Today we began to organise what will be on offer for the IT development workshops in September. Thanks to Vicki for leading the way, Shelley for doing the minutes and James St for hosting us.
It was also a good opportunity for those who had not yet set up a netvibe to do so. Cheers.

Lead Teacher day was held at St Joseph's this term.
We were introduced to Twitter, iGoogle, and GoogleWave by Drew, with the intention that we continue to develop and online tool that we can use to communicate with each other throughout the cluster in real-time.

Twitter enables us to ask questions with quick response times (if we use regularly), and to keep an eye on what new with others like Tessa Gray and Rocky Jensen.

iGoogle is an online tool to bring all the things that follow or use regularly on the internet into one manageable space. It allows you to follow your Twitter, NZ current events, weather etc all from one space.






GoogleWave is an online collaborative space that allows you to communicate in real time, build a document together, brainstorm ideas, edit what you have created and to chat...all in real time.

Tessa Gray introduced the Lead Teachers to an online programme call Netvibes.

Netvibes is no ordinary tool. It is a tool that allows you to bring a range of online tools into one place for ease of access.

I played around with this site over a large part of the weekend following our day and came up with a range of online tools for my class to share during literacy and numeracy time.


Room 4 Learning Zone



I have a private area for myself which I have any important RSS feeds, PD readings and updates etc coming into automatically. This is truly worth a look.

As part of our committment to carry on the work begun through the eBEST ICT cluster, representatives from our schools attended the Learning@School conference in Rotorua last week.  As always, the conference was an excellent opportunity to share, network and hear some visionary speakers from around the world.  I would like to share some insights that I took away from the keynote and breakout sessions that I attended:

Tony Ryan -- Responding to Change

Tony was his usual inspiring self.  His notes say it better than I ever could!

www.google.com/accounts    username: learningatschool1   password: 1234abcd

Go to Docs and select the Responding to Change.pdf

Cheryl Doig -- Making Change Stick

www.thinkbeyond.co.nz

Change requires us to think about the whole system not just the parts we are changing. Have you ever:

• had an issue that keeps coming back?
• made a change only to realise there are unintended consequences?
• thought everyone was on board with a change then discovered that wasn’t the case?

Cheryl provided some important steps to take before implementing change in any system:

1. Know yourself.
2. Know your team.
3. Have a plan.

Sounds simple enough, but some or all of these steps are often overlooked!

Alan November -- The Emerging Culture of Teaching and Learning  

www.novemberlearning.com

Two main points to Alan's keynote:

1. Teach our students to think critically about the information they find on the web.
2. Harness the creativity of students to teach their peers.

In point 1, Alan provided a whole series of useful tools that enabled users to not only search more effectively, but to look behind the scenes of websites.  Examples included:

• site:  -- limit a search to a specific country  (eg. colonisation site:nz)
• easywhois.com -- website which lists the owners of domain names
• archive.org -- website that contains a history of website contents
• host: -- when used in altavista, will list the number of pages in a domain (eg. host: nasa.gov).  Can also be used to limit a search to a specific domain (eg. host:nasa.gov mars rover)

In point 2, Alan pointed out that, in most schools, the teachers work harder than the students and suggested that there was something wrong with this.  He went on to provide a number of ways in which teachers could use the creativity of students to teach their peers (after all, they do tend to put more effort into work for their peers than they do into work for us):

• www.mathtrain.tv -- a website of student-made maths tutorial videos
• www.wolframalpha.com -- a search engine for producing annotated solutions to maths problems
• www.jingproject.com -- a tool for capturing screenshots and videos from a laptop or desktop computer, which can then be dubbed for use as tutorials (for example).

Tom Hoerr -- Leading from Behind

The head of the New City School in St. Louis USA, and a huge proponent of Multiple Intelligence education, Tom spoke about educational leadership at all levels.  Some of his thought-provoking kōrero included:

• It is important that students (and everyone else) know that who they are is more important than what they know.
• The best way to instill "lifelong learning" is to promote "joyful learning".
• After the students, the teachers are the most important people in a school.
• It is not a leader's job to make everyone happy.  It is to make everyone grow, beginning with the teachers.  If everyone is happy, then you aren't challenging them enough.  A leader's job is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". 
• Make a new mistake every day.  (the "new" part is important...)

