Practice, practising, practicing practise.

What kids really want in a Digital World

2012-02-07T18:57:00.001+13:00

Gosh, this is exciting. "unencumbered by traditional rules" hmmm....

Despicable3 - In the Guardian!

2011-12-10T13:14:00.000+13:00

Despicable3 - In the Guardian!

Hey check it out! We were in the Guardian today on the front page! Thank D3 - you are awesome!

NZ's Most Inspiring Teachers

2011-11-30T22:29:00.001+13:00

I received a phone call today to say that I have won $1000 worth of stationary from Warehouse Stationary because I've been nominated as the Top 30 (out of over 1100!) most inspiring teachers in New Zealand! Wow, that's pretty crazy!

This is yet another 'good news' message that's come my way since the last half of the year. My partner said to me that my school is so lucky to have me, but honestly I think I am lucky to have the school. Or maybe a good combination of both.

If you hadn't heard, my class blog Despicable3, came runner up in the 2011 Interface Best Blog Award!

Yes, and today is my 30th Birthday! 2011 continues to be a fantastic year!

Plan A... er... B

2011-11-20T08:25:00.000+13:00

One week earlier I was all locked in for my first choice of Year 3/4, digital class... but you never can tell what's just around the corner. A colleague announced that they are leaving so I am filling his spot... Year 5/6, non-digi...

My immediate feeling was like WOW! But now I am starting to get used to the idea. It is pretty cool to be acknowledged for my behaviour management skills (thanks Coley and Bill Rodgers!). All of my resources are pretty much for Level 3. On the other hand, I was looking forward to consolidating my learning at Year 3/4 because I have only had 5 terms with this level. I am just getting to really suss it out however, they are almost Year 5 now.

Another plus is that I am going on Camp in Term 1!! I love camp! Helping kids to take risks in Outdoor Education at the beginning of the year is great, everyone starts on 'Common Ground' - it's the perfect "Learning Community" unit.

Also, leading the leaders of the school is exciting. It will keep me in touch with Kapahaka leaders and music kids etc. I'll be more connected...

Yes, it will be an EXCITING change

Despicable3 - Hei konei ra (jagger)

2011-11-14T17:08:00.000+13:00

Despicable3 - Hei konei ra (jagger)

This is my second shot at writing a song in Maori!

Two Projectors

2011-10-25T22:04:00.001+13:00

A short story I wrote about trying to get the projector to work when I was in charge of production.

Two Projectors

Despicable3 - Wonder Walk

2011-10-25T21:52:00.000+13:00

Despicable3 - Wonder Walk

Today we went out for our 'wonder walk' to ignite our wonderings about some of Russell Street's hidden stories. Here is a slide show I made with some of the pictures we took. If you know of any hidden stories about one of the photos please share!!

Something to think about before we start back at school...

2011-10-22T12:41:00.001+13:00

Message from Nic

2011-10-05T22:30:00.000+13:00

Message from Nic

Wow! What an amazing term? It has definitely finished on a high because of our Production. All of the comments your parents have given you on your ePortfolios are all so positive and full of praise! You were fantastic, absolutely fantastic! It was a very special moment for me to be able to sit back during your performance and watch all of you performing with such focus and passion. Well done!! (And I apologise that I forgot to put on the smoke machine... again!). What a feeling - I was so proud of you all!

What about your Music Videos that we created this term? They are really awesome - and you all worked so hard to complete them. They will be something that you will treasure and look back on in years to come and you can say "Yeah! I made a music video!"

We have learned about Problem Solving and finding fractions of a set for maths. We began learning about tessellating patterns with geckos.

It snowed in Palmerston North and we captured this moment by taking photos and writing stunning creative stories about the experience. Millie brought in some Kelp and we wrote suspenseful stories using descriptive words about the kelp to describe an alien creature attacking you. We will finish these next term.

We extended our pastel skills and created an underwater tropical coral scene for our calendar art. There were some amazing completed pieces and they look stunning on our wall! Parents please make sure you purchase your child's calendar art from the office!

We have been practicing visualising, self-monitoring and inferring meaning when reading. Also, we have been learning about looking at a situation from "other people's viewpoints". One group worked with Suzanne and learned about the human body and another group looked at problems in the school that they could improve or fix - this is called 'problem-based learning'.

Like I said above, WOW! You rock D3! What an amazing bunch of people you are!? Have a really good break over the holidays, be nice to your mum and GO THE ALL BLACKS!!

Production Meeting

2011-08-02T21:37:00.002+12:00

I had a bit of a balls PD meeting today because I did not put in as much thought into the crux of the meeting. I guess it all comes with experience and I will know not to make the same mistakes next time. And there is no point making excuses because none of that matters now: fail forward.

Elly's idea was great for people to get into their buddy classes and discuss planning and structure of people's performances. Once we got this going - there was a very energising feeling in the room.

And also Eb's idea to share at the end - what a great chance to reflect and share great ideas.

What is the best structure for running a session with other teachers? Any pointers??

Call Back Day: Maths National Standards

2011-07-19T07:07:00.002+12:00

First of all, HOOORRAAAY FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

Hmmm, just had to get that off my chest. During our final week at school each of us got another 45mins release time to go through the sample question for the maths National Standard. Here is the link: http://nzmaths.co.nz/national-standards-illustrations?parent_node=

We had to video the interview with the ipad. Well yesterday, as a staff we analysed our videos. Wow - it was very insightful and I recommend that school's do this as part of their practice.

We also had a Mathex competition to warm up our session. I was with Elly and we made an excellent team; talking and listening to each other. David said he sat back and observed the teams and how they interacted - very interesting. But there were some awesome types of questions. Now I'm not a maths person but I enjoy learning and I enjoy the challenge of learning new things. There was one question in particular where it gave you the answer and then a series of operations so you had to work backwards to find out the number they had started out with. I don't know, I just enjoyed that question.

It took us a while to warm up but then we got on a roll, which really highlighted the fact that you need to have a maths warm up before heading into maths!

