End of term message

 

Kia ora koutou katoa,

We hope you and your family are doing well. As we reach the end of the term it is a good chance to reflect on all the achievements that our children and school has made during this rather 'eventful' term. 

Our thanks must go to the staff team who have ensured a safe and nurturing environment for our tamariki since re-opening on February 28th. This term has no doubt stretched our energies and so the team (and we hope you) are about to get a well-earned rest ready for an exciting Term Two. As our principal, I am grateful for the professionalism and care of our children that the team provide in addition to the amazing learning they inspire every day.

Thank you also to our Board for their leadership and support, as well as to our wonderful PTA who have given us and new whanau awesome support this term. We do appreciate your help!

Your child should now have their portfolio of learning. This is an important part of our reporting process and is a key tool for helping your child(ren) gain feedback on their learning from the term. This is a time for you to celebrate what your child can do, and look forward to their next steps in their learning. Some questions you could ask  your child about their portfolio could be:

What did you learn when you did that? How do you know? 
Can you show me how you know this?
What is the next thing for you to learn?

Our eportfolios are now set up so that when a child or teacher posts to the Ako Blog, it will email the parents/caregivers. We hope this helps you. It is great to see the children excited to be sharing their learning in this way. We will have a solution for printing the Ako Blogs out, if you would like this please send me an email and I'll send you the information.

The theme for the term two is a science focus, where children will develop a deep understanding of:

• how the earths systems (water, land, air and life) and universe subsystems are interdependent and that all are important.
• the affect of humans on these systems. 

We will soon be sharing our action plan from our Whanau Hui 2010. A number of the suggestions made during that hui have already been implemented. 

Finally, we hope you have a restful holiday break with your friends and whanau. It's been a challenging last couple of months and so we trust you get some rest and recuperate with the kids. We look forward to seeing you in the new term.

ka kite,
Rob

 

Evidence of learning

The Apple Leadership Summit in Singapore has a number of key themes:

• challenge based learning; 
• developing rich, learner-based environments which leverage technology; 
• the convergence of mobile technologies, content and pedagogy (how we teach); 
• developing and utilising authentic assessment artefacts; 
• a process called 'reverse mentoring' which is a great way to help students demonstrate their learning.

One of the ideas that struck me yesterday was the idea of developing rich artefacts to show learning. This idea was suggested during a workshop with Marco Torres, who is an educator from Los Angeles. Marco challenged us to consider 'What does our top learner look like? What defines them? What are they like and what skills would they have?

Marco believes that teachers should have their own portfolio of learning and that a good principal must be a voracious learner him/herself. I think this applies to all educators - the better learners we are, the more able we are to encourage/develop this in our students. Marco asks some really thought-provoking questions about teacher learnership: What evidence shows me that the adults are learners in our schools? 

For the first time we now have the tools that change according to the need at hand.

Analog vs. Digital - he makes an interesting analogy that the piano is an analog device that you are limited to have to learn in a particular way

-can a piano change according to the need at hand?

-do I want to learn the cello, or do I want to create music that a cello creates?

Is schooling built as this huge analog device that we must learn to use in order for learning to happen?

Learners love to share and learners love feedback. People are loyal to those who provide them with remarkable moments. Learning requires quality feedback and now we can enrich that feedback in exciting ways. Here are some other reflective questions:

• What does our evidence show about us as learners? 
• What does it show about our learning?
• How many remarkable moments have I provided my colleagues or students lately?

Portfolios - understanding the PAT and asTTle Reports

As part of our change to e-portfolios for Room 5, 6 and 7, we have included the PAT Maths as well as the asTTle Reading reports in digital format for parents and students to view. These reports take a bit of work to understand and so we've put together a handout to help you.

Click here to download a handout describing how to read the PAT Maths report in PDF format...

Click here to download a handout describing how to read the asTTle Reading report in PDF format...

Senior School e-Portfolios

I'm excited to announce that the senior teaching team - led by Linda Sweeny, Kelly Sheppard and Gemma Odering - have decided to embark on the implementation of e-Portfolios for every student in the senior team. This is a development from the digital portfolios which were trialed in Room 6 (our Year 7 and 8 students) during 2009. 


These e-Portfolios are a combination of the following online tools:

1. A Blog for sharing of a wide range of examples and achievements from each child's learning. Feedback can be gained from other students, teachers, whanau or others who contribute to the learning journey of each student. In time, the sharing of learning will be seamless between home and school. This part of the portfolio is public, however it can be made private if the family wish.
2. A Burnham School 'Ako' account for sharing assessment information. 'Ako' is the Maori word which means 'to learn'. This part of the e-Portfolio is secure and private and requires a log in which we will share with you. This is a Burnham School Google account for each student which is managed through the school. Click this link to visit the school web page for student Ako accounts.

Click here for the letter which went home to all families of senior students informing them of this change...