NetGuide Challenge 2009

This year was the first time my school has entered the ninth annual TVNZ6 NetGuide Schools Multimedia Challenge, which I promoted and guided students during lunch times.

Out of the many initial students interested in spending one of their lunch times in the computer suite, only two teams perservered and made it to the end with a final product. Interestingly both were primarily driven by a single student.

Three Year 4 girls created a website on the 3R's, Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. I got them using Webnode for as a free server, but on reflection Google Sites may have been an easier choice as they kept getting mixed up with the controls and editing text was a challenge. There website is called Recyclereducereuse.

The second team to complete an entry were some intermediate students who created a video to investigate the career of teaching. They had been studying careers and found teaching of personal interest, I wonder how they felt after this video? I was really impressed with the range of ICT skills these students learnt on their own during this process. So much so that I am going to get the student who did most of the editing to give me a lesson on iMovie next term. Below is their video, cut from 25 minutes to 5 minutes and completed just in time. I wish them luck in the judging but we will certainly recognise their efforts at our school.

What would I do different next year?

Yes, despite the missed lunches, I would love doing this again next year but I would like to try it as a whole class project to reflect the learning we have done and consolidate it while building new ICT skills. I imagine it would be good for team work and spirit and an opportunity to work on roles and responsibilities. I would be interested in hearing how other classroom teachers shared and managed the process of a whole class NetGuide entry.

I may also run more website building teach/model sessions to develop the skills and confidence of more students, perhaps that is why so many dropped out. What experiences have you had as a teacher facilitating this or similar competitions with students?

Reflection on an Inquiry Learning PD

At our staff meeting today we were lucky enough to have Jill Lunn guide us through some thinking about how we use the inquiry process in our school and classrooms. We began by brainstorming in groups what inquiry learning meant to us as teachers at Bailey Road School. My group as with most others discussed our own tailored approach 'TEACH' and our personal ideas about what we expected from using this approach. Although our group said that the inquiry journey was just as important as the end result, Jill pointed out that the end result was still very important, as it is a product the students produce that shows their learning journey.

Next we brainstormed the challenges that we felt we faced when teaching the inquiry process. My group came up with many ideas but the top priority ones were:
1. Questioning; students asking good open questions, relevant to the topic
2. Engagement; inspiring and motivating students
3. Providing appropriate age level resources
4. Students summarising and making the information their own

They best idea I got from this PD was at this point Jill ask if if was better to teach a child to question or to create or inspire their curiosity to ask the questions. Well no doubt for me is that I do want my students asking great questions, which means I need to develop the way I engage and inspire my students that awakens their curiosity to do so.

This is when Jill introduced the concept of 'Front Loading'. I love the image, just like my old washing machine, load it up! Front loading is about providing inspiration, vocabulary and engagement through a series of interesting activities that generate curiosity and questions from the students. A great one to start with is giving the kids each a number of sticky notes with topic related words on them and getting the kids to stick them in a pattern / grouping of their own devising, without telling them what the topic is, This is a great excerise to develop the topic vocabulary. This could be followed by WWWWH discussions. Having a large related picture covered in sticky notes slowly being reveled, creates lots of excitement and questions. Another activity in that lesson could be to give groups of students 'answers' and let them make up the questions, I really like that one! This could be followed by a game of Jeopardy and then drawing out questions that the children are now beginning to wonder about.

Overall an inspiring PD and has made me quite excited to start my next Inquiry Process with my class. Do you have an inquiry activities that you could share with me that work for you?
This slide show shows a range of thinking strategies we could be teaching and using.

Thinking Skills Presentation

View more presentations from nathanr07.

Google Forms as a Self-Assessment Tool

We use our classroom blog for sharing our learning experiences. An important part of the learning process involves reflecting on our learning. One way I get my students to reflect is to do self-assessments. It seems to me although many teachers are using web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning, not many are taking the many opportunities to use them for assessment.

Our most recent ICT venture of recording readers theater podcasts was posted on our blog so that we could share our work and get reflective feedback. As my students read blogs and comment on them as a reading task, it seemed a good place to embed a form that would serve as a reflective assessment.


Why I like using Google Forms rather than services like Polldaddy is that it is easy to set up and embed, but more importantly it sends all the poll data to a Google Spreadsheet in Google Docs. From there you can get your data presented in various chart or pie displays with a few button clicks. Of course you do need to sign up for a free Gmail account, but then in my opinion if you are not already using Gmail you should be.
An example of using Google Forms embedded into a blog for self-assessment.
Some other online poll and testing services are Yacapaca, Zoho, and Mystudiyo.
Below is a video on Google Forms.

Adding Audio to your Blog

My class did their first readers theater this week, and after recording the audio story we wanted to add it to our blog in order to share it with the world and receive feedback to improve ourselves.
See our Classroom Blog Podcast.

However most blog servers do not allow you to upload and embed an audio directly from your computer. The file (this is the same process for video) needs to be hosted on a web server and then linked to the blog. There are many sites that cater for audio and podcasts, we however used Podomatic. You do need to check that the school does not block the audio server you choose, if they do you can usually get it unblocked by placing a request through your ICT lead teacher.

Another thing to remember is that your file needs to be a mp3 or mp4 file before uploading to an audio server. This usually involves exporting it from GarageBand / Audacity or other recording software. One thing I learnt was when recording with GarageBand, change the metronome setting to get rid of the clicky sound that we got in the background.