I encourage everyone else who attended the Learning@School conference last week to post their experiences!

Milestone 8 - our final cluster milestone report - can be viewed by clicking here, or on the link at the bottom of the left navigation bar.

Tessa Gray's feedback report on the eBest ICT Cluster Milestone 8 Report can be viewed here.

This Voicethread was made by Karyn Templeton and her students in Room 7, Apanui School as part of their inquiry into disasters.  It is an excellent example of how Voicethread can be used to engage students in learning experiences.  The teacher is able to record instructions and questions and students can comment from school or home and share their understandings.

Today at Allandale School I'm working with the fantastic support staff.  They've set up a learning blog where they will share student learning with parents (and the rest of the world!)  Next the group learnt to post and insert photos.  Following this they made a Picturetrail.  Students are asked:
'Can you guess who these shoes belong too? Next time you go to school, have a look at the staff to see if you can find out who wears them. Once you think you know, write us a comment telling us who you think they belong to and give us a short description of the  shoes.'

This photo of the first page of Judy Rossouw's (St Joseph's School) Inquiry planning shows the use of highlighting to show the coverage of the explicit skills and strategies being taught.  It is a useful way of making sure you actually do teach the things identified in your planning.

Greetings everyone. We are completing an inquiry on change. Our big question is 'How can we make a difference in our community? Check out our picture trail.

This is my first attempt at using Picture trail. The pictures show my class celebrating their parents contributions to their Gold Folders after last month's SLConferences.

Google Wave, a new development from the Google Search Engine and Google Docs folks, is intended to integrate email, twitter, wikis, blogging, flickr, docs, and a host of other independent social networking applications into one seamless application.  Check it out at wave.google.com.  The "Watch our looooooong video" link demonstrates the possibilities a LOT better than I ever could.  Don't let the 1 hour 20 minute runtime discourage you... skip over the executives self-congratulating and jump to about the 6 minute point.  From there, in just a couple of minutes, you will be able to see how hosted conversations (a live, real-time -- or not -- online discussion) could be used to share and create and publish all at once.  One-click blog publication makes it almost too easy!  Kids collaborate on a project; add Bloggy to the Wave; done.  Conversation playback as an assessment or reflection tool...  cool stuff!

A couple of demostrations of the technology have been made by the general public, attempting to show how common conversations can be enhanced by the use of embedded media.  Unfortunately, as this is the internet, none of them are currently safe for the delicate sensibilities of our tamariki.  Rather than posting them here, I will leave it up to you folks to look for them on YouTube on your own.  A Google Wave Cinema search should find you what you are looking for.

Google has made the application open-source (any software developer can have access to the programming code) which means that new developments and add-ons are likely to be flooding the internet just as soon as the application goes live.  Currently, you can only sign up for updates, and hope for a beta invitation, but I think this will be one to watch in the next few months!

Comments from the group about the highs, lows and memorable moments of the conference are welcome.

Here are some photos from the conference (Photo credits: Sara Thomas, Lyn Ross)

Photos from our Principals' Management Meeting and 'Freaky Friday',  both were held at St Josephs School ... now which could be which?!

              

Most of our 2009 eBest class blogs are hosted by Wordpress.  However a few classes have set theirs up in Blogger.   With 2010 not too far away, I thought it was worth comparing the two hosts.

• Wordpress has 3gb free space vs 1gb in Blogger.
• Wordpress had a photo gallery function. Photos have to go into posts singly in Blogger
• Wordpress allows pages to be added to the blog, Blogger does not.  (This could be important depending on the way you intend to use your blog.)
• Blogger allows uploading of video directly to the host; Wordpress does not (unless you pay for an upgrade.)
• Both Wordpress and Blogger allow embedding of Youtube, Slide, Slideshare, picturetrail and Polldaddy.
• Blogger allows flash applications to be embedded (like virtual pets, voki and voicethread etc.)  Wordpress does not. (These are considered a security risk by Wordpress)
  
• Blogger allows you to add background wallpaper (e.g. http://thecutestblogontheblock.com) With Wordpress you have to use the themes 'as is' (apart from a few minor colour changes.)
  
