Teacher+Reflections+and+Tips+and+Tricks

=RobynStoc=

Term 1 :Met with Stephen. Talked a bit about the insert function. Looked at word art and its uses. Asked him how to use text boxes. Had a bit of a play at home. Had trouble putting them alongside another text box so tried something different 18.04.10 Copied a picture on line to a word doc and drew a text box next to it. Re sizeditto fit picture.Also found I could resize image the same way –coolSuccess! Now I’m really on a roll! 29.04.10 visited Ragini + Sharline’s rooms to see how they use their data projectors. Loved Sharline’s daily pages and saw Ragini using DP as an interactive whiteboard which is what I would like to try. 30.04.10 Took class to library to use paint. We drew pix of sharks, using pencil, oval + colour. Children were much better than me! My shark very wobbly creature, but Nathan did a very professional looking one. Wish I’d saved it to publish, but pressured by time and excited by the fact that I’d done it! Need to ban the rubber next time! We tried reversing the colours for fun and changing the direction. 3.04.10 Got out the data projector to show a neat video clip, but couldn’t get a signalWendy said press fn F4, but I probably did something wrong 5.05.10 ICT cluster. Impressed by work shown by Ms Younger. What’s the difference between paint and KidzPix? 12.05.10 Now have my data project. The fun begins..... 13.05.10 Next steps: Use word features with DP. Write a sentence. Improve sentence using colour fonts for adjectives. Graph choices for healthy drinks. Insert pix of drinks Take photos of drink bottles. Advertising. Design a container add words all together as demo. Term 3 Busy term, but managed to attend most of the sessions organized by Nat + Nik. Special thanks to Nat who has been working with me 10 mins every week to help me ‘upskill’. Felt a bit at sea with the Inquiry learning as I like to know what I am doing each day. So wrote a “normal” plan so I would have something to do if Inquiry lesson fizzed out! This didn’t happen! The kids responded really well to work on Open/closed questions, Trash+ Treasure, questions for Wonder Wall. I used Reading Time to work on key words, table of contents/index and glossaries. The children were able to choose resource books and find information related to their topic. They marked the page with a sticky note and shared with their groups. A good introduction to notetaking. I tried getting each group to make a power point, but this was rather ambitious. Need to give them more skills first. But each group did achieve a title page + one other for their powerpoints. Have not used Thinkers keys, but observed Stephen using them for the class. Was surprised how well they did, but there were 3 adults helping! After the staff meeting run by Stephen I can see how I might use a Thinkers keys tumble as part of a Topic study and will try that in our Inquiry unit next term. Got really motivated after Nikki’s session on Mimio and downloaded stuff onto my laptop, but haven’t found the time to do anything with it yet. That’s where the afterschool sessions are really good. It forces you to take the time for computer stuff and find other time for marking,etc =Nat= 22.09.10 I'm really into the blogging and am working hard in my own time to load things, put bits into movie maker etc etc. Although it's great fun I am aware that if I had more commitments outside of work (eg cooking dinner) it would be difficult to commit the same amount of time to a blog. That said, I was also wondering what the point is. Now that I have learnt to put a visitor counter on the blog I can see that the blog is being viewed. I wish parents from my class would go on and leave comments. I've also forgotten that one of my children doesn't have permission for her photo to be published. I've had to go around and take any photos of her on the class walls down and take photos/ movies off the blog. Very annoying. I am going to approach her parents and see if I can change their minds. I also have one outstanding multi permission form that I am going to chade down. 1.09.10 Stephen modelled for 30minutes in each Year 1 classroom today. He had mini-breaks where children role played dinosaurs to keep them focussed and to give them a bit of moving around time. Lots of resources were from books and scanned onto the mimio. The resource Stephen had already had key words in bold. He discussed why these words were important. It's becoming more clear about the kinds of good resources we need to find for our inquiry units. I also liked how Stephen modelled using the pictures to pull out information about meat then plant eaters then the similarities between them. 10.05.10 Had another session with Stephen today. We managed to use Stephen's expertise to get some of our questions asked. One of the many things we discussed was what Year 1s can actually go and do during inquiry time seeing as so much of it is teacher led. We have some good ideas about picture disclosure, labelling activities, finding key words etc. We also discussed what the purpose of inquiry learning for Year 1 is. We already feel like we are doing the good pedagogy stuff - children are engaged, they are becoming life long learners, we are feeding back etc etc so why add inquiry. We talked about the kinds of ways Year 1s are beginning to develop the inquiring mind and how the 'creating' part of inquiry takes it further than our past 'units' where the learning has stopped after the front loading and learning lots of new knowledge by finding answers. 28.05.10  Digistore workshop today. Very useful. Yet another space on the internet full of resources. The new 'learning pathways' let's you set up collections of multimedia resources and lessons for children to follow. You can also add the URL links to blogs and wikis so children can explore a learning pathway you have set at home. One of the challeges we now face is the overload of resources - a resource room full and an internet full! At least with the online stuff you can access it in front of the TV, when you are doing your planning, disregard the stuff that doesn't fit and save the links to the staff that does.  27.05.10  Etour today. Point England School blew my mind. Some very cool ideas and some research showing how podcasts (book reviews) improved children's reading. I am going to try and grab one of our two apples and have a go. Maybe a few of us can have a week each and see if we can get this going. Lots of things we saw made me think about authentic learning. Call it what you want ICT or eLearning - it's always supposed to have been about the learning not the tools. I am very aware not to teach computer skills. Any skills children develop should be through a learning context. For example - my children can open word and change the font size - they have had to, as we have turns writing our stories on the computer. I have NOT had a lesson where children learn to change font size. We also need to always be thinking - 'wow - cool tool - can we use it for learning?' I'm going to start posting more of the children's work on our class blog so they can share and get feedback about their writing. I'm also going to see if I can put a notice in the newsletter to inform parents about the blog.  11.03.10  Met with Stephen re ePAAP and podcasting. Some podcasts failed to open on our server and we have lots of questions about whether podcasts can be done using PCs.  25.03.10  Morning PD with Stephen. Lots of questions asked about the difference between sharing on powerpoint or podcasting. Podcasts can be viewed, listened to and downloaded on websites and onto ipods. Powerpoints can only be opened online if the viewer has the same programme. Powerpoint can be exported to ‘slideshare’ and viewed on wikis or blogs. Had a play with audacity. Has not loaded onto my PC. Need to play and work out how to split clips.  April Holidays – Learnt how to save powerpoints as file extension .pps so that when children open them they are playing straight away! Also made hot links to other documents for children to type on =Nikki= Term 3 reflectionsInquiry has taken my class on great journey this term. They have been really engaged and have loved the different activities associated with inquiry learning. I have enjoyed teaching inquiry and loved the fact that my kids became the experts when teaching me about their cultural clothing. The one thing that I think I need to consider next time is the timing and length of the inquiry activities. I found that I was whizzing through at least two activities in one session. I don’t know if this is due to not planning in enough depth or if they are just designed to be shorter activities.It was also great having Stephen in to model an inquiry tumble. He introduced us to some pretty neat activities and gave me some good ideas on how to use the thinker’s keys authentically. The children responded well to Stephen and took away some new and exciting learning.My class blog is still going well. It is at times a mission to keep the posts updated but the kids and parents love it and have responded well to it. I am starting to communicate with other schools more. We have been looking at others schools work and have been learning how to make an appropriate comment. Also helped Anna kick start her blog this term, it is great to have five blogs within the school!One new thing that I have been doing in class is using wordle.com and tegxedo.com during my reading rotation. One of the activities sees the children identify key words within the story and put them into a word cloud. The kids have really enjoyed doing this especially when I put their work on the blog. This tool has also helped them in their inquiry when they are searching for key words. I still have heaps to learn within inquiry but am looking forward to challenges J 28.05.2010