After morning tea (which was delicious by the way!!) the newbies were call for another maths task. Each of us had an envelope and inside were shapes that you had to make into 5 individual squares. The rules were that you were not allowed to talk, and that you couldn't take pieces off each other. You had to pass your pieces on to the other people. But it was the group goal that we all had to make a square each. Again, it was a great learning task because one envelope was pre set to make a square that would hold the other people up but not only about maths.

Catching Creativity

2011-06-07T13:11:00.002+12:00

Mark Osborne
Brainteasers: google goggles - wow!

Creativity is infectious!

You can become more intelligent is by believing you can become more intelligent - Guy Claxton- Carol Dweck.

Nature 50 Nurture 50: na I was wrong -

Growth Mind set vs. fixed mind set

Cretivity Models:
Model
Allow time for creative thinking
question assumptions
encourage idea generation
cross-fertilize ideas
reward creative ideas and products allow mistakes
build self-efficacy.

Mountain vs meadow
Stadium vs mosh pit
The intelligent mind is able to access viewpoints from both perspectives.

Need down time

Ken Fisher

Idea generation - 100 days of creativity why not have 21 days of creativity for kids?

Brainstorming Pros: quickly generates ideas, group . Cons: time restrained, not
New : brainwriting Peter Heslin

The Tinkering School - what can you do with shopping bags?

Impact projects: impact on your learning and impact on someone else. Open ended tasks. wikieducator - possible parody?

Cross pollination - what are you good at and how can it help you to work on something you are not so good at?
VW youtube video about sound effects in elevator and skateboards on shopping trolleys.

Dream, Make, Share

2011-06-07T10:59:00.003+12:00

Mark Osborne

Albany Senior High School - no walls!! Spaces for integration, collaboration.

Open source software - free! Uses

Wall wisher
Gimp - like photoshop
Scribus - template for newspaper
Scratch - game programing
Minecraft - creating a 3D structure of their school (paid not free)
Blender3D - hard but can do excact same things as Peter
SketchUp - build a house
Sweethome 3D

Musescore it's not if you are bright it's how you are bright.
AUDACITY - better

Graphic organisers - Xmind
Jokosher

bit.ly/ashselearning - check it out.

Chrome supports apps - angry birds, picnik, art project "street view" virtual tours of art galleries.
3Dtin - stink
cramberry - flash cards about a topic, create, share

jaycut.com online video editing
pixlr

wikitube - wow!

Creativity through and with eLearning

2011-06-07T09:06:00.006+12:00

Derek Wenmoth

After re-checking the flyer this morning I was surprised and excited when I googled 'Derek Wenmoth' and his photo came up because the last time I saw him was at ULEARN09 and he was totally inspirational.

Good things don't change. He firstly talked about 'MUNTED' - a new word lexicon from (post earthquake) Christchurch because schools are in ruin are needing to find creative ways to work collaboratively. He said that people were asking when was it going to get "Back to normal?"

The education system has become complacent on a global scale. Is it human nature to become complacent? And unfortunately we need a catastrophe to think outside of the box; to actually get off our butts and make real change. So with Christchurch's example - let's make a "new normal". Let's turn the whole system upsidedown on itself - how cool would that be?

'Stable state thinking' when this is done, we can do this... I am a shocker at this! But mostly when cleaning the house... but seriously, do we need to wait for an earthquake before we act?

Woah, interesting fact: 6 year olds don't know the world without youtube. I love youtube. My daughter Eva asked me the other day where hippos sleep? We had a look on youtube and sure enough we hit the jack pot! It is so powerful for those 'just in time' learning instances. Another example was when I needed to go somewhere formal and needed to tie a tie. Yip, youtube showed me how to do that too. Who needs a dad huh?

So this split school idea got me thinking: What if school did start earlier? Why do we start at 9am? In Guatemala they start at 7am and finish at lunch time. Imagine being home by lunch... hmmm. When am I freshest? When are kids at their freshest? It seems that school is just an institution that needs to fit within the work day. Why do we need to be complacent about these things? Any teacher will tell you it's much more difficult to 'teach' in the afternoon than it is in the morning... why do you think numeracy and literacy is in the morning?

This continuum was interesting. The different stages of the use of ICT in schools:
Addition (computers at the back of the classroom), Incorporation (all at a laptop), Integration (books, computers both together) Assimilation Phase (taking computer outside of the classroom - spontaneous).

How can I better to be within the 'Assimilation Phase' in my classroom? What learning theories do I hold that fit in and are evident in ICT and my practice?

Kindergaten blogs for portfolios. Awesome. How would these track over a lifetime?

2 things: the cloud and mobile/wireless.

Teaching and Learning as Inquiry:
Learn, Create, Share.
Assessment
Ubiquity, Personalised, Collaboration.
Services

GCSN: google this it is a resource database.

itips 4 iLife

2011-06-05T06:47:00.003+12:00

02.06.11 - iLife with Stuart Hale

Preamble
I love Stuart's passion about photography, iphoto and macs! This has been the 3rd time I've been to a presentation by SH and each time the intensity is wicked - so it was a great day.

"Hi my name is Nic Mason and I teach here at Russell Street School and I've got a Year 4 digi class. We have access to 20 macs and my skill level is above intermediate..." was the introductory statement everyone made.

We first started talking about Flash and how it is not really sufficient, especially when it comes to draining battery life etc. Stuart suggested we use: "Bashflash" which is a free download as an alternative. I'm yet to check this one out so watch this space...

The Puzzle Analogy
We then talked about how iphoto is like a middle piece of a puzzle and the programs comic life, pages, imovie, and keynote have holes in them for iphoto to fill. I did know this but it was a cool way to put it.

The iPhoto Library Manager
Wow! I need to do this for my photos! It's a free download and it's an application that organises multiple iphoto libraries from multiple sources. So for example, it will have details about your photos saved on a hard drive at home but you can't view them until you plug it in etc. These will show up as a different colour so you don't get lost. I am still organising my personal photos from when I had a PC so I am looking forward to organising them so they are all in one place.

