The keen bean!

Ist Skype Calls!

2011-05-31T23:09:00.000+01:00

Well I have just completed my first two skype calls between Edinburgh and New Zealand tonight!

The first was with room 20 at Botany Downs School and the second was with room 5 at Waiuku School. The children and their teachers were absolutely brilliant and answered all our questions in lots of detail. I have recorded the calls using Call Recorder for skype so I can share the information with my class tomorrow as the time difference makes it impossible for the children to speak directly to each other as it is too late here.

My next step is to upload the video files into Glow so the children in my class can add comments and we can add some video response of our own to hopefully continue the conversation with our new friends. I am very excited about this project and look forward to further calls. Thanks you to Bridget Smith and Rachel Boyd for their support with this.

Glow Developments

2011-05-30T21:55:00.001+01:00

Well it's been a very long time in between posts on this blog although I have been very busy eLearning-wise since I last blogged!

We are getting ready for a Global Citizenship focus week at school where each class will compare schools in Scotland with schools in other countries. I immediately thought of New Zealand and set about contacting friends and asking if we could skype to share information. Unfortunately I hit a snag when I discovered it's not possible to skype in school, however, this was quickly addressed when I spoke with our Cluster Glow mentor and I am very excited that he has been able to set up an area where I can host some videos of my primary 4 class talking about school life in Scotland. The teachers in New Zealand can be given access to the area so they can share the information with their classes.

In preparation my class visited some of the teacher's class blogs which they were highly motivated by and immediately they began requesting "Can we have a blog?" I would like to thank and acknowledge each of the teachers involved and am very much looking forward to this collaboration which I will be detailing here.

Year 1 blog - Riverdale School
Year 1 blog - Waiuku School
Year 3 blog - Meadowbank School
Year 4 Blog - Elm Park School
Year 4 blog - Botany Downs School

Presenting at ULearn 2010

2010-10-18T15:22:00.000+01:00

I was fortunate to be able to present at ULearn this month and really enjoyed the experience. As I am currently in Edinburgh this required additional organisation and communication with the organisers of the Conference. I have just completed my Presenters Survey providing feedback to the ULearn organisers and uploaded my Presenters Materials which finishes the process for me for 2010 and I am happy to say that the entire thing was a complete delight from start to finish.

The process began with my submission to present at the Conference on behalf of my school, Shelly Park, and the Eastnet Cluster we are part of. I was very happy when my submission was accepted and prepared my presentation with the idea of presenting in person in Christchurch. That changed when I had to return to Scotland but as I was still very keen to present I contacted the organisers and asked if it might be possible to still present via skype. Sherry Crisp was very helpful and supportive and assured me that this was very possible. I decided to first present at the Eastnet Cluster Expo to share my findings with other professionals in our Cluster and also as part of my preparation for ULearn.

Presenting at the Eastnet Expo (click here for the link to relevant post) allowed me to prepare for potential technical difficulties at ULearn. I attempted to avoid these by giving my co-presenter, Ruth Aw, a copy of my Powerpoint Presentation along with the video clips I wanted to include and the handout for the attendees so that she had that with her in Christchurch. We practised skyping several times and I successfully shared my screen and maintained effective audio and video contact throughout. However, when it came to presenting the workshop the share the screen facility dropped off. Despite re-starting and logging out of skype I couldn't correct the problem. I continued with the audio and talked Ruth through the slideshow by asking her to click onto the next slide or advance the animations to accompany what I was saying. This must have been a bit distracting for the audience. I think it would have been helpful to have given Ruth my presenter's notes with the slides numbered beside each paragraph and then she would have been able to progress the slides without me. Something for me to consider next time!

I found the audience absolutely fantastic and was thrilled that they had several questions for me at the end. I hope that some will be interested in continuing the conversation either by commenting on this blog or in the Discussion section of the wiki. The feedback about the workshop was very positive and some people said they were inspired to trial something similar within their own school which was encouraging. It would be great to hear how they are getting on and I am happy to answer any questions or queries anyone has about the process.

Dylan William - Content then Process

2010-08-17T20:26:00.001+01:00

Very interesting talk about the pose, pause, pounce technique. Very interesting to me as this was encouraged by my previous Principal, Grant Ramsay, at Papatoetoe Central School 8 years ago when I first started teaching. I certainly try and use the 3 second rule to give children a chance to process and think interactve questioning encourages thinking. I have operated a no hands up policy in my Year 0/1 classes for the last 3 years.

Ideas for Starting off with a New Class/New Term

2010-07-25T23:39:00.000+01:00

Click here for a great link on Ewan McIntosh's blog to the GETideas website which I've just joined. Great online, open community for education leaders. I have had a read of the full article which is very interesting and am considering joining the live chat event on Tuesday 27th July. Could be a good way to hear and share ideas. I can always benefit from ideas on how to use my time effectively to manage my workload!

Eastnet Cluster Expo 2010

2010-07-24T13:42:00.003+01:00

I was fortunate to present at the Eastnet Expo last Wednesday. View the slideshow and supporting materials below. Despite some technical hiccups I thoroughly enjoyed presenting using skype and the share your screen facility. The idea behind my workshop was to share my recent journey into Action Research with other professionals.

Digikidz Workshop for Eastnet Expo 2010

View more presentations from Shelly Park School.

In organising this workshop I reflected upon my experience from last year's workshop eLearning for Little People at the 2009 Eastnet Cluster Expo and tried to progress from that experience. I took a different approach when preparing my slideshow this year where I incorporated some aspects of Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds and also video examples to share with the audience. The workshop began smoothly with the setting the scene clip Piano Stairs from http://thefuntheory.com/ :

The idea behind this being that when learning is fun, children are engaged. Shortly afterwards the audio started fluctating on skype which was disappointing. Possibly it was a bit ambitious to expect to be able to share my screen and talk for 50 minutes without any problems. So we quickly went to plan B: I rang the classroom that the workshop was being held in at Elm Park School and spoke on speakerphone. Once we'd turned down the volume on both my laptop and Belinda's, who was helping me at the NZ end, from this end it there was a bit of an echo but not at the other end which is a relief! Fortunately this didn't mean I ended up running over time and I was pleased I didn't get flustered, probably because I'd already thought through all the possible problems and was prepared! There's a lot to be said for practise and preparation before presenting.

I hope the attendees at the workshop found it worthwhile. I am excited to see if anyone adds to the Discussion section of my wiki and have created a How to sheet to support them to do this.

XMind - Mindmapping Tool

2010-06-28T04:25:00.003+01:00

I downloaded and used the XMind tool to help me plan out how to structure my presentation for the Eastnet Cluster Expo and hopefully ULearn 2010. I am sure other things will occur to me as I go through the process but I am happy to have a plan.

Classroom Visits or Learning Walks

2010-06-28T03:51:00.001+01:00

I have just watched and really enjoyed a talk by Cheryl Doig in the latest ICT PD Newsletter on CORE. This is the first time I have encountered the phrase 'Learning walks' but it really fits well as a way to observe a learning environment(s) for a specific purpose and then discussing and reflecting upon the observations with the intention of improving practice within your school.

In my current role, where I am released from the classroom to support staff and children with eLearning, I have been lucky to observe many skilled practitioners interacting with the children they teach. And because I am also involved with each class I have participated in discussions with these teachers about the learning that is happening which might otherwise not have happened because I would have been busy working in my own room and I wouldn't have had that opportunity.

Creating a dialogue between colleagues where you are all working towards achieving the same Goal can be very powerful. We have been using quality learning circles where staff share their expertise with one another so we can all improve practice and try to increase continuity between classes, considering what... would look like, sound like and how will the children feel about it. We feel comfortable is this setting as we have developed a good level of collegiality. We take care to focus on one thing at a time and lively discussion generally ensues which involves teachers reflecting on their own practice.

'Learning walks': something for Senior Management Teams to consider!

A Further Reflection on the Digikidz Feedback Session

2010-06-19T00:54:00.002+01:00

I was thrilled with the number of parents/family members who attended the feedback session by the Digikidz. I found the session highly beneficial for a number of reasons. The Digikidz delighted in demonstrating their skills with confidence and enthusiasm. The parents were able to ask questions, some of were not anticipated and sparked interesting discussion, such as: How were the Digikidz chosen? With the Action Research project finishing at the end of the Term will the Digikidz group continue? What do you see as the benefits to this?

I was able to answer the first question fairly easily - for lots of different reasons! Having taught a lot of the children I consulted with each class teacher and made some suggestions so together we chose 2 children from each class. The boy/girl ratio is quite equal with 9 boys and 7 girls in the group. The children needed to fit certain criteria - be kind, helpful, quick to pick up new skills and not too controlling. It was not necessary to be hugely skilled in ICT but I didn't choose anyone who finds ICT very challenging. Some children were chosen to participate as a way of extending them as they were achieving well above expectation for their age across the Curriculum, others because we thought it might benefit their self-esteem because they struggle in the core Curricular areas, some shy and quiet children were chosen to encourage them to build their confidence and others simply because we thought their personality suited the role and they were friendly with the other Digikid in their class.

With regard to the Digikidz continuing next Term. The children have been successfully upskilled in: using the easi-speak; digital camera to take photos (Year 1 and 2); digital camera to record video (Year 2 only); microphone headsets; voicethread; photostory; kid pix to draw pictures and record sound, to create slideshows and animations; blogging; accessing class and year level areas on KnowledgeNET; sounds great and smart phonics programs. So they don't really need to do anything else! If it is possible to continue re-visiting these programs and using the different tools to help the children retain their learning that would be beneficial. However, if the class teachers increase their integration of ICTs into their everyday practice the Digikidz should maintain their current levels of expertise. Plus if the Digikidz are working in different classes to support other children with their eLearning that will also help keep their skills sharp.

At the beginning of this project I guessed that there would be benefits to implementing Digikidz, however, I didn't realise exactly how successful it would be nor did I realise all the benefits which I have observed. All the quiet and shy children have benefitted as have the children who struggle in other areas of the Curriculum. They show increased confidence, independence, initiative, leadership and willingness to take a risk because they know they are really good at being a Digikid and they have teachers and their peers praising them and regularly seeking their expertise. All the children have developed their interpersonal skills and are able to assist others without dominating the situation. The Digikidz were constantly challenged and asked to step out of their comfort zone, with support from me, so they expect this now and are very keen to learn. But the biggest benefit for me is that I didn't quite appreciate the huge power of effective peer support. I have always used buddies to support others within my class and done peer assessment using success criteria. But this was generally reciprocal where one child would support their friend and then they would swap. Because the Digikidz job is to work with their peer to support them in their achievement of the success criteria for the entire lesson the focused talk about achieving the Learning Intention is unbelievable. The children constantly refer back to the WILF and the Digikid keeps asking their peer to extend their work throughout. This resulted in hugely more detailed and higher quality work than the children who were working alone even although those children were on-task, motivated and following the WILF too. The idea that two heads are better than one really applies here. I could worry that the Digikid is missing out on something by doing this role but they are gaining so many other skills by being a responsible citizen and helping someone. I am interested in exploring peer support further in the classroom perhaps by allocating more time to the process so that it can be a higher quality experience. I did ask a few parents whether they were concerned about their child going out of the classroom for upskilling or to work in other rooms to support others but everyone I spoke to was very positive about the experience and had seen marked changes in their child.