Today we went to the digi store workshop. Digi store is a great website which allows teachers to share and gather resources in one area. We learnt how to create pathways and folders for each year level. I like the idea of digi store as i will link the resources from my blog for my class to view. It is also a great collaborative resource as syndicates can work together to get a variety of resources for a particular unit. Digi store also helps to overcome the barriers of 'limited resources in the library' or 'watch dog' which are both positives.

27.05.2010 Today we went on the e-tour which was amazing. We started at Point England school which is a very low decile school. The programme they had in place for e-learning was great to see. Children were able to speak fluently and confidently about what they were doing and the way in which e-learning supports and extends their learning. The children in this school were very engaged in their learning and were learning through authentic contexts. The next two schools were great also! The main ideas that I took away from the tour was that education is forever evolving, there are a million things we can be doing in our teaching to enhance learning but i think the key is to choose a select few and really focus on these and do these select few well as opposed to doing a million things half pie :)

My focus for the children has been introducing them to the various ICT’s within the classroom. I started off with correctly logging on and off computers and then moved into a digital register. For the first week the children had to come into class and type their name into a power point document to indicate they were here. This allowed them to practise their typing skills and locate various keys like caps lock ect. During the second week I introduced them to some of the writing tools. This included colour, font and making words bold, underlined ect. After two and a half weeks the children know how to confidently type their name, change the colour and font. My next focus for my class is getting them to use and operate a digital camera and getting them excited about starting our class blog!

