St Josephs School

3 days here this week - all sorts of things happening including today school photos :-) Held a Vision & Planning staff workshop and brainstormed ideas for what is important in this school for the needs of the learner, teachers & resources to support that - some good discussion & ideas shared. Information shared in the area of resourcing helped when we looked at the ICT strategic plan for 2004-06. Reviewed this today. PTA workshop also on Monday - "Keeping up with our kids Online" - I guess with any parent invitation you are preaching to the converted & this group was no exception - they were pretty informed about what their own kids were doing online & were aware of issues that can occur when kids go online. We discussed some strategies about how to manage issues at home & to keep up with the every changing world our kids are living in. I guess the important point is that whatever our own skill levels we keep in touch with our kids so we know what they are doing & how to support them - whether its in a chatroom, on the cellphone or the street or playground.
Room 3 have been researching the planets of the solar system & we are helping them to gather relevant facts - having sources some kid friendly sites to start with.
Room 4 worked together to create their first movie "St. Josephs: Sharing, Caring & Daring In Prayer." We worked through the storyboard process & groups went out to take photos that illustrated the message they wanted to give. Then as a whole class we used movie maker & the data projector to edit their movie. They worked together well to make design choices & decisions through the process & were really excited to see their final product. The difficult thing is the next step when they work through the process independantly because of access to computers that run XP. There are a couple in the school & it will be up to Kim to work out the best way to manage this with her kids.
St Josephs has just gone online with SchoolZone so I will be spending some time with Carol to start some basic training in managing SZ. The transition went smoothly (thank goodness) The challenge is now to explore this fantastic online tool & use it to its full potential - it is more than an Internet service.