Rocking Room 1 Term 3 Inquiry

To start our inquiry journey this term on Mauri Mahi, Mauri Ora (Values) as a class we found that using the different types of thinking maps, such as a describe map, compare & contrast map and define map really helpful in the area of exploring. By using these maps lots of meaningful and indepth discussions were had. From these discussions as a class we decided that we had to change our original question. Our original question was too broad and had to be narrowed down more so that it was more focussed/relevant so that information could be easily found. The finding stage was quite difficult, children knew their question and what they wanted to find out, but realised that the answers weren't as easy to find as they thought, especially from the internet. Children had to be very careful with what they searched for on the internet. Good keywords were vitual for this process. The use of dictionaries was also very helpful and an excellent source of finding meaning and information. The tool we used for presenting was through the programme of comic life. What an awesome colourful, exciting and attractive way of presenting new found information. We are at the applying stage at the moment and are using the tool of Survey Monkey. From using this tool the children will use their thinking skills to collate and use the information gathered from the surveys to apply to a values road sign for our Poroutawhao Learning Highway.

Room 3 Inquiry Term 3 2009

We are currently creating Comic Life presentations as required for the ICT focus this term.As our inquiry does not lend itself to physical evidence as such, there has been far more discussion than actual finding information. The class understands values but applying these to situations has been easy when lead by me, but with the younger class members I have had to prompt the thinking more. Once we put thinking or talking bubbles against our comic pictures I may find they can show their true depth of knowledge.
This was true and the children really enjoyed using Comic life as it easy use gave them some new learning tools to try out and reinforced tools from other programs. It allowed them to create something bright and cheerful and as it was an easy program to use, it gave me a chance to get the children with digital camera knowledge to teach some others how to download photos and create files.
We spent alot of time in the exploring, asking and finding, and the presenting and understanding seemed to come together for this topic.

By Nicky Jeffries

Room 7

Our Inquiry unit has been very challenging this term. We found the context fairly difficult to find information on. We have followed our school's inquiry process and have begun to use different thinking tools. We used a define map to define what a value was. We then used SOLO to rate our thinking and to see if we could improve. Unfortunately I got the kids to rate themselves without any consultation with their peers, therefore some children rated themselves higher than where their thinking was at. Next time I think, as a class, we would discuss and rate everyone's thinking, using SOLO, together. I would expect the children to be able to justify themselves and why they put themselves on SOLO. Although this was not a wasted activity, the children were able to talk about how they could increase their thinking and what they needed to do to do this. We also started using a describe map. At the finding stage of our inquiry, the children found it very difficult to access appropriate information for their group questions. We used google search engines and books to get the information. We also used Survey Monkey to create our own surveys to get more information. Unfortunately there were very few people who participated in the survey. Therefore we were unable to analyse much information received from this. Next time I used this with my class, i think i would send a note home for parents to inform them of what we were trying to achieve. During the presentation stage I felt that the children became quite confident at using both the digital camera and using Comic Life to present their questions and answers. I think that the next step for us in Room 7 would be to look at finding information and understanding it better. The children are great at getting answers but often, cannot explain what they have found in their own words. We are really looking forward to achieving even better results in next terms inquiry.

Room 5

We have been discussing the school's values as part of our inquiry. We used the 3c's, care, courtesy and consideration. From this base we had some valuable discussions and the children's thinking was becoming deeper as we progressed through this. We will be continuing to work on asking questions and answering them with deeper thinking, linking to SOLO as I become more familiar with it.

Lois - Room 5

INQUIRY TERM 3

For Explore this term we have read lots of stories and watched movies with strong value themes. From these children have been able to relate to things characters have done or make suggestions on how they would have done things differently based on values. To get started we first needed to investigate the word VALUE. To do this we used a compare and contrast map to expolore the differences between the meanings of"valuable" and "value" as well as drawing out similarities. The children needed lots of prompting and explanation to build up prior knowledge before we could complete this effectively. The children then were able to describe that "valuable" has more to do with tangable things like, money, friends, toys etc. They then established the idea that "values" come from within and are displayed in the way we act or feel. We moved onto the question "How do values make us who we are". To do this we reflected back on the stories we had read like " The Little Red Hen" " The Ant and the Grasshoppers" and " The Engine that Could". We talked about the attitudes, actions, and feelings of each character then related the obvious characteristics to some well know valuse like: Care, Consideration, Courtesty, Hard Working, Paitence as well as discussing new values like: Persisitance, Resilience, Faith, Participation. To find information at this stage the children found lots of discussion about personal experiences and opinions most helpful for understanding. Some children even sugguested using a dictionary to help us with definitions. Other children sugguested other stories we could read with similar themes like "Are You My Mother". One student suggested a MacDonalds add and I also sourced some other adds on youtube that displayed values helpful for a deeper understanding of our new values. The children really benefited when we used story writing to describe a character and give examples of values they used in the stories. I found that they were reall able to demostrate a practical knowledge of their understanding and relate it to their own lives. I had decided to pose the questions to the children this term so we could focus on gathering information and presenting. Our question was " How can I use values to get better at something". We used describe maps to draw out information to answer questions like "how do we know we are good at something" " how do we know we are not good at something". We could then start discussing how we could use the values we had disucssed as actions to get better at something we know we need more practice at. To draw an even deeper understanding of each value we did lots of role play in real life situations when we are learning something new and how we cope with the challenges we face. We used the digital camera to record some of these situations and matched them to our values posted on the wall. I found this exercise most valuable. For Presenting our challenge has been to learn how to use the program Comic Life.

ICT Communication

Kia ora,

A very important part of how we already communicate in our school is by using the electronic tools we now have at our disposal. The most common function that we readily access is by electronic mail or e mail. I am pleased that in general, we have developed the practices of regularly checking these and utilising this to communicate within the school and with others outside of the school. Further to this we have created a desktop function that provides important links for us and a school Wiki which also provides important information and links to current information sources which may or may not be useful to literacy, numeracy and inquiry work.

Another tool I am totally receptive to using around the school are our cellphones to txt or even phone each other. They are an efficient use of our time and for me, if left on vibrate, are far less intrusive than we phsically entering each others rooms to pass om message or to ask questions of an urgent nature.

Further to the above I am keen to push on with the work we have done in establishing blogs. With regard to our own internal staff sharing the use of Our Learning Highway blog remains a tool that we can utlilise a lot more in sharing our teaching successes and challenges. Its current focus is on Inquiry where this is also a requirement of the I can, We Can Cluster. My ultimate goal is that we will want to share in this way and that this became an integral part of our staff learning environment.

Class blogs have also been established. The intention of these blogs is to share what is happening in general in our classes at any given time with opportunitites for individuals to also post samples of their work to be viewed at home and perhaps commented on. This mode of communication with home will become increasingly important as time goes by.

This is an important part of where we are going so we all need to get on board.

Neil Hirini
Principal