OPS+Professional+Readings+G2

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= Interface Article – Team 2= =September 2010-09-07=



What happens when your tech whiz leaves? (page 25)

Article Synopsis
 * Sustainability needs to be established and maintained if the ‘tech whiz’ in a school leaves
 * Equipment is of no use unless people in the school can use it
 * Staff training is required to build a team of key people
 * There can be some difficulty retaining trained people
 * It is important to retain skilled people in a school and to continue building their knowledge rather than just swopping them when they leave with members of another school who probably have a similar or lesser skill base

In what ways would you use the information in the article in your classroom/school?
 * Train a group of people (approximately 6) to a higher level
 * Train children to use equipment
 * Pay additional units to retain trained staff
 * Identify needs and purchase equipment to meet these needs

Tools / programmes / hardware we would like to see available in our school.
 * Interactive whiteboards as per need
 * A set of 25 cameras available for whole class use

=ICT CLUSTER = =INTERFACE MAGAZINE ACTIVITY = =Term 3 August 2010 Team 5 =



Synopsis of Interface Article: What Happens when your tech whiz leaves?


 * ICT knowledge and skills are assets we need to plan for e-learning sustainability.
 * E-learning can suffer, stall or even stop when a key staff member moves on.
 * The key teacher is an e-learning sustainability time bomb called intellectual property.
 * The resulting loss of a teacher who is skilled in the use of equipment and who has honed their e-learning skills means in the long run a resulting loss of knowledge that significantly impacts on the momentum of e-learning as a whole within the school.
 * ICT knowledge and skills should be actively collected and accumulated.
 * Principals’ must generate and manage systems and procedures that capture, disperse, share, model and value e-learning as a whole within their schools. This system will accommodate staff turnover and ensure that the significant financial investment made in ICT by the school is protected and enabled to flourish.

In what ways would you use the information in the article in your classroom/school?


 * ICT knowledge and skills is actively collected and accumulated by Staff at Owairoa thanks to Kirsty for her PD sessions and Claire and Aprill re training sessions for Staff and the folder of instruction guides from sessions taken.
 * As a School we have systems and procedures that capture, disperse, share, model and value e-learning as a whole within their schools. I feel the ICT contract encourages us to up skill and be more proficient in newer ICT trends.
 * The Interface Magazine provides excellent reading re websites and constructive teacher feedback re new resources, programmes trialled, tips, file share etc

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Are there any tools/ programmes/hardware in this magazine which you would like to see available for use in our school?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Active Board Mobile System which allows educators to take it anywhere within the school, places where a board needs to be shared such as a library, staffroom or small group teaching space. $8995 (+GST)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unwords.com a collection of words that people have made up. This site would be excellent thinking ahead to our topic next Term.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Weebly.com is an incredibly easy to use online tool for creating websites and blogs including tutorials on lookah.tv.

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Team 6 =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">New Things to Look Out for in the World of IWBs <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(Interface: Issue 26 2010 pages 19-21) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Synopsis
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Every classroom should have an interactive whiteboard but at the moment only one in ten do. There’s room for improvement.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There will be challenging yet exciting choices to make on the type of board, schools want to go with
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">latest development in having boards that support 3 children working on it at one time
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">allows for more creativity and collaboration and it’s visual so that it makes learning and teaching fun
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">activboards are becoming freestanding so that they can be moved around or kept in one place especially when they can’t be wall mounted and people go to it. All inclusive: screen, projector, shelf for laptop and whiteboard on the side
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">data projectors are becoming “ultra” or “extreme” short throw which means they are closer to the wall. The benefits are: maximizing space, minimizing glare and overshadowing of the board
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">there is a lot of content out there and it might depend on the board you buy. There’s a new look Promethean Planet.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student response systems are gathering favourable attention. Boards in the future may also be able to lie flat.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In what ways would you use the information in the article in your classroom/school?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">promote discussion over which equipment would best suit our school and how much more we would need
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">using Promethean Planet more with the activboard; to download more resources that are NZ based and suit our curriculum
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If we had activboards there would be more: integration of IT in the classroom, modelling of anything could be done and saved for a later date (rather than on the whiteboard where it’s rubbed off); could bring up previous work, save work and lessons would become more interactive with the children, can record children’s working out for maths or language.(it records their voices and their writing so that teachers can go back later and assess)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Are there any tools/programmes/hardware in this magazine which you would like to see available for use in our school?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">more activboards. Or a free standing one that people could go and use on a rostered basis
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">pens for the activboards – ability to use more than 1 pen at a time
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">projectors that are closer to the wall
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">student response systems so there was more interaction with the class. e.g fun quizzes, spelling, multiple choice, maths, current events

