When it comes to setting goals I like the SMART concept:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Timely

The goals we set for our program or project must be transparent.

The goals and objectives we set need to be very specific. When examined the goals and the  benefits derived from them must be clearly and easily seen. How often have we seen objectives and goals that clouded, complex and broad. Many goals also tend to be fluid and dynamic, a moving goal like a moving target is much hard to hit.

Part of any successful project, and therefore its goals is being able to measure when you have achieved it, how far you have progressed and how far you have to go. Hence our goals & objectives should be measurable. We need to be able to accurately set the goals and the milestones we need to reach them. To be measurable we need to breakdown the task, project or program into small steps or increments.

Each step we take in completing our task should be achievable. For it to be something we can complete we should consider several different aspects:

• Cost – can we do it within our budget?
• Skills – do we have the skills to complete this or do we have to use other skills sources
• Resources - do we have the resources available to achieve the goal?
• Do we have time to complete this task? Can we do it within the time frame we have?

One of the biggest questions to ask is “Is this project Relevant?” This refers back to the expectations of the community that is driving the project or program. With in relevance we should ask “what are the benefits of this programme or project?” What will we be able to deliver? Will these be relevant, useful and appropriate to our end users?

Our goals must be timely. We need the project to be delivered and available when we need it and when our students need it. The timing for the goals & objectives and there milestones we take must be specific, achieveable and realistic.

Our goals and objectives must bring benefits to us. To obtain these benefits these outcoms we must be able to plan to reach these goals. Setting and planning for goals should be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

2. For the history educators – this site is looking at “the man behind Hitler” Joesph Gobbels – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/ and some of the propaganda he produced – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/gallery/index.html

3. From History on the Net http://www.historyonthenet.com/Nazi_Germany/nazigermanymain.htm This site looks at Nazi Germany

4. Open Chemistry - http://openchemistry.co.uk/ this is an open chemistry site producing free resources availzable to all. Another good one for chemistry is http://periodictable.com/ and also http://www.periodicvideos.com/

5. Crime mapper - http://maps.police.uk/ this is a UK police tool that mashes data from various sources with maps to produce interesting results – searchable by area. This is a great tool for Humanities and information technology.

6. Commoncraft show – Cloud computing in plain english http://commoncraft.com/cloud-computing-video This is another BRILLIANT resource from Lee LeFever and the guys at Commoncraft. This is a very useful professional development resource and resource for teaching computing and computers.

7. Firefox turns 5 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ULDH90H530&feature=player_embedded This is a video celebrating 5 years of Mozilla’s firefox browser. The video is fun and raises some interesting questions from its unique perspective. This is another great resource for teaching computing and professional development.

8. Darwin, a naturalists voyage -http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/dossiers/dosdarwinE/darwin.html This science, biology and history themed site provides an interesting insight into the Journey of Charles Darwin. Click on the link and watch the animation and listen to the sound track.

9 And finally from a blog I subscribe to – Information is beautiful – http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/interesting-easy-beautiful-true/

One of the problems that all of the productivity suites have is the level of complexity for the younger students. Many adult users do not come close to the full capacity of their productivity suite and students particularly in the younger years certainly wont.

So imagine my suprise when this morning Miguel Guhlin and Julie Lindsay both posted in there blogs about OOo4Kids – open Office for Kids.

This is great. Its still in Beta, but the screenshots look excellent and I have downloaded the Beta to trial.

The layout is simplified, the icons larger and clear and better suited for the younger learners. The removal of the majority of the buttons makes its more applicable (see below). I am looking forward to this coming out of Beta and into Gold.

So it suits younger users, is free, small download, is ethical (you are not pirating it). Excellent

http://wiki.ooo4kids.org/index.php/Main_Page

Download – http://wiki.ooo4kids.org/index.php/Download

Video demo – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJkyPcP-TeU&feature=player_embedded

This is a brilliant aid to the science teacher and the senior biologist. So lets see what this site has for us…

1. Homepage (http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/) – this links through to a variety of pages, most with a genetics theme but also an interesting look at the ecology of salt lake.

2. Amazing cells (http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/) – this is the portal page for animations, interactive activities, videos and alike – a couple of stand out pages are: Cell size and scale http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/(a brilliant interactive resources showing cell etc) and Inside a cell http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/insideacell/(this interactive allows you to select cell compenets and have these explained to you)

They also produce resources for teachers – http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/ for cell biology.

3. The Genetics section is also very well resourced with sections on:

• Protien synthesis – http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/dna/
• Heredity - http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/
• Epigenetics – http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/
• Cloning – http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/

Plus a great resource page which indexes their easily accessable materials and lesson plans – http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/

4.Tap into the world of comics - http://www.slideshare.net/shend5/tap-into-the-world-of-comics this is a slideshare presentation on 21 uses for comics in the classroom and contains some great resources

5. Finally a quick one from the read write web  – what will the internet look like in 5 years time – http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_web_in_five_years.php – This is from Google’s Eric Schmidt

Available as a free download or as a low cost pro version this is a neat tool. As it is an Adobe Air tool it does require Air to be installed and this is available from the adobe website

Worth a play certainly – age groups  – I would have to say all ages with a slightly more senior focus due to the formal interface. But really anyone with a bit of creativity will have fun. The end products are exported as an image in PNG format.

She uses her fingers and sand.

This is stunning. An excellent example of performance, visual imagery, imagination and emotion. I could see this as an excellent resources for English, the performing arts and music.

