02/03/09
Wow!!Last week was the Learning @School conference in Rotorua. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to go to these conferences. The keynote speakers were all good with interesting messages shared. However, (apart from the freebies!!) the highlight has to be ALL of my breakouts. Every single one was loaded to the brim with practical and inspiring ideas. The hands on opportunities were especially great. The first one I attended was “Meaning on the Menu” with Innes Kennard. Way back in the 80’s when I was in Pahiatua, I was first introduced to computers by Innes. (on apple 2e’s if my memory serves me right) Going to any workshops run by Innes is an opportunity not to be missed. Only 5 people attended the breakout…we were lucky!! The hour and a half went too fast but I came away with so many ideas for infusing literacy and ICT. Poetry jigsaws (the concept also suiting recipes/instructions) prompted disussions as to why the poet may have written the poem in such a way. Building up digital text and image libraries is such a sensible idea and I intend getting started on them soon. Ways for children to think about punctuation, grammar, synonyms, use a thesaurus/dictionary. Using the ‘track changes’ tool in Word (I didn’t even know such a thing existed) to support children in editing their written language makes so much sense. I had a good chat with Layton today about it and he is really keen to look at it more closely. I’d really like to introduce it to the Senior Team teachers as well. I can envisage working alongside them maybe to get it going, whether it be in small groups or on a whole class basis. I think sharing it at one of thier team meetings would be the way to go. Other suggestions like having ‘fingerwriting’ (keyboard skills) as an integral part of a handwriting programme also makes sense and that is what I started the conversation with Layton about today as I knew he would see it as a practical way of infusing the learning. (Got that word in!!) Its another tip I need to share with the whole staff.
I think setting up regular staff development sessions is the next essential step otherwise all the ideas will just float away into cyberspace.