L@S

I have been reading lots of blogs from 2009 conference and I like the school that made a blog for the 3 people who attended. They put their thoughts, next steps etc for others (especially their own school mates who couldn't go) to read. I wonder if we will do that? How?

2 things stood out for me - you really need to think before you blog (I mean sometimes I can be gulity of writing when I am in a mood and things could come back to bite you) and I loved reading one of the teachers comments about the ECE that my daughter in law teachers at (and their workshop on blogging/digital portflios) and the fact that my grandaughters blog/learning stories were being shared to help learners with digital portfolio. Next some of the replies said how ECE are good at keeping the children's learning at the forefront of this ICT business. I am going to show C. the blog.

I think I am going to put my goals on hold until after the conference. To be honest it all looks a little bit scary - what if everything is so advanced I haven't got the foggest about what they are talking about.
I MUST learn how to embed?? things, link etc

Another Great Blogger

Have a look at http://www.teachingsagittarian.com/ . I am going to refer to it as one of my resources for when I do my Action Inquiry because it shows Chrissy's learning journey from Dec 2006 where she started making her first blog and wiki. It shows me we all need to start somewhere (even if I am several years behind everyone else at least I have started. I like the way she keeps a record of what she is learning and puts in examples of her learning. I need to do something like that in my 2010 blogging (otherwise it looks like I am not learning anything new. ) Her blog will also help me learn about things I don't even know exist.
I like this reflecting about my learning and how I am going to show my learning. I now know that I wont just be 'writing notes" at Learning at Schools !

Wonders of Blogging

As I am going to the 2010 L@S conference soon I thought I would look around at what the last couple had. Meandering thru various websites I found lots of interesting things. Somehow I got onto a blog by Fiona and it linked to her VSA and teaching 2 years in Tokelau. It was wonderful to read her blog - and I could imagine what it would have been like to be there. I remembered how Timo and I used to talk about going there -it doesnt seem like it was 4 years since he has gone. Fiona had some beautiful pictures of Tokelau.

I made a comment on her blog- I remembered how Lorraine said its good manners to let someone know you have read their blog.

science

I am going to start looking at science in the NE room by exploring what ECE do for science. There is a lot of great info when I google 'science in ECE (from NZ). Lots of interesting articles about setting up the classroom, activities etc. If I want to have a C21st room maybe that's a a way to start -with questionning andproblem solving to encourage thinking? I will put some into my favourites. Thanks to Tia's class for these question posters. I am going to make some for our class.

2010 action inquiry

Before I really start I want to do some brain storming:

oral language will be my learning focus

can I incorporate a science focus as well (as I am on the school science team)?

using tools to collect data -easispeak, digital camera, videoing (where will I get that from? Check out the cost of those little ones Lorraine had)

use KLST and sampling (write out as well so I can analyse thoroughly -use back page of KLST) and use to plan next steps for learning)

investigate narratives (I have seen this on a website) -I think I mean learning stories like Chrissie does at ECE so I can collect a variety of data on each child. I will need to set up a time frame plan and ask how she does it -is it time to learn more about blogging?

collect solid beginning data on school entry so I can clearly show learning that has gone on

How will I present my inquiry? I like the big wall idea but I need more than that!

What will I do for our classroom inquiry? I want to use Kath Murdoch's model again. Science??

How is our new room going to be best used? I want a C21st learning focussed room -what does that really mean for a new entrant room? More brain storming coming up

Week 9

Second to last week of the year and we have things like school concert on Tuesday night so I will wait to see what practice times Robbie will organise.

We also need to do some follow up from our Friday trip and we will see what J will do with the photos she took at the museum. No doubt there will be a follow up evaluation from the Museum. I will see what students voice can be used with this.

I think we will have 2 more enrollments this week - but at this stage of the year and our big numbers it will really be a matter of just settling them into school life.

I am stopping homework this week and we will do shared books and independent reading.
I want to keep up daily writing and with the 3 adults this is going well. Use museum experience for this.
We need to reply to the Mario blogs also.

Maths -problem solving and J can do her buzz etc.

I also need to meet with J re tasks to be fitted in this week (my requirements also)

Lastly I need to check that I have done all the end of year assessment requirements.

Inquiry Relection

I have just read back through my last few blogs and I can see that I have done a lot of reflecting about our inquiry. Because its on the blog I am the only one reading it. What do I do next time -print it out for others to read? But Who and Why? Do I put it at the end of the wall display?

I think I need to realise that reflection is for self BUT at times it also needs to be used for things like appraisal, or evidence of my learning. Maybe I could make better use of that form of evidence of my children's learning? Is that what we call 'children's voice" - is it really their relection? Could I put it on their blog?- if they had one? Just some more thinking about 2010 and my action/inquiry learning.

Week8

We had a great week at school and my student Janice is a great asset. For the draft 2010 organisation I am on the ICT/Inquiry team with Jo as the leader and I am also on the science team - both of which I am very pleased about.

I have the double room -GREAT-and I put on the staffroom whiteboard that if any one is interested why I have 2 rooms go and look at our inquiry in room2. I think having the inquiry up on the big wall is great. I have taken photos as a record but you don't really get the 'flow' like you do on the wall. I am so glad I went to Whanganui to hear about the work Island Bay School was doing -it was the HOOK into inquiry for me.(You can probably guess that I am quite proud of our work.) I am not sure if anyone has looked ,but that's OK.

On friday we went on a class trip on a bus to the museum. Once again a great whanau turn out and George was just great with the children. I liked it that we had 3 Nanas and a Grand dad come also.

Mario the turtle will need to go back to The Isle of Man this week. One of the little girls sneaked him up her jersey so he could go on the bus and to the musuem with us. She's made a real connection with him.

blog use

Today I had to do a PMI on my year as part of my appraisal with my team leader. I did some writing but also printed out something from my blog which was about my reflections on my Rellco goals for 2009. However, the best part was being able to give my appraiser -D. the comments/questions that Lorraine (our ICT facilitator) had posted on my blog.

Next I thought why not go the whole hog and give D access to my blog (all 118 entries) so she can really see how much I reflect and how my learning journey with things like inquiry, new entrants, assessment etc has gone.

I hope she takes time to look at it - I know reflections are for me and my growth, but sometimes we are all too busy to stop and learn about each other and what we have been doing in our job.
I am glad I blog!

Week 8

We have a student from the Wananga -Whaea Janice working in room 2 until the end of the year. Already she looks like she'll be a real asset to our class.

We have a trip on friday to the Museum, where we will be looking at the Te Arawa display. Thanks to Whaea D. -what a wonderful story teller she is and her room 9 pupils were great chracters in the play. My kids were enthralled especially the part where the dog was howling in the man's tummy.
We will be travelling by bus and I hope lots of whanau will travel with us.

The last week before our school concert, so we have been having extra practices with Mr. P. Boy the junior kids sound great.
We are also keeping things as normal as possible with daily writing, reading and maths. The kids are enjoying the problem solving and there is some great thinking/strategies being used.

2010 again

Great news after our staff meeting tonight - I have new entrants next year and the R1/2 double room (with the walls down). Maybe we can give our room an interesting name next year? I will do it WITH the children

I will ask Pete to take the walls down in the holidays. I will probably keep them in the room and use as display walls by leaning them up by the non bench windows (if it can be done safely)? I can't wait to plan out the room and make it an exciting place for learning. I need to make sure I am really organised with the equipment we need/want.

