Joys of Learning

Share and Learn

2011-08-17T13:52:00.006+12:00

Today at our lead teacher meeting each teacher shared new tools and websites we use in our classroom. We were given 5-10 minutes to share, usually called a smackdown. I found this very useful and will need some time to go thru these sites as I was looking for some that my year 1 students will be able to use independently. Study Ladder is a great NZ learning website with content graded according to levels. The link here is great and was created by a teacher on sabattical leave. It has Maths activities at the various NZ satges and is split into knowledge and strategy activities. BJ shared with us the rss feed and igoogle. I find that very useful and hopefully can soon set up my igoogle page. Here are some websites I will use in my class.
http://www.uen.org/k-2interactives/math.shtml
http://www.studyladder.co.nz/
http://www.snacktools.com/
Count me in too
The other useful links are:
http://www.learningchocolate.com/?st_lang=en
http://kauri3wps.blogspot.com/
Library skills

Student Led Conferences (SLC) @ EPS

2011-07-31T09:30:00.003+12:00

End of Term 2 our school had our first SLC. It was great to see learners sharing their work, goals and achievements with their parents. The best part of the SLC for me was my kids that are not usually attentive or require extra support were the ones that shone at the conferences. Every child shared their learning with pride. They were able to answer questions and show how we did things in our class. Lots of them confidently talked about the displays around the class. If your school is thinking of doing SLC, my advise is to go for it as the results are immensely positive! It made me see that my students had indeed learned heaps, more than what I was thinking. Depending on how hard you (Teacher and pupil) have worked to prepare for them it definitely is a great feeling of achievement for both. Every parent that filled the feedback form had positive comments. Parents were amazed to see the amount of work that is done in class.

Lead Teacher Meeting

2011-05-18T13:54:00.005+12:00

We had our Lead Teacher Workshop at BDS today. The discussion about SOLO was really good. I myself am still getting a hang of how to use it in class. We visited classrooms and saw how teachers integrate ICT into their classroom programme. We saw children working on a programme called Communication4all and www.literative.com. The children were so engaged in the learning, listening to the reader and doing the literacy activities. BJ shared some cool things kids could do on i-pads. Schools should invest in i-pads to give children the hands-on learning experience. BS shared how she uses Google translator to get to her ESOL learner who reads and write only in his home language. She puts her instruction into Google and it is translated for the student. He is then able to carry on with the class task.

Eager to learn

2011-03-19T13:31:00.005+13:00

As an e-learning lead teacher I believe my role is to inspire and support my colleagues to seek ways to integrate it into their classroom programme instead of compartmentalising it. So I emailed my team of 11 teachers letting them know that I would be available to support them and share my Action Research ideas with them. This would then lead them to set up a classroom blog. I was excited to get positive replies from 2 classes and so we met up and I asked them to tell me what they were already doing and I loved the things they were doing. They wanted to improve the writing of their students so I shared with them some ideas that I use in my class. They were eager to give it a try and said that they would like to take small steps, which was fair enough. They are willing to start with creating Kid-Pix slideshows using the shared book of the week. I have emailed them the "How-to" sheets. T will need to show their kids how to log on to the server and save their work in the folders that we created. Another teacher has made a time with me so that we could set up a class blog and she will try Kid-Pix too. A blog must have a purpose for it to be successful. I have told the teachers that we could be class buddies visiting each others blogs and commenting on work. I also use the blog as a Listening post in my Reading Programme.
I have begun to work on my mini action research in Maths, mainly to make it a fun time and improve the achievement level of my students in Maths.

