Merry Christmas from Wendy Elf

Coin trail and mufti day to raise funds for the miners` families

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So proud of the Lynmore School council, who organised a coin trail and mufti day to raise funds for the families of the miners, who have died in Pike River Coal mine, near Westport on the west coast of the south island, N.Z.

It`s everywhere, it`s everywhere!

Just been down town to have a look around.   Bumped into an old friend, from when I first went to Lynmore School in 1994.   This colleague used to work for Life Education Trust, as a teacher in the travelling classroom.   We caught up with what we have been doing...I shared how my own PD has been in ICT.   He asked who was taking the cluster in the contract we were in.   Bingo!   He knew our facillatator.   We talked on about the neat web 2.0 tools that are available for us and the kids with whom we share time and space.  
On the way home, I was thinking to myself, wow, this is the first time, I have spoken with someone else, outside of my school colleagues or those linked with school, about ICT.   To me, that seems a  big shift in my everyday learning.   I don`t expect to sit and chat about web 2.0 tools, outside the Warehouse.   Ha, ha!   I love it!

Council Think Tank - 2010 Lynmore School council - Term 3

Here we are, in a council meeting at Lynmore School`s Library, during Term 3, 2010 and a few of councillors delivering their reports to their buddy class.   Photos taken by Mr Ryves Hunt, A.P.  of the Think Tank meeting in the Library.    Brainstorming, Venn diagrams to compare and contrast...all wonderful thinking and co-operating to overcome challenges at the school.



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Wow! Check out RSAnimate presentations

This, has got to be one of the greatest ways for some people to record some of their learning journal.   I have up-loaded the code for Sir Ken Robinson`s presentation about the shift in paradigm in education, on another blog./www.classblogmeister.com/blog_edit.php?userid=167810.   They are brilliant and better still, very soon they are going to provide a PDF on how they were developed.   You can buy a copy of them on-line as well so I`ll get one of those.
I`m thinking I can introduce them with mind-maps and other sorts of graphic organisers.   I`ll get lots of copies once I get a copy of the original so the kids can have their own.
Brilliant!   I love them.

oooops...sorry!

The folks up the road...8 staff have to go for 5 jobs and 3 miss out.   My apologies for the error.   It does matter.   At the Paid Union Meeting yesterday, managed to catch up with one of the staff involved.   Mmmm...instead of going for a wage increase, we should be working for NOT losing these experienced and in some cases, excellent, effective teachers.   Another Grrrr...

A shock to say the least!

Just heard from a colleague at the school up the road that due to a roll drop, 5 Scale A teachers have to apply for 2 jobs, so 3 miss out!    I think I have those numbers correct.   Grrrrrr!   I know, I know it is a numbers game.   Just got to know some of these girls this year with more contact, travelling to Bethlehem to attend a presentation day of teaching and learning and attending our cluster sharing and presentations.   Yet one more addition added to their list.   Is nobody listening?   Why do governments continue to look the other way?   Education of the young is THE most important aspect of the world`s present and future.   Give them quality, give them conditions that promote quality, give them quality facilitators to interact with and we will minimise some of the social woes we are presently facing as a world.  No quick fix, but we know that if we maximise
learning conditions for children, they will carry their various societies and cultures forward.

The only point that I can offer to those in this situation is to say that you do survive, mind you at the time, you wonder!   Yes, what doesn`t kill you makes you stronger, yes, we learn from experience, yes, yes, yes...
In my situation, I had a job to go to...some of these teachers may not be able to get a job in education...   What if they have family dependent on them, what if they have a mortgage?    My feelings right now, Grrrrrrrrrrr again!    It is not just the financial aspect.   What about moving, changing?   You build relationships and friendships ...make connections and networks. 

Thinking of you colleagues and you are on my prayer list.

Week 1 or Term 4 bites the dust!

We are up and running again, with week 1 of Term 4 gone!   Time to reflect with others about the Lane Clark course and of course, lots of interest shown by some of the teachers.   We planned a meeting to start to "unpack" the stages in her process of thinking and learning.   Isn`t it fantastic that the excitement in teaching and learning is alive and kicking amongst us?    Along with new interest and curiosity, my groups started up and I involved Gever Tulley`s Tinkering Time in the kids options.   For my action research as part of our ICT cluster`s final year, I am doing a study on how oral language can be best be developed in the classroom situations.   The Tinkering Time works well for my obs in oral language of the kids, especially with the year 5 groups members, because they related well to each other and so they don`t get caught up in the behaviour issues scarring the learning opportunities of so many children.   The small motors that I have available for the kids are no longer made...Grrr!   You are so right Sir Ken Robinson.   Creativity needs a helping hand!   All I could get from Dick Smith were pre-packaged kitsets.   I wanted on-off switches...sorry, don`t make them anymore.   However, the Tinkering Time has thrown up challenges to make boats to race in Waitawa Stream next to the school.   Friday`s first race was hillarious...2 of the motors got wet, but we resurrected them and hopefully, they`ll be up and running for next week`s round.   I have to find some more propellers from somewhere so that we can have more effective propulsion.   Watch this space!  

Nice one Roger

What an awesome staff meeting today.   We moved around the room sharing on points that had arisen from Principal-Teacher interviews last term and we shared in ever changing groups our thoughts, ideas and reflections on these points.   I love doing this.   I love the way you get the chance to reflect...these opportunities I relish.
I want to be teaching for another 40 years...I want to take on more learning about learning.
My Mum said to me the other day, "you enjoy learning still don`t you?"   A

Lane Clark - What an amazing educator, researcher, teacher...and so on!

