Entre – Group Hugs

1. Collaboration ( Why ?, What ?, How ?)

Main Course – Lets get comfortable and talk about us.

1. Wikis – Wazat ?

Desert – Wonderful World of Wikis- Hands on Tour

1. Building an Online Learning Community

2. Exploring Wiki’s-Wiki tour bus !

Menu

Lets put our minds together and see what life can make for our children.

Sitting Bull

Community Professional Learning Day– 5 Questions

Question 1

What skills, abilities,values and attitudes … do we believe every child (and parent) has the right to expect from their schooling in this community ?Question 2

What specific teaching and learning strategies do we believe should be common to this learning community?Question 3

What learning and behaviour expectations do we believe should be common to this learning community?Question 4

What do we imagine a clusterwide learning community would be like?Question 5

How could we promote community involvement and teacher commitment ?

Case Study

5 Questions were posed to 140 educators of Year 0 – Year 13 students.

From their responses many opportunities for online community development were identified…

Question 4

What do we imagine a clusterwide learning community would be like?

Build relationships with teachers from other schools socially and online – Share celebrations

VISIT each other in other schools and levels – get an idea of the whole deal – our part in a circle of learning

Take care of students from beginning to end Yr 0 –13. Think seamless ,direct continuance of Education. Not separate steps.

Establish shared school values and promote/sell them in the community. Cash in on town pride

Pass down skills/curriculum needs for students eg. This is what we need @ yr0, yr3, yr7,yr9,yr11, University & Tech

Regular shared gatherings, shared levels, shared specialist interests- Maths, Science,Music,PE

Promote a community culture that values learning success. Support, Empower, Inform

Celebrate cluster excellence in academic, arts, cultural & sporting areas

Online collaboration homework sites and resources. Website learning access for us all.

Become one BIG area school with interaction between each other - include satellites

Combine sports days, Top town, cultural, arts – promote educational sharing, not just sports comps.

Be as good as one another – Show less competition for clients. Promote each other.

Involve preschool / kindergartens in cluster development and Professional Development

Students visit between school – role models to community, Buddy seniors with juniors,email

Support and encourage goal setting from an early age, create mentors with & for older students

Explain to parents what they can do to help students achieve and support their learning.

Bring family in to school more often to get an idea of education NOW – get them all on board

Share … ideas, Professional Development , learning resources ,equipment

Encourage visits & sharing – preschool, primary, intermediate, secondary, to tertiary

REAL & frequent Communication between schools.

Question 5

How could we promote community involvement and teacher commitment ?

Let teachers focus on teaching – get periphery stuff out-sourced

Education pages for Learning Community in paper and online. Profile teachers/schools

MORE info and meetings for parents and community – use internet opportunities.

Promote All schools together. Involve community leaders in events.

Meet together professionally and SOCIALLY more often. Be collegial.

Allow TIME and organise opportunities to work together to liase & share successes.

Regular class newsletters, encourage parents at all levels to visit, read & see students work

Parent/ teacher home contact – visit, phone them, find them involve them. Online & Open door policy.

Positive,practical, informative professional development sessions & continued access to personal devpt. Online.

TEACH parents strategies to help students at home. Provide workshops & guest speakers

Show that community involvement & teacher commitment has a powerful effect on success

Have a well- resourced learning community. Online resources Parent – helper lists, Grey power.

Open up schools for family learning – Quiz nights, Maths nights, English, Arts, Science nights Fun activities

Provide opportunities where we all come together to present work-students and teachers.

Post out newsletters , use email, websites – get visible. Media involvement –TV etc

Teachers visit all age levels to observe strategies & techniques .

Encourage past students –to revisit. Demystify next level.

Cluster magazine, discussion sites or newsletters for teachers

Involve successful role models culturalacademic,sporting

Have showcase days. Be committed and approachable.

Web 2.0 offers both global and niche community opportunities for online interaction.

For educators, wiki’s and blogs offer exciting possibilities in collaborative learning, professional reflection and the development of shared resources.

On-line Learning Community Yr 0 -13

On-line Professional Development Access

1. Access to professional readings, video, podcasts, on-line courses etc

( rosetown wiki )

Learning Community Yr 0 -13

On-line Professional Practice Discussions & Motivational/Reflective Stories (the real stuff)

2. Reflective practice stories, sharing success and examining concerns.

(rats wiki– “Really Awesome Teacher Stories”)

Learning Community Yr 0 -13

On-line Resource Access

3. Access to teacher recommended, online edresources – sorted under curriculum headings and age appropriateness for, and by, our community.

Tried & true …must have a user comment.

( edresources wiki )

Opportunities for Principals to communicate directly with students and the wider community …

Opportunities for students to think, contribute to their learning environment and drive their own inquiries.

Opportunities for students to take part in off site discussions (in their own time) in safe, teacher moderated environments. To collaborate about classroom projects and discuss issues.

Frequently this provides opportunities for students who don’t often communicate to find their voice…

Many class online learning environments are using Wikis as a class ‘common room’ for collaborative work, and Blogs as individual office spaces with links to the wiki.

Class Wiki Common Room

Information siteResource links LibraryChat roomCollaborative Project site

Teacher BlogLearning commentsObservationsManagement

Student Blogs*Work Portfolio*Links to own and group wikis*Reflective learning comments*Ongoing work

Wiki’s are easy to create and manage and provide a simple but effective communication platform.

The possibilities are endless…

Wikid

possibilities …What’s your direction ?

Take turns at driving

A vehicle to provide a scaffold for communication and collaboration between

teachers, students and the wider community.

How do you get them all on board ?

Who’s needs a ticket ? Move

around and meet in the

aisles

Swop seats and packages

Talk to strangers

Considerations Management

Explore different routes