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Team 0 Synopsis of Interface Article- August 2010-09-13 =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pg 19 New things to look out for in the world of IWBs


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Every classroom should have an IWB. Only 10% of classrooms have one.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Multiple users can interact on the board at any one time. Promotes active, visual based teaching and learning.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Starboard allows 3 people to write on the screen at the same time. Teachers can test 3 students at the same time allowing for a competitive environment.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Activeboard NZ are introducing a mobile board to use in temporary locations or to enable boards to be shared.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Choose the board/software very carefully when buying to ensure you are getting the best buy and one where software is easily available and easy to use.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hitachi has a dedicated free online resource that lets teacher share ideas, download lessons and more.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It would be beneficial to have more IWBs in the school if finances permitted that.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Programmes and hardware for these would then need to be collected carefully from new software available.

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">﻿ Team Four =



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Interface Article - September 2010

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Is the iPad Good Enough for Classrooms?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Points For:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods are readily transported to different localities
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods are child-friendly
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods are motivational
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods are very useful for research

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Points Against:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods are not easy to print from
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods cannot save files to the school server
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods are not designed for the presentation of work
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods are very expensive
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ipods are easy to steal

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Team 4 agreed with the writer of the article who has doubts about the value of using ipods in the classroom.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I.C.T. Resources we would like to see in the Classroom:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1. USB memory sticks per teacher <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. More computers – 6 per class <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3. Programme for Virtual Tours <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4. More appropriate reading resources

Interface Article : 10 Simple Steps before pressing print pg 30 13.09.2010
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Synopsis: What did you think about the article? Main points?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This was an interesting article but it should have been named “10 Things to Consider Before Buying a Printer”. We found the last point “Looking Ahead” very interesting as it explained about where printing in the future is headed which we <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">weren’t aware of before. The idea that some day we will be printing without ink, toner or copy paper is incredible.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Informative - eg not much difference between laser and inkjet, printing wirelessly, printing from hand held devices. Excellent to think we can be more environmentally safe with future printers.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Good ideas/hints eg: making sure your printer has the default setting of monochrome so you don't use colour all the time.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our laser printer is awesome for what we need printing in our classrooms. The school has A3 Multifunctional lasers for the office use.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What ways would you use the Information for your classroom/ school?


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Just to be more careful with what and how we print - if we all had a projector it would CERTAINLY cut down the printing costs.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Colour printing is important, especially to junior teachers with children who can not read and write. This articles points out how much colour printing costs which makes us aware how much the school must be paying to make things look beautiful in our classrooms.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As a team we chose to read this article because the title drew us in, suggesting that it would be a relevant article to ICT in our classrooms, but really it wasn’t. So no, we will not be using this information in our classroom.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Any tools/programmes/hardware you would like to see in our school?


