A Busy Term

Some snapshots of the last couple of weeks.

We've been investigating offline software options in the Junior Primary lab. While we have awesome online resources and websites we use heavily (our Symbaloo web here), we live in South Africa and our internet can't always be relied upon. We have good infastructure here at school, but still have to rely on Telkom to come to the party and give us our internet! As a result, I'm starting to investigate offline tools our kids can use on those days the internet is too slow or unavailable.

TuxPaint has been amazing. I saw it mentioned all over and I had dismissed it as an MS Paint clone. Finding little other options, I gave it a try and was instantly won over. It has a config .exe that can be run to set parameters (Allow printing, simpler mouse control, full-screen options and loads more). It has a wide range of painting/drawing tools. Then, we get to the stamps. Stamps are an image gallery which can be instantly inserted into a page, most can be resized and flipped horizontal/vertical. My JP students are in love with TuxPaint. Recently, the lab has come alive with creative investigating, both during my lessons and after school.

Students exploring TuxPaint for the first time.

I loved how their individual styles came out through exploring the program.

TuxPaint boasts an impressive array of stickers, which are ready-made images, to insert.

In keeping with the penguin theme, this term Smartie the Penguin came to visit my Junior Primary classes. I wanted to have the discussion with my classes about appropriate behaviour online, and found this great resource by KidSMART. Smartie's story about internet safety was the perfect time for me to test-drive the concept of using AirServer to show the class my iPad screen. It worked (nearly) perfectly, and I've already recently used AirServer to demonstrate Book Creator as well as during my Junior Coding Club.

Smartie the Penguin, observed a clever kid, came to visit the IT lab because it was so cold there - and penguins like the cold.

Using AirServer to send my iPad screen to the PC projector.

It's taken me about 6 weeks to really embrace the iPad as a tool for teaching and learning. I was convinced, eventually, by the Director of our Learning Commons, Shaun Kirk, and his passionate speech about our upcoming 1:1 iPad scheme. I am now starting the process of filtering through the enormous amount of iPad apps to see what Junior Primary can use in their classrooms. I've sent a trial list of 10 apps to the Pre-primary and JP team to see what they think we can try out.

3 Weeks In

 It's been 3 weeks into term 1, 4 weeks if you count the week of teacher admin. I'm loving this place. Some snapshots from recently:

Two awesome cupcakes from a Gr 3 and 2 on Friday. That's two cupcakes in one day!

My teaching phase created the concept of an aftercare IT pass, to attempt to provide structure in the afternoons. So far, wildly successful.

My view from the parking lot.

Superheroes in Training

I've been teaching at my new school for about 3 weeks now and, wow, things are hectic! There's a lot to be said for driving into work and parking your car with a massive mountain in view. I really enjoy the new staff, grounds and facilities but it's a lot of change all at once. It will take a little while to get fully comfortable here at Bridge House.

I'm fortunate enough to be in charge of the Foundation Phase IT lab here. It has 26 student stations and one teacher station, as well as a projector. As I can't help myself, I've decorated it in a theme: Superheroes in Training! I mostly used a great free font called Komika. Here's some pics of what I've done to the place:

The centerpiece of the theme, 6 posters with the tagline: What's Your Superpower?

My door reads "JP Information Technology, Superheroes in Training"

I love how my Tech Alphabet turned out, it borders the top of the wall, A-Z, across the front of the room.

Some great superhero classroom rules I found free on Teachers Pay Teachers.

My overly verbose but required lab rules, which live on the whiteboard at the front of the room.

All 26 computers have a unique 'name'. I tried to include a bunch of female heroes for diversity and coolness factors.

I'm already getting to grips with having a lab to run. There are many differences from my old job but I must say I'm really having a blast. The staff are very collaborative and willing to try new things. A large part of my job will be integrating the IT skills I'm teaching with the learning across the curriculum. Another new angle will be using iPads, I'm doing a lot of reading on how best to use them with young students.

I've set up a Symbaloo, my first one ever, to help my students navigate web resources. For now, I've sorted it by Grade but have found it tricky to decide what website falls into what Grade. This has been remedied by just cloning the tile across the Grades. It's not a perfect solution but having a shortcut to the Symbaloo page on their desktops has taken a lot of the frustrations out of URLS and browsers.

Wrap-Up and Moving On: A Photo Essay

What happened at the end of the second term:

In English, my Grade 7s excitedly read Roald Dahl's excellent Lamb to the Slaughter. Afterwards, we ran a mock trial to determine whether Mary was actually guilty of murder. My girls got to test out their acting chops and even brought in costumes. Our characters, prosecutors, defense and jury all put their heart and soul into trying to sell their case to me, the judge.

The defense team lawyer, in costume, questioning a character.

I also got to meet my nephew for the first time in person when I flew down to Cape Town and attended his christening.

My nephew and his mum.

