Thank you again to the Lysaght-Watt Trust for making out 2016 MOA Awards event possible

Moa Kluster Trip

On the 13th and 14th of June the MOA Kluster school visited Russell Street School, Whakarongo School, Halcombe and Riverdale School. This was an amazing experience for our cluster. Having 53 teachers, teacher aides, Board of Trustee and principals sharing common professional development was very powerful. I would like to acknowledge our colleagues in Palmerston North who opened their classrooms and their teaching practice to our scrutiny. We very much appreciate that you were so generous with your time and resources.

During our visits we focussed on how the schools were using digital literacy to enhance authentic learning. We so many examples of great teacher practice. We observed students working in a range of diverse learning situations. Most of all we were able to see our teaching and beliefs aligned with the other schools.

We saw great learning environments and students who were engrossed in the learning through "self directed learning" programmes. This was a great opportunity to see if these were ideas and ways of teaching that we would like to implement in our school.

Most of all the collegiality within our own cluster was strengthened through this collaboration. Our teachers worked in cross school teams to explore the schools. They also worked collaboratively after school critiquing what they had observed.

After the school visits each school has gone on to reflect on the schools we visited. Some of us have used the Six Thinking Hats to critique our new learning.

White Hat: What was the key message from each principal in a nutshell?

Yellow Hat: What did good practice look like in these schools?

Black Hat: What did you see that you would not like to see in our school?

Green Hat: What innovative practice did you see? What would you give up to do it? How would you implement it sustainably?

Red Hat; Which school did you like best? Why? What school in your belief is our school more aligned with, if any?

Blue Hat: What would be best use of our time if we decided to look at improving our practice?

he Six Thinking Hats help to focus our own thinking.

Moa Awards

Tickets are available from the school office for the MOA Awards, for a gold coin donation. Initially we will need to limit tickets to those students who have been shortlisted and their immediate families. If we have spare tickets these will be offered to other students and to families who need additional tickets. All shortlisted students need to get a ticket. Teacher will also need to get a ticket, as we have to restrict the number attending due to Fire Safety regulations. A fire safety officer will be onsite during the evening.

STEM and Computational Thinking

An Essential 21st Century Disposition

Computational Thinking (CT) is a problem solving process that includes a number of characteristics and dispositions. CT is essential to the development of computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines, including the humanities, math, and science. Students who learn CT across the curriculum can begin to see a relationship between academic subjects, as well as between life inside and outside of the classroom.


The Skills We Need To Develop With OUR Students.....

Decomposition: Breaking down data, processes, or problems into smaller, manageable parts
Pattern Recognition: Observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data
Abstraction: Identifying the general principles that generate these patterns
Algorithm Design: Developing the step by step instructions for solving this and similar problems

Computational Thinking will act as the overarching umbrella for STEM, which we will commence in 2016. Our teachers already use many aspects of computational thinking in their daily programmes. When our teachers are teaching maths many aspects of computational thinking are required to break down problems, look for patterns, or to "sort the wood from the trees" (Abstraction)

The diagram below explains Computational Thinking very simply.

STEM

What is STEM?

Science ,Technology, Engineering and Maths

Why teach STEM?

Every country in the world is reforming their education system at the current time. Why? Well we are told it is because we are not preparing students with the skills and attributes they need for the future. Many jobs in the future will depend on students have a really good basis in STEM.

“Science and technology are at the heart of every major challenge we face: rebuilding transport systems in major town and cities, climate change, space exploration,creating a healthy economy. Yet every year the number of Graduates in STEM decreases in New Zealand”

Our government has created a new initiative called Curious Minds. “A Nation of Curious Minds is the blueprint for the Science in Society project. In July 2014, the Minister of Science and Innovation, Hon Steven Joyce, and the Minister of Education, Hon Hekia Parata, launched A Nation of Curious Minds, the Government’s plan to encourage and enable better engagement with science and technology across New Zealand society.

The plan, A Nation of Curious Minds – He Whenua Hihiri i te Mahara, recognises the important role scientific knowledge and innovation play in our lives and in creating and defining New Zealand’s future, economically, socially and environmentally.”

Through the MOA Kluster we have been developing exciting new partnerships and focus, for some months. We have been developing a STEM focus.We are still at the beginning of our journey. We had a combined meeting with the BOT from the four schools and we have agreed that this is a direction that is important for our students and their future.