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Projectors ! There are many things we have seen/heard about through interface etc but nothing will affect the learning in my classroom more than a projector. We truly feel that any ICT money should be first and foremost spent fitting out the junior school with these before anything else. Through TV, games etc., children are very switched on and focused with visual images.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Re-useable paper!!- when the price comes down!
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think looking into the future being an environmental school we would need to look at getting LED printers which have the lowest eco-print, low emissions and low energy use.

 by Karen Boyes Teachers expectations can dramatically affect students' achievement. All it takes is really believing. Teachers can create better student results by just believing in them. This is even truer with underachievers. If a teacher is told that her students are bright, the teacher will be more supportive, teach more difficult material, allow more time to answer questions and provide more thoughtful and useful feedback to the students. In turn, the students receiving this attention will perform to this level. They actually score higher on educational tests, even if they are not ‘bright', simply because the teacher believes in them. This also applies in reverse. If a teacher believes his students are under-achievers, he will be much less articulate, less likely to try to understand the students point of view and expect a poorer quality of work and standards. Again students in this environment will meet the lower expectations. This uniquely human phenomenon is the Pygmalion Effect. It is a persistently held belief in another person and such a belief becomes a reality. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your first impressions are lasting impressions. Have a go at this exercise from Tauber, 1997. Write down the descriptive statements that come to mind when you read the about the following six people who will be in your class next year... In spite of your best efforts to resist predictions regarding these students and their academic and/or behavioural future, did you catch yourself forming expectations - even fleetingly? If your answer is yes, then the self-fulfilling prophecy is probably set in motion. Once a belief is set in motion and a student is labelled ‘troublemaker,' or ‘non-academic' the chances are increased that your treatment of this student will, in effect act out the self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course, you could label a student as ‘cooperative,' ‘a scholar,' or a ‘self starter' and increase the chances that your treatment of him will convey these expectations and, in turn, contribute to the student living up to this expectation. Here is another example. If a student in your class scores significantly better on a test, than you would have predicted, would look first at alternative reasons before admitting you had pre-judged this student's ability? Would you be tempted to re mark the test or think about who was sitting close to that student during the test and compare answers for signs of cheating? As author W Wagner claims "The ultimate function of a prophecy is not to tell the future, but to make it." Then every time a teacher sizes up or down a student they are influencing the student's future behaviour and achievement. Every child has an individual brain topography. The way they learn is as individual as each fingerprint. There is no dumb and smart. Just different ways of learning. Are you catering for these within your classroom? At the Centre For Research On Education, Diversity and Excellence, researchers have found a clear link between students' achievement and the instructional conversation. Their findings show highly effective teachers ensure students talk more than the teacher, they guide conversation to include students views, judgements, and rationales using text evidence and other substantive support and these teachers assist student's learning by questioning, restating, praising and encouraging. Check your personal use of language. Do you use the language of ‘thinking' or dumb down your language so as not to overwhelm your students? Here are some examples from Art Costa's work. Notice the difference in the two sentences: "Let's look at these two pictures" "Let's COMPARE these two pictures" "What do you think will happen when...?" "What do you PREDICT will happen when...?" "Let's work this problem" "Let's ANALYSE this problem" "How do you know that's true?" "What EVIDENCE do you have to support that?" Are you treating your students like the are intelligent or like they will not amount to much? If you go through your current curriculum documents you'll find words such as; analyse, apply, classify, compare, contrast, elaborate, predict, reason, verify, summarise and simplify. Using these words with your students on a daily basis will increase their ability to think and problem solve. Reflect on your own assumptions and labels you have given students within your classroom. Your expectations can and will affect the outcomes of your students. Boyes K. Creating An Effective Learning Environment Tauber R. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Rosenthal R. Pygmalion In The Classroom Wagner W. The City Of Man
 * PROFESSIONAL READINGS FROM INTERNET: **
 * Teacher's expectations can dramatically affect students' achievement **
 * a teenage girl from a family that has strong religious views;
 * a significantly overweight year five girl;
 * a year one student from an affluent family who is any only child;
 * a intermediate student whose two older siblings you had in your class several years ago, each of whom were troublemakers;
 * an Asian boy who is the son of a respected university math professor;
 * a teenage boy who is thin, almost frail, and very uncoordinated for his age.
 * Decile 1 vs decile 10 ** If you teach in a lower decile school I have a question for you. Please think seriously about your answer. Would you teach the same way you do now - if you worked in a decile 10 school? Would you put more or less effort into your planning? Would you expect more or less from the students? Would you give more specific criteria? If you honestly answered you would change the way you teach - then why not start now and teach your students like they will be the movers and shakers of the world. Expect high results and you might just get them.
 * References: **