We also had to put down what curriculum areas we are interested in - I picked e-learning/inquiry and science. I know literacy and numeracy (especially with the National Standards) are the most impotant , but I feel I am on track with them now and I want to learn new things. I am loving using inquiry and want to carry on with thhat and e learning is always going to a place to learn new things.

2010

More ramblings/brainstorming about 2010. Maybe I want to look at what some ECE centres do with ICT to help children's learning and build on that.

This time for my goal I am going to make sure that I keep the learning at the forefront. Also I know that to show any shifts in learning I must have good starting data so I will also need to factor that into my action plan.

2010

I want to start exploring my action inquiry/goal for 2010. What was written on the end of my 2009 sheet was me moaning about that because I couldn't prove what I had for goals this year actually helped my children's learning, I felt it was all a waste of my time----- so I want to be more ???? for the next one.

On second look at what I had put for my goal for 2010 (just a start), I already realise it is far too broad and once again unmeasurable. "HOW CAN I INFUSE ICT INTO MY NEW ENTRANT ROOM TO MAKE IT A MORE EFFECTIVE LEARNING PLACE." What does that actually mean and how on earth could I even show that to anyone?

I need to have another look at Lorraine's SMARTER Goals work and also consider what Jill H. said about it should be all about improving students learning (and I know that is the message I have been getting all along in this ICTPD we are in, but I think I just got it out of my view for a while.) Next time I might just brainstorm some ideas and try to put some 'measuring tools' alongside them.

Inquiry Conclusion and Teacher Reflection

I think we have finishe now - with a postive conclusion with some real action/change to happen and we have done a reflection. I would never have been 'brave' enough to ask for a double classroom for the new entrants if:
a) I had not gone to Wanganui and heard about Reggio Emilia (and got really interested in what pre-schools are doing) and seeing Kath Murdoch's Inquiry Model -this one works for me!!!
b) I did not have the 'power'of a classfull of 5 year olds with me on our inquiry journey - this was a real context not some pretend learning -so talk about this inquiry being rich, real and relevant.

What will be extra good is that (I think) some of 2009 young Yo will stay with me in 2010 so they will benefit from their inquiry work as well as new kids.

National Standards

We had an informative meeting with our literacy advisor Christine about NS. The more I learn about them the more I like them. I think they are ideal for NE especially with having good starting school data to inform next steps, letting the children know what they are learning, sharing with parents where their child is starting and looking at the ways parents can help.
I think this is the time to get the parents involved in their children's learning.
Next year I think I would like to meet with my parents after a month-6 weeks after the child starts school. Also on TKI there are helpful forms- but I had better wait and see what the school plans for 2010.

Soon the P. is meeting with us re 2010 and I am hoping I have NE but again I had better wait.
I am still thinking about what curriculum area(s) I want to be involved in.

Travel Buddy

The swapping of Kikorangi the little blue penguin and Mario the leather back turtle from the Isle of Man has not worked like our 2008 Travel Buddy experience as I can't get our blog going properly BUT.....

the room 2 kids know so much about turtles and this has really helped their oral language and writing. Sometimes when things don't work out as planned other great things happen.

Inquiry

We have just received an e- mail from Mr. S and he has said YES. Mr. C thinks its a great idea also and has kindly said he will move for 2010.
The kids said they were happy, excited, glad and proud - so was I.

inquiry

I hear a little rumour that we MAY have r1/2. I want to check with the P. if we need to present our inquiry to the teacher involved. I won't get too excited yet (and I won't tell the class until its 100%.

My daughter - in -law's childcare is getting a new centre built and its been great to look at the plans to see what they are getting. The staff and children have had a big input into what is going to be there.

What would I like to have in a big NE room??? Spaces for a writing table that could be left set up with the materials writers need, painting and craft areas left set up. Spaces to keep works in progress so children can return to them, areas for the children's modelling and construction. How about a nice reading area with a couch and big cushions? Would we have room for a pet? Where would we put plants and flowers? Books and equipment stored where it is easy to access......

Would our class look like the one in the photo above??

Inquiry

I am going to make a powerpoint of our inquiry as I think its a quite a good inquiry and I am pleased that we have followed it thru. We are just waiting for the final stage -the reflection part.

Inquiry

Today we did our Taking Action part. We invited our Principal Mr. Stiles in to hear our presentation. Here he is listening to us. We will post some of the children's stories about it soon.

Inquiry - Taking Action

We have done the tuning in -with first idea, finding out, sorting out second idea and now conclusion stages on our inquiry on "What makes a great New Entrant Room?"

The conclusion is that if we want to have all the things, we think we need ,to have this NE class we need a bigger space to fit it all in. R7 sprang to the children's mind as being bigger and we spent quite a lot of time "measuring ' that and our room to see which was the biggest. At the prediction stage before the measuring most thought R7 (which has very little furniture was the biggest. R was brave enough to say that he thought they were the same size. The look on his face when later on he was proved right ,was a joy to see.

I told the class about the secret wall hooks between R1 and R2 and so we are onto the Taking Action stage this week ,where we are going to ask our Principal "If R1 teacher was willing to move to one of the classes that are going to be spare in 2010, could the New Entrant room be a double classroom please?"
We need to work out our presentation and involve several children in it.

blogging

I have just been on our class blog where we are using this as the means to communicate with our travel buddy class in the Isle of Man. I am finding using that blog hard and have made the comment that its the teacher (me ) having trouble with my learning - I can't work out some things even though I have done it once before and have notes on how to do it.

Being a 21century learner (especially for a teacher) is finding more and more things to learn about.

Last staff meeting

After last meeting where we had to evaluate our RELLCO goals with a buddy, I was very disappointed in myself and I started to wonder if all the work I had done this year for the contract was a waste of time. I felt, at this stage, that I could not say if it had all made a difference to my children's literacy levels. I THINK it has but I can't prove it.

Why do I think it has?
Things like the oral language levels according to the RTLB KLST results have improved a lot. But have other things caused that?
For the children who started school before July (ie the Y1 children -not Y0) only 4 are still low with their reading and they have oral language/speech issues and have been identified as such. How has my work on travel buddies, blogging, inquiry helped this?
Our term 4 inquiry on What makes a great New Entrant Room? has helped me to reflect about my own practice. One of the follow ups has been looking for more opportunities for whanau involvement with the children's learning. I absolutely feel that whanau involvement has been an important factor in the children's literacy learning successes. (There, I have found one positive.) Surely the oral language, writing, research skills involved with our travel buddy must have helped with literacy. How many 5 year olds even know there is a place called The Isle of Man, or can tell you about leatherback turtles, or why they were eating jellyfish in the waters around the IOM, or writing on the class blog to explain what whanau means????---there some more answers.
In hindsight I must have been having a bad day last Monday because when I take the time to relect properly, I THINK all the exciting learning we have been doing is a big help with our literacy and when 5 year olds say "Whaea Tric I just love learning" I KNOW it does.

week 5 overview

tuesday - Life Education at 11am - make sure I have done pre work
After school SLT meeting
wednesday-Lynmore RTLB day and Rellco cluster share afterwards
More Inquiry
More Travel Buddy work
Sort out blue books with summary data

From week 4 the readiong evening went well.