Some great blogging websites that I have been using today: [|www.thecutestblogontheblock.com] [|www.bling4yrblog.com]

Week 5 - This week I signed up to spelling city. It is a great website where you can add spelling groups. The children are taught to spell the words in a variety of fun ways. I also made this a link to my blog so that children can do it from home! =Wendy=

Reflections: April 26 2010 Our school has just begun its 3 year journey as part of the “e-wrapper” ICT cluster. As project director I was part of the group to set up our school and cluster wiki. This was my first experience at being an “editing” member of a wiki. Working alongside the cluster facilitator I have been helping to add content areas for important cluster documents to be stored. By putting documents such as the cluster contract, goals and action plans on the wiki we are hoping to keep our cluster teachers well informed and included. I have been learning to record the e-leader minutes and embed You tube videos on to a wiki. At first I found this tricky but once I had been shown I had a go by myself. After a few errors and lots of laughs here and there I was able to work it out. I found writing myself notes was really helpful as I could go back and refer to them anytime I needed to. I watched the “Wikis in plain English”video on our school wiki page. It was also really helpful about adding links. I have found that we need to keep the labeling of links on the wiki easy for people to interpret so they can find information quickly when they revisit. All teachers in the cluster have been given the cluster wiki address and have been asked to take a look at the site. I think it would be a good idea for each school to visit both the cluster wiki and their school wiki during a staff meeting. This may give staff who are less confident to try viewing it own their own a chance to see how it works. 28/5/10 Digistore Attended a Digistore workshop run by Fiona Grant this week. We got to play around within the digistore website and learned how to search for content, create pathways and save learning objects to the pathways. I could see this being a really useful tool for the teachers at our school. It is great to have digital resources that have already been sorted for their suitability for school use. Creating Digistore pathways that all our staff can access and contribute to is great! It would be useful to share this learning tool with the staff at both a staff meeting and at an after school hands on workshop. __e-leaders workshops__ At our e-leaders workshops ( twice a term) we have been having regular sharing sessions from each e-leader. These have been really helpful and we have all come away with new ideas for improving literacy and numeracy through the use of e-tools. Each e-leader has shown examples of how the e-tool can be used and we have shared tips and problems with each other. A new feature of our e-leaders meetings has been the hands-on workshop where we get to try out new programmes. Last week we learned how to do “green screening” which could be used as a tool to promote more engagement in written and oral language. At our e-leader workshops we have been talking about what each school is offering in the way of extra e-tool workshops and how to overcome barriers- eg getting buy in and better attendance from staff to afterschool workshops. We have also been looking at thinking tools that our schools could use and have viewed thinking tool boxes created by other schools to get ideas. As a school we are exploring different types of thinking tools and how they can be used in our programmes. We will continue our work with this next term. __In school facilitation__ In term 2 we used the facilitator to up skill each syndicate(team) in the Inquiry process, strategies, skills and relevant e-learning activities. Each team got sessions with the facilitator to plan a unit of their choice. This unit would be implemented in term 3. Some staff found it tricky differentiating between an Inquiry approach and the normal “unit” approach they have used many times. At present the facilitator has created an initial planning format for teams to use. This is based around the draft Everglade model called GLADE. This planning format was adapted to suit each teams need and the effectiveness of this will be reviewed in the future.

During term 3 we have had our facilitator working in classrooms modeling Inquiry strategies and inquiry tumbles. It was great to see how an Inquiry tumble could be carried out and it helped us all understand how we could manage our classroom resources during an Inquiry unit. Feedback from teachers confirmed that they found this useful. Our staff meetings have been focusing on Inquiry strategies and thinking skills. This will continue in term 4 where we will focus on Thinking Maps and De Bonos’s Thinkers Hats. __e-asTTle__ In term 3 our school sent a group of teachers and leadership staff to an “e-asttle” workshop. “Introduction to e-asTTle “ run by Visible Learning. The workshop gave us a very thorough breakdown of the e-asttle website and the different types of reports and tests that could be created. We have now registered all staff in the Y3-6 syndicates and are now in the process of setting up some trial groups. Some of the original group attended the 2nd workshop called “Getting the best out of your data” This workshop covered many of the same areas as the first workshop so we will be sending a different group to the next session. We are really looking forward to using e-asTTle as a tool for teaching and learning. __ Google docs - Cluster leadership workshop (Summerland School) __ In August the Cluster Leadership Team ( 1 principal and 1 e-leader from each cluster school) attended a hands on workshop exploring google docs. The workshop demonstrated how various google tools could be sued for collaboration and communication both within a school, between schools and with BOT. The CLT have already begun to use google docs to share documents for cluster communication and collaboration. It was good to see how this tool could be further utilized. __Cluster in school visits__ In my role as Projector Director I have recently been undertaking visits to the schools within our cluster. It has been useful to see how other schools are utilizing their allocated days with the cluster facilitators. This has been a mixture of in class modeling by the facilitator and working with teams on questioning, thinking tools and planning and reflecting on Inquiries.Each school is able to decide how they utilize the time the facilitator has with them to promote areas such as Inquiry learning and thinking skills. Oct 18 Celebration time! Today we had our school Inquiry Sharing session. This was an opportunity for the staff to celebrate their work on INQUIRY and to share successes and challenges with their peers. In groups of 4-5 members all teachers gave a 10 -15 min presentation on their Term 3 Inquiry unit. The presentations included oral discussions, sharing of big books made up of Inquiry activity examples, Power point shows, published online books, animations made by pupils to share their inquiry learning to name a few. It was amazing to see the variety of presentation tools used by different teachers. Each teacher was asked to record notes during the presentation. These notes will be used to help inform future PD needs for our school. The management team roamed around to view the different groups and to get a global view of Everglade Inquiry in action.