Here is the URL – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnfO4R1OUxY

Ksenya Simonova

1. Working on the food chain - http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/storybooks/foodchain.html this is a simple explanation of a food chain. A good resource suiting younger students – upper Junior & lower middle school.

2. Cell visualisation project – http://www.kenneth-eward.com/cvp/cvpindex.html This is a more senior site with resources for the cell. Good graphics. The home site has a number of other resources that you may find of benefit – http://www.kenneth-eward.com/index.html

3. Purpose games – http://www.purposegames.com/ this is a site that hosts educational and quiz games. Really its a portal that you should consider visiting.

4. 35 + educational games http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/10/35-educational-games-and-games.html Free technology for teachers is one of my favourite sites and this is an excellent collection of educational games.

5. Web 2 tools for schools – http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/ This is an excellent wiki developed by a New Zealand Colleague Lenva. A great resources.

6. Starter sheets http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Starter+Sheets Professional development  and teaching resources for commonweb 2 tools

1. The Maths Apprentice - http://www.mathapprentice.com/Activity/explore.html – this is a fun primary and middle years site for mathematics. Directed at the younger audience. Worth considering using with an IWB.

2. Kids online – me and mymaths - http://www.kidsolr.com/math/math.html – again for the yiounger middle years audience, but a useful amth site with potential for IWB use too.

3. Dan’s Maths - http://www.dansmath.com/ – this sit is directed at the more senior school audience but is still applicable to midle school students

4. Maths helpAtube - http://www.mathatube.com/ – Video tutorialsa dn resources for mathematics – this is a great site well worth a forage. While not directly associated but worth investigating is teachertube – http://www.teachertube.com

5. US Government Data - http://www.data.gov/ this is a great source of accurate information and statistics. Applicable to mathematics, humanities and many other subject areas. This is a great resource.

6. Infographic Maps – http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/30-superb-examples-of-infographic-maps/ Web designer depot is a blog I subscribe to and it provide a wide range of interesting sites and resources. This one has some excellent examples of inforgraphics that are well worth looking at.

7. Ofcom report on Children and Media – http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consumer/2009/10/more-children-have-broadband-in-the-bedroom/ OfCom is the Office of Communication in the UK. This offering is a report on Media and children. Here is one statistic worth considering “35 per cent of 12-15s and 16 per cent of 8-11s now have web access in their bedrooms“. Worth also visiting is the mashable post on net usage http://mashable.com/2009/10/14/net-usage-nielsen/

8. Online comic creation tool – Howtoons – http://www.howtoons.com/ – A nice online cartoon/comic tool which allows you to export as a PDF file. Free

9. How to give a lousy presentation – http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/aug2009/sb20090825_379576.htm This is one of those time to refelct articles. As you read through this post do you cringle a little?

As always these sites are also posted on my Delicious account - http://del.icio.us/achurches

1. National Atmospheric and oceanic admistration – http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/ This is a government site with some good visualisations and animations on weather etc. Good use of satellite images  – worth a visit

2. Science net links – http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/systems.html This interactive starts with a voice saying “please help me I have lost all my organs” – from there the students have to help him rebuild his digestive tract, nervous system and others. The base site http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/ is also worth visiting too..

3. Climate Challenge – http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/ This is a BBC science/climate game. Well worth looking at. Here is the lead line for it “A game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office”

4. Connect2change – http://www.connect2climate.org/Mobile_Games.htm this is a site with a difference as it is games for mobile phones. The theme is climate change. Interesting.

5. Copenhagen Challenge – http://www.copenhagenchallenge.org/ Another climate change challenge game. This one is web based rather than mobile based. Here is the lead line from this Educational game “The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 – COP15, is being hosted by Denmark in Copenhagen in December this year. The Danish government’s goal for COP15 is to establish an ambitious global climate agreement which will apply to the period after 2012..”

6. V Gas – Energy Lifestyles and climate – http://alba.jrc.it/vgas/ This is a download and play game produced by the European Commission Joint Research Center.Also worth a visit is the Joint Research Center – http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm

7. Learning games for Kids - http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/ This is a site for the younger students hosting a variety of different games.

These sites are bookmarked on my delicious site – http://delicious.com/achurches

Here is my weekly catch from the net.

1. Alternative to – http://alternativeto.net/desktop this website is present you with alternative application to common or popular software and web based tools. This is an excellent tool for those of us with limited budgets.

2.Science visualisations – http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/visualizations/all/1# This is a wired science sumamtion of the best visualisation videos of 2009. This is an excellent resource for science teachers and can add variety into your teaching program. This opbviously appeals to the visual learner

3. How are maps made up from aerial and satellite images – http://qanda.encyclopedia.com/question/topographic-maps-created-aerial-and-satellite-photographs-78979.html – this is an article I found recently which explained how topo maps use images. very interesting and useful for the humanities students and particulalry the geographers.

4. What browser – http://www.whatbrowser.org/ this is a useful resource site for IT classes and also for explaining about a web browser. This site looks at trhe web btrowser youa re using and provides you with some insights into it. For those who are interested it also links to a time line for web browsers - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers#Graphical_Timeline

5. e-Glossary http://www.glencoe.com/apps/eGlossary612/grade.php this site produced by McGraw-Hill provides a useful and age specific glossary of mathematical terms. A useful learning aid for teachers and students alike.

Hope these are useful – As always I ave posted these to my Del.icio.us account - http://delicious.com/achurches