Upcoming PD

It's a new year with quite a few PD opportunities coming close to our range! Here's one that is happening in our fine city. Should be a great way to learn AND connect with others wanting to develop their school and classroom practice!

If you come across other events or workshops that crop up in the future, let us know! Contact your Principal or ICT lead teacher and tell them to forward the details to me for our blog. Its a good place to collect and share all the details we'll need to help us achieve our cluster goals this year!

This event features DK, Core Education's Social Media Manager is speaking at a breakfast and then running workshops on the impact of Social Media in our Schools. Click on the link for more details. There are already a few of our cluster registered - get in quick. Places going fast!

Reflective Summary 4

Our Reflective Summary 4 has been posted to the vln over the weekend. You can read it here!

It makes for some really encouraging reading and there has been some significant progress made on most cluster goals - with plans in motion to attack the others.

If you haven't registered for the vln yet, now's your chance. It's a network for all teachers who are interested in discussing and sharing what's happening in their schools and classrooms. We hope our reflective summary has added to those conversations.

Sept Reflective Summaries

Here is a link to veiw or download our September Reflective Summaries. We have used these school reflections to help collate our overall cluster milestone and reflective summary (you can read this shortly on the vln).

There will be a link posted here, on our cluster blog, so you can read our reflective summary. It makes for some encouraging reading! It's worth seeing the overview of the progress the cluster has made this year - which is hard to see when we are all working hard in our sub clusters and individual schools.

Here are a few stats and common threads, gathered from our school reflections -

- 6 / 10 schools have followed through and completed their teacher inquiries this term.

- 2 schools using these as part of their appraisel process.

- 9 / 10 schools report a substantial increase in teacher confidence and capability in ICT integration. Many schools preparing purchasing plans for increasing the number of devices in their schools.

- Most schools reflected a year of embedding their inquiry process and establishing consistent planning and assessment practices across the school.

Here are some other links to some fantastic sites, wikis, videos and other web 2.0 activities happening in the cluster!

School Video 1

School Video 2

School Video 3

School Website

School Wiki

Class wiki for spelling

Classroom Blog

School Radio Show Blog

Use of Skype in the classroom

Wallwisher in the class

Taking your class blog up a notch!

Many of us have classroom blogs for sharing the learning, communicating with family, as a teaching tool in the classroom and as a motivational tool through the use of a wider audience (need any more reasons to start one?).

Here's a site which, when registered, will link your class with three others in a bid to increase motivation and get some sharing, commenting happening on a large scale. Fill in the registration form, quickly because I think they may be starting soon, and you will be connected with other classes world wide. Each class has a turn to be the focus for reading and commenting for a week.

Give it a go!

Educampdunners 2011

There is a great PD opportunity for all the enthusiastic teachers in the Southland / Otago area this month. The Educampdunners 2011 day is on Saturday, 27th August at St Clair School. It's a day of sharing and learning about innovative teaching and learning that has an ICT / elearning focus - like a teachmeet on steroids! Click on the image below to view the wiki for more info and the page to register. Best of all, it's free.

Our cluster will be organising some transport so contact me at markherringnz@gmail.com if you are keen to carpool / come along.

Great learning - great company - great coffee (and maybe some shopping for the ladies???) We dare you to come and NOT leave fired up with some amazing ideas for your class!

Core Education Scholarships

There are two very exciting scholarships that teachers can apply for here, at the link below. Core Education have a travel scholarship to an international event and and award for PD and reflective practice! Are there some teachers in our cluster who have a go at applying?

Thanks, Dianne Mills (Our National Facilitator), for the news about this pretty exciting opportunity!

Applications close Monday 29th August 2011.

For more information and an application form:

www.core-ed.org/foundation or call Gina Cathro on 021 796 999

Registered Teacher Criteria Wiki for eLearning

Every ICT Cluster is focussing on teacher practice that impacts on student achievement. This is also the aim of the renewed Registered Teacher Criteria.

This wiki below has been created by Suzie Vesper and Rochelle Jensen from Digistore and it provides links between the criteria and eLearning. It's an amazing resource that should help with our subcluster action plan goals and also our individual Teacher Inquiries!