A Term's Reflection

I've been reflecting on how far we've come in such a short term. It's pretty amazing when you think about it. The amount of ICT that is being incorporated into the learning day is outstanding. It's been a great motivator for all of the children.

I've also loved sharing ideas and working with everyone experimenting and learning.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

This Week's Exploration

I am really excited about helping the children create their own blogs. I know they will run with it and explore all the possibilities of blogging. It's exciting to see how they are already discussing ways to show their learning on the blogs.

Last week they ran sessions on using the Activboard to create puppet shows. This developed from the afternoon Craig spent working with them. They will need to show me again I think!

Just love the way they grab the technology and begin applying it straight away.

Have begun the Level 1 Promethean Course - a brilliant way to upskill and reinforce the work Craig is doing with us. Can't wait for the holidays to be able to have an extended play. Very lucky to have an Activboard at Deep Cove to be able to do this.

My holiday jobs are to complete the basic sign up for the children's blogs and to set up their e-pals. We should have a contact class or two by the start of Term 2. Very exciting. Another way to apply and share their learning. A wider audience for their writing too.

Exploring Comic Life

We are exploring using Comic Life to show our learning this week. A real buzz to see how excited and confident the children are in using their skills to teach others.

Our next step is to begin to set up the blogs and attach them to our class one.

Cybersafety - Hector's World

http://hectorsworld.netsafe.org.nz/

This is a great link to help teachers, students and parents learn about cybersafety. Has activities and information. Good teaching ideas. Good for all ages. A great place to explore.

A very busy week checking out other blogs and pinching ideas. Have added lots of bits and pieces to the class blog. Feel free to pinch as well. The kids were very excited about our blog being visited from someone in the UK.

Looking forward to setting up the kids blogs this week, investigating the e-portfolios on Mahara - the hard copy of the book is coming.

Focusing on Comic Life and finishing the first webquest this week.

Myspace Fun Flash Comments

Have had a wonderful week seeing the children's excitement when they learn new skills. Having three of them run a workshop and teaching all of the others - and me - about keynote presentations, was one of the best teaching experiences ever!

It is a real buzz to hear all the ways the children can see that this learning and knowledge can be applied. They are talking about running camera skills workshops and then applying this to iPhoto and then to comic Life - that's their goal next week.

Really proud of them. So exciting to be learning with them.