What do you get from being a Premium Member?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><i>Submitted by Deb Avery</i></span><br /><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">In this first blog post, let's look at how being a Premium Member can benefit you.  Look at the  BENEFITS tab to see what you will gain by being a Premium Member.  You'll see that Schoolnet SA makes a  commitment to you</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">"As a premium member we will focus our attention on you to ensure that you will grow professionally....and its all free!"</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"></span></b></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But - what does this really mean?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Teachers who have signed up as Premium Members obviously want to grow and develop their ability to integrate ICTs into their teaching.</span></span></div></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Schoolnet offers some excellent face-to-face courses, and many members will have benefitted from these. You may still want the opportunity to participate in one or more of the courses. But for many members, the need is to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">develop specific skills</b>, in order to take their teaching to a new level. Our aim is to find out what those specific needs are and to provide short interventions like webinars, podcasts, “how to” videos and access to lesson and project ideas, amongst other ideas.  For example, here is a photo of the 'Schoolnetters' being trained by Gerald Roos to deliver the Getting Started course. This session was held in Johannesburg in 2010. </span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJeiFDNlDLGUEROBMXHhGpH1TLTMwGEE_4julLULpO1yR_5DLs2L2Pr6PmXPcBa1pMkEY67fKaVX-1-HK5KlfytkAwNepF1lkWGDK6Q-iCJoqRxc91ZbdmyxelUFcCa78Rn9TlStVzo78/s1600/DSC_0295.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A second thrust will be to help overcome the “loneliness of the only ICT integrator” that some of us feel in schools. In many schools, the ICT integrator is tolerated, sometimes encouraged, but seldom understood. Through the Premium Member group, we will all have the opportunity to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">share ideas with other like-minded educators</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">network</b> together. This could include discussions on topics of general interest – like “Should learners be allowed to use cellphones in class?”; discussions involving special interest groups, like Art teachers for example; or discussions between teachers who are in the same geographical area and are able to support each other more closely. This could also include inter-classroom collaboration between different schools or classes who have Premium Members on the staff. SchoolNetSA has a great 'family' scattered all over South Africa. Here are some of them gathered at a conference in Cape Town. </span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNXgJvwZHBA3FkTsCpas4K9behZDLBiDI1FploMcqlR_rPH6Orr53Jyth0O5RK0gURVEFRtnw4L1volbQ3cQR4aMf627bOIGRofjd_0Ay3pkHw7rMPdq8HvI7CADS2wvqvBGVcrwjn8q4/s1600/Intel_TEO_059.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Providing resources to help each Premium Member to develop their own <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Personal Learning Network (PLN)</b> is going to be one of the benefits. A PLN can be defined as “the entire collection of people with whom you engage and exchange information, usually online.” We will devote a blog post to this in the near future and hope to have some webinars and interventions to help you develop your own PLN.</span></span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Internet is full of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">resources</b> for teachers to use – lesson plans, ideas, games, projects, new tools – sometimes there is so much that the mind boggles! As a Premium Member you will have access to some resources that have been reviewed by other Premium Members and rated as worth looking at. You can follow Schoolnet on Facebook and Twitter to access these resources, and we encourage you to add to the discussion threads. </span></span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We are also collecting <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">local resources</b> to share – good ideas from South African teachers. You are encouraged to add to the Library of useful materials that can help other teachers develop excellent classrooms.</span></span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And then there are the practical things – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">early notification</b> and preferential booking for SchoolNet events, newsletters and access to the blog</span></span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At this stage, we don’t really know what the members want in the way of interventions. We will only know this if all members participate in surveys, discussions and interventions. We also know that it is necessary for enough people to be involved to make the group really work. Market research shows that a critical mass of members needs to participate in order to make a group viable. So you need, not only to participate, but to encourage other colleagues and friends to join and participate. Don’t be a “lurker” – one of those who look but never respond. Please join in the discussions, the interventions, the collaboration and the sharing. </span></span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And then you will gain the full BENEFIT of being a Premium Member.</span></span></div></div>

premium membership What do you get from being a Premium Member?