The sharing session was very enjoyable for me and next time I organise something like that I would let the rest of the school know so the other teachers can have a chance to come and see what the Digikidz have been learning too. I overlooked the fact that they might be interested and only invited my team, Associate Principal and Principal. Belinda told me she would have liked to be invited as well to celebrate the childrens' success. I will definately have to keep that in mind for the future and not assume people are too busy or that they wouldn't be interested! Let's face it, it's always nice to be invited to a party isn't it?

Here are some photos and comments from the session (images and audio by the Digikidz):

On a final note I was just visiting the At the Teacher's Desk blog and found a great post about a collaborative project between an NZ and a US school where the American children watched a video of two experts in the NZ school using the rakau sticks. Here is the link. The children then practised and made their own video in response. The idea of children as experts with children learning from one another is so amazing. What a wonderful way to learn!

Cybersafety and Digital Citizenship

2010-06-18T03:48:00.001+01:00

After discussing the Elluminate webinar about Digital Citizenship moderated by cybersafety expert Andrew Churches and NZ Education ICT leaders (Allanah King, Jacqui Sharp, Suzie Vesper, Warren Hall) and including many other eLearning in Education experts (Sue West, Tessa Gray and Hey Milly to name just a few)with Suzie Vesper on Wednesday I returned to the wiki to access the recording of the live session and reviewed it again! I noticed this link from AllanahK to support people with tightening up their Facebook privacy settings which I did myself for reassurance, sent to all my Friends and then screenshotted to support others:

I then also took a look at The Grid, thanks Suzie, and there are loads of great resources there with lesson plans, links to appropriate sites, suggested activities for supporting the development of Digital Citizenship and encouraging Cybersafety appropriately at different year levels.

Suzie Vesper visits Shelly Park School

2010-06-17T08:21:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we had a visit from Suzie Vesper and Belinda Johnston. It was great spending time discussing our school's progress towards completing the Final Milestone Report at the end of 2010 which marks the completion of the Eastnet Cluster we have been involved in for the last 3 years. We re-visited the Contract Goals and discussed where next in terms of gathering evidence to support the statements we will make against each Goal for the Report and also sustainability for the rest of 2010 and beyond.

It was very interesting to me that this week in the middle and junior schools Kathy Pittaway and I are doing work which is contributing towards achieving one of the Goals which is as follows -

National Goal: Increase the school community's understanding of the education contribution of eLearning;
Cluster Goal: Parents will attend information evenings and workshops to develop an understanding of our eLearning community;
Success Indicators: Parents access and contribute to online learning environments eg KnowledgeNET, UltraNet, wikis, blogs and e-Portfolios.

The middle school are involved in online Homework related to their current inquirt about Water Conservation this week. The task is to undertake a survey, created in Google Forms, and embedded into their Pod KnowledgeNET page then the following week to complete a Poll where they will self-assess their work using the traffic lights system. Kathy and I plan to interview some children and ask them about how they felt about doing their Homework this way. Then we can use this along with screenshots of the gathered data and the childrens' responses to this as evidence for the Milestone Report.

In the junior school yesterday I organised a feedback session for the Pod 1 and 2 Digikidz to share their learning with their parents and also to provide the parents with an opportunity to ask questions about the process. The children recorded their parents' ideas using the easi-speak microphones and we will upload these, along with the photos they took using the digital cameras, into voicethread next week as a revision exercise. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and the parents reported the following:

The second Goal I was very interested in was:

Cluster Goal: Parents will be aware of the value of cybersafety protocols and its implications.
Success Indicators: Increased awareness of eLearning issues and cybersafety requirements.

I am interested in this at the moment because of my upcoming session with the BOT and skype conversation with Suzanne Barr about the possibility of participating in the Super Clubs Plus pilot in Years 4, 5 and 6.

Visit to Summerlands School

2010-06-11T12:30:00.002+01:00

I was very fortunate to go on a school visit on Wednesday to Summerland School in Henderson. We were welcomed by the Deputy Principal, Blair Giles, and then introduced to the Principal, Luke Sumich, who generously gave us his time to give us a tour of the school while sharing his knowledge and inviting us to interact with the children and teachers. It was a highlight to spend time in Amanda Signal's classroom and meet the Tumeke 12 kids (as an NZ immigrant I must admit to Googling "tumeke" to discover the literal translation means "too much" but that it now commonly means "awesome" thanks to the Urban Dictionary for filling me in) and the Tumeke 12 kids were definately awesome as were all the Summerland kids I spoke to!

I found the school organisation fascinating. The teams, I believe, can be formed by teachers wanting to collaborate and/or sharing a similar philosophy. Everyone is on-board with the benefits of eLearning but teachers have the freedom to be creative and integrate a wide variety of tools to support childrens' thinking: Bloom's taxonomy, double bubbble map, Habits of Mind, Thinkers Keys, Thinking Hats, Inquiry learning etc. But the difference between Summerland and other schools is the teams consist of different year levels. Luke explained this was to allow positive peer role modelling especially for the new entrants joining the school. Having taught in Year 0/1 for the past three years positive peer role modelling is very powerful and effective and it is certainly something I encourage in my Year 1 children. I often remind them that they can set an example for the younger children and they are equally able to empathise and remember how they felt when they were new at school. At our school we encourage role modelling with all classes, with the exception of Year 2, being composites i.e Year 0/1, Year 3/4 and Year 5/6. This gives the children an opportunity to be supported by their peers and then take on that role themselves the following year.

At Summerlands there is a really good vibe. There is an atmosphere of mutual respect; committed people working together; children keyed into what effective learning looks like, sounds like, feels like for them; evidence of asessment and thinking about where to next and confident, independent eLearners everywhere! I was keen to see Tumeke 12's Learning Links in action and I wasn't disappointed, happening upon a child sitting outside the classroom reading his book expressively into photobooth and then inserting it into keynote together with his self-reflection. I like the idea that he will be sharing this with his parents at Conferences, how powerful for them to be able to see his level of achievement at the beginning of the year on a reading graph and then watch him reading at that time and then compare that with where he is now!

We left the school smiling, with lots to think about especially as we near the end of our Cluster Contract. Luke mentioned recently learning what a wiki is and creating one for his school BOT and I think he made a lot of sense when he said that people need to have a reason for learning how to do something new. I personally learned to create a wiki when I had a need to house digital resources for the young learners in my class. But once I had done that I could then see more possibilities for wikis and when I created my Action Research wiki I found a use for the Discussion tab which is not relevant in my junior resources wiki! The exciting thing for me about eLearning in Education is that there is always a new way of approaching things, new possibilities for capturing interest and engaging children and providing reasons for continuing to learn.

Here is a slideshow of the photos I took on the visit:

CORE's 10 Trends for 2010

2010-06-11T11:33:00.000+01:00

Thanks to ewan.mcintosh's bookmarks for alerting me to this slideshow from CORE by Derek Wenmoth.

CORE's ten trends for 2010

View more presentations from Derek Wenmoth.

I am excited that Derek will be doing the Keynote at the Eastnet Cluster Expo next term. We have been trying to make the shift from children solely consuming content to creating their own content school-wide this year. The children have been learning to create content using voicethread, kid pix and photostory. Children are also contributing and communicating through blogs and the Digikidz have collaborated with children at Pt England and Elm Park schools to ask and answer questions to help them in their role supporting their peers and teachers with eLearning. Last week the Digikidz coordinated their first animations using kid pix. They came up with their concept, planned the sequence and executed it with varying levels of success. Half the group completed their animations whereas the other half ran out of time. In reflection the children were able to appreciate that they had chosen more difficult subject matter which took longer to create/adapt on each slide.

I really like the quote from slide 5 in the CORE presentation describing the changing role of learners where once they were solely content consumers and now they are in an "architecture of participation". In my current role as an 'eCoach' released from the classroom to support teachers in the Junior school with eLearning I particularly identify with slide 6 about competing philosophies where teachers are not regarded as a problem to be fixed but as supported professionals.

The concept of ubiquitous computing - learning anywhere, anytime from any device fits well with the new technologies being trialled in schools: apple iPads and iPod touches or even iPhones with all the apps and more to come no doubt. Belinda Johnston's mLearning workshop at the Cluster Expo will be one to watch, I'm sure. Perhaps this is the affordable way forward for schools struggling to afford one-to-one laptops and everything else that goes with them. I am currently trying to reorganise PCs and laptops with the Year 0/1 team so that children and teachers have access to a group of computers every day rather than three classes sharing but we have difficulties to overcome with furniture and connecting into the network without disrupting the physical flow of the classrooms. This wouldn't be an issue with iPads or iPod touches. I thought the children and I had it all in my room last year in terms of digital resources with 5 computers, an IWB and data projector, teacher laptop, digital camera, headphones, tablet, easi-speak microphone. But now the potential of the iPod touch and iPads once readers become available in this format! You'll never run out of books for a group or worry about books going missing or getting damaged again. One-to-one iPods sounds like it could be possible for schools and monies could be invested in these rather than atlases, dictionaries etc.

Sumo Paint possible alternative to Kid Pix

2010-06-11T08:09:00.000+01:00

I am still trying to solve the school's problem with exporting Kid Pix slideshows to QuickTime. I have been experimenting with Sumo Paint which is an online image editor. You can save in sumo format or png/jpeg onto your computer. Unfortunately there isn't a slideshow option! I will continue looking but this is a great tool anyway with lots of options for creating pictures. I have had a very quick play:

Reflecting on the Digikidz Action Research Project

2010-06-11T07:44:00.001+01:00

As my Action Research project draws to a close I am looking back and reflecting on the project goals and considering the extent to which these have been achieved. I am excited to find that everything the children and were working on together has been achieved plus after observations were completed by Belinda Johnston, Eastnet Cluster Facilitator and discussions took place amongst the Junior school teachers, additional benefits are also evident.

I wrote part of the Final Report for the project this afternoon and I am reasonably pleased with it! I am sure I will have more to add after next Wednesday when the children are running a feedback session for their parents to showcase their learning and promote conversation about the project. I am really interested to gain the parents' perspectives and even more interested to find out if they have noticed any positive changes in their child's feelings about eLearning specifically or in their general attitude/confidence/self-esteem etc.

During discussions with teachers all noted significant changes in the Digikidz. The children are more confident, regularly demonstrate initiative and leadership in the classroom, will take a risk, are more responsible, willing to try new things and respected by their peers.

I was optimistic at the beginning of the project that the results would be favourable but I am very pleased that this has indeed proven to be the case. The children rose to the challenge and have exceeded my expectations in every way.

