Jo's+Online+Portfolio

=__**Jo's Online Portfolio**__=

**Lead Teacher Day Friday 25th March**
[|iTeam cluster day 25/3/11]
 * Session One-**
 * Joined VLN**
 * Updated profiles**
 * Explored the features.**


 * Session Two-**
 * Joined myPortfolio**
 * Updated Profiles**
 * Created and entered first journal entry**


 * Session Three-**
 * Discussed with Fiona the next steps needed to be taken for the Milestone 3 report**
 * Highlighted the directions that we need to take within the school, these were as follows;**
 * **Create a link between the TPS Learning Model and ICT tools that would be relevant to each stage and differentiated for junior, middle and senior.**
 * **Create a possible rubric or continuum to define key skills that should be developed through the child's schooling in terms of ICT e.g.able to switch on computer and link to the class LMS**
 * **Touch base with teachers prior to planning sessions for next term about how ICT can be integrated into the areas covered**


 * Reflection**

Learning from Fiona today that Sarah and I were expected to take on more leadership in terms of ICT was a little scary. Whilst we both tend to naturally lead within our teams for ICT, we still tend to take guidance from Fiona when the whole school is involved. It will be an interesting challenge for both of us to decide which direction people's ICT learning needs to take next. We had previously dissected the school survey that was completed and several areas of need were highlighted. Some of these relate to practical issues, such as projectors and needing steps, whilst others were more focused on trying to make Knowledgenet more user friendly. I will need to try to maintain the enthusiasm in using Knowledgenet as some of the teachers seem to be reluctant to do more than is expected of them. This hopefully will be achieved by giving them simple ideas to upload to Knowledgenet that the children can be taught to complete independently.We will also aim to make the HelpDesk sessions needs focused. Karen is also going to be running some sessions during whole school assemblies through the term. Hopefully this will help to lessen the gap in people's skills.

I am conscious that I was more discerning about the workshops that I chose this year. We had a clear focus on literacy that the whole school was focusing on. This helped me with my choices and after attending last year I made sure they were Mac compatible. While visiting the conference gave me lots of new ideas, it also reminded me of several programmes that are readily available on all of the school computers that I don't feel I have been utilising effectively. It made me determined to come up with tasks and activities that motivate the children but use our existing tools, e.g. ComicLife, Keynote and Pages.
 * Learning@ School Reflection**

It showed me that it really is about making the best of what we have. There were lots of people that I spoke to that had a lot less 'toys' than we have at our disposal. I think that I need to continue to focus on using the tools that we have. I will do this by guiding the children to use a variety of tools within the classroom. I will teach the children how to use the tools and give them opportunities to practice independently.

I noticed that there seemed to be more 'teachers' presenting at the conference. The best presentations that I attended were from classroom teachers. They were able to share relevant, meaningful ideas that they had tried themselves and found successful. This made me think that presenting would not be as frightening as I would have thought last year.

Before sharing any ideas with the rest of the staff I will focus on showing them ideas that I have trialled myself beforehand, possibly including video footage. I will give real examples of how to use an approach and try to differentiate for the differing ICT abilities of the teachers. I will also focus on sharing tools that can be uploaded to KnowledgeNet as this is the main focus for most of the staff.

26 October 2010 Reflection of ICT contract aiding me in my leadership skills


 * Having the opportunities to observe other lead teachers presentations, and reflecting on what strategies were more effective when presenting to peers
 * Interpreting the need to adapt presentation techniques dependent on the audience (syndicate level, whole school staff meeting or interschool presentation )
 * Becoming aware that supporting the people in my team sometimes relates to practical /technical issues as well as sharing ideas and resources. This encouraged me to 'upskill' some of my basic knowledge in order to assist others
 * Reflecting on what learning is actually taking place and questioning if the use of technology will improve the children's learning- to quote my Deputy Principal, "Is the juice worth the squeeze?" Passing this idea onto the rest of the staff has made more people question their use of various technologies and has relieved pressure in many cases.
 * Realising that often what seems like a simple idea to you can be tricky to others. I have to make sure that I model ideas clearly and at the correct pace.

__Trevor Bond visit to TPS Tuesday 14th September__
__Modelled lesson focusing on writing a character description whilst incorporating aspects of ICT__

Accepted all suggestions and questioned individual children to elaborate on their ideas and give examples. Praised children for admitting to not knowing something. || Children were enthusiastic and eager to participate. They became the experts and if they were unsure of an idea they clarified their understanding using the dictionary. By the class writing the criteria it allowed me to see how far the class has moved in their writing and what areas they are still unsure of (difference between similes and metaphors). ||
 * Procedure || Reflection ||
 * Introduced two cartoon pictures to children and wrote phrases and words on the screen to describe them. || Having strong visual images instantly hooked the children into the task. The new technology that was being used was an instant hit with the class. ||
 * Moved on to getting the children to create what they think an effective character description should include.
 * Introduced two new photographs, one obviously less attractive than the other. Sent the class to write a short description using their criteria. Explained that if the description was good anyone could tell which photo they had written about. || The photos were very strong as the children could choose the more obvious one to write about or challenge themselves with the less obvious choice. ||
 * Trevor also wrote whilst the children were writing and shared his writing with the class. He focused on the less obvious character and made him have evil qualities. || Modelling a good piece of writing for the children was very powerful as I think it will encourage others to think outside the box and look at not just the physical features but their character traits. WIll be a good place to start the next lesson. ||
 * Follow up work on the laptops using visual thesaurus to improve the quality of the words they were using. || The children loved this site and am looking forward to seeing the changes that the children make in their texts. The lesson was simple but effective. The class was enthusiastic and eager to continue. I will use the same format for writing a description of a setting and see if it works as well. Will get the children to reassess their criteria and see if they need to adapt or alter in any way. ||
 * Next steps? ||
 * Will share snippets of the movie of Trevor's lesson with the rest of the staff in staff meeting and print off lesson plan for them. Share website and give examples of how this could be used in the classroom. ||