Newsbytes2009

ICTNewsBytes - Week 8, Term 4 Hi everyone. A big thank you to the Lead Teachers who have been feeding this section for the last few weeks. There certainly is some great stuff going on out there and some very busy people. Last week was very different with both the Lead Teachers Day and the Management Meeting, as well as the usual school visits. I worked at Colyton, Newbury, Mt Biggs, Hiwinui and Bunnythorpe and then went back to Colyton for their Wiki Wednesday on .... looking at ...

This was our 4th day this year and was again a very worthwhile time. We had a general discussion about events at each school and everyone was very open about the good and not so good. The use of this wiki was discussed and especially these newsletters. We also looked at the milestone report and the variation contract and budget for next year. We then spent some time setting up everyone on Skype so that we could have more discussions without having to be in the same room. It did remind me at times though of students using SMS/txting to contact the person next to them, but it was a great experience for all (and we got everyone connected!). We then had just enough time to download and quickly look at an animation programme called SAM Animation which has great promise for next year. I worked with students at both Mt Biggs (junior and middle school) and Hiwinui (senior and middle) and they not only all found it hugely entertaining, but they also produced some great work that could readily become part of class programmes.
 * Lead Teachers Day** - at Bunnythorpe

We discussed the LT Day, the milestone report for 2009 and the budget and contract variation for next year and talked about the possible programme for 2010. We are looking for more sharing and collaboration across the cluster and are planning 1 session each term and 2 afterschool workshops as well. We will also have the Cluster Conference in April to look forward to. The uncertainty surrounding the Inspired Learning conference should be cleared up soon.
 * Management Meeting** - at Colyton

There will be farewells for Anne Lye at Newbury and David Wardle at Mt Biggs next week - please do keep in touch won't you both. I'll see some of you next week but good luck to you all for the rest of the year.

Cheers Bernie

**Week 7 Newsletter by David Wardle Mount Biggs School**



The fourth term is always a difficult one. Normal routines start to break down as end of year pantomime practices start, the seniors get a whiff of the end in their nostrils and the hormones start raging. So we have been trying some applications out to keep interest up. Photostory and Comic life have had a fair thrashing and now we are playing with ‘I Can Animate’, a simple to use download with licences available for a reduced rate from the same man who is agent for ‘Comic Life’. Once you have created your animation you can import it into Microsoft Moviemaker (horrible) or Pinnacle Studio 9 (better) and add titles and credits. A lot of fun. For information contact Innes Kennard innesk@werc.ac.nz. Speaking of pantomimes, I have the task of putting together the sound track for our one. It is much easier these days. No more searching the CD or cassette collection and taping from one recorder to another and endless quick tape changes on the night. No, with i-tunes Store and Sony Acid Studio 7.0 you can put together a sound track for all the music and sound effects and operate the sound desk from your laptop. Sony Acid Studio is available as a download for about $US60. (A thirty day free trial is available so a free sound track for the first panto!) Using this software you can import songs from i-tunes, My Music files, CDs, MP3s, digital recorders etc, manipulate them, add extra tracks, overlay music with sound effects and voice or cut and paste into weird and wonderful creations. All very seamless and professional. There is a free download called Audacity which I believe does similar things but if you are really into creating your own music Sony Acid Studio allows you to download thousands of loops for any music genre and create your own compositions. Capital E Studios in Wellington use Sony Acid and is a great place to visit during a city camp. I am not sure of the copyright implications of all this but if you use i-tunes for your music and sound effects at least you have paid for them. We recently purchased an easi-speak digital microphone and a Digital Blue video/still shot camera for trial purposes. The easi-speak looks resembles a toy with a cheap plastic look. It is quite easy to use but you do need to read the instructions. The quality of the recording seems very good and uploading and managing files is child’s play. The record button can be fiddly but the main problem is the battery. The battery is an internal unit charged when the microphone is plugged into a USB port. No problem with that. Unfortunately there is no battery life indicator meaning that you can be half way through a recording and the microphone drops out. Also annoying is the fact that when the battery is running low the microphone will only partially record. The battery life is not that great either. At $80 or so it would probably be worth spending more and buying a quality digital dictaphone. We also purchased a Digital Blue video camera. There is start up software required so it is not a plug and play set up as with most digital video cameras. The software is designed for children and is easy to use but it does have some annoying bell and whistle sounds. The camera itself can be used as a still camera (with its own shutter button) or as a video camera. It is a simple point and shoot device with a small viewer to look through. While it is easy to operate the quality of the recording is poor – far too grainy for serious work and about the same quality as a cheap webcam. The camera can hold sufficient clips to be useful but the length of each clip is quite limited. On the upside the battery life is very good. For the money (about $130, I think) it would be better to go with a Flip video camera or even a relatively cheap digital camera with video capability. Maybe someone who owns a Flip could give us their opinion of it. By now most of you will have received a copy of the Government Standards from those who follow ‘she who must be obeyed’. I hope no one has to work on them this term. My advice - stick them on a dusty top shelf and you never know they may just go away! As one of my colleagues used to say of top down government initiatives “This too shall pass”. Seriously this initiative is the worst thing the Ministry has attempted since the last time National was in power. We fought Wyatt Creech on national testing in 1998 now this. They are nothing but a complete waste of time and money; they cannot possibly achieve what they claim to achieve, that is, the reduction of the so-called ‘tail’. Moreover they are an annoying distraction from the implementation of the new National Curriculum – maybe that’s what the government wants. If you want to know why I think this visit my blog site at [] From the blog there are links to other information on this issue. In the meantime have a happy Christmas and a restful holiday- when they eventually arrive! Kindest regards David
 * Product Review **
 * National Standards **