ICT litterbug

A couple of weeks ago I joined up to slide for photos. I see quite a few people use it on their blogs. I have managed to make one but I am not sure how to get it posted somewhere. I think I need to be a lot more careful about joining things and then not knowing what and how to use them properly. I am becoming a ICT litterbug.

Also its quite scary how things link into other thinks like from google to blogs. Once again the more I am learning with all this ICT stuff the more there is to learn so----- while it is exciting being a learner, at times it can also be rather frightening.

School work week4

I am going to do my broad planning here.

Special times - Monday -assembly and after lunch dancing in the hall after lunch. Check if PLAK is on at 11am

Tuesday 9.20 to 10.30 singing with Mr. P

Wednesday -tech room after lunch

Inquiry- visits to other rooms for photos of things we like and write about them

Travel Buddy - R. news about Marios first visit to a N.Z. home -we can do work for his diary and post on our class blog

Reading - sort out who is in Emergent group - new arrivals and???

Maths -problem solving in small groups -using the cards - basic introducation to multiplication

Keep on using IWB for counting games and rhymes and number work (use jetflash)

Art - get some more roosters for the hall. Read The Safe Place again as a shared book. Try Hunderwasser roosters.

P.E target games (I have made the big PE book so use that). Also keep skipping.

Mario and inquiry

Here is a photo from our class. Its Mario, the leather back turtle from The Isle of Man and his travel diary. The children love him already so our travel buddy work is all go. The diary also mentioned puffins - so another interesting animal to find out about. The kids loving learning about new things. We used google to find out about this kind of turtle and we found some great little videos. Also Mario's school has been commenting on our class blog. All this work is kind of inquiry based with questions and wonderings, ICT and recording our findings. Our BIG inquiry on the new entrant room is still at the finding out stage so we had better get on with that too.

Mario and week 4

I am finding it harder to put on pictures etc with classblogmeister but I know its about keeping the children safe. Mario (the leatherback turtle) went home tonight for his first weekend in New Zealand and lots of the parents signed the form.

Week 4 we have our goal evaluation with a buddy on Monday - I feel ready to share what I have done and L. said that we might be able to have a pre 2010 goal setting time. She also said she might be able to help me with a parents session about blogging etc (maybe late November).

Tuesday night at 6pm is our reading session. 9 of my parents have said they will come. I will do my early reading demo lesson with my 3 yellow girls. I must rememer to make sure the parents bring them to the evening.

Wednesday after school D and I will have our team meeting at the museum it will be good to try something a bit different.

notes for blogging thursday

Kids one -how to put kids on using paint pictures and special names
how to put on pictures of work
What about slide
how to get parents involved
My one -how safe is it (google bits)
Travel Buddy
Extra flash things -mine and the kids

whats on week 3 and goals week 4

A short week due to Labour Day. I want to use the photos taken at the whanau time on friday -both to share our successes and for oral language. Maybe we can be in the newsletter???

On thursday I have a blogging session with L. after school.

I need to sort out who I can use for my reading demo at the evening session. in week 4. There are 8 returns from our class but I need some more really early readers because that is what I am going to show. I may have to do face to face asking.

Week 4 we have our goals evaluation and I am going to do some rambling here now about my goals. I think we are going to do it with a buddy so I want to be ready. Here are the parts of my goal but it really goes back to student achievement, especially literacy . (A bit out of order from the sheet.)
1.Set up a class blog - done but still a work in progress. Safety issues are a big feature!

2. Global collaborative Project- Travel Buddy to Isle of Man. Kikorangi has arrived there and Mario is on his way - blogging, e mails, photos, voice?? etc- another work in progress. We did work on predicting what our new buddy might be.

3. Establishing the learning culture through inquiry- Term 1 - Me as a Learner -all children know we are all learners in room 2 and they know who and what helps them to be a good learner.. Term 2 - Zero waste one - our big picture was What is it about our world/community that we love and what can we do to keep it healthy and safe? (Show newsletter I made for my enviroteam task) ) Term 3 was celebrations and we looked at common features of celebrations children may attend -birthdays, weddings . This didn't go so well as the Keeping Ourselves safe unit arrived (unexpectantly in the middle of it ) , so we didn't do justice to it. Term 4 Kath Murdoch is the model I like - I found it in Wanganui - show class work on the wall. Current unit What makes a great new entrant room?

4. Celebrating our learning journeys- show the wall, T.D's learning story- what else- maybe data from literacy???

An important part of doing our goals is REFLECTION and I have been doing that through my personal blog- so show that.

I have taken PD opportunities through cluster shares (both receiving and giving) trips to the East Cape and Wanganui, lots of reading, using the Rellco wiki and sessions with L. on powerpoint, paint and blogging.
I have had a great year!!!!

Travel Buddy News

Kikorangi has arrived in the Isle of Man and Mario is on his way -so our Travel Buddy work will get going again. So Kikorangi's Kids blog on classblogmeister will be more exciting. I need to work with L. on thursday about how to put on pictures etc in a safe way.

Owhata whanau are great

Room 2 had an open morning on friday and we had 19 extra visitors -Mums, Dads, big brothers and little brothers , aunties and little sisters.
The children introduced their whanau members and we had a wonderful morning with lots of talking and lots and lots of fun.

As part of our inquiry about What Makes a Great New Entrant Room, at the finding out stage, we asked our whanau for their ideas and several said about having times where whanau came into room 2 to take activities and to get to know the other grown ups and family members and we certainly did that on friday.
I want to learn how to put several photos on to SLIDE? so we can share our great morning.Hopefully I can learn this in my blog learning time with L. on thursday.

whanau voice

Whanau had some great ideas to share about their ideas for a new entrant class. They obviously think a lot about school and as a teacher I need to really listen about what they say.
I have a meeting with L. in a couple of weeks about our class blog. The meeting on cyber safety we had a Lynmore today will have some implications. Looking at other people's class blogs I realise I have heaps to learn. I wish our travel uddy work would start so the children have a real purpose for blogging.Here is our travel buddy Kikorangi. I wonder where he is? The class miss him.

Questions

I need to make sure I do lots of work on questioning in our inquiry -we also make it an important part of our reading programme too.

Kath Murdoch Model

There seems to be quite a lot of interest in this inquiry model.
I am up to the finding out stage and the children are now thinking about THE PEOPLE source of information. Tonight, for homework the children have a a newsletter which asks what their whanau consider are important factors for a great new entrant class. I wonder if it will be the same or different than what the children came up with their first idea?

We will also survey other children and teachers.

How will we present our findings -some sort of graph????Lets see what the kids come up with.

Week 2

What's on for this week?
Monday - 2 important people are coming into our room to watch the PLAK ladies take oral language activities (games) with the tamariki. The visitors must be really important as we are doing a whole school powhiri for them. I know that Angus is from Rotorua and I heard him speak at one of the BEST seminar a few years ago.

I think we will hear about our Ngati Whakaue support for 2010 soon. They are great the way they put funding into education and having Miriama as a skilled literacy T.A. for literacy 4 blocks a week has been an important part of R2 learning successes.

On Monday we have a combined Junior / Middle school sharing time about literacy resources. What will I take?

On Wednesday there is a cluster meeting at Lynmore on netsafe. I am looking forward to this because I want to start opening up Kikorangi's Kids blog more.

Inquiry - we will start on looking at resources we will use of finding out information. We will start with people and then the questions we will ask. We will also need to work out how we can collect responses- another brainstorm.