Submitted by Deb AveryIn this first blog post, let's look at how being a Premium Member can benefit you.  Look at the  BENEFITS tab to see what you will gain by being a Premium Member.  You'll see that Schoolnet SA makes a  commitment to you"As a pre…

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Why Hello There :)

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"></span></span><br /><div>I'm baaaccccckkkkk! <br /><br />(Warning: this is a long one - I didn't intend for this to go on and on but alas, that's what happened... read on if you wish :) )</div><div><br /></div><div>Hello friends!  I hope you don't think I fell off the wagon, because I didn't!  Here's a little catch up for ya:</div><div><br /></div><div>Last Wednesday Joel & I finally moved!  Need I explain anymore as to why I've been absent??  :)  Those of you who have moved know how busy your life becomes when an event like this occurs.  </div><div><br /></div><div>Not only did I move, but I'm still in school and that has also been keeping me extremely busy.  If I wasn't unpacking, then I was doing school work.  If I wasn't doing either of those two during my blogger absence, then I was making a trip to PA for my little cousin's high school graduation party.  I spent less than 24 hours in PA - I had so much to do with unpacking and schoolwork that I could hardly afford any more time away from home.</div><div><br /></div><div>I finally made it back to work on Tuesday and have been busy at work ever since.  My evenings have been spent hitting the new gym and trying to blow through this school work.  But the fun doesn't stop there folks!  This weekend I'll be making another trip back to the "Motherland" for a wedding, and this time the trip will be 6 hours rather than 4.  *sigh*</div><div><br /></div><div>ANYHOW, what is this blog supposed to be about?  Oh yeah, my weight loss shenanigans. :)</div><div><br /></div><div>I knew this move would be tough on the eating habits.  With every move comes eating out - lots and lots of eating out.  You're spending so much time unpacking, there isn't time to hit up the grocery store.  And so Joel and I ate out a LOT over the last several days, and I'm SO happy for that to come to an end!  I finally have my own kitchen again, and I'm looking forward to planning meals again and cooking at home and getting back in to some sort of routine.  I'm craving routine and healthy food ASAP!  I'd like to get some rough meal plan established in the next several days so that come Sunday (when returning from the wedding)  I can get to the grocery store and get some things purchased and made for the work week.</div><div><br /></div><div>Joel and I got a free 7 day pass to Gold's gym, which is the closest gym to our condo.  I've been there twice so far and I like it.  It's certainly not my cute, personable gym from Maryland where they call you by name, but it will do the job for sure.  There is no shortage of machines and there is a larger variety, which is nice.  Joel is going to start attending regularly now and that is also an added bonus.  </div><div><br /></div><div>Even though I've been attending a gym regularly since November, I still found myself extremely intimidated when even THINKING about walking in to Gold's.  In fact, I wasn't even pushing the issue with Joel to get there immediately following the move because I was nervous.  Isn't that odd?  I mean, almost every gym has the same basic equipment and layout - it's not like it's a foreign concept to me.  Cardio equipment over there, weights and machines over here.  Bada bing, bada boom - no big deal right?  I developed such a comfortable routine at the MD gym, and I wasn't self conscious when I walked in there, despite all the meat-heads walking around.  But walking in to Gold's, even with Joel by my side, was still, quite frankly, frightening.  The gym is huge, WAY more people attend there, and they're all skinny minnies and I feel that all they look at when they see me is another overweight person who will most likely fail.  :(  They don't know that I've been diligently working out since November!  They just don't know me... </div><div><br /></div><div>The first day was hard, and I made it through.  I hopped up on the elliptical, same exact one as I've been using since college and at the MD gym, and got to work - same routine, different location!  I just kept telling myself "Hilary, it's just a different surrounding - you know what you're doing!"  When I went back yesterday, it was a little bit easier - the nerves weren't AS strong as they were the first day.  I hope that as each visit passes, the nerves become less and less until they are nonexistent.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div>I have to remember why I'm working out.  It's not just for weight loss, it's to change my life for the better so that I can hopefully have a long and healthy future ahead of me.</div><div><br /></div><div>Your thoughts?</div>

Exercise Random Weight Loss Thoughts Weight Loss Why Hello There :)

I'm baaaccccckkkkk! (Warning: this is a long one - I didn't intend for this to go on and on but alas, that's what happened... read on if you wish :) )Hello friends!  I hope you don't think I fell off the wagon, because I didn't!  Here's a little catc…

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