Ormiston Primary School » Professional Learning

Getting Googly @OrmPS!!

Diana Wilkes — Mon, 30 May 2016 04:14:54 +0000

We hosted the first ever @GEGNZ Sparkshop at OrmPS on Saturday, My 28, 2016. Over 50 educators attended and participated.

What is a Sparkshop?

A Sparkshop is designed to “spark” inspiration in the practice of others. The event format is similar to an unconference with a twist.

Participants who are keen to pitch a Sparkshop were invited to add their idea to the slide deck and had 1 minute to share their learning with all of the delegates. They will then signal their interest via a Google Form. Sparkshops with the most audience interest formed the programme for the Sparkshop sessions for the remainder of the day. They concluded with a SLAM!

Our Learning Coaches learned heaps from other educators and others learned heaps from us. Our Learning Coaches then shared what their biggest takeaways were with the team.

Using Technology Better

admin — Tue, 03 May 2016 04:19:25 +0000

This term Ormiston proudly hosted the Using Technology Better conference. Educators from all over New Zealand gathered to learn how to best use technology with their students. Teams of educators, including Ormiston Learning Coaches, attended a variety of workshops ran by Google certified teachers Mike Reading from Australia and Alice Keeler from California. The workshops covered a range of topics including;
– Google Classroom A-Z
– Getting going with coding
– The fundamentals of a great BYOD plan
– Tech tools that give you real data on student progress
The conference delegates were taken on a tour of Ormiston to see just how successfully technology can be used in a range of Learning Habitats and our Learning Coaches were inspired to get even more tech-savvy with our Ormiston learners.

Participating in Ritual Dissent with Edge Work

Diana Wilkes — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 08:08:15 +0000

Chris and Leanne from Edge Work (Auckland University of Technology) engaged our educators in some intense and valuable professional learning in Week 8. They are skilled facilitators who challenge the status quo and believe that the Future needs something different from education. Some of the key takeaways:

We need to meet to create rather than inform. Question: how can we set up our time together to allow the unimaginable to happen?
We need to value diversity in our school and community. Question: How can we work to raise our collective intelligence
We can to use Safe to Fail Probes (not fail safe)- collaborative inquiries that are low in cost (time, money, energy). A method to trial multiple things/inquiries at once. Question: How can we use this process to explore how to use our Learning Model smartly

Our team brainstormed a Safe to Fail Probe in groups of four and then engaged in a process known as ‘ritual dissent’ where one person from each group wears a mask and pitches the idea to another group and then receives very critical feedback. We certainly practiced our resilience! This was a way to use inquiry to learn- so we noticed things we wouldn’t usually notice.

Our Safe to Fail Probe Experiment ideas:

Critical Friendships and Learning Pathways
Cultural Day
Multiple Intelligences in iExplore
Independent Learner Behaviour Programme

We are looking forward to using this process again to engage our educators in a robust ‘Scanning’ phase of their Spiral of Inquiry (Kaser & Halber, 2014).

GAFE Summit- April 13-14, 2015

Diana Wilkes — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 05:14:28 +0000

Our two Associate Leaders of Learning were fortunate to both attend and present at this years North Island Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Summit which was hosted at Albany Senior High School during the break on April 13-14. The New Zealand EdTechTeam Summit featuried Google for Education. It was a high intensity two day event focussed on deploying, integrating, and using Google Apps for Education, iOS and other digital learning tools to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education. The program featured Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, Apple Distinguished Educators practicing administrators, solution providers, and representatives from the Google education teams. Diana Wilkes and Caroline Bush did two presentations: one about the OrmPS Learning Pathways and one about how we have embedded GAFE in our ILE. Much was learned and we were proud to have our learning adventure shared with other educators.

OrmPS is a PB4L School

Diana Wilkes — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 07:28:49 +0000

Our PB4L team: Koral Doidge, Miriam Kamsteeg, John Dyer, Margaret Patrick and Diana Wilkes have been participating in training with the MOE in order to ensure we are teaching expected behaviours as we would a curriculum learning area to ensure well-being of all of our learners. By strengthening relationships and creating more positive home and school environments we remove barriers to engagement and improve students’ chances to achieve at school and beyond.

PB4L is a long-term, systemic approach involving ten initiatives. These include whole-school change initiatives, targeted group programmes and individual student support services. Five of the initiatives are in development. Learn more here: http://pb4l.tki.org.nz/

Powerful Powhiri Practice

Diana Wilkes — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 10:48:10 +0000

On Thursday 22 nd of January, thoroughly energised by our three days in Long Bay, the Learning coaches, Strategic Leadership team and members of the board had the opportunity to meet with cultural consultants from the East Auckland area to discuss our powhiri on the 3rd of February. These lovely people led us through details about protocol for our first day of school and how to welcome our new learners and families in a respectful and poignant way into the exciting new space / building on Haleanthus road. We were also led in practising a rousing Haka and waiata as part of the powhiri ceremony and Margaret Patrick led us in learning sign language to accompany some of the waiata. We can’t wait for the opening day to arrive when Nga Thai iwi will lead us in our pohiri.

By Luisa Maloni

FISH Philosophy

Diana Wilkes — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 11:11:30 +0000

At OrmPS we are mindful that our disposition affects the way we interact with others and how we engage with our work and learning. We are HOOKED on FISH ©Charthouse Learning.

FISH is a group of 4 strategies or practices we will be using to inspire each other to build a positive, enthusiastic and focused culture in our school. We have linked our strategies to these fish from the finding Nemo movie.
Dory	Choose your attitudeIt is about recognising that you are the only person who controls your attitude and reactions to everything you do.
Nemo	Play at workIt is about having a state of mind that brings new energy to your tasks. It creates a light-hearted feeling inside you and other people. You have fun and play!
Gill	Make someone’s dayIt is about thinking about another person and doing something for them which will help to make their day.
Bruce	Be presentIt is about being engaged with all your heart in whatever you do and think.

By Margaret Patrick

Voices Off – Learning NZSL

Diana Wilkes — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 11:01:20 +0000

During our time at Vaughn Park the Learning Coaches and Strategic Leadership Team had the opportunity to learn some New Zealand Sign Language with Pam from the Kelston Deaf Education Centre. This session was a “voice off” session so we had to pick things up very fast! We learnt greetings, colours and how to finger spell. This has now lead to us learning many more signs over the last two weeks and trying to remember all the new signs we have learnt! A great introduction to help us develop our inclusive learning environment.

By Miriam Kamsteeg

Vaughn Park – team building & learning retreat

Diana Wilkes — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 10:22:15 +0000

Vaughn Park is a Retreat Centre in Long Bay. As a staff we went and stayed to discuss and create the amazing culture at Ormiston Primary School. This was a great way to get to know the people that we will be working with. The three days that we spent together has brought us closer and has ensured that we are a collaborative unit. We spent time exploring:

NZSL
FISH Philosophy
GAFE and Apple with iPads
Reading
Leanring Model
Code of Conduct
Collaborative Planning

+ so much more! It was a very productive and fun time!

By Kyle Hattie

our Digital Technologies Ecosystem

Diana Wilkes — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 10:07:51 +0000

At OrmPs our digital technologies ecosystem for our teaching and learning is diverse and multi-faceted. Our primary platform will be GAFE (Google Apps for Education). This platform allows learning coaches, parents, whanau and learners to access the teaching and learning where ever they have access to a digital device. Learners will be creating their own learning pathways and using google docs, spreadsheets and sites for a range of purposes as part of their learning experiences. We will also be using Teacher Dashboard to manage learner accounts, a host of Web 2.0 tools, iPad apps and other innovative technologies.

By Bex Remington