Man, did I love the 2 day presentation by Lane Clark or what?   It was gobsmacked with what she shared with us.   Unbelievable.   She must really be about 100 years old for all of the work she has done on learning, thinking, assessment etc.   I did in fact, come home from her presentations and I read her book on assessment `til 2.00am the following morning.  I felt I had to get my head around the concepts she had introduced us to and I`m glad I did.    Was so tired the next day but so excited and enthused and just, over the top with thoughts and ideas...   Is anyone else out there as excited as I am about this?   What do you think of her thinking?
I reckon we should get together as a cluster of schools to get this into our schools.  It is revolutionary!

Moving right along.

Term 3 has come...and gone!   But, what a "cracker".   Evaluation time and a reflective glare at what we did.   What was stunning for me, was to hear the year 6 learners, actually use the words of learning...talking about their thinking... when they wanted to spell a word in their blogs.   I have worked hard to infiltrate their minds with the term, "how words word" as opposed to using that horrible word...spelling.   I hate it with a vengeance, because it brings with it, horrors, tremors and other unmentionable "feelings" for many learners.   It haunts those that cannot "do it" well.   It is a favourite of parents and I hate to add, some teachers, as one of the first comments about their written literacy.   Thank goodness we have deeper and surface features in our vocabulary when reviewing written language in our schools now!   Thank goodness we have exemplars to use as guides, as to what learners are acturally able to do, in different genre.  


I was fortunate enough to be trained as a Reading Recovery teacher, back in 1991, when I was teaching at Lake Rotoma school, 30 minutes out of Rotorua,NZ on the way to Whakatane.   I hadn`t taken any particular notice to the term, "how words work" until then.   Used it, but not really reflected, on how massive that term is.   I undertook the speld training in 1997 and learned even more about how important it is, for learners to understand how words work...for many literate reasons.   For dyslexic learners, having to look at and learn how words work can be a "biggie", but thanks to the ever-increasing number of ICT tools, particularly, web 2.0 tools, there is a myriad of reasons for everybody to get their ideas, thoughts and thinking out there, for others to read and enjoy.

R.I.P. Lucy (May 1993-Sept 2010)

Tuesday 21 September, dawned a wet, cold and windy day in Rotorua, NZ.   Not complaining...I could have been in Christchurch or Southland, who were being blanketed with snow and had lost the roof of their stadium!   However, Lucy, the half tabby and half tortoise-shell cat, 17 human years old, had reached a stage, where her list of ailments and their consequences had become too long.   J. and I decided we`d get the vet to advise us, however, we really knew the only outcome...best for Lucy.  So at 3.31 pm, the vet put the needle into the vein on her right foot...with 3 of us holding her, she fought to the end...it was a matter of 2-3 seconds before the lethal concoction hit her heart and her wee tongue protruded from her mouth...marking the end of her life as she`d known it.   We patted her and felt the warmth escape from her little, still body.   G. checked her heart after several minutes and announced that she had "gone".   J. and I bundled her into one of her favourite sleeping sites...a sleeveless, woolen pull-over and we put her into the carrying crate.   I paid for the "deed" and we drove home.   J. dug a hole under one of her favourite sunning places, we said the Serenity prayer and placed her in the ground, covered her over and added two freisias on top.
Farewell Lucy...you were a fine, little friend, who was so easy to care for and to have in our lives.   We love you and always will.

Got lost

Thank goodness!   I`ve found my blog.   I couldn`t get in for ages...forgot details.   Anyway, I`ve found it and so I`m off and running.
Have had an amazing year so far.   Found and fallen in love with Sir Ken Robinson and went to a presentation on Inquiry learning by Aussie, Kath Murdoch.   She hit the nail on the head for me.  Her words just "painted the picture" with clarity.   I`m catching on, at last, to the fact that elearning is just SO important.  I thought that the kids that were referred to me for help, really needed the 1-1, hands-on with me, with magnetic letters etc for spelling knowledge, how words work etc, but last week, the seniors, some of whom are very needy in spelling (dyslexic), asked if they could write another article.   It is real, it is now and it is what will help them the most.   Sure there is a place for my 1-1, hands-on with magnetic letters, BUT, what is real is them, thinking about presenting some writing to the world, for others to read and comment about. 
I`m following Sir Ken Robinson and Aussie Tony Ryan, because they are funny, informative, challenging and are driven to improve learning for others.    Sir Ken Robinson, is into saving creativity - can you imagine...we have to save it.  I look at the demise of a lot of fine arts, dramatic arts, music, movement etc in the every day running of our school and I shudder. 
I just wanted to reflect on how i`m in there and grabbing all the ops I can from our mentor, Lorraine, as she finishes with us at the end of the year.   I`m with a group who have skyped and that is a great tool, and we will follow up with that.   I am blogging myself and refining the blog on class-blogmeister to give the kids ops to continue to use elearning tools.
Seize the day.

Went AWOL

How I`d love to go into school on Monday, and set up a "Tinkering Classroom", where the kids can come in and build whatever they`d like to from whatever is there! I`d have electrical tools, bits of wood, nails, hammers ...all sorts. There would be a few rules around the tools and they could go for it. Saw a clip on the TED site and man, how i agree with that dude...sorry, forgotten his name...but what he has done....set up a tinkering school. Kids made a roller coaster and even a swing bridge out of plastic shopping bags! Great co-operation, problem solving, life do I hear you say.