Learning Intentions and co-constructed success criteria for reading. We now have 7 children on green books so we are well on the way to our target. Also all children have basic 1 to 1 pointing so all off emergent.

Week 1 of Term 4

A busy but rewarding week:

3 New arrivals to the class

T. classroom observation of my inquiry work went well and I managed to remember my Learning Intentions. I found co-constructing the success criteria with the children the way to go, so I am going to try that with my reading LI also.

Several teachers have been asking about the Kath Murdoch inquiry model I have used. L. has challenged me to present my headings on a powerpoint and print them out. But I feel if paper and pencil can do the job its Ok. Its the kids thinking and learning that I am focussed on.

I completed the Rellco survey on Friday night and I was glad I had been an active reflector. It took me 2 and a half hours to do. I wish we could save as we are working on the survey and do it in smaller parts.

Still no sign or news of the Travel Buddies and the children are wondering what is happening. Still, thats all part of TB'sisn't it - the waiting and anticipating. There are 2 new comments on Kikorangi's Kids blog.

Term 4

I like doing my term "overview" on my blog so I can look back to see what I achieved.
Inquiry - I am going to follow Kath Murdoch's model and its going to be about "What makes a great New Entrant Room". I want to use what we get out of this inquiry as a basis for my 2010 'action research'.
Travel Buddy work using our class blog

Maths - We will continue with number work but incorporate it into statistics with graphs etc.

Science-More walks out into the community to help develop observation skills and presenting what we did observe through drawing, digital camera work and use of easi -speak.

Oral Language- barrier games as well as using good quality oral language in meaningful contexts. Also PLAK with Annette and the Mum's on Mon and Thursday at 11 -11.30

Reading - I will continue to plan on the big sheets using the headings that Christine has given us. I also need to get some of the 'struggling ' kids to learn some more vocab. I need to sit down and work out realistic targets for the end of the year. How many will I get onto green??? Carry on with "Literacy Circles" - look at Tia's work for what she has done for follow ups to get richness out of the books we read.

Writing- Who will be on L1ii by the end of the term?What do I need to do to move the children. What will be my Learning Intentions?

PE target games -find Kylies book
Arts of the Pacific and graphics

Can I do some more Discovery work inviting parents in to help?
Other tasks will be- looking at how I have gone with 2009 Goals and what will be required for Pupil Led Conferences-will it be like I did with TrayDee ?Do I need to make sure I have Learning story work for the others?Are we doing written reports???

REMEMBER THOSE LEARNING INTENTIONS AND SUCCESS CRITERIA

Looking towards 2010

After reading my last blog with all the mistakes in I had better do a better check before I publish. Blogging beside a 11 month old -who loves the lap top is not a good idea.

R. at school is asking me about Reggio Emilia and while I have lots more information about the Reggio Way' I now need to start thinking about putting things into practice. I am not going to rush into it and the more I find out about our 2010 action research project I think that is where I will be aiming. The part from RE about documentation of the children's learning and finished 'product' will be where my I.T stuff will come in. I know its all about improving childrens thinking and therefore learning and I feel I am going to be on the right track.
Also our term 4 inquiry on "what makes a great New Entrant Room" will be a good start.

children as inquiriers

I am baysitting my 3 mokopuna for the holidays while their Mum is away at U Learn in Christchurch. They are 8, 6 years and 11 months old. I am also taking this opportunity to watch them as inquiry learners. Research says all children are inquiriers - I am still The little one already knows what a lap top is, loves exploring outside, loves animals, etc and the older have wonderful imagination -always inventing things and using brillant vocabulary.
Their parents are great at giving them lots of experiences suc as trips to the beach and snow, lots of books and reading to, lots of family time etc.
The 6 year old has had quite an unhappy start to his schooling and is now in a Montessori class and loves it. Even Nana has noticed a big change in his general behaviour and happiness. Montessori is something else I want to find out more about in connection with waht makes a good new entrant class.
The 8 year old loves reading chapter books and is a great big sister with a wide imagination which she shares with the younger 2.

Action Research 2010

Both Lorraine and Robyn have posed some questions about this and I will spend some time on this blog pondering.

I have really enjoyed being on the whole rellco contract and the final year has come up really fast. I have liked having the amount of freedom we have had to follow our interests ,at our pace. I love my 2 blogs now and it didn't matter that I have taken much longer than other people to become a blogger. I still have lots to learn for my class one but now that parents are interested in putting comments this is the right time to learn more.g
Also we will use it more for our travel buddy experience.-I like it how 2 new things are connecting (TB and blogging ). I can't image life with out all the relection I do on this blog.


Often for me connections happen and those are what I am more likely to follow. Reggio Emilia -which I heard about in Wanganu - is really happening for me right now- my daughter in law has heaps of material on it, she knows people who have expertise and the centre she works at follows lots of their ways - including 'documention'.

As I am always looking for ways to improve the learning for my New Entrants- I am trying to make connections and come up with a Kath Murdoch styled inquiry learning for both me and the class. I think I want to do it together.

google

I just got a fright -I googled 'ideal new entrant classrooms' to get some ideas and it came up with my blog. I had that wording in one of my recent ramblings.

I really thought only people who I let in could read my blog.

Bruce Hammonds

I googled Bruce and inquiry and have found some really intresting articles. I like his work. I need to learn how to link some of his work to this blog but at this stage I just have it in my favourites to ponder on. He uses that word disposition that L. often refers to -he writes "children are born with an inate disposition to learn."
I am going hunting for more of Bruce's writings on inquiry.

ICTPD Blog

I hae just been on L's ICTPD Blog and this time I have also been looking at the comments from others as well. What a wealth of valuable material -things like the value of blogging. I know I am years behind where lots of other learners are (as some of the writing is from 2 -3 years ago)but I like reading about things that I can connect with. I guess its better late than never.

I went onto R's wiki today and posted some things. It was great she replied to me.

I have really enjoyed all the 'reflecting" I have done today on my blog -its been on a variety of topics

owhatainquirywiki

I muddled up my wikispaces password and had to reset it and when it came back it had the wikis I belong to listed. I hadn't looked at our school inquiry wiki for a while and what a suprise when I went into some new stuff on inquiry pathways and there was the Kath Murdoch work. It was the notes about planning etc that I had been rambling on my blog about and it was set out so well I could easily follow it. What a day for coincidences.

Next Goal

L. said that our next 'goal' will be more like a 'research' and the more I think about our class inquiry about our ideal New Entrant Classroom and RE and probably other aspects of early childhood learning I am wanting to make that my 'area of research". Wouldn't it be great to learn along side the children - to think, to question, to view, to make, to design, to listen, to????? like them. I am excited about my learning again.

However, I better keep going with our Travel Buddy work also. I am bad at not finishing things properly. Oh and that class blog needs to develop- great that K. Mum's comment came through - it was me not clicking on the right heading. I need to get other whanau involved too.

Reggio Emilia

Its amazing how much this is coming into my life at the moment. Chrissie said she has some photos of RE centres on her laptop that she got when she went to Melbourne and also the new Early Birds centre for 4 year olds (where Josie S works ) uses RE ideas. I am certain our class inquiry for term 4 and RE can be tied in somehow.

From the Curriculum

For our term 4 inquiry about the best kind of NE classroom I can find these curriculum 'links'

Social Sciences- Place and Environment - Students learn about how people perceive,represent, interpret and interact with places and their environment.