=Kristie= 11/3/10  I meet with the facilitator today and learned about some new websites that could be useful in class. I’m looking forward to having a look at these websites and hopefully trying them out. __Term 3__ This term I got to have a go with Nikki's Mimio as her software was playing up. At first I found it a little confusing to use as I had seen it in action but hadn't actually used it myself. The class and I had a play around with some of the interactive lessons and really enjoyed it. I registered on to the Mimio sight and had a look at some of the resources others had made and found a lot of it was dedicated to the junior end of the school, so I decided to have a go at making a couple of resources myself. I have made an interactive Geometry slide show that I have shared with my team and also tried brainstorming for our writing topic. The brainstorm didn't work so well as it was quite hard to write with the pen. When we had our session with the Mimio lady she showed how to change our writing into text and a few other things that I would like to try in the future

=Ragini= April/May Met with Stephen and he showed us some resources on Digistore. Tried to access site later but was unsuccessful because I did not have a password. Have been looking at other online resources and using them in my lessons. Recently Wendy emailed the school password and have tried to use Digistore. Hvae been using more reading resources - particularily the BBC site. [] Next Steps Try to use more resources on Digistore - Maths. Also looking at adding links onto the Everglade Weblinks wiki

__Term 3__ Got the Mimio and trialled using it. The kids love working on it because it is interactive. Frustrastions set in - due to numerous problems with the mimio- the pen did not work properly and the mimio needed batteries too often. The mimio itself - needed calibration all the time and this should not happening as the task is set for kids to work on and I have to interupt my teaching often to re- calibrate. I have made some of my own mimio activities and I have found lots on line which I use daily.

Have looked at Digistore and have found some resources for next terms planning and popped it into the learning pathway for the rest of the team to access.

When working on the dinosaurs unit- I made a powerpoint for the presentation. The children drew pictures using paint and they recorded their stories on Easispeak and I inserted it to their pictures and they loved listening to themselves on the powerpoint.

=Bronwen= April/May Reflection: Started with getting some resources from google – looking at interactive games that can enhance the teaching and learning happening in the class. Getting a bit frustrated as I can’t get children’s computers working for them to use. No sound and because the children can’t read they need to be able to hear the sound to use the programmes. Network software also not all loaded onto the class computers therefore limited access and resources to use.

Term 3 Reflection: This term as a team we have included interactive software into our daily programme. The team comes together each day to use the one data projector we have as a team. The children are really enthusiastic about the learning through the interactive resources we have found on various sites. The children are also using "paint confidently and are able to create some detailed images and insert colour.

The children used paint to create dinosaur pictures. They are becoming more confident with the drawing tools and manipulating the mouse. Would like to learn about how to extend the children further using other drawing tools.resources. Would like to see some more sharing of websites linked to specific learning intentions particularly mathematics / language and topic.

Teachers in the team now integrating computer activities into daily plan - for taskboards and groups - selscting relevant activites related to the learning intentions. The difficulty is sometimes finding the correct

Met with Steven and learned how to use "Esi speak" children really excited and wanting to experiment with speaking into the microphone clearly. Would like to use this for presenting of work and integrate into reading programme.

=**Priya**=
 * Met with Steven today. I was not confident about what I chose will be easy enough to execute with time constraints and other. Steven started Sharline and I on a blog – it looked like a breeze.
 * I created a gmail account to start off with the blogsite. Chose one of the templates. Found this very easy and exciting.

September 2010 In this term I have incorporated many **ICT skills** into the class programme
 * Had a session with Steven in the library. Good to see some other blogspots and the things the other teachers are doing. Also had fish feeding tank (bling) inserted by Steven.
 * I changed the template again just for fun. Browsed around for bling – clicked on previews to check them out.
 * Explored a bit more. Inserted a picture to my title. Changed the template yet again. Cant wait to put some pictures in when we do get permission.
 * Used the Maths games sent by Nathalie to cater to children working with different needs
 * Children are able to use favourites to access the planned websites
 * Children using the camera independently to take pictures and videos.
 * Helped children choose animations for powerpoint presentations
 * Most children are able to change to different fonts, font sizes in Word
 * Some children able to insert pictures into the word document.

