Hayley+-+Muritai

Hi there!

I have just returned to full time classroom teaching - agh back to reality! Just kidding! I am really enjoying having my own class again and am excited about the ICT journey I will take with my Year 2 class this year.

My personal ICT goal is to update my class blog on a regular basis (I'm thinking weekly at this stage).
Of course there are time management issues I want to address as well:
 * integrating ICT into class programme
 * managing a pod of laptops with whole class

Goals for the children (at the moment!):

 * building up basic skills
 * use digital cameras to record and present learning (to be uploaded onto Blog)
 * refresh KIdpix skills

Hayley

Hi Hayley, Great to see that you have both personal and class goals relating to ICT. I have checked in with [|your blog] and you are doing an awesome job. How are you going with management issues around the pod? The summary of all the discussions at year group meetings on management can be accessed by clicking here. How are you going with your action research topic? Which ICT tool did you settle on to try and build up phonics skills with your children? I have put a page about action research onto Teacher Portal with a break down of the action research process and a blank template in Powerpoint that you could use to write it up at the end. Keep up the great work. media type="custom" key="618893"

25.7.08

Have been steadily adding new posts to my main class blog and have had a lot of positive feedback from parents, children and grandparents. I still need to educate parents on posting regular comments. My year 2's have become very keen and capable at posting comments on our class blog and other blogs within our school, including our Principal's!

I have been both thrilled and frustrated with Picture Trail. I love the slide shows on offer and have used a variety on my blog but have now exhausted my 'free account'. Which poses an interesting dilemma: who should pay? Me or the school? Another ICT cost to consider maybe?

We have begun to use our Class Writing Blog on a daily basis after being inspired by Rachel at the ICT EXPO. I have also been making a 'real' hit counter (as opposed to just a digital one) and map, so the children can monitor how many hits we get and where they are coming from. I am keen also to establish a penpal relationship via our blogs with Rachel's class and discussed this with her at the conclusion of the EXPO.

I have been using the pod with my Junior Enrichment group (a mixed class of New Entrant, Year 1s and Year 2s) and have been very pleased with their skill development. It is great to have a mixed class, as the Year 2s become peer tutors to the younger children and make managing the pod a lot easier. We have used online numeracy and literacy games, photobooth, kidpix and letterland software. This term I intend to continue using Kidpix, online sites, digital cameras and letterland software. We had a great session today where the children used Kidpix to design Olympic flags and medals. I am keen to teach them slideshows and share them at Junior and School Assemblies.

We have also used the Pod laptops as part of our class programme. In Numeracy and Literacy I include the laptops as a group activity and it becomes part of our group rotations. We have also used it at Inquiry time for researching the Olympics and Friendly footprints.

I have finally decided upon and begun my Action Research! I have decided to use the Living Code Cards Letterland software to see what impact it has on the children's learning. I have a group of six children who I am focussing on. They have a very limited knwoledge of Vowel Digraphs (they know two!) so I have chosen them as my focus group. Three of them will be exposed to classroom teaching and paper activities alone, while the remaining three children will receive classroom teaching, related paper activities and will be exposed to the Letterland software to support, practise and consolidate their learning. I have already pre-tested them and will later post-test them to compare results and come to conclusions.

Hayley

WOW! You sound as if you have been really busy. I'm glad that you found so many useful ideas from the Expo that you could implement in your own class. The blog is also looking great - such a lot of interesting work there. As for PictureTrail - maybe the school should pay for one account that you can all use? Suzie (still watching from afar :-)