I would like to acknowledge all the Junior school teachers at Shelly Park School for supporting me and the children and the Digikidz for all their hard work.

Now I need to prepare for my presentations at the Eastnet Cluster Expo 2010 and hopefully uLearn 2010.

Microsoft Mouse Mischief

2010-05-30T13:02:00.000+01:00

Click this link http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/ to download Microsoft Mouse Mischief to encourage interaction between your powerpoint slideshows and groups/whole class. You need wireless mice and are able to see which mouse has given each answer so you can identify who has given each one! I have just downloaded this add-on and will try it out tomorrow, woops make that today as it is 12:01am! If this is good I know lots of teachers in my school will be excited as there are many ppt users especially in Years 3 and 4.

Stop Motion Animation

2010-05-30T08:46:00.002+01:00

As part of my preparation for working with the Digikidz this week I have been watching videos! I really liked this video sourced from http://mashable.com/2010/05/29/stop-motion-videos/

I have found a collection of short animations by 9 year olds to share with the Digikidz as exemplars. The plan is to view and then discuss the children's likes and dislikes about the animations so they can start think about what they might like to do with their own project. I am then going to introduce them to the idea that they are going to include symbols in their animations with the purpose being to share these with English second language learners so they can understand the story without the audio. We can then come up with a setting for each story. After this we will work together to create storyboards, collect props and create the scenery.

Descriptive writing using Photostory 3.0

2010-05-27T08:05:00.000+01:00

I worked with each class in Year 0/1 this week to collate their photos, some but not all taken by the children themselves, into a slideshow and help them to record their descriptions of well known NZ treats.

I worked with a range of children. The Digikidz were very confident and knew the success criteria for recording a story using a microphone (speak confidently with medium volume and speed). The children who were new to school or who have not had an opportunity to use a microphone either with myself or their class teacher were much less confident and unsure about practising reading their writing until they knew it really well. However, they were quickly able to identify what they could improve on after listening to their recording. It was exciting that JB, LW, PJ and MK were able to record their audio perfectly the first time. I don't think they actually needed my support at all!

Observations in Action Research

2010-05-27T07:15:00.000+01:00

I was very fortunate to work in a Year 2 class yesterday alongside Belinda Johnston who was doing some observations on the effect of Digikid support on children's confidence and engagement in their learning.

The WALT was: create a Kiwiana picture in Kid Pix. I was working with the class Digikidz, GV and KCS, and four other children. We co-constructed the WILF together: one Kiwiana item, correct colours, one or two colours for the background, large picture and while working we added typed label and the child's name. I re-visited the Kid Pix rules with the group and I was pleased they remembered that they only use the large eraser/dynamite stick once and that when creating our own content we don't use the pre-prepared backgrounds, stickers or stamps. They were easily prompted to use the fill bucket correctly and I reinforced the need to stick to plain colours so they could be easily changed.

Of the four children, two were paired with a Digikid for one-to-one support and two were working independently. The idea behind the observation session was to see if the children with support would show increased confidence or engagement or both in their learning.

The results showed that the children with Digikid support were continually conferencing with each other and were very focused on their learning. The children who were working independently were on-task for the first five out of ten minutes. However, in the last five minutes there were many more instances of off-task behaviours. The full observation can be viewed at - http:fairvresearch.wikispaces.com/ under Project Findings. I would definately like to repeat this observation using the same children to see if the results are consistent. Belinda and I discussed that next time she would wait five minutes and then begin the observation and see if there is any difference.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Jo Lynn the teacher and the room 5 children for allowing us to work together.

Storynory

2010-05-24T12:53:00.000+01:00

This looks good http://storynory.com/ with a variety of stories and books and a Juniors section.

Online Mosaic Creator

2010-05-23T10:35:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Debz Webz for her post about http://click7.org/image-mosaic-generator/?create while I was visiting the site I saw http://www.shapecollage.com/ free download:

Here is the demo video -

I have tried the shape collage creator and made a quick heart shaped collage using eLearning related photos.

Google Wave in Education

2010-05-23T10:00:00.001+01:00

I am excited to have joined Google Wave now its gone public. I have been waiting for quite some time to join and had asked everyone I could think of to send me an invitation but they had all used them up already! Now I am in! I have found several really useful tweets through @ictclassroom re @willnolan on twitter. There is a really good slideshow by John Jennings with ideas for using Google Wave in Education. Let me know if you'd like me to send you an invitation, there are lots of possibilities to communicate and collaborate.

Follow-on from listen to you tube Post

2010-05-17T22:09:00.000+01:00

I have just used www.listentoyoutube.com to extract music for an Inspire flipchart which I shared on Planet! Very handy!

How to Download Music from youtube

2010-05-17T08:24:00.000+01:00

http://www.listentoyoutube.com/ is a simple way to extract music from youtube videos.

Paste the url and select high quality then GO. Then click convert to MP3 and once this is completed save to your computer.

A very big thank you to the Desperately Seeking Blogger blog and my good friend, Kathy, for showing me how to use this super simple tool that's great to have up your sleeve.

Moodle Girl - Carnegie Library Storymaker

2010-05-16T07:40:00.000+01:00

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/ Great online storymaker tool for children where they can consider setting, characters and plot.

Thanks to the Moodle Girl's Blog and to My Story Maker by Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. I created a story in 5 minutes and it was fun and made me think, a little, so I think it would be worthwhile activity for children. The stories can be opened online using a unique ID number or downloaded in pdf format.

Free online Word Count Tool

2010-05-15T08:26:00.000+01:00

http://allworldphone.com/count-words-characters.htm for counting words and characters.

Now that I have set up my Twitter account to automatically update from my blog posts I find myself trying to be aware of the character limit. This online tool is very handy if you are in the same situation and don't want your Twitter updates cutting off part way through!

Real Life Stories

2010-05-15T08:24:00.000+01:00

Visit http://www.netsmartz.org/resources/reallife.htm for video scenarios, activity cards and related news articles.

There are helpful sections for Parents/Guardians and Educators. Many scenarios are at a teenage level, however, these could be adapted or give teachers ideas to explore with their class. NetsmartzKids has lots of usable videos and games for children that are safe and appropriate. The Hector's World is also excellent and has a lot of new areas in development. I am curious to find out about the Telephone Booth and I like the look of the Digital Citizens Advice area. The only area I have made really good use of thus far is the Episode Theatre and then reinforcing the important messages within the clips through everyday practice working with Junior age children. I need to take it further.

Digital Citizenship

2010-05-15T07:29:00.001+01:00

http://www.thegrid.org.nz/ links to Hector the Dolphin videos and lesson plans for each area of Primary and middle school.

I am really getting a lot out of the ICT PD I am doing on Digital Citizenship and Cybersafety. Digi Teen is a super site for Teenagers and it would be exciting to set up something similar with Middle or Senior level Primary kids.

Teachers often address personal and social development through Drama and role play scenarios to protect individuals whilst educating children about being good citizens within the class. As more and more people are sharing their thoughts, photos, work online they are creating a digital footprint which can create either an accurate profile or be misinterpreted to create the wrong impression of someone. I was impressed with the efforts of the children involved in the gifted and talented extension group at Marina View School creating a video about text bullying and what parents can do to help their children:

I googled text bullying + vodafone and came up with this link offering advice.

I have now just watched the Secondary Scenario and it was very chilling. The important message to share with children is that you need to be very careful who you share your images with. Once you have put something into an online space or shared with someone who has access to the internet you no longer control what happens to that image. It is no longer your decision who views it or what they do with it. I think as teachers it is our job to teach children and demonstrate how to be responsible online and preferably offer opportunities for them to experiment in a safe way.

Re: Unlearn Part 2 from Educating the Dragon

2010-05-15T05:14:00.001+01:00

I am always looking for new inspiring youtube clips try watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USn5t5nQWU8&feature=player_embedded

Thanks to the Educating the Dragon blog for posting this youtube video which was apparently shared with the blogger originally from Chris Betcher, although I couldn't find the post on the Betchaboy blog it was still a great read. In my current role where I am a school ICT Lead Teacher I spend a lot of time thinking about how best to explain my thinking to others and whether I am, in fact, leading them in the right direction with my ideas and suggestions! I find it helpful to watch inspiring videos to help articulate my thoughts and offer myself a new perspective that I can share with colleagues. I think you need to have a good understanding of something yourself before teaching others and sometimes a picture or, even better, a video clip explains it perfectly.

http://www.teachers.tv/

2010-05-15T00:31:00.000+01:00

Fantastic site for educators http://www.teachers.tv/

If you are not yet aware of Teachers TV online then I highly recommend this as a place where you can find information for personal professional development, resources for using in your classroom and an online community where you can seek answers and offers solutions to questions posed by other educators.

I have created a voicethread to explain why the site appeals to me:

SnapaShot Screenshot Tool

2010-05-14T10:54:00.004+01:00

http://nicekit.com/screen-capture/best-free-snapshot.htm great PC screen capture tool. Unfortunately my free trial with Screenshot Studio is over so I have been trying to find a suitable replacement. This tool is not very sophitsticated but that makes it very easy to use. Save the SnapaShot new version which downloads in a zipped file and once you've extracted just double click to use! Very handy for capturing straight to jpeg format to upload onto the web.

Stop Motion Animation

2010-05-14T10:42:00.002+01:00

http://www.wiki-how.com/Main-Page excellent to learn and share how tos! I have just Googled How to create a stop motion animation after losing my paper notes for this and found a great wiki with loads of helpful how to articles. I am considering uploading all the How to... sheets I have made to support staff using various software programs and web 2.0 tools - Photostory, Kid Pix, Voisethread etc. And there is a wikiHow app for iPhones and iPod touches too.

Here is the link to the article I will be using to support my animation work with the Digikidz next week: http://www.wiki-how.com/Create-a-Stop-Motion-Animation .

Digital Citizenship and Cybersafety

2010-05-10T12:50:00.000+01:00

Just joined this wiki http://ictpd-digital-citizenship-and-cybersafety.wikispaces.com/ . I am very excited to be participating in a cybersafety and digital citizenship project as this has been something I have been interested in for a while. I have looked into Super Clubs Plus and am keen to see what else I can investigate to increase my knowledge and understanding of this very important aspect of eLearning.

When I visited the wiki I watched a couple of youtube clips, the first of which I was familiar with having shared this with the staff at our school last week during a staff meeting.

The other one, however, I had not seen and was very interested in.

The idea of myself as a Digital Immigrant speaking digital as a 2nd language versus my children as digital 1st language learners worries me, however, I was slightly reassured after watching the clip when Jukes said that the mind can re-wire and you can learn new things! There's hope for me yet. Jukes recommends reading: Steven Johnson's book 'Everything bad is good for you' - which, according to Jukes, says children playing sophisticated online games learn to take risks, deal with failure, become motivated and confident and have high expectations of themselves. He then goes on to recommend 'A Whole New Mind' by Daniel Pink. I am now adding another blog to my list of subscriptions in Google Reader http://www.committedsardine.com/blog.cfm .
I also was interested in the Educational Origami Wiki which had further information and Patrick Woessner's Presentations wiki on digital citizenship which I will have to spend some time exploring.

