User:Kiwispouse

=My Profile= Kia ora. I'm Kelly Faulkner, a teacher of English at Napier Boys' High School in Napier, New Zealand. I enjoy using technology in the classroom to motivate and stimulate my students, and also to utilise the skills their primary and intermediate teachers have been teaching them for many years already. This year I am using both blogs and wikis in my classroom, and I look forward to being able to provide materials for other teachers who are ready to undertake this amazing adventure in learning.

Professional Background
I have always been a teacher, though I did work a variety of jobs while putting myself through school. You can view my complete professional history on my LinkedIn profile. English is my passion; I love everything about my native language - its history, its regulations, its literature. When I'm with my students I want them to see how passionate I am about my subject in the hope that they, too, will find beauty in the production of oral and written langauge.

Education
I completed my undergraduate and graduate work at | California State University, Northridge. After moving to New Zealand, I completed a post-grad diploma in secondary teaching via | Massey University.

My Interests
My interests are:


 * Horseback riding (photos to come as soon as i learn!)


 * Reading: this year my students and I are having a race to see:
 * who can read the most books
 * who can read the most pages

Boys who beat me will win a prize at the end of the year. So far, I have read 34 books and about 12,000 pages!


 * Film


 * Figuring out how to use technology in the classroom. I strive to find balance between this one and the others!

Professional
I enjoy presenting at conferences, mainly because the opportunity to meet and share with other teachers. Here is a selection of my presentations/publications that reflect my interests, including a couple that illustrate the working relationship my husband and I share over his passion: cars!

“Why Wait? Start Using Blogs and Wikis Now.” uLearn09; Christchurch, NZ. 7–9 October 2009

“If You’re Not Participating…You’re Not Contributing.” NZATE 2009; Cambridge, NZ. 8-10 July 2009 (presented at conference, proceedings to be published in 10/09 English in Aotearoa.)

“Encouraging Voices: Speech in the Classroom.”  CLESOL 2004; Christchurch, NZ. 25 September 2004 (presented at conference and published refereed proceedings)

“Writing Across the Disciplines: Creating a Handbook to Help Writing Centre Consultants Meet the Needs of Students from Across the Curriculum.” Academic Exchange Quarterly. March 2003

“Will We Ever Learn to ‘Speak’ English?: Students Confront Phrasal Verbs.” CLESOL 2002; Wellington, NZ. 7 July 2002

“New Zealand’s First Super Chevy, Lake Taupo.” New Zealand Hot Rod Magazine. May 2002

“’It’s Painful Grading Papers’ and Other Observations: Faculty Response to Student Interdisciplinary Writing.”  Annual Conference of Rhetoric and Composition. University of California, Santa Barbara; 7 October 2001

"Purple Haze.” Custom and Classic Trucks.  August 2000

“A History of Style: The Atlantic Monthly.”  AGSE Annual Conference 2000. “Voices on the Edge: Critics and Creators”  CSUN; 4 March 2000

“Training Philosophies: Handbook for Writing; Humour and Collaboration.”  Northern California Writing Centres Association Annual Conference 2000

“Writing Centres: Centres of Transformation”  UC Berkeley; 26 February 2000

Handbook for Writing: What to Expect Across the Disciplines. Co-editor. Funded by the Judge Julien Beck Grant, California State University, Northridge. Published by the Learning Resource Centre, CSUN; January 2000

My Projects
Since joining Napier Boys', my interests have been writing and technology. Boys and writing can be mutually exclusive! I teach (browbeat!) writing strategies on a weekly basis in an attempt to get ahead for | NCEA. I have a project in mind for next year, which I'll tell you more about as I get it up and running.

Technology is my big bug-bear. I am very keen on using it and getting others to take advantage of it as well, but in a secondary school it is slow going. I am envious of primary schools and everything the teachers there are doing! I am disappointed when students get to high school and have to leave technology at home. My goal is to integrate tech throughout my department. I am very lucky to have a headmaster who is supportive. In the meantime, I try to spread the word via teaching conferences with workshops that give teachers "right now" tools to take home and use.

Prior to moving to New Zealand, as you can see from my publications, most of my projects were based around writing, particularly at the university level, though I did a lot of work with outreach to secondary schools to prepare students for academic writing. A faculty | Beck Grant allowed me and a colleague, Erica Wright Johnson, a year to study writing across the disciplines within the Cal State University system. This study resulted in several presentations at conferences and a handbook for writing published by the | Writing Center at CSUN. I published the results of this study with my colleague, Francien Rohrbacher, as “Writing Across the Disciplines: Creating a Handbook to Help Writing Centre Consultants Meet the Needs of Students from Across the Curriculum.” in the | Academic Exchange Quarterly in March of 2003.

My Sandbox
/My sandbox/ trying to put my avatar on, using thumbnail size and left alignment: trying out bolding and italics:

This word is bold and this word is italics.

i don't see a button bar anywhere...i wonder if i missed the instructions to insert one?

i shall try bullets now:

This week I need to:


 * format junior disk for videoing
 * get a couple of extra disks for other cameras
 * make sure i ask for additional cameras in briefing
 * don't forget about public speaking meeting at lunch
 * use visual text rather than written for this week's 1.6 quick quizzes

At our dept meeting, I should:


 * 1) show everyone diigo
 * 2) have them make accounts
 * 3) link them to my account
 * 4) have them bookmark what they like in NZATE 2009 Resources list

I am inserting a wiki picture here

trying out colours here: this is green this is purple

practising uploading and inserting a downloadable file. this is a simple venn diagram i made on Worksheets Work my pdf file is a [[media:Metaphor_Venn_Diagram.pdf|Venn Diagram]]

My Reflection
Hi Nellie. I'm really unhappy with my info box - I can't get the pictures to sit where I want them, and some of the info I supplied doesn't show. I tried to get the pictures to go side by side, but either they both end up on separate lines in the blue part, or down below the email icon, which then turns into a line of code! What am I doing wrong? Ta, Kelly

Oh dear, each new step involves its own problems, doesn't it? It has taken me 4 previews to see that I finally got the formatting right on the items in my resource list, but, sadly, I have extended the Resources box down to the bottom of the page. Don't know what I've done there!

Feedback & Notes from my WikiNeighbours
Hi Kelly - good start - let me know if you can't figure out how to do the link for linked in. --dragonsinger57 18:47, 25 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Great start, Kelly. --Nellie Deutsch 03:39, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Jo and Wayne. I'm getting there! Just trying to get caught up :O)