Looking forward to T4's inquiry on the sun.
 * Inquiry**: After our sessions with Steven, our team did inquiry on Our Bodies. Honestly, I did not know what I was doing when I started on the inquiry unit. Could be because of having only one contact with Steven on planning and then starting inquiry straight away in week one/T3. The most successful activities/skills were trash and treasure, writing up an open/closed question and knowing the difference, questions for wonderwall, looking for keywords, using index, glossary and contents to look for keywords, picture disclosure, what am I?. Time was too short to get children to display. Prepared a self assessment tool in a form of worksheet.

=Sharline= April 2010 In March met with Stephen Gordon and learnt skills to set up a blog. First we set up a gmail account and address for myself and then set up the blog. The purpose of this blog is to better communicate with my parents. This communication will include topics and skills we are learning in the class. I would like for students to be able to share with parents the things we are learning in class.  This is a huge step for me. I did not know much about blogging but seeing what other teachers are doing with this tool, I have been inspired to develop these skills. September 2010 In term 3 I have attended several workshops on Thursday afternoons to learn new ICT skills. In the Powerpoint and Mimio workshops I learnt skills which I was able to implement straight away into my classroom teaching and learning programme. This term I have learnt how to: · Make interesting powerpoints for students to work in independently and in shared learning groups. · Find information on weblinks · Copy a page from the computer screen to print · Use the network math programmes more effectively with students · Learnt how to scan and place a page onto the server for me and others to use on the projector Due to my learning, my students have benefited and learnt how to  · Access more activities from the programmes on the network · Learnt how to label pictures they have drawn on Paint · Learnt how to cut and copy their picture from Paint into Word <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">The Inquiry Learning has been very successful in my classroom this term. We were studying dinosaurs and the inquiry model enabled my students to engage more in their learning. I was able to use new teaching activities like thinking keys, picture disclosure, wonder wall, trash/treasure as part of the inquiry. It was useful when Stephen came into my classroom and demonstrated finding Key Words in a text. My students now are always looking for key words in a text =Robyn 10=

March 2010 Met with Stephen. Drew diagram showing current knowledge/ difficulties. Discussed use of digital cameras with children. A couple of things to think about. Not much help regarding use of/ making powerpoints incorporating digital photos. Need more hands on experience rather than just shown another school’s website with examples of what they have done. Could do this in my own time. April Beginning to use data projector more regularly in class programme. Used Introducing texts with writing programme, showing clips related to Topic study, and for handwriting. Had one hiccup when machine decided to go on strlke. After a couple of days decided to work again. Very frustrating when machinery doesn’t work. May School has a new photocopier. Starting to get the hang of new features. Am able to double-side, enlarge and decrease, so meets my requirements.Term 3have incorporated use of the data projector in classroom programme more frequently. Now I have a MIMIO the interactive aspect has been great. Have used the mimio with basic stuff such as Handwriting and with maths games on network. I will try to use the mimio pen to greater effect when class is Brainstorming as it is far clearer than whiteboard pens. It was great to have a session on the mimio the last Thursday of the term to show other uses. Just need the time to play around and experiment now.Inquiry Had a go. Many of the skills could be incorporated into Library and reading programme. Children worked in Inquiry groups- Ability based and this worked well. Next unit need to give children more time to investigate their own question and decide how to display it. After our last session with Stephen and Wendy I see I hadn't properly understood the frontloading and 'gather' stages of inquiry. Will spend at least a week on front loading information before getting children to generate questions. =Leanne= <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Feedback on your experiences: Term 1 Thursday week 6? . Had Session with Stephen and Robyn. Stephen has lots of interesting ideas using digital cameras. One suggestion was taking pictures and telling a story based on these pictures or have a familiar text and take pictures for different parts of the story. It was suggested that children learn some basics of good photography before they begin and I think this is a good idea, I will dig out my information from a past course and also look up some sites online. !

Term 3 Wednesday week 10. We have completed our Inquiry based learning on the topic of Space. Stephen gave us alot of ideas to develop the children's skills to research and inquire about a topic. The students enjoyed the session he spent in the class. Our Big Question was How does objects in Space affect us on Earth? We worked towards a group project where each group took on a different example for this question. Some looked at how the moon causes tides, some looked at how the sun influences our seasons. In all we had about six groups. The children produced a poster/diagram to present their findings/ understandings of these topics. Some of the challenges they faced was finding information that was able to be understood by children, interpreting diagrams and writing info in their own words when some of the concepts were quite beyond them. However I was pleased with the key words being entered to find info via internet, how they worked and presented their findings - everyone took part in a verbal presentation. Next term.