So What Are We Doing About It?

Maths: Each school has designated a lead teacher to review our direction for 2016. These teachers will be working cross school to explore what is working well and what we need to improve. Having a cross cluster focus adds strength to this review. These teachers will also be exploring different ways to teach maths to help our students to become “maths problem solvers”

Science: The schools are working alongside one another to share professional development. We are currently building working partnerships both in New Zealand and overseas to strengthen our knowledge and skills in this area. Science and maths will be a major focus for our schools in 2016.

So What About Engineering? Do You Actually Do That At Primary School?

The short answer is YES.

If you’ve ever watched children at play, you know they’re fascinated with building things—and with taking things apart to see how they work. In other words, children are natural-born engineers. When children engineer in a school setting, research suggests several positive results:

Building Science and Math Skills

Engineering calls for children to apply what they know about science and math—and their learning is enhanced as a result. At the same time, because engineering activities are based on real-world technologies and problems, they help children see how disciplines like math and science are relevant to their lives.

Classroom Equity

Research suggests engineering activities help build classroom equity. The engineering design process removes the stigma from failure; instead, failure is an important part of the problem-solving process and a positive way to learn. Equally important, in engineering there’s no single “right” answer; one problem can have many solutions. When classroom instruction includes engineering, all students can see themselves as successful.

21st Century Skills

Hands-on, project-based learning is the essence of engineering. As groups of students work together to answer questions like “How large should I make the canopy of this parachute?” or “What material should I use for the blades of my windmill?” they collaborate, think critically and creatively, and communicate with one another.

Opunake Primary CSI Open Day

CSI - Cool Science Investigation

Thank You for visiting our Virtual Open Day We hope you enjoy your tour of our CSI Open Day.

Student Posting in the Holidays: Auroa Primary School

Bethanys Blog: Visiting Sky Tower

These students from Auroa Primary School are all in the Y5/6 Room Three Class.  They have individual student blogs and have all chosen to post in their own time during the school holidays:

Bethany's been on holiday in Auckland and visited the iconic Auckland Sky Tower.  You can see her standing on a sheet of glass on this fantastic post on her wonderful blog by clicking here.

Caros Blog: Mount Taranaki

Caro has been in the snow on Mount Taranaki - you can read about the details of the experience that she's had by clicking on her fantastic blog here.  

Katelyn has been in Rotorua having some fantastic adventures on her holidays.  If you would like to find out all about what she has been up to and read her fantastic recount about her adventures you can click on the link here.

In each instance the students have been writing about the events that have occurred, and written recounts detailing the events and taken time to include details and links (such as hyper linking to links with more details).   Its provided motivated learners and opportunity to connect with an authentic audience.  The students concerned have had a combined total of 15,000 page views.

Students Posting About Special Events

Teacher Note: We're trying to encourage students to post regularly about school events or about home related topics and experiences. These are two examples of students who competed in the Weetbiz Tryathalon and then wrote and self published about the events following the experience. Jayden, whose blog is also mentioned in producing a series of farm related videos on his blog detailing his family and farming experiences.

Today we had a large number of students competing in the Weetbix Tryathalon in New Plymouth - this is a huge event, one of the biggest single sporting events in our area this year.   Students who competed didn't make it to school, but that didn't stop two students from Room Three posting as soon as they got home.  If you'd like to read all about the 2015 Weetbix Tryathalon you can visit Caro's wonderful blog with her awesome posts here.  You can also read and see about her recent trip to Wellington to compete in the Colour Run.

Jayden's been producing some amazing work, you can read about his experience by clicking on his blog here.  Not only can you see about his effort and what he thought of the Tryathalon - you can read about some of his fantastic farming related posts that he's been creating involving his farm on his blog here.

There's also some other wonderful student blogs - you can see the full list by clicking on the side bar on the Room Three Blog.

Using Media From School Events: Kizoa and Athletics

During the recent Cluster held between our schools we took two hundred or so images from the day. Returning to School during the following days, while writing about the event a group of students also used a free Media production device, in this case Kizoa, to produce a slideshow of images from the event. We used the 'free' account setting (you can pay with donations for better material, access and options). We've then used the slideshow to refocus on the students experience. The media has been created completely by two students, with no input from the teacher. The interface for the program is a straightforward drag and drop icon system and the animations are extremely easy to use. If you or your students would like a further tutorial you can Skype our class, you can also use the original media and copy the work.

