Nutty Nutritionists Wiki

Our group worked on "Healthy lunchbox and Hygiene" and produced an authentic task that ran over a 5 week period addressing the criteria of the Year 4 level of the K-10 Scope and Sequence in Health and Physical Education.

You can view our wiki here at the "Nutty Nutritionists" home page and follow the page links to view our authentic task, teacher resources and lesson overviews.

To view our presentation PowerPoint that we uploaded to authorstream you can click on the visual below or likewise Click here

I believe we have produced a very good resource for any teacher to use either as is or for a guide n=making changes to give their personal touch to the program.

I have gained a lot from doing this assignment and I am very grateful for the wiki resources of other groups that I am sure will benefit me in my teaching. This collaborative exercise is a fantastic initiative to assist us in upcoming pracs and our early days of teaching. I have never received anything like this in any other unit.

TEAM Work

                                                                (ViVaNSE, 2011)

At the beginning of the assignment I watched this YouTube which was on the companion website  under Group Teacher assignment 3A situated  under the support tutorials and tools section. I found it to be invaluable as it was a great reminder of Team Work.After I watched it I was reminded of things like accountability, responsibility and commitment and I took these thoughts into our group meetings.

"Members create an environment that allows everyone to go BEYOND their LIMITATIONS" (ViVaNSE, 2011).

I have had a lot of experience working in teams over the years but this does not mean that I am an expert and I too need to be reminded of these concepts. I also was conscious of the fact that I am in my third year of studies and the others have only just commenced uni.I knew that I could be of a benefit to the others but I was only one component of the team so I would have to hold back on certain things and let the others contribute.

I have just sat here and watched the YouTube again,after we have completed our group assignment and I truly can say that the meaning of Team was absent many times in our group. I don't wish to be negative however I feel it is a good exercise to use such a powerful tool like this YouTube to help me understand better how if things were done differently our group project would have been a more positive experience.

On reflection these things appeared issues:

• Members share authority and responsibility for self management - If you can't make a meeting it only takes communicating with another member. We had shared all group members contact details however some members chose not to communicate which left meetings being only attended by some members who were then forced to make decisions on moving forward.

• Quality Collaboration- If everyone had stood up and completed what they personally chose to do in the time frame agreed upon at meetings I could say that we would have experienced quality collaboration. Rather than the rest of us becoming despondent towards the completion of this assignment to the level we had first set, we discussed together how we were feeling and how we could go about this. We turned this into a positive and just got in and got the job done ourselves.

• Teamwork is simply putting W before Ego- I feel that I encouraged my peers to keep working towards our teams goals no matter who ended up doing some of the tasks. I can truly say that I am proud of the way that some team members turned this around.

• Members help one another, help other team members reach their true potential.At the end of the day our wiki and our presentation were finished to the level we set out.  I know that everyone will have their own feelings on this and only themselves can weigh up their contribution and how this makes them feel. I personally know that this is a common thing with uni group work so I don't get too head up over it. I just do what I raise my hand to do and try to pick up any pieces along the way. At the end of the day I needed this to be completed so I could gain a reasonable assessment. 

I know that I can say that I contributed to the following:

• Members help one another, help other team members reach their true potential. I know that I have demonstrated a strong commitment to helping other team members to gain a stronger understanding of various things in this unit. I am willing, sometimes too willing to support other students to be able to improve their standing. One day it may be me in need and I hope that someone will offer me the support that I show to others. 

I have bookmarked this YouTube as I think it is a very valuable resource for me to watch again and again. Reflection is the best thing to allow yourself to reach the truth about what you have achieved in a team situation. 

Searching for Refereed Conference Papers or Conference Proceedings

I was having a fair amount of trouble trying to find a refereed conference paper for my assignment  using Find it. I was searching for Assistive Technologies and clicking on the scholary selection in the top menu box on the LHS of the screen. When I would do this the conference page would disappear from the screen leaving me with only to be able to search for some of the items on the list. I knew there must be something else I had to do so I left it and when I was next at uni I went and saw Pim at the help desk in the library and once again she was so willing to lend a hand. The beauty of having the Library staff help you is that they have their computer set up so you, the student sit opposite them at the help desk but you have a screen in front of you to allow you to follow everything that they are doing on the main screen. This is a fantastic tool as it is really authentic in your learning.

So we set about finding out what I had to do and Pim suggested that my search Assistive Technologies needed to be refined. She told me to truncate it, which means that you place an *(asterick) after a certain part of a word and it will widen your search to include any ending to that part of a word. Pim chose to put in Assistive Technolog* and then we asked for a scholary search and voila there was the conference paper on the menu with a number beside it. So the search was on any words that link to Assistive Technolog - so this could be technologies, technology etc.