Can't believe it is going to be Week 6 next week - time sure does fly (when your'e having fun!!) We had a fantastic Term 3 with our amazing Wearable Arts production. The children loved making their wearable arts and modelling it on stage. We even had a professional compere as well as professional judges. It was a great night with a jam packed hall - we are putting together a wikispace for the parents to view just on our Wearable Arts. I have put a few on my blog - if you want to have a look MightyMawhero.blogspot.com. This term In class we have been using our digital camera and using the photos to enhance our artwork. These look great up on the wall. The children are getting to know the camera more now and are taking a lot better photos (as well as taking turns). We have had a couple of sessions with Bernie and Julie (principal release) and I have set up My Delicious pages - which are great - and great to get other ideas. I now have a data projector in my room and the kids love it when we use this (they think its like going to the movies!!). We are also getting ready for our end of year prizegiving with lots of singing and Maori Stick Songs. We have also decided as a staff to get together to share and learn new ICT ideas, I am looking forward to this. Anyway I hope you are all enjoying the term. Tina.
 * Week 5, Term 4**

**Week 4, Term 4** Hi everyone - sorry for the delay in getting this done this week - hope all is well with you. The term is flying and we have been really busy with our pet day and 125 Jubilee! Not to mention getting that milestone done! We really enjoyed getting together at newbury a few weeks ago and hope that we can do that more regularly. As promised I'm attaching some good web 2 tools from my breakouts at Ulearn. Have a great week! Linley [|recommended web 2.0 tools Ulearn 09.doc]

Week 3, Term 4 Week 3 already! We have started busy and seem to be getting busier. My class has had a couple of exciting weeks, making their own email address and learning how to edit our class wiki. It was fantastic to see them so enthused about instant messaging each other when they are sitting right beside each other. We have been using photostory to perform plays in class as well, another great way to use this technology. The children practice and then record their voice over either pictures or photos. As we are working towards performing and production it was an excellent way to introduce the use of ICT and The Arts. This week we are all looking forward to Pet Day on Saturday and preparation started in week 1 with our grassheads! The children have been amazed to see the grass growing throughout the day, and thanks to the nice weather over the weekend they now seem to be taking off. Remember to take lots of photos of all things involved with Pet Day. There is still a vast amount of tools and ideas that I am slowly learning how to use. We have started a blog to share our writing and will be using Glogster to present our time at camp in the Hawkes Bay. Enjoy the rest of the term.

** WEEK 2, TERM 4 Well the term has started with a blast and this newsbyte is slightly late because of Lamb and Calf Day, which was yesterday (in the rain!!). I am excited about the prospect of being able to complete my mindmaps and other graphic organisers on the internet....remember our work only needs to be in the clouds now (yes that means that you use the big WWW out there rather than your own harddrive, school's server, and yes, my favourite, good old paper and pen!! I have started already with a brainstorm using "Text2mindmap" about castles. The kids were excited to see their ideas up on the projector and enjoyed the way we could add bits and pieces as we thought of them. I have also enrolled myself in the WikiEducator course through Open Education Resources New Zealand. You can find this at [|www.nz.wikieducator.org]. This is a site which has free resources for all. The training on how to use and maintain it is free as well...check it out.**

 ** Hi to everyone
 * [[image:Kathy.JPG width="47" height="69"]]Welcome back to Term 4 team. I am buzzed about the term. Would love to try Skyping between clusters and classes so let me know if you have capabilities and we'll have a go.

