Broad+Bay+Milestone+6

Roebuck Rise Broad Bay Dunedin 9014 Ph 03 4780 706 Fax 03 4780 817 office@broadbay.school.nz ** Re: ICT Terms 3 and 4 2008 for Broad Bay School **
 * Two Teachers attended Graham Watts – this helped us think about having a toolbox of things that we can use when undertaking inquiry or for any other activity that might need one. We have uses PMI, KWL, brainstorm, double bubble, Venn diagram as well as higher order thinking tools such as 6 Hats and Blooms. We are seeking to add to the toolbox over time and to expand the range of higher order thinking tools that the children can effectively use.
 * Kath Murdoch attended by all. This brought us all a greater understanding of the various components of her inquiry model as well as clarifying some of the concepts. We had misunderstood the tuning in phase for example so our next inquiry unit sought to do this part better. The workshop also helped us understand the inquiry skills that we wanted to develop and how these fitted with the curriculum AOs and learning outcomes.
 * Whole school planning of term 4 unit of work after the Kath Murdoch session was much more detailed and we were able to state more clearly what we wanted the children to learn.
 * The wikispace is finally linked to the school website and the school secretary is putting the newsletters onto it. It also has up to date info on BOT and staff
 * Two staff attended the Guy Claxton PD day. We have yet to digest this day. There is some potential for this to work in well with the key competencies.
 * We have made progress in the use of inquiry over the year. Our understanding of the process is continuing to develop. We would like to progress to where we can tailor it to our needs by developing a Broad Bay toolbox that included graphic organizers and higher order thinking tools. We would also like to look at creating a number of inquiry skills that children develop over their time at school and to look more closely at the building learning power concept as a school culture.