More TVs - We're On Our Way into the Future!

Starting the beginning of Term 4 seven more 32" TVs were installed in the remaining Year 0 - 3 classes. The teachers welcomed them with enthusiasm!  We have been sharing ideas on how to use them to enhance our engagement and learning with the children. I shared this
slide show presentation at a staff meeting to:


Click to view the slide show


1. Provide some hints on setting up
2. Give some quick and easy ideas to use the TV immediately
     with the children
3. Provide some further ideas and websites with free web 
    tools to use with the TV, for the whole class or small
    groups, once they were more confident

The B.O.T. want to see change in the school and have relseased money to start updating technology hardware in the classes. The theory - if every teacher has a TV they can use it to engage the whole class.
The remaining classes in the school will receive their Tvs before the end of the year. These TVs will be 47" or 55" and will be mounted on the walls - bigger children need bigger TVs. These TVs will replace the data profectors that are being used at the moment by some teachers.
TVs are the way of the future:

• no expensive bulbs to replace
• don't need to worry about cooling down period for buld
• brighter, clearer picture
• sunlight and light does not effect the picture screen as much
• no messy cords to get in the way
• no projector obstructing the view of children sitting on the floor

ISTE - An Eye Opening Conference!

ISTE - International Society for Technology and Education

San Diego June 24 – 27  2012

Keynotes - Sir Ken Robinson, Dr. Yong Zhao,
                   Michael Fullan, Dr Howie DiBlasi

This was THE conference that opened my eyes to 21^st century learning in the classroom!

https://sites.google.com/a/ptengland.school.nz/iste12/?pli=1 

(a collaborative file containing notes from the conference - a quick reference for me)

The ideas from this conference inspired me to continue with what I had been dabbling with in the classroom. It also made clear to me that I needed to share the information from the conference with the staff back at school, as the message that the world of education was changing hadn’t got through yet – we were still ignoring the changes going on in other schools that were making ICT an integral part of the everyday classroom programme - our teaching techniques had not moved forward in ICT for 10 years!

Mainly because:-

We had an IT suite of 30 computers with an IT specialist teacher that took IT with each class for an hour a week for the last 10 years. The children were getting an hour of ICT each week, but the teachers were not. No computers in the classroom for the children to use also made it impossible to integrate IT into the everyday classroom programme. Hence a vicious cycle eventuated.

Main Themes from the conference  

·         Children of the 21^st century are wired differently and need a different style of learning and teaching

·         Teachers have an obligation to their children to up skill and present them with rich, stimulating programmes that get their attention and switch them into learning

·        iPads, iPhones and mobile devices were THE way forward for IT in the classroom

·         There are LOTS of FREE web tools that can be used in class programmes

·         Digital storytelling and encouraging student voice were popular themes

·         Classroom programmes need to have lots of visuals, include online games that challenge and use flash simulations, avatars etc

·         Class programmes need to include lots of socialization and movement – talking, discussing with each other, moving/actions rather than static listening (to the teacher)

·         Teachers need to provide constant feedback and scaffold lessons - children need to clearly know what is expected of them so provide clear targets and success criteria

·         They need opportunities to collaborate with each other, get involved in authentic, real life issues and to share with others in a global community

Twitter for Teachers @jennielesueur

 

All teachers should have an iPhone



The staff at Pinehill had begun blogging in 2011 as well as me. I followed their blogs and often “borrowed” their ideas.

I now follow them on Twitter and this helps me keep up to date with new ideas to use in the classroom. The educators I follow tweet links to a huge range of websites and references about all fields of education, not just IT information.

Twitter has become my main resource for

professional development reading. Every day I try to quickly scan through the tweets and "favourite" or email the link to myself for future reference.
One of my goals for next year is to either:

- encourage other staff to follow me on Twitter so I could retweet links to sites they might find useful or
- regularly email them the links to these sites.
I am preparing an introductory information pack to present to staff at a PD meeting.

My Own iPhone!

Living with new technology 24/7

Julien has always been an IT whizz – our first computer was bought back in1983 – an Amstrad. So I have always lived with the latest technology. He has always been an Apple fan and I am constantly being reminded that Apple computers are easier to use in the classroom than PCs which are clumsy and complicated to use.

Getting my own iPhone in 2010 was an eye opener – everything about it was amazing! I instantly became organised and informed – instant knowledge about everything as well as shopping lists, contact’s address and phone numbers, photos, google maps, weather sites, golf bookings, websites, games – etc – so many apps!

Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak were brilliant geniuses whose inventions have changed the direction of history! 