Thanks Kathy - a burst of enthusiasm for the start of term!

//**Recently**// I hope you all had a real break away for a few days at least. Last term is really a bit of a blurr for me now with the Maths Conference in Palmie taking up the first week and ULearn in Christchurch most of the second week of the holidays. While on ULearn, I must congratulate our Lead Teachers on the tremendous job they did with the PhotoStory workshop we offered - more on Thursday night. I also wish to pass on my appreciation to those who took on the onerous duty of the "late shift" at the Conference Dinner. They did a great job of making sure the last bus left safely (without them) but then continued with their duties when arriving back in town - such devotion to duty!

//**The Best of ULearn -** formally known as the ULearn Feedback Session// This event has changed name and time - still on 15th October but now from 4.00 to 6.00pm. Still at Newbury with some nibbles and great ideas from the conference goers.

//**Term 4 Clusterwide Theme - Pet Day **// Some schools have already started to plan for this and are collecting photos etc of the preparation that is going on for these major events. The wiki and some guidelines will be distributed soon.

//** Now that's an idea...**// David at Mt Biggs put a shortcut on the "desktop" of all their staff to make it quick and easy to check this newsletter.

//**Next weeks Guest Columnist**//

See you all on Thursday.

Cheers Bernie

ICTNewsBytes Term 3, Week 10 ** Hi to everyone
 * 

//**Last Week**// A really interesting time last week saw me in Auckland for Monday and Tuesday at a meeting with all the Secondary ICTPD Clusters. We visited Albany Senior College (1 year old), Whangaparaoa College (just finished 5 years of building), Kristin School, Manurewa High School (how the other half live - decile 2, 1200 students) and Mission Heights Junior High and Primary (1 year old). The new schools are very industrial looking and will be low maintenance, all have communal specialist spaces surrounded by classrooms. Lots of glass and covered spaces and lots of nice new computer equipment. Some really good educational thinking and planning in evidence as well. It will be interesting to see what support older, smaller schools will get to catch up! The rest of week was spent at Newbury and working with Colyton on their ICT Strategic Plan. Friday, Awahou Kathy and I meet at Bunnythorpe and planned, Wikied and Milestoned our way through the day.

//**Bits and Pieces**//


 * Another look at uses for wikis from the TKI site


 * This is promoted as a safe search engine for children to use
 * From Wikipedia - as it says, a "List of years in NZ" - a year by year listing of what happened in NZ

//**For the holidays**// Click on the images

//**ULearn Feedback Session**// Remember to book out 15th October from 4.30 to 7.30pm for this great event.
 * = [[image:Jigsaw.JPG caption="Put aside some time for this.." link="@http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/everest/tent-jigsaw-puzzle.html"]] ||= [[image:Eye_massager.jpg width="176" height="132" caption="15 of the most utterly...." link="@http://www.gizmotron.co.uk/2009/07/14/15-of-the-most-utterly-useless-gadgets-ever-to-go-on-sale/"]] ||= [[image:GOOGLEMonopoly.JPG width="385" height="177" caption="GOOGLE meets Monopoly" link="@http://www.monopolycitystreets.com/game.html#en"]] ||

//**Term 4 Clusterwide Theme - Pet Day **// Some schools have already started to plan for this and are collecting photos etc of the preparation that is going on for these major events.

//**Starting Term 4 - Guest Columnist each week**//

Have a great holiday break and we'll catch up next term.

Cheers Bernie

ICTNewsBytes Term 3, Week 9 **
 * 

Hi to everyone

//**Last Week**// Another interesting week with visits to Bunnythorpe, Mt Biggs, Newbury and Hiwinui including a farewell to Anne and sessions on developing Hiwinui's ICT Strategic Plan. We also ran another after school session at Bunnythorpe on Wednesday. Colyton took time out from ERO to host our Lead Teacher's day on Thursday.

//** Lead Teachers Day **// This was a very useful day with all our Lead Teachers sharing their experiences and coming up with a number of new ideas, all under the supportive gaze of Kathe our National Facilitator. We not only had a recap of our schools experiences but also came up with a theme for next term, a date for the ULearn feedback session, ran through the processes involved in the writing of our next milestone report and where to find the documents on this wiki.and also found time (just) to run through the PhotoStory presentation that we are giving at the ULearn Conference.