Apple iPad

2010-05-10T02:46:00.001+01:00

Apple iPad
Originally uploaded by iLounge

I have just enabled my blog to allow flickr access so I can add flickr content, videos and photos, on both my blogs. I wanted to find a photo of an iPad to accompany my last post but at the same time ensure I was using a photo correctly and acknowledging its source.

Measuring the iPad's Potential!

2010-05-10T02:30:00.001+01:00

I have been Googling and musing over the possibilities offered by the iPad in Education. I have been seriously been considering buying a MacBook for myself as I need a new laptop. Now I have been introduced to the iPad I think I will need one of those too. This wouldn't be a purchase only for myself but one which my children could enjoy! I wonder though whether I will be able to buy just one and they can share? Hopefully if I let them alternate between working with me on the MacBook and using the iPad there will be minimal arguing over who's turn it is. Immediately I see that the iPad has so much potential for independent use. I wouldn't be comfortable letting my four year olds loose on my laptop but the iPad is a different story. It is so easy and intuitive to use with the touch screen. They can read books and foster their confidence by recording themselves reading familiar stories. The animations included with the stories hold my attention so they will certainly be appealing to children.

It would be very exciting to be a teacher in a classroom where children has access to motivating tools for learning - IWBs, laptops, iPods, iPads offer so many possibilities. For a job like that, where can I apply? But more importantly it would be thrilling to be a learner in a classroom with access to an exciting teacher with the tools to support learning for today's digital natives! For a school like that, where can I enrol my children?

I enjoyed reading Bridget McCrea's article 'Measuring the iPad's Potential for Education' in the Journal, Transforming Education through Technology online.

iPod Touch and the Possibilities for Education

2010-05-05T01:45:00.000+01:00

We have just had a very exciting session playing with the iPod touches and there has been a real buzz of discussion in the room about how these could be used in classrooms to support childrens' learning. They are very practical because they are light, portable, easy to store. They are very easy to use and immediately engage the user. There are lots of different apps available and Belinda, when she was on the Apple Bus Tour in the States, saw the iPod touch being trialled one per child in a classroom. They can be picked up and used whenever needed and then put down again! If the children need to look up a word they pick up their iPod touch and find out then return to their writing. Reading levels improved hugely because the children could speak into their microphone and then listen to their reading and self-evaluate.

Action Research

2010-05-05T00:14:00.004+01:00

It was very helpful working with the Year 1 Elm Park School Lead Teacher, Veronica Afreddy, and discussing my progress with my Action Research project. It was interesting to see what she has been doing and she recommended the British Council website which has helpful information about Action Research. We also talked about the possible format that the final report would take.

I think at this point I would like to review the impact of the Digikidz in classes with a Google Form and then demonstrate how they can be used more deliberately when I am providing in-class support.

Fotobabble re Jacqui Sharp

2010-05-01T04:36:00.001+01:00

Instantly ideas spring to mind for literacy for this site Fotobabble. Another great link from the Web 2.0 in Education blog which would be very useful for many things in the classroom. It is somewhere in between voicethread and vocaroo as it allows you to upload a photo but not more than one. So it appears to me that it would be useful for children to use a self-reflection tool that could be embedded into their ePortfolio. There could be a photo of their work or of them creating their piece of work combined with their thoughts - challenges, triumphs, next steps. Whereas with voicethread the teacher would also be able to comment this would not be possible with fotobabbly, however, the comments could be added via post comments in a blog etc.

I think the part that would be appealing to many of my colleagues is the ease with which the embed code can be obtained and then the fotobabble can be transferred into a class blog/ePortfolio etc which is sometimes the tricky part for people to manage.

Blogger in Draft: Template Designer

2010-05-01T00:48:00.003+01:00

I continue to be impressed with the ease and sophistication of using Blogger in Draft. If you haven't ticked this option under your account I highly recommend it. Now there are many effective templates to choose from which are fully customizable within Blogger itself. There is no need to visit http://thecutestblogontheblock.com/ anymore unless you are a Junior School teacher who is looking for something appealing for your class! I have just modified the template for this blog again and am much happier with its look. I have gone through several templates for this blog since it was started and I do prefer clean, pale backgrounds personally. I find them easier to read! Thanks to Hey Milly again for blogging about this first and encouraging me to give it a try. If you are interested in trying blogger in draft for yourself follow this link to the original post which includes screenshots and detailed instructions of what to do. I would add in that under the template designer if you click Background you can then choose from some different designs so you can have something other than a plain background:

Picture Teller and more

2010-04-30T10:50:00.003+01:00

Thanks to for this post from the To Infinity and Beyond blog about Picture Teller which is apparently similar to Photostory. As we use this a lot in school this is a great alternative I will try out. I think the advantage Photostory has is it's downloadable so it can be used off-line and doesn't affect internet speeds. I recommend this blog for other great ideas too, the last 3 postings are great!

Ideas to Inspire

2010-04-30T04:59:00.004+01:00

I have just visited a great site Ideas to Inspire which has excellent ideas and resources for teachers plus links to other great blogs and sites. There was a link to Inspiring youtube videos to use to start discussions within your classroom with different messages. As someone who is often searching youtube for this very thing it was wonderful to find a slideshare of over 100 potential clips! I haven't had an opportunity to view them all yet. Thank you to the Ideas to Inspire blog.

Also within this site are areas: Interesting Ways to use ICT software and web 2.0 tools and Interesting Ways to use ICT hardware. I took screenshots to show the listed tools and technologies which resources are provided for:

Telescopic Text re Hey Milly

2010-04-30T04:30:00.002+01:00

Thanks to Hey Milly for her post about Telescopic Text and how she has used this in her classroom to support her children to improve their writing by adding adjectives and choosing alternates for overused or in Hey Milly's classroom "wicked words". I remember when I was teaching Year 5/6 having a similar word wall for alternatives for 'said' which the children referred to during writing. This site demonstrates very effectively how writing can change dramatically with different phrases. The writing section of the site, where the children can write their own, is supported by Firefox, Safari or Chrome but does not support IE. There is a very helpful guide which explains what to do. It appears that you need to enter your text very thoughtfully because you can add adjectives or phrases to create more detail but you can't add new sentences.

Another great website for Teachers to use in Classrooms

2010-04-30T04:17:00.001+01:00

I have visited an excellent website with the ability to create word clouds which is very suitable for junior level children to use independently this afternoon. Thanks to Jacqui Sharp on Web 2.0 in Education and also @mdanonbaird for tweeting about this on Twitter. I quickly and easily create a word cloud of synonyms for happy to try out the tool:

The site is: ABC-Ya! and has links for online, interactive, educational games from Kindergarten to Year 4 level. Lots of fun games to support learning.

ActivInspire Advanced Training

2010-04-29T00:51:00.000+01:00

I was fortunate to participate in an ActivInspire Advanced training session yesterday in Albany with three colleagues from different levels of the school, representing Years 0-4. The session was taken by Claire who was an excellent trainer. I particularly liked the way she asked us if we'd like some time to explore after she'd introduced a new tool/technique and then she would use the clock tool with a countdown for 2 minutes just like you would in a classroom! Very effective!
I had done the online training prior to the session so was already quite knowledgeable which was great as the session was very fast paced and this allowed me to help others and absorb the new ideas. I was very happy to learn how to create my own magic spy glasses which I hadn't quite managed to do on my own! I also learned how to extract text, bounce images and text into flipcharts (sorry this feature is not possible on Macs) and alter the settings in Windows Media player to allow the camera tool to take still images from a video player. This involved opening Media player then right clicking on the toolbar and choosing tools, options, performance, then unticking the use overlays box.

You then need to click ok and apply several times to save the change! Once I had removed the video clip from the flipchart and re-inserted the camera tool worked perfectly. We were taught to drag the clips straight into the flipchart or else use zamzar to convert the file and this is a very reliable way of turning the clip into either flv, avi or wmv.
We ran out of time to learn about using the activotes for assessment but I am going to do the online training for learner response systems at Promethean Planet and then when we have further training with Marnie later this Term I will be able to ask her any questions that I have!

eLearning Support in Classes

2010-04-27T01:21:00.001+01:00

I Have been very busy for the past 2 days supporting teachers and children in their classrooms. I am encouraging the teachers to plan independent work for their classes so they are available to work together with me and co-teach to develop their own skills and confidence using Kid Pix, Voicethread and the easi-speak microphone which are our focuses for this Term. It has worked well in most rooms especially where the class Digikidz could be used to support.

Here is a voicethread created by room 4:

It is very similar to the voicethread rooms 11 and 4 made last week during book week with support from myself and Mrs P:

It is interesting how many teachers say repeatedly that they struggle to complete projects that have been started. I suggest choosing a group, not the whole class, planning the project in parts e.g drawing the picture in Kid Pix the first day, scripting the story and recording it the next day. Not introducing anything else for that group until the project is completed. Although sometimes you do need to have a catch up morning to stay completely organised!

I have just wandered through the shared teaching area in Pod 1 and been so excited to see the teacher I worked with this morning continuing on using the skills she learned with other children in her class. Then in Pod 2 I saw another colleague using Kid Pix in the same way as was demonstrated to her in her in-class support session yesterday. It is just as rewarding seeing your colleagues achieve success as it is the children! I am so proud of my team!

Continuing my delight with ActivInspire!

2010-04-22T12:41:00.003+01:00

I decided today, after communicating with my colleague and friend Mrs P who I co-lead the eLearning team with, that I would prepare our upcoming presentation to our staff in an ActivInspire flipchart. I wanted to use as many of the tools/actions as possible to showcase the possibilities of the software to the staff who might not get the opportunity to attend training sessions. The online training at Promethean Planet is great and I happened across a brilliant site while doing a Google search which has helped me a lot today, however, I hope I get a lot faster at creating flipcharts as this one took me several hours and I'm not quite finished yet! The previous link goes to the magic ink section as this is what I have been wrestling with today! I cannot recommend the ActivInspire program enough it is absolutely brilliant and as an ex-Smartboard user I have quickly switched my alliegence to Inspire! Thanks Promethean! Click here to access excellent support materials. Here is a good blog with ideas for Activ. I would highly recommend downloading the Top Tips pdf.

Here is an introductory videos to help you get started:

ActivInspire, Activboards and Promethean

2010-04-21T08:17:00.005+01:00

SO exciting - we have had Activboards installed into 5 classrooms in our school this week. WOW they are amazing, I would like to say a special thanks to Marnie for all her support and ideas since we met at Pt View School last year.

I am having lots of fun experimenting on all the teachers' IWBs as I don't have a class at the moment! I have been figuring out the different tools and basically playing! I found this great blog tonight by chance, while I was trying out the magic ink tool and seeing how to apply the magic ink to a revealer tool in the resource library, and there are lots of links to pdf documents that could be useful. The blog is: Technology Resource Teachers and click here for the ActivInspire links.

