St+Peter+Chanel+Milestone+4


 * Name of School:** St Peter Chanel
 * Name of lead teacher:** Annette O’Mahony
 * Date:** 14th November


 * __Milestone Report # 4__**


 * __Staff personal goals with reference to the cluster web site__**
 * __Staff__** **__School__** **__Management Goals__**
 * __Individual Goals – Class related__**

Sept. 13 - Attended Tony Ryans 2 Workshops These workshops were excellent and very motivating. I got some excellent ideas to use in the class when I return to St. Peter Chanel next year. I have used his website and some of his thinking keys with the children here at Lee Stream school and have found it a great resource. These tools can make a difference and help to engage all children in the learning process.
 * __Annette__**

I have created a wiki space for Room 4 to use next year and will add to this over the summer break. I intend to put all information about camp onto this wiki and all parents and students can use this. Each child will have their own page and I am also going to keep in contact with parents through this wiki.

Sept19 - I.C.T. lead teacher meeting - Inquiry and thinking. We looked at Kath Murdoch inquiry process and Debbie and I started to plan "Brainy Kids" for next year. This looks really exciting and I am really looking forward to working on this inquiry unit. I have found attending the I.C.T. lead teacher meetings very helpful and inspiring and they have kept me informed with what is happening at school while I am away at Lee Stream.

I have set up a new wiki space for our Brainy Kids unit. www.wikispaces.com Username: stpeterchanel Password: greymatter click on brainy kids on the left hand side to view the beginning of this wiki. To set up this wiki I got some help from David Young as I had forgotten how to add pages but have it all worked out now. Debbie and I will work on this wiki to have it ready for our showcase on the28th, we will also show my thinking strategies book and a power point about inquiry learning I showed the staff at the beginning of the year.

All in all it has been a very good year. My skills in ICT have improved and I am learning new things that I can use in the class room. I am really looking forward to working with the school and cluster again next year.

This term Room One has been using the pod of lap tops regularly for maths. The children have been motivated to explore the different maths strands using Rainforest maths site. It is exciting to watch little children becoming independent learners often challenging themselves by wanting to try different levels.
 * __Lesley__**

I have created a wiki space although it will not be in use until next year. Because I did not attend the wiki session as our group decided on having time on protopage the space is not complete. I intend to use this space to set up and inform parents of our classroom routines early next year. I do need some help with my next [wiki ]step !

Protopage has been an easy and practical way of recording ICT progress.

The sessions have been particularly helpful. We have had 4 hours of intensive training in the use of School Master and the sessions have been very helpful. After our last session I felt more confident about the programme and I book marked the pages that I thought would be useful as a starting point.

I attended Tony Ryan’s workshops on ‘The Magic of Thinking’ and ‘Schools Unlimited’. Both workshops were motivating and a good starting point for our school to move forward in our curriculum delivery. It was clear that we need to all reflect on how we are going to move forward in a positive way. I have also attended cluster workshops on TKI and powerpoint.

My ICT goals this year were to increase my knowledge about ICT and to practise using new tools. I have attended all but 1 ICT cluster meeting and are definitely broadening my knowledge. Apart from the wiki page I have been doing my homework and incorporating ICT into my class programme. I am gaining confidence with ICT and see the potential it opens up within my classroom. The opportunities are amazing and it is the way of the future. Children learn ICT quickly and so I need to know my way around the computer to give my children access to the variety of ICT styles of learning. Sometimes it gets confusing if you learn too much at once!
 * __Alison__**

The school master professional learning we have been doing with Derek has been exciting. Each time it is getting easier to follow the system. It looks as if the new system will save time and enable us to keep accurate records. Online planning and assessment gives teachers quick access to student profiles and information. This will be handy for school trips, medical details and recording information. I guess the more we use SMS the easier it will get. Absences will always be accurate.

Goals - classroom: Yes the laptops are used regularly in the classroom, mainly as a reading station acitivity. I have used them to promote reading with websites such as "www.kidsspell.com" but more so as a extension of our theme work, so for instance our unit on space, children on computer stations go into website "www.kidsastronomy.com" and look for information. This can be very general just searching or I can focus it in with a question for them to search for.
 * __Carolyn__**

Goals - personal: I am semi-confident that I can upload photos from the digital camera and have learnt how to save them and put them into different files for file management. But as yet have not learnt to print them out. There's still time!!