Students Reflection of Her Holidays

Teachers Note: We had a student who was lucky enough to have an amazing experience during her holidays.  She took her iPad, recorded these images and came back to school.  We were able to have her (Y5) and two other students put together the iMovie within one 45 minute block.    She completed the recount in her own time and the sharing part of her holiday was we put the slideshow on the big screen when she was finished.  The original post is below.

Paige from Room Three has been lucky enough to have just come back Raratonga in the Cook Islands. She spent some time on holiday but also spent some time working hard. She made an amazing iMovie of her adventures with the help of Quade and Harry, which includes pictures that she took and video of some of the cultural performances. This is her recount about the trip.

Thump thump the plane had landed! After three hours on the plane it was cool there was a TV on every chair I got to play with it because there was games on it and we could play music and movie too. It was boiling hot once we had hopped off the plane.

Then we had a look around on the island on a bus. That night we got to have a swim, the pool was refreshing. Nana and Aunty jumped in the pool with their clothes on.


Raro (1) from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

We got dressed up and headed for breakfast waiting for another adventure. Me and Dad went to Kids Club and we made a sarong. 

That night we went to a show it was an island dance. We watched the performance. There were two guys doing a fire dance. It was awesome.

The next day we went to the Spa. I got my nails done and I was allowed to have a massage. That night I got a three hour swim.

Collaboration with other Countries: Exemplar

While school has just finished for 2014 in New Zealand for the year we were thrilled to find out that our friends Mrs Yollis and her class from California, USA have created a video based on our students work. Earlier this year our Kapahaka Group created a series of 'How To' videos about different games that were traditional to Maori. Mrs Yollis and her class, across the other side of the world have used that video and work to teach their students
.
They would like some feedback about their videos - have they done the correct moves? They would also like to know if there are any other traditional games that are played here, or in your country that you know of.  We're very fortunate to have Mrs Yollis recognise our work, she is famous in blogging, being one of the top teachers in the world with a massive audience.  We were pleased to have 60,000 pageviews this year - Mrs Yollis has had 1.5 million.  She is an amazing commentator and a great online model and friend.   This is her class video:

Google Education Group NZ

This is well worth having a look at. Learn about blogging and why to blog and also some great ideas from the SMACKDOWN!

Edublog Student Blogging Challenge

You don't have be using the Edublog Platform to be part of this challenge. You can also opt into the challenge and then pick and choose what you complete during the time. I would suggest you look into it as it provides a ready built resource for challenges and tasks that you can complete. Its also an opportunity to collaborate with other teachers involved in blogging and also you can register your students individually. This is the post describing the challenge that I posted on the Room One Class Page:

Today Room One discovered some fantastic news - we've had our work featured in Miss W's Student Blogging Challenge.  The challenge which is run every year, features the best online work and is a great introduction to online blogging with classroom and student challenges.   Miss W has highlighted the work of Alyssa in writing an introduction about Auroa Primary School and our area from the start of the year.   You can click on the link to see the feature here, and you can sign up for the blogging challenge here.  If you want to click on Alyssa's blog you can do so here.

Its a great introduction for blogging for teachers looking for resources and ideas and wonderful to see some of our other online friends mentioned - Mrs Yollis from the USA and our friends from If Only the Best Birds Sang in Ireland.  You can click on the links to the wonderful work of these fantastic teachers and classrooms here.

Emily Post About Auroa School Market Day

Today Auroa Primary School held their Re-Purposing Market Day. One of our students, Emily, whose had nearly 8,000 pageviews on her student blog, wrote this recount and created this slideshow about the event. You can source the original post on her blog here. 

Today was a very important day for our school, our unit topic for this term is "Re-purposing - the art of turning something old and making it new again" Every student enjoyed it but without a doubt the best part for me was the market day. At the start of term we all chose a re-purposed product that would be thoroughly tested and tried over the next few weeks. Our group chose an original idea called "Drinking Jars"

The Concept-

It was made of a Re-purposed jar, taped with a stripy design and then spray painted, once you peel the tape off it reveals a nice design we then drilled holes into the lids and added a straw. Afterward we filled it with juice for our customers. But the great part is, it can be used again, and again, and again!
We thought our idea was pretty cool.  Everyone must have thought so too because the customers kept pilling in so much that we actually sold out in a matter of minutes!  However there are also many other businesses and classes that need to be credited for their hard work and dedication.  Here is a slideshow with a few photo's capturing the day in all it's glory.

