Mihi+Milestone

During Term 4 our lead teacher was on NEMP/MOE Foregn Languages Scholarship leave thus we had two relieving teachers in the school. A permanent staff member did the lead teacher role for the term 4. School wide progress was slow due to only two permanent staff members doing PD. Staffing issues Travel expenses Breeze still unable to be used in our school. This is causing great frustration as this also affects Web based training such as enrol/ and e-asTTle. Lack of equipment to maximize use of ICT i.e. no skype, no hand held video camera only one data projector(NB a hand heldvideo camera was purchased Term 1 2008) Skype Installation: The installation downloaded fine i.e. ten minutes...making it work hasn’t happened. Our ICT Administrator spent four hours talking to smart net, opening up ports ,registering skype users trying to contact school zone(no return call has been made)Please note our ICT person only works two days a week thus this was a considerable amount of time out of her week. Smart net think that we have to open different ports in the School zone router to allow skype to work.(work in progress)School now needs to purchase web cams to allow face to face conversations but skype needs to be functional first (All classes now have one digital camera but this is still not enough to enable children to use on a regular basis. Three seems a luxury and as soon as you acquire them you realise that six would be better.. Term 1 2008 progress to date has included desk top student photos which enable junior students who cannot read easier access to their folders. Room 1 Junior Science Blog [|www.mihiroomoneblog.blogspot.com] has been updated and promoted with parents and the wider community. Two teachers have used digital photography as motivation for painting. Scratch has been utilized. E-pals instant translation is being used on a regular basis… Use of this consolidates students Spanish language acquisition and usage One class is becoming more aware of other languages and is able to count in six languages. This would not have happened two years ago. Utube enables the teacher and students to hear the correct pronunciation. Maori Language Lesson plans Level 1 TKI have been used successfully with two classesTerm1 2008 Another use of utube will be learning the basic moves of hip hop.! Before the ICT contract our school would have had to find a hip hop tutor! Our focus for 2008 is accelerating the achievement of all boys’ in particular Maori boys. This was a focus for the ERO visit Week 1 term 2. We aim to provide more interactive usage of websites. Our boys prefer to be hands on and teacher planning reflects this. Citizenship unit Term 1 2008 was planned inTerm 4 using the “what matters phase of the Galileo design process. This was a challenge especially as two teachers were absent from the planning sessions late Term 4 2007. It was a nTony Ryan was excellent and there was ample opportunity for teachers to interact and chat.ew way of planning and the concept of citizenship was a good one to focus on. The planning method was a bit laborious and will take a few attempts to consolidate. The challenge was how to assess “citizenship”. Using traditional data collecting methods does not work. A group of students did plan and implement a skipping competition. They worked out a judging criteria, typed a notice for the newsletter, organised a judge, designed certificates using publisher,filmed the event and rescheduled the date when the judge was urgently called away. So possibly a fine example of good citizenship combined with ICT! Noone from our school attended this year. We have enjoyed some interesting feedback from cluster presenters. The middle school visit last term was very well received. The main impact was how evident student voice was within both schools. The students place to stand tall within their learning community appeared to be well established. The students knew what a confident learner looked like ,sounded like and thought like! It was especially good to see how learning was at the very heart of school culture. As a result staff are looking for opportunities which enable the students to manage their own learning pathways, manage the playground culture,initiate new ideas and discuss ways in which our school can improve! I think the main impact of this was empowerment. "This is the way we do things here. If it is different to the norm have the courage and determination to be strong and stand your ground about what works best for the students in your school."
 * =**Mihi School Milestone Reporting Term 2 2008**=
 * Significant challenges:**
 * Significant progress**
 * Learning@ School**
 * Collaborative learning for** both students and teachers across the cluster is established and being hosted by the online cluster space. There has been opportunity for teachers to plan cross cluster units. Tuakana planning has been a promising start to the year. Unfortunately we had a reliever in the senior part of the school term 4 07 and thus we were unable to send a teacher on last year's school visit.
 * Impact and Inspiration as a result of the school visits**
 * Merryn's Day**