LearningatSchool Rotorua 2011

2011-03-06T10:27:00.004+13:00

This year I was fortunate enough to attend the Learning@school conference in Rotorua. All the keynotes and workshops that I attended had great emphasis on thinking, learning and assessment. It was great to try out new things and also to reaffirm what we do at our school and in my classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 workshops by Karen Boyes. She talked about how we should let students create their own goals and evidence of student understanding. The Key competencies relate so well to the habits of mind. She showed us some examples of how students could measure their learning using a success-o-meter and also shared the brain foods with us.
The workshop run by Mary-Anne Murphy was of particular interest to me. We talked about the mental models of assessment that we have and the characteristics of effective assessment. We also explored some new web2.0 tools that are available to support Assessment for Learning practices.
Here are some online tools to support writers:
http://www.writingfun.com/
http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/picturebookmaker/
Travelbuddies- to find a buddy class and swap a toy.
Storymaker- http://www.clpgh.org/kids/storymaker/
phraser- put in a phrase and it creates a digital image
comic creator, wordle. fotobabble, zooburst
http://iwl.me- you write a story (4-5 sentences) here and it tells you like what writer you write. I write like James Joyce, an Irish novelist and poet. He is best known for Ulyssess (1922), other major works are the short story collection Dubliners, Finnegan Wakes. That was good to know.
I also attended a workshop by teachers from Our Lady Star of the Sea and saw examples of how SOLO and the define map is used in their school.
Loved every bit of the conference, not forgetting the dinner and dance night.

A new year, new learning

2011-02-18T14:06:00.002+13:00

Well, it's nice to be back and see my new little class. Another year of learning, creativity, growth and fun! Can't wait to begin...

The Last Meet not the Last Post

2010-11-17T12:28:00.010+13:00

Today was the last day for us to meet as a cluster. Looking over the 1 and half years I have been part of this, I have learned heaps and have grown more confident in the use of using computers personally and teaching kids the skills. We shared our Action Research to the team. I loved doing the Research and I hope to do one every year for myself in a small way or as a 'petite inquiry'. It directs my teaching and raises my kids' achievement. Next year I would like to use ICT effectively in my Maths Programme.
The highlight for me was conducting the research and getting opportunities to go to conferences and present at our cluster expo. I will continue to have a professional and class blog. Being part of the cluster has been a major shift in my thinking and learning. I have enjoyed all the aha moments and have learned heaps! I loved the sharing of ideas on our lead teacher meeting days and the release time to work with teachers and the children. I would also like to thank BJ for all her support and help and for being an inspiration!
Link to my Action Research

U-Learn 2010

2010-10-06T09:34:00.006+13:00

It was great to attend ULearn 2010 especially the pre conference workshop. I now have more web 2 tools that I could use with my little guys. Here is the link to Suzie Vesper's web 2.0 tools ideas.
I went to a workshop that gave me some new ideas to use the camera and ways that kids could use it through the day. It was 4 days of exchanging ideas and meeting like-minded people. One of the workshops showed us some new tricks or shortcuts using a mac. Still have not collated my notes, but will try and do so by the end of term to share with others.

Inquiry Learning versus Teaching of Inquiry...

2010-08-15T17:46:00.005+12:00

On Wednesday we had our Lead Teacher day. It is funny how I am beginning to love these days now. BJ had planned for us to complete a task! I was not very excited at first as she said we had to create a presentation but when she told us what we were working on I couldn't wait to start. It was Inquiry learning versus Teaching of Inquiry. Over the years I have become confident in using Inquiry Learning with my students and Teaching of Inquiry is something I am trialling this year. It is basically Action research to improve teacher practice. My team brainstormed how we could complete our presentation and then we started to work on it. Luckily we had lots of photos and evidence already so this made the task easier. I thought we could have done with more time but when I saw what the other schools had presented I realised that using flickr images and relating it to the processes would have been easier. Ours was a step-by-step understanding of the 2 terms. It made me realise how much I have learned over the years and with experience I am able to articulate my learning. It took me back to the days when I did not want to be a lead teacher or be part of the LT meeting... And now I so want to be in this role in the years to come. Thanks to my ANGELS!!!!
Here is a link to my Action Research. Any feedback is welcome...
Bruce Hammonds' post made for interesting read.

From the mouth of babes!