Time Machine
It was here we talked about the importance of using 'Time Machine' on a Mac. I have so much multi-media on my mac that I need to do this! It would be ridiculous to do it all manually again!

Using Handbrake
Handbrake is a free download and it you can use it to convert youtube onto your hard drive. If watch a movie on youtube, go to 'window' then 'activity' scroll down to find the movie it will be a big file. Right click and download. Then open it into the handbrake application and now you can use it for imovie.

iMovie
Wow, this latest version is great! It's very easy to use so simple for kids to pick up! I am looking forward to using it with my kids. Here is the URL to a movie I made on the day. It's random as so don't ry and make sense of it! It was just playing with the things you can do with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOCqynQM2JE

Now what?
Buy a green screen or sheet, import all of my music and photos onto my mac, buy a new hard drive and set up time machine and library manager, MAKE MOVIES!!!

Maths National Standars Totu

2011-05-26T20:18:00.001+12:00

25.05.11

Students to be tested: L, K, A, T.

L and K first example:
37 - 9 = ?
Both kids had huge gaps when counting backwards. They both got confused around 31, 30 , 29. Their first strategy was to count on their fingers. I tried to do a bit of ‘just in time’ teaching and tried to connect 35 - 10 = 25 and so on.

24 marbles shared between 4 people.
K shared them out evenly from one.
L went 5+5+5+5 = 20 then added one more each.

T and A

37 - 9 = ?
Took away 7 and knew there were 2 left over and knows 30 - 2 = 28.

24 marbles shared between 4 people.
A knew that 5+5+5+5 = 20 and that there were 4 left.
T thought it could be 6 and then tested his theory by taking 6 away from 24 4 times.

In conclusion, it was very easy to see who was below, at or exceeding the standard for add/sub and mult/div. Now what? I would like to talk with most kids and give them these 2 questions to see how they work them out. The bottom 2 groups need to be working up in the year 4 standard for numeracy so this will be a focus for me.

Building Science Concepts

2011-05-14T07:19:00.002+12:00

Finally the moon came out so that I can model measuring it. Check here for the post. Lots of fun. Question: What do you think you will observe as you collect data? Where will the moon go? How does this information help you understand the earth, the moon and the sun?

ANZAC Poppies

2011-05-12T22:56:00.001+12:00

New ideas (well used ideas) just new in my space...

2011-05-11T21:56:00.002+12:00

Well, today I was lucky to have 1.5 hours release; 1/2 and hour was for SLC's (which were so awesome by the way) so that gave me an hour to get my head around a few things. One of which was writing. I was trying so hard to find ways to incorporate it into my program and was just coming up with nada. Ni mierda.

Anyways I had a brain wave to incorporate it into our Inquiry because I want the kids to 'explain' why seasons, day/night, moon orbit, occur. So day one was to look at explaining shadows. It was a great start but there are so many misconceptions about earth science that it is going to be a challenging challenge.

Also, last night my wonderful partner helped me talk through some of the other learning areas like reading, maths and inquiry. Thanks babe.

Keep on keepin on Nic because it just seems to be getting busier at RSS but I love it!

Measuring Shadows

2011-05-03T20:00:00.000+12:00

Measuring Shadows this was our first day of inquiry learning for term 2. I love hands on activities to ignite interest.

NZCER PD with Charles Darr

2011-04-18T09:00:00.005+12:00

Assessment is great: scavenger hunt could be used for assessment or a point for discussion. There have beenn tests/experiements in the US where black people were told that black people do more poorly on tests before given a test actually do more poorly than others' who weren't told.

I scored 5 out of 11 in the test. Stink. Jacqui scored 10/11 - I should have looked at her test - (tehe).

Validity means getting lots of samples so that we can see the whole picture, nit part of the picture. (Photo of kid eating icecream)

Reliability - how consistent is the assessment: if I test the child again will they score the same result?

Wiggin's 'Educative assessment' - could the students do well at the task for reasons that have little to do with the desired understanding or skill being assessed? (and vice versa)

I'm sorry, why is this important? What do 'norms' look like - "they actually look quite boring" that's what she said. I do not like how assessment puts kids into boxes. Like the debate assessment there could have been a kid who performed really poorly in a "sit-down-and-shut-up" test but who performed outstanding for the debate assessment.

Stanines are associated with 'norms'

Percentiles are not percentages and cannot be averaged.

______________________ Morning Tea________________________________

A fresh approach to measuring progress:

Using Scales: just a place on your learning journey:

Maths Strategy Scale:

Y10 l - Algebraic Equations/spatial and numeric patterns/angles

Y9 l

Y8 l -

Y7 l

Y6 l - tenths

Y5 l - Counting in tens

Y4 l - Problems that can be done using counting strategies/symmetry/2D objects/halving/interpret simple graphs.

Reading Comprehension Strategy Scale:

Y10 l -

Y9 l

Y8 l -

Y7 l

Y6 l -

Y5 l -

Y4 l - Simple inferences, vocab, grammar, familiar topics, infer motives, character traits, arguments and themes.

This question was really confusing for my kids: 4/28 answered correctly. What do you think?

________________________Lunch____________________________________

Lot's of stuff, including NZCER assessments for writing; they look pretty cool and I like the fact that they are done online as a test.

I found that on the NZCER website I can go into each question (comp, maths etc) and see what percentage of my kids answered correctly/incorrectly. I found this very valuable because it can give me teaching points for the rest of the year.

In sum, a pretty taxing day; but it has plugged a few gaps for me about PAT and STAR tests.

Bill MacIntyre - Science PD

2011-04-04T15:29:00.005+12:00

What are the fundamental skills about Planet Earth and Beyond?

- Light, shadows, sun

- Models; what do they represent? We are modeling this and that because it represents this...

- Time: "time is just a place" in rotation or during the year.

- Size: scale, spacial awareness.