//**ULearn Feedback Session**// Keep the 15th October from 4.30 to 7.30pm free for this great event. All the staff who have been to the conference will be giving a brief presentation of one or more sessions they attended. There will also be light refreshments.

//**Term 4 Clusterwide Theme**// This will be a celebration of "Pet Day" at our schools. We will set up a new wiki to host this event and all schools will link to this with their own presentations, displays, interviews etc. The idea is to give a really comprehensive view of how this day works in your school with contributions from every class. As many ICTs as you wish could be incorporated - photos, video, Photostory, audio, written etc. Should we have a ribbon for Best School? More details will follow. As always any help needed will be available.

//**Articles from the** // **-Please try them out and give feedback using the discussion tab on the top of this page- **

Rip Van Winkle awakes after one hundred years and visits a school... Created as a conversation starter for professional development on the use of educational technology. An amusing, animated retelling of the popular education story about the need for twenty-first century skills to be taught in schools.

The new [|Key Competencies] website is live, up and running. It has been designed to support school leaders to introduce the key competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum. Every month new resources will be added – including school stories, examples, and tools to encourage discussions in your schools. For great ideas, media files and valuable support material.

Cheers Bernie

Term 3, Week 8 **
 * ICTNewsBytes

Hi to everyone

//**Last Week**// While keeping an eye out for the ULearn workshops to appear it was another varied time last week. There has been a surge in the number of class wikis being set up with all Colyton clases 'on-line"now. Please try and take a little time to check out all our classes sites to look for inspiration for yourselves and also to offer advice and support. I interviewed the seniors (Room 4 & 5) at Colyton about their views of ICT and have surveyed staff to help develop a vision for the school. You will also note that this wiki has been re-organised in order to ease navigation around the site. Feedback is always welcome.

//**After School Workshop**// This weeks session will be on Wednesday at Bunnythorpe School. Start 3.30pm - Finish when your brain is full. We will again be looking at wikis.

//**Articles from the** // ** -Please try them out and give feedback using the discussion tab on the top of this page- **

**//1 - Tricks, Tips and Web 2.0 Tools //** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans,Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,Sans-serif;">New web 2.0 tools are available and often free to use online. This section will profile new tricks, tips and tools you may find useful.

Do you remember listening to your favourite records or story tapes or perhaps you are young enough for CDs? Well now you can enjoy the art of story telling via podcasts. The Story Home is a great little website of original and famous children's audio stories retold by a storyteller called Alan. Stories include; animal stories, Fairy Tales, stories from featured authors and more. Every other week, [|The Story Home] will offer brand new stories for you and your students to enjoy.

Go [|here] for instructions for using the site. <span style="color: #660000; font-family: Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans,Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,Sans-serif;">**//2 - Resources//**

[|Ideas to Inspire] is a fantastic website from the UK which, "is a collection of collaborative presentations, which offer a large number of ideas for engaging lesson activities. They are the result of the collaboration of teachers from all around the world."

One page has [|Nine Interesting Ways to use a Wiki in the Classroom]

Cheers Bernie
 * <span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: trebuchet ms,sans-serif;">Interesting Ways* to Use a Wiki in the Classroom **

Term 3, Week 7 **
 * <span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: trebuchet ms,sans-serif;">Nine Interesting Ways* to Use a Wiki in the Classroom **
 * <span style="color: #e5ef0b; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 173%;">ICTNewsBytes

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Hi to everyone

//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">**School Visits** // <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Thanks to everyone who was involved in these. Doug and I really appreciated the effort you made before the visits and the time you made available to talk with us. There have been a few consistant themes and we will be working especially hard to ensure that there is more communication, cooperation and opportunities for sharing ICT ideas between schools and individual staff. We have managed to develop plans for most schools for the rest of this term - remember to check my calendar or the programme page of this wiki. Unfortunately, despite our best intentions, we only managed to collect a few of the class PhotoStories. Please forward yours to Doug or me ASAP - you will probably need to copy them to a CD or DVD as your school email systems probably won't cope with the large file sizes.

//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">**After School workshops** // <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">It was great to see so many staff at the session on Wiki's at Bunnythorpe last Wednesday. Stephen did a great job of moving people on from their present skill level. He also had some great practical advice on the issues with using wikis in "the real world". These concerns of course shouldn't stop us employing such worthwhile tools, but are a cautionary tale. Any system we set up should be one that provides real benefits to our students and is sustainable for you to maintain.

