What a great time to be a teacher!!

Starting a new year often allows time for reflection but also a chance to think in new ways about old challenges and new ones that might happen this year. Having been working on my Masters of Education and participating on the conference junkit for the last few years I have stretched my professional learning far more than I would have ever imagined. The last few years have been rich with sharing, pondering and experimentation and it's not going to end anytime soon.

Google for Education Certified Trainer

Like many teachers in the break you get to do some serious thinking and learning without all the other usual distractions. I am so pleased to have been accepted as a Google for Education Certified Trainer. This means that I will be sharing much more about Google for Education this year.

You have heard it first from me that this year I will be providing FREE training for those wishing to learn about Google for Education. If you are on the Central Coast in NSW, Australia then you can stop on by. Stop by for some afternoon tea, networking and learning. You can check out the dates on the calendar for the group that might suit you. Tech and Tea will provide you with hands on training that suits your learning group.

Tech and Tea - Primary teachers

Tech and Tea  - High School Teachers

Tech and Tea - VET teachers

Virtual Reality

Just for fun in the holidays my 14 year old son and I decided to try and nut out how we could do some serious virtual reality apps for carpentry students. We both love the Microsoft Hololens and even though we don't have one we thought we might be able to code for it. Here is the video of our project and we are hoping to use it soon.

Sketchfab

I would like to make a shout out to a colleague of mine Shane Johnson, a carpentry teacher in the North Coast region. He shared some of his ideas about how we could use augmented reality for carpentry students and boy were my fellow carpentry teachers at work excited. This is a great app for 3D modelling and one we will be using this year.

I guess in terms of virtual reality I will be closely watching how drones can be used to capture construction pics and video we can use for teaching and learning as well as new virtual reality goggles and apps that will be rolled out in mass over the next few years. It is such an exciting time to be a teacher. There is a real technology revolution that is exploding and it's fun to be part of.

Hope all my teaching friends have a great year!

Until next time,
Kathryn