INTERFACE MAGAZINE REFLECTIONS

FEBRUARY- "WHO'S YOUR FRIEND? Pg 32 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> "This article looked at online social networking and discussed from a professional approach and for us as Teachers, what’s acceptable and what’s not. Constructive points were that it has easy access, is interactive and can achieve great results by opening doors for creativity and personal expression. Whereas of a more destructive nature, abuse can occur and access to inappropriate resources obtained which can lead to a loss of dignity."

//"Social Media is a great tool and gives teachers and students the opportunities to interact with people from all over the world. There are some benefits and pitfalls which will need to be considered. It can develop creativity and expression, fun through the learning process, engage and communicate with others. Pitfalls : privacy, could be open to abuse, parents thoughts about these, how teachers are perceived through their facebook or other sites. Although Social Media is huge around the world, I think people, especially teachers, have to be extremely careful about what they put on sites. This may include having photos of you in possible compromising activities that may get put on other peoples sites, You may not have any say about this. Making sure that you know who you are letting be your friends is also important. "//

v " Online social networking =Twitter, Facebook, MYSpace,,LinkedIN, MSN etc., online conversation blogging.  v Teachers can use to share information ask questions  v Social media can help with creativity and expression widen normal circles of friends and intellectual colleagues  v Pitfalls- all photos info .. open to all. Privacy issues, photos that can appear on strangers laptops…security issues  v Main point it can be constructive or destructive  v My daughter uses Face Book and MSN but we have talked about the dangers and about putting inappropriate things on the net  v Bad image for teaching if social photos get on these sites  v Last year as a staff we discussed problems and to be aware <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Eg Site with students voting for worst and best teachers around Auckland, nasty comments and put downs on site."

//" Social networking sites have thrown up issues of grey areas of personal life and professional life. Lots of schools don’t even have a policy about social networking sites and their uses. I feel that at home – my personal life is just that – personal. How and who I choose to share personal info is my own business. I just have to be aware of the impact on my professional life." //

MARCH- "FINDING LAPTOPS TO MEET THE NEEDS OF STUDENTS" Pg 21-23 "Laptops are an increasingly essential took in a school environment, although they can be an expensive item for schools to purchase and update. Laptops are advancing very quickly from physical size and data appropriate sizes. " "More schools will be implementing laptops which are more convenient and lighter to move from place to place."

"As technology advances and children have more opportunities to have different careers than may currently be viable, making them aware of different technologies that becoming more important "Laptops are being introduced into school quite slowly in NZ. They re many factors that rise from giving each child access to a laptop. Cost, storage, safety, breakdowns, ongoing maintenance, cost to parents or the school may be prohibitive in the beginning. Sponsorship may be one way to get laptops into school or the MOE coming to the party. After all they are wanting children to become more computer literate but don’t seem to be giving enough money for schools to implement more computers in school. "

v About some schools buying a specific laptop model for their students, Schools buy laptop = parents pay a yearly fee v Schools like St Kentigern college have used laptops for a few years. An essential learning tool in their school v Notebooks equipped with Industry standard applications v Light weight, easy to store or take with you, small space needed. v Things to consider: price, product selection, back up support. I personally couldn’t manage without mine."

" Laptops are becoming an increasing important tool in schools. Allows students to be “anywhere learners” (I like that). Allows students to discern appropriate information, fosters responsibility, able to find new ways to learn and teachers notice an improvement in written work. Negatives: Problems with selection backup support (teachers and students) and price – who pays?"

MAY- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Unleash the games console in your classroom” Page 37 [|OPS Computer Games & Gaming.pdf] <span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; height: 0px; width: 0px;">