Tahunanui+2009

=**__Term 3 __**=

A busy term at Tahunanui School with ERO visiting in week 6. All the students and teachers are working hard. The E-Lab is up and running and all the classes are enjoying the smooth running of new computers! A huge success is our E-Learning Angels from Year 5 and 6 who support other classes in using Digital Learning Objects. Mrs Toll was extremely impressed with their support with her Year 1 class when they use the E-Lab. So a big thank you to the Angels. Multimedia Angels have been learning about how to use the digital cameras and getting them ready for other students to use.

In upgrading our computers we have also seen the need to upgrade the server. Karin our IT support, with Geoff and Danny from The Loop are working hard to iron out problems within our infrastructure, creating user profiles and strengthening our security. It has been a steep learning curve. We anticipate that the classroom computers will up and running in the next couple of weeks.

We have installed up-to-date Office Programmes for students and teachers to use, and have purchased KidPix 4 upgrading from KidPix3. We have also been updating our user agreements for both staff and students in order to develop our understanding of cyber safety and our digital footprint when using Web 2.0 applications. Classes are using their blogs successfully, our next step is to start commenting on each others blogs and then to start blogging with other schools in the Whakatu Cluster.

Nick Pratt is now the Support E-Learning Teacher and has been working alongside Emma Watts (Lead E-Learning Teacher) to develop a vision of E-Learning at Tahunanui School, an E-Learning curriculum development plan and what the E-Learning Environement looks like at Tahunanui School. They have also been attending Lead Teacher Meetings with othe Lead Teachers from the Whakatu Cluster to work on the pedagogy for the cluster in relation to the New Zealand Curriculum. 5 teachers from the school are also are taking part in a 6 week online teaching course as part of their E-Learning professional development.

=**__Term 2 __**=

 Mid-term already and what an exciting time it is. Recently arrived are 30 new computers. 16 for the E-Lab and 14 for classrooms. We've had a busy two weeks deleting files from the old and collecting them all in... a big thanks to Karen (school ICT technition), Jacinda (TA), Room 10 and their teacher Nick Pratt who were a great help!

Each new computer came in 3 different boxes (the hard drive, mouse and key board in one, the bracket in the second, and the flat screen in the third!) It took PC and Karen approx 30-40 minutes to assemble each unit, thats without even connecing them to our server/intranet!

During week 6 and 7 Karen has been working hard in creating a restricted user environment on the server to enable the new computers to run smoothly.

Year 1 have also been experimenting with Voicethread on their project 'Jobs People Do'. Buddies from Year 3 Room 5 (two Voicethread experts) visited Room 14 and taught them how to record their voices on to the web 2.0 application.
 * __Voicethread__**

= **__Term 1 __** =  Tahunanui school has started a 3 year ICT contract this year. We have had an exciting start to the term with a cluster meeting at Broadgreen Intermediate, where we met all the other Nelson schools in the contract. During the day we were all enthused by the keynote speakers; Derek Wenmouth and Mark Treadwell. We also attended workshops about blogging, voicethread, using interactive whiteboards and many more!

Year 3 Room 4 have been experimenting with Voicethead. We decided to link it to our class topic "Life between the Tides" and Sea Week. Listen to our first definitions of the beach. On Tuesday 3rd March the staff began creating a blog for their classroom. We learnt how to create a post and add an image to a blog page. We were so enthusiastic we even started leaving comments on each other's pages! Check out some of out blogs.
 * __Voicethread__**
 * __Staff PD on blogging __**