2010-07-23T05:48:00.003+12:00

Finally the day of our ICT Expo arrived. I had been busy preparing and practising to present a workshop on Podcasting to teachers in our cluster. I had also decided to use 2 kids in my year 1 class to demonstrate how to create a podcast in GarageBand. While they were excited, I was a bit nervous as it was my first presentation ever. Well I chose to do it so there was no escape now. The 15 teachers came in quickly. I started with the introduction and briefly talked about podcasting, uses in the classroom and the steps in creating one. My little ones then took over. They knew exactly what to do! The adults were delighted and cheerfully decided to give a go while the 3 of us hovered around supporting and answering questions. I had also prepared the 'how to' sheets. They found this easy to follow. The feedback I received was positive. The teachers thought that using 5 year olds to demonstrate was very powerful. At least half of them decided to try it in their classrooms while there were a few that said they used PC's at their school so were not sure if they would use it. I told them about Audacity and gave them my email if they needed any support. It was a very satisfying day! Would I present again? Well, may be...

SMART Session

2010-07-01T20:26:00.004+12:00

I have not really been using the SMARTBoard effectively in my teaching so when our school got a free offer from BH, the expert in using the interactive board, I decided to attend the session after school. Here are some things she shared with us. When you go into google search engine and type in a word of what you are looking for. When this page opens up on the left hand side is a list of words. Click on "wonder wheel" and you will get a mind-map on the topic you are looking for. This breaks the information down and you are much faster in your search.
This other site enables you to get pictures of what you are looking for in categories.
http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com
BH shared some ways we could use the lesson activity toolkit 2.0, which I found really cool and would like to use it in my teaching. So I have decided to attend a 2-day free conference at Fruitvale School in the second week of my holidays.
Check out the link if you are interested in attending.
www.interactivewhiteboard.net.nz
Videos that you would like to use in Notebook software should have a .flv extension.
kickyoutube.com changes videos you may find to this extension and other formats too.

Kid-pix kids

2010-06-04T21:34:00.002+12:00

Last week I was really excited when 5 of my students completed a 4 slide slideshow in Kid-pix with voice over and transitions. They were only supported with the recording as they are still learning to read and so had to practise their retell. They were so excited and did not want to stop till it was finished. They have started one this week too but we have had a few interruptions this week.

Another Lead Teacher Day..

2010-05-05T12:41:00.008+12:00

Today during Doughnut news I learnt that we could use Picassa to reduce the size of photos that one might want to upload to animoto or picture trail. We also had a buddy to coach us with our Action Research. It was nice to share what I have done so far with my action research and listen to mu buddy and see what she has done. My favourite part was BJ sharing the use of ipods in N.American school. I wish kids at our school would have these for learning. It is easier to use and takes less space.
Today I actually talked about how I integrated ICT into my Literacy Programme in response to one of our collegues' question. I felt really good about doing that.

A great week

2010-05-01T17:54:00.001+12:00

This week most of the children in my class were able to independently save their kid-pix picture into their folders. They were eager to support each other. They also used their usernames and passwords to log into their home page. Our school had the pleasure of hosting some teachers from Australia for the day. Little Miss B from my class shared what we were learning and the goals. She shared our enviro scrapbook with them. Other children showed the visitors the various ICT tools we use in our class. On friday we created a podcast in response to Greedy Cat. From Monday to Thursday the children have turns to create a picture of a food item for him using Kid-pix. It is a healthy diet for Greedy cat. On Friday we compiled it together. Well done to my little people.

Action Research

2010-04-16T21:18:00.002+12:00

As I have taken part in the action research I spent some time (Thank God for the holidays) reading up about action research and have set up a wiki to share my observations and how I am going to go about it. Can't wait for Term 2 to begin. Hopefully most children in my class will have improved in their Reading and comprehension and also be able to use some ICT tools independently and effectively by the end of term 2. I need to see a great difference in my kids' learning. I so..ooo want to engage them and make them life long learners....!!! Will be putting my wiki link up soon. Need to get permission from my parents in the first week of Term 2.