My iPad has become nearly as useful as my iPhone. We no longer subscribe to the NZ Herald because of it. We both read the latest news, check emails, Twitter and Facebook in the morning via iPads.

I can’t wait till we have iPads in the classroom – I can already see how I could use an iPad right now - if only we were wireless I would take my one along and trial it!

Our Class Blog - 2012

These days our class blog is on our 4 class computers at all time. It forms part of the daily programme. If the children want to go on the computers before school they have find something to do on the blog.

It contains all the links to websites that I use for learning activities during the day. The children learn to navigate their way around the blog to get to maths, spelling, writing, reading, COT links and any other websites we use. I try to keep it up to date with current happenings around the world that they might be interested in. At the moment there is a link to the world record free fall jump from space.

Click this link to take you toThe Chelsea Bachelors Blog as it is today



End of Term 3 - September 2012

This year - 2012, I have become a lot more confident experimenting and trialling new web tools to share on our class blog. The ISTE conference and following educators on Twitter has helped sort what web tools to use.

You will find examples of the following throughout our class blog -

-       fotobabble

-       wallwisher

-       picasa web album slideshows and movies

-       voki

-    Wordle

-       Storybird

-       Glogster

-       Go!Animate

-       Blabber

-    YouTube videos (our own)

There are further detailed explanations and examples on the separate pages found on the right hand side bar of this blog.

The Arrival of a TV!

Yeah a technology break through!  March 2011 - Blog post announcing the arrival of the new TV in the class.

 

The arrival of a 32” Samsung TV in the class helped motivate the children to share the blog with family at home. From that point on the blog has become an important part of my class programme. Everything we did I recorded with photos and each week I added a post of our learning on the blog. Often the children helped with the captions. It is my goal to have a kids blog running where the children are responsible for taking the photos and writing the blogs posts.

The blog has proved very successful and it’s encouraging to hear the positive feedback from parents, grandparents and other staff. It’s hard work and time consuming keeping the blog up to date but it is addictive!

A Blog Begins - 2010

After attending the workshop on blogging in the classroom in January 2010 I knew that I could do this! So a trial blog began and many hours of fiddling and trial and error!

My first class blog - Feb 2010

The first wallwisher created after a class visit to Ambury Farm
 

However my first trial blog with my class at the beginning of 2010 was not well received by Senior Management or the B.O.T. It was obviously too early for this type of innovation at Chelsea School – security involving photos and information were the questionable aspects apparently. I continued with my slideshows for the rest of that year and trialled Wallwisher with the children and found it was well received by the parents.






This made me determined to continue with my class blog and in 2011 to bypass the security issues I advertised the URL for the blog only through syndicate newsletters that were sent home each term and made sure the URL was kept off the school website.

This link takes you to one of the very first posts on the new Bachelors' Blog in Feb 2011

Power Point in 2006 - A Great Learning Tool

Power Point slideshows - Pre blogging:

I suppose the reason I enjoyed making the slideshows so much over the years was because it was a way of showing what was happening in the classroom. It was the time before blogging and the photo/caption slideshows were an excellent way to share learning with an audience.

Power Point has changed since then! The slide shows were simple and basic but served the purpose well. Now it’s so much easier to share what’s happening in your classroom on a class blog. Even links to or embedding photo slideshows is a breeze – instant sharing with an audience!

 

 

An integrated English programme:

We made many slideshows together. Mostly they formed part of my English programme and were an excellent way to view and present. We often used a sequence of photos and captions to practise procedural writing.

 

 Our slideshows covered a range of topics depending on our "Fertile Question" or inquiry research topic which was integrated into all curriculum areas as muchas possible. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Inquiry Learning:

This was also the time when our school began inquiry learning and experimented with different thinking tools. Some of the slideshows reflect the way I tried to integrate inquiry learning into my classroom programmes.
Examples of our slideshows using various graphic organisers.



The Early Days - The Digital Camera

Getting started:

Using technology in the classroom started earnestly in 2006 thanks to the Jacqui Sharp courses and the purchase of a digital camera.

Using the digital camera I took lots of photos with the children and showed them how to use the camera – we were forever finding opportunities to take photos.

It was a major, time consuming  task down loading them to the computers in those days – especially as I was new to the game of finding my way around a computer – there was really no-one else in the school who could help – a lonely pioneer!

 

Our first slideshow telling the story of the space shuttle - we shared it at a school assembly
Click this link to The Space Shuttle's Journey
 

I found that Power Point was a great way to share the photos and to use them in the classroom. We made all sorts of slide shows. The children loved writing captions and stories about themselves to go with the photos.