TERM 3 - WEEK 3

4th August - VC with Film Commission - Because I was at Northland College, catching up with some science students, I stayed to attend this digiconversation organised by Rachel Roberts (Taranet) with the NZ Film Commission. Other people there was Deb, the Media Studies adviser based in Auckland. Unfortunately this time is when NC staff have their full staff meeting, but I was able to grab the Faculty Leader English and Media Studies teacher part way through. They were unsure of using the equipment, but I gave them some guidance and then left them to finish the VC off. I had arranged for the adviser to stay online after the meeting to speak with them about moderation and film studies accreditation.

5th August - Tutorial Class for Accounting - Kirsty and Alice attended. Cameron didn't know about it and Marlene is Level 1 mainly. She is going to attend from now on though.

5th August - This was the first VC meeting I had attended all term which I didn't have to dial in through the audio bridge. Was great to be able to see my fellow ecolleagues. I was looking forward to this meeting for a range of reasons, but most of all because I knew that Jan Collier (Coronet) was going to be chairing it and that Sue Winters (Principal Mentor) was going to shadow her.

Reflection: I thought that Jan looked confident and fully in charge and I really like the way she ran the meeting in terms of ensuring that everyone had an opportunity to make one comment on each item and that the person presenting the item was able to wrap up at the end. There was still room for hilarity, as shown by Eddie in his dress ups and time at the end of the meeting for those interested to discuss the Start of the Year Modules. This went on for a further hour.

6th August - Faciliated a VC meeting between Dave Templeton, E4E Coordinator, Maryanne (Core Education) and the enterprise teacher, Clinton (Kaitaia College). Dave had wanted some PD in the use of VC as he wants to deliver Enterprise Studies and YES PD for staff via VC, so he came to my home office and used my equipment. Dave is really interested in either getting a set installed at their Enterprise Northland office in Whangarei or to use the VC at Te Puni Kokiri office in Whangarei.

8th August - Eddie dialled in today via VC to speak with me about a pilot project that the Correspondence School were interested in offering to schools in the FarNet cluster. He had Inka Helwig and Kerry Whelan from TCS with him and they discussed their proposal. They are looking at support alternative education units with their teaching and learning programmes through video conferencing. I also asked them about another need I see in our community and that is with our students who have recently left school, and may have missed out on a few credits required to attend university or just to upskill. They don't want to return to school full-time and do not meet the requirements of being an adult student at a school. These students often work in part-time employment, or often don't want to leave their home town straight away, so they are still keen to be engaged in some form of formal learning. I suggested that the local runanga in their area might be interested in supporting these students by providing them with a place to study at and the correspondence school said they were looking at providing computers for those types of students to work on if they were enrolled with TCS. TCS have dropped the $80 fee per paper for enrolment for students between 16 and 19.

I have sent out invitations to the providers of alternative education in the Far North, including those schools not involved in FarNet. There will be a meeting between those stakeholders, the Runanga o Ngapuhi and TCS next Thursday via VC at 3.00pm.

I am really hoping that this will eventuate into a viable project.

8th August - VC meeting with Gary Walsh, Principal of Roxburgh Area School. I am going to be working with his class as part of my study with Canterbury. We discussed my proposal which I had sent through to him and he is happy about the future learning experiences we are all going to have. The class will start on 25th August, after we get back from the DEANZ Conference.

TERM 3 - WEEK TWO

28th July - VC meeting with physics students from NC - they seem happy and feel supported. They have got used to just dialling into me at my home office now.

The storm we experienced last weekend has started to hit again, and is predicted to worsen during the week. The F2F meeting of the FarNet Principals was organised to be held at Northland College on Wednesday, 30th July, but we have decided it would be irresponsible to suggest them to travel through the storm so it will now be via VC.

29th July - After a few technical glitches, I have finally officially enrolled with Canterbury University. I am really looking forward to the semester, especially with working with Derek Wenmoth and Nicki Dabner. I am considering using my accounting class as the class, although I have some reservations, because of the size of it. I am sure I can find an ecolleague who wouldn't mind loaning me a great bunch of students.
The two papers I have enrolled in are:
EDIC 706 - The Global Classroom - The focus is to use a range of asynchronous and synchronous tools to deliver an online unit.
EDIC 716 - An Online Project - The focus is to set up an online class and teach a cohort of students for an eight-week period on a unit. I am thinking of doing the Treaty of Waitangi and incorporating a Maori focus and applying some of the focuses from the Ka Hikitia Strategy.