=Tracey=

26/4/10: I have not done one single thing with my BLOG as I do not believe that the current system at school is able to support the use of BLOGS. The Watchdog system is too stringent and unnecessarily blocks useful websites and information. There are too many ICT blocks (can’t do this, can’t do that) to make me want to spend time sorting things out to get it working effectively. I have issues with only having 3 classroom computers to do inquiry based learning with 30+ students 14/10/10: I have had some great success ICT wise in Terms 2/3. I have been able to spend some time at home updating my class blog and making it look more professional and user friendly, although we still have only 5 followers which has been disappointing.

E-learning intensives with Nathalie were the most beneficial for me in terms of ICT this year. I have learnt a whole range of skills that I have been able to implement in my classroom. She showed me how to use intereactive powerpoints, movie maker, green screening, pirate pad, web 2.0, bookemon, xtranormal.com to name a few things. In term 2 my gifted writers were able to write their narrative and publish it as an e-book on bookemon. Jaime and Namisha created an entire book selecting how much text to put on a page, creating a theme to use in term of page colour/text etc and illustrating every page. Namisha's book is 32 pages long! 5 children in my class chose to use xtranormal.com for their fungi inquiry presentation which involved creating an avatar to deliver the presentation (text to movie). This is really cool and also a great way to extend gifted and talented as it requires careful selection of camera angles etc.

I am not using mimio to its full potential, as I haven't had the time to trawl through all the resources available, which has had its issues with the loading of the software, pen not working and carless reliever removing the mimio from its clips when I was sick. I hope to be able to find the time to use it more effectively.

=Vibha=

My ReflectionsFound my time with Stephen quite valuable 1.Used clipart/shapes on my worksheets and planning. I think that it helped enhance the activity sheets and the students noticed it as well. I still need to work on my confidence with this 2.Tried to insert tables for my planning and also for worksheets. I have limited knowledge with this and need more support. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">3.Want to desperately learn how to copy and paste information from one document into another one.4.Successfully inseted tables for my planning and also was able to use clip art for worksheets.5. Still need help with coping and pasting fromone document to another.6.The Enquiry Learning has being quite successful in my class.7. I was able to use new teaching activities like wonder-wall, picture disclosure and trash and treasure.8.I also found Stephen's visit to my class quite valuable.9. I would love to get some help with emailing-group attachments =Margaret= Session with Stephen was very worthwhile as we looked at some of the possibilities for making power points. Next step is to make and use them as I now have a data projector in the classroom. I now need to find out about how to use this technology effectively across the curriculum.

=Elgrete= 03/10 Term 1

I met with Stephen, our ICT facilitator today and learned that there are heaps of sites with already made power points that I can use immediately, instead of spending hours preparing a power point on a specific topic. My next step would be to use video clips and photographs of the children’s work and presentations, and put that on a power point that could be sent to parents.

04/10 Term 2 During session with Stephen, Wendy suggested I start a blog instead of sending alot of emails to all the parents. Sounds great - problem is, I know nothing about blogging!!! ​05/10

Met with Stephen today and he got me started with the blog. It was great and easy enough with him there, but after I tried doing stuff on my own, I was lost all over again!!! Guess, practise makes perfect......A LOT of practise in this case!!! I won't be DEFEATED!!!!  10/10 Term 3

Blog is going well and we've been adding lots of photos and childrens work. Children are learning to load their work on the blog themselves. Received a Mimio board in term 3. Have learned lots of interesting ways to use it during the workshop held in the last week of term 3. Love the data projector and use it daily. Getting startrd with Inquiry learning. Children worked in Inquiry groups. We made a Powerpoint presentation using "Paint" as an evaluation tool. Children seems to be very interested in researching information. Will keep on developing Inquiry skil = Pravitha = 3/2010 Met with facilitator. Learnt how to do a slide show. Presented zoo pictures at school assembly. Need to know how to put photos from camera to computer. Used data projector for oral language –picture discussion. Love to locate user friendly “sea “sites that have information that year 4’s can read and understand for ‘Oceans Alive ‘unit. 4/2010 Located some user friendly websites. Unable to use data projector in class as the room does not have a powerpoint at the front of class to connect computer to internet. Frustrated. Internet inaccessible – just when I was really wanting to get into using the internet and data projector as resources .Problems getting my e-mails daily- I get my mail every few days.Did some digital pictures –LITERACY FOR “Awesome Foursome”. Still need to learn how to put pictures into computer. Have used Lab Series –Maths resource- Have requested for Lab Series 1 and 2 to be installed –still waiting. 5/2010 Learnt how to load pictures onto computer and how to do a photo story at I.C.T. intensive course. Loaded pictures for Literacy focus "Awesome Foursome" onto laptop using guidelines from my I.C.T. intensive course.Went to Nat's workshop on slideshow -now know how to make animated slides- had a go at using this at making a few basic facts slides.Waiting for photostory to be installed into my computer-then I'll have a go at my class doing a photo story.

