Learning With TaraNet Teachers

TaraNet teachers got together today to prepare for eTeaching 2007. Thanks heaps to CAM who came up to Stratford for the day. CAM (& Eddie) are my rocks who keep me sane as I work through my role as ePrincipal of the TaraNet eLearning Campus. CAM is an awesome facilitator with years of experience in elearning. She not only helps teachers with the hands on basics of running a VC lesson but also asks the big picture hard questions as well. Something I am hoping she can come back to us in 2007 to do with our new Principals. CAM & Eddie are the glue that holds our learning community together. Their experience as they work with other clusters around the country is invaluable as many of us face similar challenges.
Thanks also to Jo who is doing wonderful things with her kids in LearnNow & Maree eTeacher from Kuranui College, who VCed into us & shared their online learning spaces with us. We really could have done with 2 or 3 days of workshop time as I didn't even get to showcase some of the online tools I thought teachers could look at to support their courses. I think that our staff meetings next year will include some PD element so we are not only looking at how we are going now but also exploring the possibilities.
We spent some time discussing experiences of online teaching & the feedback that students have shared with us throughout the year. It is a challenge to see that many of the areas that cause difficulties for teachers & students are systemic school wide things like timetabling, resourcing & learning support which are things that are often out of the direct control of the individual teacher. So lots of things for me to follow up on with the support of TaraNet Principals. I am looking forward to having more time to spend with the TaraNet cluster next year and not only supporting our eTeachers & students but spending more time in the schools driving elearning in our classrooms. (Well thats the plan!)