Most popular searches

Blanche from TVNZ flicked through this link today (20 February 2009) from www.yahoo.co.nz

• Speights Coast to Coast
• Jetstar
• Mathletics
• Top Gear
• Air New Zealand

More from Yahoo!Xtra Search

There are pre-schools out there that prepare their students for school but I found this Premire College in Chatswood Sydney. What is it preparing it’s students for?

mire  (from www.dictionary.com )
noun, verb, mired, mir⋅ing.

–noun

1.	a tract or area of wet, swampy ground; bog; marsh.

2.	ground of this kind, as wet, slimy soil of some depth or deep mud.

–verb (used with object)

3.	to plunge and fix in mire; cause to stick fast in mire.

4.	to involve; entangle.

5.	to soil with mire; bespatter with mire.

–verb (used without object)

6.	to sink in mire or mud; stick.

Sounds like a really useful form of education!

Ooops!

I was privileged to meet Scott Flansburg aka the Human Calculator this week in Sydney.

I was not only impressed by his mathematical abilities but also his skill at communicating his concepts to audiences, whether they were students, teachers or our group of skilful programmers.

Scott has also announced that he is joining 3P Learning’s World Maths Day Education Team putting out a challenge to students around the world to unite to beat last year’s record of correctly answering 182,445,169 questions in one day.

The World Maths Day site opens for registrations on 15 February for practice and World Maths Day is on Wednesday 4 March. bbbb

Congratulations to Jayne, the UK Team, and everyone behind Mathletics on gaining the 2009 BETT AWARD for Primary Digital Content.

More later ….

View north from Millers Flat Bridge, Central Otago

It already feels like the new year has started as I sit in my office and clear out the detritus of 2008 and make lists for 2009.

I get easily distracted as I ponder whether I need to keep a piece of paper or whether it should be binned or shredded or if a particular snippet of information is safely enough buried in my cerebral hard drive to be recalled if needed.

I form piles and then prune the piles, carefully saving the paper that is only used on one side for future scribblings. I don’t scribble enough to use it all <note to self> scribble more in 2009 to utilise the box of scrap paper hiding behind my desk </note to self>.

Of less damage to the environment is the digital pruning. Documents that have been superceded or updated or are just plain obsolete are deleted. Next on the list – email! I’m a filer and archiver rather than a deleter and am way up there with my digital footprint on the company mail server. Maybe I have too much ruth (isn’t that the opposite of ruthless?) and should shed some of it in 2009.

And then there’s that book in my book shelf “Getting a grip on Time – Productivity and life balance made easy” by Robyn Pearce. I must read that. However it shares shelf space with another (much larger) book “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder” by Eric Abrahamson and David H Freedman.

I like this para from the book

“As both John Steinbeck and the University of Texas researchers pointed out, our personalities tend to be more clearly expressed in our disorder than in our neatness. When we are being ruthless about ridding ourselves of what naturally accumulates around us and about meticulously straightening out what remains, we are in a sense tidying our identities. The truth is, we are all at least a bit of a mess – and all the more interesting for it.” p. 145

And what about resolutions for 2009? I’m still thinking about it but I figure that it may be best to make ones that can be fulfilled in the first week or the new year rather than broken in that week. Then you have the rest of the year to feel virtuous!

There’s a great new site out there in the big www that is teaching kids how to read in an engaging and effective way. The site is Reading Eggs from Blake Publishing in Australia.

You can try out some free lessons here and even sign up for a free 14 day licence.

I have mentioned this site to many schools and new entrant teachers and the response is always the same – they love it and want it! I note that they have now brought out schools pricing for Australia and a CDROM version when you don’t have a broadband connection.

The graphics are bright and clear, the characters are fun and funky and the lesson structure is clear and well-paced. I wish we could get the books in NZ too!

Congratulations Blake on taking learning to read to this new and exciting level. 

Give it a go!

More exciting news for Mathletics!

Google have released statistics for the top searched for terms in New Zealand for 2008.