Market Day 2014 on PhotoPeach

Connecting with the Current Events in our Area

This afternoon thanks to a big supporter of our school, Sanfords, Auroa Primary School students were able to view the 'missing' trans Tasman Kayak of Scott Donaldson.   Scott Donaldson attempted to solo Kayak from Australia to New Zealand, however sadly after 83 days at sea he had to abandon his attempt.   Since then he's been looking for his Kayak, including searching for it extensively, but being unable to locate it.  Today it was found, close to Auroa Primary School.  It was recovered today and brought into school for our students to have a look.  These photos of the craft were taken this afternoon.

Kayak2014 - Video Maker

You can read about Room Seven writing about the event here. You can read about Room Eight writing about the event here. You can read about Emily from Room One writing about the event here. The fantastic thing about this post is that Scott Donaldson contacted us directly after we posted it, and mentioned on breakfast TV today that his Kayak was visiting some local Taranaki Schools.

Room 3@Auroa Schools Amazing Pick-A-Paths

Auroa Primary School Holiday Blog Posts

Theres some fantastic work from our students to highlight in the meantime. Emilys Blog continues to go from strength to strength and soon she will reach the 7,000 page views mark. You can keep up to date with her fantastic postings, including her review of the New Plymouth Phantom of the Opera here.

We've been successful during these holidays with our Basketball team winning the Langton Cup, a local competition you can read a report about it by the tournament MVP (Girls) Isabelle here.  We've also had students completing work independently in the holidays.  Have a look at Alyssa's review of Frozen here.

Gemma played in the Taranaki Development A Team - you can read this recount of her tournament here.

Alice has just returned from holiday in Fiji.  While she was there she took a number of photos and has since created a slideshow with some amazing images from her time away.  You can click on this link to view her work.

There are also some other fantastic Auroa Primary School Class Blogs Ongoing.  Mr Spice has just celebrated a fantastic achievement - 15,000 page views this year! Room Eight have posted some great pictures from the snow, which you can see here.  Mrs Ericisson Class produced some outstanding examples of our Ako, Repurposing.  You can see their amazing planter boxes here.

Practical use of 3d Printer

During the past several weeks a group of Auroa Primary School students have been working on a design project with our 3d Printer.   As mentioned in the original post it centred around a broken latch for a classroom cupboard in Room One.

Today was an exciting day in class as the students believe that they have solved the problem.  The latch has taken many designs and many forms from its original incarnation to the version that has been printed in the last day.   You can see details of this in the video created by the students.  Michael and Logan, with the assistance of James, who is currently overseas have driven a project from the start.

They have identified the problem, created the design on paper (in their own time), designed it virtually (using Tinkercad), printed versions of the latch, re-designed the latch several times (currently in its eleventh version) and continued to re-model and redesign the latch.  They are at the point were they have created a 'ball and joint' mechanism, modelled on a socket design, that fits perfectly and will tomorrow be attached to the cupboard to solve the problem.


3D printer project: cuboard clips from Myles Webb on Vimeo.


A student solution to a problem with a great process and we couldn't be more proud of them.   This video below was created by the students and detailed the entire process.   The students are currently re-working a Google Presentation about the process which will be posted shortly.  This video created by Michael and Logan on Thursday 3rd July, 2014.

Blogging from Overseas

Recently some of our Auora Primary School students have had some fantastic opportunities in other countries.  One of the great things about the potential for blogging is that the students can contribute or post, even if they are in a different country and continue to share their learning.  Three students from Room One have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to do so recently.

James is currently in Europe, having posted about some amazing adventures along the way.  Dayna recently was able to blog about her time in Fiji.  Will also has published an amazing series of posts about what he's been able to do.  You can see some of his images and his media by clicking on the link here.  He was also able to visit a School and be involved in a Kava Ceremony, you can watch his slideshow here.

Movenote

Check out this new item. Go to the chrome store to download this great app.