the adventures of antsy_pants

I am still breathing!

2010-08-26T17:09:00.003+12:00

Its been a while since my last post...I feel like the long lost blogger! I have been recently wondering about classroom environments and what makes them a great place to be. So I decided to put some of my key ideas into a wordle...

Cluster Share Afternoon

2009-10-27T12:12:00.003+13:00

What a great afternoon we had at the cluster share afternoon. It was fantastic to see the progress each school has made in the past 2 years! It awesome that every school presented in a different way -it kept things interesting and everyone focused! Rochelle and I presented a keynote with exemplars of all the ICT learning that has been going on throughout the year, across the school.

I really enjoyed seeing our journey as a cluster since the beginning of last year, I felt very proud to a part of the change that has been taking place across all the schools and in particular being a part of the changes at CBS.

ULearn 2009

2009-10-07T17:02:00.003+13:00

My trusty sidekick Rochelle and I have just completed presenting our breakout session called "Animate and Innovate Our Young Learners!" to an audience of about 20 at ULearn in Christchurch. It was fantastic, everyone was very enthusiastic about using 'I can animate' and 'Imovie' and could see the value of using this tool in their classrooms. We showed some examples of drawing animations (which was a digital recount of our class trip to MOTAT.) We also showed an example of using the image capture animation which is the series of photos (frames) that conveys movement through a series of tiny movements.

Everybody had a go at creating both types of animations, including exporting and importing into IMovie to finish off the editing process. We were quite pushed for time as we wanted to show and let everyone have a go at both types of animating.

It was fantastic and we got lots of great feedback!

Wordle.net

2009-09-25T11:38:00.001+12:00

Have been showing my class the fun you can have with Wordle.net so have created this one using my blog!

testing testing.....

2009-08-31T19:21:00.002+12:00

Am testing whether or not you can save google doc files as a webpage and then embed the html code... and it worked! woo hoo!

Copy of Homework Week 10

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3
bundle	dessert	abundance
business	definite	acceptance
bullock	determine	appearance
burst	desire	assistance
cunning	defence	confidence
current	desert	endurance
curious	surprise	innocence
furnish	sufficient	obedience
furniture	succeed	preference
gutter	suffer	patience

The last lead teacher cluster day of 2009...

2009-08-26T13:38:00.002+12:00

This is the last lead teacher cluster day for 2009 and as ever we had lots to discuss and plan for.

We discussed and practised peer coaching which was very valuable as it allows you to focus on a specific area that you would like to improve. With the help of a peer (that you trust and respect) peer coaching allows you to reflect on an aspect and focus in on what and how you are going to improve. Very relevant to my journey as an ICT lead teacher. I would first like to try this out being the "coachee" and focus on something that I could to improve on.

We also discussed Presentation skills and our facilitator shared with us a dvd from Presentation Zen, which focuses on effective presentations. Very relevant as Rocky and I are presenting at the next conference in Chch!

Fiona from TS came and shared with us the content on digistore and ways in which we can incorporate the content in our classroom, very important that this is "added in" not added on, something that can happen a lot in respect of ICT. We saw a video example of how a digital learning object was included in a classroom's inquiry unit. It interlinked with the other learning activities planned for the students and not just as an isolated activity where connections would have been lost.

It is scary to think that this is the last lead teacher day for this year -being our 2nd year in our cluster and that around about this time next year we will be coming to the end of our journey.

Wallwisher

2009-06-17T15:30:00.002+12:00

Have just finished a lesson on space using Wallwisher as a means to record ideas. Was totally fantastic! Students worked in groups of 2 or 3 and researched "features of space" using links that I had set up for them previously! Everyone was engaged and enjoyed the activity. Fantastic! Below is our wall that we posted to!

Student directed learning

2009-06-10T14:37:00.005+12:00

Last week we had a theme week entitled "A Walk on the Wild Side", which was a short one week unit of work. I was asked if I would like to try Student directed learning in my class for the week... What fun!
To start discussed the theme first of all and then wrote down (collaboratively) an A-Z list of words that went with the topic. Then each student thought about what curriculum area they would like to spend a whole day doing, whether it be Reading, Visual Art or Maths & Statistics. They then thought about and listed some ideas they would like to do related to that area and chose the activity they wanted to do. Lastly they wrote a list of their needs for their chosen activity. This was all done on the Friday prior so they had the weekend to think about what they would be doing. Each student needed to have a "product" at the end of the given time.