//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">**Lead Teacher Day** // <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">As advised during the visits, there will be a full day for all Lead Teachers on 10 Sept - venue to be confirmed. We will be working on the presentation for ULearn so please bring a camera and any support material your staff used for their "Our School" PhotoStories. We will also be working on a whole cluster project for Term 4. Please bring information on any individual class or whole school themes/projects that you have planned for this term so that we can integrate them with our cluster project.

//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">**ULearn Conference feedback session** //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">This idea has snowballed and present plans are for an evening event for all staff with presentations from all those who attended the conference. Possible format is a 4.00pm start with a meal and possibly running until 7.00pm. Please give feedback on this and also suggest possible evenings, preferably in week 1 or 2 of next term, on this page.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">At the stage we are using wikis throughout the cluster as replacements to the old school web sites, for class display spaces and for individual students (without photos or names). There are a huge number of resources available on the web to show how to use wikis and to explain what they are. A few are listed here (have a look and let me know if they are useful): A very quick look -
 * //What's a WIKI ?//** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">

[|Wikipedia] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">[|Common Craft,] [|Wiki Walk Through] Educational Wikis Wikispaces Help page

Cheers Bernie

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">**<span style="color: #439717; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 173%;">IC ****<span style="color: #439717; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 173%;">TNewsBytes Term 3, Week 6 **

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Hi to everyone

//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">**School Visits 26 and 27** //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;"> – This week Doug and I will be calling on all the Cluster Schools and talking with the Principals, and if you wish the individual teachers. There will be a more detailed format sent to all Principals shortly, but basically we want to review the year so far from your schools point of view and talk about your needs/wants for the rest of the year. Please feel free to contribute anything you feel might be worthwhile.

//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">**Timetable for the rest of term** //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;"> – This will be available soon (now) on this wiki for you to book your times. At this stage I plan to work whole days with each school and will be available on the following days:


 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">31 Aug > 4 Sept
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">7 > <span style="background-color: #90f755; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">11 Sept
 * 16 > 18 Sept
 * <span style="background-color: #90f755; font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">21 > 25 <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;"> Sept. (Dates amended)

//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">**Term 4 meetings** //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;"> – Please start thinking about possible dates for these.

//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Early in term – Lead Teachers and Principals – review of 2009 and milestone 4, ideas for 2010 and variation contract – ½ to full day
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">ULearn Conference feedback – all staff – presentations by conference attendees – full day.
 * Personal Blogs** //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;"> – It has been suggested that all staff should be using a blog to record their ICT progress. These could be very useful for personal reflection as well as a way of collecting data for the cluster milestone reports. It would also model our expectations for students to reflect on their personal development. It would be a good topic for cluster-wide focus and would be sustainable after the contract expires next year. Individuals could choose the format of their own blog and it could be completely private, shared or completely open. Please let me know your thoughts.

Remember to let me know if you need help.

Cheers

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Bernie

Term 3, Week 5 **
 * <span style="color: #971797; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 173%;">ICTNewsBytes

Hi everyone

After a little "trip" and a few other diversions, I'm back onboard - if not exactly fully mobile. Thanks to those who expressed their well wishes. I had a very worthwhile meeting with Doug last week and we have come up with some ideas to re-ignite the cluster.

//**Newsletter**// - I will publish a (mainly) weekly newsletter for all cluster staff. Please make sure all staff see this and please feel free to comment and/or suggest topics.

We will send out a more complete discussion document very soon, but please start to collect your thoughts and desires. Please also indicate your preferred meeting times here (remember to click on the Edit button).
 * //School visits//** - Doug and I plan to visit all cluster schools during 26 and 27 August to discuss your progress and your plans for the rest of the year.

//**"Our School" PhotoStories**// //-// I will collect your stories during the school visits and would also like to copy or photograph any resource material or planning documents you used. Details of judging etc will follow.

//**ULearn09**// - Our offer of a workshop has been accepted by the organisers so I will be starting on the details very soon. I will need to have a half day with the Lead Teachers who are attending the conference near the end of this term to have a "run through" of the workshop. I will also be in contact with you as the planning develops for your ideas and feedback. Those who are attending ULearn will be able to see the [|programme] now and the various sessions soon. Those who have attended before know how important it is to be careful about your selection of workshops and your reasons for choosing - sometimes following a theme or a particular presenter works well. Note that we will all be expected to complete an evaluation of each session we attend and to feed back to the cluster. Please if you don't know a particular presenter ask around to check others' experiences.

//**Milestone 4**// - This will be our final report for the year and we need to start evaluating the cluster programme now. As for the last milestone I will create a GOOGLE Doc for us to contribute to. More details will follow.

Cheers

Bernie.