Skyping

http://vardontechsperx.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/skyping-te-puke-school.html

Today our senior techsperx skpyed the "geek club" from Te Puke Primary school. They absolutely loved it! Check it out on our blog link above ;)

I must admit I was a little nervous trying something new but the outcome and the positives from this experience outweighed my nervousness....  therefore I had to give it a go!

After a few connections issues we were 'live' and face-to-face with the geek club. The chn met each other and talked about their excitement over the exchange visit, which is happening tomorrow.

Skying.... the potential is HUGE! connections can be made all across the globe, learning can be instant - imagine a scientist when studying science or an author?

My next steps:

• to skype with our quad blogging buddies and learn about their country, culture, education
• to teach/encourage others at school how to skype

Restorative Practice and Conversations

After our 2 day PD session on restorative practice in the holidays there have been ideal situations for me to trial some of the restorative practices we learnt.

On day 1 of this term while on a lunch time duty I dealt with a boy, who was brand new that day to our school, that had been hit by a another boy. I seized the moment and got all boys involved to sit down in a circle on the school field (it just so happened when I walked the boy who had been hitting/pinching to the other boys they were all together on the field). We had an impromptu circle time on the field!
This worked and gave each child their turn to speak and then apologise.

Just today I tried a discussion with a boy in my class who had had two perfect morning blocks  but went a little 'sideways' during the library this afternoon. I was completely perplexed?!
After attempting a restorative chat and having him shrugging his shoulders all the way through I am not 100% convinced these restorative chats work for him right now. I am going to persist because I believe in the long run it will work but in the meantime I think I need to do more work around apologies and feelings - getting chn to explain how they are feeling and why.
This works for most chn in my class but there is small bunch who need to express their feelings better.

Ipods in the classroom

I am interested in how I can further grow the use of ICT tools with my class of year 3/4 so am trialling the use of an Ipod touch. Ideally a small group of Ipods would be better but one is better than none.I am in the process of downloading free educational apps and have had success in finding apps for maths, spelling, reading and spelling.I have also downloaded journal stories from itunes on my laptop.I found this slideshow on managing ipods in the class so will use this to ensure the use of the ipod within my class is beneficial to learn and not just viewed as a "fun gadget".On Monday I plan to teach two chn who will then be the ipod experts to teach others. The ipod will be integrated into maths and reading, to start with. I will also get chn to take photos and videos and use an app to make a movie.My overall goal is to document the use of this ipod (videos, photos, reflections, student voice) to prove their effectiveness of raising student motivation and achievement. I could then possibly apply to the Board and/or PTA to fund more ipod touches or Ipads for each classroom at school or for those teachers wishing to use them.I would love your thoughts, questions....Ipod Touch Conf

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My interview/discussion with Gwynneth

Gwynneth took a break from researching and drinking coffee in the sun (her words not mine) and came in today  to talk and interview some chn and teachers about ICT - particularly student voice and blogging and how it supports chn's learning.

After she interviewed 3 chn from my class it was interesting to hear what Gwynneth found out. My chn talked about how yes, recording their voice was important because other people could hear what they have to say and what they are learning.
They really thought when others comment on their blog it helps with their own learning because they can improve their work.
They thought the "Wow" comments and "I liked your photos" were not good enough comments and they want feedback and feed word comments so they can improve their work and then reply back to the commenter. I think I must have drilled this into them that a good quality comment should include a positive comment and what they enjoyed (feedback) and something to work on (feedforward) or a question to start a conversation!!!

Gwynneth talked about our blogs (E-Journals) at Vardon being showcase portfolios and also process portfolios. We, chn and teachers,  are really trying to "showcase" our chn's learning and also show the process as we go.

One thing I am going to try out is after modelling and teaching a writing group, instead of the chn writing their draft writing in the books they will write straight into their blogs. They can then proofread and edit and the publish straight away without MY CHECKING. "Argg" This breaks my #1 rule - check with a teacher before you click publish. BUT there is a different purpose for doing a piece of draft writing... anyone who views this child's blog, of course it will definitely be me their teacher and their classmates and buddy class, and I'm hoping other teachers and chn around the globe, can give this child feedback and feedforward. I am then going to model and teach how to go back and re-work their post and re-publish. The they can reply to the commenter to let them know they have listened to their feedback.
We do this in writing books so why not open it up and get a wider audience.

I'll let you know how it goes....

Term 2 Goals

Term 1 for me was all about setting up procedures and expectations with my class around ICT in general.

My Year 4's were wonderful roles models. I used them as 'support techs' when the Year 3's needed help both in the ICT suite and the classroom. It really impressed me that IT skills they learnt last year by putting them into practice this year. They helped with teaching Years 3's how to; log onto their blogs, write and publish posts, commenting on other blogs, using the class netbooks, using voicethread.....

I spent a lot of time teacher modeling how to write a good quality comment and it has now really started to sink in. A classic example was when I had our quad blogging classes blog on the teaching station and we were reading their posts and also their comments my chn picked up that their comments didn't really follow the correct commenting structure and they didn't really have any feedback. So onwards and upwards with commenting this term. I am going to get our Techsperx to create classroom posters on "Writing good Comments" and possibly even  videos.

My E-Learning goals for Term 2 are;

• To develop more of an expert role and get certain certain to be the leaders in the classroom. This will then get chn to be the leaders and therefore develop their leaderships qualities. 
• To get chn to make up their own activities on Interwrite to share with others and get other chn to compete. 
• Developing a home-school partnership by encouraging parents/caregivers via e-mails to visit blogs and make comments
• Trying to integrate E-Learning as much as possible so work being completed in the computers in my class is not seen as an isolated task. I want chn to view using IT tools as part of their maths, reading, science etc. work.

I am excited to further progress our global connection via quad blogging and achieve my goals above.