The Arts- Visual Arts - Investigate visual ideas in response to a variety of motivations, observation and imagination. By this I mean things like the students making models, taking photos, drawing etc as a way of sharing their thinking.

English - Listening, reading , viewing - for finding ideas etc-
-Speaking, writing and Presenting- as ways to share information, ideas, thinking

ICT - use of tools to be part of all of the above and the KC's

Key Competencies now there's an interesting area for planning.

Thinking - "Thinking is about using creative, critical and megacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences and ideas. Students who are competent thinkers and problem solvers actively seek, use and create knowledge. Do I want this for my students from this unit -YES

Using language, symbols and texts - YES

Managing Self - a can do attitude, self assessing YES

Relating to Others- By working effectively together, they can come up with new approaches, ideas and ways of thinking. YES

Participating and Contributing - its about being actively involved in communities. Communities included whanau, school , other learning places (eg Preschools) - locally, nationally and globally. YES

Term 4 inquiry

I am going to do some brainstorming before planning our term unit as after the trip to Wanganui I now know that HEAPS of work goes in BEFORE the unit starts. L has lend me a book by Kath Murdoch called Classroom connections and it has heaps of easy to follow material for each stage of an inquiry.
Iwill use her headings and read thru her stuff and come up with some of my own.
Tuning in - to find out what students already know, think and feel about the topic. This could be where I do my first assessment as this is where students share their personal experiences and ask questions about the topic.

finding out - to provide shared experiences for all students to process and reflect on and to challenge their prior knowledge and beliefs. Its also about raising more questions as well as providing new information.

sorting out - to provide students with various means of processing and presenting info and ideas from the finding out stage.
going further - to extend and challenge childrens thinking

making connections/conclusions - to assist students to make conclusions and generalisations about the topic and to assess and demonstrate students progress through providing a comparison for students between the ideas generated at the beginning of the unit and now (stage 2 of assessment?)

taking action - to assist students make links between their understandings and their experiences in the real world. To develop an action plan for the school. (SEE Topic later)

sharing,discussion and reflections - to develop skills to report to others, to provide feedback for evaluation purposes about the successful and less successful aspects of the unit

She also has great planning sheets and I need these at the moment as I tend to start with a hiss and a roar and never finish the inquiries properly.
I want this one to work.

The inquiry will come from our term 4 overview about designing a new 'system' to solve a problem at school. I am going to take it further and our unit will be on what would make the best new entrant classroom. Next blog will be after I have had a good look at the curriculum. Oh and I also want the parents to be involved in this unit- how???

Technology

Last night I went onto L.'s ICTPD wiki and saw this really interesting slide show on 32 Technology integration tips. I saw some things that support how I feel about how its about the learning , how we learn off our teaching mates (like our cluster shares) and the power of the kids. I left a comment but this morning there was an email saying it was 'a fraud attempt". Once again when I think I am doing something right with this ICT something goes wrong!!!! One step forward and 2 steps back?

Reggio Emilia

Its a place not a person

Reggio Emilia

I was talking to Chrissie - my lovely daughter in law -who is an early childhood teacher- and she said that when I babysit my moko, while she went to Melbourne a couple of years ago, it was a Reggio Emilia conference she went to. What a small world. I am finding out more about his philosophy etc from internet and I found a book in the library and now I will enjoy 'interviewing' her.

Hira School

I just want to list some of the great things I saw in Tia's class.

The maths learning intentions laminated and put up by the

numbers. The display of special places.

Tia

I just received an email from Tia and she has included the web site for Kowhai 's (her class) work on the picture books they have studied . What a great way to set it out . I will post it here so I can get to it easy.

http://www.kowhai-kids.com/

Nelson

I had a great time in Nelson and really enjoyed my time with Tia and her class. I have come back with some more new ideas and things I want to try out. I felt that I knew her and her class through following her wiki. It was great to see in real life some of the things they had made -such as the cloak, the children's fabulous art work etc.

I like what she does for inquiry -term one is teaching the kids to wonder and ask questions, term 2 is teaching them how to use a variety of resources to source information, term 3 doing an inquiry -children work in pairs and select their own topic (theirs was science based) and they have to do a presentation (same type -theirs was making a documentary involving filming) and this is then presented to an audience (including parents) and term 4 is reflecting.

Here is a picture of Nelson taken from where I was staying.

class blog

An aha moment yesterday when there was a note in K's homework book from her Mum asking about how to get on to our Kikorangi's Kids class blog. K must have told her about her story on there. I need to see L now for the next stage of letting whanau onto it. I also want to put in images (not of the kids ) but their work, paint pictures of them etc.

e mails

I wish I could get my emails at home on my lap top like I used to. I hope things get fixed up at school soon. C said its not me its the system.

I am sitting at home all packed ready to go to Nelson. I am really looking forward to seeing T. I find her writings on children's literacy so inspirational and I love the picture books she talks about. I want to ask her to keep her writings going as she helps me to select wonderful books for my class. They are so into making connections with these books.

In my cubbie hole at school was an interesting article about questionning and how new entrants have been asking questions all their lives (well since they can talk) -what do we do to them at school that they have to be retaught how to work with questions.

This is the second time in 4 days that there has been special mention of NE. Last part was that they have been inquiry learners since birth. Aren't I lucky having a NE class- I need to do more with them.

Travel Buddy

Room 2 are going with this again and we have a posting on our Kikorangi's kids blog from The Isle of Man. Their TB is coming soon and should be hear after the holidays. We need to get K ready for travelling soon.The kids are enjoying reading what comes in. I need to learn to put in photos on that blog - it seems different than this one.
I am off to Nelson on Wednesday _ I can't wait to see Tia's class and share the Taniwha song with them.

Inquiry

Had a great day in Wanganui hearing from the staff of Island Bay School (Wellington) about inquiry learning. We will need to be ready for cluster share at next Rellco time. My head is whirling around about what to do but in saying that ,at last I think I can see how it all fits together.
It has to start right back at the mission statement and as our school is relooking at that stuff its great to be part of that. TheIB staff were honest, especially the 2 year one teachers and I like their sharing of what they first thought inquiry was and how things changed the more they worked with it. I also thought it had to be very pupil lead, done all (or most) of the day etc. Maybe that's what I might do part of my sharing on -a bit like the inquiry assessment - first idea ---- work on inquiry---- second idea about inquiry.
Planning is a HUGE thing and I have been hopeless at it and I now realise its one of the most important parts. I hope our team plans together soon for term 4 inquiry.
I think I am lucky having NE as inquiry seems to be quite natural for them - "they have been inquiry learners since birth"-- but what do we do to them at school that we have to reteach them to be inquiry learners. I think its time for me to look at the other part of my goal - early childhood and learning.

school

Thw Island Bay School is in Wanganui not Auckland

assembly

Our class assembly went well on friday. There were 4 kids away with an unveilling on (and one was sick) but we still had 11 families represented watching the kids. TA really got into her dancing and the pigs made the rest of the school laugh. It was great after school to get such a lot of postive feedback from both staff and senior pupils.
I hate the way I stress about things like assemblies, but I have learnt to start early in the term.
I used the data show/laptop for some of our items. I still needed V to help -but maybe next time I will do it on my own???? Lucky I had freed myself from being with the equipment and was there for the kids as some forgot their lines (stage fright) and R needed a quick dash to the loo.

