"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back-- Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."  (Goethe) 

Found today from Doug Johnston's blog. 

If you are drilling for water...

it is better to drill one hundred-foot well than one hundred one-foot wells.

Susan Scott www.fierceinc.com 

If you haven't read her book 'Fierce Conversations' yet, put it on your holiday list of must dos. 

Aspiration

"To me, it's very simple; if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big."

by Donald Trump

I'm already starting to think about 2011 and the strategic work I want to be a part of. Exciting times in NZ education particularly through eLearning and student voice. Web 2.0 is opening online doors once closed. Through some of these tools, I'm designing workshops for Ulearn 2010 that engage adult learners. Consider presenting too - submissions due June 20th. 

Have you registered yet? http://www.ulearn.org.nz. 

What kind of leader are you?

Are you the 1st dancing man or watching from the sideline? Are you the first to follow or do you join when the crowd is already there?

What a wonderful team at Clarkville School. Their Principal, Pene Abbie, attended Ulearn 2009 last year and after listening to Gary Stager and his keynote titled "the 10 top things you can do with a laptop",  decided to take five of those components and weave them into a term long, whole school inquiry. 

My role was to provide the skills behind the ICT's needed to support effective use in the classroom. We also started the conversation about which tools are a good fit for learning and why. Being a mac school, we focussed our attention on the following tools

• GarageBand
• Pages
• iMovie

Some of the preferred web 2.0 tools included:

• www.dabbleboard.com
• www.mindmeister.com

Have you tried these - wonderful for shared collaboration online. Also, if you would value seeing Gary Stager, you can view the full keynote at Edtalks and a search for Stager. Enjoy!

Education for Enterprise

Co-facilitating an Education for Enterprise (E4E) workshop with Gina Revill from CORE Education with the Christchurch Cluster. 

It is really exciting listening to this innovative group of 25 secondary teachers and leaders talk about Enterprise as a disposition, about student motivation with authentic and meaningful projects that have a genuine partnership with business and community groups. 

It is about fostering a genuine partnership where both the student AND the business find the partnership mutually beneficial. It's exciting stuff. Some key understandings from today

- Enterprise is learning across all curriculum areas, for all levels of secondary school

- Enterprise can have a strong link to NCEA

- An Enterprising person

• puts ideas into action
• thinks outside the square
• seeks advice and information
• works hard
• doesn't give up
• sets challenges and achieves them...

Great quote from a participant in the Nelson Art of Facilitation.

The center of child is 'I'.

The centre of adult is 'U'.

An exciting opportunity. Read more info here and apply for this fantastic professional learning. 

• In 2010 there will be 6 Awards.
• The Fellowship is open to all educators from early childhood centres, primary and secondary schools (includes state and private sectors).
• To be awarded an eFellowship, educators must have a strong existing reputation for innovative practice or leadership in eLearning and a desire to share their eLearning approaches, practices and enquiries with the wider teaching community.

Wow! Look at the potential here. 

Recommendation

One of those great blogs I read regularly is ICT U Can by Jane Nicholls. Jane works for CORE Education and was an ICTPD facilitator for a number years. I find she adds great sites / tips and tricks around learning with ICT. Her latest blog entry talks about Teacher TV. If you don't have her RSS, get it. 

On that note - how to you get to read blogs and have them 'come to you?' If you have a gmail account through Google Docs, you can set up Google Reader to link to all your favourite blogs. I daily go to my reader and read the latest updates on about 16 favourite blogs. It saves my time and keep me up to date. 

Leadership Coaching

Session Two working with 10 inspirational leaders from Paparoa Street School. On the first session, we spent time building relationships and the trust that is needed before one looks critically at ones own practice. The focus for tomorrow is challenging the language that we use as leaders - either as a peer, an instructional or a leadership coach. 

There should be plenty of chat which is a key part of my professional philosophy. I came across this quote at the Melbourne Thinkers Conference when I was an eFellow. 

It has always made sense to me ... it challenged me as a teacher - to what degree was I talking compared to my students?

Conference Preparation

I'm looking forward to leading a workshop with some of Christchurch's AP and DP's at the Chateau on the Park on Friday 19 March.