"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."

~Neale Donald Walsch~

Friday 28 October 2011

The Company Director

Well this week has certainly been an eventful one. Have mostly been at work teaching all the lovely students at Lakes but some major developments have occurred.

I was able to see the accountant Jean McCloed and get some advice on what company structure would suit me best for my business. She was so helpful and given me the steps I need to get started.

So I am now the Director of eLearning Educational Solution Pty Ltd. The company is registered with ASIC and I am on my way. No turning back. Had a lead from two friends this week. My friend Steve is the head of IT at the Ourimbah Campus and he said I could book out a room or computer lab for my business to run tutorials. He also suggested I get in contact with the head of education as she might be able to pass on my courses to teachers about to graduate. Another friend Steve (fundly enough he is other Steve's brother -in-law) also suggested that I could contract out to other companies who run courses similar to mine. The ideas and offers keep rolling in. My God is good.

Since meeting with Sally I have become an avid Twitter reader. I have found more useful sites like popplet.com for making cool mindmaps. Read an interesting article on teachers in Finland. Did you know you can only apply to be a teacher in Finland if you get a score of 90 or more in your final exams and you don't become a teacher until you have a Masters! What rigorous training. Wish they had it here!

Was feeling very overwhelmed by the task ahead a few weeks ago and came down with the Shingles so I now feel great and am approaching things one step at a time in order to not get too stressed. Told my Boss at work about my company and he was great. Best boss ever. He was very supportive.

Am planning on starting my Cert IV in Training and Assessment this week.

Until next week,
K

Friday 21 October 2011

Yeah Twitter

Had a great day on Tuesday with my good pal Sally who is an expert in Twitter. She was able to show me the ropes with Twitter but also gave me some ideas as to how this can be incorporated into the classroom. Have discovered that following the right sort of feeds is essential. You don't want to waste your time with people who think they know stuff but really it's all fluff. Have found a few really good people to follow. # Hash tags are a great way of joining a discussion group or creating one of your own. Hootsuite was an app I downloaded as a way of organising your streams. Really find it useful.

#edchat and #ukedchat are very helpful when seeing what other educators are doing in different parts of the world.

Some of the discussions with collegues at work this week has been how can teachers meaningfully display students digital work. Was able to give them some options like Issuu, Google Sites, Google Groups, Museum Box, Glogster to name a few.

Unable to get to the Accountant to register my company. Hopefully next week.

A few great sites I found this morning were Free Music Archive and Vimeo (alternative to Youtube)

Hoping to start Cert IV this week after registering company.

Until next week,
K

Friday 14 October 2011

Overwhelmed but excited

This week has been really exciting but overwhelming. I have managed to continue to surf the net and find some new cool sites. Museum Box is a great site for history teachers to display a topic their students have been researching. I also have been watching some Google Apps Webinars which have been really helpful in my journey to become a Google Apps Trainer.

This week I have pursued enrolling in the Cert IV for Training and Assessment and will start hopefully in the next week or so. I am meeting with an accountant this week to formalise my company and then I will get started. I sat down and wrote all the potential courses I could provide and found I have about 20 I could run on a regular basis.

I have had some interesting conversations with people this week as to where I can go with my Business. Firstly I thought I would just have PD for teachers. Now I really want to also teach students. During the week I had a conversation with a friend who suggested that I also teach parents. I could do a class at the community college. Someone also suggested I do a tutorial with the home schoolers. Someone also suggested I go to the uni and run a course for the students who are just about to leave to become new teachers. So my options are really out there and are coming to me. Praise God.

My faith in God is essential to this journey. I can see his big plan for me and I am humbled by his great love for me. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Until next week,
K

Friday 7 October 2011

Going into Business

Well I have really been enjoying learning a heap more on youtube but during the school holidays it is really hard to find the extra time and energy to work on my idea.

I have decided to set up my own company. eLearning Educational Solutions. I like the sound of it. I am going to offer a variety of courses on that will help both students and teacher utilise all the net has to offer to learn and study. I am very excited and have been looking at all the different requirements by law that I have to do to become a business. I will also have to get approval for my courses from the teachers institute so I can offer accredited courses that teachers will get credit for professional development.

I will firstly have to register my new company and then will have to complete my Cert IV in Training and Assessment. I am going to spend the next twelve months setting up my Business and then I am going to get started.

I am going to look into Drupal to power my site and I plan to have a go at this soon.

Until next time,
K

Monday 3 October 2011

Youtube- Teachers greatest friend

This week I have spent some time looking at the various ways you can use Youtube both in and out of the classroom. The new teachers Studio or teacher tube is great for ideas. I am going to further investigate how you can make your youtube site interactive. I think it would be great to post a combination of lessons and you tube videoes on your site. Great for exam refresher. I like the idea of combining your screen castings with your other videos on a particular topic.

I have ordered my epad from RM education and can't wait until it arrives. Will try it out at school in the next few weeks. I am learning great new things each week and am really enjoying the journey. I have decided that I love flip teaching and I am going to investigate this further. I have a friend who is going to show me how she uses Twitter for educational purposes and I am looking forward to spending time with her as she shows me the ropes on Twitter.

Until next week,
K