TeachMeets are a fantastic opportunity for meaningful and enjoyable professional development. Stirling Primary and Clarendon Primary in East London take it in turns to run a TeachMeet for local teachers oncce a term.’Keen Beans’ present a three minute presentation and the  ‘Enthusiastic Lurkers’ enjoy the presentations. Everybody has a great time and takes back loads of ideas to use in the classroom.  Claire Dean from Stirling and Sharon Cox from Clarendon run these TeachMeets.  This is a rather belated but nevertheless useful record of the TeachMeet held on Tuesday 25th March. 

Some presenters used presentations and those are referred to below. Others presented from iPad apps or straight from a website and those haven’t been recalled below.

Sharon (left) and Claire (right)

The presenters at the TeachMeet

The presentations at the TeachMeet

1. Get to know the Microsoft Educator Network by Claire Dean

At the time of the TeachMeet this great Microsoft Network was named the Partners in Learning Network. It has since been renamed to the Microsoft Educator Network. Claire urged the teachers present to sign up for this network and discover the great free tools and tutorials that can be downloaded. Resources can also be uploaded to this network.

2. Autobiographical poems by Liesl Kruger

Liesl gave some wonderful ideas on getting Foundation Phase to create autographical poems, take photos of one another and superimpose the poem over the photo.  The writing is then set to ‘glow’ so that it stands out.

3. Dirk Greef’s presentation was called Excel with Excel

In this presentation Dirk shared some trips and tricks to make Excel do exceptionally useful things for one.

4. ‘LinkedIn: Nuisance or New Sense?’ by Dirk Greef

LinkedIn is a place to build your professional identity online and stay in touch with colleagues and classmates. One can also discover professional opportunities, business deals, and new ventures as well as get the latest news, inspiration, and insights you need to be great at what you do. Dirk urged teachers to consider joining LinkedIn

5. Swopinfo.com by Gavin Simeon

Gavin shared about this intriguing site called swopinfo.com

6.  Google Search tips and tricks by Sharon Cox

To narrow a specific search to make is easier and faster to find things on the web you can type the name of the item you want to search for, followed by a space, then type the name of the file extention.

Useful file extensionsdoc – word

xls – excel

ppt – powerpoint

pub – publisher

pdf – adope reader

gif – interactives/animation

avi – audio video

mp3 – Mp3 audio file

jpg – Jpeg image (pictures)

To search for royalty free items go to : http://search.creativecommons.org

7. Photo fun by Sherelle

This presentation showed some fun ways to use photos in the classroom.

8. PowToon by Claire Dean

PowToon is a great free tool to create animated videos and presentations.  It is a great tool to use to create introductions to lessons and to keep students engaged.

9. 10 top mistakes educators make when using technology by Ron

                                  

• Not using technology. Engage students by using technology with hands-on activities. Give them the opportunity to be creative in the classroom and beyond in the future.
• Not modeling good digital citizenship behavior. It’s up to us to show good copyright behavior… teach them that it’s not OK to steal and use things as their own. They have instant access to information, so we must teach them how to give credit where it is due. http://search.creativecommons.org/
• Not changing your teaching style. Kids have access to information instantly and can look up facts … how do you see this changing how you teach in the classroom?
• Not giving the kids a choice.Give guidelines and options … but give up some control. Let them choose what technology to use, allow them to take charge of their learning.
• Thinking everything will go perfect the first time. This rarely ever happens. Remember Murphy’s Law and always have a plan B, C, and D!
• Thinking everything will go perfect the first time.This rarely ever happens. Remember Murphy’s Law and always have a plan B, C, and D!
• Buying in to the “Digital Natives” hype. Don’t assume that all kids know how to use technology.
• Not connecting with experts. Networking is vital. We aren’t the only experts … bring other individuals into the classroom to help share information. e.g. join – SchoolNet (www.schoolnet.org.za),  Microsoft Educator Network. (www.pil-network.com), Skype in the classroom. They are free.
• Still asking kids to “hand in” work rather than “publish” their work.Students should be creating (not just for themselves) but also for others. They will be proud of their work because someone else might see it. e.g. creating a blog, sharing on YouTube, etc
• Putting technology ahead of the lesson. Build and design a lesson first … then integrate technology into it.  You can turn a “good” lesson into a “great” lesson with technology integration.

10. Create your own talking avatar using Voki by Miranda Botha

Voki.com is a great site for creating a free talking avatar. Students love using this site.

Archive of tweets

The archive of tweets from the event can be viewed at https://storify.com/fibeal/east-london-teachmeet-at-clarendon-primary-on-tues