Two teachers are trialling E Asttle and they will (once technical glitches are sorted and we are not the only school experiencing this)collaborate with each other and across the cluster as appropriate. We have used opportunities to help each other “just in time learning” and at Staff Meetings We have scheduled more staff meetings for ICT and share sites and resources.As a staff we find it very difficult to share the one data projector. Teachers want their"own". Just like teachers got tired of sharing laptops in our school the same applies the data projector There has been sharing at Cluster level/school level /one to one collegial level /and through student/teacher engagement. Staff meetings have "a little often approach "and again the focus is on “just in time learning” The Kids ICT conference continues to be remembered favourably by parents who attended the presentation. It was a great opportunity for parents to see what was happening/ what can happen with the use of ICT. We wish to have more ICT student collaboration between classes i.e. skype/ voice thread. Now need web cams Ict is a more vital tool. Principal tends to go straight to Leadspace. The treasure trove of readings,resources, revised curriculum resources and digital stories are invaluable and energising! Principals are no longer phased by audio conferences! We should continue to utilise these and the interactive breeze "room" Teacher’s first step with planning is to visit TKI or use teacher tube or other such sites to access the resources they need. Teachers less reliant on hard copy resources and are less dependent on paper masters. Teachers are using the internet far more frequently(usually daily)
 * Support for Individual staff members**
 * In school systems and structures have allowed opportunities for staff and students to lead in the development and up skilling of colleagues in ICT skill and best practice.**
 * Teachers/Leaders pedagogical** understanding is evident in best practice teaching and leading of learning communities. •

There has been more emphasis on inquiry and experimentation. Our school had a year long focus on Science. To be able to answer some of the “way out” questions the students asked, the teachers often had to do their own online research to find information that the students could relate to and understand. Teaching practice is more focused on student interests. It is also more focused on what their next learning step will be. Through science process of inquiry teachers became aware of knowledge gaps i.e. how time is made up and the influence on their lives…the drought….night /day….life cycle of a plant. Through use of internet resources teachers can quickly capitalize on the “teachable moment”

how? ||
 * Reflective practice** is related in all curriculum areas however in 2007 our focus was on science. We gathered a significant amount of data about student ability to make good predictions and ask juicy questions. Again this helped us reflect on how children learn. In order for the inquiry process to work in our school we had to ensure that students knew the difference between a question and a statement. We are well on the way with this.
 * Reflective practice of our teaching:** We are in the second year of a Formative Assessment contract. We are constantly reflecting on our teaching practice and what works best for our learners at our school. || Provide a brief report on progress from each school. || * significant progress since term four - why, how?
 * significant challenges - what, why, anything over come,
 * Report on the impact for cluster personnel of the ‘Learning at School’ Conference. || * who attended, how did they feed back, what was invaluable, affirmations or new directions because of L@S? ||
 * Collaborative learning for both students and teachers across the cluster is established and being hosted by the online cluster space. || * please provide feedback on the senior and middle schools visits to school - include impact, inspiration
 * comment on progress so far on the steps toward collaboration across the cluster - its impact so far and potential
 * Principals please comment on this from a management perspective ie breeze, skype, the cluster wiki for agendas etc ||
 * In school systems and structures have allowed opportunities for staff and students to lead in the development and up skilling of colleagues in ICT skill and best practice. || * as a result of Merryns principal day in term 4 and the principal/lead teacher day this year what has impacted on the above milestone?
 * how have you addressed the upskilling of staff at your school in sustainable ways, how have you encouraged or allowed staff to learn from each other or share with other cluster members?
 * How are you supporting that which individual staff members are putting in place and learning as a result of the ICTPD. How have systems and structures changed to meet the needs of teachers as their practices, knowledge and understandings change as a result of the ICTPD?
 * How are individual teachers sharing learning and knowledge about their practice?
 * How many staff meetings have been dedicated to the goals of the contract and what has the content of these meetings been? Who has lead or facilitated these and what have the outcomes been? ||
 * Teachers/Leaders pedagogical understanding is evident in best practice teaching and leading of learning communities. || * how is practice changing? why is it changing?
 * what are the teachers understandings of why they are choosing to teach or foster learning in certain ways (this question links directly to the resource "targeting effective teaching and learning" shared in principals pd in term 4 and again at the lead teacher/principal hui)
 * as a result of the lead teacher/principal hui how have professional learning communities been established within the school, and how have leaders used professional dialogue and questioning to promote reflective practice? ||


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