In awe

I am in awe of all our competent teachers who have this vast knowledge of the internet world.  Everyday there is something new to learn. I have decided not to go on twitter because I would rather spend my time getting my head around all the new apps on the I pad and I pod.  I want to be able to use these easily as part of my maths and literacy programmes to enhance the children's learning. I have some wonderfully keen students who are very clever at learning new skills and love to teach the class and me these skills. A great help to me! I would love to visit other classes to see how they are using the I pad to enhance learning. Will see if this can be arranged.

Hello for 2013

Hi Blog. Sorry I haven't been very attentive this year.  I have been busy setting up my class blog and making sure that the students work has been edited ready for publishing.  We have also been learning about how to use the I pods and I pads and some of the apps on them.  The Room 10 techsperxs are fantastic- very enthusiastic and wonderful teachers.  They love teaching us how to do new things. Check out Poppy Peates blog and you will see pictures of her teaching our class how to do a pic collage.

Reflection for 2012

There is so much to reflect on I don't knoe where to start.  The I.C.T course we all went to in January was a great kick start to the year. Some of the skills on display were mind boggling. It did, howeve,r provide me with many ideas for my sabbatical research and some great places to go to to read  about the use of I,C,T in the classroom.  Term one was a time to explore interwrite and try and integate this technology into all curriculum areas in the class. I started using it every day during maths lessons and if I wasn't using it then there was sgroup working on an activity set on it or playing a math games to uncrease their number knowledge. Term  two I was involved with my report on the use of I.C.T in the classroom.
Term three with the introduction of netbooks in my class my focus extended

Great to have some PD around Interwrite especially since I have been away for a term . A great refresher.  Noticed that children are getting more skilled at using the mobi board however I do have issues with it charging. May need to be checked. Loved learning about how to capture a picture from the Internet.  We used the photo of the mountain erupting to write a current events article about it. Must speak to Robyn and find out how to add more stamps as I use these a lot in maths time.  Would be good to have some different pictures and photos to use.  She had some cute drawings of children.

Week 2 Visitations to schools this week.  A real privilege to be invited into teachers classrooms and to speak with them and their students.  We can get involved in our own world of our school and class and think that everyone works as we do.  Not so.  Not that one is better than the other just different and we can all learn from each other.  Was very interesting to see how different schools use technology in their classrooms. One school focused mainly on using their blogs to share their writing while we use our blogs across all curriculun areas.  The students in the two schools I visited this week were very articulate and were able to speak about how their homepage/blog helps them with their learning.  Students all enjoyed having people comment on their work and thought that some comments made them think a bit more about their learning.  Students in both schools knew how to make a quality comment and usually asked a question when commenting.  However the thing that struck me was that the students enjoyed all comments even the ones that said " Wow your writing was great"  I thought that comments like that were a waste of time.  Most students still liked them because they said 'It showed that someone was reading their work and thought it was good'  I must therefore not underestimate the power of an authenic audience.  The students did expect more from their teacher,though, and liked comments that made them think about their next goal /learning step. They also enjoyed comments from people they knew like their buddy blogger or class mates especially the younger students years 2,3,and 4 because they could respond to their comments about their work and also comment on their work and they knew who the people were.  

I asked some students whether they would like to do all their work on a computer and they all said no.  Their reasons were

·         they still liked to write in their books

·         they liked to do maths with equipment

·         liked to work with other people

·         liked to talk to the teacher straight away about their work rather than wait to read a comment

Interesting!

After talking to the students it was evident that while we assume this generation are 'computer savvy' many, if not most,do not have many of the skills required to complete tasks such as downloading photos,embedding videos etc.  Many were not confident and often their teacher or a class mate did it for them.  They wanted time to practise and 'do it heaps of times so that it stuck in my brain'  

More visitations this week to two country schools.  Looking forward to this  

Sabbatical

It was really strange to wake up on day one of Term 2 and have no class to teach.  I decided I needed to ensure that my time was not wasted so designed a schedule to follow.  As I have only 5 weeks to collect data and analyse it I knew I had to make each day count and not spend them sitting in the sun drinking coffee. 
Week One I started each day with a 3/4 hour walk- weather was gorgeous. Back home to do some readings around blogging/wikis etc  What a wealth of information. Really had to think of my methodology because I could start going off on a tangent and the information read may be of little help to my investigation.   Searched many New Zealand sites-excellent on line discussions and videos and many were very positive about the benefits of using e portfolios in the classroom. A few, however,were quite controversial and not all in support of 'living your life in a shoe box' Some very brisk discussion was had on line. After reading about an e learning inquiry undertaken by a New Zealand school I decided to use the Effective Literacy Practice framework  to guide my questions about effective I.C.T practice. The framework is clear and covers all aspects required to ensure that effective teaching and learning is happening in the classroom. I also read lots on the different types of portfolios and which ones are most effective at different stages of a child's learning.  This should be helpful when developing our implementation plan for I.C.T
Week One I contacted schools I wished to visit to make a time to view their schools I.C.T.journey  and talk to their teachers and students. Every school was very willing to open their classes to me and I am very grateful to them. Visiting two schools in Week 2 another in week 3 and my final one in Week 4. Still would like to visit Port England school if I have time.

music

Found some great animated songs on the computer Could be great to use for school singing as they are very motivating.  My class love them. Need to write out the words though as there are no words on screen. Does anyone know if I can put words on the side or bottom of the screen so that we can have the pictures and words together?