User:Alan Grant

My profile
HI everyone, my name is Alan Grant and I live in Twizel in the Mackenzie Country of New Zealand's glorious South Island. Twizel is an isolated town of around 1100 people, bordered on one side by the Southern Alps and on the other by the vast open plain of the Mackenzie Basin. I teach secondary English and social studies at the local area school, which caters to around 190 students from ages 5 - 18. In 2010 I have been granted a 32 week sabbatical to study e-learning through New Zealand's Massey University, and it's this tentative step into the world of 21st century education that brings me to WikiEducator.

Professional:

 * getting to grips with technology in education in ways that (a) make pedagogical sense and (b) don't require me to be a computer wizard in order to get them to work. In today's edit though, I'm very excited because Wayne Mackintosh has shown me how to use colour in my editing like this! Thanks Wayne! If anyone else is out there stumped on colour, Wayne directed me to this page, and I just fiddled around in my sandbox using wikitext until things started to happen.
 * Effective teaching. I'd like to be able to say I've got a particular passion for literacy in the middle school or peer ecologies in Years 11-13, but at present my interests in teaching (or my specialisations in it) are still evolving. Possible this is through working at an area school where people tend to end up jacks of all trades...

Personal:

 * having a life outside of teaching to spend with my family and friends, so to the above interests I would add (c) do not require me to spend vast quantities of time preparing stuff on a computer that could have been more effectively put together by other means.
 * outside of work, I enjoy road cycling and MTB and the odd bit of jogging to try to keep fit; and then destroying these efforts by eating too much Whittaker's chocolate. I've also just joined the Dark Side, having had my first snowboarding lesson after ten seasons on skis.(And as I edit this page a week later, I can report that I am now the proud owner of a cracked rib, so the snowboarding is on hold for week or two...)
 * Despite my best efforts, I remain an Olympic standard procrastinator.

My Website, blog and contact particulars
Well currently I run a grand total of zero websites (barring a one off I managed to put together on Wix for an assignment at Massey), my blogs are only accessible through the tertiary education support system 'My Portfolio', and so I can offer you very little in terms of getting into contact with me. I've also become very wary about signing up to things that allow everyone to 'share' every thought that passes across their minds with everyone else, as my school email account is now hammered with emails that bear no relevance to me but which I can't get rid of. I will give you my school email address, but if you want me to read your message, please give it a title with something like 'WIKIEDUCATOR message!', otherwise it's very likely to be shovelled off down the spam tube.

ag@twizel.school.nz

My Learning4Content course home page

Professional background
This has been pretty much covered by the above, however I have to confess that the computer revolution largely passed me by the first time. As a teenager I couldn't understand why so many of my peers wanted to sit inside gazing at the screen and talking in code about BASIC and LOGO and goodness knows what else. The consequence of this is that now in my late thirties I'm having to get up to speed and stop using my computer as little more than a word processor - otherwise I'm just passing on ignorance to my students.

Education
Well I've had some. I have a BA from the University of Canterbury and am now doing a post grad diploma in education through Massey. I did my teaching diploma at the Christchurch College of Education and back in the distant past attended Hampden Street School, Nelson Intermediate and Nayland College in Nelson.

My wiki projects

 * I registered for eL4C41, a Learning4Content workshop to learn wiki skills.

Feedback and notes from my WikiNeighbours

 * Hello Alan! If would be great to hear your experiences as to what was most beneficial to you in learning the wiki skills necessary to contribute to WE. --Benjamin Stewart 13:34, 4 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hello Alan, and great start on your user page! I went ahead and included the user page boilerplate should you wish to use any part of it in your own user page. I look forward to seeing how your page develops! --Benjamin Stewart 15:38, 20 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Alan, I saw your note on my user page. You've done an awesome job on yours! Did you get that screen shot thing for exe done? Alex Tait


 * Hi Alan. I encourage you all to visit the requirements of becoming a WikiApprentice 1 and WikiApprentice 2, as we are here to help you achieve these goals. Feel free to contact me directly if I can be of any assistance. --Benjamin Stewart 12:34, 21 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi, Alan, I am very impressed with the progress you have made on wikieducator....think I had better get started! Cheers Gaelyn Douglas
 * Thanks for adding your comment Gaelyn...could you add your signature as well so others can find you? Signatures can really help get you more hits on your user page. More hits means more of a chance in finding others to collaborate with. --Benjamin Stewart 04:26, 25 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks Ben, wasn't sure how to do this, is there a quicker way to add signatures than typing them in full each time? Gaelyn Douglas
 * Yep, simply click on this icon. --Benjamin Stewart 04:38, 25 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, thanks for that! --Gaelyn 04:59, 25 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Alan, have you given any thought as to a project you'd like to work on? --Benjamin Stewart 16:29, 25 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Alan, congratulations! You've been awarded WikiApprentice 1 certification! Keep up the good work and continue on to becoming a WikiBuddy! --Benjamin Stewart 23:36, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

My Sandbox
My sandbox

and maybe a new page called My Booklist

(Twizel.jpg)