- Gravity

- Perspective.

Tasks: size of the solar system down russell street and the distances from the sun to the planets.

Wow, talking about this brings back many memories about Teachers College. I am smiling because I remember 'measuring the moon from the sun' at The Fitz with Jade and Sam whilst having a few beers. Cool, I am looking forward to getting my kids into this. I hope I can hook in my challenging kids.

Things to follow up:

13 Lunar months in Tonga

7 Sisters/Matariki what culture is there masculine?

Black Holes - go away and do some research and come back and model your understanding for me.

Welcome Back

2011-04-02T09:12:00.004+13:00

It has been a while since I've posted stuff here as I've been focusing on my class blog. I want to share a few things here about my practice.

One of the goals I set myself when I began my new job was to increase my confidence in leadership. Since starting at Russell Street School, I have done the following:

-NZEI Rep

-The Arts Coordinator

-Leading School Singing

-Associate Teacher

-Hosted a 'how to' blog evening for the parents of my students.

And in the future, I will be in charge of the school production in term 3. Which will involve whole staff PD with me co-leading, co-writing and organising stuff. It will be my biggest challenge yet.

I also have a teacher inquiry or goal, which is based on the teacher inquiry model:

But instead if working from a deficit model, we are trying to work from an appreciative model;

-what really engages my kids?

-what ICT tools can I use?

-how can I collaborate with other classes, schools and/or countries?

-what skills will my kids learn?

-how can they reach their potential?

-how can we present our learning for the digi-awards?

I'm really looking forward to the up and coming challenges.

Co2 Cars

2010-11-23T07:08:00.002+13:00

Check out we have been up to this term... Making Co2 Cars! Yesterday we raced them against Room 5! Check this video out to see who won!

Life Changes Street

2010-11-18T21:55:00.004+13:00

I bike to work now that I am working in town.

Everyday I bike down the street that I used to travel down when going to school; high school and intermediate. I experienced my first kiss down that street, my first fight. I felt I owned that street. I felt it went on forever. In the eternity that I spent at high school; it went on forever.

Now, it is empty by 5 o'clock and much, much smaller than I remember. The pavement is tired and the fence along the field is in need of a paint. I was the king of that street for 7 years. And now, coming up 12 years on, it is just a street.

Pae Tamariki

2010-11-09T15:25:00.004+13:00

Here is a little video with clips from today’s Pae Tamariki Performance at the Regent Theatre.
It was an awesome performance and everybody did Russell Street School proud.

NZ Principals standing up for what they believe in

2010-10-29T15:36:00.002+13:00

Socialnomics is coming to getcha!

2010-10-21T16:22:00.004+13:00

Have just watched "Steal this Film" and now this...

Yes, social networking and the way we communicate has dramatically changed. Who's along for the ride?

Ken Robinson - I can't wait to see this guy!

2010-10-16T08:09:00.004+13:00

This is one of the most inspiring things I have seen for a while! It has amazing animations and a crucial message especially for the NZ Education system in relation to National Standards. This is so worth a watch this guy knows his shit

Maths, Keynotes and Word problems

2010-10-13T16:42:00.004+13:00

This week we have been learning about adding in tens and about writing number problems into word problems. Here is my

Keynote presentation. Try to work out the answers before you click the button!

Maths Word Problems

View more presentations from Nic Mason.

Science and forces

2010-10-13T08:00:00.002+13:00

"What do you think will happen if I tip this glass of water over my head?" I asked my class yesterday.

Why did this happen? What is the type of force that prevented the water from coming out of the glass?

Alison Davies Reflection

2010-09-30T07:27:00.005+13:00

Alison Davies had a few interesting points,

My Class Blog:

2010-09-24T21:38:00.003+12:00

Here is a link to my new class blog! The name is the name they chose (hehe). I'm looking forward to being able to fill it up with lots of cool stuff next term!

Reading Comp Strats

2010-09-24T10:53:00.003+12:00

From http://edte.ch/blog/ - Tom Barrett

This is pretty cool but I will need to follow-up again once I'm back in the class room. How could I do these with Year 3s?

Coke + Mentos Experi-MINT

2010-09-23T12:49:00.004+12:00

I had a rad at school yesterday...

Check out this video from the Manawatu Standard that tells you why:

Light Years - Steal My Kisses [Ben Harper Cover]

2010-09-15T15:44:00.003+12:00

Well this is our second practice with the new line up: myself, dave, adam and tilly. Gig is one one away... let us know what you think.

GarageBand Reflection!

2010-09-08T09:56:00.001+12:00

My First Glog...

2010-09-03T23:56:00.000+12:00

Blog-tastic!!

2010-09-02T12:49:00.006+12:00

http://theinsandouts.co.nz/

http://2kmblog.globalstudent.org.au/

http://rssaniwaniwa.blogspot.com/

I'm pretty impressed by these awesome class blogs!

Uber oosh!

I need to really begin to think 'outside' of my thinking because there is so much that can be done in a class blog... But I will start small; one thing a week (maybe fortnight) then I can gradually build up to a week/day etc.

How do others' feel about this? Is it a realistic goal?

Increased Technology Use Positively Affects Perceived Student Learning

2010-08-29T19:52:00.000+12:00

Increased Technology Use Positively Affects Perceived Student Learning

Listening to Learn

2010-08-25T13:12:00.001+12:00

Webtools to Enhance Listening

By Ana Maria Menezes "Life Feast"

140 Things to try in your class

2010-08-24T11:54:00.003+12:00

"Free Technology for Teachers" by Richard Byrne

My Time At Coley

2010-08-23T16:10:00.000+12:00

FaceBook Mum - The Onion Show

2010-08-22T08:46:00.000+12:00

Walking the Talk...

2010-08-21T17:28:00.000+12:00

If you want to create an excellent, exciting, interactive class blog, you gotta...

I love my job!

