Learning@School 2008

Participating in the Learning@SchoolConference, as always, is an inspiring start to the year for the ICT PD Cluster network. Our cluster had a busy start on Wednesday presenting in the first 3 breakouts. Jennie, Margaret and I shared our programme of professional learning and some of the strategies and recommendations for promoting teacher learning. Helen Rennie-Younger from Northcote Primary presented to a captivated audience of Year 0/1 teachers and Leanne and Stephen from Sunnybrae Normal explored how they have developed a vision for the use of ICTs to connect with their wider school community. Annie from Northcote Intyermediate also presented on Thursday, strategies for personalising learning through the development of their school LMS over the last 2 years. A great effort,well done everyone

As we enter our third year of the programme the increased focus on opportunities to process new understandings and challenge our existing perspectives and beliefs are essential. As a learning community these have included teachers presenting in their schools, at our cluster shares and at a national level. The planning and preparation involved also provide valuable opportunities for reflection and exploration of the impact of our teaching on student learning. I would encourage teachers to consider presenting. While it may be a little daunting at first, with the support of your Principals, lead teachers and facilitators it is a worthwhile strategy for promoting teacher learning and a great way to connect with other teachers attending the conference. We have set up a page on our cluster wiki with links, resources and copies of the individual presentations available for download.
I also attended a presentation of ‘Marvin’ the 3D animation programme that is now available for schools. I have posted on ICTinEnglish as I have been reflecting on its potential to support literacy learning across the curriculum.















Suzie asked me what was my conference highlight…it still has to be catching up with everyone again…and of course the spectacular efforts of all the presenters…you are stars!

More photos on Flickr

tags technorati : learningatschool

Cluster Update 2008

Happy New Year everyone!

I am looking forward to catching up with you all over the next couple of weeks. Firstly I would like to welcome Lynne Thomas to the Central North Shore Cluster. Lynne has joined Team Solutions this year and will be co-facilitating with me as I take on my new role in the organisation. We are privileged to have Lynne working with us as she comes with a lot of experience, including Project Director/Facilitator of the Remuera Cluster from 2004-2006.

Over the next couple of weeks Lynne and I will be seeing you either at Teacher Only Days and also as we work with those teachers who are presenting at the Learning@School Conference in Week 3. We will also be working with Principals and Lead Teachers to finalise the ICT PD calendar for 2008. Key dates including Cluster Shares and conferences are available on the wiki now.

To follow are a couple of resources that have come to my attention in the last week that you may find useful.

I subscribed to this free support service for primary education late last year which includes regular email updates and archived resources and suggestions for ICT integration including the picture library. This library is a collection of useful images and albums linked to specific classroom activities which will be supplied with the albums in the near future. Also there is a weekly newsletter 'Sharing Good Practice'. "The latest issue includes articles supporting the new picture library including a collection of ideas for making effective use of photographs and other images in teaching and learning. It will be followed up over the next two weeks by bumper collections of lesson2go all based on the Picture Library."

World Maths Day

World Maths Day - March 5 2008
Students from around the world are invited to join with others to take part in the free online World Maths Day Challenge to break last years record of 38 904 275 questions. This year the goal is to answer 50 million mental arithmetic questions in one day. The event has been designed for 5-18 year olds.

Find out more and register here