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

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

Core Education Courses

Core have started advertising some online courses that teachers can take on a huge range of topics - from eportfolios to enhancing literacy through elearning strategies.

They use a variety of online forums, texts, videos and 'webinars' to cover the course content. There is a range of costs (many of which can cover 5 - 10 staff from 1 school) and could provide an interesting tool in your school's PD programme within the cluster.

Skype at St Thomas

On Wednesday I worked with some classrooms who wanted to develop their use of Skype. I arranged for two classrooms to skype with us (thanks to connections with my twitter friends, @Marama and @mrkempnz), one in Dunedin at Grant Braes School and the other at Pukeokahu School near Taihape.

The first class, Room 3 at St Thomas Aquinas, watched this video that explained what skype is and how it works.

Next we co-constructed a chart of what a successful skype session is. The poster below is the version I've put together in popplet - a cool chart maker, I've discovered. The three parts, preparation, during the call and reflection are based on the rubric I found online here, at the 'Educational Origami' blog. We found that it helped us have a great first Skype call, especially the prep stage where we visited their class wiki or blog and prepared some questions to ask.

Here are some reflections I've taken from the two sessions.

1. Watch for tricky technical bridges to hurdle.

It's always important to test your technology before using it, especially when you've arranged a time to do something with someone else- who has built their timetable around it. We had some issues with proxy settings and, I think, some firewall blocks which has tripped me up in the past. Always check your connection before you need it. Especially when using skype for the first time with a class.

2. Always have an authentic purpose.

Anything new has its gimmick appeal. I've found that this lasts for about 20 minutes with kids and then they're over it! When we're using skype to call someone you should always have a real reason for doing so...not just because you can - 'Hey kids, lets skype the class next door!'

With the second session we decided that we'd use the skype call to help the class develop an understanding of open and closed questions - and a real audience to practise on! They were totally engaged in asking their open questions (based on a video the other class made of a science experiment they did with cows eyes) and they got experience how powerful those types of questions are. The learning intention of the session was not how to use skype - classic example of use the tool to help the learning..rather than learning the use of the tool.

3. Don't underestimate how familiar our students are with technology

It was amazing to see how many hands shot up when I asked if they had used skype before. Many had skyped their grandparents and family front out of town and a lot of them knew how it worked and what it did.

Often we think that we will be sharing a tool with our class that is innovative and amazing! It may well be, compared to the technology we usually use at school, or even compared to the teacher next door. But to these students it's a normal part of regular life. It's not so amazing to them - they don't know any different. All the more reason to make our classrooms as relevant as possible to our students everyday lives.

Cluster Survey - Feb

Thanks to everyone who filled out the cluster survey for Feb. There were still some entries outstanding from the odd school - however, for the sake of moving forward I have closed the entries and collated the responses.

Here is a PDF of the entire cluster. Below is also a word doc that you can use to analyse your school's progress against the Cluster goals. You can use it to create an action plan for the rest of the year.

- Download the action plan,

- Go through your specific school survey results (emailed to your Principal and Leads)

- Complete the plan. You could then record that plan in your milestones.

Remember - this is a diagnostic resource for you to use to help the professional development of your school!

Reflection Resources

We've decided to provide some resources to help everyone reflect on their teacher inquiries. Yes, some form of reflection is a cluster requirement but it's also a very important part of the inquiry process - probably one of the most crucial elements to helping us grow and develop as educators.

Here are some links you can use to help you reflect 'in' and 'on' your teaching. The video below explains the benefits and the differences between in / and on. You might watch these during your first pod meeting or at your own leisure - it has soothing music to calm the nerves...

We've decided to offer everyone the use of this word document, also, as a guide to record your reflections in writing if you wish. You could download the template and save your document as you go. It could then be emailed to your lead teacher when needed and they will upload to the cluster site for milestone evidence.

Here are some other links that give more examples of how reflections can be made and recorded.

Blogs - reasons why teachers should blog

Another Blogging link

Video - watch a teacher reflect on her teaching practice in maths.