My class Blog 2010

2010-03-09T19:59:00.001+13:00

I'm feeling really excited after getting all permissions from my children's parents to set up a blog. A new class blog for 2010! It is really early in the year and so lots of the work will be done by me with the children. Hopefully later in the year children will use tools to show their learning independently. Anyway, here is the link. Please do visit us and leave a comment or some ideas that we could do.

Over the Rainbow...

Cluster LT day

2010-03-09T14:44:00.002+13:00

We started by members sharing ideas fom Learning @ schools. It was nice to hear about these ideas. BJ then reintroduced us to Action Research which sounds really exciting, although I need to read up and look at work other people have done. Wish I had more time in the day! AR starts with a problem and then we find ways to solve or minimise the problem. Our team have come up with incorporating e-learning into the literacy programme. We will work on this all year.

Lead Teacher Release

2010-02-26T22:37:00.000+13:00

A very fruitful 3 days. The focus being e-portfolios. My teams were busy setting up goals and success criterias for their pupils. I worked alongside children supporting them to log in and type in their goals on their K-net page. Wow! the year 2's were really onto it. Lots of them were able to log in with just alittle help/reminder and after being at school for a year they could recognise the letters to use the keyboard to input their goals. I was really amazed and enjoyed watching them do this. Well done to all our teachers last year that helped these kids. Your efforts have paid off. The children can only get better from here on. Some Year 1 classes had sessions with me to learn to log in using a username and password. They were eager to do this. The rest of the time I put in goals for classes. I also showed my class how to use Photo booth and take pictures of buddies to put on their More about me page. The looks and excitement in their eyes and voices was something not to be missed. Hopefully everyone benefitted from this release. I got to see different ways goals and success criterias were written and got to meet alot of kids from the syndicate.

2010

2010-01-29T22:15:00.003+13:00

YES! It is a new academic year next week, just can't wait to get started, well not quite, as I am still jet-lagged after my trip to my hometown, India. It was a great time with family and friends. Anyway, it's back to work or should I say, back to what I love doing! Looking forward to meeting my new little guys and working with them. I'm sure it's going to be another great year of learning and doing fun things together. We will first learn the basics of using a digital cam. This year I aim to let kids investigate for themselves and for them to show/teach me ICT skills, instead of me telling them straightaway how something is done.
On the other hand, I am a bit nervous about my role this year especially as I have two teams to support. Will try my best to be useful, supportive and available.

The Year Gone by!

2009-11-29T17:32:00.003+13:00

This year has been a great year in my teaching career. I have achieved more personally and with my class. It started with e-portfolio and I feel good that the kids have had ownership and involvement this year. It has been a hard road getting 5 year olds to understand the concept, teach them reflection and typing skills when most of them did not even know the letters of the alphabet. Time has also been a big factor as there is always so much to do in the day. I have tried lots of new things this year that I felt apprehensive about in the past years. They have all been successful and I have seen the results. Parents have shown appreciation for things we have done in our class. The highlight was our class blog, although in the past few weeks I am having problem uploading to Blogger. Soon it is going to be the end of the year and I just can't wait for the hols... It's so sad that I have to send my amazing brainy bunch to another teacher next year.
I have applied to be a lead teacher next year. I am looking forward to it.

Some thoughts

2009-10-17T07:47:00.002+13:00

Term 3 has been a very fruitful one with my class trying out new ict tools. Their oral language and sentence structure has improved and even my shy children want to read to the class. This is the last term of the year, yeh!!! Well I still have so much I want to try out with my little guys. Hopefully I will be able to do this. Another thing I need to practise is coaching skills to support my team so I will be able to really guide them to integrate e-learning tools into their programmes next year. I am so lucky to be in a supportive school, its what keeps me learning and trying new things and this benefits the children under my care.

Interface Magazine Blog Awards

2009-10-03T19:23:00.004+13:00

My class blog has been chosen as one of the 5 finalists for the INTERFACE Awards 2009, 'Best Class Blog'. If you are in the education sector in NZ, please click here to vote for The Brainy Bunch, Room 3 at Elm Park School.

