Cluster Sharing Day

On May 26th the Cluster held a cluster sharing day in the form of a mini conference. All teachers were able to choose 2 workshops to attend. These workshops were presented by classroom teachers from the cluster, a very good confidence builder and introduction to presenting.
All teachers from the 5 cluster schools attended and the afternoon was very well received.

Workshops took place on:

Integration with ICT in Class Projects (Movie Maker & Photo Story
Presenter: Douglas Choong A Year 5 class project on “Producing School Ads” that integrates language, social studies, health and technology using ICT tools such as videoing with digital camera, Movie Maker, and Photo Story

Wikis and Blogs – Beginning the journey
Presenters: Teachers Teachers sharing their experiences and examples of using Blogs and Wikis to support learning. School organization, homelearning, presenting learning, safely linking us to the world ….

Key Competencies
Presenters: M.P.S. One step at a time……
Integrating the K.C.’s into our programmes.

Voice Thread
Presenter: BBI Students demonstrating voice thread as a way to reflect on their work


Mimios and Visual Learning
Presenter: Carol Dickinson A sharing of how Carol uses the Mimio for writing and maths as an interactive resource. How she uses it as a digital learning centre.
I.C.T. Suite

Wikis
Presenter: Julie Nugent Julie sharing her experiences and examples of using Wikis and D.L.C. to support learning.

Taking Photography to the Next Level
Presenters: Louise Johnson and Kim Sayers Rich with knowledge, enthusiasm and experiences from I-Extreme, Kim and Louise will show you how to shoot flowers and plants like a pro. Find out how to use boost mode, macro mode and open shutter setting effectively.b

e-Portfolios
Presenters:Ian Fox/Keith Smith Sharing of e-Portfolios

Thank you to all the presenters for the work involved, and for your enthusiasm and willingness to share.

Learning@School Conference

21 teachers and principals from our cluster travelled to Rotorua for the Learning@School Conference.

An important part of our professional development in our learning community has been to encourage teachers to present at their school and our cluster sharing sessions. This has prepared them for the next step of presenting to their peers outside our community. 5 breakouts were presented by members of our cluster.

An inspirational way to start the year.

Welcome to 2008

It has already been a hectic start to the year. We started the year off with a teacher only day on 4 Feb. This was in the form of a whole cluster meeting to which we invited Mark Treadwell to speak on future implications for NZ curiculum, assessment and how the key competencies and inquiry support the vision of the school. He spoke of how schools can transform the framework into the curriculum.
See the cluster wiki for detailed notes



His online notes are available here.
Whatever by Mark Treadwell will be available in March.
Details of Mark's sessions can be found here.

Next up is the Learning at Schools Conference in Rotorua 20-22 Feb. There will be 5 presentations made there by members of our cluster. A fantastic effort and good luck to all.