Term3 I have tried to reinforce what I learnt these past 2 terms -using the digital camera and doing slide shows--beginning to feel more comfortable.Have had 2sessions in the library with Wendy showing my class how to do pictures on Paint but missed the session to learn how to transport it into Word- will get the children to show me.Liked the thinkers key s that Stephen shared with our team- will definitely useit-love to have the framework on my computer so I can reuse it for other topics by just maki ng minor changes. Next Steps :will request Nat. to help me transport stuff from the internet into a folder or something so that it is easily accessible when I need it without spending lots of time.

=SHARON= Introduced syndicate to Learnz site- all signed up, no applicable trips at the mo but used site for info for planning. Using overhead projector daily. Using TKI and other sites for use during class programme. Next steps: To continue to explore online resources and link it to the new evergladeweblinks wiki.

Term 3 Did alot more work with the projector- found interactive websites for our mould topic which I shared with the syndicate. Using many more websites in maths planning- children are more motivated with use of computer. Frustration over the fact that I don't have a mimio but hear lots of good things about them and have seen them in action. Really excited about the use of programmes like xtranormal and bookemon Next steps- learn how to use a mimio and get one!

=MARY=

Met with Stephen and worked on basic font, fancy headings for the class,Inserting pictures. Look forward to learning the basics. Need to work on template for planning maths and writing. Also work on using internet and data projector.

Term 3 Aim this term to make a mimio resource and learn 'green screen'. Also power point presentation. =**Bronwyn**= Feedback on your experiences: 11/3/10 – Met with facilitator. Still unsure of what a podcast is as he was unable to access any online as watchdog would not allow it. Looked at Sunnybrae and Pt England podcasts at home.

25/3/10 – Met with facilitator found out that Apple computers are easier to make podcasts with – so left feeling like why were we able to choose this as an option.

13/10/10 - Term 2 made used Windows media player to make a movie about under the sea. Children were very excited about it. At the end of last term I got a mimio. I can see this is going to be a great tool to use in the class in a range of areas. At the moment just getting my head around it. = **John** =

My learning has occurred across two fronts this year. Because I am not a ‘natural’ digital man, I have had to train myself to go to this option. I have had some success with this. I am now on both my school’s wiki, and the cluster wiki. I did also set up a wiki, but that got dissed!! The challenge for me is to use these tools naturally. At the moment I have to timetable myself on, to ensure that I am being regular. I think I’m making progress. With my student learning goal, I have had some good discussion on the matter of aligning our data procedures. My next step is to approach Edtech to look at the options for bringing everything through classroom manager, rather than using our separate ‘Charter Data’ templates. I would hope this works, as it will create greater efficiency for a lot of people. October 2010 - I'm wrapped (no pun intended) about being able to get our Charter Data requirements out of Classroom Manager. This saves teachers from double entering information, and is much more user friendly than the Word Templates that we had been using. It took a bit of pushing, but Edtech were able to come through. Great!The one day workshop on WEB2.0 stuff was useful. I have set up a Wiki for my BoT; I sense that it will be a slow process getting things channelled through this. I will have to persevere, and take one step at a time. I still need to work with Stephen (Facilitator) to tweak and 'pretty up' the wiki itself, and go through the protocols again (I'm a slow learner!) =**Paula**= <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Term 1: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">At this point and time I am looking forward to finding out more about podcasting. I have no idea about what it is and what is involved. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">I feel it would be of great benefit for the senior children to learn and explore new skills on the computer as the children really enjoy every opportunity when able to use the computers; therefore I am up for the challenge and looking forward to learning as much as possible.

<span style="color: #002060; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">First session: <span style="color: #002060; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">I meet with the facilitator today and took a glimpse at some of the positive ways of how podcasting can be beneficial within the classroom. However I felt that the session did not give me enough information to make things any clearer as to how and what podcasting is /can do. It was a pity we could not connect to the server to be shown the examples of what it was. Still very confused about podcasting.

