A "Pay Attention" Staff Meeting

This afternoon we had a great ICT PD Staff Meeting @ Central.

We started off on the right foot by viewing Darren's "Pay Attention" movie (click here if you haven't seen it yet). We set the scene by explaining it was made for a US audience and that most of the facts and figures related to the US... we challenged our teachers to view the video and reflect on "how does this relate to us in New Zealand?".

We had what I believe to be an absolutely fabulous reaction from staff. There were loads of heads nodding throughout the video; lots of thoughtful "hmmms" and a few spots of laughter as well. It really set the scene well for the next part of our meeting which was to celebrate all of the fabulous blogging that has been started since my PD session on March 12 this year. Our teachers have come a long way and this was a great chance to acknowledge the efforts they have put in and to celebrate their successes. I am really proud of them :)

We then moved into cooperative groups and brainstormed the ways that we could keep our blogs current with less teacher effort... this is the next step for most teachers.

I have collated all of our staff's ideas onto this wiki page. You might like to view it and see if you get any new ideas for integrating blogs into your classroom and keeping them up to date.


Teachers have also been set a challenge tonight in an email I have sent:

All of our ideas for keeping blogs current are now displayed on a wiki space. Please visit and see if there's an idea there that you can implement in your classroom.

http://nelsoncentral.wikispaces.com/blogging

Extra for Experts: There are 6 spelling mistakes on this wiki page (on purpose!)

The first 6 teachers to edit the wiki and change ONE spelling mistake will get a sweet treat. [Click on the "edit this page" button on the top right of the page to correct one spelling mistake - make sure you also let me know it was you!]

This will be both fulfilling for your sweet tooth as well as giving you an experience in editing a Web 2.0 collaborative wikispace! Enjoy!

I wonder what the response will be?!