the Waihopai River stopbank and would see these all the time. The Walkways NZ icon, this started me thinking, is there a walkways nz website, what would it entail. And then, bang, no not my car crashing, I had an idea for a context of a website development. Getting the students to develop a walkways nz dynamic website, it involves a number of things, a php/mysql development. planning, look, feel. it would be a great context for them to work on and there is a number of walks around the region that could be used as a field trip. Ok, that is pretty mean, but it gives them an idea. I plan to go back to cable bay to walk a couple of the tracks, just for my own benefit, as well to take my camera and get some shots of this past icon of New Zealand.

Included on the DoC website is a old version of the nz walkways as a pdf.

Another idea for a year 10/year 11 class is to develop a number of pieces of marketing material for the school library. We are about to run a library competition at school that normally lasts for five weeks and has approx 2,250 books issued from the library. We need posters showing a possible 100 books that are in the school library, these book covers are available from the the internet, google images, amazon and a number of other book sites. this will introduce them to image manipulation as the book size will be different for each book depending on where the get the image from. Another is a bookmark with each of the house values on it, plus a unique code that can be entered on a website to enter a competition, like the weetbix cards. This allows the students to research bookmarks and devlopment, as well as poster ideas and book covers.

I add the top 100 list to this Blog as a resource, talk to your own school library and get them to do the same.

Top 100 Report

Rank Loans Title Author

1 45 Harry Potter and the half-blood prince ROWLING, J.K.

2 37 Anne Frank - the diary of a young girl [Text Paperback]

3 35 (un)arranged marriage [Text Paperback] RAI, Bali

4 34 To kill a mocking bird [Text Paperback] LEE, Harper

5 34 Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix ROWLING, J.K.

6 31 Harry Potter and the deathly hallows ROWLING, J.K.

7 31 A child called "It" [Text Paperback] PELZER, Dave

8 30 Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban ROWLING, J.K.

9 29 The skin I'm in [Text Paperback] FLAKE, Sharon G.

10 29 Love you to death [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

11 29 The secrets of love / [Text Paperback] RUSHTON, Rosie

12 28 Chinese cinderella and the secret dragon society [Text MAH, Adeline Yen Paperback]

13 27 The wish list / [Text Paperback] La'Brooy, Melanie.

14 27 The flood / [Text Paperback] Dietz, William C.

15 27 Rani & Sukh [Text Paperback] RAI, Bali

16 26 All American girl : ready or not / [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

17 26 Charmed : seasons of the witch, Vol.1 [Text Paperback] BURGE, Constance M.

18 26 Girls in tears [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

19 26 Girls in love [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

20 25 Chinese Cinderella - the secret story of an unwanted daughter MAH, Adeline Yen [Text Paperback]

21 25 Girls out late [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

22 25 Bend it like Beckham [Text Paperback] DHAMI, Narinder

23 25 Drama queen [Text Paperback] RAYBAN, Chloe

24 25 Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone [Text Paperback] ROWLING, J.K.

25 25 How to be popular : when you're a social reject like me, CABOT, Meg Steph L. / [Text Paperback]

26 24 The day after forever [Text Paperback] SKIFFINGTON, Erin

27 24 Harry Potter and the goblet of fire ROWLING, J.K.

28 24 High stakes [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

29 24 Text game [Text Paperback] CANN, Kate

30 24 Does my head look big in this? / [Text Paperback] Abdel-Fattah, Randa.

31 24 Memoirs of a geisha / [Text Paperback] Golden, Arthur.

32 23 Lost for words [Text Paperback] LUTZEIER, Elizabeth

33 23 Mean spirits CABOT, Meg

34 23 The ghost next door [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

35 23 Sanctuary / [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

36 23 There's a boy in the girls' bathroom [Text Paperback] SACHAR, Louis

37 22 Nightmare hour [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

38 22 Noughts & crosses [Text Paperback] BLACKMAN, Malorie

39 22 Grave doubts [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

40 22 Something Wiccan this way comes [Text Paperback] HARRISON, Emma

41 22 Changeling places [Text Paperback] Ostow, Micol.

