Visit to Summerlands School

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:

Microsoft Mouse Mischief

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.

Ideas to Inspire

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:

Another great website for Teachers to use in Classrooms

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.

Word it out

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

My first solo presenting experience!

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!

Another neat idea for ICT integration?

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

Great ideas?!?

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 :-)