The year’s fastest rising search was for the Olympics reflecting the interest the New Zealand public had in the performance of New Zealand athletes in Beijing but coming in at number 17 is the Mathletics website.

From the PC World Magazine -

“The year’s fastest rising search was for the Olympics, reflecting the strong performance of New Zealand athletes in Beijing. But, showing that New Zealanders are into brain as well as brawn, the large hadron collider and ‘mathletics’ also made the top 20.”

Fastest rising searches of 2008
1. olympics
2. facebook
3. youtube
4. lotto
5. wiki
6. seek
7. miniclip
8. asb
9. tvnz
10. large hadron collider
11. heath ledger
12. obama
13. gossip girl
14. jonas brothers
15. miley cyrus
16. euro 2008
17. mathletics

Mathletics NZ recently hosted the 2008 NZ Maths Week Challenge when over 20,000 Kiwi kids went online and solved Maths problems and competed against other students in online challenges. This generated an enormous amount of interest in the site as students discovered that Maths was enjoyable and fun!

Congratulations to 3P Learning UK and also to the development and publishing team at 3P in Gordon, Australia on the announcement that Mathletics has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Primary digital content section for the annual BETT Awards to be announced in London in January 2009.

This is a prestigious award and can be described as the Oscars of the educational technology world.

Jayne Warburton, the UK General Manager, and the UK 3P team are also exhibiting at the BETT Conference at Olympia in January culminating in the awards at the London Hilton Ballroom. It totally warrants a new frock!

“The awards recognise outstanding education sector products and learning solutions, and judges review the entries based on criteria including design, cost-effectiveness, support of higher-order skills and effective learning and teaching styles.”

 

The Information Age has been responsible for the creation, evolution and addition of many terms and acronyms to to our vocabulary.  They are mainly in the form of nouns but occasionally a verb spins off. Google would have to be the best example. It was a product, now it is something you do!

Similarly kids when they are playing against other students in Live Mathletics don’t just play or challenge each other – they verse each other. 

Its international too! I’ve heard it in Kiwi schools and read it in class blogs from schools around the world. Its one of those words that has formed naturally – from our Global Digital Natives. Teachers use it as well!

From Nannygoat Hill http://nannygoathill.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/slang/

verse – v.t., to take part in a one-on-one contest, especially on a console game. “I’m versing someone at Mathletics.” “Can I verse you next?” Probably a back-formation from “versus”, I reckon this one has staying power, since there’s no really good succinct alternative.

I’ve swept the blog clean once again and am forced into print to address a pressing issue (having dealt rather forcefully to the other pressing issue, the ironing mountain, last Saturday).

This rant is prompted by a coincidence of incidences – Derek’s delightful posting on the MoE double gaffe, my flight read of the moment (Eats Shoots and Leaves) and lots of emails reinforcing my fear that some in the education community are losing their grip on language.

The English language is a wonderful and complex thing, its effective use paints a third dimension into a two dimensional printed world. Much as British comedy is lauded for its mastery at delivering script with multiple meanings, so the learned use of the English language adds a richness and depth to conversation and the written word.

I perceive that there are two ways that a piece of writing can move us to tears or laughter. The first and noblest is by the clever use of language where a world is created around the word and our own experience is invited in with the writer’s direction to create a unique and meaningful story, a multi-dimensional vision. The second is where the writer misspells and misuses the English language in an unintentionally amusing or agonising way.

I am becoming increasingly convinced that the decline in correct usage is caused by a plain lack of reading and observation skills. I would think that if someone signed their name Bryan we would not address them as Brian, or if we passed the sign on the Principal’s door every day we would not write of them as “The Principle”. Yet it happens. Teachers are confused about their roles and rolls, plurals are mistakenly apostrophised and apostrophes indicating possession are totally confused and confusing.

In an age where near enough is good enough in literacy we still need to turn out programmers, engineers, accountants, doctors and sign writers whose jobs demand accuracy and care.

And if you can’t see what’s wrong with this picture – you really need Spellodrome!