Here I am working with room 11 using a flipchart downloaded from Promethean Planet.

On downloading and reading some of the pdf resources from the above site TRTs I found this additional link to a free Foundational Skills course at Promethean Learning.

Blogger in Draft

2010-04-21T08:17:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Hey Milly for her post about Blogger in Draft. If you are a frequent visitor of this blog, you will have noticed I have changed my blog background to something a little easier on the eye. As I am currently working in Year 0/1 I do like cutest blog on the block and sparkley headings as do the children but for my reflective blog I much prefer the blogger backgrounds.

Another wordle alternative!

2010-04-13T12:06:00.004+01:00

I was recently introduced to the benefits of Google Reader, thank you Belinda, and adding blogs that you follow to this account as a way of alerting yourself to new posts on the blogs you follow. It is very helpful because when I log into my gmail account and view Reader I can scroll through to read anything that I am interested in. While I was doing this today I noticed another potential alternative to www.wordle.net/ which I know many of my colleagues like to use as a mindmapping tool with their classes and which older children can use independently.

I have briefly explored www.tagxedo.com/ and created the mindmap at the foot of this post in 5 minutes. I started off thinking about words linked to literacy and then incorporated some ideas about integration of ICTs. I could have continued at length including more web 2.0 tools, however, this was just a test to see what tagxedo has to offer. The site does not require you to register, unlike word it out which I mentioned in a previous post, and it is very simple to use. There are lots of different coloured themes, like wordle, but you can choose the shape of the text so it appears in a hidden e.g heart shape. The font direction is also different and can be horizontal, vertical, h&v or any which way. When you are viewing the mindmap and hover over a vertical word it will zoom and spin to horizontal to make it easier to read. There are lots of fonts with the additional options of choosing 'all' or any '1', '2' or '3' fonts randomly.

When you are finished you can save the mindmap as an image to be uploaded to your online space or printed! There are 2 options JPEG or GIF and images can be saved as thumbnails or images with selective MPs.

Just added a tag for this in Delicious and 1322 others have tagged it so that's a good recommendation!

Voicethread

2010-04-09T01:50:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Di's Blog for this link http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/ I have worked with several colleagues this Term interested in voicethread and looking for purposeful ways to use this web 2.0 tool in their classrooms.

Thanks to voicethread for this presentation on web 2.0 tools which has some good ideas:

Thanks also to The Fischbowl blog for building on my thinking further about how to best support my colleagues with this helpful link about which tools could be used for what which is sometimes all teachers need to get their creatives ideas flowing! http://sites.google.com/site/ahslearningecology/tools

Dangerously Irrelevant

2010-04-09T01:03:00.004+01:00

I have just spent the past twenty minutes reading and watching video clips on the Dangerously Irrelevant blog and have a mixed response to what I have seen and heard.

After watching the clip below and reading some of the comments about how Secondary School and University age students feel about Education today I am disappointed that some feel their needs are not being met but, at the same time, not surprised as this is the same message I have received numerous times in different ways over the past few years. However, I agree that Education is not changing for all!

The idea that children may become the employers of their teachers does not seem that far fetched to me!

Certainly I have first hand knowledge of Pt England School in Auckland doing something very similar. The Year 6 class needed a new teacher and they made a video stating what they were looking for - someone who was willing to learn to incorporate ICTs into their teaching and the teacher didn't need to be an expert because the children would help! The teacher just had to give them the opportunity. The teacher who was hired responded to their video using photobooth demonstrating understanding of their needs. And isn't this what we ask of the children we are teaching, that they are willing to try? Don't we ask them to learn every day?

As an individual I know how quickly I have adapted to my touch screen mobile phone and how frequently I use the camera and video to capture moments. I check emails or use the internet which I couldn't do with my previous model nokia. Personally I think this is certainly some of the problem schools face - not having enough or updated equipment or technical support to incorporate digital technologies consistently. Or even within the school not having equitable access for all children and teachers. In my classroom in 2009 I had an IWB with ceiling mounted data projector, 4 PCs, 1 laptop, 1 digital camera, 5 headphones, teacher's HP laptop with inbuilt webcam, access to a shared noise cancelling microphone, access to a shared digiscope and access to a shared flip video. This allowed me to make full use of these technologies and both plan specifically and take the initiative and connect with outside events/situations bringing the world into the classroom and satisfying the digital natives. Last Term I was released from the classroom to support others with integrating eLearning into their classroom programmes. Some of the main challenges with this have been: having no space of my own to work in, classes having inequitable access to reliable equipment and personally having no equipment of my own. So whenever I need to teach something I have to locate every bit of digital equipment required and set it up. This is absolutely achievable but it adds another layer of challenge to the experience and is time consuming. I am passionate about eLearning in Education and am willing to do whatever is needed to make the best use of ICTs, however, I strongly believe to get others on board these issues need to be addressed. It's not necessarily the case that teachers aren't willing to change but rather they, like the children they teach, need to be given their next learning steps and be supported to achieve these!

Word it out

2010-04-06T09:58:00.004+01:00

Thanks to the Manaiakalani blog http://manaiakalani.blogspot.com/ for the tip about an alternative to wordle at http://worditout.com/ . I have been experimenting with this tool tonight and have quickly create an eLearning/ICT related word cloud. This could be a good alternative to wordle to give your children variety or if the site is blocked by watchdog/schoolzone at your school.
I haven't quite figured out how to embed yet but this is possible. I have linked with the URL and taken a screenshot for the moment: eLearning - Word cloud - WordItOut

Storybird

2010-04-06T05:11:00.004+01:00

This seems like a tool that could have potential in the classroom. I am interested to give this a try next Term. The URL is: http://storybird.com/ and you need to register to create. There seems to be 2 options: being inspired by art or by theme.

2 Terrific Sites for Teachers: Topmarks and Gameclassroom

2010-04-06T04:40:00.006+01:00

If you don't know about these 2 sites yet I highly recommend you go and have a look!
The first site is: http://www.topmarks.co.uk/ has links to learning games and interactive whiteboard resources to support learning across the Curriculum for Nursery/Kindergarten and Primary age children. There are links to games on a variety of websites which you might not be familiar with. I was introduced to, forexample, http://www.poissonrouge.com/ for early education and http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/850/calcbalancev3.swf for supporting addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at KS1 and KS2. The site identifies activities within other sites and catelogues them for you so you don't have to visit sites individually yourself. For example I know the site http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/ well but the Topmarks site found this link for me: http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/chocolates/eng/Learningobjecti/default.htm which would support me to teach persuasive and descriptive writing with Year 6 children.

The second site is: http://www.gameclassroom.com/ and supprts learning for Nursery/Kindergarten and Primary age children in Maths and Language/Arts.

Great sites for Teachers to use in Classrooms

2010-04-06T04:08:00.006+01:00

The National Geographic Kids Blog called Dogeared is great for Book Reviews. Your class can read reviews created by the National Geographic Bloggers, who are a range of different ages, and share their opinion about the book. You could challenge a group of children in your class to write their own review of one of the featured books.

http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/dogeared/

Search the site for specific books, register to comment.

There are also links to blogs with different purposes which can be accessed from the main blog page: http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/

This website Book Adventure is a free reading motivation site for Primary aged children which involves quizzes on different books the children have read: http://www.bookadventure.org/

You need to register to access the quizzes but it is free.

The next site is http://www.readwritethink.org/ and is a terrific site with lesson plans and student interactives to support learning in the classroom. I used the Compare and Contrast planner to make a plan to help me write a comparison. I took screenshots of the first and last steps involved to illustrate the process:

The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book by Terry Freedman

2010-04-06T03:20:00.011+01:00

I received an email which I read today from Belinda Johnston which contained a pdf of Web 2.0 Projects happening in schools. I was interested to see some work from Pt England School but am not surprised as I know they are doing exciting work in eLearning.
I have spent the past few hours opening links to blogs, wikis, weeblys and enjoying investigating work happening in different schools across the globe. I have tried out a few tools that I am keen to share with teachers in my school and readers of this blog.
http://eyeplorer.com/ is a very interesting tool. It is a graphical knowledge search engine which you can use without registering or else register to create your own!

I took a screenshot using Screenshot Studio of a search I did on Water which is one of the contexts for interdisciplinary learning and teaching this year:

I then registered and had a quick look at how to create:

While on youtube I found this video by Nik Peachey showing how he used EyePlorer which showed me how to use the tool in more detail!

Another neat search tool which shows results from different websites in a visual way is http://www.spezify.com/ but it mixes all media types - very effective but if using in the classroom you need to search first and check the results before sharing with the children just like http://www.wordle.net/ . I enjoyed doing a search for 'exponential' because that's a word that I think describes eLearning in education!

I re-watched a video clip I saw at ULearn in 2007 and have embedded the original that stuck in my mind at the time and which I return to, when I am thinking about whether I am doing all I can in my teaching to make the 'shift in thinking'. I discovered an updated video which is also included.

There is also a link to the video with UK statistics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNutcmyShW4

Another great online visual tool is http://www.visuwords.com/ which is a visual dictionary and thesaurus. This screenshot shows the results for exponential but also when you hover over each noun or verb an explanation, which is not shown here, appears.

Webinar today with Sir Ken Robinson

2010-03-31T08:40:00.005+01:00

Belinda and I participated in a webinar today organised through www.ted.com/ with Sir Ken Robinson who is a creativity expert who advocates the need for a shift in education. I vaguely remembered watching his talk about how schools kill creativity when I first attended L@S in 2008. It was a really interesting experience listening to him speaking today about his new book The Element and then watching people putting their hand up digitally to ask him questions or chatting with the other people who were participating in the session. There were is excess of 500 people logged on. In the book he explores the importance of following your passions in life to achieve success. I have just watched the clip from 2006 again to refresh my memory and agree with the following quote: 'If you're not prepared to be wrong you'll never be original' (Ken Robinson) and many children become afraid to be wrong when actually we learn really well from our mistakes. 'All children are born artists but the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up' (Picasso) and Ken Robinson said he passionately believed creativity is educated out of people as they get older.

Integrating Timers using Music into Classroom Management

2010-03-31T07:52:00.005+01:00

I read a post on Hey Milly's blog this week about the Apimac timer and classroom rotations which made me smile because I have used music forever as a transition tool within my room to signal tidying up, changing activities etc but this was done with a CD player initially and then I moved on to using my laptop and speakers. I was very excited to be able to download a timer which can manage this for me.

When I realised the Apimac timer was only Mac compatible I Googled free PC timers + alarms and was presented with several options. I have downloaded from http://www.timeleft.info/ which connects to www.netersoft.com/ and will trial this when I am working with children after the Easter holidays. It seems to have everything I would need in a classroom and additional features for me personally - it can be used as a countdown clock, reminder, clock, alarm clock, tray clock, stopwatch, timer, sticker and more. The main feature of TimeLeft is as a customizable reminder, which can show a message, play any format of music, or open a link, document, execute an application, turn off your monitor or shut down your PC.

