Term 4 Lead Teacher's Day

The focus for this day was on podcasting. We visited Dorothy Burt at Point England School, where the students introduced podcasting and how the philosophy is embedded in their school.

They demonstrated the making of a podcast and talked about the equipment they use.
Certainly, they are proud of their work and their school and rightly so too.

Dorothy showed us stats on how podcasting has raised student achievement. Her research shows a 2 1/2 year increase in reading age in 1 year. Amazing stuff.

There were bonus spinoffs too, such as improved attitudes towards reading, improved reading habits, fluency and comprehension improvement.

Lead Teachers Day

The Term 3 Lead Teachers' Day started with discussion on embedding the Key Competencies into the Inquiry process.
We watched Rose Hipkins video and followed up with discussion on the main points she makes.
Two important aspects were discussed -
1. Curriculum cohesion - Rose mentions this and it is a ongoing issue for many schools. Pressures of timetabling and balance make it difficult for the full inquiry process to take place often resulting in unfinished and shallow outcomes, leaving both teachers and students frustrated.
2. Assessment of Inquiry - a matter of ongoing discussion - what do we actually assess, and what does that assessment look like. What is the purpose of the assessment, and what does it mean? More questions than answers, I'm afraid.

We also watched the Yoram Harpaz series of videos on thinking. A wonderful resource and one that kept us in discussion for a long time.

The afternoon was spent looking at podcasting. We made audio files in Garageband or Audacity, and uploaded them to Podomatic. These podcasts were then able to be subscribed to through Apple Store in iTunes.

Also view our Bucklands Beach cluster wiki for more resources and information.

Sharing our Ideas

Teachers are wonderful people who happily share their work and ideas. I am always truly amazed at what teachers can do, and how they are willing to share whatever level they happen to be at.

In August, the Bucklands Beach Cluster held an afternoon where teachers from all schools showed, shared and talked about what has happening in the classroom to all cluster members.

The focus was on digital story telling, but there was a variety of work being shown including animations, power point presentations and work done in garage band.

See our wiki for some of the pd ideas we have done in these areas.

The Wave Radio Station at Bucklands Beach Intermediate

At Bucklands Beach Intermediate, in Auckland, there is great excitement. We have been working to set up a local radio station. The teacher responsible has been training our students to be DJs, interviewers etc for the new radio station 'The Wave' (we are by the beach) 88.1 (it visually looks like BBI). We have a license for limited live broadcasting and a area radius of about 5kms.

Here is an extract from a local newspaper - Howick and Pakuranga Times

'Students at Bucklands Beach Intermediate are making waves as their new radio station goes live to air each day.
Year 7 Bucklands Beach Intermediate students (names removed) know how to work the mike at the school's new radio station.
Term two saw the launch of The Wave 88.1FM, a radio station operated by student DJs and technicians.
“The DJs talk and the techies control the volume,” says technician (name removed), aged 11.
“We play a lot of music and we do jingles, narratives and stingers.”

Year 7 pupils write scripts for shows, which run 8-9am and 12-1pm daily.
“They do the top 10 music list, a comedy section and we do celebrity gossip.
“Some times we go through notices,” says technician (name removed), aged 12.
“We have different themes because there’s different people on each day, so we might have joke day or Kiwiana day.”

Teacher Mr Barrow developed the radio concept to boost student confidence.
“They pretty much run the whole thing and I just oversee it. It’s good because they do all the talking and prepare all the scripts and they bring in all the songs. I just look after all the licences,” says Mr Barrow.

The station can be received on radios up to 5km from the school.
“It all depends on if there are hills in the way,” says Mr Barrow.'

It is yet another way to engage our students and switch them onto school.

Lead Teachers Day

We held our second Lead Teachers day on Wed 13 June. Our focus for the day was Inquiry Learning. Our discussions centred around big picture ideas framed by the following questions.
What is Inquiry?
What kind of learners do we want?
What are we doing already?
What is powerful learning?
What is powerful to learn?
What is the difference between knowledge/information?



We looked at what each school is doing at the moment, and the different models we have developed and are currently using.
Further information is on our cluster wiki.

Inquiry Learning

A series of staff meetings were recently held to explore Inquiry Learning and the draft Social Science curriculum document.
Bucklands Beach Intermediate School have looked at many exisiting inquiry models and developed a model for Inquiry that the staff are now trialing in the classroom. The emphasis is on student choice and students taking control of their own learning in an authentic context.
Follow this link the the Bucklands Beach ICTPD cluster wiki to download powerpoint presentations that examine the big idea of inquiry and what it means, and a break down of the Bucklands Beach Intermediate Inquiry model in detail.

Digital Storytelling

Many teachers in our cluster are currently using digital storytelling in their classroom programmes. These are used in a variety of different ways from exploring narratives, writing reflections, or as a glimpse of their learning in e-portfolios.
Staff pd in making digital stories has taken place in several schools, all using many different programmes and platforms to create them.
Digital storytelling allows students to develop their research skills in finding rich and deep content, to synthesise that content, to develop communication skills, to organise ideas, to ask questions, to express opinions , to construct narrativesand to write for a real audience. WOW!!
Go to our cluster wiki and download the powerpoint to answer questions on what and why.

Digital Learning Centres

On Thursday, Justine Driver presented her Digital Learning Centres to our cluster members - approx 100+. Justine is AP at a school in our cluster, and she has presented at many conferences, including Tuanz and Learning at School this year.
Her Digital Learning Centres received positive comments from a ERO a few weeks ago.
Made in Powerpoint, these valuable, yet simple to make, centres can enhance and extend the learning.
Examples of Justines learning centres are available on her wiki - linked here through our cluster wiki.
Thanks Justine for sharing the knowledge and enthusiasm.

Thinking Skills at Mellons Bay School

Lead Teachers Day

As this is our first year of the contract all 5 lead teachers and facilitator took a tour around the cluster schools. It was great to see the similarities and difference in the cluster and to see that all have some great ideas and systems in place.
We looked at the media broadcast at Bucklands Beach Intermediate and the radio station.


Fantastic presentations at Pigeon Mountain School included an interactive resource on snails and a presentation by the environment group on the enviro-friendly actions taken by the school.

Then on to Macleans Primary, looking at their media suite.
Mellons Bay School shared some of their thinking skills and we visited the library and the media suite.

Bucklands Beach Cluster

My name is Lenva Shearing and I am the facilitator for the Bucklands Beach ICT PD cluster.
This blog has been set up to record and reflect on our journey as a cluster.