ULEARN WORKSHOPS:

A team of 16 from our cluster with 10 of us presenting workshops. Not bad for our cluster eh? I am involved in facilitating two workshops this afternoon with an awesome group of people...


ICT INFUSED INQUIRY

ICT Infused Inquiry with Gail Cochrane from National Library. Gail and I will be sharing the work we have done with our Nga tii Roa Learning cluster in defining the what, why and how of inquiry, examining the skills needed and the integration of ICTs, trialing and practicing in the classroom - an excitng journey which has evolved over the last 15years, with the last 3 in our cluster. While Carol isn't able to attend the conference, we have captured her junior school inquiry where she and her Room 3 class transformed the school sandpit. Mark Boyle, DP of Paengaroa School, will be sharing how his school adapted the common features we found in the inquiry process and incorporated them into their own school model, alongsid etheir school logo - The Fantail. Now called "The Fantail Takes Flight" Mark describes at as a journey from stationery to flutter to flight - and still they have the soaring to look forward to...

LEADING LEARNING

I am supporting Bruce Lendrem and Bruce Jepsen as we share what we have been doing in leading learning within their schools and within the cluster during the ICTPD contract time.

We have done things differently to many other clusters and it has been good to have this time to reflect on what we have done, where it has led and what we have learnt. We believe our cluster has been really successful. Things like making our Principals the lead teachers from the start, having motivators in a range of areas rather than defining set lead teachers, working with all cluster staff (ancillary, board members etc) and having sessions open to anyone who is interested rather than an exclusive group has all had its rewards. It has certainly been a privilege working with such an awesome and inspired cluster. This will be a good time to celebrate some of those success.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE "NO TIME FOR ONLINE CONFERENCE"

No cost. Spread the word! Time4 Online Conference: Engaging Learners in an Online Environment

http://www.time4online.org.nz/

28 May - 8 June You can go in and register now.

There is plenty in there to checkout even before the conference starts.

Plans for this online conference are fast shaping up and you are invited to an exciting time at the end of May and into June.

Sheryl Nussbaum Beach is providing the opening keynote to set the scene for how the online environment caters for collaborative learning both for her own professional life and for students in classrooms. She brings a powerful message and will demonstrate in her presentation just how useful and easy these tools are to use.

In the second week of the online conference, some innovative and confident students will be sharing their experiences with the online environment, and talking about how learning has been empowered for them through Web 2.0. Threaded amongst these keynotes will be a raft of interesting workshops on why and how to use the technologies in classrooms and for teacher professional learning, supported by easy to follow tutorials and examples of the creative use already occurring in classrooms through out NZ. For all of you who like to visit classrooms and schools to get ideas and stimulus for your teaching - these visits you can make from the comfort of your own computer, or in a social setting with friends and colleagues. More information will come to hand each week about the NZ teachers who will be sharing their knowledge and experience with you during the conference.

Make sure you have the dates May 28th to June 8th marked in your calendar. Make plans with colleagues to view material and discuss how the new learning can be applied in classrooms. Get ready to get excited about what the environment can do for your students in your classroom and all with very limited technology skill required. All welcome.

Learning At School

For those of us fortunate enought to attend this conference, what was the highlight for you? To post your comments to this posting, or any others, just click on the comment link below the relevant posting.

Learning At School - Rotorua

I must remember to make my camera next time! Some photos would have been a real bonus.

The conference has been great. My own focus area for this conference was on enriching Inquiry and I wasn't disappointed. I enjoyed presenting the breakout with Gail. It went well and we always gain so much from this experience. During this first breakout session, we shared our cluster's inquiry journey, a lot of the work we have done in the past 10 plus years, sharing some of the many resources we have made and some of the ICT Tools we have found beneficial. It was great to be able to share Carol's class's Sandpit Inquiry also. Paengaroa are really moving well down the Inquiry track as are some of our other schools. Such an enriching experience for those involved. Our presentation focus on Questioning and Thinking, Finding and Using Information to Make a Difference certainly seemed to hit the mark and Carol's junior class inquiry displays this so well.

I missed the first keynote as we were preparing for our presentation but I hear the video by Sir Ken Robinson was great. It can be downloaded from http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/ Will have to catch up with that myself when I get a moment. I know others will want to go over this again too. Thanks to Douglas, and Telecom's bb access, I now have this clip in my trusty USB .

A real highlight for me has been the introduction to Classblogmeister. See the posting below. I'd highly recommend it to all involved in Inquiry or wanting their students to write and read with in an authentic and purposeful environment. Blogging can simply be part of your literacy programme, Thanks to Jody and Tom who shared their knowledge so well. This site can replace the IB5 learning logs used by so many of our cluster students.

Other sessions on Questioning and Virtual Networks will also impact into our cluster inquiry plans. Thanks to Rachel Jeffares for the session on blogging too. I wished I had a whole day to just learn and play with this! The keynotes by David Warlick and Russell Bishop were well worth hearing. I am only just beginning to get my head around the Web 2.0 tools available which really do open a whole new world up. Isn't education exciting! We need to not only embrace these tools but the people changes that have to be made as well. WHS's Mrs Kharana does this so well. Great to see Whakatane High School on the big screen, celebrating such an inspirational teacher. We have always felt privileged to have had Mrs Kharana teach our own children. Would like to view Russell Bishop's slide show all over again.

Our cluster is superb! What a great group to go conferencing with. Thank goodness we have the weekend to recover!

Yep a good few days. I enjoyed the networking with others in so many ways and appreciated the opportunity to be enveloped into such a knowledgeable and friendly group of people, all so ready to share their time, experience, wit and humour. Can't wait til next time!