I am going to have to do something about this computer I am using though, it is becoming more frustrating by the day.

30th July -What a good decision about changing the meeting to a VC one. Out of the 9 Principals, 8 attended via VC and 7 out of the 9 schools were closed because of the weather. Was a great two hour meeting. Eddie and Grey Tuck (ex Principal of Kuruanui and Principal Mentor) spoke to the Principals about the future of the VLN. Reflection: This meeting really demonstrated the benefits of having VC in our schools. It was also an opportunity to help model good practice for running an online meeting. William Tailby (Principal of Kaitaia) chaired the meeting with Pateriki Toia (Principal of Taipa AS) opening and closing with a lovely karakia. We had a set agenda (which had been agreed upon at the Executive Management meeting the previous week) and I had sent out a powerpoint to the Principals prior to the meeting that helped the meeting flow well. It also provides them with something they can speak with their SLT about to inform them.

I always find it difficult to minute a meeting that I am either chairing or participating in, so I asked one of the Principal's PA to minute it. This was a great opportunity for her to get a clear understanding of FarNet, as she is responsible for the financial accounting for the fundholder school. Beryl commented later on how informative the meeting was and how great the technology was. She said she started typing, then had to turn to shorthand. She sent me the minutes to check as she wasn't familiar with some of the terms referred to, and I have shown her how to post the minutes up on the FarNet site on the VLN.

1st August - Had a full class, apart from my young man from Invercargill. He started mid way through term 2 and I don't think he has been able to catch up. Must speak with Kymm (ePrincipal of SILC). I have got the document camera working and it is a good tool to use. We are now working on level 2 standards, as the majority of the class are Year 12 students. They have a good understanding about the fundamentals of accounting at level 1, so this was the plan. They are happy about this. We are going to have an extra class, more of a tutorial on a Tuesday from now on, and they will be expected to attend at least one of the classes a week.

TERM 3 - WEEK 1

21st July - F2F meeting with the Science students at NC to arrange correspondence and VC classes for the senior students. I had set up a support site for them on MyClasses, so I spent time with them to ensure they were familiar and feeling supported with their online learning.

When I realised that there were only two students at Level 2 and Level 3 doing chemistry and physics, I sent out a distress call to the eLearning Community and was inundated with support, so those students now have a VC teacher as well as being able to do their correspondence.

23rd July - F2F meeting with David Templeton regarding E4E on the VLN in 2009. I am considering teaching a YES class to FarNet schools, so we could have a company with directors based at different schools. Dave is keen to assist in a trial of such, and Rachel Roberts from Taranet is also keen to teach a YES class also. Putting feelers out to my ecolleagues, there is plenty of demand for students being involved. Reflection: I don't want to loose my accounting class though, I enjoy teaching accounting, so might have to consider teaching two classes. The YES should be more a role of facilitator anyway.

24th July - F2F meeting with FarNet Principal - Bruce Devine - Bay of Islands College - Bruce has been away on a sabbatical, so it was a general catch up.

25th July - A DAY I WILL REMEMBER!!! Finally Asnet and Telecom were able to bring their technical minds together and I finally got connectivity with my video conferencing equipment. I was able to teach my accounting class from home (no travelling .........). The first person I dialled was Eddie Reisch, and we talked for an hour and in the afternoon I catch up with Linda Pascoe-Walsh from Roxburgh. I had been feeling a little isolated up until then, but NO LONGER!

HOLIDAYS - WEEK ONE and WEEK TWO

I have decided that the school holidays is an ideal time to work with staff. I hadn't arranged too many PD sessions though, because I was still unsure about my father-in-law. There were two teachers at NC who wanted to work on developing a page on MyClasses and it was excellent working in groups of two, rather than a large group. It meant we could be more personalised with their pages.

I worked with Kelly Yakas who is the Project K or as known now as, STARS Project coordinator. The Year 9 staff Kelly works with at NC had indicated that they wanted to keep informed about the project and MyClasses seemed a great way to provide this information and allow the Peer Mentors to keep reflective journals.

I also worked with the librarian, Claire, who wanted to set up a site for students and staff to access up to date information about the library, what was happening, providing support for students. She has done a great job.

The second week I had an opportunity to catch up with Tiere, Principal of Opononi AS and I helped her with setting up and organising her folders and emails using MyMail.