On next saturday I am off to Auckland with a group to look at inquiry at Island Bay school and the following week its my Nelson trip. T has beenin touch again which is great.

blogging

I have been looking through the list of NZ teachers in blogmeister and I have seen several I know - including a few from my own school. What I have noticed is that most of them have started a blog but the nothing has been added for ages. Why is this? What do I need to do to try to not let that happen to my new class blog ( and this one). Is it time?

two blogs

Today one of my kids posted some writing on our class blog. I think I now need to get the kids paint portraits they did as their 'pictures' so things are more personalised.

We just had another great learning and sharing with other junior teachers in our cluster. I love it now that I know what they are talking about and to see that we are doing similar things like travel buddies, blogging, using ICT for student lead conferences etc.

Blogs

Now that there are 2 blogs that I have access to I need to sort out in my mind what each one is for.
initial thoughts- Kikorangi Kids is about our learning at school _I see from my old travel buddy class (2008) the teacher puts on what they are doing for the week, some photos , some 'books we are reading' and some web sites they are using. I want to learn how to set up a side bar to put some 'lists' in. Also kids writing, photos of their work. I am not ready for kids names/photos yet.

Rumaruatamariki is more about my reflections on my learning, ICT, etc

Class blog

I need to get the children contributing to our Kikorangi Kids blog. I have shared what I have done but its theirs so I need to build into our busy day time for them.

I am feeling a bit overloaded at the moment and forgot a meeting that I had at the museum after school on Friday. (I wonder how I used to teach a class and do DP and team leader work = I am so glad I am just the New Entrant teacher loving what I am doing!!!

Lots of things

The kids loved the new class blog, they are saving their paint work into their own folders, they enjoyed reading That Cat powerpoint and we have started 'setting up' for next Travel Buddy.

Kikorangi's kids

Today I set up a blog for my class I cant wait to show them it tomorrow.

sustainability

Over the weekend my son flew to Vietnam for a work conference and he phoned on his mobile to all was well. My daughter in law went to Auckland to be part of her clusters 'sustainability of their ICT learning as their contract is due to end soon. Part of her work was sharing how they see the future re ICT etc. This is where they had made the 4 generations poster of ICT use. I hope I get to see it one day.

Nelson

I received an e mail from T in Nelson and she was really welcoming about my coming to see her. I will organise to go down with my 21 years of teaching at Owhata travel money later this term- ( I just have to check with Wayne when it suits him.
I have a days release next week to work with L and another teacher from Rotokawa on class blog, travel buddies etc.
My kids are loving having a play with paint also.

Paint

We had another session with L and this time we got on to paint. I used to think it was just for little kids to draw scribbly pictures - its not - its for us 'big ' learners too. I am going to have a play with it (and let my kids also), I know they will teach me some interesting things because when I showed them what I had learnt several of them told me that they already knew about that!!!

Apparently some photos from the time my Mum went to her great grand daughters Early Child care (and there were 4 generations doing things for my grandaughters blog)-well someone is making a big poster of it. I wish I had been there (it was the other Nana who was one of the generations.

My daughter in law (an EC teacher) is presenting with other centre members at a conference in Auckland soon and as she is still breast feeding our little blogger she will be there also. ICT is such a real part of my whanau now - isn't great that we can share such interesting things.

reflections

J. has asked me about my learning and that of my class that has taken place on our rellco contract- where do I start?????

travel buddy
blog
IWB
training sessions
Lorraine
sharing
I will add more later.

parent interviews

I have just held my first 'pupil led conference' -using ICT.We had a powerpoint, including photos and a short video. TD led the conference -talking about his learning and giving examples -not bad for a 5 year old. His parents said they loved the visuals and will bring in their jet flash so they can take a copy for the rest of his whanau.
I know I have only done it for one pupil, but I now convinced its the way to go.

oops

I put that photo on before - and I had lots of typos - I must be all blogged out. I'll finish with Porter the sausage dog- I like taking her for walks in the Redwoods.

Mokopuna

time I put a photo ofmy 3 beautiful grand children on my blog as life isn't all about schoolis it?

power point for thursday

I have decided what I am going to do for using a power point to help with learning.
As usual I am going to keep it simple so I can keep control over what will be happening.
This week is our parent interviews and I have put together a short series of photos showing one of my pupils working in a variety of curriculum areas. I have added text and want to share this with his whanau at the meeting. I will check if the child is attending the interview also and if he is I would like him to take a real active part in the 'conference' - a simple 'pupil led conference.' I will share the power point with him before the meeting so he is familiar with the material.

Afterwards I will see how the parents felt about this way of sharing their child's learning, ask the child what he felt about it - maybe we will do a PMI together and I will complete my power point task for thursday using this information.
I can see material like this having many uses including learning intentions ,next step learning and assessment.

power point

We had another great session with L. on power point on thursday after school. In the end I was quite ok about my first effort and felt quite proud when someone said that my presentation 'looked professional.'
We have another task for coming thursday -How can we use what we have learnt about PP for learning.
I am just brain storming on a wet saturday morning mainly using suggestions that L. has made:
*children's learning journeys-I could make folders for the children and start putting work in - ( I could do one child's journey - T?)
*make a PP that could be printed off in the end about a brand new entrant
* A Key competencies project involving the class -done so we could view it in the class to help us be good learners.
* What about something from inquiry - for our celebrations inquiry.
* Kikiorangi needs to get ready for his next travel buddy experience - What can I do for that???
* We are meant to be having a spelling/word study programme - what can I do for that?

My favourite Irish Song

I have just posted another song I love - I forgot to put the heading on the Youtube posting.

Travel Buddy

L. has just send an email seeing if my class want to take part in another travel budddy exchange with a school on the Isle of Man. I think room 2- 2009 are ready now as they 'love' Kikorangi so the connection is in place, some of the kids can 'write' so we can do exchanges re e- mail and I am ready to work with L. to set up our class blog (as I am loving playing around on this blog.)I have had a quick look at the school's web site and I bet they will exchange an otter??

This morning my Mum went to my grandaughter's (so its Mum's great - grand daughter)child care to be videoed to be part of her blog. Wow 4 generations of my family are part of this ICT learning world.

power point

Well I have made my little pp for thursdays meeting with Lorraine. I decided to just do photos rather than video (but its great I can do that now).I now can put it into portrait, change background and add voice. I know its simple but I am ok about what I have done.
One thing I didnt really get was what do you do with all the 'extra files??' when you want to move your pp somewhere else. I'll ask more at our next couple of sessions.
I tried putting my pp into my blog but Ithink its too big??That's another thing I want to learn how to do. You must be able to someway as you tube things can get on.

powerpoint

We had a great session on thursday with Lorraine teaching us more about power point. I didn't realise it could do so much. Actually all it was about was looking at the drop down menus and having a play. We have to share 3 or 4 slides we will make this week. I took some photos of my grandkids at the market and the playground so I might use some of that.
However I still want to show that I can do movies and sound so I will think a bit more before actually making my slides.