<span style="color: #002060; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Term 2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Second session: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">I and a group of us meet with the facilitator today and were shown some examples of podcasting he had created with his school. Viewed some of the clips, discussed a bit about setting it up and what needed to happen, what took place, just general feedback from his experience. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Discussed sound recording, how it could be implemented in the classroom, interviewing tips and ideas.etc... <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Talked about things such as Blogs, SNS podcast, Podmatic, Imatic – got a bit confused with some of the things being discussed computer jargon. I am still feeling quite optimistic about the program. Again we are not able to access program to allow the use of podcasting in the classroom, not sure how long it will take either. Meet with Steven, shown several ideas of how to use podcasting in the classroom to support teaching programmes. Great ideas were shared. Looks and sounds great now need to put it into practice. Because we only had the access of the Apple Mac I was not making an effort to book it out for classroom use. I will view this better later on this year. ** Term 3 ** Have meet with Stephen, although he has shown tips on the how to use apple podcasting still unsure of podcasting at the usage of in the class, however due to the lack of attempts to use Apple does not help either. Really enjoying all other ICT tecky tips that have been shown throughout the school. Always using the data projector in the classroom, this is my user friendly tool. The children are really enjoying using the easy speak during lessons reading/writing, presentations. We have been introduced to ipad which the children in the class have really enjoyed using in class time.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Term 4 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Meet with Steven the facilitator today and were shown some examples of how to use a new program called wordle. He showed Sharon and I great ideas of how we could use it when doing topic related studies as pre and post brainstorming which the next day I showed three of my students who then trained three others and so on. Now majority of the class knows how to access a new programme for their class work.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">25/11 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Meet with Steven today who showed me some really great stuff to use with the children.

= Anna =

11/3 <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I met with the facilitator today and have a slightly better idea of what podcasting is all about. Am quite excited about the fact that I think it will have a positive spin off effect on my writing programme (writing the content for the podcast) as well as oral language of the students. As for the actual software and process of creating one, I am still really unsure. I need to get together with my group and experiment with the Mac computer (garage band) and have a go at voice recording before the next visit. I also need to check out the websites Stephen gave us and have a look at some examples of podcasting by other schools. Am a little worried that the timetabling of the use of the mac computer may have a frustrating effect on the amount of time we are able to experiment with it in our classroom.

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">25/3 Today we met with Stephen as a group to look at Pod-casting in more depth. He was able to show us a couple of examples that he had created which has helped me to clarify what a pod-cast is and how they can be used in the classroom. We had time to experiment with recording our voices however we were unable to save anything on the network as we don’t seem to have the compatible software. Stephen is showing us things in Garageband (which links to I-Tunes) as this is the optimum programme to use to create the podcasts. Unfortunately, when we tried the same thing with Audacity (the school programme) it won’t allow us to import picture, videos, or save anything. I am a little doubtful as to how successful this is going to be in my classroom as it doesn’t seem to be very ‘user-friendly’ which defeats the point of using it with children. I am interested to see how the next session goes. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">13/5 Today was the most successful session to date!! Wendy has purchased two Mac computers which is awesome because now we are able to create podcasts using Garageband and i-tunes. Today I was able to create my own podcast, complete with special ‘mouse voice’ and ‘helium voice’ sound effects. I also learnt how to save it, although I still need to see if I can access it on my classroom laptop via the network. It was quite fun figuring out how to record, edit, split, delete and move sections as well as add the appropriate pictures to go alongside the voices. I am looking forward to experimenting with a group of students in my next classroom release time. One thing I will have to consider is the text used for the podcast – student work is best as it avoids copyright issues. 10/9My students presenteed their inquiry presentations to the class this afternoon. I was quite honestly blown away at the diversity of the information (all based on their group's questions) and the high standard of presentations. They chose their method of presenting - and while some chose the same old same old (poster/chart), others created fantastic powerpoints, videos, booklets and/or a combination of all of the above. I have enjoyed this inquiry unit and the kids have too - especially the new activities like the Wonderwall, thinkers keys etc. They still need a lot of support in being able to paraphrase research info into their own words though.21/9Nikki helped me to set up my class blog about 3 weeks ago. This came up as 2 of my students wanted to present their inquiry by making a website so a blog seemed to be the best fit for this. I find this funny as I said to myself at the start of the year that I was in no way interested in learning how to create a Blog..... and now it is up and running I am quite addicted! The kids are all checking it at home and posting their own comments which are really easy to moderate. I am excited at the huge numbers on the hit counter, and the kids think it is neat thet they can see blogs from other classes too (and my contacts from other shools!). I have learnt to upload photos and am cuurently in the throes of learning to upload short videos and recordings on the easi-speak.Am not very enthusiastic about the podcasting - am much more excited about the blog. Podcasting takes a long time - chn write the script, record, edit, split, add photos...................... and at the moment I feel as though I'm doing all the work. One reading group has completed a podcast each. I need time to be able to actually sit with them and teach theem what to do. Overall - not the most classroom/student friendly tool for me at the moment. (Bring on the Blog!!!!)

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