2010-08-17T08:44:00.001+12:00

I am one week in from an emotional change in my life. Leaving Coley Street was one thing, but when the Kapahaka came to hand me over I felt a rush of all sorts of amazing things. Chur Coley; it was a primo ride.

Anyways, one week in and I love it! There is so much to learn, so much to implement, so much room to grow.

One of my challenges will be to pick up 'elearning' and 'eportfolios' and creating a successful blog. So if there are any helpful hints let us know.

So in the words of Mc D's: "I'm Lovin' It"

New beginnings butterflies

2010-07-27T21:47:00.000+12:00

"It has reached facebook status; i won a job at Russell Street School, digitally enhanced classroom!! 3 unbelievably awesome years at Coley Street but enough is enough - i need to be closer to home. I start on the 9th August - woop woop!"

This was my first announcement to the world, though my very close friends and family already knew about it, but 6 weeks on, I am feeling rather nervous!

During staff meeting we went through our new teacher appraisal system and I need to rate myself on each area of my practice. I remember doing this last year and the year before so it was really pleasing seeing the progress from "yes, I am beginning to do this" to "sweet, I am excelling at this now!!"

It doesn't take long. So despite my nerves and my slight disbelief in my abilities I am ready to kick some arse at RSS and dominate. (Don't worry, these are positive things).

The Devil's Standards (Tehe) National Standards

2010-06-17T15:29:00.001+12:00

Chris Braid: Keep an open mind; national standards.

Standards say that teachers should use "assessment evidence and making overall teacher judgements"

Ok that's not so bad: I can take, for example, book work, guided reading session, and test to make an evaluation not just one test.

Aspirational Goals = National Standards

Noun frequency level vs Reading Age

Well, I think I need to have these standards out with me during guided reading/writing etc. Plan to work on the Key Characteristics of a good reader/writer. This will overall help me to become a better teacher.

Reporting back to parents? What does this look like? What should it look like?

Bold parts to follow up on.

My First Staff Un-packing Session

2010-05-18T19:35:00.000+12:00

Yeah, so today I gave my first mini-staff meeting thingie about Laughton King's Dyslexia seminar from last week. I was pretty sure I knew my stuff well and I was prepared and all but there was this split second at the beginning where all knowledge and preparation escape my head totally!

Anyways, a deep breath saw me to the end and once I got going it was hard pressed to keep to the time limit! Lol! What made it for me was that my colleagues were so receptive and I totally got the feedback I deserved!

As for Laughton King, man what a legend this guys is! He's getting his word out there! And the thing is - it makes perfect sense! There wasn't a colleague that saw him that said they didn't agree with him! If you get the chance to see him I would erge you to jump at the opportunity.

Parents, Teachers, Caregivers, Learners; there's something in there for us all!

http://www.natalieart.com/ontour.htm

Check out his webpage.

Now off to band practise - Ciao

What happens when the world around you starts crumbling down?

2010-02-18T11:14:00.001+13:00

It's weird how subconsciously, your mind knows what's going on before the penny drops.

We are week three through the term, and ERO are visiting us. Our DP left us last year and now at the end of term 1, so is our leader and fill-in DP. Our entire management are leaving us, to tackle new challenges for sure but where does that leave us, our school, our community, our kids?

It feels dire.

One side of me is telling me that I have done my time at Coley Street and that it is time to move on. The other side is telling me that this could be my chance to shine; to embrace leadership and ensure a faster ladder climb.

I've been having all sorts of dreams and that is uncanny because I never remember my dreams. The recent is me trying to find different coloured lollies, which match the Key Competencies but there are witches, who are my colleagues, that keep changing the colours on me so I don't collect them all. And I am running and running and jumping to get away from their trickery.

I don't know what it is trying to tell me but something big is going to happen and I am writing this down to say: I'm ready, bring it on.

Dorothy Burt - Heating Up 21st Century Learning

2010-01-31T20:54:00.018+13:00

Heating Up 21^st Century Learning with Dorothy Burt

This woman knows her stuff when it comes to ICT in the classroom and she had a really humble approach. Her lecture wasn't all "this is amazing and you have to do it!"

She talked about "Futuristic ideas" which was a poster on her class wall when she was a kid. Burt would daydream about the poster but now some of these ideas are a reality.

The bit which amazed me was when she asked everyone to ponder what they were doing New Year's Eve 1999? This straight away sparked a very energetic feeling in the room while everybody made connections to feel good memories, or maybe not so feel good memories and they've turned into one of those timeless funny stories! But shit, in ICT terms, I had just set up my hotmail account, computers were something that only my rich friends had and you had to go away and wash the dishes to wait for the web page to load!

But how have things really changed since 2000?

Airports (especially security!)

Blogs – Cameron Slater (blogger)

Cell phones Celebrity culture

Google GPS

Imacs ipods

Reality TV (Goodness!)

Twitter

Wikipedia

Y – 2005 – Pivotal change – YouTube

Blog early blog often – Bebo definition: random but interesting.

To be a 21st Century Citizen children need to be 'A Digital Citizen' - to participate and contribute, relate to others Digitally Literate - to use language, symbols and text, to use thinking skills

Dove evolution – a video about what you see on the internet is not always true.

Murray Gadd

2010-01-31T20:17:00.000+13:00

I was lucky enough to sit in on Murray Gadd's workshops when he took College Street School on their journey to become better reader teachers. So when I saw his name on the conference speakers list I jumped at it!

Murray had 3 'work shops' (seminars); one specifically about writing, another specifically about reading, and the final about the links between reading and writing. I did not choose all three but after going to the first workshop, I was so amazed that I needed to go to all! Here is my thinking:

What is quality writing and how do we know if students are producing it?

Oh, you’ve got to be passionate about the writing. Murray uses strong feelings towards all writing samples his energy is infectious and I want to transfer this into my own practise.