• Of course there’s nothing to stop teachers using both hosts and linking the blogs.

Here is a table which shows a comprehensive comparison of Blogger and WordPress.

Start thinking now ... where will you set up your 2010 blog?  Comments welcome.

Here are some more photos from the new library and Learning Centre at St Joseph's School.  The staff have created a very colourful, artistic and vibrant space.



 

Term 3's inquiry focused on developing an exciting new playground design for our school.

This week we are presenting our playground designs to the Board of Trustees.  These involved a range of models even a cake.

Check out our journey and the creativity shown by the children in their presentations.

 

 

Room 4 had their first visit to the new Library / Information Centre today. Afterwards we came back to class and used our  Yellow and Black hat thinking to look for the good points and bad points of the experience so we can negotiate what things need to be done differently. Here it is...

Tessa has mentioned our ICT cluster and the eBest online cluster space in the latest ICTPD Online Newsletter. Be sure to have a look at http://centre4.core-ed.net/382/78157 
Roberta McKelvey's inquiry song (words and podcast) have now gone nationwide! (Fame and fortune will follow for sure!) 
The final frontier will be to get members to sort out their user name and password and to remember to login!

Here are a few of the photos I took when I showed Tessa around the schools.  There was evidence of the use of thinking tools, questioning strategies, Habits of Mind and Inquiry Learning everywhere!  Fantastic!

Today’s cluster leadership hui at Ohope centred around a PMI of the past 2+ years.  Tessa Gray sat in on the discussions and provided us all with an outside perspective and some really positive feedback! 

Looking back, it is really impressive to see the progress we have all made, the strides in learning that our tamariki have taken, and the immense bank of classroom and professional development resources we have created.  A Google search for “Fogarty’s Intellect” turns up the eBEST website second only to Robin Fogarty’s own site!  Over 2,600 people from 61 countries have visited the site in the past 6 months alone. 

This led us to perhaps the most important kaupapa discussed: our “next steps”.  The consensus was that the past few years have been a really positive experience for all of our staff and students, and that it would be in everyone’s best interests to carry on.  So how can we continue this level of collaborative learning once the ICT contract expires?  Possible suggestions included:

·         Finding a new contract that would allow us to address and develop the areas which have had the most effect on our professional learning;

·         Appointing and resourcing lead teachers within each school to take the reins and create a collaborative programme for all schools in the cluster;

·         Sourcing one individual to co-ordinate and lead all of the schools.

What remains then, is to celebrate our progress, assess these possibilities, and move forward to 2010!

Although focusing on the events, music and dance of very different decades (from the 1870s through to the 1990s!), the Senior Syndicate Teachers at Allandale School, Whakatane planned their Term 3 inquiry together.  This helped the teachers develop their understandings of their school's inquiry model, the activities which can take place during each stage  and the explicit skills which need to be mastered by teacher and students.   They used the internet for information and their planning included AOs, KCs and a range of thinking tools and reflection activities.  This resulted in 'quality planning'!  Take a look here.
Learning activities for the 1990s using Bloom's Taxonomy.

Today the Senior Syndicate teachers got together to collaboratively plan their Term 3 inquiry.  The learning focus is 'making a difference' and a possible big questions is 'How can we share and celebrate the cultures we have in our school?'  Donna found a great supporting resource in the Term 2 2009  'Starters and Strategies' magazine. 

Click to view their planning or the research planning sheet their students will use.

