Rural & Remote Schools Wellington Camp 2019

Another great camp with these cool schools and their awesome kids and teachers:

VLN Primary School in Print - STA News

Here is an article i wrote for the NZ School Trustees Association about the VLN Primary School. It gives a pretty good snapshot on who we are and what we do:

"At a time when schools are increasingly stretched to find the resources to provide a broad and relevant curriculum for students, they are also being challenged to become more collaborative and future focused. We are on the cusp of major changes both politically driven through IES Communities of Schools and technologically driven through the N4L managed network for schools. There is a drive to harness the power of technology to change the way we learn, make learning more student centred and personalised and for collaboration across schools. How are schools meeting these challenges? With a deluge of ipads, the ‘appification’ of learning (there’s an app for that), should we have 1-1, BYOD, Chromebooks, Google, Microsoft, Wireless, have we been snupped, when do we get on to N4L?  We are getting close to the point where technology is ubiquitous, a utility like power or water. Schools need to look beyond the digital network and environment to the people network that connects and learns in that space.

The Virtual Learning Network (VLN) Primary School has as its’ tagline “Connecting Schools for Enhanced Learning Outcomes”. It is a people network collaborating online and dedicated to providing equity and access to learning opportunities for New Zealand students. It aims to connect schools through a collaborative online network (the virtual school) in order to open up access to specialist teachers, share the best of our teaching strengths, and to build professional capability that enables schools to become more flexible and open places of learning for our children. It began as a school cluster hosted within Matapu School, South Taranaki, and has evolved into a Charitable Trust led by school leaders and virtual learning advocates. It is partly funded in partnership with the MoE and contributions from participating schools.  

The VLN Primary School builds on work that has been developed in the schooling sector, over the last nearly 20 years where programmes have been provided ‘virtually’ through online classes & projects taught by NZ based teachers. Approximately 80 primary schools and 1000 students have participated in the VLN Primary School to date since 2009. Learning opportunities are developed through the needs and strengths of the schools themselves and eteachers and tutors are provided by schools themselves or contracted into the network.There are regular weekly scheduled classes for extension maths, literacy, science, Astronomy and a wide range of languages - Te Reo Māori, Mandarin, Spanish, French, Cook Islands Māori, German, Japanese, Afrikaans, Korean, Bahasa Indonesian and Tagalog. 

In addition to this the ‘Over the Back Fence’ run by Rosmini College, has regular connections with schools in NZ, Pacific, India & globally focussing on Health & Environmental topics. Our Rural & Remote Schools Project brings together schools from Stewart Island, Great Barrier, Eastern Taranaki & Wairarapa with the goal of reducing the social isolation of these distributed students, giving them opportunities to learn alongside peers their own age and preparing them for leaving their districts to go to High School. There is a great opportunity to build on this project to extend the benefits to many other small and isolated schools, but sustainability of resources has prevented us from scaling up this very successful project. 

Participation in the VLN Primary School gives students a voice and choice in what they learn, how, when and where they learn, and who they learn with; regardless of their geographical location and economic means. It aims to provide teachers and school leaders across networked schools with professional learning and support to enable them to develop as future focused learning organisations. When you next think of your school network, think beyond the technology to the people network and how your school can become connected to an online community of learners."

What's up for the VLN Primary School

We're coming up to the downhill side of the 2015 school year and we are still not sure if we have got funding to continue our VLN Primary operations into 2016 and beyond. This is a real challenge!

There is a strong need particularly among our rural schools to keep this collaborative, learning support happening for our students; there is a depth of experience that has been developed over the last 6 years in our eteachers, teachers and Principals, that we would lose if we lost our schools network. I had been cautiously optimistic that there would be a place for our work, within the changes that are happening in our schooling system at the moment. Although we (along with other VLN community clusters) have plainly been told 'we don't fit the policy parameters' for accessing resources for Communities of Schools. We also are not the right stuff for 'Teacher Led Innovation Fund' as we were unsuccessful in our Rural Schools application. It is hard to see that we aren't innovative enough to access this fund? Maybe we didn't get the right spin on our application so will try again in November. It is really disheartening to see the opportunities that are coming up that we are still not the right fit for....
So to keep ourselves afloat for 2016 until we can take our (rightful) place within the publicly funded schooling system,  I have  spent the last month in chasing up and writing funding applications through our charitable trust, breaking down various parts of our projects & operations to aim at different funding opportunities. I have all my fingers and toes crossed waiting to hear.

(one glimmer of good news is that we do have an Asian Languages contract with the Ministry of Education and will be continuing with Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Bahasa Indonesian)

Just been remixing our Virtual Learning Network Primary School Story, created by Kath after our last rural camp. What an...

