Givealittle

Givealittle

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Here is a quick way to donate to the people of Samoa.
I am sure a few dollars will help.

ICT Support

My position at Woodville School includes providing ICT support for the staff. The desired outcomes will be, greater use of ICT by students and teachers. Better engagement by students, staff will increase their skill in using ICT, staff will be made aware of resources.

Where to start?

I decided to start a Teachers' wiki. A place to put resources, and hopefully for the staff to add to.

Many thanks to Innes Kennard for adding things.

Take a look, I would love some feed back and ideas of stuff to add.

http://woodville-teachers.wikispaces.com/

Bush District Education Plan

Moral is low at school. The Bush District Education plan proposals have really shocked us as a staff. The proposal to close Woodville School and establish a new school on the same sight seems to me to be so unfair.
This week a community member organised a community march to support the schools and show our feelings. It was great to see so many people out there to support the schools and community.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/2732797/Community-goes-on-the-march-for-its-schools#share

catching up

I have neglected google reader for a few weeks, only to find more than 100 new feeds. Taking a quick flick this caught my eye.


Is your classroom a quality learning environment where students are able to 'seek, use and create their own knowledge' as it states in the 'new' New Zealand Curriculum?

Here are some questions to focus on.


1 Are your students self managing able to set and achieve their own goals, or plans, and able to show continual quality improvement in all they do ( in Japan this incremental growth is called 'kaizen').

2 Do you 'negotiate' ( to ensure 'ownership') with the students what is expected in any learning task and demonstrate these expectations by 'focused teaching', 'scaffolding' ( giving temporary help), modelling, demonstrating or 'thinking aloud'?

3 Do you make use of literacy time to teach 'seeking , using and creating' skills needed to work independently when involved in inquiry learning. Some call this idea of developing prior understanding, or skills, 'front loading', or 're framing' literacy and numeracy, to service inquiry learning.)

4 Do students appreciate that creativity and quality are more important than quantity; to appreciate the need to 'do fewer things well' and where to improve on their 'personal best' is internalized?

5 A a teacher have you defined, with students, how to design and present their research and language work and does the students' book work show continual improvement ('kaizen'') both in presentation and quality of ideas? Some schools have 're-invented' students' books as a form of 'portfolio' to send home to demonstrate growth to parents during the year.

6 As a teacher to you see the need to cover fewer topics in depth so as to ensure depth understanding rather than trying cover too many things superficially?

7 Are you as a teacher, and are your students, aware of the strategies involved in any activity and are students able to articulate what it is they are doing and why?

8 Can you , and your students, articulate the basic inquiry model being used to underpin all learning in the class ( or school)?

9 Can you, and your students, articulate the 'key competencies' ( or future learning capabilities) that all students need to internalize to become 'confident life long learners'?

10 Do you 'negotiate with' your students the criteria for assessment of any task so they can self assess their own learning and are able to set new goals. ( It is important to ensure that individual creativity is one of the criteria to avoid standardization)

11 Is there evidence that classrooms are well organised ( by tasks for language, maths and inquiry tasks defined on whiteboards or blackboards) to allow both teacher interaction ( to provide guidance and feedback) and for students to be able to work and interact independently.

12 Do the room environment displays reflect creative quality achievement across the curriculum and do these displays both celebrate and inform students finished work by using: headings, key questions, processes and evaluations as necessary. Is there evidence of both student's 'prior' and 'post' ideas?

13 Is there any evidence of agreed school, class or school communal behavioural values?

14 Do you monitor your teaching against agreed school beliefs ( or such a set of questions as these) as an integral part of self appraisal and can you show new ideas you are trialling or that you have introduced to improve your teaching?

15 Are you able to articulate the school vision, values and teaching beliefs and can the students, and their parents, do so in their own words?.

If the answers are positive for most of the above then the class is true creative learning community?

If it applies to all classrooms the school is a learning community.
check out the blog
http://leading-learning.blogspot.com/
I have been following Bruce Hammonds for years.

game

Thanks to Suzie, I found this game on her blog and wanted to introduce it to the class, but it wouldn't work on the school computer. Oh well I will just have to play it at home. Great find.

class blog

This term we recieved a stuffed toy from our friends at MICDS in USA. We are going to take photos of the toy, and record what it is doing on a blog. I hope this will help our friends at MICDS learn more about life at Woodville School, and in New Zealand.
take a look
http://woodybunter.blogspot.com/

Term 2 and the wiki

last term I started a wiki for the students in my class to post their work to. The have started to reflect, and assess their work and the work of others in the class. Some parents have looked at the wiki and made comments. I have reestablished contact with a class in the USA, and we will be sharing work with them.
This term I will also be using our wiki as a place for me to introduce topics, pose questions and direct the learning.

New Class New Wiki

Today I created a new wiki for my new class. It is intended to be a show case for our learning, and a way for the class to share their learning with other.
Take a look.
https://woodville-room-five.wikispaces.com/

2009

This year I am teaching at Woodville School. So I am no longer blogging from the small school, but from the old school. This is the primary school I attended as a child, and both of my parents also attended Woodville School. I am in a classroom in a block of classes that are the oldest classrooms in use in New Zealand.
At this stage I am still getting to know the systems in my new school, but i do intend to use Web 2 tools with this class.

Building a Learning-focused relationship

In preparation for starting in a new school and with a new class I have been rereading ¨Clarity in the classroom¨ by Michael Absolum. This book is a must read for all teachers.
Michael clearly states how to build a learning-focused relationship. He has included some activities to try.