St+Patricks+Milestone+4

Milestone Report 4

St Patrick’s School Lead teacher: Wendy Friel November 2007


 * 1. ****__Staff’s personal goals with reference to the cluster web site__**

//All staff are site members. We continue to log into the cluster site regularly, and t look at suggested web sites for classroom use, and personal development.// //Staff Meetings –// //*Wendy and Stephen report back from training sessions.// //*Discuss progress of classroom and personal goals.// //*Share interesting / valuable sites from cluster web site.// //*Discuss any problems anyone may be having.// //*Share and discuss and plan new goals.//


 * 2. ****__Staff Goal for School Management__**

//We are continuing training with School Master – Student Management. Unfortunately we are encountering some problems with the programme, and are unable to get all our children onto it. Our trainer is, as yet, unable to ascertain whether this is because of the programme, or our server. This is causing some frustration.//

//Philippa’s goals and progress– Years 1 and 2 children.// //2//. Get a class protopage up and running. //Nov. Done// //3.// Buddy the children with the senior children to publish their stories / poems on the class protopage. //Nov. The children now have their protopages and the senior children are helping them publish their work.// //4. Teach basic skills needed for inquiry learning.// //5. Year 2 – teach basic skills for independence in publishing stories, starting computer, and using games.//
 * 3. ****__Individual Goals – Class related__**
 * 1) Learn about Protopage//. Nov. Done//

//Joanne’s goals and progress – Years 2, 3 and 4 children// //1. //Use web quest sites in Social Studies unit//. Nov. Attempted to incorporate this into some topic and reading studies, but had problems with server.// //2. //Learn about protopage and get it up and running in the classroom//. Nov. All children now have their own protopage.// //3. ////Teach and improve skills needed for inquiry learning.// //4. ////Revisit using web quests.//

//Stephen’s goals and progress– Years 2, 3 and 4 children// //1. //Gain better understanding of the thinking tools necessary for the Inquiry Learning Process//. Nov. Much deeper understanding and staff planning underway for implementation.// //2. //Implement one thinking tool in the classroom//. Nov. Not realised yet.// //3. //Learn of ways for Web 2.0 tools to help the children learn in the classroom//. Nov. Protopage – all children now have own page and some are using this in a very creative way.//

//Wendy’s goals and progress – Years 5 and 6 children//
 * 1) Become more competent with Power Point presentations and teach the children. //– Nov. The children are all able to create Power Point presentations, and many are electing to use this to present their work. Even one of my most “reluctant” computer students has created a Power Point presentation of his family on his family computer. The next goal is to add clips from the internet to their presentations.//
 * 2) //Continue to become more familiar with Web 2.0 applications.//
 * 3) Get protopage up and running in class, and have children become competent at adding their work, ideas etc to their pages//. Nov. The children are enjoying using their protopage. However, we are still having problems due to our server, which is causing frustration.//
 * 4) Help staff learn about, and set up protopage in their classes//. Nov. All classes now use protopage.//
 * 5) Use web quests in the classroom programmes//. Nov. We are incorporating this into some reading and topic studies.//
 * 6) Develop a new school website//. Nov. This is now completed.//
 * 7) //Teach and improve skills needed for inquiring learning.//
 * 8) //Teach the children to download photos they have taken and use them in presentations.//

//We are all reading books we have purchased  about inquiry learning, and are currently planning a unit on birds for term one next year. We had too many other requirements to teach it this year to do justice to an inquiry unit. To introduce this unit, we have booked a tour of the albatross colony in week 2 next year. We have located some very good web sites, and are collecting recourses for this unit. We are spending this term teaching the children some of the skills needed for inquiry learning.//
 * __Summarise.__**

//After attending a course on Positive Computing for Parents and Caregivers with Brenda Crozier, we have decided to survey the parents to see if they want a programme run at school for them. We will do this at the beginning of next year.// //We have applied for funding to replace our server, and to purchase new hardware. It has been very frustrating for both staff and children to have a server which is not up to par. We are waiting with fingers crossed to hear about our application.//

//We have all noticed that the children are becoming increasingly confident when using the computer.// //Room 3 are more successfully researching information on the internet, and nearly always remember to check 3 sites to ascertain correctness of information. They have been using a typing programme in part of their computer time, and improvement has been noticed. They have produced posters and power point presentations of a high standard to present work in topics and English units.// //Room 2 have learnt to or more sources of information to answer a question they have posed. They have worked on their protopages in all sorts of ways.// //Room 1 have protopages up and running, and although this is mostly the teacher’s work, stories are published regularly.//