Truncating is a good thing to rememeber for further searching I do.

 It had disappeared before, because the search I was doing did not come up with a match so it eliminates all types without a match.

I feel I have learnt a lot about the Findit facility and all the ins and outs that go with it through trial and error. I had a laugh with Pim and said that I may get the hang of it by the end of my degree and her reply with a chuckle was that’s good but guess what they will probably change it all on you too!

Group Assignment Meeting One

12th April 2012

We met in meeting room one at the Rockingham library at 10am as agreed the week before. Unfortunately Shelley could not make the start of the meeting but she joined us later in the morning. Everyone seemed very keen to get moving with this project and all seemed happy to make the effort to attend uni even though it was our assigned break. Nothing like keeping routine in your life!

We began by working through the group project brainstorming document and since I had my laptop with me with Eduroam working I agreed to sign in to the group and take the records of our meeting. For some reason I could not get on to the docs as it appeared that I had not been given access so no problem I had printed out the form and just filled it in.

We agreed on our group learning goals and made the decision to aim to address the High Distinction criteria of the marking rubric and to follow process of the marking rubric as our two key goals. we also set ground rules/Code of conduct that we would communicate via email or text messages between group members as well as hold regular meetings.

Group meetings were set to be held on:
Thursday 19/4/12 and 20/4/12 between 10am-12noon to allow members to get to afternoon workshops.

Our teaching topic was decided to be 'Healthy Lunchbox and Food Safety' and our chosen year group is Year 4. This would definitely fit in with the Health and Physical Eduction K-10 Scope and Sequence.

We all listed individual skills and agreed to go home and work on agreed areas and bring back to the next meeting.

I spoke with Shelley about the Google docs setup and she said she had done it all and I should be authorised to use the site. After a bit of digging around I discovered that she had entered the incorrect email address for me and Jo so she used my computer and set our access up. This will be great as I can then go home and do the write up from the meeting to allow everyone to have a copy of there to do lists and also everyone can add to the docs whenever they like to keep everyone up to speed with things. I like the feel of this way of communication already.

On a personal note I came home not quite sure about which direction we were heading. I suppose I am thinking of things from a third year student who has had a fair amount of experience using the Curriculum framework and K-10 scope and sequence both at uni and also when I was working in schools. I feel I may have been taken the wrong way with some suggestions and when I tried to discuss the opportunities of cross curricular planning with this topic. I understand that this is group work so I shall try and sit back a bit, within reason.

Using Find it

The best way to explain using Findit is to view the following diagram that I found on the Murdoch library site. Here is the link direct to this article you will find some useful Frequently asked questions that may help you solve a mystery!

How do I use Findit?

First use the single search box, then use the options shown below to refine your results.
Tip: If you want to search by author or title, use the Advanced Search option.








(Murdoch University, 2012)
 

• Use the Advanced Search and type the journal name in the From this publication box. If you want to search a particular issue add the relevant details to the Volume and Issue boxes.

 

I have found Findit easier to use now that I have carried out this research assignment as it has allowed me to try all the variables.

Here is a YouTube that I found on how to use Findit through another university showing us that Findit is a worldwide tool for the benefit of all.

Group Assignment

For assignment task 3 we have a group work component to our learning. We had to form groups in our workshops so our one is made up of five of us who sit together as 'A' group on Thursday's Rockingham workshop. We are all 'mature' aged students doing our Primary School teaching degree.

We decided in our last workshop that it would be advantageous if we utilised the following three Thursday's when we had a break week and then the two online weeks by meeting as a group to plan and carry out our work for the presentation. I mentioned to the group that we are able to book a meeting room in the Rockingham Library and I offered to make the bookings and let everyone know the room details. I have previously blogged about this free service to students in which I shall link here.

Shelley offered to set up the group Google Docs for us and we were to receive notice to sign up as authorised users. Jo organised us all to fill in 5 contact sheets, filling in our contact details and passing on to the next group member to complete with all of us receiving a copy for reference. It was good that everyone was so enthusiastic to get the ball rolling. We discussed the fact of utilising information from our research assignment so to report back to the first meeting if you felt your research topic would be an appropriate choice.

Jenni had put a Group Project Brainstorming template for our use in which we had agreed we would complete at the first meeting.


Stay tuned for our meeting updates.

Google Guide

I have picked up a copy of the 2012 Edition of the Google Guide, a magazine that is a complete guide. I hear Jenni talk of many things with google but I have not had time to check them all out.

When I was having trouble with my blogging on Yola I asked Jenny about alt4ernative website/blog sites to use. She mentioned that she uses Google Docs for heaps of things. Just like the iPad for beginners magazine I purchased at the same time I can see many hours of reading and playing with technologies ahead of me!

There are a lot of YouTubes on how to use Google like the one below