Quality writing, as written by students, is generally writing that:

Has clear authentic purpose
Meets its purpose clearly
Is written in a voice/register that is appropriate to its purpose and audience
Is rich in ideas, infer thoughts or feelings. Including details that directly related to the purpose
Is precise in its meaning
Is sincere in tone
Is structured or organized well to meet it’s purpose
Flows well and has a satisfying cohesion or coherence. Often means an engaging beginning and a satisfying conclusion. “An engaging beginning and a conclusion that makes me go wow”
Makes use of appropriate vocabulary and language features
Suggests evidence of thoughtful reflection and re-crafting
Is presented thoughtfully and meaningfully in terms of surface or technical features (grammar,/syntax, spelling, punctuation)
Is planned and written to have an impact on the audience
Stimulates the reader’s interest, ideas or imagination.

What is needed for students to produce quality writing?

Personally significant for intended audience
Topic-specific knowledge
Literacy knowledge
What achievement or success looks like
Organise yourself and plan
Using the best vocabulary for that specific time
Reflect on and make changes
Makes goals has feedback
Takes risks
Faith in their ability (self-effacacy)

Develop readers who can understand and make use of what they read and who are motivated …

Decode
Understand vocab (Gadd thinks this is super important)
Comprehension stratigies

Requiring students to re-tell or discuss text is a good way to check understanding.

The man who walked between the towers - Monrbical Gersteim; Man on wire – DVD; To the clouds – Philippe Petite

Purpose:

What feat did Philippe Petit performs how he does it and why he does it?

· Self-fulfilling

· For the challenge

· To be the first to be famous

· Rebellious

· He wanted to be free

Writing after he did when you put their selves into his shoes/police shoes/ spectators shoes?

To do this we will need to:

Infer: you had to put yourself in his shoes make connections to find out what’s going on

Predict:

Make connections how hard would this be to do in 1970?

Prior knowledge: balance, twin towers, street performer

1. Making connections between prior real world and literacy related knowledge and the text

2. Forming and testing hypotheses about texts (predicting in comprehension)

a. Use clues to make links to prior knowledge

b. Read to check hypotheses

c. Reflect on hypotheses and revise new thoughts or learning.

3. Asking Questions of themselves, others and text

a. Focus on selected part

b. Form a questions that relates

c. Keep question in your mind as they read so that they recognize and bring together clues as they arise

d. Reflecting on what they have found out and how this has changed their thinking or helped their comprehension

e. Asking new questions in light of what they have found out

4. Creating mental images or visualizing from the text

5. Inferring meaning from sections of the texts

a. Draw awerness that real meanings isn’t just in the word

b. We find clues in pictures

c. Make lnks with their own knowledge experience in relation to the clues

d. Deciding what is really meant based on the clues

i. “Stormed into the room with a face like thunder – how was I feeling?”

6. Identifying the authors purpose and point of view in the text

a. Who is writing is for

b. How does this stance affect the position of the writer

c. Search specific indicators

7. Summarising the main ideas of the text

a. Think about organization of the text identify main points main/subsidiary points

b. Stating each main point succinctly

c. Ordering mainpoint in a way that makes sense to the reader.

i. Background

ii. Getting ready

iii. Tight rope

iv. Arrested

v. Tight rope in park

8. Identifying the theme of the text

a. Thin of themselves as a writer who has a main idea to convey

b. Look for evidence

9. Analysing and synthesing ideas and information

a. Take things apart then put them together what do they tell us?

10. Evaluating ideas and information from the text

a. GET HANDOUT FROM TARYN!

How do we teach comp strategies?

Describe

Demonstrate

Scaffold

Model

Question

Direct

Give feedback about use of the strategy. Need to do more of this!!!

Encourage

Dr Anne Davies Inspired Impact 2010

2010-01-31T20:09:00.000+13:00

Anne Davis is a Canadian Lady, who is a a beautiful and inspiring woman, I really tuned into her story about when she broke her ankle. When she went to A&E the doctor made the initial assessment on her injury but did not give her steps to recovery. It was her own personal doctor who made another assessment and gave her a list of criteria for her to do to heal her ankle. Therefore, it is not enough just to assess kids without giving them explicit criteria to achieve to ‘heal’ or in this case learn or to better our final piece.

Writing assessment in Hawaii for Year 12 students where they got into groups to read previous essays to find out what is good writing? The teacher was amazing. I'm not sure what school it was.

assessment4learning.com

www.annedavies.com

www.connect2learning.com

In summary: Students need to know the destination so well so that when the teacher is absent they can self-monitor themselves.

What’s important so that my classroom is engaging for everyone?

Self monitor your way to success!

Chris Braid writing staff seminar Chris Braid writing staff seminar

2009-10-21T15:17:00.000+13:00

Mini Lessons:

They are awesome and can be done at any time and any stage of a unit. Keep short and sharp and kids may use what they have learned in the mini lesson or not. Stay away from lectures!

I have had a go at these with great success! E.g. Headlines, silent letters.

Activity:

Identify leaning needs from Literacy Progressions:

Lexical Chain: Words that appear in different parts of the text that builds coherency. Rome... capital... city...

Also a pronoun reference: pronouns like 'they, them, it, you... etc.' need to be taught in a mini lesson. For example, tell children to highlight all pronouns then get them to ask themselves who is the 'it' talking about? Is it the Queen's Pajamas?

I need to let my children in term 4 make decisions about the text type that they want to.

Summary: keep looking at the 'By the end of Year 6' page and focus on one per term. Or until I feel confident to use them all together, dynamically and systematically.

Look more at a range of children's work to organise mini lessons around.

Carry on trying to do mini lessons. Keep being cool, and ask a lot of questions.

Technology in Schools - supporting the 'tough kids' (special or not)

2009-10-18T11:54:00.000+13:00

This breakout was a tough act to follow as I had just come out of the Music and multimedia breakout, which inspired me heaps!!

In this breakout she turned the lights out, which was good and bad at the same time - easy on the eyes but it put me to sleep! In no time I was yawning! But is was an extremely informative breakout challenging me to break down the walls between Ants and I and completing work. If he is completing the work in a different way (i.e. orally or onto garageband) does he have to write down the work? What good is that doing him? By forcing him to complete work am I forcing him to develop negative feelings towards learning?