Once you have your audio recording saved on a site like Podomatic you are offer html code to either link to the server site or code to embed the recording into your blog, as we have done here.

For further guidance you should read Bloggers help file "How do I post audio/music to my blog?"

Other podcasting server sites are:
Kid-Cast
Gcast

Web 2.0 Teaching Tools

I believe bringing web 2.0 into the classroom and into student hands to enhance learning is an essential step to encourage 21st century learning. It is also important for teachers to use web 2.0 tool tools to teach and guide learning, we are role models in all aspects of learning.

I created this wiki page as my own shortcut to some web 2.0 teaching tools that I find useful and use regularly. I hope you find it helpful and if you know of any websites that are worth adding, please leave a comment.

Web 2.0 Teaching Tools
This is a collection of some great web 2.0 tools I have found for teaching and modeling. Although great with an interactive whiteboard for whole class, I often will just use my laptop at the conference table for small groups.

Math Tool Chest: This is a wonderful tool to help explain and teach maths. It is basically a toolbox of web materials, I find the counters and place value helpful. It is simple to use with a sound off option.

Maths Playground: A collection of math manipulatives for teaching and learning.

Virtual Dice: One, two or three virtual dice, great for math games.

Super Teacher Tools: A resource where you can generate games, set up a seating chart, create groups, and generate random names. Very easy to use especially if you set up a class list, which you only need to do once.

Cyber Bullying: Where to start?

I have discovered as a beginning teacher that Cyber Bullying is not just something we have to deal with once then we can forget about it till next year. I have noticed that most of the bullying that goes on in schools seems to happen away from the teachers sight. As a developing digital class I feel it it time to tackle this issue as my students are very ICT literate.

I started off this year teaching my students about Internet Safety. Using the Netsafe Hector's World programme, we watched the online animated episodes and followed the lesson plans and related activities. We also use the Hector Safety button on our PC laptops (unfortunately they haven't figured out how to create a safety button for Apple Macs yet). It is a small animated character from the series that sits on the screen, if a child comes across something 'bad' or inappropriate they click the button and a fun screen-saver pops up with advise to get an adult.

Last term I found another free resource in the form of two DVD's supplied to schools by Netsafe and produced by Childnet. Both are cyber bullying stories told from the perspective of students, along with guiding questions and further supporting resources.

'At A Distance' is aimed at primary students up to about Year 6, while 'Let's Fight It Together' is aimed at intermediate to secondary students. Both stories show technology being used to bully and resolutions that help fix the problem. The DVD's are well supported with teacher resources. The DVD's have guiding questions and further activities, and lesson plans are available online.

As I have a Year 6 class, I will be starting the new term with 'At A Distance' which we will watch and discuss the questions.
As well as being able to order your free copy, there is also downloadable (is this a real word?) advice for teachers, principals and students here.




Where to next?
The next step which ties in well with our literacy narrative focus is a website called 'Speak Up!" This is a fantastic site that allows your students to create comics that tell stories of bully situations and how they could be resolved. Although you will need to model, scaffold your students to use this part effectively, it is very easy to use, as the settings and characters are chosen with a click. Here is where it get's even better, a big thanks to Learning Media. You can download the entire programme as a zip file and install it on your non internet classroom computers!

Just to make it all a bit easier, I found this great brainstorm or mindmap from Online Professional Development which will help you guide the same exercise with your students.

So what do you do to teach your students about Cyber Bullying? Do you have any resources you can add? Please share them in the comments below.

Students Assessing the Teacher

As a beginning teacher I am very aware that being an effective teacher requires constant self evaluation.

I first encountered how a teacher used Google Forms to assess his students view of his teaching, when reading the blog belonging to Larry Ferlazzo; Results From Student Evaluation Of My Class And Me. This inspired me to try it out with my own class at the end of term 2.

It is a scary prospect allowing your students to openly tell you how they feel about your class and your teaching. Still it was an eye-opening experience that has given me some
insight into my students view of my teaching and how I can improve myself.

It was an optional assessment that only 73% of my students completed. It shows they seem to enjoy my class and feel they are learning although not giving 100% effort, so I should raise my expectations.

I was concerned that 37% of my students felt I was not concerned with what was happening in their life. It tells me I need to ensure I spend more quality individual time with all students, especially those ones who hide in the corners!

The results show I need to be more patient, and use a softer voice. Although I suspect some of my students understanding 'patient' and my view my be slightly different. I do believe I must try using a more positive approach in my everyday teaching.

I have not had much art this term because 80% of my class is at kapa haka or choir for an hour every week, which takes up my arts time. My students obviously miss art, as do I, but finding time to squeeze it into our busy timetable is hard. I will be making a big effort next term to teach art by integrating it into other subject areas.

Some further student comments:

What could you (the student) have done to make this class a better learning experience?

I would make the class room listen to Mr Wood to listen more so they could learn more.

I could try to work with other people in the class. I could try to work with everyone in the class .

Be more responsible.behave better. Enspire some other people. Be good share all the ideas to the class.

I think maybe its good to more art because on Friday we have Kapa Haka and some people have Choir and we should change it to a different day so we can do more art.

What could Mr. Wood have done to make this class a better learning experience?

Mr. Wood doesn't need to do anything - hes already doing enough.

Be more patient

By disciplining the people that don't listen to him most of the time.

Give us our own laptops so we don't fight for laptops

Showed us some more good learning sites.

shout at some people lesser - talk to people more softer.

Have you ever done a self-assessment of this sort before, and do you think it would help your teaching?