TBCS - Steve - ICT - Audit - Oct 2018

Karl came to carry out an audit as requested by me, after having spoken to Warren Hall about an audit. This came from attending a Beginning principal's Hui. The following is his feedback from our initial meeting.

Karl Summerfield (Connected Learning Advisory) Oct 1, 11:59 NZDT Kia ora Steve, Was great to meet you on Friday and see all the interesting e-learning that is happening at your school. Here is a quick summary of our meeting, and I'll be back in touch with you once I have spoken with our team. We met on Friday 28th Sept 2018. You saw Warren present at a beginning principals' hui and took up the offer of a CLA audit. Tasman Bay Christian School is a state integrated, full primary school with a roll of 46. You have a 1:1 ratio of digital devices to students. Your senior students are all allocated a laptop for use during the school day. Junior students are using iPads. You have a teaching programme with a strong emphasis on individualised learning. Your school programme utilises a series of online learning sites for reading (Reading Plus, Lexia), maths (Maths Buddy, Sum Dog) and typing. All students are working at their own level. Data, particularly from online learning programmes, is used to drive learning decisions for each individual student. You have a fibre connection via N4L, and you have a fast wireless network that is meeting your needs well. Every room has a TV or projector and students regularly use these to share their screens with the class for presenting and collaboration. The learning spaces are flexible and can be reconfigured for quiet individual work or collaborative work. Google, Reading Plus, Lexia, and Maths Buddy can all be accessed from home. Most students have access to digital technology at home, but not all. In terms of engaging with whānau and the wider community, the school are using Seesaw for digital portfolios. Students are good at uploading evidence into the portfolios. Some parents interact with Seesaw, but you would like to increase that. You have been allocated 150 hours CF-PLD, and have used 80 this year. You have been working with Rob Clarke (Learning Architects) with a focus on digital fluency & digital literacy. Staff are using Google docs to collaborate, particularly managing the team teaching environment. You are using Google Team Drive to manage your school data, and it is well organised. I showed you the e-Learning Planning Framework, and suggested that you could use it as a possible next step. You and your staff could identify which phase (pre-emerging, emerging, engaging, extending, empowering) you best fit on each of the five dimensions. This would give you an idea of what you're doing well, and where any gaps might be. Have I missed anything? I'll get back to you soon. Ngā mihi Karl Summerfield Connected Learning Advisory M: 021 912 430 E: karl@connectedlearning.org.nz

TBCS - Steve - Beginning Principals Conference - October 2018

DAY ONE

Viviane Robinson

Planning

Is our curriculum part of our planning? What are our goals?
Where do the values etc appear and the special character?

Look at my planning with Margaret.

Is it child centred. What as a staff are we trying to achieve. see below.

evaluation associates have the rest of the above. email Cleve.

How courageous are you?

Can we change what is not working? How do we know?
School written reports, does the community want what is in them? would they like something else?
Is our special character represented as the parents would like it?
MOE requirement only states 2 written reports per year are required.

Check the calendar for time use. Where is the support and where is it needed?

1. Check timelines of goals and outcomes for all staff?
2. Share the working out of these goals.
3. What are the expectations of my staff and board? And my students?

Problem Solving

Does the quick fix only work for me, is it part of our processes?

Most urgent focus; next year staffing, budget etc.
What do we as a staff believe is our best use of resources, staff, technology, paint etc and list why or who will benefit by extra teacher aide hours?

What is your mission values statement. Can it be seen in your school?
Where does it fit into these questions?

Dr Lance O'Sullivan
The 'why' is the most important question we can ask ourselves.
Negative rewards cause as much damage as positive. Encourage the positive.
Create opportunity for leadership not just for the 'leaders'.

DAY TWO
Appraisals Christina Thornley : first steps in school wide appraisal.

see our blog labels and put criteria in one box. 2 observations per annum. Look at PLD days as examples.
Check that we do not need evidence, we need to be professionals is reflection part of our practise.
* Add feedback from our data re our schoolwide goals, each off us.
* Get Rob Clarke to feed into my appraisal.
COMPLETE AND SIGN OFF BELOW FOR ALL STAFF:
https://www.educationcouncil.org.nz/content/teachers-appraisal

CYBER SAFETY
netsafe to replace John Parsons.

TBCS - Steve - Milanote - research students

I have 7 students a who are reading above fluent, completing their reading in less than the 35 minutes (usually 10-15 min) allocated. To extend them I was looking for alternative options, and saw milanote.


I have issued access to this app on the basis of creating a presentation on a topic of their choice using this app.
Next I'll need to put a time factor on it. At the moment they are seeing what they can do in this app.

