Google Sites: a shiny overhaul

The best feature of the rebuilt Google Sites is the drag-and-drop feature which now makes it more user friendly and adds an uncluttered feel to the interface. The newly developed themes adjust to any screen size, which makes it great for mobile access too. The roll-out of the new Google Sites is available if you are on the Early Adopter Program made available first to business users on Google Apps for Work.

Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Google-sites-logo.png

Stress in our lives

https://gvsu.edu/healthwellness/what-is-stress-225.htm

This blog has been neglected over the past few weeks because of... stress. Stressors can amount to anything from the flu, to an demanding manager, to some work deadlines to completing a PhD. The latter being true for me. Juggling family commitments, work, sanity and a writing schedule has proven to take its toll over the past few months.

Yes, I get it. We are all on a journey - a journey you (mostly) choose yourself. The catch however is that you then have to stick with the goals, the learning outcomes, the results, the impression of others... Or is it?

I came across a publication on Issuu called Hijacked by your Brain (2012, Ford and Wortmann). Wow - huge wake-up call! How do we stop stress from hijacking our lives? Growing up in South Africa and choosing to move to another country for the safety and future of my family brings the 'hijacking' topic close to home. "Don't wind down your windows, don't stop at the stop sign late at night, keep on driving even if you have to tail-gate the person in front of you..." Does this sound really alien and law-breaking to you? Maybe you've never been forced into a situation where this was paramount to keeping your family safe - maybe you're lucky enough to have grown up in New Zealand...

I have been granted the privilege of being accepted as a citizen of New Zealand. Moving here 13 years ago with two toddlers, four suitcases, a husband and a leap of faith, we arrived in Auckland to be welcomed by cows in meadows next to the runway and many clean streets devoid of rubbish. It was Utopia - not easy, not straight forward, not simple, heart wrenching - but worth it. We weren't refugees, we weren't outcasts (by choice), we didn't look that different - but in our hearts we belonged nowhere.

Stress - was this stressful? Of course it was! Waking up at 2am in the morning with a 21 month old toddler who was suffering from jetlag and wanted some playtime NOW was stressful - especially if you had a 90 minute drive to your job every morning to keep the family going because your husband was not allowed to work yet and you haven't been granted permanent residence status. The kids couldn't go to Kindy because it was costing double the amount for non-residents...

What do you do? The only thing you know how to - you keep on going, love them as much as you can, work as hard as you can... and still feel like a failure at the end of the day as you cry silently into your pillow on your blow-up mattress out of sheer desperation and exhaustion over money issues and fear.

This is not a tear-jerking attempt at drawing out sympathy - simply telling a story that maybe has not been told and won't be told by my kids because they were too young to remember the details.

Returning to stress and how to cope with it... I've reached a point in my life where I've come to the conclusion that the pressure we put on ourselves is not half as much as the stress that others' expectation put on us. Why is this? Is it a personality trait? Do we all have a narcissist trait that considers this the 'done way'?

You know what? The answer is a big fat NO! We are who we are... we do what we can... all life is inherently good... so? What do we do with this monster called stress?

We listen - we acknowledge - we adapt - we start to be mindful and live in the moment - enjoy the small things - and then - poof!

I think stress will never go away in this century, maybe not even in the next two centuries, but the secret is in greeting the devil when you meet him (it).

Deal with it, react to it, cope with it and share it - isn't that what 21st century learning is all about after all... dealing with stress? Hopefully the environment we are creating for today's learners preparing for tomorrow's jobs is less stressful than the space we create in our own heads, fumed by stress and unrealistic expectations of a results-driven society?

Face the dragon, slay it, conquer it, coax it into submission - but manage your stress and teach your students to be resilient in dealing with the stress in their lives too. Instant gratification? Maybe not, but at least you would feel like a hero when you can say: "I've retrained my brain, I'm dealing with it, bring on the stress because it empowers me to reach new heights!"

