WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ????

Learning B Team met on Monday in an attempt to establish where we all were with our projects. Also to make some plans as to how and what it is about our projects that we expect to include in our presentations.

It was interesting to listen to everyone speak about their experiences with and their thoughts about student engagement. We are a small group of people and yet we see things so differently. It really makes you think twice about your own thoughts when you actually take the time to listen to those of others.

It was an enjoyable day for me –I spent some time with friends, enjoyed numerous cups of coffee, ate lots of gummy bears, and actually set my “school brain” back into action.

It wasn’t until later that evening that I realised my “school brain” had been hibernating. However it was woken by the others in the team – and now it’s ticking again. I am thinking about all the different ways in which I can provide year six with learning opportunities that they feel are worthwhile. I continue on my quest to find learning experiences that will engage the children – I want them to be involved in their learning not to please me or because they don’t want to get in trouble but because they WANT to.

I believe that many of the Web 2 tools that the children and I have learnt about and used during the last few months have helped all us develop valuable social and communication skills. The children liked the fact that they were being provided with the opportunity to have a say about their learning – that is what they wanted to learn, what they learnt, how they learnt effectively and simply asking them for and valuing their opinion? They have acquired valuable skills through a medium which has engaged them, allowed them to direct their own learning and exposed them to an audience that they actually care about. Many of them have become valuable teachers; they have passed on their knowledge and skills to parents, to each other, and to me. I can only hope that we are able to sustain this during term 4.

So thanks to you all for giving up your time to travel up the mountain, for sharing your thoughts – even if some of our thoughts weren’t exactly focussed on our projects, for being happy to talk about what’s been happening in your own classrooms and thanks for waking up that part of my brain that was “hibernating”. (It must be because I don’t have access to Coke everyday whilst I am at home.)