Macandrew+Bay+Milestone+3

Name of School: Macandrew Bay School Name of lead teacher: Megan Graham. Principal: Bernadette Newlands Milestone Report # 3

We have had several staff meetings covering wikispaces, protopages, and more recently inquiry learning using the Kath Murdoch approach. All staff meetings have included handouts with websites that the staff can look up, and all notes from these meetings and readings from the cluster website are kept in an ICT folder near the office.

As a school we have decided to create class protopages (junior school) and wikispaces (senior school). In the lead up to creating these we had a staff meeting where I demonstrated using a data projector, how to register a protopage or wikispace. I showed the staff how to add pages and tabs to their sites. I have since moved around each classroom and spent half an hour with teachers to help them develop their protopage or wikispace further.

Some teachers have found the Wikispaces challenging to use, and have looked to other web 2.0 tools to use in their classrooms instead. One teacher has created a blog for her classroom that showcases the work done by her students. She hopes to make it public soon, and would like to start a dialogue with readers from around the world.

Recently our school held a parent assembly, where some classes chose to present student work using a powerpoint presentation. The students ‘ work was photographed and added to a slide before writing was added. This form of presentation proved popular with the students who created it, and the parents who got to see it. One of these powerpoints has been put on our school website as it features photos of Macandrew Bay in the old days and today. With our 150th reunion coming up will be of great interest to some of our older ex-pupils.

Some of the earlier cluster workshops clashed with parent/teacher interviews at our school, and we were unable to attend them. Some staff will be attending the next group of workshops, which look at powerpoint presentations. All staff are keen to attend cluster lead workshops and apply their new found knowledge in their programmes.

1. Staff to set personal goals with reference to the cluster web site

All staff wanted to become members of the cluster website. They wanted to become familiar with the website by logging on to it at least twice a term. The staff wanted to learn how to use the Web 2.0 tools that have been shared with them by the Lead teacher, and those they have viewed on the cluster site. Staff would like to be able to access various recommended websites on the cluster delicious account. It has been noticeable that staff have been using the cluster website to see how other teachers around the country are using blogs, wikispaces and protopages and to get inspiration for themselves and their own classrooms.

2. Staff to set School Management Goal (if applicable)

Eg: Become familiar with SMS, Input PAT, 6 year net, running record results

We are currently in our first year of using eMinerva as our School management system although this has not been without difficulties. Our training occurred in Term 4 last year and it took some time to input all our enrolment details. Now we are ready to move into new a new stage of implementation though staff changes and technical difficulties with eMinerva have been very offputting All staff have set a goal of logging onto the SMS and refamiliarising themselves( for those who have already trained)

We are currently doing our Enrol training and should be ready to implement it by the end of the term.

Staff have continued to input their assessment data using their own ICT formats.

3. Individual Goals – Class related

Staff have each posted their individual and class related goals onto our school protopage. Many staff members wanted to learn how to effectively use protopage and wikispaces in their classroom programmes. They were keen to use these tools as a way of showcasing their students ‘ work. Senior classes are now using these tools in their classrooms. Examples include students publishing cameo writing, and poetry, recording learning logs and accessing homework. Teachers are also using these tools as a way for their students to access pre-selected internet sites for maths and reading and topic activities.

Most staff members wanted to use these web 2.0 tools as a way of communicating with families and the ‘outside world’. Feedback from parents viewing this work has been very positive and students enjoy being able to access class learning activities from home and sharing their work with their parents. Teachers want to ensure that the experiences they introduce to their students are relevant and purposeful to their learning.

Summarise.

We are thoroughly enjoying being members of this ICT cluster. As a Lead teacher I am finding the contract interesting and very rewarding. I enjoy the contact with other lead teachers, and talking with them about their experiences with the web 2.0 tools so far. The web 2.0 tools that we have been shown and encouraged to use, are making the links between home and school stronger, showcasing work done by our students to people from all over the world, and providing students with a meaningful context in which to share their learning.

Our staff have enjoyed learning about these web 2.0 tools, and are developing them as they become more confident. Their students are excited about the prospect of adding their work to these sites.

We have enjoyed the focus on Thinking Skills and programmes that encourage creative and critical thinking amongst our students. This is an area that our school has put a lot of time and effort into over a number of years now and it has been good to see ways we can extend our current good practice in this area even further. We were also very interested to find out more about Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry approach and to compare this with the way we have used an inquiry approach in the past. We have purchased Kath Murdoch’s book as a resource for our staff and are keen to trial some of the ideas

We look forward to learning more!!!

[|www.protopage.com/macandrewbayschool] Password: Macbay
 * __Some of our Macandrew Bay ICT web pages__**

[|www.protopage.com/room1macbay] Password:room1macbay

Website: [|www.macandrewbay.co.nz/school]

www.wikispaces.com Username: macandrewbayschool Password: Learning Space name: macbay.wikispaces.com

Blog: room1macandrewbay.blogspot.com/