The interweb

With prize-giving over we have four weeks with the junior students while seniors attend their external examinations. For some years now my own children have gone through this process of exam prep and they are nerve jangling times for students (we sometimes forget how nervous they get and how much it means to them to do their best in testing circumstances). My advice? My mother always reverted to 'deep breathing' advice and it does help. Count to three (in your head) during the breath in then count to three during the breath out. It will relax you!

Recently Barry Bachenheimer wrote a very supportive comment on my prize-giving post. This reminded me about his blog that I follow - 'A Plethora of Technology' (it's on my blog list to the left). For fellow educators - I warmly recommend it. Have a look at the discussion on ADD and ICT sometime - it opens up some interesting questions. Also on my bloglist is The Fischbowl blog - again I recommend a look. It's especially useful for teachers of English (like me). The collection of news cuttings on the Democracy 2.0 post is worth a look.

The web sets up a lot of similar contacts and my last little tip is the New Zealand publication - Interface NZ (link is on the left). I always find some excellent little titbit like cuil.com or the Guardian's 24 hours in pictures. There are some exellent Web 2.0 links there as well as things for teachers to try. I especially like the magazine because it's not pushy, overly technical or has obscure/difficult to locate sites - when you have limited time to devote to web searches that's all handy.

Incidently those are all the aspects of Web 2.0 that make it such a breath of fresh air for me. I remember setting up a website while teaching at Mount Albert Grammar in Auckland in the late 1990s and it took ages. It was really fiddly to do but doing this blog (and setting it up) is a revelation. It couldn't be easier to do. If you haven't stated a blog already try googling 'blogspot'. There are easy to follow instructions there or else try the Interface magazine link that is on their site. Go to it - you'll love it!