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.
Monday, 30 April 2012
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
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?
Monday, 30 January 2012
Learning @School Conference - reflections
How to use Solo Taxonomy to 'feed up "to raise student's achievement.
While this title sounds a little heavy solo is actually a very simple way to assess children's learning at different levels. I had heard Pam Hook speak a few years ago and liked what she said although it was pitched at a high school level. This time I could see how to use this taxonomy in our primary classes. While I don't like the names of each of the stages,prestructural,unistructural,multistructural,relational,extened abstract, the signs that can be used by the children to help explain their level of understanding are great. The idea of solo is to provide the child identify their learning strengths and needs with clear stages of understanding by writing a clear rubric for the topic. They can see very easily how they can move from understanding nothing or one thing through to knowing a lot of things and then being able to use that knowledge and apply it to another situation or creative idea to show that they have a deeper understanding of the concept being taught. The children become more skilled in making Where to next? decisions. I am going to try this taxonomy when teaching the golden rules. I will share this with my team and get them to trial it to see if it works with our kids. I know Danielle and Robyn are keen to trial this too.
Hooked on Thinking - Pam Hook will be on line in a few weeks . pamhook.com
While this title sounds a little heavy solo is actually a very simple way to assess children's learning at different levels. I had heard Pam Hook speak a few years ago and liked what she said although it was pitched at a high school level. This time I could see how to use this taxonomy in our primary classes. While I don't like the names of each of the stages,prestructural,unistructural,multistructural,relational,extened abstract, the signs that can be used by the children to help explain their level of understanding are great. The idea of solo is to provide the child identify their learning strengths and needs with clear stages of understanding by writing a clear rubric for the topic. They can see very easily how they can move from understanding nothing or one thing through to knowing a lot of things and then being able to use that knowledge and apply it to another situation or creative idea to show that they have a deeper understanding of the concept being taught. The children become more skilled in making Where to next? decisions. I am going to try this taxonomy when teaching the golden rules. I will share this with my team and get them to trial it to see if it works with our kids. I know Danielle and Robyn are keen to trial this too.
Hooked on Thinking - Pam Hook will be on line in a few weeks . pamhook.com
Friday, 27 January 2012
Learning @School Conference - reflections
Sitting down with a glass of wine and reflecting after two full on days at the Learning @school conference. As with any conference you end up with an overload of information and you need to take the time to work through all your notes and handouts.
Day one I went to breakouts that focused on quality feedback and feed forward and how this can help our children talk about their learning on their blogs. The first breakout was on metacognition- thinking about thinking. The presenter explained the need to teach specific reading strategies and how to do this successfully. While many of the ideas presented we already knew due to our PD with Alison Davies there is always things to learn.
The main ideas I took out of this presentation were
the need to model one strategy at a time
to work together with your class or group to practice this strategy
to give children the time and opportunity to practice this strategy independently in a range of contexts.
By providing this scaffolding the children should be able to use this strategy confidently and you can then move on to teaching another reading strategy.
When modelling teacher uses THINK OUT LOUDS. This is when the teacher puts down her book and models what she is thinking. "I am inferring that...."
Teaching of reading strategies must be planned for to be effective. Postit notes on the book with your Think Out Louds written down will make the lesson flow.
Teaching in this way enabled children to be articulate about their learning "I am learning to make inferences about texts" and they can then use THINK OUT LOUDS on their blogs to articulate their thinking. Other class members and teachers should be able to respond with quality feedback and feed forward because learning is specific and learning intention is clear.
Will definitely use this in my class and on our blogs.
Ideas to help children reflect on their learning that I am going to try in my class are the
Exit Pass -post it notes after lesson before they leave the room. or
3-2-1
3 things I found out
2 interesting things
1 question I still have
Stop and Think Card and Think marks
Day one I went to breakouts that focused on quality feedback and feed forward and how this can help our children talk about their learning on their blogs. The first breakout was on metacognition- thinking about thinking. The presenter explained the need to teach specific reading strategies and how to do this successfully. While many of the ideas presented we already knew due to our PD with Alison Davies there is always things to learn.
The main ideas I took out of this presentation were
the need to model one strategy at a time
to work together with your class or group to practice this strategy
to give children the time and opportunity to practice this strategy independently in a range of contexts.
By providing this scaffolding the children should be able to use this strategy confidently and you can then move on to teaching another reading strategy.
When modelling teacher uses THINK OUT LOUDS. This is when the teacher puts down her book and models what she is thinking. "I am inferring that...."
Teaching of reading strategies must be planned for to be effective. Postit notes on the book with your Think Out Louds written down will make the lesson flow.
Teaching in this way enabled children to be articulate about their learning "I am learning to make inferences about texts" and they can then use THINK OUT LOUDS on their blogs to articulate their thinking. Other class members and teachers should be able to respond with quality feedback and feed forward because learning is specific and learning intention is clear.
Will definitely use this in my class and on our blogs.
Ideas to help children reflect on their learning that I am going to try in my class are the
Exit Pass -post it notes after lesson before they leave the room. or
3-2-1
3 things I found out
2 interesting things
1 question I still have
Stop and Think Card and Think marks
Friday, 18 November 2011
Thursday, 27 October 2011
childrens blogs 3
I set my class a task of setting their goals for term four. We discussed the type of things they could work on for the last few weeks of the year. I had a great discussion with my year four students about moving to the senior school and what skills they need to have to make their transistion easier. Because there are some bright sparks in that group our discussion was very focused. They really thought about their individual goals and also what they are looking forward to such as taking a leadership role in the school- librarians, house captains. After reflecting on these goals the children wrote them on their blogs. I was able to read them in the holidays and then set up activites/ programmes for Term 4 that could help them achieve these goals.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Fascinating Times
Technology can be very frustrating I mean FASCINATING! This week my computer had a hissy fit and would not connect to the server. Apparently I have lost it! My wireless connection, that is. Even with a cable attached [ the old fashion way] I still couldn't connect. Myra kindly let me use her computer. More fascinating problems. I could access the server but not the blue book on her computer. Persevering with this [ it is our Big Idea this term] I used the PC in my class to get my daily messages. So talk about musical computers. I have been using one for the blue book, one to access the server and one for the internet. Exciting, Fascinating Times. Hopefully the computer doctor can solve my problems tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)