In working to achieve all my goals I have attended all ICT workshops and Schoolmaster training. I have accessed protopage and set up a wikispace for the classroom. I have used the computer for third and fourth term long term planning and am working at using the computer for unit planning. Although I have set up a wikispace for the class I am still at the stage of using it successfully. I am able to post notes on the protopage and am working towards learning to add a photo to the page. I have also worked on powerpoint to set up a slide show and insert a picture and sound. Overall I feel that I have acquired a number of new skills which I will be able to use in the classroom.
 * __Trish__**

I joined the cluster in Term 3 and have enjoyed my journey thus far, developing my skills and acquiring new knowledge in relation to ICT in education. I have found the professional development very worthwhile in terms of integrating ICT into the classroom environment. I was most interested in learning what is on offer on TKI. This has led me to making use of the WickEd website in particular hot topics with my students. The staff protopage has been an exciting way in which to communicate with other staff members as well as keeping track of my personal ICT goals. We often use our protopage during staff meetings to evaluate progress and set new goals. Important dates are circled on our homepage and our principal also uses the homepage to communicate with staff members. Although I found the wikispaces in classrooms interesting I did find it quite difficult to follow although by working alongside another staff member I have now set up a wikispace for my classroom.
 * __Megan__**

Since the last milestone I have attended Tony Ryan’s workshops on ‘The Magic of Thinking’ and ‘Schools Unlimited’, all cluster professional learning for principals and a Southern Principals forum related to inquiry and the new curriculum. Each of these opportunities has helped extend and consolidate my learning around the inquiry process and how ICT can be used as a tool to promote learning. As a result of my participation in the TKI workshop I have used the WickEd site with my children to explore Patterns of the Pasifika, which the children absolutely loved and led to them creating some fantastic personal patterns.
 * __Debbie__**

We have continued to have Schoolmaster workshops to support us in how we might use this both as an administrative tool and to support teaching and learning. It was exciting to discover new ways we can use this resource for assessment purposes, another exciting discovery was finding out how we could access the ages of children on a certain date which made organisation for the athletics competition a breeze.

Although my class wikispace has been set up this has stalled somewhat due to timing, the fact that I only teach one day in the class and my need to have a personal understanding of how I might use this purposefully rather than just to achieve a goal. However we have worked at setting up a wikispace to support our inquiry topic ‘Brainy Kids’ which we intend to begin next year. Annette has set up the physical space and I have organised the plan for the information we are going to include. This will continue to be a work in progress for the remainder of this year and we are excited about how this will motivate, encourage and support learning around our whole school inquiry topic.

As principal I have also ensured that there is an ICT item at each staff meeting and all staff members now automatically bring their laptops to meetings. This has meant we are able to support each other with our learning and ensure we remained focussed on our goals.

There has been less emphasis on our goal of using the cluster website since Milestone 3 as staff are all confident accessing and using this site. It been bookmarked and it is now used on a ‘needs to’ basis, for example accessing the powerpoint on setting up wikispaces or to find out administrative information. Staff have participated in all workshops organised by the cluster facilitators and also sought other professional learning opportunities. Three staff members attended Tony Ryan’s workshops on ‘The Magic of Thinking’ and ‘Schools Unlimited’ and as a result one staff member has prepared a resource on thinking skills. All staff members have now accessed Tony Ryan’s website and are beginning to use some of these tools in class programmes. Every staff meeting now includes an ICT element and has included such things as revising goal setting, protopage, exploring websites, inquiry planning and cluster administration. Through workshops teachers are more confident in navigating Schoolmaster and have some understanding of how this can be used for administrative purposes, assessment and planning. Teachers have all made progress on their individual goals and have supported each other to achieve these. All classes except one have wikispaces and teachers are exploring ways in which these can be used successfully. A school wikispace ‘Brainy Kids’ has also been set up to support an inquiry where we intend to find out more about how our brain functions so we can become more successful learners.
 * __SUMMARY__**