 

  

This morning Alex, Cherie and Roberta planned their Term 3 Inquiry.  The learning focus is 'Making a Difference' and the students will be learning about groups of people in the school and community.  A possible big question is: 'What can I/we do to support a group which makes a difference in our community?'  Students will look at several occupations or volunteer groups, learn what motivates them, the best and worst parts of the job and then identify some things they can do to to support these groups in their role.
The teachers also designed a 'Research Plan Sheet' to help students follow the inquiry process and with their time management.
Making a Difference Planning Sheet
Inquiry Research Plan Sheet

The Year 2 and the  Middle Team teachers at Allandale School worked collaboratively (on different days) to plan their teacher directed Inquiry for Term 3. The inquiry will focus on researching and preparing a class item for the school production.  Inspired by the Youtube video 'The Evolution of Dance', the theme for the production is the music and dances of an era.  Students will learn about the events,  people  fashions, music and dances which defined their chosen decade.   A possible big question is 'How can we create a snapshot of the 1970s to present to others?'  The inquiry will culminate in a class performance  using music, dance and ICTs. (See planning)

The Year 1 teachers at Allandale School spent the morning yesterday with the facilitator planning collaboratively for their Term 3 Teacher directed  Inquiry - 'How can we be fire wise kids?'  They completed an Inquiry planning sheet and a  thinking activities sheet.  Click here to view these.
The afternoon was spent on posting on their class blogs (learning more and troubleshooting problems!)  Check their blogs out: Pepeke's Learning,  Purerehua 15,  Mawhitiwhiti 17 and Kihikihi 14.   Several of the teachers have been using their cameras to record video and they wanted to be able to edit these clips into little movies.   So the final session of the day was about using 'Movie Maker'.   We made a little 'Autumn Leaves' movie - watch out for it on Pepeke's Learning blog soon.

Kia ora everyone.

Just thought I'd share with you an activity I did today with my 'new' Smartboard using spellingcity website.  The children typed in their words and then played games with them.  The children were able to move the letters around and put them into order when playing the unscramble game.  The children loved being able to manipulate the letters especially when they spelt the word right and got the 'sparkly congratulations/praise.  It was a highly motivating and fun way to learn their words.  Great for developing motivation and awesome for those children who struggle with the pen and paper style of learning.It was only the first time we have done this but I'm sure we will find lots of other ways to use it.  If you have any ideas about how to use a Smartboard in your classroom I would love to hear about it.  So please 'blog' your ideas here.

Cheers

Kiri

Great to see you using the immediacy of the hailstorm to put the learning into such an authentic context - well done!

Hi everyone, This is Ramia, Paroa School. I'm having difficulty logging in so Lyn is kindly letting me use her laptop.

Here are examples of the graphic organisers my class has been using as part of our 'How does a garden grow?' unit. My students and I have a large scrapbook called 'Our Thinking Book'. In this we have examples a variety of thinking tools we are using in our learning.

Thanks Jose for the awesome growing beans video clip. I'm looking forward to showing this to my class.
Happy Growing Everyone

My class and I have talked about our Inquiry Model and I made a simple child-friendly visual for our wall. Our Inquiry is about 'gardens and plants' and our big question is 'How can we grow healthy plants?' We started our inquiry with a colourful PowerPoint showing various plants, gardens and garden designs. Over the past 2 weeks we've visited gardens in the school neighbourhood and taken lots of photos. Learning experiences have included the alphabet key, co-operative group discussions and several videos from Youtube. The videos showed seeds germinating, preparing seeds for planting, preparing ground for planting and conditioning the soil. You can view an awesome video of bean seeds germinating on our class blog .

Yesterday at Saint Joseph's staff meeting LT's went through our new inquiry model with the staff and discussed each stage and the explicit teaching required. It's great to have a base for inquiry in our school. We are still trialling it and we will review it at the end of the year. We made a folder containing the relevant resources so the teachers have everything at their finger tips. Special thanks to Jan Fretwell, Helen McGuigan and Lyn. Posted by Waynos.

My class of year 2/3 students and I have justed started on our teacher directed inquiry unit. Our topic is 'Gardens' and so far we have brain stormed, categorised , 'wordled' our ideas.

