SITECH CONFERENCE @ OWHATA SCHOOL

I am at the Sitech Champion Schools Conference this weekend at Owhata School, Rotorua. We have just been welcomed warmly by students from Owhata school and the team from Sitech and Breathe Technology. Great to see such an enthusiastic team behind Garry: Jenny; Nat; Jonathan; and others. Sitech have now joined iwth Umajin and it is always good to catch up with Alison and Russell from Umajin. I'm loving catching up with my old cluster. Nga Tii Roa not only add to the familiar faces but front the workshops as presenters. Just to think 3 years ago....

My search light at this conference:

"How are the tools impacting into the pedagogy of teaching and learning?
Are the tools changing classroom cultures?"

Peter Kent, the opening keynote, touched on this at the start so we were off in the right direction for me at least. People often are locked in by what they don’t know. This was illustrated beautifully with a You Tube video to do with escalators:

It was good to hear Peter so simply put out 3 points of Good Teaching:

1. High expectation of learners (intellectual quality),

2. Environment which is supportive of students. What engages and is useful for stdts?

3. Learning which is relevant.

Technology will not improve anything if it is not linked and embedded into this. Peter suggests IWBs facilitate No. 2 above. I suggest that yep, they can. They can also provide support to an environment which is more traditional. The teacher at the front with the chalk....

It is not the teacher's job to use the IWB – The teacher's job is to manage learning, ask the questions etc.

3 levels of using the IWB – What type of interaction occurs?

1. Best: Students asking questions of students and you.
2. Middle: Students asking qs of the teacher
3. Low Level: Teacher asking qs of students

IWBS support all 3 but good use supports the first.

E-Volution of E-Teaching. This led me to reflect on our own cluster's teacher inquiry process. I am left feeling even more confident that the thinking that went into our inquiry process provides a good foundation. It is a scaffolded process which will help us all to spiral on up. The progression supports the moving up from as Peter puts it -

"1. Using ICTs to do what we have always done. The tools have little impact other than superficial.

2. Choose one idea, need or problem to research, trial and implement.

3. Experiment, Review, Plan and Discuss

4. Share, Teach others, Reflect, Grow.

5. Embed and Spiral on Up."

It is not the tool that makes the difference in learning. It is the way the tools are used.

ICTs are different from many other tools. They challenge our practice. Being part of a professional learning community helps us to deepen these understandings, widen our perceptions and extend the possibilities.

ICTs have the potential to change the user but only the user can really change their own practice. It comes down to pedagogy. Our mental model, firmly embedded in our subconscious, is what controls our actions. We need to consider what our mental model for good teaching/learning really is.

CLUSTER SHARE

Te Ranga School hosted our cluster share this term, with Gary and his staff providing a very warm welcome to the rest of the team. It is so good to have these opportunities to visit one another and see our special learning environments. Helen’s classroom hosted the afternoon session which reviewed our progress and shared our practices in Inquiry Learning. We have had a dedicated team of motivators who have inquired and shared within their schools, and this was a time for everyone in the cluster to get together to celebrate our journey. As we haven’t all been able to get to every session, this was a valuable time to fill some gaps, share our knowledge and enrich our repertoire. As everyone commented, we have certainly come a long way.....

“Thank you so much for today’s presentation out at Te Ranga. I found it very helpful as it filled a few holes for me but also highlighted just how far we have come as a cluster, let alone me as an individual!!!

“I used to get stressed at the thought of fitting in an inquiry but I have no problems now. An inquiry can take an hour or a term dependent upon the need. It is the process that is important."

Yep, we can’t keep filling our buckets. If we introduce something new, we need to ask ourselves what we are going to replace or do differently? As Mark commented, he has no problems with this now.

This session was a great time to review and springboard to new thinkings.

"The staff and I were very impressed and would like to have another look at your presentation."

"Could you please send me details of and /or copies of the following:
The posters
Info about the questioning dice
The info you showed us briefly about the brain (I don’t think I have seen all of that??)
And each of the key feature pages about Inquiry, from your power point today, where you had examples of what the children could do, written all around the page. You know what I mean???
Gee I hope I’m not being cheeky by asking for all of these?''

