#edchatNZ Blogging Meme

Term three has had a busy start for me with the first three Saturdays consumed with connecting face to face with my online PLN at #educampAKLD, #educampTT and the inaugural #edchatNZ conference.  I was waiting for the end of this third event to write a post and was procrastinating, however thanks to being challenged by Bridget Casse to participate in the #edchatNZ meme I am prompted to waste no more time!

If you get included in the blogging meme: copy/paste the questions and instructions into your own blog then fill out your own answers. Share on twitter tagging 5 friends.

1. How did you attend the #Edchatnz Conference? (Face 2 Face, followed online or didn't)I was lucky enough to attend BOTH days Face 2 Face

2. How many others attended from your school or organisation?I was flying SOLO at this one however I got to carpool both days with @Mrs_Hyde, @Carobush and @annagerrit which made the trip to the other side of town a lot of fun and giggles.

3.How many #Edchatnz challenges did you complete?I got several Grelfies done over the two days, this really cheezy one first thing on arrival on Friday with Annemarie, Caroline and Diana...

and this Geeky (I say Gorgeous) Glasses Grelfie on Saturday with Bridget Casse @bridgetcasse and Phillipa @AKeenReader













I also love this one with two people that I admire greatly Annemarie and Mark










*Plus I did get people up and dancing in the very first session with Andrew Cowie (thanks to the assistance of Annemarie) video evidenced here: http://youtu.be/JMUha6UiaKc which scored me this wonderful conference prize of a Samsung Galaxy Gear (great because I'm a Samsung S4 user & Android fan)

4. Who are 3 people that you connected with and what did you learn from them?Amy McCauley - Google Sites session: subscribing to changes & making a filter in Gmail in box to sort theseAndrew Cowie - Ghostery.com an app to show what other sites are tracking your movements onlineReid Walker - the joy of seeing a tweep having "aha" moments at Pam Hook's session for primary teachers on Solo Taxonmy

5. What session are you gutted that you missed?Modern Learning Environments with Mark Osborne.  

6. Who is one person that you would like to have taken to Edchatnz and what key thing would they have learned? 

I would of loved it if Tana Klaricich could of been there in person but I know she was following via our twitter updates. 

7. Is there a person you didn’t get to meet/chat with (F2F/online) that you wished you had? WhyI wanted to make a connection with Karla Hull from Ngatea School.  I've been connecting with her a few times recently on twitter and she wasn't able to attend in the end.  I like what I've read via twitter and the blogs coming out of Ngatea School on transforming learning spaces.

8. What is the next book you are going to read and why? Alan November "Who owns the learning?" suggested this week to me twice and it's under $20 on Book Depository http://goo.gl/k7hDSj It is about students using technology to drive their learning.

9. What is one thing you plan to do to continue the Education Revolution you learnt about at #EdchatNZ?

It's ok to be a lone nut, but having a mixed group of nuts is better - variety is the spice of life - seek out the nut in others to try something new.

10. Will you take a risk and hand your students a blank canvas?In my role as a DP our staff are my initial 'students' so giving out a blank canvas supported by 'paint by numbers' is more my style

Who do will I tag with this meme: Aimie Sibson https://twitter.com/Aimiesibson

Anne Kenneally https://twitter.com/annekenn

Amy McCauley https://twitter.com/AmyMMcCauley

Diana Wilkes https://twitter.com/DianaWilkes

Michelle Simms https://twitter.com/MSimmsNZ
Gosh the formatting in this post jumped all over the place!

7 Things you probably don't know about me...a Meme

I received a tag from Mel Gibb (@moodlegirl) to share 7 things about me: A meme. I don't usually participate in these sorts of things but I'm on holiday with a bit more time on my hands so have the time to play. I also had read a few of these meme through my PLN and secretly was hoping someone would eventually tag me (so thanks Mel). I also liked reading Penny Ryder's Meme and thought it was cool, she shared some of her background with images (like Mel did)with us so being a visual learner I'm including images too!

1. I worked for the good ol' Golden Arches (AKA McDonalds) for 5.5years from the time I was 15. This is me on the left. I was a hostess, so just did the birthday parties for the kids, drive-thru and front counter. This is in the days when you did get served within a minute with service with a smile and you didn't have to wait for ages while they prepared your food from time of order. We used to have those big product bins and the food was chucked after it had been there for 10 minutes.

2. When I left high school (and whilst at Auckland College of Education) I did hair modelling for two of my friends that left school and went straight into hairdressing, so unlike Penny Ryder who has been only as radical to have a fringe once in her life, I've had several strange cuts, dye jobs, perms and hair ups! The photo of me in the red was for a hair competition which was really a lot of fun - the hairdresser won dye of the day for this creation - back then (1989-90) to have black hair like mine with bright red bits in it was unusual. Today I have long hair down past my mid back, and it is dyed every 10-12 weeks to cover up the grey!!!
3. My lovely mum pictured here died in 1993. She was only 44 years young when she died (from cancer), I was 21 at the time. So she will never get old and wrinkly in my mind - this is how she will always look. Her name was Gloria Dixie - my middle name is Dixie too! I think it is a rather unique middle name, it was my grandmother's christain name and it is passed through to the first daughter. I didn't have any girls so may be one day my boys will be able to pass the name onto their children.
4. Before getting into leadership and management roles in schools and being a self-proclaimed techno savy person, I was known for being an art educator. I worked at the Auckland College of Ed Children's Art School for two years and taught the 5-7year old kids. I also was the Co-chairperson of the Akld Primary Art Assoc. from 1997-99 and ran workshops for teachers every school holidays.
5. In 1998 I went on a 2 week trip teaching exchange trip to Detroit, Michigan. I spent one week each in a high and low decile school at Oakley Elementary and Alcot Elementary. It cost heaps to get there and my school at the time paid $1000 towards the cost so I sold hand painted glassware at craft markets to help boost my spending funds. I don't do this much anymore, however have done 80+ champ. flutes for two separate friends weddings.

6. Whilst I haven't done a painting for myself personally since leaving university I have done several murals at different schools that I have worked at. This one I did for a friend who owned a Lollipop's Educare Centre at Botany Town Centre, and this was a public mural that was 3.6m x 2.4m (so quite big) and it was on the side of their building. If you know Botany and stood from the $2 Shop across to the centre you would have seen it. (It was up for 4 years and now the business has relocated).
7. When I was little my parents managed the Sheffield Pub in Canterbury for 1 year and they used to pack us off to the ski slopes which was a lot of fun. In 2007 I returned back to the slopes on our first family ski trip (that's me waving)... after 25yrs it is NOT like riding a bike. It was really hard but I did get better. Although we did not go skiing in 2008, I hope as a family we can try this again this year.

Now to "tag" 7 people who may like to continue this "7 things". I appreciate it may not be your "thing" and you won't have any spell cast over you or a year of bad luck if you choose not to continue the game. You don't have to include images like Mel, Penny and I have, a list is fine.

Neelam Taneja (my trials with web2.0)

Jenny She http://twitter.com/jshe

David Woodcock (Room5ians Rule)

Lenva Shearing (Reaching Out)

Amanda Signal (Thinking Past the Square)

Keisa Williams (monarch librarian)

James Naylor (skinnyjimmy)