Sharing Inspiration

On my Twitter today a fellow tweep mentioned they were preparing to plan an art unit. This launched me into thinking about all the visual art resources that I have sitting on my computer in need of sharing. Many of you may already remember from my "7 things meme" my passion for art education, so I beavered away to create a new page on my wiki to inspire teachers of possible art lessons that can be viewed here. I quickly got some great feedback from my friends and hope that if you like what you see then you will post a comment here for me.

I'm also pleased to mention that my Te Reo Maori digital learning centre resource (that I blogged about earlier) was featured in a national ICT PD newsletter, so hopefully the use of this resource will become more widely known through this special promotion.

Te Reo Maori Resource for every NZ class

In New Zealand one of our official languages is Te Reo, the language of our indigenous Maori people. As a classroom teacher not fluent in Te Reo but passionate about trying to incorporate Te Reo in the classroom I have made this digital learning centre to help the children (and teachers) of New Zealand learn and feel confident with learning basic Te Reo.

I would recommend that you print out the PDF version in colour and laminate - each week focus on a specific page until you feel confident. Have a good play and click on lots of things to listen and imitate the pronunciation. When the ERO (Education Review Office) visited my previous school in 2007 they commented to me that all workplaces especially NZ government departments and hospitals would benefit from learning basic Te Reo in this format. For several years I had pondered about sharing this with the Ministry of Education to "sell" but never got around to it! So because I'm so sure that I've made an excellent resource that works and that EVERY classroom in New Zealand should have a copy I'm giving it to the blogosphere FREE from my wikispace by clicking here.

IF YOU DO USE IT, I'D LOVE TO HEAR WHAT YOU THINK AND PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE ME AS THE SOURCE

Perhaps the MoE would consider sending me and my staff to the ULearn09 conference in Christchurch as koha for a resource that they didn't have the insight to create for all NZ children and teachers. In return I'd be prepare to do a presentation. Wouldn't that be wonderful! The whole staff could have professional development on the latest pedagogy and NZ curriculum. I'm sure that would be quite a reasonable cost associated for such a wonderful, much needed resource.

original photo: Maori Marae by Carmelo Aquilina found at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/76067507@N00/60801116

Digital Learning Centres

An innovative way that I integrate the use of the computer into my classroom programme is through developing digital learning centres (DLCs). These learning centres are produced on a Powerpoint Show platform and can be designed specifically to cater for the learning needs and strengths of children in my class.

When creating a DLC there are three main types/functions:

• as a maintenance programme from teaching and learning
• as a portal to new learning
• as a portal to new learning with guided digital experiences related

This year my school had a visit from the Education Review Office (ERO, 2007) who wrote the following in their report:

"A particular feature of the school is the use of digital learning centres (DLCs) to support learning. These digital resources are designed and created within the school to complement literacy programmes, learning across the curriculum and to support the inquiry learning approaches that are used in all classrooms. They enable students to access on-line teaching resources for reinforcing class work and to explore selected internet sites that provide further opportunities for interactive learning and/or the sourcing of new information for project work."

I was really pleased that ERO acknowledged the use of the computers at my school in this way. Although it is only one way that we integrate ICT into our programmes, it was great to see that they consider it important enough to note in the actual ERO report for the school. I am working on making some of these DLCs available on my wikispace:

http://digitallearningnz.wikispaces.com/

I think it is important if we are using sources on the internet, we should collaborate and give back to the net as well.