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
Showing posts with label cluster shares. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cluster shares. Show all posts
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Eastnet Cluster Share 20.10.09
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!
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!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Lead Teachers 24.08.09
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.
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.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Term 2 Unconferences
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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 :-)
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 :-)
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