Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Managing the Learning Environment Pt2

Several months ago I posted links to short videos some of the innovative Manaiakalani teachers had created to share their teaching experience, focussing on how they have created a Managed Learning Environment using Google Apps for Education.

I promised there would be more to share, and here they are.  One is from a High School Graphics teacher and one is from a teacher in a Year 3 class.  The rest are Year 5-8 classes.


Karen Ferguson, Tamaki College
NCEA Level 1 Graphics, Google Site here

Wendy Burne,Year 3/4  Pt England School 

Literacy Cycle movie here, class Google Site here

Juanita Garden, Year 5/6, Pt England School
Writing movie here, class Google Site here

Kent Somerville, Year 6, Pt England School 

Maths movie here, class Google Site here

Kimberley Ouano, Year 5, Pt England School 

Reading movie here, Maths movie here, class Google Site here

Helen King, Year 5, Pt England School 

Writing movie here, Movie Making movie here, class Google Site here
Check out Helen's collection of Maths strategies videos here

Sarah Gleeson, Year 5, St Pius X Catholic School

Writing movie here, class Google Site here

Toni Nua, Year 7/8, Pt England School 

Inquiry (Mihimihi) movie here, class Google Site here

Sandy Lagitupu, Year 7/8, Pt England School 

Writing movie here, class Google Site here

Ted Barks, Year 7/8, Pt England School 

Reading movie here, class Google Site here

Helen Squires, Year 7/8, Pt England School 

Cybersmart Inquiry movie here, class Google Site here

Mike Harris, Year 7/8, Pt England School 

Reading movie here, class Google Site here

Nick Major, Science, Tamaki College
Presentation is here, Science Google Site is here

For those who missed them, here is the earlier collection:

Chris Marks, Pt England School - Year 5/6
Writing movie here, class Google Site here

Sarah Gleeson, St Pius X School - Year 5
Reading movie here, class Google Site here

Helen King, Pt England School - Year 5
Maths (number Strategy) movie here, class Google Site here

Joy Paton, Panmure Bridge School - Year 5/6
Art movie here, class Google Site here

Monday, August 6, 2012

Child's Perspective

Last post I shared the amazing speech given by one of Mt Roskill Grammar's prefects, Joshua Iosefa, at a school assembly.


In the first week of this school term Helen Squires used this as an opportunity to expand the horizons and challenge the thinking of her Year 7 and 8 class (11-12 year olds). The students shared their thinking via a written piece on their blogs.  This response excerpt is from the blog of Crusader, a year 7 boy:



This speech had a message to it, and it was telling brown people especially to stop limiting yourself by listening to the stereotypes because they are not true. Some messages in his speech relate to some of the messages that we have at our school here such as; Strive to succeed, Champions never Give Up and much more.
 My response to this speech is that, brown people like me can do anything we want as long as you have determination in what you do. It doesn’t have to be a sports star or a music person but you can be anything else like a lawyer or even the next Prime Minister.


There are many more such pieces from his classmates linked at the bottom of this post.


The Education Gazette, New Zealand's magazine where teachers find their next job, decided to post the entire transcript of the speech in this week's edition and is well worth checking out.


However, a particular delight for this class was receiving an email from Joshua's mother who had discovered their blog responses online and gave them some encouragement including;


I am Joshuas mother and it wasn't so long ago he was the same age as yourselves.  He didn't have a blog like you all do but he would write into a journal all his thoughts. Some were like poetic prayers and others were scribbles of inspiration he would pick up from people, or books he was reading.  We were encouraged by reading your blogs of the inspirations you all had chosen to keep in your heart and mind from Joshuas 'brown brother-spoken word'.


This was such an affirmation of our 'Learn Create Share' pedagogy on many levels and yet another example of how the online world our students inhabit can enrich their lives and experiences.


Links to other students' reponses below:


Darius
Mubasshira
Kaiden
Kobe
Sylvia
Ashleigh