Ewan McIntosh - Eportfolios and emerging literacies

Ewan MacIntosh is someone I really admire. He has made a strong contribution to 21st century education with a prominent role in England and Scotland, including work as Digital Commissioner 4iP (Scotland, Northern Ireland and The North East) at Channel 4. Some of the Muritai staff subscribe to his regular posts. He is a strong advocate for student voice and engagement of children in their learning using 21st technology.

In this short video he gives credence to our blogging culture at school. He talks about the development of an outcome as the important thing to be shared and celebrated and describes learning as often messy! All our teachers keep class blogs which children contribute too and share the learning landscape with the local and global community

Blogging at Muritai

As you know all classes have blogs. A trip to feedjit indicated the Stu Devenport's blog in room 13 was the most visited blog in Wellington with Kim Cookson in third place. It is nice that people are visiting our class blogs as it opens our classrooms to the wider community without having to visit into class. Stu and his year 5 class have made an awesome video of how to make paper and Kim and her year 1 class have blogged the visit of her father, an electrician, in support of their inquiry unit on 'Flick that Switch'.

It is a very interesting development and by being part of the 'blogging community' we have huge access to some really neat things being done by teachers and classrooms around the world. You may like to visit this really neat site about logging the teaching of  maths in a  virtual way.

New teachers

I am so impressed with our new teachers Kim Oaten and Kim Cookson. Picking up a class half way through the year is very tricky and can be very overwhelming as there is so many new faces to 'instantly' know. Have a look at their blogs to see what they have going in the classes already. Kim Oaten is from Australia and her teaching experience is really showing through with the kids continuing on the smooth pathway provided by Kate. Kim Cookson is in her first teaching job, a bundle of energy and is really shining in this opportunity. Both Kim's have settled in so smoothly and are immersing themselves into the Muritai family, who are very lucky to have these two very accomplished people at our school.

A new term

I've been missing in action in regards to my blog of late. I enjoyed a decent break in the holidays with the family and have been chasing my tail ever since. If you are wondering what is happening with Muritai check out the teacher's blogs. They are all updated and have information about what is happening in classes this term.

This term we have a short dash until we get into production mode. This year The Lorax is the subject and a hive of industry and a constant stream of meetings and minutes as the team seek to put 420 kids on stage for an hour. Always good fun the school production is something that amazes me about teachers, skill, ambition and resourcefulness. I am looking forward to the 16th September to see the talented people at Muritai perform.

Room 23's learning log

I really like the way that Stephen Eames uses his learning log. When you visit the log it reflects a very interesting collection of things that the children have been doing in class this year and shows the incredibly diverse nature of the 'modern' classroom. It shows their learning journey. 

Stephen uses the children to do the posting and you can see with the accuracy of their work that they have a very clear understanding of what they are doing during their learning sessions. Parents of room 23 can check in all the time and get a clear picture of what their children are doing at school. Great communication and using ICT tools extremely well.

Stephen is also using a wiki to support his year 7-8 children through some of the more time consuming 'assignment' work they are doing. Check out his science fair wiki which the children are currently working on. It is very impressive.

Blogging at Muritai

At Muritai this year we have made a commitment to use blogging/wiki platforms to share work and learning experiences that are happening in the classrooms with the wider school community. At the beginning of the school year we dedicated a session during a teacher only day and get everyone set up with a class blog or wiki. These have now all been linked to the main school website for easy access. www.muritai.school.nz

We hope our classroom blogs will serve three main purposes.

1. Sharing Work

Teachers are starting to share work completed by their students using blogs and wikis. Examples of quality writing is being uploaded along with pictures of artwork. We are embedding slideshows of photos of children and their work using bubbleshare, rockyou, slide and photobucket. Some of us are also embedding video from youtube and google video. We are also having find finding and sharing loads of cool widgets to add bling to their blogs! Teachers have enjoyed receiving feedback from students and their parents when they leave comments.

2. Learning logs/ Reflective Journals

Teachers are also discovering the benefits of using blogs and wikis as a tool for reflection for students learning. Some classes in the senior school have individual pages where children are able to edit their own pages. They are able to upload examples of their work themselves and give reflections on their achievements and the learning process.

3. Learning Portals

We hope throughout the year our blogs and wikis will be used as learning hubs for children to go to with links to websites and digital learning objects that will assist with their homework. We envisage setting up one off blogs or wikis for term inquiry topics (for e.g The Olympics) with examples of work and hyperlinks to subject specific website.