Albany

Home =Albany School Milestone 10= If you wish to include digital evidence to support your report, please provide reference to appropriate URLs. Northern Bays ICT Cluster 2006 - 2008 Mile Stone 10 Albany Primary School Progress up until January 2009 Evidence of staff engagement with ICTs ICT Conference ULEARN08. Albany sent four enthusiastic staff members who had chosen appraisal goals in ICT to ULEARN08 in Christchurch, to provide further professional development. Upon their return they held a staff meeting to share their most valuable experience at conference with a view of then integrating this within their class (and to share within teams). Torbay Sharing Session. Despite the busy time of year, Albany had a majority of staff attend again highlighting increased motivation for ICT networking. Staff from various year levels have now experimented with several ideas within their own class (e.g. Claymation, Comic Life, Digital Learning Objects) Dairy Flat Sharing Session. Again a high turnout by staff, who enjoyed the sharing of ideas and networking with others, while also enjoying the perspective of an integrated ICT and language focus through an Action Research project and how this was supported by student achievement. Staff Meetings at Albany. Albany has held three staff meetings since June 2008 as outlined below. The philosophy behind these meetings was to have high staff engagement through realistic learning contexts highlighting the importance of just in time learning. Meeting One Term Three, Week Three: As a staff we reflected, using PMIs, on a reading about how technological changes are being utilised within classrooms to promote learning. The four key questions were; what old things are we doing old ways? What old things are doing in new ways?, what new things are doing in old ways?, and what new things are we doing in new ways? The second part of meeting consisted of staff working in teams of three or four using our LEGO robotics equipment/software to undertake a challenge with no prior experience. This was an awesome opportunity for teachers to engage in communication, problem solving, metacognitive process and co-operative skills in a competitive atmosphere, in order to understand the impact the RoboCup competition has had on our students core communicative and metacognitive skills (key competencies). Meeting Two Term Three, Week Nine: We reflected on the reading Engage Me or Enrage Me by Mark Prensky by sharing our thoughts in teams about the impact this has on how we view learners in our classrooms. The second part of this meeting was to use the key competencies as a basis to reflect upon our Albany Values by using a learning centred task, where staff worked in year levels to create a multimedia presentation to demonstrate what Albany Values look like. Meeting Three Term Four, Week Five: We reflected on the YouTube clip “ Where in the World is Matt?” to show the importance of every step in a student’s development, and the potential impact globally to emphasise the three C’s (Consumers, Creators, and Communicators). Our Ulearn conference attendees shared with staff their most valuable experience and how this can be used within the classroom. Improvement in Student Engagement through enriched usage of ICT’s. Below are just several examples of how students are engaged through enriched usage of ICT’s at Albany School. Maori Language Awards This year our winning entry into the Maori Language Awards had a large component of ICTs, with classes using YouTube, audacity, photos and PowerPoint's to aid instruction and record finished activities for Maori Language Week. RoboCup 2008 24 students, several teachers undertook the enormous task of entering 10 teams into the RoboCup Dance competition 2008 held at Point View Primary. With no previous experience and amazing support from Toshiba, one of the teams made it through to second in the Auckland region, and third nationally. Website Forums Students are contributing to class based forum’s held on the school website, sharing their ideas with both peers and the community, www.albany.school.nz/forum. Quest Atlantis This year, six staff took up the opportunity to investigate an online virtual gaming world, designed in an educational context to enrich and engage students. This required staff to undertake ongoing Skype conference calls with teachers from around the world to up skill in the usage of the environment and to discuss student engagement globally. This has allowed teachers to form a global network through Facebook to maintain a professional learning community about the 3D world. As Quest Atlantis is based on social commitments (core values), it has become evident through student reflection how these commitments are impacting on their real life. Overall this highlights a continued shift in student engagement using ICT’s within our school and all students are actively seeking the use of ICT’s during every opportunity. Summary of Northern Bays ICT Cluster for Albany Over the course of the last three years on the contract, Albany School has used teachers at the edge of technological advancement, to lead the school in the presentation of new ideas and equipment and used their classes and children to lead assemblies, integrate ICTs more in our end of year prize giving and performances. Along with our contract facilitators the lead teachers have been modelling with classes in their release time throughout the contract different ways to integrate ICTs into a daily classroom programme. The School and community have been right behind us in the drive to advance the use of ICT’s within our school. Over the last three years the school has shifted from having limited ICT equipment and less than adequate Technical support to; designating a permanent ICT suite, fully funding the lease of laptops for teaching staff, the purchase of new classroom computers, the purchase of two COWs Betsy and Daisy and Increasing our technician time to 6 hours a week. Our school has undertaken a hall renovation which included a comprehensive sound system including two full size projectors. In the last year Albany now has 21 projectors, 1 Smartboard, 10 mimios. Where to in 2009 and Beyond? Planning For Sustainability As part of sustainability we have set up a three year replacement policy on all technological equipment at Albany School. We have established forward planning and wish lists to identify staff needs and wants, as well as the long term goal of every class having a projector and mimio. Through the ICT curriculum team at Albany we will look to have a continued development of ICTs within our unit planning on a regular basis and to continue to infuse and instil the Albany ICT vision and thinking pedagogy. At Albany we are devoted to continuation of ICT growth and development, as part of sustainability the 2009 year will allow us to apply for the extended ICT contract on literacy. =Albany School Milestone 9= Progress until June 2008 ICT Conference. In late January, the Northern Bays ICT Cluster held their first ICT conference to share different learning experiences and thought provoking speakers, to encourage teachers to look into the future and reflect on student learning. The central focus of the conference was “How are they teaching students for tomorrow.”
 * A half page evaluative summary of the impact of the ICT PD Contract**

Albany Primary had 25 permanent teachers, 3 senior management, 6 short and long term relievers and several board members attend. This was very encouraging to see both the long and short term relievers at our school excited about ICT PD. Albany school had five staff involved in presenting 3 of the breakout sessions.

The discussions that followed once back at school were very positive, the ICT team at our school feedback lots of differing ways ICT’s are being used to support student learning.

Coatesville Sharing Session. Albany staff also attended the Coatesville sharing session which shows a committed effort to sustaining ICT discussions and collaboration within our cluster (Profession Learning Community).

PD session on Mimio’s. Albany Primary has held Pd session’s during term two to up skill staff in the usage of interactive whiteboard equipment available in the school and has also booked a follow up session with a Mimio facilitator to provide advanced assistance with ideas of how to integrate these into the classroom programme.

Improvement in Student Engagement through enriched usage of ICT’s.

Bellow are just several examples of how students are engaged through enriched usage of ICT’s at Albany School. Computer Club 57 year 3 - 6 students attend a lunchtime computer club which has been set up to engage students across different learning experiences.

Website Forums Students are contributing to class based forum’s held on the school website, sharing their ideas with both peers and the community.

Digital Story Books Most classes are now incorporating digital story books to encourage students to share their learning with others.

Overall this highlights a continued shift in student engagement using ICT’s within our school.