For Monday staff meeting we are looking at assesssment - including summative and formative. I have never got my head around them but after looking at stuff on TKI I think I have. I can now see where all that stuff on WALT is coming from - inquiry learning too. I like it when I can see things linking.

wendy

Great to hear from Puggles'teacher and she has shared her blog with me. Already I have some more ideas about kids work. That inspiration for brain storming looks good. I might have a go for our latest inquiry on children's celebrations.

goals

I had better sort my goals/tasks out for this term. I know I said about doing a blog for/with the class but maybe a wiki is better. I have made one -at this stage triciaowhata is its working title. I just need to sit down and get it going.
For literacy I have to get as many kids as I can on green by the end of the year. I am just going to plod away at the 3 who have speech language therapy reports. I expect more kids to start school but I am going to be realistic about getting to yellow.
Inquiry is going to be about special times like birthdays, weddings etc and we will look for common things. I will do more with the tool box - graphic organizers etc.
Maths - the national stds have gien me more direction. Good its not just numeracy and it will be fun doing things like measurement, patterning, describing/attributes etc. I am going to work hard at doing more maths each day plus making maths more of a feature in the room.
IWB - I need to get a bit more serious about how I use it - I want to sort out how to do links so I can set up for use through out the day.
Cross country on this term.

Kathy

I just received an email from a friend telling me about his wife passing away. He wrote that she is still helping people and has donated to help 3 different people to have a better life. I am not sure if I am ready to hear news like that on a laptop yet --- but it came anyway. Does this mean, once more, that ICT is becoming more and more a real part of my life.
I am having to accept that I can no longer pretend it doesnt impact on my life. Its now not just something to play with -maybe thats the message I have to get about teaching and learning with ICt now. This has probably been an AHA moment

you tube

I have done it, at last I have been able to put on my favourite song. Some of this ICT stuff is so easy once you know how- it almost loses its magic when you realise how easy it is.
Next I want to learn how to do links so I can set up my IWB better instead of having to spend time searching for stuff.

my favourite song

visit

I have just asked Tia can I visit her class in Nelson next term. I hope she says yes when she is back on line when school starts.

Journal

I have been reading my 14 year old nephews school report from Tolaga Bay Area school. It is great the way the teacher of literacy has been honest about his trouble with writing (spelling and getting going) and how she has put some ideas for helping. So, following her advice I have purchased him a nice book for him to 'journal' in. Great to see David starting to write about his life on the farm and he has started about his 2 dogs. He just told me on the phone that he will read out to me tomorrow what he has written. He thinks he has got nothing interesting to write about , but when he starting talking about his school, farm life and sports he now reaises he has a lot.

Mokopuna

Rellco

The workshop with R and J went well on saturday, although I did feel a bit dumb that my conribution (and ICT) was quite basic.
My son and I just had a meal out in town and he showed me his face book when we came home. I enjoyed seeing what various relations and some of his old school friends are up to. He also showed my 9 month old grandaughter on her early childhood blog - she had this adventure with a big basket. There was photos,comments and music. I know how I felt as a Nana seeing her learning in that way sooooooo -
After saturday at the rellco conference I am going to see if at parentinterviews early next term I can show one piece of each of my kids school work in an ICT format.

T's work

I am so enjoying reading her writings on life, learning, reading, 5 year olds
etc. I wish she would publish them in a book - I'd buy it. She writes that already we are pushing reading too hard and too fast for our 5 year olds. I feel I have to compromise and the work I am doing with good quality books especially NZ ones through the literacy circle headings to guide my teaching is helping to give the depth and richness of literacy that is missing from just a diet of 'teaching reading'. I think this will be the line I will use for my bit of our Rellco workshop next saturday.
T's work with follow up activities has been wonderful to see and I am working hard to include aspects into my literacy programme.
I wonder if she would let me visit her class next term?? Will I be brave enough to ask her. I could use my 20 years of teaching money.

literacy circles

I am making a digital story with KT 'reading" the Lion in the Meadow (when she is only reading on yellow. She has great expression, she knows the story (and loves it).
K (another K) made a strong connection about the sadness (and death )in Roimata's Cloak and sadness and death in another persons life (a big thing to do for a new entrant).

school

I don't know why I always lose my password and have to go the long procedure to get back in. I wanted to put something on T's page (but I am getting blogs and wikis muddled again. Just when I think I am getting a handle on some aspect of 21st century learning I get tripped up.
I have spent sunday afternoon looking at the draft standards for maths and reading and writing (for the first year at school). At first they looked a bit scary but I now think they are very helpful for giving me a much clearer direction as a teacher. I feel on track with the literacy stuff (although I might need to step up the pace a bit) and the Maths area has made it better for my teaching focus. I still want to make sure I have lots of opportunities for sharing the magic of learning with my NE and I know the work we have been doing on literacy circles is an important part of that.
On TKI there were digital stories about schools and their journeys. I want to get back into 'Discovery" as a good way of working with those Key Competencies. I started with a hiss and a roar with an open day last term but I need to do them more regularly.
I had a rave on R's blog/wiki??? this morning about some interesting aspects of LC but now I realise I should have done it on my blog (and not clutter up her work0

Lion in the Meadow

I am realising that sometimes I need to spend a bit more time on a book. I thought I would make a class display about the story featuring grass and flowers (a meadow ) and some of our lions. We also did a brain storm on the IWB about the Mother and this time there was more depth of thinking.The children said that while the Mother was making up stories she was just trying to help her son be brave and play in the field. Then T. said 'brave like brave father mouse.'
I asked her what she meant and she said Father mouse was very brave because he had to go past the cat to get bread for his whanau. A CONNECTION. I now realise that connections don't always have to be with just the children's world, it can be with other books they have read.

Lion in the Meadow

This is some word work on the word meadow. I am taking more photos of the literacy work for our Rellco workshop.

The Lion in the Meadow

The children did not think that the mother was making up stories.

Literacy Circle

Literacy Circles

I have found my next book. I was at my grandsons 6th birthday party and I looked in his book shelf for another book with the theme of people not telling the truth and I saw "The Terrible Taniwha of Timberditch". In this book Dad tells his daughter that if she goes down to Timber Ditch the taniwha will get her.
I need now to scan the bookcovers into a Literacy Circle Folder) and have them ready for the workshop at Rellco.
I feel really chuffed that Robyn has asked me to be part of her workshop (with Jan). I need to remember that the Rellco "conference" is about being a 21st century learner so I have to make sure I use some ICT in my share of the presentation.
I love getting into the books I have picked and getting some great book language, thinking and lots of oral work from my New Entrants.
I am going to look at Tia's work soon to see what she is up too with her picture books. We watched her Little Red Hen videos last week and had a go. It was so easy, yet so powerful. We played our work on the IWB at the end of the day when the parents come in to the room and they all thought their kids were movie stars. (21st learning)

You Tube

I am on You tube - well I mean a little digital story I made on the K.Cs is.Lorraine put it on -WOW it is so great. I loved seeing Joanne and Jan's work on our East Cape trip there too and this time I am in it. I wished now I had taken more photos up there as I got so much out of that trip. I am going to see if I can sort out what i want to do on the inquiry book. Its different from what we saw at Lynmore the other day.
Lorraine had visited my blog when she was at school and I loved reading her comment. I want Jan to go over how to do a you tube piece in my blog as I know what song I want for my blog -(Its an Eagles one - of course)

ICT

I can't really believe that amount of ICT I have used (for real) today on my classroom release. Less than a year ago I remember that poem about not using any and that was where I was with my learning. Look at what I have done today:
used my IWB
blogged
gone onto 4 different wikis to find what I needed
communicated about literacy circles with a pupil through her wiki (both of us sent and got replies)
Used some of the things L taught me at our sessuion last night
A senior pupil helped me get my digital story started for my rellco visit follow up
At lunch time E and V were twittering and V sent me one (what ever they are called) and it came thru and I joined twitter and replied.