Feedback on class blog

2009-09-08T21:00:00.007+12:00

I am so glad I set up a class blog. It has served
its purpose and I have got positive comments from my children and their parents.
Read on, remember you can watch this full screen.
We love our blog...

View more presentations from veronicaa.

Final Cluster day

2009-08-26T14:23:00.002+12:00

Today once again we started by sharing an idea of how we use ict in our classrooms. I shared how my kids and I use voicethread to share our learning with parents. One of our members shared this website http://www.pricespy.co.nz/ that I thought was very useful when you want to buy equipment for schools. Then BJ shared ideas about using peer coaching. This means supporting each other to reflect on practice and identify ways to improve practise. I think peer coaching gets effective with practise, it was very hard to peer coach someone as we often tend to advise people and tell them what to do instead of encouraging them to come up with something!

I would like to explore the digital software so that I could use digital content with my students. A lot of this was new to me and I need some time to think about it.
Overall a very fruitful day!

The Big move!!!

2009-08-06T19:38:00.004+12:00

Since I have a class blog now all kids' work will be displayed there. Kindly visit The Brainy Bunch and leave your comments for my 5/6 year olds. Sorry I had to move my slide shows due to technical problems.

My busy brainy bunch

2009-08-01T22:40:00.005+12:00

The last 2 weeks have been really great, getting the kids excited about their blog. We have had lots of visitors and the children are encouraged to do better at speaking up, writing stories and sharing what they have learned. They love listening to their voices and seeing their work displayed on the www along with reading the comments. I have already seen children grow in confidence orally and can see that they eagerly decode to read the shared book. They are learning from mistakes they have made in earlier recordings. They remind each other about this. I feel pleased that the podcasts, videos or voice threads that we create are integrated into our literacy programme. Nothing is done as a stand alone. It can be done!- Thoughtful and Detailed Planning is the key.
I would appreciate new ideas of how to do voice threads and podcasts with my class.

Class Blog

2009-07-26T07:08:00.005+12:00

I have finally set up a class blog. The sole purpose of this is to showcase children's work, encourage their oral language and give them an authentic audience.
Here is the link: The Brainy Bunch
Please visit and leave a comment! Cheers

Learning, learning, learning!

2009-07-19T17:05:00.003+12:00

Wow! 2 days of PD. What a lot of learning. Having a cluster conference at our school was amazing. It was nice to work with and listen to like minded people and see the thirst that teachers have to learn new skills! I am so glad I was a part of it. Well done to people that organise these. Can't wait to start school and work with my little people. Hopefully all goes well this term.

Our Learning

2009-07-06T08:15:00.005+12:00

Thursday was an exciting day for me because it showed me how much my class had learned in Term 2. At the start of the term I had asked my class what they knew about changes and they were able to only tell me about behavioural changes. I had to probe for the others. Then at the end of term I got a whole list of things they had understood about changes and this was without any probing or questioning. What was amazing to see was that my quiet kids and non English speaking kids responded too! The children were able to explain what they said.I have put up the 2 brainstorming photos.

Chocolate

2009-07-01T09:53:00.008+12:00

Our class made chocolate, to do with our inquiry CHANGES.
We brainstormed words to describe chocolate and did this on
Wordle. The kids loved it!

Our Art Exhibition

2009-06-26T20:40:00.006+12:00

Room 3's new student (for a day)

2009-06-26T19:53:00.003+12:00

Apple Bus Tour

2009-06-20T20:00:00.002+12:00

This week we had a group of teachers visit our school to look at how we use e-learning. My class had a show-case of things they did this term. They were so proud of sharing their e-portfolios, kid-pix creations, camera skills and smart board skills. My little JP was the star of the "show". It was a great experience and made me realise that my kids were learning lots of skills and knowledge. I must be doing something right!

