Middle++Sharing

 Our Concept was Conservation, the Context was Conservation of Oceans, in the setting of a Marine Reserve at Goat island. First students participated in a [|Learnz Virtual Science Feild Trip] to examine the importance of the foodchain and the interdependence of each species to sustain an ecological balance (consulting a Marine Biologist at Goat Island). We developed a visual record (photos taken by students and parents) of camp activities and used these to provoke reflection on return to school. The students worked in mixed age groups and discussed, planned and created multimedia shows (powerpoint) to highlight the key aspects of their learning at camp.The presentations were then shared with parents, and students explained what they had learnt by participating in the various Somewhere alng the way we noticed that most of these became simple recounts rather than having the desired focus on the uniqueness of the site and the environment ie. The importance of maintaining a Marine Reserve.
 * [[image:Goat_Island.JPG align="left"]]Orini - Year 4 -8 Camp (Dee & John) **

On reflection this was our first attempt at using Powerpoint over multi-levels and quite a lot of time was taken up teaching the younger group members how to use the different tools within Powerpoint. Of course the intention was to focus on the learning, not on the tool but we have found that intially a lot of time was spent on discovering how to manipulate it - to do what we want. Now that a basic knowledge has been established, good teaching leads us into focusing more on the task, eg. effectively conveying the student's developing understanding of the learning (and assessing THIS - not how well they used every feature of the technology tool LOL ). This term the same group of students will be experiencing another EOTC camp at Totara Springs. We intend to repeat the process and THIS TIME we will ensure that the students presentations are focused on reflecting and illustrating their understanding of the learning that has taken place (their personal learning), rather than simply recounting what we did.

Term Two at Orini continued the focus on Conservation with looking at ways to conserve the rural community, in particular through reducing, reusing and recycling of rubbish. The whole school took part in constructing and parading Wearable Arts made from objects found in the rural community. On completion of our show my class used the [|bighugelabs] website to create magazine covers as visual art to represent the outcomes of the final performance.



**Orini - Cyber Safety Agent Missions (Dee) **  Continuing our school wide Conservation topic, our context was Conserving our mind and body. As our school is introducing a new LMS (KnowledgeNet) we wanted our students to be aware of how to use Internet tools in a protected environment and to know what to do if they find themselves in a situation of feeling unsafe or bullied. After our Homegroup meeting on Cyber Safety in Cambridge led by Jill Hammonds, I investigated the [|Netsafe website] and found the 2 sites that would be of most use to my Year 5-6 class. I then introduced this to my class by creating Agents and a series of 5 missions to work through to become a C.S.A. (Cyber Safety Agent). Missions 1 and 2 work through tasks using [|Hector's World], Missions 3 and 4 focus on the [|NetsmartzKids]. Mission 5 relates to using an Exposition Argument (our writing focus) on whether children should have computers in their bedrooms, also students and parents signing Cyber Safety Agreements. To track completion of each mission students move their Agent tag underneath the mission they are working on. They also complete a.

As a result of working through these missions students, students created photostories to depict one of the main aspects which they have learnt about. Some of these will be shared during assemblies and also be uploaded to our KnowledgeNet to refer back to and for other classes to access as a resource. media type="youtube" key="cfA2yXsi17Y" height="286" width="400"media type="youtube" key="hJLLGNwMeOs" height="286" width="358"
 * [[image:Cyber_Safety_001.jpg width="275" height="179"]] || [[image:Cyber_Safety_003.jpg width="230" height="173"]] || [[image:Cyber_Safety_006.jpg width="228" height="174"]] ||

H ere is a copy of mission one:

Mission One
 * warning

 (1) __C.S.A. Definition__ - Find out the definition for each of these words: cyber, safety, agent. Put these together to write your own definition of what it means to be a Cyber Safety Agent.

(2) __Design a C.S.A. Badge__ - Create a badge for your agent to earn when they complete all 5 missions. Publish your badge using the paint programme. (3) __ Hector's World Characters __ - Explore  HECTOR'S WORLD  website. Find the Town Hall in Silicon Deep West. Meet the 7 main characters. Draw these in your book with a description of each and explain how they can help.

=TAHUNA SCHOOL Year 4-6 Discovery Room (Sandie and Rob) =

We are very aware now that we are infusing our teaching practice with ICT. It is not until you step back and reflect that so much becomes more apparent - this is certainly a journey and not a destination!

We are fortunate to have the ability to have had 7 computers active within the classroom (give or take some when technical glitches occur) They are an integral part and have become just another tool (powerful one), just like a pen; to assist all of our learning.

The Development of a Class Wikispace; this was a holiday challenge for us to get our heads around and then ensure online safety and permission was granted for children to be working in an online environment. We have kept it as a private wikispace as children are becoming more aware of how to use it - editing, creating links and giving feedback. We have introduced the Cuddle Kick Cuddle feedback/feed forward, this has assisted in developing resilience when their work is critiqued. They are starting to ask to make things public as their confidence is growing and this will be the next step. Class wiki site http://discoveryroom.wikispaces.com/

We constantly feel we are either working alongside or only just a small step in front of our students with the growth, learning and problem solving required.

media type="custom" key="4658645" Don't know how this happened! My Title Page font and Capital letters have all changed - don't think it recognised one of my whacky and wonderful fonts I have!