So, to put my new learning into practise, I will aim to withdraw my need to get him to complete work in the traditional sense. I have also developed a garageband question track where he answers questions to do with what he is reading/watching etc. In order for this to work however, I need to spend time developing the questions and spend time teaching him how to record his answers.

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

2009-10-18T11:32:00.000+13:00

A great website to study the different parts of the orchestra!

Comic Life Pics

2009-10-07T16:35:00.000+13:00

Just another way to use comic life. Pretty hard aparently but they look amazing!

Sharing

2009-10-07T16:32:00.000+13:00

Lyn Ross' sharing metaphor... pretty cool.

Researching the unknown - Linda Lehrke

2009-10-07T14:26:00.000+13:00

Late... again.

Sorry.

Deciding:

Brainstorm 20. Choose 5. Find two websites for each. If there is not enough information about your topic, choose a different one.

Finding:

Google: try to improve your search! Why not try the advanced search option? A potential challenge: come up with a google search that only has one hit.

Recording:

Using:

Presenting:

Crazy!

How do we stop the copy and paste mentality?

The cube, the postcard.

Don't get kids to write a report because they will copy and paste.

The presentation is key in thinking outside of the square.

Going beyond the type writer: using images. Is cutting and pasting google images a big waste of equipment with your computer

Ooh make sure the image is facing towards the text so that it draws the readers attention to it!!

Youtube needs to be watch while typing out the information so that it becomes relevant!

Cool, now having a play on pages

Linda was another confident breakout leader. It was obvious she knew a lot of shit! Wicked! I have learnt a couple of really good, practical ideas also some pedagogical stuff too.

Where to from here? Refine my inquiry action-research plan for kids. Teach specific strategies to my children to organise and refine searches etc. Plan for opportunities to get chn to go further than just regurgitate information.

What teachers want?

2009-10-07T12:41:00.000+13:00

What teachers want - Lyn Ross

9 years of her experience with ICT

Easy practical and achievable!

Not sure if I have come to the right breakout! She is telling me that I need to know how to use my laptop... dur!

Yes! Ok, there is a consolidation stage, which is liike my theme for this ulearn. Plan for ICT... tick... Practise ICT... to do...

I am so lucky at Coley STreet school that we r not starting from scratch!

Software: Photo filtre, Shit!! Cool little microphones with USB inputs on the end! Ci-tech "Easy Speak"

Comic Life Pictures (see photos) making pictures using comic life fonts.

Umagin use for blue screen shots then save it as jpeg, cut out background and place it on another photo.

AGH, NEWSPAPERS IMAGES HOOKING THE READER IN - ONLINE NEWSPAPERS.

Poll daddy

This was a great breakout and Lyn knows her shit. She is a PC based master so a bit of a problem with mac vs pc. Check out all of the cool stuff on her school's cluster website www.ebest.co.nz

Where to from here? Get into planning and using to use ict (life comiclife and or podcasts etc) this term. Keep going with inquiry wall; her thinking is the same as mine (like my inquiry wall!)

Can I use images and video to connect my learners with the content in which I am teaching?

So far, yes I am. I am using heaps of video to try and keep my learners interested.

Get back on the blogspot; garden quote.

Teachers craving attention, feeling undervalued because they are not being told enough that they r doing well so get sharing and feel valued.

Ok Clothes...

2009-10-03T10:19:00.000+13:00

Tuesday: Airoplane clothes comfy but styly. Shirt for going out later.

Wednesday: 1st day at ULEARN, jeans and a tee, shirt for later

Thursday: Shorts and a tee, dress pants and shirt for ULEARN Ball.

Friday: Jeans and tee and jersey comfy for plane ride.

Going shopping on Monday to buy new shoes, jeans, undies and a shirt.

Oosh... now I need a suitcase

Will it be a good change?

2009-09-28T21:57:00.000+13:00

I did not realise how close change was! Life at Coley Street is going to be so different without JT, I mean, she is so a part of the school! We all need to make sure she has the best time at ULEARN 09 (no doubt she needs any hand in that). But the last two times we clashed heads, so I'll be on my best behaviour!

The whispers and discussions going on behind closed doors is quite funny! Everybody is having secret conversations about their spin on how life at Coley Street is going to be. They also let escape little inside pieces information.

I look forward to finding out who goes where and more importantly, what happens to me and who will be in my team?

So will change be good? We'll soon find out?

A history lesson

2009-07-23T16:07:00.000+12:00

23 July 2009

2001 where we all started... well life at Coley Street since Richard began. It was inspired by the trees on the bank. Some said that they would never grow; and here in 2009 the trees are a metaphor; a sign; to signal growth and change.

Est. 1967, Decile 2, Full primary, 282 roll, 42% Maori 53% European

Immediate changes

- Stopped class interchange - teachers to accept responsibility for own classes in all areas;

- School newsletter;

- Curriculum Committees;

- Intro new communication systems - daily notices, weekly courier;

- Jackets;

- New appraisal system: personal goals, self reflection;

- Teacher only days

- Behavior Management system.

Property Development

- too many to list!!

2003 first year of ICT cluster

Pre 2003: kids switched off to learning.

2004: implementation of Oral Assessment Programme

$8005, 000 + 200, 000 = property development.

The Awakening:

Rich, Mark M, and Jan were almost bursting about Inquiry! Whole staff visit to many schools.

2005: "Foxton Our Place, Our Space" children realised that they were able to reach adults and change things. The Foxton pool is an example: $100, 000 to $1.2 million.

Looking for a way forward.

Wow, it was cool looking at the history! It was very interesting and inspiring to see where we've come! Where to from here?

Bill Rodgers Download

2009-06-10T09:36:00.000+12:00

Coley Street's behaviour management plan is based on Bill Rodger's 'Establishment Phaze' theory. Having worked within the school now for 2 years it was awesome to finally see how and where it has come from.

