Tainui+School+Milestone+4

Milestone 4

Name of School: Tainui Name of lead teacher: Cliff Stearn

Milestone Report # Staff have further integrated Web 2 tools into classroom programmes continuing on from the developments outlined in the previous milestone report. Protopage use has increased in a number of classrooms with a wider variety of material being posted. Increased use has been made of the data projector, including whole class web exploration of Webquest such as [|www.library.thinkquest.org/4051/choose.htm] and [|www.iwebquest.com/egypt/ancientegypt.htm]. More use has been made of Powerpoint as teacher expertise has increased. Refer the attached screen shots.

Digital photograpy and movie making has increased with teachers and children taking and using photographs and part of the class programmes.



Use of Digital Learning Objects has increased with most teachers using the objects found on [|www.nzmaths.co.nz] for either small group work or whole class teaching using the data projector.



The Principal and lead teacher attended the Positive Computing for parents seminar on 31 October and five staff members attended the TKI workshop on 31 October.

Inquiry Based learning is becoming the major focus for the school in the medium term. The Principal and lead teacher have planned an inquiry unit based on a school wide theme. This has been developed using the Kath Murdoch framework. This will be presented to staff for consultation and final planning at a meeting on 21 November.

Staff have used the cluster website to access resources such as the bank of websites in the Delicious account, and Inquiry Learning Resources such as the Kurwong School website. This use will continue as more relevant material is put on the cluster website.
 * 1) Staff to set personal goals with reference to the cluster web site


 * 1) Staff to set School Management Goal (if applicable)

The School management System has been chosen and will be installed before the end of the year. During the Christmas break, many staff have asked that they be able to familiarize themselves with aspects of interest in the system. Our goal is that standardized data such as P.A.T., BURT, Running Records, STAR, etc be entered as soon as it is collated beginning in term one of next year, with an increasing amount of data being entered as we become more proficient at using the system.


 * 1) Individual Goals – Class related

Personal goals have continued to be set in terms of use of I.C.T. for both classroom and administration use. These have included developing the use of PowerPoint, Moviemaker, Protopage, Digital Learning Objects, Data Projection, Word etc.

Summarise.

There has been an increased use of ICT equipment and applications across the school. This has varied according to teacher confidence, level of expertise and the perceived level of value in class programmes. Teachers of younger children sometimes see the value of Web 2 tools to be limited (although not without some worth) when contrasted with the need for basic literacy and numeracy skills, and socialising skills. Addressing this perceived imbalance of value between junior and senior schools could be a worthwhile emphasis for the cluster in the future. We have had a number of good examples of how Protopage, Wikis, and Blogs can be used with older children but some examples of best practice in New Entrant and junior classes would be welcomed.