I have tried this and works well as a timer but does not seem to have the music option in the free version despite that being stated under features. I returned to Google and have found an alternative at http://ptf.com/get/227809/ which I have downloaded and will try out.

Kid Pix Problems Continue

2010-03-31T07:44:00.002+01:00

I worked with Belinda today and we still didn't manage to sort out our ongoing Kid Pix problems exporting slideshows to Quicktime and we actually discovered the additional problem of being unable to export pictures to jpeg format. While Googling problems exporting Kid Pix to Quicktime one of the hits was a link to my own post on this blog!

The problem was temporarily solved by taking screenshots of the pictures using Screenshot Studio which can be downloaded at http://screenshot-program.com/ and is a great free tool for PC users. Other options are possible for different prices but the free version works really well and is almost as good as the Mac alternative, or so I have been told!

And then importing into Photostory and then re-recording all the audio. Overall not the easiest way to share our work on a blog. Hopefully our Technician will be able to solve these problems perhaps re-installing the software on each individual PC might be the only option.

Hooked on thinking

2010-03-29T10:47:00.004+01:00

This afternoon through into this evening we had whole school professional development with Pam Hook and Julie Mills. I found the session inspiring and it has got me thinking even more specifically about what we want children to learn, why are we doing this, what is the big understanding and what concept and contexts?????

More than anything I like the idea that SOLO taxonomy is a framework that helps children learn to learn and identify their next steps and the next steps of others and that as teachers we need to be doing deliberate acts of teaching. I am very excited to develop my knowledge and understanding further and have Pam and Julie assist us with our planning for our whole school. Julie had a look at our integrated inquiry plan for next Term and we have some ideas about revisions that we can make to improve the plan. We need to consider the learning intentions for each activity, which SOLO verbs are involved and which hot maps can be used to explore and increase understanding.

I found these photos of Pam and Julie on Google images because sadly Kathy and I forgot to take a photo of them working in our school today even although we had both thought about it, we got too caught up with what we were learning!

Kid Pix Problems

2010-03-27T09:49:00.003Z

I have figured out, with a little help from my friend Belinda, how to address the problem I've been having with recording audio onto slides in Kid Pix. What you can do is to draw your picture then copy it several times calling it e.g leaf, leaf1, leaf2, leaf3 etc then record one sentence on each slide. Pay attention to the audio indicator as you are recording to keep track of how much time you have left before reaching the maximum size allowed per slide. Then import the slides one after the other without transitions and it will look like one slide but with longer audio. I am going to try this out with the Digikidz next week when I am working in classes. I still haven't solved my problem exporting slideshows to Quicktime but am hoping that if I send the file to Belinda and it works that will mean it's a SPS network error and Quicktime needs to be re-installed to fix the problem. I would really like to get some of the children's fabulous work onto the Digikidz blog and into my wikispace as evidence for my Action Research project.

Cluster Share at Elm Park School

2010-03-25T04:23:00.007Z

I found the Cluster Share at EPS yesterday really useful. It was encouraging to see we are on the same track as other schools. We seem to have a similar action plan to Botany Downs in particular this year. I was again very impressed to see the exciting and purposeful learning happening at EPS which is evidenced in their ePortfolios.

Belinda had a very inspiring video clip which set the scene for the afternoon. I tried very hard to find something which conveyed a message for the beginning of our presentation and I hope it spoke to people watching! Below are the clips and our presentation. Thank you to my friend and colleague Kathy for presenting with me. I always enjoy working with you.

Our presentation can be viewed at: http://eastnet.wikispaces.com/SPS+Cluster+Share+March+2010

Different ways to group children/staff

2010-03-19T07:51:00.003Z

Thanks to Miss S I took a screenshot from your blog where you'd listed all the different ways to group children from the Lead Teacher Day at Elm Park.

Inquiry Learning

2010-03-19T07:41:00.002Z

Pod 1 and 2 team leaders and I worked with Belinda last week to come up with a draft of our inquiry plan for Term 2. I have uploaded the current plan onto the Eastnet wikispace but tonight I changed it onto a new format which Kathy came up with which is a combination of the Junior and Middle school formats. Thanks Kathy. I have also just spent some time altering Kathy's inquiry Notebook document for us to use in the Junior school to support teachers and children. It still needs more work, I need to find some suitable photos to include and think about links I need from YouTube etc but I am getting there. It's exciting and inspiring to be planning on working on something you feel is really meaningful and purposeful to the children.

Kid Pix Problems

2010-03-19T04:40:00.002Z

I am having problems adding audio to Kid Pix slides. There seems to be a limit to how much you can say on each slide (approx 1 sentence). Can anyone help with where I'm going wrong?!

Action Research Wiki

2010-03-18T05:14:00.003Z

I have put together a wiki to hold all the data and examples of children's work I am rapidly gathering together at the moment! It can be viewed at: http://fairvresearch.wikispaces.com/ and I would welcome any feedback you might have as this is my first experience with action research. I am currently struggling with a couple of things: the first is how to export Kid Pix slideshows, photostories etc into Quicktime or YouTube to allow me to embed them in my wiki. Photostory is really simple to add to a blog but I have not found Kid Pix slideshows as easy. Hopefully I will solve this problem soon so I can add some of the super work the children have been doing and this will show the progression as they have opportunities to explore the software. The second problem I have encountered is that I can't record long sentences on Kid Pix slides. The Pod 2 Digkidz I am working with did a great job of finding out information about a chosen native tree. They drew a leaf from their tree in Kid Pix then we recorded the audio but I noticed that the program stopped before they had finished speaking and when I played the file it only had recorded part of what they said. BJ said this might be a memory problem. I have looked in the Teacher's Notes and the Help and Settings and can't figure it out. I am now going to Google so watch this space and I'll report back if I have success. Otherwise any Elm Park teachers who are Kid Pix experts I'd appreciate your advice!

Lead Teachers Reflection 9.3.10

2010-03-09T01:29:00.004Z

My 2nd post of the day. Feeling all inspired yet daunted again about inquiry! Am so keen to investigate SOLO further and am determined to trial some aspects where possible. Really wishing that this was the beginning of our journey on the Cluster Contract rather than the final year as I am JUST beginning to feel like I have enough knowledge (ha, ha) to start building on! Oh well, could be a future opportunity and in the mean time I'll keep plugging away and investigating possibilities!

Action Research

2010-03-08T20:34:00.004Z

I am embarking on an action research project and am so excited to be at a Lead Teacher workshop at Elm Park School and Belinda is sharing some examples of where to check out some examples so I can get a bit of an idea of projects from beginning to end. I have begun a Digikidz blog to share and catelogue our journey. Come and see what we're doing at http://digikidzsps2010.blogspot.com/

Learning at Schools 2010

2010-03-08T09:05:00.003Z

I was lucky to attend L@S this year - super PD for all. I enjoyed att my workshops and attended a variety of thinking and school-wide issue related workshops as opposed to techkie ones like last time (2008) I went to L@S. Highs were definately the ePortfolios breakout facilitated by Nick Rate (http://nickrate.com/ which is the 389th most popular blog in NZ) and included Belinda Johnston from Elm Park School (http://belindajjohnston.blogspot.com/ ), Jamin Lietze from Bethlethem College (http://lietze.org/ ), Deb Cowan from Russell Street School, Chrissy Butlet from BLENZ and Sharon from Rotorua Girls High School Childcare Trust. It was AMAZING seeing videos of an 18 month old accessing his ePortfolio blog with support! Jamin shared a neat presentation tool - check it out at http://prezi.com/ . As a parent of preschool children I was impressed by the way that ePortfolios invite parents into the classroom through photos, videos, audio and words. I can see the huge potential for opening conversations with young children and involving parents in the learning process. All children seemed to have a sound understanding of where they were and where to next and were empowered by this. I am very keen to trial ePortfolios.

ePals - www.ePals.com/ this is a social network for K-12 students in over 200 countries around the globe. Ideal for putting together collaborative projects, finding emailing buddies etc.

weebly - www.weebly.com/ very cool and much more professional looking alternative to www.wikispaces.com/

Super Clubs Plus - A very exciting initiative being introduced in NZ this year to teach children to be cybersafe. Current research shows that even when children know what cybersafety is e.g you don't give out your full name online they will still make risky choices and they respond well between the ages of 7-10 years to being able to practise cybersafe behaviour. This allows them to participate in forums, email etc but only with other children. Teachers are allowed to be members and teacher aides but noone else and all interactions are monitored by mediators. These mediators are generally ex-teachers. Research shows after 3-4 months of using Super Clubs that risky behaviours drop off. Has been very successful in Australia and UK. Possibility of being funded by MOE or subsidised. Supported by Telstra Clear this year. They are looking for schools to trial this. URL is - http://www.superclubsplus.com.au/

Pam Hook and Julie Mills SOLO assessment rubrics was another high - We are looking at getting some school-wide PD in SOLO this year which is very exciting.

Life-long learner educational waffle or achievable goal - this workshop by Trevor Bond really got me thinking and questioning. Very interesting to attend a workshop mainly populated by Principals. Lots of discussion in this session which was different but good!

Also enjoyed the keynotes - took away the idea that students should be working just as hard as teachers, don't underestimate, Alan November did a skype keynote and showed his desktop via skype so he could model things for us!!! Very cool - desperate to know how to do this if anyone knows and can teach me?!!!

Reports to parents about achievement against National Standards

2010-02-12T05:06:00.005Z

I have just read an interesting draft, written I believe by Michael Absolum, given to me by a colleague on National Standards which will go on TKI. I then investigated TKI further and read other articles by Michael Absolum, Lester Flockton, Mark Teadwell and John Hattie.

I agree that written reports should always have the children, parents and other family members as the audience and that children should be fully involved in the process of reporting, take ownership and understand the progress they have made. I agree reports should state what the child has learned and their rate of learning, the extent to which the National Standard has been reached (above, at, below, well below), next learning steps and what can be done to support these and be written clearly and simply without jargon. I write reports individually from beginning to end for each child rather than doing them by curricular area e.g writing all the maths comments then the english comments etc so I can create a picture of the whole child as a unique and special individual.

I also think the idea of avoiding damaging a child's engagement and motivation to learn is very important. A child who is consistently achieving below National Standard does not need to read that over and over again instead regular feedback and feedforward and the child, teacher and parents all working together to co-construct learning and support learning is important. The teacher should make overall teacher judgements based over time and on a variety of moderated assessments and in partnership with the child should form the content of a report.

I am interested to read more about this. At SPS the Principal is considering inviting parent opinions about National Standards to consult with them about the best information the school can provide to support each child in their learning journey. I am looking forward to parents voicing their opinions on this matter.

Glow

2010-01-21T16:15:00.003Z

I have enjoyed having a look at Glow which is the world's first national intranet for education designed to support the Curriculum for Excellence. Have a look at www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland/index.asp and wow funded by the Scottish Government, I really like the sound of that!