When the week started, some students had already started their activity! Some had completed most of it and just needed to use the given class time to "publish" their final product. I gave my class 4, hour and a half blocks over 3 days (we had other things happening during the week also).
I was amazed at how focused every student was. I facilitated the learning and my students came up with the process they needed to get to their finished product.

It was a fantastic week where everyone was able to choose an area that they were particularly interested in with LOTS of learning going on.

Some things that I will need to do for next time are; Find set blocks of time when there are no interruptions, Make sure everyone has a process for their activity, so that they know what needs to be done in order to achieve the final outcome.

Overall it was a very successful week with everyone engaged in their learning.

ICT Cluster day

2009-06-10T14:26:00.003+12:00

What a great day we have had! It was fantastic to have some to time explore web 2.0 tools. Finding time to do this can become difficult with classroom tasks to do as well!

Looking at the role of the facilitator was extremely helpful and gave me a clear idea of the role we have as ICT lead teachers. Looking at the web resources and reporting back using a Web 2.0 tool was a great idea as it gave us a chance to practise something new!

With the upcoming Expo for our cluster I will have to think about what I could do to present for a workshop and prepare for this. Scary!

2009-05-20T17:40:00.003+12:00

I have just returned from camp with my team and class. What a fantastic time we had! Whilst we were down at Raglan, we had loads of activities for the kids to do. Two of these were; Digital photography and E-class. I took digital photography, and so for this had an hour of time in which to go through and practise using some of the functions and different techniques with them. It was fantastic fun and it great to be able to work with small groups of kids and really make sure they understood the different functions and techniques we had discussed. This is probably the best ICT lesson I have ever done!

Classroom Blog!

2009-04-03T12:42:00.002+13:00

I have just finished setting up my classroom blog! We had a discussion in class about what a blog is and how it can be used. Most students didn't really have any idea about what they are and what you use them for. So I showed them this one. (Not really much to show them though).

After much discussion with my class we decided that the best way we could incorporate this into what we are doing is to use it as a platform to showcase our amazing writing. So shortly following this we will be sharing our writing with the world via our blog.

We are very excited about it and fingers crossed the blog will fulfill its purpose - provide us and our writing a global audience.

Regularity is not my forte!

2009-04-03T12:32:00.002+13:00

Being one of the ICT cluster leaders for my school, I am supposed to write posts on my blog to document my learning journey and here's the catch - they are supposed to be regular entries. I am first to admit that I am not the most organised person around and I definitely have trouble keeping schedules. I had a goal which was to keep myself organised and try not to forget things...my blog was one of these...as you can see from the date of my last post, this hasn't really gone according to plan.
I am still trying to figure out the best way of keeping everything together and being more organised...I started with a diary that didn't work because I don't always have it with me. I tried ICal on my laptop, but I have found that I often forget to check it or I haven't always entered something on there because I wrote it in my diary! I'm sure I will get better at being organised and will definitely try to keep my blog updated.
Something I was thinking of trying was the Google calendar as I was reading about it this week and apparently you can save things between ICal and Google calendars...will definitely give it a go and you never know it may work for me!

Lead teacher workshop number 1

2009-03-11T15:03:00.003+13:00

Just back from our ICT cluster lead teacher day, and was good to catch with people after Learning @ School conference last month in Rotorua. We talked about the focus of the cluster this year and where we were heading. Most importantly we brainstormed some ideas for our Expo to be held in the July school holidays for everybody.

We also had Lisa Allcott from the National Library come and discuss with us, the digital resources available through EPIC and the national library. Some were appropriate for our primary aged students like the Online Encyclopedia Britannica but others were more aimed at a Secondary school (or above) level.

There are many many resources available to us online, some appropriate for our students, some not so much. But to use these fantastic resources with your class you need a purpose otherwise it becomes just another "whizzbang" thing to use once or twice and then forget about.

I have found in the past year of being part of the ICT cluster that there are so many tools available that I have really had to decide which ones are actually serving a purpose in my classroom and not just there for the sake of it! Also difficulty with Network access (eg on snail speed) has cut out a lot of these. Somethings I have tested beforehand at home before introducing them to my class has worked efficiently but at school has not been a viable option for this reason.

I guess the answer is small steps, start by introducing and using something that will meet a purpose, will work for you and will become embedded in your practice and build on from there.

I feel very inspired and motivated to incorporate some new tools into my classroom practice again after being a bit disheartened with network difficulties last year!