Graphing Song

Well, that was one of the most energising coffee catch-up sessions - thank you, Danielle!! Wandering down Queen Street, I mentioned that I had put some lyrics to "The Wheels on the Bus" to help with graphing. It probably needs fine tuning, and I still want to get it recorded and to put it on YouTube, but I have now been convinced to put the lyrics here to share with the world :)

The Points on a Graph

Sung to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”

The points on a graph are marked with a cross, with a cross, with a cross. The points on a graph are marked with a cross, so we see them clearly.

The x-axis is the independent, independent, independent. The x-axis is the independent; the one you changed on purpose.

The y-axis is the dependent one, the dependent one, the dependent one. The y-axis is the dependent one; the one you had to measure.

Remember to label the axes, label the axes, label the axes. Remember to label the axes, and a scale that suits the data.

With two data sets, include a key, include a key, include a key. With two data sets, include a key which will tell the two lines a-part.

Connect points with a smooth curved line, a smooth curved line, a smooth curved line. Connect points with a smooth curved line, unless a ruler goes right through them.

Give the graph a meaningful title, meaningful title, meaningful title. Give the graph a meaningful title which tells us why you did this.

The points on a graph are marked with a cross, with a cross, with a cross. The points on a graph are marked with a cross, so we see them clearly.

#edSMAC: Stage Two

At the start of the term, I was lucky enough to start working with Philippa from Samuel Marsden Collegiate on a collaborative project, helping our peers build their respective PLNs. I talked about what I hoped this would achieve in an earlier blog post.

After starting with a hiss and a roar, I got a small group into using Twitter and TweetDeck, along with setting up search columns with the hashtags: #edSMAC and #edchatNZ. However, I have hit a bit of a stumbling block trying to move to "Stage Two". Philippa has left me for dust with the great work she is doing with her peers! Time to step up to the plate again...

From the meetings with these great colleagues of mine, I jotted down their goals from working with me and being on Twitter; they all want to build more connections with teachers of the same subjects, as well as other more individual goals. Twitter is not proving successful for all of my peers. Sometimes it is because they are not active enough on it (yet); sometimes it is because there aren't many other educators in their subject area out there tweeting. So, I need to find some other ways to help these wonderful people build their respective PLNs. Ironically, I sent out an SOS via...Twitter.

Another avenue to help my peers fell into my lap after EduIgnite last week. Sadly, none of my little group were available to attend EduIgnite, but I think the conversation that happened with Pauline Henderson, Bridget Compton-Moen, Aimee Sibson and Rob Clarke might just open some doors for them. #ChchEd was "reborn" (it had been used shortly after the earthquakes by Dr Cheryl Doig in an attempt to connect Christchurch educators). We have a Teach-Meet tomorrow and I can see this being a way to help connect the Christchurch education community, including my little #edSMAC crew.

As a side note, I have also been lucky enough to be granted funding to send myself and five peers to the #edchatNZ Conference in August. All of the staff going with me are part of #edSMAC, so I am very hopeful and expectant that this conference will help build PLNs even more.

So, #edSMAC is hopefully about to enter Stage Two at St Andrew's College...