Gafe Summit

I had the pleasure of attending the Gafe Summit in Christchurch over the holidays. This was a great opportunity for me to extend my IT skills and learn some new things that I could incorporate into my classroom programme.
Some of the speakers were inspiring and I liked how some of them were still teaching and that they ju had a passion for extending the children's computer skills and other things. I think when you go to events like this you can get overwhelmed by all the ideas however it is important to walk away with a couple good ideas that you can use in the class straight away. It definitely happened at this Summit as I wish to get the children to do more on the Chrome books by accessing their google accounts. I know how tricky it is to teach them everything so Screencastying seems like a good idea so that I don't have to be everywhere at once so I plan to use this. I have been taught about google forms before but to see it a bit more in action in an example in maths was great and I have already used it in maths for my top group. The bonus to this was I was able to read the results of the test very quickly and easily.

Some of the things which may not seem big but make my life easier were important. Things like learning about finding the rights to use pictures, taking screen shots and adding to this and mercury reader were just a few of the ways to help my classroom programme.

It was a great experience but it does me think about how quickly technology is moving. In just my time I have gone from hand writing my lessons to now writing them collaboratively on the computer. The google suite sure makes it easier to work in the environment I am now working in I couldn't imagine doing it with written plans.

Self-regulated Haven

After reading a blog on self-regulated haven it made me think how things are going at my new school. I have this year being enjoying the challenge of starting a new school and all that that entitles. The feel of a school is very important and sometimes it is not till you leave or go to other schools that you really notice it in your own school. It can be the little things that can make a place seem like a self-regulated haven such as a calm environment which is not the same as a quiet environment as it is one in which the children are interacting but in a respectful way. The children I work with have the skills to work alongside others in an environment which in my current situation is a very open one with many children moving and working together.
I think sometimes we just have to look at where we have come with this way of teaching and environment as I find the children do really well in this situation. I enjoy just taking a moment to look at the focused children who know where they need to be and what is expected and who are making good choices in their learning.  I think that if we put a whole of lot adults in a shared space and said okay work together in this area there would be many issues. So to see children do this is great.
I believe that the children do feel safe in our environment and I think one of the reasons is because it is a calm environment. With having different teachers in the environment the children have different teachers they can go to which is great as this means that they can make a connection with at least one teacher.  However the flip side of that is that teachers need to work hard to form relationships with more children. For me this is a good challenge to get to know different children in the hub.

The other aspect is that the interactions the adults have within in these environment is important and needs to be one of professionalism and one where good interactions between the adults happens. We are role models and the children see us interacting and if done well then this will hopefully rub off on them which will help to create a calm and self-regulated haven.