Below are some examples of recent Pirate curses created in Scrapblog - great publishing tool ! We have a strong class literacy focus and had some fun developing rhyming pirate curses (as fearsome warnings). Rather than spending hours drawing "piratical" backgrounds for presentation (with limited ED value!!!) the students still needed to present their language in a way that motivated effort - so we did them using Scrapblog (one of many effective presentation tools). The work was prepared for presentation in no time and the students were very proud of their finished curses. media type="custom" key="4658741"

=Tauhei Yr 4-6 - (Gaylene, Sarah & Robyn)=

During the year we were able to remedy on-going problems with the school computer systems that had made even the mention of "computer" stressful. We now have internet access to computers in all classrooms which are available as a tool to be integrated into learning. media type="custom" key="4709893" align="left"A significant change in the senior rooms is the spontaneous use of the computer to reference an idea that children want to know more about. For example as we read our class serial - 'The Cay' by Theodore Taylor children were able to discover information and pictures about: cays, Carribean, langosta, booby bird, hurricanes. Another example: while sharing a story, one child asked "What's a moa?" This was immediately followed up by information and pictures sourced from the computer. Throughout the year children have been developing research skills. A focus has been the ability to search written text for key ideas, note-take and present a factual report. During our topic study of Solar System a baseline activity was to identify and present 6 key facts about each of the planets using books and internet sources. Using their knowledge of the solar system the children then each posed their own independent question to research. The learning focus was to apply developing research skills to use the internet as an information source. Groups of children also attended the workshop with Donna Dyet to learn about developing visual language skills using photography ,and "Photostory 3". They shared their learning with other class members and children practised photographing different types of shots. As part of the literacy focus, children went in small groups into the community to take photos of "Tauhei Winter".The learning focus was to use visual and verbal text to convey a message. Children edited their photos and selected their best shots to make a photostory.

= = Huntly Primary – Yr 4 – 6 (Mike, Desne, Daniel) Our schoolwide focus has been the sensible integration of ICT tools **AND SOUND PEDAGOGY** into our teaching practice to enhance student achievement. We’re all at different stages of understanding, with varying depths of skills knowledge and confidence and this offers huge challenges.

We've begun to experiment with increased use of ICTs - looking carefully at our learning intentions and learning outcomes, to see to what degree, effective teaching, using appropriate ICT tools and resources, helps achieve learning outcomes for our students. We all attended PD sessions on assessing "deeper thinking" using SOLO taxonomy and Blooms Taxonomy and have begun exploring these ideas in classroom practice. Some of us have had a particular focus on particular ICT tools eg. using photos and drawing tools to help develop visual literacy. . media type="custom" key="4718005"

Above are our reflections and some examples of classroom practice ideas that we’ve used, with our learning intentions and outcomes (these are first steps for most of us). Each syndicate used these to report back to our staff on progress, and we also shared at our Middle Cluster Sharing session.

=Whitikahu Yr 4 - 5 - Sandra =

They were very pleased with these and wanted to share with a wider audience so we decided to use our camera skills and our stories to make photostories to share with the rest of the school and our parents at assembly. I was very pleased with the completed photostories. The children had been grouped to enable them to tap into the existing skills of other students, and were able to confidently problem solve any issues. There was so much learning in this first attempt, but so much much more to do. The students got a lot of feedback by watching their audience reaction eg. can they read it or would it be better to attach their voices next time ? The students spent a lot of time posing the exact photo to match their text, and lots of discussion about how they could show the images they'd imagined.**
 * media type="custom" key="4677713" align="left"As part of our Social Science learning intentions, we investigated how our local area was named. We used a range of resources eg. Our Jubilee booklets and local Kaumatua, to gather information. Then the students used their developing understanding to write stories about how Whitikahu was named.

Now I'm encouraged to try more multi-media formats to give my students more options to present their work. || ||

​ =Kimihia Year 5 and 6 - Cushla=

Glogster is another tool that is growing in popularity by the second. I guess the best way to describe it is as an online poster creation tool with music. You'll have to see it to completely understand.

I used Glogster with my class to showcase what they had learnt so far in Japanese without making it a threatening 'test' type situation. It was rewarding as it taught the students to present their work another way. The students enjoyed personalising there Glog and were excited to see the final product.The students felt rewarded with their final product as no two Glogs looked the same and they still had all the information needed to pass the assessment. We are yet to insert sound. They are goinf to record themselves saying their self introduction in Japanese so that everyone can hear them!

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 * Kimihia Year 3 and 4** -Bronwyn. We are in the process of creating our own I Spy story books. These are very popular in my class so I decided to get the children to design a page by collecting objects and arranging them onto a sheet of paper. Then each child took a photo of their design and for many this was the first time using a camera. I have uploaded the pictures for the children to use each others to create a book. I am going to use power point as the medium for their work. So this is a work in progress.

=Helen, St Joeseph's, Morrinsville (Year 4 / 5)=

We have had a great year enjoying and experimenting with a variety of technology based tools to enhance our learning. It has definatly encouraged engagment from the children. Photostory was an excellent tool. We used it alot to retell events that had happened such as Arbour Daymedia type="youtube" key="Q2OwBvfzIoc" height="344" width="425"

Making templates using Microsoft Word was an easy way for children to complete a learning task. It eliminated time and the children fussing around with the finer details ... all they had to do was enter in their work :) The work was then bound in to books that have since become FANTASTIC class resources. The children are often going back and reflecting on prior learning. Below are some examples of recount stories and algebra problems