Today the cluster came to my school for the day. We walked around the classes, and to see the amount of ICT going in on the classrooms. Everyone had made a real effort. That was FABULOUS to see how far we had come.
Marie was using communication4learning.com with some of her students in Year 2. I had a quick look at the site when we got back to computers. I think if I was a junior teacher I love this site at the beginning of the year. I have a special needs child and there is some great story writing ideas for her to use.
One of things I really like about the cluster day is the sharing of sites, ideas and our Dear Abby where we share problems. It is good to know we are not alone with our problems. The sharing of ideas and sites help me stay current.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
My class blog
This past week, my students have been blogging on our class blog from home. It has caused some to be more enthusiastic and they have been doing recounts. I encouraged (bribed) them with house points as well. They are much more confident with posting and loading videos. The house points has made us share to check that the homework is done and allocated the points. They like the sharing this way, and help each other. I have added house points as homework this week to get their parents to comment. I have also added a small slot in my timetable called Blog appreciation and we do a shared post, and look at other blogs and make comments as a class.
I have given permission for them to add appropriate, non racist, not rude etc and parental check.
They are very keen to change the voki. I keep avoiding it.
I have given permission for them to add appropriate, non racist, not rude etc and parental check.
They are very keen to change the voki. I keep avoiding it.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
blog backgrounds/templates
Yeah!!!! I have finally figured out how to change my class blog template through HTML in template design. Sometimes I am a very slow learner. Maybe it is due to school holidays and I can think without that feeling of what must I do next in our day of a teacher's work is never done.
I have found a spaceship background, changed the font colours and font itself. Would have changed the coloum widths but it wouldn't let me.
I was on a website called snazzyspace. It had some cool backgrounds but lots of pop ups and adds which are not suitable to show kids if they were to help choose. I found the background I used at http://jellypages.com/. It has ads which need to be checked but does not seem to have pop ups. I have searched several times for backgrounds and got very frustrated with pretty pretty scrapbooking backgrounds, too adult, girly, and junior school backgrounds. It is very difficult to find backgrounds that appeal to 10 and 11 year olds. I did find Homer Simpson in the snazzyspace with large donuts but it was a 2 column template. There was also a flashing robot one but hundreds of robots flashing was distracting from the posts. Humm...... purpose of blog.
Notice Elmo and Big Bird and the dinosaurs. My students would probably like the Futurama Robot. Anyway, you get my point???
I have found a spaceship background, changed the font colours and font itself. Would have changed the coloum widths but it wouldn't let me.
I was on a website called snazzyspace. It had some cool backgrounds but lots of pop ups and adds which are not suitable to show kids if they were to help choose. I found the background I used at http://jellypages.com/. It has ads which need to be checked but does not seem to have pop ups. I have searched several times for backgrounds and got very frustrated with pretty pretty scrapbooking backgrounds, too adult, girly, and junior school backgrounds. It is very difficult to find backgrounds that appeal to 10 and 11 year olds. I did find Homer Simpson in the snazzyspace with large donuts but it was a 2 column template. There was also a flashing robot one but hundreds of robots flashing was distracting from the posts. Humm...... purpose of blog.
Notice Elmo and Big Bird and the dinosaurs. My students would probably like the Futurama Robot. Anyway, you get my point???
SOLO Taxonomy PD on planning an Inquiry Unit
Yesterday we had an excellent day at work on planning our next inquiry unit on Leisure and Labour and how it contributes to our society using Solo Taxonomy and constructive alignment. Constructive alignment comes from John Briggs who devised Solo Taxonomy, and is about divising direct teaching and learning activities that directly address the learning outcomes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_alignmentWikipedia Also I like the concept of how the teacher has to provide a specified goal for the learner.
Therefore, our planning has direct acts of teaching which relate back to the outcomes we decided we wanted for our students, along with using the Solo maps, our students learn to use Solo Taxonomy as a way of supporting how to inquire using our inquiry model.
We still have some work to do to finalise the plan. I find it exciting that we have rigor in our planning and how using Solo Taxonomy to help us plan gives us high expectations for the learning outcomes for our students.
Therefore, our planning has direct acts of teaching which relate back to the outcomes we decided we wanted for our students, along with using the Solo maps, our students learn to use Solo Taxonomy as a way of supporting how to inquire using our inquiry model.
We still have some work to do to finalise the plan. I find it exciting that we have rigor in our planning and how using Solo Taxonomy to help us plan gives us high expectations for the learning outcomes for our students.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Solo Taxomony - pd at staff meeting
Looking again for a clip to show at staff meeting.
I like this one, as it demonstrates the learning of teachers at different levels of experience with learning to use Solo Taxonomy. I hope that some of my colleagues will feel they have similar experiences.
I like this one, as it demonstrates the learning of teachers at different levels of experience with learning to use Solo Taxonomy. I hope that some of my colleagues will feel they have similar experiences.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Smile Box
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Fun With Maths
On Friday I decided to use a you tube clip for maths maintenance with my streamd maths class. My students loved it, when I got my usual students back, the ones who stay with me for maths wanted to share. We were sharing when our buddy readers arrived and we shared with them also. I got them to stand up in their school houses and asked Private Mike etc to give the answer. They loved it.
I should have gone shopping for a similiar hat at the weekend. I was thinking we could remake the clip with my students.
I should have gone shopping for a similiar hat at the weekend. I was thinking we could remake the clip with my students.
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