Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Ultra fast Broadband

Well we have had some pricing done and it seems that we can get significant support to get the fibre to the comms room - the cost is $14K and we pay $4K. But the monthly cost is $900 compared to $150 a month for broadband. I dont know if the $750 extra per month would be worth the extra speed. The Ministry of Education is very keen for us to do this but there is no support for the extra monthly cost. Its a lot dearer. We need more competion for communication in NZ!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

School Vision and Strategic Plan

Last year our Board developed a new strategic plan to define out work programme for the next three years.

http://http://www.freemansbay.school.nz/upload/usermedia/files/11196/freemans%20bay%20school%20strategic%20goals.pdf

There are 10 goals that represent what we would like to achieve for Freemans Bay School.

Our Board of Trustees reviews progress on our strategic work plan every second Board of Trustees meeting. This keeps our strategic focus alive and is a meaningful, exciting way of working.

Student weekly reflections

On our online learning environment - "Knowledge Net" students post weekly reflections.
They do this as part of their reading, writing or mathematics tumbles. This is another way students can articulate their thinking about their learning and how they can impove.

The way it works currently is that the teacher posts questions for the student to respond to. The student cut and pastes the questions and writes their response.

Here is an example from a Yr 5 class:

The teacher had uploaded a video on friendship and posted questions to get the students thinking and reflecting.

This week in our learning pathways we are learning about friendship.
What is a friend?

A friend is someone who will compliment you, cheer you up when you are sad, let you win sometimes, remember your birthday, is fun to be with, and will make you smile.

2. Think about which Habit Of Mind have been used. list at least 3.

Wow, because the orange character said "Your groovy" and was blue character was amazed.

Make it right, because the blue character was sad and so the orange one made it right by cheering him up.

Persistence, because when they were on the bike the blue thing had to carry extra weight and persist to get the job done.



Here is an example from a Y3 student.

Teachers question:

Can you explain what you have learned in maths by explaining what partitioning is?

Partitioning is splitting numbers to figure it out more easier than making it harder, like if I had 2645 to make it easier it would be 2000 600 40 5=2645.

Thank you Marys class for reading my reflections!!!!!!!!!!!! and have a out-standing day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekly reflections by students is now embedded in our practice at Freemans Bay School. I think the improved infrastructure of wireless and more netbooks has supported this to happen.

Goal setting conferences

This term we did our goal setting conferences a little differently. Each student now has a home page that has a section for learning goals. Prior to the conference the students set up learning goals in four areas: Reading, writing, mathmatics and habits of mind.

Most students were able to utilise the class interactive white board and present the goals to their parents. Parents were given log-ins to access the information from home.

As part of the work over the term, students will update their reflections on their goals. We are aiming for the updates to be scheduled twice a term.

We are hope to strengthen parent access through this and e-portfolios through our parent portal - this is work under development but should be fully available by the end of this term.