Lead Teacher Day 15/3

Visit to Stonefields School.
The visit was very interesting seeing the modern learning hubs and leadership hub.  I like the idea of collaborative teaching although I have concerns of myself with sharing a room and the extra noise level. I am not very good at extraneous noises.  I am not an aural learner. 

I really loved their teaching stations with the flatscreens, little pull out drawers for netbooks, and the pull out desks to sit keyboards and laptops. 

I thought there had been a lot of thought in their inquiry journey to link it to the quarry and their environment.

As planning is done oneline in google docs it is not necessary to print their planning out. I think it would be good to do that to save paper as well as mine would look neater.

Lead Teacher Day

Google Accounts -  need Google Education for class.  Every student can have an account including gmail.  I would have rights as teacher to manage their account.  They could have their own website. Have teacher dashboard - is not free.  $4 per student per year.  The students would get gmail, blogger, sites, docs - spreadsheets, surveys (forms), presentations.

Using the presentation form with a group would be good.  It means the group can all work at the same time rather than fooling around. 

EPS is attempting to get everything off the server.  The only thing left is emails.  Teacher documents are on their laptops and server.  They are envising weekly plans etc done in Google. Appraisal docs have been done, and Trish likes as she can pop in and have a look.  Soon they will be really in the cloud. !!!!!!

Google is HUGE.

Discussion about Superclubz Plus.  Better for kids rather than Facebook.  www.scplus.com to sign in.  I have wanted to do this with my kids for a couple of years.  I should make it a goal for the kids.

Discussion about blogs, their purpose and getting comments.  Do marketing, house points, homework, kids to comment on each others and other classes, put on how to comment, leave a question to provoke a response.  Must have other classes blogging and commenting.  PEOPLE MUST HAVE THE PURPOSE OF THE BLOG IN THEIR GOAL. - what is my curriculum learning intention.   I have been pleased with the content of my class blog.  I would like it to have more comments.  I will have to try more bribery and corruption.

Smackdown: sharing of sites.  We enjoyed the 12 computer days of Christmas.  Thanks Bridget.  Lots of great suggestions.  Thanks guys.

E-portfolios - 4 students talked to us about the things they did with their folios.  They go on once a week to reflect.  Their portfolios are in sections: showcase, achievements, numeracy, reading, basic facts, spelling, competencies, and general comments.  There are places for parent, peer and teacher comments.  The students are quite rightly very proud of their portfolios.  One goes back to the previous year to see what they did. 

Student lead conferences: laptop, books, and the other things we are going to talk to our parents about.  They take about half and hour.  5 conferences in each class at the same time.  The teacher is the hello lady.    They have checklists for next learning steps.  Students are able to say what they need to improve.   The kids clearly enjoy them.   I liked how Veronica's class had their goal and success criteria in each section.

http://www.fotobabble.com/  talking photos.  The students really like this site to show their learning and achievements.

One had a poem on power point.  What a neat idea to publish.

Belinda showed us some of a powerpoint on e-portfolios and discussion of purpose.  EPS have done a lot of work.  I think that it would be good at our 3 way conference for my students to share.  If we had our workbooks ready, and a sheet with student responsibilities and parents actions would help too.

Discussion around Ulearn and Learning@School.  Next year Ulearn is in Auckland.  What an opportunity for more of the school to go to be on the same page.


Some interesting learning today.

Clicker 5

Yesterday, I was looking at the Clicker 5 to learn about the program for my special needs student and assistive technology.   I went on the Crickweb site and was able to load down several activities which saved time in making them.

I still think it is a shame that for all the work to get the technology, we only get one program. 

widget -Maukie the virtual cat

Was looking at Cool Tools for Schools and found this widget.
The cat is animated.

The Website is http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/maukie-the-virtual-cat

Blogging and other things

I haven't been here for a while. My students have done some work on our class blog with reflections and homework. I put incentives into their homework like housepoints and more into getting their parents to comment. Even after 3 years of blogging, I still can't seem to get continual comments. BLAH!!! Onwards and upwards next year I suppose. On the plus side, more has been uploaded by having my students load at home with homework tasks. One or two can use slideshare.com with their powerpoints. So skillwise, my students are more independent. I haven't been using ICT so much this year with my students as I have been concentrating on SOLO Taxonomy. However, more recently, they are busy. Currently, my students are drawing in kidpix or artrage, publishing, and some have been draft writing direct into the computer to improve their writing. They also have some computer tasks during reading time with their chapter book study. I feel a little late with these things. Its been a busy year.

Having Students see their improvement in Learning

On a school trip last week, I was sitting beside a parent in the bus.  This parent asked me which level I preferred to teach.  I said I didn't mind.  What I liked was seeing childrens' faces light up when they got something.

Yesterday, I had my students write a definition for occupations with Solo Taxonomy.  When they read out their statement, I then read out their original definition from the beginning of the topic.  It was fabulous to see them realise that they had improved from writing about 5 words to a whole page, and had moved levels within the taxonomy.

Taking PD with staff

This afternoon, I ran a PD session on Solo Taxonomy. Staff had asked for help on writing rubrics and moving students to the next level. I think I am getting better at providing PD on topics that I am not necessarily sure. My main message was model and scaffold.I found 2 short clips that I thought were particularly good on teaching SOLO.
Procedural writing
Define Map - making bread.

Over the past couple of years I have become appreciative of the ICT PD cluster websites that share information.  Thanks to them all.

I felt at times I was giving very basic information.  Our AP said afterwards it was all good.  Phew!!!!