Jelly

2009-06-11T19:27:00.010+12:00

2009-06-10T14:24:00.003+12:00

Today was my first day at Lead teacher meeting. There were some amazing ideas that I could share with my team, although I will have to try it out or go thru all the stuff we saw in the 1st session. It was nice listening to and sharing ideas that we do in our classrooms, although I felt I have so....oooo much to learn and explore.
Here is Suzie's page with heaps of learning activities.

Our Class Inquiry

2009-06-06T21:48:00.003+12:00

This term our inquiry is about CHANGES. Our class motto is “I have the power to change”.
Here is a slide show about what we are doing and how we are going about it. Please click on the picture to take you to the slide show.

I Love Kid-pix

2009-05-27T19:07:00.012+12:00

Was lucky to have time to work with a group of my kids. Kid-pix is great, there's such a lot you can do with it. My group worked on creating pictures that begin with a letter of their choice (there's just 5), used text, and together we made a slide show of the pictures. They were so thrilled with the outcome and so was I!

Integrating ICT in the Junior School

2009-05-24T16:58:00.003+12:00

Juniors Can Do IT - Updated - By Rachel Boyd

View more Microsoft Word documents from rachelboyd.

Some great ideas a junior school teacher could use!

Butterflies and more

2009-05-16T05:49:00.006+12:00

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

Trying it out

2009-05-05T20:33:00.001+12:00

Today I had the opportunity to use an hour to work with a group of students in my class. They were to make a slide show in kid-pix. We started by making a story board. They wanted to make a butterfly life cycle. It took a while for them to understand that each stage had to be placed in a different box. We talked about the steps involved in making the slide show. They were pretty good because they did remember most of it. Well after that they started on their picture. I noticed that they found it difficult to use the drawing tools to make tidy, recognisable pictures. They would need a lot of practise to create better ones. They could also use a mouse though. Each of them completed 1-2 pictures and recorded their voices and saved their work. It was a fruitful session! Wish I had more time to work with kids using tech. It sure is fun!!!!!

A life well-lived

2009-05-04T19:30:00.001+12:00

Today, a very sad thing happened. MR died... I hope she went peacefully. I remember times shared with her, she was always positive and did the best she could at everything, and she worked really hard. She was always happy to help and share. I miss you M. People come into the fibre of our lives and then all of a sudden, they disappear... but you will always stay in my heart. I am so glad we crossed paths. I hope you knew how much you meant to me. In my memory you will always stay, and every time I see a rainbow I will remember you and how you coloured our world, here at EPS. Life is to...oooo short friends so make sure you tell the people that matter most how much they mean and how much they are appreciated.

Life cycle slideshow

2009-05-03T21:40:00.000+12:00

This is exciting! The slide show in kid-pix was uploaded without any problems.

kid-pix slideshow

2009-05-03T13:32:00.000+12:00

BJ also came to my class to show my kids how to create a slideshow in Kid-pix. There is so much more to kid-pix than we know. The kids were very patient and excited with the end result. Some children were confident they could make one themselves. I will be working with groups so they can make their own slideshow about life cycles. Can’t wait to see what they will present.

i-movie animation

2009-05-03T13:22:00.000+12:00

This week I had the opportunity to get support with using I-movie animation with BJ. She showed me how to use a tripod and move an object just a little bit before clicking each frame. The end product is quite exciting and I’m sure my little guys will enjoy doing this while gaining lots of skills. After you have taken the photos you drag it into i-movies and then add the sounds/music. Hopefully I can use this with my class in Term 4 to produce a nursery rhyme or story.

New Beginnings

2009-05-02T09:22:00.000+12:00

What an amazing few months it has been... immense opportunities, new learning, growth, and now BLOGGING! There's lots to be learned and achieved. Thanks to all those angels in my life (U know who you r) who lifted me up when I couldn't fly. Gosh I can picture all those faces, and there's so many.
Now, I'd like to spread my wings and fly "somewhere over the rainbow". Touching hearts, touching lives, touching the future... So wish me luck I say and I'll be on my way!