What happened in the third term:

Production! Our school play devoured the term. While I was originally just involved in the writing of the script, this morphed into directing along with other dedicated teachers. It ended up being a heck of a lot of fun. All 400 girls participated in one way or another, with about 30 of them in acting roles. The 30 speaking parts and I became very close due to the many afternoons we spent together, running lines and endlessly going over scenes. In the end, we did 5 full performances, including a swanky gala evening where the teachers let off some steam afterwards at a wrap party.

Me in my awesome Crew shirt, reserved for us hard-working backstage crew only!

In terms of the IT side, I oversaw the development of the computer lab. This turned out to be a project that continued all year as we sourced a digital projector setup, printers, and so on. We were also lucky enough to get four computer stations up in the library. Unfortunately, that meant that we had to, again, clear whole shelves to make way for the wiring. Here's a shot of the lab in use by a Grade 4 class.

Practicing our typing basics with an internet flash game.

What happened in the fourth term:

I was lucky enough to go on camp with the Grade 7s! We traveled all the way from Grahamstown to Hartenbos in the Western Cape. It was such a great trip. My phone's battery was acting up so I don't have any pics from that time. We visited an ostrich farm, the Cango Caves, a waterpark, and, best of all (according to my students), a mall! We stopped at a ten-pin bowling place with a few arcade machines and I happily got to trounce the best Tekken player in Grade 7. The girls were very well behaved and our accommodation was lovely. It was a worthwhile week.

We weeded a large amount out of the library, and accessioned a pleasing amount of new books - particularly fiction. I couldn't have completed these massive tasks without the help of some very eager library monitors.

A page from one of the outdated books that we removed.

On a personal note, my amazing fellow teachers and staff surprised me with a bachelorette lunch, tea and night out on the town! I had thought that I was going on a camping trip with my two teacher friends but, actually, we showed up to a long table crammed with staff happy to be in on the joke! I have never felt more loved and had a blast.

Having a wee dance in my themed bachelorette outfit.

It's been a busy year! My time at this wonderful school has sadly come to an end. My new husband and I have relocated to the Western Cape, and I have been fortunate enough to find another post. I will always miss my Grahamstown family, but have moved to be closer to my actual family here in Cape Town. This month I'll be starting at a co-ed private school in Franschoek called Bridge House School. It'll be a different environment but one in which I hope that I can be fulfilled.

Construction Term!

We had time for one new display this term, "When You Wish Upon a Star":

Before our library became covered in dust...

Our media centre is being upgraded downstairs, so that means the library has been drawn into the construction project. Even though it's been a patchy second term with regards to our opening hours, we have still had time for a story or two:

The construction project should be finished by next term. This will mean our students will be fortunate enough to experience the brand-new computer lab! I will be teaching Grade 1-4 IT there, and can't wait to get in there and see what the new lab is like.

New Year, New Displays

Here's what our bulletin boards are looking like at the minute:

• Junior Primary: Sharpen Your Mind (inspired by this)

I will admit, the odd pencil falls off occasionally. But still worth it for the effect.

Close-up of a corner with my flavourful post-it notes.

• Senior Primary: Hot Summer, Cool Reads (inspired by this)

I'm proud of this display because, aside from printing and laminating, my new library monitor trainees (Grade 7s) organised and put it all up themselves. We have ten new trainees this year: two have been given their full monitor status (plus BADGES) due to the work they put in last year, and eight are brand new. If they impress us by Easter, they'll get promoted too.

In the holidays, I also picked up this tiny plastic fishtank to decorate the front desk. It has four cute little magnetic fish inside and a wand to move them around with. What they don't tell you on the packaging is that it is also magnetic to children- kids are attracted like magnets to this thing. On the upside, it encourages them to hover at that spot. Perhaps I can put it in a more advantageous place?

"Miss M, what does it do?"

Don't Worry

Fear not, internet readers! I'm still here and willing to blog.

As the school term here goes Jan - Dec, with a big June winter break, I've just finished my long summer holiday. I dived into full on holiday mode, visiting my family and catching up on some well-deserved leisure time. I'm already missing it!

School has started again, this time I'm a full-time teacher librarian. The doubling of my workload has been a bit of an adjustment, I haven't really gotten the hang of it yet but hopefully that will improve in time.

So far, this year:

• New display in the Senior side of the library, "Hot Summer, Cool Reads"
• New display in the Junior side of the library, "Sharpen Your Mind" (Back to School)
• Started teaching poetry to my new Grade 7 English class
• Start of entering our new library books into the system
• Drama circle game ran for Grade 4 - 6 drama classes
• Began teaching for Grades 1 - 4 IT without access to a computer lab!
• Attempting to manage my admin/planning side, with varying levels of success

I'd love to do a post on each of these, perhaps I will be able to as I get more used to the routine. Thanks for being patient while I figure it out.