Mokoia Intermediate's blogs
Late last term we found out that we had won a Blended E_learning contract with CORE Education.
When I submitted the final milestone last year I was told that our school was an ideal candidate for the contract.
Mary Jamieson is our new facilitator. She made her first visit on Monday 6 May. At this meeting she introduced herself to Deb and Annemarie.
We set up a staff meeting for Monday 20 May, where Mary put up large versions of the sections from the E_Learning Planning Framework. Teachers were given stickers to place on each chart to indicate where they saw the school's and their own personal position on the continuum of learning.
After having Pam Hook at cluster TOD last year, teachers have begun to experiment with SOLO Taxonomy. The rubric has been used for portfolio evaluations for units, especially when they are integrated or specific learning objectives are to be self assessed; e.g. our social studies unit on Propaganda and WWII; the science fair; speeches; and problem based learning.
The critical thinking skill graphic organsisrs are being used too:
This is a question asked by the passionate drivers of e_learning as well as the naysayers.
We have two laptop classes at Mokoia Intermediate and after our school wide testing this term both laptop class teachers came into my office smiling about the improvement on their students' results.
Is the improvement to do with the students being more engaged in their learning? They
a) each have access to a laptop
b) use numeracy and literacy sites to support their learning e.g. Studyladder, TutPup, NZ Maths Online, Woodlands Zone, Ziptales
What Does It Mean to Be a Digital Learner? from mrshyde on Vimeo.
Their teachers are also acknowledged as being experienced teachers who both use formative assessment effectively to group their students and to set individual goals. Both teachers are enthusiastic and form positive relationships with their students. Both are involved in out of class activities with the students i.e. sport.
So - is it the e-learning? Is it the whole package? A poor teacher with digital tools is still a poor teacher; a good teacher is a good teacher and using digital tools effectively to enhance a well facilitated programme I would argue, makes the difference for today's students.
PAT Maths Results Year 7 Laptop Class 2012
PAT Maths Results Year 8 Laptop Class 2012
STAR Reading Results Year 7 Laptop Class 2012
STAR Reading Results Year 8 Laptop Class 2012
I wrote on the Enabling E_Learning - Teaching area: /discussion/view/691802
Glen attended the cluster staff meeting on Digital Citizenship at RLHS on 15 May 2012. He reflects on key points he took away from this meeting with Tessa Gray, that will impact on his classroom practice.
A student in his class talks about his next step learning:
I discovered that students in Glen's class used I Can Animate to make a sequence about the World Trade Centre disaster. Then I discovered I needed it on my laptop before I could open it! Once made, you can export the movie as a WMV file.
I interviewed students for the Milestone report. I'm impressed how much more easily students can feflect on video than when we started this two years ago.
Paddy Talks about Digital Citizenship & Cybersafety at Mokoia Intermediate from mrshyde on Vimeo.