…more

We are a Year 3/4 class in Whakatane. We are new to blogging, but love the way it makes our classroom so accessible to others. As a teacher, I manage our class blog 'Room 7 2009'. The students manage their own blog 'Rodney the Rat'. He is a class pet that the students take home and record a diary and digital images for. There is hot competition over who will take him home each weekend. Click on the hyperlinks to visit our blogs.

My Year 1&2 class and I have been doing an inquiry into the stream which runs through our school. After much discussion, and viewings of nautural hazards (eruptions, tornadoes & hurricanes, avalanches, floods, flash floods, eruptions) on you tube, we narrowed our focus to natural hazards which might affect us personally. With 'guidance' the children decided that if the stream were in flood, this could become a hazard.


The flattened grass shows how high the stream comes when it is in flood!

We headed down into the stream to see what we could see. We took loads of photo's which we later classified into either 'problems' or 'pretty'.


From there we looked briefly at possible solutions. One of the problems, we decided that we could solve oursleves. The picture above shows erosion around the foundations of our classroom's deck. Two of the children made an appointment with the principal, as they decided that he should be informed of this problem. The children investigated further and came up with the solution. They have since had further meetings and discussions with our caretaker, and will be involved in the fixing this problem.


The rubbish was an obvious action that we carried out while we were there. They decided that they could make posters to help other children learn about taking care of equipment and not littering.


There is a fence across the stream which collects debris. It looked as though worked well in collecting debris, however no-one had cleared it. The children did the clearing themselves. They were able to immediately see the difference they had made! They now monitor the debris build up, and check to see how much the stream rises during rain.


We hope to do some testing of the water later in the term, as one of the children wondered why there were no fish or other stream creatures to be found. To be continued...

On Tuesday I facilitated a whole day catch-up workshops with the 12 ‘newbies’ of the eBest ICT Cluster. These are the teachers who started at cluster schools this year. The idea was to get them up to speed with thinking strategies, behaviours, tools and dispositions (as much as is possible in one day!)
As part of talking about De Bono’s Thinking Hats and how to use them, one of the activities centered around this news article and photo:

CABBAGE PATCH COP

A police officer with a speed camera hides in shrubs in Lower Hutt, near Wellington, while reporting speeds via walkie-talkie to a colleague further down the road.

Dominion Post

The group then discussed the photo using the white, red, yellow and black hats. As part of the red hat discussion I asked the question ‘Is it OK to flash your headlights at oncoming cars to warn them of a police car or speed camera up ahead?’ Half the group would and the other half wouldn’t and this lead to interesting discussion, opinions and justification! No-one knew for sure if flashing your lights was illegal in New Zealand. Does anyone know?

Everyday is a great time to wake up and truly be grateful for being here. Thanks to all you very clever people that I have been surrounded by today. Your input and contributions have helped me to extend my thinking. Mauri Ora!

This has been great. Thanks to those who have forwarded there resources for all to use.

Currently at the ITC catch up with Lyn.  She has asked us all to add something to the blog.  Here are a couple of photos from my class's photostory of 'The New Cat'.  They really loved using photostory and acting out the book.

I am glad to see this site and I am looking forward to using all the great resources everyone has added. Thanks everyone!

Thanks everybody for your thought provoking discussion today. I am teaching at Allandale and have 22 year two students who are excited about using De Bono's hats and lenjoy making sure they are using the seven servants in their oral language recounts.

As a part time teacher I often don't attend PD but have attended the ICT cluster PD and have been very impressed with the training and an inspired to design programs using these tools now for when I do have my own class.

Great ideas to use in the classroom.  Thanks for sharing

We went on a great visit to the Fire station the other day.One of out follow up activities involved this website-CBeebies. The children read the instructions to make a fire station and then had to collect the resources in order to make the model. It was highly motivating and very enjoyable. Visit the site here.

I have been practising using the different features on our digital cameras in particular the macro's...here is the result... 

This frog was brought in by one of our cats so it is now in the class for the children to do an inquiry into frogs and their habitat, and what environmental hazards affect their survival.