Using ICT in the classroom

Using Facetime in the classroom

TTS breakfast meeting

*Spoke about Chrome books and the new Microsoft tablet (name??).
*Discussion about barriers that teachers put up against e-learning and how to bring them down.

What next...
*Suzanne is going to order a trial Chrome book to see how it goes.
*Need to get e-learning back up and running in the school - but how to bring it in...
*Set up ICT expectations, ie by Year 3 students should be able to... use Word with confidence, etc

Google Apps PLD

Notes from the day

Follow up:

Spoke to Suzanne about Chromebooks.  She is going to order one for me to trial.  Suzanne is going to set up a visit to Pakaranga Heights School, a teacher there is using Chromebooks and Google Apps.

Need to set up lessons for how to use Google Docs and Presentations particularly for the kids to follow once we have Google Apps up and running.

ALiM Impact Day

Day of sharing and discussing how our ALiM groups achieved the goals we set for them.    We started off with each ALiM teacher sharing a 15 presentation about their groups and answered questions.  It was interesting to hear the similarities between each group, as well as the differences in the way each teacher approached the group's learning.

After lunch we had a short presentation about becoming an MST teacher next year, what would be involved and what funding would be available for the school.

Link to presentation slideshow

GAFE mini-conference

Google Apps for Education Day
Saturday 18 May 2013 @Bucklands Beach Intermediate School

Links to notes from the day

Key note speaker Adam from Google

Workshop 1: 10 tips for Google Apps

Workshop 2: How schols are using Google Apps in the classroom

Workshop 3: How Point England are using Google Apps (management)

Workshop 4: Using Teacher dashboard

Reflection of the day:

*Very motivating.
*Interesting to hear from someone from Google, the company's point of view, where they envisage schools going with Google Apps, how "approachable" they are; ie giving out email address, Russell Burt talking about how they worked with Google to create Teacher Dashboard.
*Was very interesting seeing how other teachers and schools are utilising Google Apps in the classroom.  The use of Google sites to create e-portfolios for each child, classroom sites etc.  The sites are used similarly to wikis.
*Are the Google sites available only through GAFE?
*Would like to develop a small group of children (Kaleb, Quinn, Luana-Nan, Robin,...) who could use Google Apps - particularly Google Docs and Presentations.  I'd like to try them on a collaborative presentation - could be during reading time?  Novel study?  Roald Dahl?
*With more students being able to access internet at home through tablets and smart phones, it would be a good way to develop some home-school partnerships, sharing their work with whānau.

I think that the middle and senior school would benefit from using Google Apps, however we would have to look at investing in more ICT so that it would be more readily available to the students.

Video link

https://vimeo.com/cognition/knowthyimpact

John Hattie summary - Know thy impact

uLearn conference reflections

After day one my head was so full of ideas, I didn't quite know how I was going to retain any more of the information I was to receive over the next two days!

The uLearn conference was a definite experience, the amount of information was enormous.  The inspiration given by the presenters and keynote speakers was phenomenal.

One of the biggest things I'll take away from this conference is the different ways to gather student voice using digital tools.  The breakout by David Kinane was full of different ways to achieve this.  I have already tried the Audioboo app, and now that I have figured out how to embed them into the blog I'll be able to introduce it to the rest of the class.

Pam Hook's breakout about SOLO taxonomy provided my lightbulb moment of the conference.  I finally understood the SOLO taxonomy idea, it was not as complicated as I thought - that was confusing me I think!

The other breakout that left the biggest impression was the last one that I attended.  Two teachers from Pt England School shared their blended elearning programme.  They showed us how they used their blog and the different ways they used their ICT tools to motivate students and capture their learning.  Some of their ideas were so simple, I wondered why on earth I've never thought of them.  I must email them to thank them for sharing their ideas.  If he internet had been working properly this week we would have already been emailing work to be posted.

All of the keynote speakers were fantastic.  Each one had their own highlights and touch me in different ways.  Kevin Honeycutt was impressive as always.  His message of creating a positive digital footprint has really struck a chord, both for my class and for myself.  Also the message of using ICT tools to CREATE something struck a chord too - already one reading group is going to learn how to create animations using iMovie (hope it works).

Khoa Do gave us all a lot to think about.  Especially about how people/society can judge people, yet if given a chance and the right mentor, anyone can do anything.  Again, creating something positive can change your life.

Attending this conference has definitely reinvigorated me in regards to how I use ICT tools for teaching and learning.  It has given me a definite sense of creating more of a digital classroom, and how to do it so that students are using these tools more effectively for their learning.  Three days worth of holidays is leading to years of ideas.