Want to find modern, up to date resources about things students are interested in? Give them a seed, an idea, a question, an inquiry, a provocation -  and let them explore! I set aside 30 minutes with 16 year old students (Year 10) with the instructions as outlined to the right. 

Stuck for a way to get students thinking and sharing their stories? Looking for a way to get students to start conversations about their lives and passions? Start a 7pm project! 

This project works using student's smart phones. It starts by downloading the free App Steller 

Then students set an alarm for 7pm every night for one week. The task is to take a photo of what they see.  In class we bring together these images using Steller and publish them using the hashtag #7pm project. Not only can the students see their story come together as a digital storybook, but they can view their peers stories and start rich conversations about what they see. 

A spin off from this and a more collaborative idea is to ask the students to take 1 single photo at a certain point in time and to send it to one person. Then that one person can collate the images into a storybook that visually represents a moment in time, shared by the group of people. See an example of this with adults to the bottom right. It worked nicely as a bonding exercise and formed a great memory for the staff involved. 

I do advise you set some parameters together around what is suitable to capture and what your images can communicate when published in a public forum - in fact it's a great task for starting the conversations around what we post online!

I was in a Year 5 classroom recently exploring their class library. In fact I was more interested not what was on the shelves , but what was in the hands of the readers. Paul Jennings was. There was an argument about who got to read Unreal which ended with a student screaming "But I'm not Unbelievable - I'm Unreal" which made me giggle... These are books I remember loving and reading as a young reader years ago which got me thinking why can't we use circle time discussion to focus on an author? It happens all the time in the world beyond the classroom - look at the Melbourne Writers Festival program! So here are some circle time (discussion) prompts for teachers to use with their co- learners based on the conversation with Paul Jennings that appeared in Dumbo Feather, late 2011.   

Ever wondered what to do with those students who really are quite good at numeracy? What about a bit of an extension project centered around coding for numeracy understanding and growth! I had the pleasure of working with an exceptional colleague, Megan Skinner, who had such a passion for and skill in making numeracy make sense for learners that I could not help but catch her enthusiasm!

Task Overview                     
Using inbuilt videos the App Hopscotch guides learners through creating simple through to complex coded games that target number time and angle numeracy skills in a highly engaging platform. Linked to this are opportunities for students to set SMART goals based on success criteria and to blog and share their progress.

Success Criteria

• Completion of training levels and reflection about how to use the App Hopscotch for coding
  
• Creation of a food fight game for two players using Hopscotch that allows 2 players to throw food at each other
  
• Self directed and self paced learning is shown and reflected in your own goal setting
  

Targeted Learners

• Year 4 Students who are above the 12 months Numeracy AusVEL’s level 
  
• Year 5 Students who are above the 6 months Numeracy AusVEL’s level
  
• Students who enjoy coding and capable with basic Year 4 Maths vocabulary 
  
• Students who are becoming or are already independent learners (this would also work with learning support staff facilitating it)