42 22 The lovely bones : a novel / [Text Paperback] Sebold, Alice.

43 22 10 things to do before you're 16 / [Text Paperback] PLAISTED, Caroline

44 21 Pride and prejudice [Text Paperback] AUSTEN, Jane

45 21 The Princess diaries [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

46 21 Soul of the bride [Text Paperback] LENHARD, Elizabeth

47 21 Falling leaves - return to their roots [Text Paperback] MAH, Adeline Yen

48 21 Eragon : inheritance [Text Paperback] PAOLINI, Christopher

49 21 The Princess diaries : take two [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

50 21 Heaven sent [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

51 21 Holes [Text Paperback] SACHAR, Louis

52 21 Artemis Fowl [Text Paperback] COLFER, Eoin

53 21 The Princess diaries : third time lucky [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

54 21 Jahanara - princess of princesses LASKY, Kathryn

55 21 Garden of evil [Text Paperback] HARRISON, Emma

56 20 The power of one - young readers edition [Text Paperback] COURTNEY, Bryce

57 20 The haunted school [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

58 20 The power of one [Text Paperback] COURTENAY, Bryce

59 20 The haunting hour [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

60 20 Every boy's got one [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

61 20 Best friends [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

62 20 Forever [Text Paperback] BLUME, Judy

63 20 Liz Jone's diary... ...how one single girl got married JONES, Liz [Text Paperback]

64 20 My desperate love diary by Kelly Ann / [Text Paperback] Rettig, Liz.

65 20 Sold [Text Paperback] McCORMICK, Patricia

66 20 Pounamu pounamu [Text Paperback] IHIMAERA, Witi

67 20 The haunted car [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

68 20 '... and thats when it fell off in my hand.' : further RENNISON, Louise fabbitty-fab confessions of Georgia Nicolson

69 20 Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging [Text Paperback] RENNISON, Louise

70 20 Love lessons / [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

71 19 The dead of the night [Text Paperback] MARSDEN, John

72 19 Soulmate [Text Paperback] SMITH L.J.

73 19 Startling moon [Text Paperback] HONG, LIU

74 19 Between you and me [Text Paperback] CLARKE, Julia

75 19 Ghost beach [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

76 19 My heartbeat [Text Paperback] FREYMANN-WEYR, Garret

77 19 Lola Rose [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

78 19 Bindi babes [Text Paperback] DHAMI, Narinder

79 19 Mao's last dancer - young readers edition [Text Paperback] CUNXIN, Li

80 19 Stuff / [Text Paperback] STRONG, Jeremy

81 19 Princess [Text Paperback] SASSON, Jean P.

82 19 The village by the sea. [Text Paperback] DESAI, Anita

83 19 The legacy of Merlin [Text Paperback] FLOOD, Eloise

84 19 Sugar and spice / [Text Paperback] URE, Jean

85 19 Two-timer [Text Paperback] RAI, Bali

86 19 The whisperer / [Text Paperback] RAI, Bali

87 19 The boy in the striped pyjamas : a fable / Boyne, John.

88 19 Eldest - inheritance [Text Paperback] PAOLINI, Christopher

89 19 The amulet of Samarkand / [Text Paperback] STROUD, Jonathan

90 18 Of mice and men [Text Paperback] STEINBECK, John

91 18 The joy luck club [Text Paperback] TAN, Amy

92 18 Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets [Text Paperback] ROWLING, J.K.

93 18 Fifteen love [Text Paperback] CORBET, Robert

94 18 Locker 13 [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

95 18 Cupid & co [Text Paperback] JONES, Carol

96 18 When a girl is born [Text Paperback] GRANT, Pamela

97 18 One day at horrorland [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

98 18 Throwaway daughter [Text Paperback] YE, Ting-xing

99 18 The phone goes dead [Text Paperback] HOROWITZ, Anthony

100 18 You're the one that I want [Text Paperback] von ZIEGESAR, Cecily