iphone - sending pxt to blog

I have been playing around with my iphone to see what it can do. I was on a road trip during the summer break and stopped at a few schools along the way. Here is a photo of Taihape School. I was impressed with the layout and the welcoming way in which you entered the school.

Go the iphone - am imagining what students could do with this technology - amazing!

Thanks Dorothy - Another great clip worth watching

Clip Dorothy Burt Shared - worth a look!

Online Bridges Symposium

A great bunch of teachers and leaders gathered prior to the start of the school year to be immersed in ideas around e learning, powerful learning and web 2.0 tools. For those delegates who were interested in a copy of the power point presented around Red Beach School's development of the Powerful Learning Process.

Thanks for the participation and great questions.
Just having trouble uploading presentation to slide share will persevere and get it up asap

Wrapping up 2009

As I changed my profile this evening from Acting Principal to Deputy Principal many memories from the year made me smile. I giggle as I recall deliberating over ever word and phrase in my first communication email to staff, contemplating how the first newsletter to parents should read, wondering how to best introduce the professional learning focuses to the staff. I was apprehensive to start as I did not know what the role would entail. As the year progressed and the unknown was demystified the more I began to relax into the role and the more I understood my own leadership style. I have thoroughly enjoyed the year and learnt huge amounts. I have enjoyed working with a team of committed, enthusiastic and talented individuals who wake up everyday to make their difference. As I now embark on the next challenge of foundation principal in a new environment in the new year I look forward to the stretch and learning that awaits.
In the meantime it's time to recharge batteries to ensure the thinking that leads to the next phase is as creative and forward thinking as it can possibly be.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all

Shirley and Sarah what can the iPhone do?

We are trying to see what these things can do. We are not sure why Shirley can't add a blog entry. We obviously need more sandpit time

iPhone test 2

Gave the phone to my nephews to play with. They had it down pat in moments. We took a voice recording, test two is to see how easy it is to upload. Here goes ...

iPhone test

Finally managed to get myself a much wanted iPhone. Was keen to see how easy it would be to do a blog entry. So far so good! Can see that kids would love using these. Would be great to capture e reflections as they happen. That's all for now just testing.

Challenging Thinking - Julia Atkin

Always refreshing spending time with Julia. She has built up an incredible wisdom over the years she has worked in education. She has the most incredible ability to question and probe that bit further. I jumped in the car on Friday to head north for the weekend. Great to clear the head and gain some head space to ponder the depth of what Julia was getting at.
We have been working of the front of the New Zealand Curriculum for around 4 years. This time has been spent focusing on developing a learners capacity and disposition to be a Life Long Learner, Relate to Others and Inquire. This focus was deliberate to try and pull away from the traditional curriculum dominated instruction that was occurring. We are now digging into the back of the New Zealand Curriculum to think about the conceptual understandings we would like our students to leave our school with. Julia critiqued our start by stating that 'I think you have depth but not breadth'. As we started to unpack a bit more what she meant by breadth I felt we could quickly again go down the coverage track rather keeping her infamous questions in balance 'What is powerful to learn?' and 'What is powerful learning?'
It got me thinking about the purpose of primary school - what is our place and role in the learning pathway? Is it exposure to surface interests and talents across a broad range of learning experiences, Is it setting up individuals with important conceptual understandings to make sense of their world? Is it to develop curiosity and wonderment and nurture learning capacity so that when the authentic learning opportunity presents itself the individual will embrace the learning and take it beyond what we could imagine? The later suggests that the teacher pedagogy required is some what different to what the majority students would experience today. There must be a sweet spot in the middle I believe, where students develop the necessary dispositions to know what to do when they don't know what to do and to grow some conceptual understandings to help make sense of their world. Anyway great to get away for that bit of head space, your thoughts?

Artifact to stimulate a Learning Conversation

Just the sort of resource we continue to look for to stimulate learning conversations with students. Perseverence, Self Motivates, Sets goals and plans etc all come to mind.