Posted by Virtual Learning Network Primary School on Saturday, October 3, 2015

My Vision for Teaching & Learning

In response to a FB discussion, my 2C worth: "Many of us are working hard to support our teachers and students with concepts and practices related to 21st century thinking.... MLEs, blended learning, student agency etc,etc. What comes next for schools? "

I think keep extending on learner agency and push past the classroom walls & school gates. Children will learn from many people and places and not just the teacher in their own classroom or school. Look for more community involvement supporting learning and sharing of expert teachers across schools. More opportunities for tuakana/teina and students leading learning. More global education, where our children learn from others and develop cultural understandings. Children will access personalised learning pathways - learning what they want, with who they want, when they want to. Our role will be to make sure they have sound foundation skills in place (literacy, numeracy, key competencies) to enable them to excel in their learning and to help them navigate and access a wider world of learning. This is my vision for a future of learning 

So what are you waiting for? Just do it!

Our Stories - Exhibition Coming Up

''My Story. Our Story. Your Story' 

The result of a year long project initiated and co-ordinated by the Ahuroa School Photography Club, and facilitated online via the VLN Primary School.

The Project
An exploration of photography as a means of telling and sharing a story, for primary school aged children.  “My Story” - individual journey’s of self discovery; “Our Story” - the combining of individual photographic stories to become a representation of a school community; “Your Story”- school communities stories are compared and combined to tell one story - our exhibition.

Our Story
We are a small, rural country school.  We have a story to tell. But are our stories different to those of kids who live in the city, or kids whose cultures are different from ours, or from kids who have had experienced natural disasters?  What about kids who live in isolated places?  What about kids who live in different countries to us?  Will their stories be different?  How?  Or, will their stories be similar?  Will their be a common connection?

Participating Schools:

New Zealand
Kaikohe West School (Kaikohe); Mulberry Grove (Great Barrier Island); Kaitoke School (Great Barrier Island); Ahuroa School (Warkworth); Hobsonville Point School (Hobsonville); Devonport Primary School (Auckland); Te Poi School (Matamata); Toko School (Taranaki); Moanataiari School (Coromandel); Pahiatua School (Palmerston North); Rewa Rewa School, (Wellington); Dipton School (Otago); Burnside Primary (Christchurch); Glenorchy Primary School (Glenorchy); Half Moon Bay School (Stewart Island)

International
Flowery Branch Elementary (Hall County, USA); Lakeview Elementary (Robbinsdale, Minnesota, USA); Nexus International School (Singapore);
AMMAC, Chihuahua (Mexico); Beaconhouse School (Islamic Republic of Pakistan)"

from http://www.estuaryarts.org/currently-showing.html

More than just Sharing a few Pics - My Story, Your Story, Our Story.

It has been great to follow and support the project My Story, Your Story, Our Story  Big kudos to Theressa for initiating and driving this schools collaboration. As the project progresses we can see it is more than just developing some expertise in photography skills & techniques, or sharing their best pictures. It is about making meaningful connections that provide different perspectives on our lives and this has been particularly evident, so far, with the global participation.

Here Stephanie shares her story of participating in this project - Bringing the classroom out into our World. And here they are again practicing a waiata for their school visitors, inspired by their interactions with the My Story Project. Click over there and give the students some positive feedback on their kapa haka efforts! Here is the direct link to their photos.

Online Learning Opportunities 2015 #Participate!

From our latest newsletter:

Tēnā koutou katoa

Welcome back to the 2015 school year! Here is a heads up on the year ahead for the VLN Primary School and an invitation for all interested students & teachers to participate.

VLN Primary School activities - online classes and projects are open for all NZ schools to participate. Please read our Protocols of Participation for specific details on how to participate and what costs are involved.

This year we have a wide range of languages available - te Reo Māori, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, German; also Extension Maths, Science (Chemistry - Mixing things). Over the Back Fence  & Rural & Remote Schools, are long running projects that are welcoming interest from new participants.
 

There are several programmes under development, that are yet to be confirmed for 2015 - Tokelauan, Ngā Pūrākau, Asian Studies, Science (Plant Biology) and we welcome expressions of interest for participation in these. We would also love to be able to offer Cook Islands Māori, Astronomy, Extension Literacy, Coding & Minecraft challenge and are looking for teachers who are keen to run these programmes. (We have run some of these programmes before and have supporting resources available.)
We are keen to support new projects or classes getting started so please make your suggestions!

All schools wishing to register for online programmes for Semester 1 (classes begin mid March) should do so on this online form as soon as possible. For expressions of interest in anything mentioned above or queries please Contact Rachel. 
 

Check out our 2014 year's highlights

Global Connections #Participate!

From my inbox today - can't find the web version of this mail out so will reproduce here.
If 2014 was the year of the webinar for teachers perhaps 2015 will be the year of global classroom connections? (now teachers are getting more confident).
Get with it teachers so many wonderful learning opportunities for our students and a way to increase their global awareness and understandings. See 'Healing the World One Classroom at a Time' for some excellent reasons why we should reach out beyond our classroom walls & beyond our national borders.

