Rotary+Park+Milestone+5

Milestone Report: 5/08 __ Rotary ____ Park School __ Lead teacher: Nicky Hall Staff combined goal: You will see below examples of how teachers have included the use of laptops in their class programme. The senior class have come up with a list of usage rules as well as discussing where they stay to charge. Two senior children help transport them between classrooms to avoid any accidents little children may have if they drop them. The senior children take on leadership roles in assemblies etc setting up and running the data projector and other technologies. jpeg We have discussed a booking timetable as a staff but to date haven’t needed it. There were some initial teething problems that took some time to sort out with our technician, so it wasn’t until halfway through the term till they were fully functional. All staff decided to have a combined classroom goal: __ Jan __ – As part of her Living Landscapes inquiry topic Jan got her children to develop a PowerPoint presentation to share in assembly. The presentation was to show the steps they had been through in choosing what areas of our school environment to enhance or develop. It finished with their ‘Taking Action” ideas. It was a great way to introduce the process of inquiry learning to parents and an example of how the children take ownership of their ‘actions’. jpeg __ Chris __ – Chris has been using learning objects as part of her maths programme. She reports that the children have loved it, having fun and learning at the same time! jpeg __ Nicky __ – The children used the laptops during the ‘Finding out’ stage of their inquiry last term to research and present their information. They also learnt to import images from Google images into their word documents. My class is a Montessori class and the children are able to follow their own interests and do individual research projects. PowerPoints continue to be a popular way of presenting these as well as Word documents. Next step: I would like to teach the children to use movie maker. jpeg __ Sophie – __ Sophie has joined the school taking over the maternity leave position for term 1 and 2 of 2008. The children have been using the laptops to publish their writing. Sophie has also used the data projector to show children how to revisit their writing and edit/ improve it. jpeg All the staff have also been working together when planning our Inquiry topics. We have learnt that it is very beneficial to share the things that worked as well as the things that didn’t work. We have dedicated a display space in our staffroom to share resources and examples of work that was successful. This term we decided to have the same headings so that the children can see the progressions through the classrooms. Both Carmel (principal) and I (lead teacher) found the time we spent at Musselburgh being lead around the classes by Emma very beneficial. Also hearing from the teachers that it has been a journey to get to where they currently are made us realise that we are doing OK. __ Summary __ We had a staff meeting with a presentation from School master on 5/5/08. We will have a presentation from MUSAC on 21/5/08. We will get together as a staff at the next staff meeting and choose which system to go with. We can then discuss an implementation strategy
 * __ Personal Goals __**
 * To become familiar with using the pod of 10 laptops in our classrooms and plan to use them as part of our classroom programme.
 * __ Classroom Goals __**
 * To use the school set of laptops in their classroom as part of their programmes.
 * __ School Management Goal __**
 * To decide which School Management system to go with, as a staff.
 * __ Next steps __**
 * Staff have booked into a variety of workshops this term which we are looking forward to putting into practise within our classrooms.
 * Choose between MUSAC & School Master and begin to implement it.
 * Entire staff are going to Kath Murdoch course and the two day Graham Watts course.
 * 2 staff members attended a Jamie McKenzie workshop.