Google in the classroom

Te Toi Tupu Maths Symposium

I was privileged to present to a lovely group of Wellington teachers attending the Te Toi Tupu Maths Symposium in Wellington today. Although my background is in music, I work as a facilitator in learning with digital technologies. A colleague and I accepted the invitation to contribute to the day a while ago and it seemed like an exciting opportunity. The challenge was to make it relevant for an audience of mixed interests, skills and teaching experience. I decided that some hands-on activities would provide an easy way to engage an unknown audience. We had some time to see what other teachers have done, time to try out a variety of iPad apps and enough links to resource to provide meaty content for those who wanted to explore the ideas further. Here is the presentation that was shared with the group.

Change is in the air

The annual Google I/O 2014 Developers Conference is currently on in San Francisco. Android Wear, Android Auto and Google Fit were amongst the key announcements. Alongside the big picture implications, Google did not disappoint with some other smaller scale additions to Google Drive. I am highlighting three useful features today.

Google Drive is getting a major overhaul and the best feature is that the red 'compose' button will be replaced simply by a 'new' button.  Microsoft Office documents can now be edited in Google Drive and there is a neat new editing feature for suggesting changes rather than just commenting. Read the full story from Google here.

Friday Freebies

I am a very keen Pinterester and use this visual content curation site on a daily basis. As a gesture of spreading the good news, here is my sharing of the week's best ideas. I am using another online tool, Clipzine, that integrates seamlessly with Pinterest. Have a read and see if you enjoy discovering new ideas in this way.

Back to Blogging

The focus of a workshop next week for one of the schools I support is blogging in the classroom.

This has renewed my focus on both my personal blogging journey and why blogging is a worthwhile educational activity. In preparation for the workshop I have stumbled across some wonderful blogs and helpful tutorials to support a wide range of users - from the very beginners to the seasoned experts.

I would like to share a few of these in support of the good work that is going into blogging, teacher and student support and general teaching in New Zealand schools. The hope is that you might find something to rekindle your interest here if you have neglected your blog for a while, or to inspire you to have a go yourself or with the group of young people you may have in front of you. Either way, I hope you find some inspiration to give it a go!

Allanah King is a seasoned blogger and I am in the lucky situation to have her as a work colleague too. She has converted her blog Bling 4 yr Blog into a free iBook available from the iTunes store. This will definitely keep you busy on a wintery Sunday afternoon.

Amongst the many things to consider when blogging as a class, is the way to make commenting effective. It is great to see that this matter is given careful consideration by effective bloggers and teachers. I found two sets of guidelines that can be very useful for teaching students (and adults) to support their fellow bloggers with constructive comments. The first one is visually very appealing (thanks to another colleague of mine, Catriona Pene).

Visit Catriona's blog http://inspire-innovate-educate.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/blogging-101.html

Sue Waters has an extensive section on her blog, Teacherchallenge about commenting. If you would like to share your thoughts on blogging in the classroom and what you have found useful, please leave a comment!

More curated links here: Blogging

To tweet or not to tweet

Twitter has been on the forefront of my social networking radar this past week. I participated in a very interesting social media workshop on Friday with @justadandak (DK), one of the leading gurus in this field and a prolific Twitterer himself (I'm sure he won't mind being mentioned).

There has also been some lively discussions going on about the use of Twitter in an educational context. I am borrowing here from some of the posts on the Virtual Learning Network and thought it could be a good way of summarising the post for easy access.

Pure Magic of Cloud Sourcing
60 Inspiring examples of Twitter in the classroom
Ultimate Twitter guide for Educators
50 Innovative ways to use Twitter more effectively

I use Twitter on a moderate scale compared to some of the people I follow and the amount of information and ideas I can access in this way enrich my own thinking and professional development. It is also a way to make social interaction on the web more personable.

Do you find Twitter useful / interesting / annoying and how do you use it?

Leave some comments and happy tweeting!