Transform literacy and learning in your classroom Beginning on February 16th 2015, Skype in the Classroom is launching “Skype Celebrates Literacy”. This six week program will feature guest speakers from the publishing industry, lessons and resources to support and inspire literacy learning in classrooms around the world. Literacy remains a high priority on the global education agenda and a core subject for classrooms everywhere. Lessons that involve reading, writing, speaking and listening – from poetry jams and reading aloud to author visits – have always been popular amongst teachers using Skype in the Classroom. In 2014, you and your students travelled millions of virtual miles taking part in lessons around the world via Skype. Whether you collaborated with another classroom, played Mystery Skype, invited a guest speaker in for a Q&A, or went on a virtual field trip, chances are these experiences engaged your students’ literacy skills, perhaps without them even realizing it! Here's how you can get involved: 1) Invite a guest speaker: authors, illustrators and storytellers will be available to join your classrooms via Skype. To make it easy to find and schedule a speaker to inspire your students, we’ve created a way to quickly schedule these calls. These conversations can be scheduled via Skype in the Classroom beginning February 9th. 2) Participate in World Read Aloud Day events: schedule a call on World Read Aloud Day or World Book Day (both the week of 2nd March) to celebrate the art of reading and writing. There will be a wide range of partner-provided content, tools, and resources to help with traditional reading and writing, including digital literacy and internet safety content too. 3) Literacy projects: we will have some very exciting literacy-related partner organizations including School in the Cloud, Microsoft, Safer Internet Day/ChildNet, and some very special guest speakers through those partnerships all coming soon. 4) Create your own Skype lesson: get creative and post your own literacy lesson for other classrooms to get involved in. Let us know about it @SkypeClassroom and we can promote it for you. Using an online Reading Level site, Mike Soskil, a teacher at Wallenpaupack South Elementary School in Pennsylvania discovered that “Our 4th grade students, who have been using a curriculum of Skype experiences and blogging as part of their Social Studies curriculum this year, increased their writing scores on average by half a grade level from October to December. The students using this curriculum are either in special education or low achieving.” With a stronger focus on learning experiences that directly support literacy we hope to help teachers everywhere create even greater impact through the use of free accessible technology like Skype. We hope to see you and your students join in all of the new literacy lessons. If you are new to Skype in the Classroom, we invite you to hop on a tour hosted by our Skype Guides, teachers just like you who are excited to show you the innovative and educational adventures that await your students. Don’t forget to help inspire others with your experience via our Stories Page, Facebook andTwitter. We look forward to a fantastic celebration of literacy. Your friends at Skype in the Classroom education@skype.net @mysteryskype @SkypeClassroom #skype2learn

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A Year in Review 2014 - VLN Primary School

Connect your Learners - Over the Back Fence 2015

Successful projects keep on running & keep getting better. Well done Geoff into your third (4th?) year of Over the Back Fence Project.

Geoff is welcoming schools wanting to participate in 2015

What is OtBF?

• We broadcast a simple health/safety lesson to your class each week.
• The lesson is between 5 and 10 minutes. We use Skype or Connect.
• The classroom teacher can choose the topics or chose from our list.
• Lessons are taught at the same time each week to avoid confusion.

More info here (2014 startup) and listen to Geoff's students & have a peek in his classroom here.

Here is the schedule of available times for 2015 - contact Geoff gmwood@xtra.co.nz for more information or to secure a time for your school to participate.

MONDAY	10:10-10:40
	11:25-11:55
TUESDAY	10:10-10:40
	12:10-12:40
	2:20-3:00
WEDNESDAY	10:10-10-40
	1:40-2:10
	2:20-3:00
THURSDAY	10:10-10:40
FRIDAY	10:10-10:40
	2:20-3:00

Connecting China & NZ Classrooms

Connected Students @ Rosmini College

I have always been a great fan of the work that Geoff Wood is doing with his students at Rosmini College and have written on them often in the VLN Primary School blog (here, here & here). His classroom is truly a Connected Classroom and his students Connected Learners. Geoff is a full time classroom teacher and has 'flipped' his classroom to be revolving around the constant connections that fuel their learning processes, through the sharing and relationships they develop with the many, many different students who come 'virtually' into their classroom everyday. On my second face to face visit in two years i can see now how this has really developed into the culture of the students Years 7 - 13 in Geoff's health classes. They are organised, they are confident, they are patient & persistent (dealing with the technology), they are able to communicate with a diversity of students from new entrants, all over NZ and globally. On the afternoon i was at Rosmini two boys were in the workroom (cupboard?), teaching youngsters in South Auckland about sugars in our diet; another two were on the outside deck talking to students from Te Hapua about online safety & Geoff was preparing an international connection with Bangladesh & Pakistan (?) for later in the day. I was impressed with the ease of communication, through pretty average technology & connections (HD desktop VC it wasn't). It was a joy to watch the students at Te Hapua perform a waiata & haka for the Rosmini boys and then one by one approach the camera to introduce themselves & say thank you.
Below is are some snippets of one of the sessions and a short interview with two of the boys: