The Journey in 2012

Well 2012 is here and what will the year ahead bring?!  As I am busy becoming excited about teaching and learning this year I start to think about all the ideas I put on hold last year to kick start the beginning of the new year.  In many areas not just e-learning.  However all new approaches have links to teaching and learning in the 21st century.

Part of the journey that is about to begin will be using learning spaces within my classroom.  After the I Love Teaching Conference held in Invercargill in 2011where Jeni Wilson shared her work with learning spaces and viewing Claire B's classroom at educamp in Dunedin, my need to explore grew to a Must Do.

The year I will also begin with the use of kidblogging a site that provides teachers and students with individual blog pages.  The students will record personal goals and record their learning journey in a safe environment that their parents will also be able to view to support reporting purposes.

I will continue to use and develop the Jeni Wilson approach to goal setting and assessment.  As well as her approach to reflection the incorporation of What, So What, Now What will be introduced.  We will also be continuing to use the Kath Murdoch Inquiry model.

To support students who require extension, there will be a bonus to their independent learning and will be extended not just to presenting work on tools such as keynote but they will be using wix.com to create their own website.

We will also be skying this year with Alice I's class at Darfield School in Christchurch which I am sure will be the beginning to many other learning and sharing opportunities.

The new look spelling workshops will be introduced in to my literacy programme with ideas collected from Jan F at Myross Bush School and their whole school spelling programme.

We as a school will be looking a t iUgo an Essential Resources online planning programme and looking at if this will fit the needs of our teachers and students needs for planning and assessment gathering.

As a staff we will begin the year with Trevor Bond as our presenter at our TOD.  Which will build on the journey of questioning that we have already begun that supports effective teaching of questioning within our inquiry model.

To support our teaching inquiries we will unpack and use the What, So What, Now What model to up-skill our abilities to be quality reflective practitioners.

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

–Oliver Wendall Holmes

It is hard to believe but we will be embarking on our 3rd year of our ICT2lrnwaihopai cluster, which will be sure to bring many great opportunities to begin showcasing our skills and understandings in the teaching and learning of ICT and Inquiry learning.

Wow...I am so excited - the anticipation and opportunities of the beginning of a new school year is empowering for the soul!