The Curriculum for Excellence

2010-01-21T15:42:00.004Z

I am Edinburgh born and bred and trained there as a teacher. As such I am always interested in what's happening in Scottish education. I was excited to learn that Scotland was changing its curriculum but not surprised as I remember a lecture when I was at Moray House about the similarities between the education systems in Scotland, New Zealand and Canada and then I ended up teaching in NZ! The Curriculum for Excellence (www.curriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk) has been a very interesting read. I am impressed by the values: wisdom, justice, compassion, integrity which I can relate to strongly in my own teaching; principles of curriculum design: challenge and enjoyment, breadth, progression, depth, personalisation and choice, coherence and relevance and the 4 capacities: successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. I have been really excited to learn that after many years of National Testing in Edinburgh schools these tests are being abandonned at the end of this school year as the idea behind this form of testing contadicts the Curriculum for Excellence. This is so interesting to me as the issue of the introduction of National Satndards in NZ continues to be so fiercely debated by NZ educators.

100 Top Tools for Learning 2009

2009-12-08T08:10:00.001Z

I have copied this slideshow from The Bashful Blogger's blog as it was so neat having all these awesome tools collated into one place!

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

View more documents from Jane Hart.

21 Uses of Comics

2009-12-06T07:32:00.002Z

While browsing through TKI I spotted this interesting looking slideshow about how to use comics in the classroom and have added it below. I must admit to feeling a little twinge I don't teach middle or senior school at the moment as opposed to new entrants!

Tap Into The World Of Comics

View more documents from S. Hendy.

At first glance I like the look of the All about me as a starter activity in Term 1. The cybersafety ideas look interesting as a way of explaining this to seniors and I also think the reflection tool might be interesting as a way of making writing a recount exciting for middle and senior children. Has anyone used any of these ideas in their classroom yet and have any thoughts???

Inquiry as a disposition

2009-12-06T07:13:00.003Z

I was invited along with my friend KP to attend a senior staff meeting last week to discuss where we are at SPS regarding inquiry. We have decided to re-think doing a whole school theme next year and have some PD to further develop our understanding of inquiry and I am feeling very positive about this as it will hopefully allow me to increase my own understandings and allow the staff to take ownership of a worthy theme that we can explore in 2011. I have just been watching a video of an interview by Sharon Friesen on EDtalks which explores what I think about inquiry...

Now we just have to come up with some suitable themes that our students and staff can relate to and make sense of where there is an authentic purpose for inquiry!

Google Wave

2009-11-24T09:14:00.000Z

After reading Hey Milly's blog I really like the sound of Google Wave and am going to ask her to invite me! Any thoughts anyone?!

Bruce Hammonds Blog

2009-11-24T08:59:00.004Z

After having this blog recommended to me by 2 colleagues I decided to have a read and can say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bruce Hammonds blog has some recent posts with very interesting information and ideas around National Standards and the Revised NZ Curriculum. I identified with the following image as I think about education and the shift that all involved need to make as we consider changes in technology and try to prepare learners for success in their lives:

I am currently very interested in upskilling myself in inquiry learning as I have been involved in several inquiries this year and feel I have not quite got there! Even although I have tried very hard! I am looking forward to 2010 and having more attempts at this exciting and powerful approach to learning and will be keen to centre my personal learning goal around this area.

Hyperlinking in planning

2009-11-16T04:10:00.004Z

After a request via a comment on my blog I am sharing some of what I do with hyperlinking in my planning. I find this invaluable for allowing quick, fluster-free access to files/documents when teaching. As I teach Year 0/1 the children don't have a hugely long attention span and it can get a bit tricky if they have to sit for long periods while you're searching for things in your My Docs! I link to other Word documents (e.g Lt Plans, assessment record sheets, other weekly plans such as reading and maths off my master daily plan etc), websites, Kispiration, SMART Notebook, powerpoint, images off my plan.

Above are screenshots of my weekly reading plan and the underlined words are the linked text. To do this highlight the word(s) you want to create the link on and do control 'k' or insert hyperlink for PC computers and then search for the specific document/file or copy and paste the url for an internet site.

Eastnet Cluster Share 20.10.09

2009-10-25T00:38:00.003+01:00

Just participated in the very worthwhile Cluster Share at EPS last Tuesday. Our ICT team leader KP put together an excellent and humorous powerpoint to share our journey thus far with the Contract and to look to the future. As she was on leave I was operating the slideshow. It was a bit nerve racking as we had quite a challenging presentation being the only school to ask for audience participation using laptops with an internet link to scribblar. That was definately one of my favourite parts even although it was a bit tricky to get all set up, thanks AS and BJ, but I think it was worth it. It was interesting to see that during the first task the adults got very involved in testing the capabilities of the tool without realising their ideas would be shown on the big screen! This illustrates things to be aware of when using this cool web 2.0 tool in your classroom! Thanks to JS and NB and the Senior Management team for helping hand out the laptops to people. (I will put the links to the scribblar rooms on soon but cannot view these at school at the moment!)

I am keen to use scribblar with a teaching group and some roving laptops and am looking at how I will incorporate this into my programme this Term. I might try splitting the class in half and myself and my teacher aide work with a group each to type their ideas into the room. Watch this space as I will no doubt have a few things to say after I've tried it!

I was also interested to note that all of the schools showed video in their presentations. Waimakoia have flip mimos and we have a couple of slightly inferior quality flip videos which the children love using as they are so simple. We did discover during the putting together of our presentation that the zoom quality and sound quality are not great on our flip videos and KP and I looked into the flip mimo at the IWB conference. However, I did notice that a lot of staff and students in all the presentations seemed quite nervous or unsure of being videoed and I am keen to find out this time next year what changes there will be in this area. KP and I definately want to create a quiet space which could perhaps be a media room which is not affected by bells ringing etc as it's pretty tricky trying to find a quiet, filming space with no interuptions here at the moment!

It was really neat to see what other schools have been doing but I must admit to being a bit preoccupied with making sure I had everything all set up for our part to properly pay attention! Congratulations to all the staff and students involved everyone can be really proud of their efforts. Thanks to EPS for hosting a great event and I look forward to the next one!

NZ & Australian IWB Conference 2009

2009-09-29T09:27:00.002+01:00

Yay I attended the IWB Conference in Week 10 with KP and KA. Another fabulous PD opportunity, thanks to BR for sending me on this.

I was thrilled to attend workshops on Mimio, Promeathean, Activinspire and SMART. There was a challenge to complete a booklet getting a stamp from each vendor which really encouraged me to visit each one and discuss their products. I had no idea there were so many different IWBs and solutions! I feel reasonably informed now!

Originally I was very pro-Activboard and have to say after the conference my affiliation for these boards and their software is re-affirmed! They appear to be very sophisticated and I am looking forward to attending the roadshow at Point View next Term to find out more.

I enjoyed listening to Alison Gernhofer the Principal of Wetslake High School address the attendees and she spoke about the importance of gathering evidence about the impact of IWBs to present to BOTs to continue with the provision of these tools in schools. Then the keynote speakers - the Vice Chairperson of Promeathean Stephen Jury was great and did an exciting presentation using the software! He also discussed the importance of teachers being experienced (not BTs) and also being in the year level for several years and have an IWB at that level for 3 years to get the most out of the situation which really hit home for me. I am in my 8th year of teaching, my 2nd year at Year 0/1 and have had my IWB for 1 and 1/2 years. Still have a way to go! Then the speaker on Saturday Professor David Seedhouse spoke about the Values within the Revised NZ Curriculum and I think he made a lot of interesting points too! I think the main point he was making was that we shouldn't just blindly follow the NZ Curriculum but rather challenge the list of values and the statements made about these as values are involved in everything and really can't be taught but rather opinions be expressed and discussed. He spoke about the incident where a Tongan man cooked his dog which is perfectly acceptable in Tonga but not in Auckland. So according to his values it was ok but the SPCA officers values did not accept this behaviour. If you look the other way is that acceptable to you? How does this affect your values? What if you intervene then are you disrespecting that individual's values and then challenging your own? Basically it all gets very complicated! I wasn't really sure what to think at the end of it all but I do think it's opened my eyes to this aspect of the Curriculum and I might have some ideas to share in future discussions at school whether they are my own personal opinions or not.

My favourite workshop was run by Nelia Thompson from Flaxmere Primary School and featured snippets from using IWB in a new entrant room which I was thrilled to attend because I have taught in this year level for nearly 2 years and have not had any PD in teaching it, I have just been doing my own thing!!!!! I will definately implement some of her ideas, thanks Nelia. Above all she showed what children can do when theyare given the opprtunity and I think now I am ready to let go a bit more and give the children more freedom.

I also enjoyed finding out about Google Docs and Google Sketchup. I already use Google Picassa and Google Maps but they were great to get notes for too and confirm I am utilising them to their full potential! It was excellent using Flickr Storm and finding out about Keepvid for storing youtube clips.

Jo Evans from Edsoft also presented a whole lot of different multisensory tools to assist the writing process with ideas for special needs individuals in mainstream classrooms. Neat ideas which could be passed on to parents as well.

A fantastic conference. I am keen to be involved in the assess to learn contract otherwise I have seen lots of ideas of how involve WALTs and WILFs after this weekend.

KnowledgeNET Conference 2009

2009-09-29T09:10:00.002+01:00

I was lucky to attend the KnowledgeNET Conference - site for this is www.knconference.co.nz - in week 9 and had an opportunity to listen to 3 excellent keynote speakers: Mark Treadwell, Lester Flockton and Owen Alexander. Some of the things discussed were slightly controversial and definately the opinions of these individuals but I enjoyed listening to all of it immensely and certainly it got me thinking and talking with my colleagues which was very interesting.

At one workshop by Janet McCarroll and Jana Benson, from St. Mary's Catholic School, I was introduced to the powerful tool 'Jing' for formative assessment. Jing is free to download from: www.jingproject.com/ and you can record using a laptop camera or webcam or if you don't have one of these take a screenshot and then record using audio either on your laptop's microphone or an external mic. At St. Mary's they used it to record conversations between student and teacher to discuss the WALT and success criteria for the piece of work and discuss the achievement of this within the piece of work and then feedforward to the next piece of work. This was uploaded onto the school's KNET page and parents were able to comment. This formed the Term's e-Portfolio sample and was schoolwide. I think this was something that I would be keen to try and certainly take back to school to discuss with my colleagues.

I went to another great workshop by Amanda Grimsey from Cornwall Park School where they do not use any external web 2.0 tools they only use KnowledgeNET's tools which I thought was a very interesting concept! They don't use Blogger but instead blog within KNET which removes any problems with uploading student images and naming students within photos as everything is password protected. There isn't the potential for an audience outside their school community but it strengthens the school/home connection and involves parents and other family members in a totally transparent way. They raised the question - how important are the opinions of people we don't know and will never meet?! I am not sure what I think about that as there is the possibility of opening a dialogue with other schools through Blogger blogs which wouldn't be possible if you could only access these via passwords, still it's an option I was unaware of till now.

