Ultranet Workshop

This was a demonstration put on by EdTech showing attendees the launch of the new learning management system from Ultranet. This LMS has been approved by the Ministry of Education. It enables students, teachers and parents to access information across a closed internet. They have to log in with a password and with different levels of security have access to information from the school. It also provides a safe social networking site for the students. It was an interesting afternoon and provided me with more knowledge about what an LMS is. I fed back to the rest of the staff at the next staff meeting and will contact Ivan at Edtech to demonstrate to the whole staff the benefits of using a LMS such as Ultranet and the way it can be used with ease.

Questioning with Trevor Bond - Cluster Workshop

This was a cluster workshop organised by Jan Thomas of Coley Street School. She invited Trevor Bond to speak to the cluster for the day after a suggestion from myself and Kathy. Halina was invited to join the cluster for the day as she is helping lead questioning within the school. This was a very informative day. He started out with quotes from DeBono and Neil Postman on how important questioning/thinking is. There was staff from other schools that initially did not agree with some of the quotes he shared with us. He then went on to describe thinking and the different types of thinking, knowledge and understanding. During the afternoon he went on to explain what makes a good question. I attended a workshop with Trevor Bond along with Kathy at Learning at Schools in Rotorua last year and some of what was presented was repeated but there also was a lot of new material added. I have done some work on improving questioning within my class last year and have continued this year. I believe it has made an impact on the childrens’ learning and questioning skills. This workshop has provided me with renewed enthusiasm and confidence to continue. Feedback was given to the staff on this day by Halina and I will assist her with further staff workshops to upskill the rest of the staff at Ohau School

Creating Wikis - hosted workshop

To meet the requirements of the ICT Cluster, Janine and Col held an afterschool workshop on 23/3/09. Initially booked as an introduction to wikis, Jan Thomas changed this to a more advanced Wiki workshop. There were approximately 25 people in attendance with a good number from Coley Street School. Janine/Col had the use of Coley Street School’s computer suite with wireless internet access for those with their own computers.
There appeared to be a huge range of ability within the group from those that did not know what a wiki was to others that were using wikis on a regular basis. This made Ohau’s job a little difficult to get the participants a good understanding of what we were discussing. There was also some difficult initially as the computer suite was not set up as expected (ie. With data projector, etc working)
Col/Janine both found this an invaluable experience as it gave them insight as to how others use wikis. It also demonstrated that not many teachers within the cluster are using wikis with their classes. Teaching others about changing the wiki space and making it more user friendly was beneficial in cementing their own knowledge with how to change. It was a collaborative day with other colleagues giving hints as to easier ways of doing things.
Col/Janine both benefited from the day and enjoyed it immensely. We hope the other cluster members got as much out of it as we did.

Homework

This year we have implemented a new homework system. This is based around Inquiry Learning using the framework similar to what we are learning in class. We hope that this will encourage the students to take responsibility for their own learning and want to learn for the pleasure rather than the pressure. The children were given this for the first time on Monday morning using a standard school wide format. They had until Friday to submit their context, plan, questions, timeframe and resources. Through negotiation with their teacher, each child can choose a context of interest to them. Junior students have been guided to help them to choose a question. Expectations of delivery are different for each level. So far this system has produced enthusiam and some great questions on a variety of topics.

Connections to the Sea

This term we are looking at connections and our Inquiry is based on "Secrets of the Sea Crits". The Junior School have a motivational visit planned to the Island Bay Marine Education Centre on the 6th March and the Senior School are going on the 13th March. We have also timetabled time into these days to visit the Giant Squid at Te Papa. Most classes are preparing for this in advance and looking at questions students have about this overarching theme. No doubt all cameras within the school will have batteries charged in readiness to record the students learning and experiences.

Multiple Intelligences and deBonos 6 hats

Schoolwide we are focussing on the teaching and learning using the yellow and black hats only this term. Years 5-8 are also investigating multiple intelligences. One staff member came across a website where you can fill in a questionaire to determine your approximate strengths in the multiple intelligence framework. They undertook to share this with their team members. All students in Years 5-8 have participated in this online questionaire. Students have been able to print out their wheel of strengths and are currently investigating these to better understand their personal learning styles.

2009

Well, 2009 has started well this year. The whole staff attended the Spectrum Education Teachers Matter Conference in Rotorua the last week of January. This got more staff onboard and was a great sharing time. We all went to the same breakouts and lots of new and collaborative learning took place. All staff came back excited, motivated and energetic for the start of the school year. All staff have implemented some part of their learning from Teachers Matter Conference and look forward to continuing to broaden their thinking with new ideas.