Unfortunately there was a car accident on the way there and it made us late. This was the perfect opportunity for Bill to show everybody how he deals with late-comers.

Bill's humour, role-plays and cartoon images made him a captavating and engaging, so much so, I forgot to write notes!!

I now plan to communicate 'calmness', avoid asking useless and unhelpful questions that only feed the attention, and expect absolute silence when addressing the class.

I am not out to 'score' over a child, but to teach them. As a teacher, my task is to constatly focus and refocus my students. Because I cannot control what happens to the child outside of school; diet, substance abuse, T.V., internet use, I can danm well affect what happens inside the school. Afterall, as Bill Rodgers said, "you teach children for basically 1/3 of their time" - I believe I can still make a difference. It could be the difference that changes a life forever.

The best part about the day was when Bill told off my principal and team leader :)

What about Han Solo?

2009-05-14T16:27:00.000+12:00

Here's how I understand Solo:

The Homer: Prestructual - Nice guy but misses the point.
The Bat: Unistructual - You have the bat but you don't have a ball or any other items to play the game.
The Wolverine: Multistructural - Knows about mutants, fights for mutant rights, but is not a mutant.
The Spider Web: Relational - Here's where it gets tricky and sticky, you need to pull things apart, put it in order, look at it closely, compare, contrast, explain and then put them back together again explaining causes, making analogies and relating it to your experience.
The King: Extended Abstract - The Mac-Daddy, El Capitan, Don Corleon, The Godfather - take what you have learnt and apply it to a different situation. Make something, predict something, imagine and reflect.

There you go, it's a start.

Trevor Bond

2009-05-14T15:46:00.000+12:00

This guy was freakin awesome and he really struck a chord with me. It's so wierd how he was there about questioning but I ended up taking away so much about other things. Actually, I did take a bit of everything from him.

The 'pentagon of understanding' that encumpasses all ways of knowing really stuck in my mind the most. I related it back to my experience of travelling to Guatemala.

Here are the sides (I can't draw them)

Episodic/experience
Factual
Linguistic
Conceptual
Behavioural/skill

My partner is 1/2 Guatemalan and I guess that's where my story begins. Her mum was born and raised there but left to have all of her children in New Zealand. I had a distorted 'understanding' of Guatemala based on some facts, behaviours and concepts that I understood at the time.

However, once travelling there in 2003, I was able to include some experience, linguistic and conceptual knowledge to my increasing fact and behaviour knowledge.

Finally by the end of a 5 month stay in 2005, my understanding of Guatemala was sound as I had developed and combined experience, factual information, Linguistic, Conceptual, and Behaviours and skills knowledge.

This was over about 6 years! I guess good things take time.

There were so many other points Trevor brought up and it was a fantastic day! I really enjoyed the sound of his voice; and it was obvious he knew what he was talking about.

He is someone who I aspire to be.

ULearn 08 Experience

2009-01-16T13:31:00.000+13:00

This was my second year visiting ULearn and I was not as gobsmacked as I was last year. Before last year I never really thought about all of the technologies that enhance learning. So I guess that's why it blew me away so much.

I am lucky and thankful to be in a school where future education philosophy and reform is advocated. We are encouraged and supported to use all of the commodies which Ulearn offer. CSS attended Ulearn, I think 3 or 4 times before I joined the team and it was very apparent during my second visit to Ulearn that we had adopted most products.

However, it is fasinating how 1700 teachers can get together and be inspired by the fantastic keynote speakers - this alone is worth the whole experience. With this and being trapped in a lift for over an hour with 12 other people, ULEARN08 was an experience and a half!

Bring on 09!

Half a day in Wellington

2008-10-13T21:42:00.000+13:00

It sucked having to spend a day in Wellington in the crappy weather and all-the-while wish you were somewhere else. But we had to do something?? So Mackers for lunch, then onto Te Papa. I actually felt like a little kid dragging my feet behind Mum and Dad because I was so tired and I just wanted to collapse onto the floor and rest!

Eureka! We found a little possy on floor 2 just outside the MAF container where there were two, playboy-style, coushy, round seats! All four of us fell onto them and lay down for like 20 minutes. Everybody kept walking by and staring at us but we were over it...

But it was here, much alike the great ring Bilbo found, we stumbled upon Ralph, a squishy little soccer man. I guess if we made Ralph have a good time then we could have a good time too.

We left Te Papa and headed for a pub, only to find an up-market bowling alley. Sweet score! But at $7 a pint, instead of gulpng them back, we were sipping them! We killed an hour there (our first game taking over half an hour!) and I was on every loosing team combination. :( We were not going to pay a ridiculous price for beer again and with still another 2 hours up our sleeves, it was decided to find the New World Metro. Without any probs we grabbed a 15 pack for 16 bucks, cruised back to the carpark and relaxed against the van - BLISS!

Learning by experience or learning by reflection?

2008-10-11T14:32:00.000+13:00

I have no idea how the title of this post will have any relevance or significance to what I may talk about but I have just returned back from ULearn08 in the Garden City and well, you have to start somewhere. I'll start with the logistics.

Living in Palmerston North and working in Foxton, I was the nominated driver to drive from Palmy to Foxton, then onto Wellington to catch a 9am flight. So it was a 3:30am start to the day to ensure that I could pick everybody up in time. It was dark, windy and revolting really. I got passed one truck spraying up water off the road, making it impossible to see, only to meet another one. This happened about 5 times!

I went with my entire school, 14 of us in total and when we arrived at Wellington Airport,we felt all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, bouncing and beaming with excitement. I don't know if you know many or any teachers but when we get together, we sort of act out or 'play up' to the worst behaviours shown by some of the kids in our classes! Yeah, some teachers are the biggest hypocrits ever! I am aware of this so I try not to be. So by the time we got through several big lines and to the gate, then got told the flights were cancelled! We needed a bit of space from each other :) No hard feelings though.

I'll post this now because the autosave isn't working...