Learning+at+School+Comments

**__Thoughts, comments, reflections and other bits and pieces from the Learning at School Conference in Rotorua.__ Just a couple of sentences about what you brought back, what it means for your school / you and how you are / will use it for the betterment of your students. __Click the link below to go directly to the Principal's review:__ Tim L (Myross Bush) Kevin (Makarewa) Andrew (Winton) Allan (Waihopai) **

// ** __Tim L (Myross Bush)__ ** - Breakout 1 - Responding to Change - Tony Ryan - The PDF that Sarah has attached on this summarises his talk well. The interactive discussion breaks with partners and reflecting on your own 'wellness' made it an enjoyable breakout! // // - Breakout 2 - Dr Stuart Middleton - School looks good but is it engaging?? I enjoyed listening to this keynote and the follow up discussion was interesting. He basically went back through his presentation and posed further questions to the group - why do we have a system like we have? //

//1. What's happening to systems like ours? - 'swine flu' stats // //2. Changing student population - ethnicity / language // //3. Disengagement - physical - out the door / virtual - dreaming of something else / unintended - wrong conference?!? // //4. Challenges - purpose - readiness - language - sectors/structures - being honest in our discourse //

//Why is change so hard? - //

// Resistors to change - Our own... //
 * //Promoters of change //
 * //Social / economic conditions //
 * //Technology //
 * //Laws and regulations //
 * //Community - conservative view //
 * //Knowledge //
 * //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">Skills //
 * //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">Aspirations - is there a gap between (partic. Principals) rhetoric and practical action or how far we are actually willing to go! //
 * //<span style="color: #1f1f32; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Disposition //

//<span style="color: #1f1f32; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">** Promotion through the Arts! ** <span style="color: #1f1f32; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 104%;">

A good idea can only be beaten by a better idea - don't turn up with no idea

Support the idea with facts!

Readiness - when would we know when a student is ready: - to start school? - to start secondary school? - to undertake tertiary study? - to enter employment?

How do we cope with a situation in which students have more language skills than we have but in different languages?

Are we able to let sectors go and base our organisation of the system on the needs of learners?

Breakout 3 & 4 - Derek Wenmoth - director of elearning for CORE ed is an interesting guy. He spends some of this time discussing/blogging/thinking/organising forums for bringing together ideas and people about where IT and education are going. Go to the ' [|TOP TEN TRENDS FOR 2010'] for the latest!

Breakout 5 - The LMS Gateway to learning and assessment -Mark Treadwell (developer of KnowledgeNet LMS) seems to have the ear of MOE people and is one of the leaders in driving the link between school, home and the LMS capabilities. Check out his websites [|'TEACHERS @ WORK'] and '[|THE EMERGENT 21st CENTURY TEACHER'] //


 * // Breakout 6 - Friday - Creative Commons Workshop - Dave Young // - ** ictucan!

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Breakout 1 - <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 80%;">Bringing your Vision to Life - Sue Williams – Core Ed <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A developing a vision is the easy part, bringing it to life can be the hard part. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Things we could do at school: For us at school we need to develop spaces in our rooms where the vision, values and key competencies can be displayed. Introduce a school wide reflection time. Classes to present items at assembly that relate to certain parts of our vision, values & key competencies <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">staff must actively teach it on a regular basis.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Need to communicate vision regularly
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">via newsletters, websites, blogs etc
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">have symbols that are used to communicate our vision
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">all classes to have a wall display about the vision and values
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">integrate it into our learning - e.g. kids making a big book for shared reading
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Giving children time to reflect on the vision, values & key competencies.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use ICT to make the vision come alive

This was a practical session showing how you can use kidpixs to tell stories with small children. This could be a excellent way for children to share their writing via class blogs. ==<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">Breakout 3 Building a School Based Curriculum: How to use SOLO Taxonomy to develop 'The Key Competencies' – Julie Mills / Pam Hook == The presentation was based on developing the Key competencies using the 5 levels of the SOLO Taxonomy. They used the 5 steps of SOLO to help the children derive steps to monitor their own learning progress.I can see that the SOLO method may be useful, but feel that it would drive everything you do within the school if you used it. There would have to be a lot of teaching to get the system going and the whole thing can fall over if a key person left Key Competencies example using SOLO <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">** Breakout 4 - How to make create and deliver a memorable presentation - Tara Fagan / Sharon Carson ** How to prepare and present information on power point and how to present it in an appropriate way. It talked about slide techniques based on 'Zen Style' - [|www.presentationzen.com]
 * Breakout 2- Engaging your Community with Digital Stories - Naketa Ferguson**

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Breakout 5 Use of Audio in Junior Classrooms - Lisa McDonough ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Unfortunately Lisa could do what she planned due to limited internet connection. She took us through a lot of different applications that could be integrated into classroom learning. Animoto - a slideshow software to help present images. Can allow you to put a music sound track on. Fodey - a newspaper into a newspaper format. Voki - Allows children to create avatars and get it to speak. Could be used to tell stories, give instructions or as a translator. Breakout 6 - Bubblemation - Dave Kinane - [|http://dakinane.com] This session used SAM animation which is a free download to produce animations. SAM can be downloaded from Tufts. We use a <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> claymation

- [|www.wallwisher.com]
 * Wall Wisher - great site for posting wonderings / reflective comments etc. You can post a photo / clip and students and use it as an assessment tool. Very easy to set up and use. **

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__Andrew (Winton)__ ‘Cloud Computing’ via Google Apps-free to NZ schools Docs <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">· Multiple Users working simultaneously Forms <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">· Surveys · Great for stats data gathering · Parent surveys Google sites <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">· Create own webpages/class pages Google video · Can store up to 10 gig Implications Great tool for students to work on 'projects' at home and school. Could link to ePortfolios Tools Jing · Record video/screenshots <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> []
 * __Breakout 1__**
 * Action as a result-students now using google docs to work on topics at home. Teachers now entering achievement data on google doc.

Commoncraft videos ** Great wee videos to explain concepts such as Cloud Computing or RSS feeds <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">** Digistore update ** This has been recently updated with a new interface. easy navigation for teachers. Very useful for Science and Social Science in particular. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 11.2pt;">[]

Software for learning <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 11.2pt;">[]

ARBs <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 11.2pt;">[|http://www.tki.org.nz/r/scence/science_is/activities/]

E portfolios · Recording learning in digital formats · Wikis · Videos <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Action as a result-Senior school will trial eportfolios via classroom blogs.

Nine in 90 I have the DVD and will make copies available to schools. This has details of 9 greta classroom applications i.e green screen moviemaking, digital storytelling.

iLife applications · iMovie · iDVD o digital storytelling · Garageband o Podcasting · iPhoto o digital photography

Cloud Computing - [|flicker storm] - keeping multiple images on one page - [|voice thread]- 'threads are loaded around the picture

I got great benefit from being immersed in a technology environment and surrounded in a language that I am unaccostumed and unfamiliar. The breakout sessions challenghed my thinking and understandings. I was thrilled with the impassioned presentations of area like ICT / Inquiry in a new entrant classroom; an argument that one frequently encounters. The indepth background of a school TV station and how to implement was of great benefit for me to implement on the back of our radio station. The key notes provided background and rigor to debate around clusters, staffrooms, BOT tables and educational banter to fortify our understandings and knowledge around ICT, Inquiry and sound educational pedagodgy. It allowed all participating schools and principals to bond for the benefit of the clusters three years together. We could all hear the same message, build a cluster picture and work together as a cohesive unit in our planning and understanding.
 * __Allan Mitchell (Waihopai)__ **