After three long days at Year 9 Camp, it was great to come home and find the most recent copy of 'About Catholic Schools' in my pigeon hole. 'About Catholic Schools' is a magazine produced by the Sydney Catholic Education Office to showcase what is happening in schools in the diocese. 

Upon opening the September issue of the magazine, I found a double page article showcasing my Year 7 students and the Google Hangout that they did with local primary schools (St Joseph the Worker Auburn South, St Therese's Denistone and St Kevin's Eastwood)  earlier in the year. Over the past term, the girls have conducted two Google Hangouts to teach primary school students about the states of matter and gravity. 

Prior to the states of matter 'Hangout' the girls spent a lesson preparing group sessions that they delivered via the Google Hangout application. One group demonstrated an experiment to show how water moves through the three states of matter, while the other groups produced role plays that allowed the primary school students to visualise how particles behave in the three states of matter and the different processes that occur as the substances move through the three phases. Another group of students manned the 'TodaysMeet' back channel - a private Twitter-like chat platform where the primary students could ask questions and the Year 7 students could answer them.

The Hangout was highly successful, with all students involved saying that they thoroughly enjoyed the experience and thought it was entertaining and educational. They also said that they wanted to take part in another Hangout in the future.

Early in Term 3, we did another shorter Hangout where this time, the girls taught the primary students about gravity. Again, a TodaysMeet back channel was created and students were engaged and participated actively. Students used simple demonstrations and explanations to help explain the difficult concept of gravity to the primary students and challenged them to create parachutes to investigate the idea of gravity more.

It was great having the editor and photographer from the magazine come and witness the gravity Hangout first hand so they could see the students and the technology in action. The write up that was included in the issue was great, showcasing the efforts of the students as well as the opportunities that this technology provides for others.

It was also great to see that my name appeared on another page in the magazine under the article title 'Teacher's Tweets Telling'. This article discussed the great things that the #aussieED team is doing by connecting teachers from Australia and the world in our weekly Twitter chat on Sunday evenings. It was so nice to see that the CEO is appreciating the hard work that we are putting in to this venture.

Last week I had a look through my Professional Development log for 2014. After calculating the hours I have spent on a range of professional development experiences this year, I was surprised to see I have completed more hours of PD in just the 2 and a bit terms of this year than I have in years gone by (the number of hours is over 120 for those who are interested). The reason why I was surprised was that I have just moved into my 10th year of teaching, a time when people might usually think that they don't need anymore PD, that they know everything that they need to know and they just keep going on the way they've been going on.

The thing I love about looking at my PD Log is that the events that I have taken part in are so diverse and innovative. I have been fortunate enough to attend major events like the Google Apps for Education (aka GAFE) Summit and slide2learn as well as ICT workshops, HSC Biology collaboration days and the Sydney CEO eLearning Co-ordinators day. These big events have been amazing, but what I also love about my PD experiences this year is the smaller, slightly less formal forms of PD in the shape of Techie Brekkie, Lunch'n'Learn, TeachMeets, #pdinthepub and Twitter chats.

Earlier this year I presented at the DigTech TeachMeet at the Google Headquarters in Sydney. Afterwards, a group of presenters went out for dinner (a TeachEat) and I was lucky enough to meet an amazing group of primary teachers from the Sydney CEO. As of that night, we have been working together to build one of Australia's biggest educational chats - #aussieED. 

Every Sunday night at 8.30pm AEST, teachers from around Australia and the world come together over Twitter to share their ideas and resources around a common theme. Last night was my first opportunity to moderate a chat and the theme was 'Building Your PLN'. It was great to be able to help people to use Twitter to find like-minded people to connect with and help them 'be more dog'. 

It was at the CEO eLearning Day that George Couros showed us this video that has inspired me to take more risks in my teaching and learning and it was great to be able to share it with the rest of the Twitter-verse. 

So my challenge for you for this week is... how can you be more dog?! :)

- Kelly