The future

There are occasions when I do have to stop and wonder where human kind will ever stop.  I just purchased a new 3D printer for our school - very exciting to think our students will be able to print off what they design and create.  I was quite happily thinking we are doing a justice for our children - we are keeping up with technology in our little country school.  I still believe we are but then I struck this video while scrolling through my facebook news feed - this is amazing!

When you see things like this - it does make you stop and wonder though... where will it stop?  10 years ago IPads did not even exist, now almost everyone has a tablet of some description.  Our lives just keep changing exponentially and sometimes you just have to stop and wonder with complete and utter awe about what the future could possibly hold.

My guess is;  whatever these children of today want it to become!

Internet Safety

Internet safety is becoming an increasingly important topic for all schools.  How can we help keep our students safe in such a volatile environment where we have little control?
I think the key has to be information.  Sharing information with students, parents, teachers, wider staff, the school community...  The more people know and understand the better informed we can all be when making decisions about safe internet use for our students.
Over the upcoming months we will be totally overhauling our school's internet procedures and usage.  We will be endeavoring to make the usage our students have as safe as we can whilst still teaching them the necessary skills to become digital citizens.

In the meantime, and totally unrelated to this topic, enjoy this lovely stop motion clip made by our talented senior kids!

How many parents consider this important?

Life hacking is a 'newish' concept that I think is critically important to us all.  We are all so busy talking about getting our children ready for a future but when did we all stop to think about this:

If my teenager could speak like this and discuss these sorts of concepts I would know that as a parent I had supported my child to be ready for their own future - not the one I kept dreaming for them!

Time

As a principal I listen to people talking about time all of the time!  There is never enough time to do anything...  This is the most common statement.
I hear it from everyone, including myself.  It does make me reflect occasionally on what we can actually do about it.  I also wonder how children fare.  As adults I think we often tend to forget that children can feel stress as well, by doing so much with our children are we increasing their opportunities at the risk of their health and overall well-being?
I struck this information sheet the other day while trawling through Upworthy and it just made me stop and wonder why we do it to ourselves...  A little food for thought!

New beginnings

This year I decided to learn more about photography, digital scrapbooking and try to live a better, healthier life!  I will be using my blog to post updates and snippets along the way.
Cant wait to upload my first Digital Scrapbook Kit - Learning to use Photoshop has been a lot of fun!

Upworthy

I found this website called Upworthy by looking through recommendations of Facebook.  Maybe all of my humanitarian likes led me to this, maybe it was a friend of mine who already liked it...  I don't really care how because I found it!  I love Upworthy.  It really is worthy use of the internet.
I found this little nugget today and just had to share it with everyone.  This is amazing.

Now enjoy

All parents should read this

I found this little snippet on facebook.  It was posted by a friend of mine who also teaches.
I think it is an interesting read that might help parents to understand there are reasons children do well - and they aren't what you would expect!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/six-of-the-best-the-traits-your-child-needs-to-succeed-8899903.html

Do have a read.