I am starting to feel like a 21st century learner and while I know I have HEAPS to learn, at last I am feeling excited about what I still have to learn -rather than afraid of it. A wow moment for me today and its been great to have a day with time to reflect about my learning (and all the people who are there to help me.)

reading

I have just spent time looking at Tia's work with her new entrant children on picture books. I am wandering if some of her books might be good for my 'literacy circle' exploring. The Lion in the Meadow was a book that my son (who will be 35 this week) loved when he was a little boy.
I have also liked reading Tia's thought provoking ideas about reading -well the teaching of it and why all the pressure on us new entrant teachers to teach the children to read by the time they are 6. Are we going to lose the joy of words, books in our rush to teach them to read. Hopefully I can do both but I am not so sure.
I tried to join Tia's wiki but once again I seem to be doing something wrong. I will try later.
I never realised how much I would be getting out of R.'s e-fellowship-there's reading, ICT and general learning ideas for me- another great form of personal professional development- Thanks

school

Well if this blogging is to replace my 'reflective journal', today it is going to have to put up with my moaning.
Just when I thought things were going great for me at school - things like the literacy circle excitement, my IWB is now an important (and useful) part of my programme, my feedback from T's observation was positive (with some agreed and very helpful areas of next development), my inquiry is on track, I have got some sponsorship for the coloured newsletter that my class are putting together for our special job we have for Enviro Schools , my kids are learning and say neat things like " I just LOVE school Whaea" ----It happened!!!! My team leader came in after school on Friday and said by wednesday I am to do all the testing in the "6 year net" for each of my 14 pupils for the literacy contract that the senior management is working on. I can see why it will be useful BUT does she realize how long it will take? I have been learning how to do the TEll Me part of SEA as this was asked for also along with CAPs and ID - but was told on friday this is not required at this stage.
As requested I had already done the CAP and Letter ID on the children as part of the SEA (apart from the latest 2) including a transfer in from The Rumaki class- but there are still heaps to do. I had a hissy fit and made my blood pressure go up(I had a doctors appointment at 4.)
I have requested some release time because I will not be able to get it done in the 2 days as well as teaching. Do senior leaders know how much work is required. I do see the value in having good beginning data and have a lot but please some warning when the game changes.
Well I do feel abit better now _I like reflecting!!!

inquiry

For monday staff meeting - sharing what we learnt on our East Cape road trip I am wondering what to do. I got lots of things to think about. I think I might just talk about the idea of having a class inquiry book. I think its an easy way to show the learning journey of the inquiry you have done. Because my 2008 term 4 one on "how to welcome back a loved one' worked for me and I had lots of evidence,I will share how I have made that into my first inquiry book.

I have also started my Zero Waste one so I can touch on that. I hope its OK not to be focussing on the ICT and just on the inquiry. Too bad if it is- I am learning !!!

literacy circles

In my new entrant class we have started learning some of the roles- character describer, word detective and the illustrator. I am already amazed at the depth of the childrens thinking and language -who said you have to be able to read to do this. We have used a big book 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf" An Aesops Fable.
I have decided to use a scrap book to record our work - its an easy way to look at what we have done and also to be able to work on things again.
Highlights of what we have done so far include -the children relistening to the story and telling me the interesting words. We had words like prowling and to help them to understand what the wolf was doing we role played the wolf moving to get the sheep. Next the kids had to say what they were doing -out came words like sneaking, being down low and being quiet. For 'every morning he collected the sheep' we collected 3 items from around the room and then had to explain what we had done. K. said 'I gathered these lanterns."
I am loving the kid's joy of words . Next I want to see where they go with the connector role. Will they be able to make the link to their lives???

e- learning

I have just spent time looking through one of R's e-fellows wiki and seen some great stuff that a junior teacher is doing with her class in literacy.I really want to learn how to do voice thread. I am seeing more and more examples lately of teachers using technology tools to really help their student's learning--- its probably just that I am at last starting to know what I am looking at.
I love it that I am now starting to know what I want to learn about (and more importantly what I want my kids to learn.)-- before I was in that totally confused place of 'not knowing what I don't know????'
I really like the way R is sharing her e fellow 'stuff' and is Ok that I want to know more.

Enviroschools

Room 2 and me have the job in the of doing a newsletter for enviroschools. I have asked people for their big ideas (and I have checked the owhata inquiry wiki to see who has posted theirs - so I can see now that r8 (wiki) r5 and r10 have theirs. What I plan to do (so it ties in with inquiry work) is for my kids to ask questions to clarify the big ideas. Room 10 have put in about looking after Papatuanuku and room5 grey water. So this week we will do more work on questions and when we are ready and my children have practised the questions , we will visit the rooms and conduct 'interviews' for our newsletter. I hope it works out- I will need to talk to the 2 teachers first.

Literacy Circles

I have got onto Robyns blog and room8's one where the children are working on their literacy circle work. At last I can see a real purpose for blogging- one that really helps the learning.
After the East Cape trip we had to do a survey where next steps need to be put in place. One of mine was to get the kids blog up and running. Robyn's blog work has given me real motivation for this.

east cape

OOps, I pressed the wrong button and I hadn't finished about the East Cape. On Tuesday at school we are to share (just briefly )3 things we got out of the visit. Here are mine (at this stage)
1. The strong yet gentle Maori woman leaders we met. They are proud to be Ngati Porou and it was great to see the support one in particular was getting from her tane. What was extra cool was that 2 of the women had been to Owhata School.

2.For inquiry the schools had made real use of their local resourcesboth physical and people.

3.The importance of the hook in right at the beginning. An example of this was from Hiruharama School for their inquiry on celebrations. Each morning something different happened -a teacher wore her wedding dress, there was a birthady cake next day, etc and the children discussed in class what had happened , but more importantly asked questions.

East Cape

I had a great trip up around the East cape with staff from Owhata, Rotokawa, Lake Rotoma and of course Lorraine.

Hundertwasser cats

We have been looking at the art of Hundertwasser and have had a go at 'Hunderwasser' style cats. We think they look great!

blogs and wikis

I am having a great time checking the various wikis and blogs I "belong to" and best of all I am posting comments.

I have learnt to add more details to my own profile- even a photo. Next I am going to learn how to put photos on to this blog.

I HAVE A VISITOR TO MY BLOG!!!!!

I am playing on my newly made blog and there is a message from our wonderful IT facilitator Lorraine. It made me feel that I have hope in learning about these 21st century tools. Thanks Lorraine you know a lot about feedback (and forward).

Then there is a lovely message about me as a learner on our wiki. I needed that I was a right old grump at school yesterday.

LEARNING MORE

I am going to a course on blogging with the staff at th Early Childhood Centre where my daughter in law works. She knows I want to learn about blogging and has arranged this with her head teacher. Isn't great to see sharing across the education sectors?

WE HAVE JOINED THE BLOGOSPHERE!!!!!!

I have just had a wonderful session with Lorraine Watchorn setting up my first blog. I can't wait to share it with my new entrant class in the morning. We are in room2-hence the name.

Next step will be involving our whanau- mine included as I want to show my mokopuna that their old Nana is a 21st century learner like them.