A Year

Going through Bruce H.'s blog and some comments I came across somebody in US who has made a film about her class over a year and also a lady who wrote a book about her class over a year. Wouldn't it be great to do that. I like the idea of long time things. Even my blog (for me) has been a sort of record of my learning over a length of time.
When I start my science fellowship I am going to write about it because reflecting on your own learning and thinking is a great way to learn even more. Blogging is good (better than just writing in an old exercise book) because people can visit and help clarify your thinking by challenging ,sharing etc
Maybe in 2011 I could video more and make a recording of my kids learning too..

Callibration

I had a minor panic- well no major really when I thought my power point for staff meeting on Monday had gone pear shape. Joss from room 6 said to me quietly that maybe I needed to callibrate and he showed me how. WOW -that fixed the problem in no time. I have on the classroom wall (a quote from Robyn )that its important for us teachers to have the climate in our class to allow the kids to do things with ICT and each day I am learning that its even more than this, its also about us all helping each other with our learning.
All this 3 years work on ICT, Inquiry, Thinking etcetc is so much about learning and thinking about learning and getting better at learning.

LEARNING

I have just returned from my brother's capping at Massey University - he received his Masters Degree in Education. They know how to celebrate learning and it was wonderful to see the look of pride on every students face. What can I do at school with my students so I can see that same look on their faces?
Lorraine has been reading my latest blogs and as usual she has challenged me on to another level of learning. Her challenge is to look for examples of children learning by using ICT.

Te Whaiti

This boy (Te Whaiti ) is my learning boy today. I always have a soft spot for him because my Dad used to live at Te Whaiti. He is pracitising his ball skills so he can be a good team player. He is actually in the school's rugby team but Te Whaiti has great ball skills overall.

To be honest he is one of the reasons I love teaching at Owhata. I loved it that one of Te Whaiti's big sisters was working in town last week and she came out of her way to come up and give me a big hug.

We did some science experiments today - it was so cool to see the kids awesome responses.

Day 5 Learning

Destiny is in Junior Bilingual class and her learning is about leadership. She has 2 younger tamariki to help to learn. She had to give clear instructions, let her group have a go and help them if they needed to be helped.

I also heard her praising her little ones. She had to make sure that she was doing the task well herself - and she was -so leading by example.

As a teacher it has been great to focus on the learning that is happening in my classroom. Sometimes we get hung up on the activity and we need to keep the actual learning that we are expecting (so Learning Intentions ) and what learning we see happening. This has been a worthwhile activity (Daily Learning) so I am going to continue next week (and beyond??).

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.