Sarah Ingram exelled again! She shared her ideas for e-Portfolios and Jing again featured. I find Sarah excellent! She did my training in-school several years ago on KNET and was professional and prepared and offered good ideas. I am very interested in investigating e-Portfolios after this Conference.

Julie Lynch and Lisa Keilman from Takapuna Normal Intermediate both ran great workshops on integrating KNET into the classroom and webquests. I was interested to see their use of MIMIO as well.

Excellent experience - I love PD! They even played live music and had a dance troupe perform in the lunch breaks. Very well organised Conference. I was a bit disappointed with the Trades display, I think the layout wasn't very condusive to encouraging interaction with the vendors.

Lead Teachers 24.08.09

2009-08-26T00:24:00.004+01:00

I am in the middle of my 2nd lead teachers day today watching a clip from Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. I can see a lot of myself in this when I think about my presentation slideshow for the cluster EXPO and there were definately lots of things I can take on board to make a more detailed handout and a less 'busy' slideshow! Unfortunately this means I can't just export the slides as the handout!!!! I enjoyed that shortcut. Great prep for the upcoming cluster share.

We have been learning about peer coaching - very interesting. Not natural for me yet as too tempting to slip into the instructional mode. Really good things to keep in mind. We recorded our ideas using scribblar which has potential as a good tool for the classroom but there are a few thing to be aware of: anyone who is a guest on the page can edit the postings, it's better to set up separate pages rather than multiple pages in the same document as when people are all editing the page if they flick to the next page everyone goes to it together! Very visual and lots of 'gadgets'!

We discussed the milestone report which our friend KP does for us! Loads of awesome discussions surrounding what we will do at SPS for our cluster share and we are keen to get going.

Really enjoyed teara too.

Using Voicethread!

2009-08-05T12:14:00.003+01:00

Well yesterday and today I used voicethread , linked to our current inquiry,with my class for the first time and found it excellent! The first time I did it I got a bit flustered because I hadn't set up all the children's identities so I did all the comments under mine! Today I had another go and managed to switch identities to give different children a chance to record their ideas under their own identity with a picture they chose themselves! It was very exciting but the children definately need some more practise. Some of them are getting the hang of speaking loudly but they are all speaking very quickly so it's difficult to understand them. I think they need more practise with presenting their oral sentences too. Not quite sure how I can get round this with Year 0/1 as I tried scribing for them and getting them to read their idea but unfortunately many are not confident readers so this isn't an option. And they come up with great ideas during the practise but then can't recall it for the recorded version! Perhaps I should just record each attempt and delete the ones that are no good?! Any ideas anyone!

Here are our first attempts! I highly recommend giving this a go it's a powerful and simple tool that can be adapted to many different purposes.

My first solo presenting experience!

2009-07-17T07:48:00.003+01:00

Wow! I just presented a 45 minute workshop yesterday at the Eastnet Cluster EXPO 2009! It was my first experience doing something like that and despite initially being a wee bit nervous I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I shared some hints and tips for integrating ICTs into classroom programmes with Year 0/1 level children and it went well. Luckily I presented during the first block of workshops which got it over and done with and I could enjoy the rest of the EXPO and concentrate on learning some new things. I would definately aim to do something similar the next time I present but then again perhaps I will take it more in my stride and not need to go first?! Who knows!

For anyone thinking about doing something like this I highly recommend it. It was a lot of work preparing the presentation and making handouts to support people but I was really grateful so many people attended my workshop and I received some positive feedback which was very kind. I have made contact with like minded people in other schools which I am very excited about and hopefully spread the word about the benefits of blogging with some children at this level.

My next challenge is to present at a conference like learning@schools or TUANZ. It was also a real privilege to meet Rachel Boyd and Susie Vesper and also catch up with Amanda and Belinda from Elm Park. I also want to ackowledge the efforts of my colleagues at Shelly Park who also presented as I think, in the words of another colleague, we did our school proud with all our efforts. Well done girlies!

Supporting my Team

2009-06-12T03:37:00.002+01:00

As the lead teacher for ICT in my Team I have used two different ways of supporting my team members this Term as they are at different stages and have different needs and also have individual personal ICT Goals for this year which link to their performance management at the end of the year.

For TG and RT who don't have projectors in their classrooms I provided individual support within their class. So each was given a block of my release where I discussed with them in advance what they would like to work on then went into their class and helped them achieve this. RT was keen to do a photostory with a group of capable children and also for the teacher aide to observe and participate so she could assist in the future. We successfully made a photostory for the letter p with the children finding lots of things beginning with that letter and taking photos which were then uploaded into a photostory which the children added transitions, titles and music to. They were very keen and RT then went on to make a photostory on popcorn which was part of our Pod 1 assembly this Term.

TG was keen also to do a photostory which we did for the letter m which had been their letter of the week for the previous week and so the children had already discussed items beginning with that letter. After that we introduced the children to their class knowledgeNET page which TG is developing together with me at the moment. The children played reading and maths games and practised logging on and browsing through the different areas.

For JL and WD who are new projector users this year I invited them to observe in my room. JL wanted to observe maths and so I had a group doing a smartboard activity using interactive number dice and adding them then completing the word and number problems. I had planned to have a group using rainforest maths which is a fantastic website which I secured a username and password for at the beginning of the year but which I feel I have been neglecting a bit! Unfortunately the site was under maintenance so we were unable to use the planned for activity. However, I was able to use another knowledgeNET link to a similar activity and showed JL how I hyperlink to my worksheets and websites and smartboard activities from my weekly plan which she found helpful.

WD observed a group doing blogging on my class computers. Unfortunately we are in the middle of changing over internet provider and so the internet was fluctuating. However, we managed to get all 4 children in the group to view a poem in one of our blog friends blogs and they then orally told me a comment which I scribed in their writing books and they posted. We had to do one at a time on one computer which was the only one working but it was ok because I always anticipate there will be problems and had paper publishing for the group to work on while they took turns blogging. Luckily though this was my teaching group and I wasn't having to manage something else at the same time! I also had a group working with my teacher aide on our letter of the week g and finding objects with a g - goat sound and a g - gel sound and separating these into 2 groups. The children then took digital photos which I uploaded to our class blog.

I really enjoy supporting other people but every time I do some sharing or have someone observing I am reminded how organised and prepared you have to be thinking through what might happen so that when it does you are not caught out! The best advice I can offer during technical difficulties is stay calm and if all else fails flag it and move on!

Term 2 Unconferences

2009-06-12T01:16:00.003+01:00

We have held 2 successful unconference sessions (week 3 and week 7) this Term which have really benefitted staff and had a positive effect on ICT integration throughout the school. We thought about holding e-cafes before and after school throughout the Term but decided instead on 2 blocks after school from 3-5pm with workshops which people signed up for. The expectation was to attend at least 2 of the sessions each time as this is providing staff with support to achieve their individual ICT Goal which forms part of their performance management.

The first unconference covered KnowledgeNET - setting up class pages, Inquiry - sharing what each of the different Pods (Year 0-2, Year 3-4 and Year 5-6) had done in Term 1 when we had a big focus on inquiry throughout the school on different topics. The last session was on Photostory which staff who attended Learning@schools had learned about. This is a fantastic, easy to use slideshow program which is free to download and can be worked on off-line which benefits those of us who have internet difficulties!

The second unconference covered blogging - ideas for putting things on to your blog and how to integrate using blogging in to reading and writing time and smartboard tools with a particular focus on using SMART notebook with projectors as we only have 1 smartboard per year level at the moment.

I have now presented at the Cluster share last Term, held a blogging session during the Term 1 holidays and shared at two in-school unconferences. I am holding a session on KnowledgeNET class pages for the junior team in the Term 2 holidays and also presenting at the Cluster Expo and KP and I will be holding a blogging wine and nibbles evening early in Term 3 to further support staff. I am lucky to have some extra release time to prepare for all this.

I am wondering where to next for myself as I am always keen to help others and learn new things to extend my skills and knowledge which is essential if you are in a lead role, however, I am finding it a struggle to maintain the high standards I expect from myself with regard to my classroom teaching and at the same time build my integration of ICT skills further while at the same time supporting my team and other staff members and still make time for further professional development myself! I hope I can have more opportunities to attend professional development during release time so I can fully focus my attention on this vital area. We have gained good momentum with staff motivation and application of new ideas and this has been largely due to the release that has been available. I think release to prepare allows quality support for others.

Another neat idea for ICT integration?

2009-04-21T22:46:00.002+01:00

David Merril's Siftables view this at http://centre4.core-ed.net/

Great ideas?!?

2009-04-21T09:40:00.003+01:00

I have been lucky enough to attend two out of the 3 cluster share sessions for Year 0-2 and Year 3-4 and was amazed by some of the brilliant work going on in schools by teachers and the children in their classes. I have found a couple of really good Junior websites to add to everyone's list of favs apart from www.starfall.com which is a must there is www.primaryresources.co.uk which has great notebook files for smartboard users but also powerpoints for those with projectors and whiteboards and also worksheets in word and pdf format which can be downloaded in loads of different areas of the curriculum. I also like Pete's Powerpoint Station www.pppst.com/themes.html for downloading powerpoints or even just for ideas. Some things might be too hard or too easy but it can trigger your tired brian to think of how it could be used with your kids. And once it's downloaded you can change it to suit. However, this does mean investing in an external harddrive!
I am busy getting my first real class blog up and running this Term. I had one for a Term last year but didn't manage to do a lot. I am very excited about the learning possibilities. I have thought of some simple ways of integrating ICTs into my programme and I am going to try adding blogging into my writing rotation to begin with. So each week my top group will work with me to read our existing posts and form an appropriate comment orally which I will scribe for them and they will publish with the correct spelling. I am then going to expand this to visiting other blogs within our school and outside. I have found no other Year 0/1 blogs but have found some at Year 2 which my top readers may be able to manage. Then I may add reading blogs into my taskboard rotation when the children are familiar with what to do. Then hopefully I can extend this to my second writing group and perhaps the two groups will work with me every second week and work with a buddy on the alternate week with me checking their comments before they publish. Hmmm will get back to this blog with my findings. I am very excited, woops already said that!
Keen Bean :-)

Eastnet Cluster - ICT Lead Teachers

2009-03-12T01:27:00.000Z

I had my first experience attending a lead teacher session on Wednesday and it was really neat to catch up with old friends and meet some new people. I was really surprised there are so many new lead teachers!

I had a great time hearing about the Learning @ Schools conference in Rotorua. I feel better informed now, as I didn't attend the conference this time. It was particularly good for me to find out about the Cluster Shares which are coming up soon and get some ideas about the sorts of things we might like to share - I had been a little bit too keen and am glad to now know the expectation for these sessions.

I enjoyed having an opportunity to share with teachers from other schools. I am looking forward to running a workshop at our Cluster Conference and supporting other people in my teams to have a go too. I am also excited to learn to use more e-Learning tools and participate in workshops myself.

Thanks everyone for a neat day!