Steve-Pastors Visit-21 June 2018-staff

Our annual invitation to Pastors to visit over breakfast had to change this year. Due to staffing times and issues, a breakfast wasn't going to work.
We rescheduled for a 9-30 visit with the Principal before a walk through of the classes, followed by a morning tea.
We started in Rm 4 where the children were working through Literacy via Google Docs being shared on the big screen, editing and children adding information for parents via Seesaw.
Room 3 was next where the children were working through mathematics.
Rm 1 was just finishing a group talk and was dispersing for different activities.
They then joined our whole school for the start of day procedure (which we had rescheduled so that they might see it) for prayers, bible verse discussion and milk.
We then adjourned to the Library for morning tea. A good discussion time was had with staff and pastors.
We closed in prayer and thanked them for their visit.

Next Steps. Redo this process, much better for seeing what Christian Schools look like.

ICT Skills - Blogging tips

Aren't they a good looking bunch!

Here are some pointers for blogging that will help you:

1. Always make one idea = 1 post. Then use labels effectively, this will ensure your blog is searchable and filterable in different ways.
2. You can create a link using a label category - click a label you want to link to, then notice the URL says /search/label/name of label in it
3. You can take this a step further by combining labels into a search, below...

<blog-URL>/search/?q=label:LABEL1+label:LABEL2

Reflection on Day 1 PLD April 17 - Judy-Anne

Felt as though my brain was mush by the end of yesterday. It was quite difficult to compartmentalise and things were going on with my family so I was also distracted. We covered a lot and I found that I had forgotten how to do some things that I used to know how to do.

It was good to be able to find my google photos on the laptop later in the day. I couldn't find them in the morning but discovered that putting a search in eg "April" brought them up. The blog looks so much better with photos!

I think we had some good discussions about stream lining some of our work. Teacher Meetings will hopefully be shorter with the new agenda we have and a system for all putting in our comments before we have our meeting.

Next steps:
I need to ensure I am scheduling time to practise skills.

It is wise for us to share our planning, good apps etc. Rob suggested having places named "Great Resources" and "Great Strategies" and has put those labels on the blog.

TBCS - Craig - Reflection of Term 1 2018

This term has gone really well and there have been lots of positives. Most students have progressed really well in Reading and Math, and Bible has progressed well with the students learning Genesis well and being challenged about how the Word of God impacts their every day lives.

One area that has been a challenge has been writing. I have tried lots of different means of getting the students to write and it has had mixed results. The term goal was about sentences. That still remains a challenge.

We have started using ICT to improve writing outcomes, but this is still in the learning, messy stage. The kids are excited, but our school goal has not seen improvement yet using this media.

I have seen improvement in the students that struggle, but most of the problems are ones of attitude and head space, not so much in ability. I have worked tirelessly to point out strengths and abilities and to create empathy for others. Once they can look outside themselves, they will more quickly see the impact their actions and words.

The students wrote some great reflections of their learning which showed the progress each of them had made. It was really encouraging for me.

• 2  Reflection on how aspects of PLD have been enacted and the impact on ākonga learning.
• 3  Participating fully in school/syndicate/faculty/department meetings and be an active member of the team. Share ideas with others.
• 4  Discussing my practice with colleagues and being open to new ideas.
• Promotion of positive and appropriate relationships with and between ākonga.

Another way to learn as/when you need it

Hi guys,

In talking to Steve this afternoon I reminded myself that I'd made a note for Judy-Anne to have access to our Online Learning Community when she needs it.

This would be a yearly subscription which would enable you to learn new skills as/when you need them. Plus you can get unlimited support inside this community, along with a wealth of other things such as templates (perhaps we could make a learning support register?).

One of the areas we discussed when we met was the need to develop a learning support register and a means for tracking/monitoring progress of students in this. Google Sheets is a great tool for this as everyone can interact on the same sheet, plus you have the ability to control what people can edit within a tab on a sheet - VERY handy!

When you are ready to, sign up for a free trial here: learningarchitects.com.join and I will upgrade you to a full member. There is an online course 'Google Sheets & Forms 1' which is perfect for setting you up.

Here is a screenshot of the homepage:



Rob

ICT Skills - accelerating literacy with iPads

I am one of the leaders of the GEG NZ (Google Educator Group) which is an online community for educators in NZ. It runs on Google Plus.

This blog post has a video from a meeting we held and is a great example of iPad usage in a junior environment.

It is quite long but well worth a watch when you get a chance ;-)

ICT Skills - teacher planning template

I have a wide range of templates for teachers and school leaders to use.

This planning template is the most popular with teachers.

Sign up for a tutorial and get your own copy...

How to use Google Calendars

ICT Skills - learning to use search properly

I think that search is a fundamental skills for using the cloud effectively. This blog post shows you how to search for anything inside your Google Drive.

No more wasted time looking for files!

ICT Skills - ways to collaborate inside G Suite

This blog post deals with a number of the ways in which we can interact inside G Suite.

As you learn more about how this environment works, you'll find there are a variety of ways we can interact.

ICT Skills - How to manage multiple Google accounts

This tip is to help you learn how to easily switch between multiple Google accounts using the Chrome web browser.

Click on this blog post on learningarchitects.com to watch the video and set this up.