No probs at all. The brain link is down the page further... I am happy to share the resources I used. For those who haven't asked already, let's know which you want.

It is such a pleasure working with you all!

OUR BRILLIANT BRAINS


After last night's meeting I have been asked to post my inquiry links for "Our Brilliant Brains". Here it is:

http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listbrainpolw.html

The hotlist was created in Filamentality which is a wonderful tool to post up weblinks to support student inquiry (and staff development). Having the links posted on the net allows students to explore further at home or anywhere there is an internet connection, involve their parents and extend their learning boundaries. Next term we will run some sharing sessions on this and you can create similar sites yourself to suport your students' inquiries.

GATE, Inquiry, New Opportunities:

Last Thursday a group traveled to Hamilton visiting Aberdeen School in the morning and Goodwood School in Fencourt in the afternoon. Off then to Wanganui visiting Kaitoke School on Friday morning and Rutherford Intermediate in the afternoon, returning to the Bay late Friday evening.

Aberdeen School had been in an ICT contract during 2002 - 2005 and it was interesting to see the impact that this has had and what has been built upon since. We appreciated the generosity of Murray and his team as they candidly shared their journey. The school has been on a journey into Inquiry Learning, firstly adopting a model, then adapting it as understandings developed and then creating their own school-wide Inquiry Process model. Skills are being taught across the school and a deepening understanding of the various stages is being developed. Our visit was enriched by having the students share with us their own personal understanding of Questioning levels. The school wide model has been developed further allowing its own unique flavour within each classroom. The visuals in each classroom reflect the teacher's own interests. e.g. one class illustrated the process as a soccer field, placing students along the continuum as they all headed for the goal. Another illustrated this with a journey through the Forest of Learning. We visited the school's digital classrooms which led to some interesting discussion as we tried to define the term "digital classroom".

Goodwood School in Fencourt had also been involved in an ICT Contract - some years ago during the first round. Goodwood has recently won an EHSA contract, forming a cluster of 10 local schools, nominating a shared focus. It was their journey in this regard which was of particular interest and we were privileged to glean insights into the cluster vision and direction.
Striking the mid island mountains and their captivating views in the evening sunlight was a magical addition to our trip and after much professional dialogue and reflection on the way down, we discovered Wanganui at around 8 that night.

Thursday morning found us receiving a warm welcome from Chris Gullery, Principal of Kaitoke School, a small rural school on the outskirts of Wanganui. This visit was prompted by a report on the 'net of Chris's investigation to "identify the most effective teaching practices and organisational strategies used to accelerate learning outcomes for gifted and talented students in Wanganui District Schools". See http://www.leadspace.govt.nz/leadership/pdf/gullery-sabbatical-05.pdf What a highlight this visit was, to hear from both Chris on the facilitation of learning for GATE students and from Megan, the facilitator of the e-learning project trialled in partnership with Massey University. The digital natives involved in the project still hankered for the face to face aspects of learning together. The passion of both Chris and Megan was contagious and again we were privileged to experience the candour and openness offered from their reflection and experience in this journey.

It was at Kaitoke that we dabbled with Umajin. Yep, I had had a play with this software at L @ S in Rotorua in February and was impressed as much with the perceptiveness of its developers as with the trial version of the then unfinished publishing programme. This creative publishing tool is so user friendly and loads of fun. It encourages exploration and creativity. For more details and to download a free 30 day trial click on: http://www.umajin.com/static/default.htm Good pricing makes this affordable and well suited to the school environment.

Rutherford Intermediate in Wanganui was our last port of call and we were fortunate to hear and discuss the YAP programme run here. Simon and others shared the work the school is doing in their Young Achievers Programme, enhancing and refining the skills of those students to set them up for success in their chosen field. We are indeed fortunate to have meet with so many passionate practitioners over the past two days.

Our sincere thanks to the Principals and staff of Aberdeen School, Goodwood School, Kaitoke School and Rutherford Intermediate.