Spent alot of time catching up on admin work and setting up the FarNet cluster site on the VLN.

TERM 2 - WEEK NINE - LAST WEEK OF TERM

All the following events had to be postponed due to my father-in-law being in hospital:
30th June - FarNet Principals Meeting @ 7.30am
1st July - F2F Meeting with FarNet Principal - David Bargh - Dargaville High School
1st July - VLN Monthly Meeting
2nd July - F2F Meeting with FarNet Principal - Pateriki Toia - Taipa Area School
2nd July - F2F Meeting with FarNet Principal - William Tailby - Kaitaia College
2nd July - F2F Following up meeting with staff at Kaitaia College on MyDesktop and MyClasses

4th July - Arrived at NC in time to teach my Accounting class. Unfortunately neither of the boys attended and Kirsty Davidson (Kavanagh College) had already put in her apologies. Alice and Marlene were at NC though.

TERM 2 - WEEK 8

23rd June - Faciliatated PD with full staff at NC on MyMail - Reflection: exhausting and too many to do this type of PD with. It doesn't allow for catering for those at different levels of computer literacy.

25th June - EPrincipal Leadership Meeting

26th June - F2F meeting with Principal Mentor - Sue Winters - went out for dinner at The Black Olive. Sue is here to 'shadow' me for two days.

27th June - F2F meeting with FarNet Principal - Tiere Maoate - Opononi AS - Reflection: Unfortunately Tiere couldn't join us for lunch at the Copthorne because of issues arising at school. Was a good opportunity for Sue and I to catch up and look at my goals set at the beginning of the term.

27th June - Taught my accounting class from Opononi AS and Sue was the observer. Reflection: The oral discussion we had later that evening in reflecting my practice she had observed in her role as Principal Mentor was very valuable. The weather was so bad that Sue's flight was cancelled and she had to stay overnight, so we had extra time to reflect on the previous two days.

TERM 2 - WEEK 7

16th June - FarNet Management Meeting via VC and audio - 7.30am

18th June - Attended presentation for The Connectors Systems - Wireless Presentation - Whangarei

18th June - F2F Meeting at Tikipunga High School -Re: MyClasses and MyMail (school unhappy with schoolzone, but I feel they are not familiar with its capabilities) - Principal has asked me to come back some time to speak with the SLT.

19th June - Facilitated a F2F PD session with SLT at NC on MyClasses and MyDesktop in preparation for a full staff PD session the following week. These SLT members will act as coaches at the session. Only got through MyDesktop.

19th June - Phone contact with Viv Hall - Re: Training required for Schoolzone schools in FarNet

20th June - Meeting with Acting Principal - Auretta @ BOIC - worked with MyMail - she wasn't accessing it correctly. Just a general catch up about FarNet with Auretta.

20th June - Worked on a FarNet Newsletter - but I mucked it up because I am not familiar with Publisher, normally use PageMaker.

TERM 2 - WEEK 6

9th June - Facilitated VC Digiconversation with Northtec - Paul Sykes spoke with PE class at NC

11th June - VC Digiconversation with Te Papa: Central Plateau - Dr Hamish Campbell

11th June - EPrincipal Leadership Group Meeting via VC with Sue Winter - I connected through the audio bridge, which was quite good because it required me to concentrate more on my listening skills.

13th June - VC Teaching Class - Level 2 Accounting from NC

Publish Post

Taught my Accounting class from NC via VC on 6th June

Daniel (my tech-angel) from NC has helped me set up the svideo so that I can show powerpoints directly through my laptop. Just have to remember how to do it myself.

I enjoyed the lesson, the students are keen although I am a little concerned about the boys, particularly my new student from Invercargill, he is so quiet and maybe there is too much female discussion. Cameron missed the lesson today, so he probably felt a little outnumbered. The girls are still getting used to his rolling rs.

Facilitated a VC meeting between Andy Kirk & Career Advisers on 5th June

After a few 'technical problems' from the MOE office where Andy was borrowing the VC gear, the VC kicked off. Unfortunately he couldn't get the document camera or svideo to work, so we resorted to viewing his laptop through a preset. Not a good view, but was better than nothing. Fortunately, I had suggested to the viewers that they have their computers with them so that they could work through the site at the same time.

I attended the VC from Northland College, and there were about 7 Career Advisers from the NZ elearning clusters onboard. I think they all went away feeling that it was a well worthwhile tool to use as part of their career education work with secondary students. Although MyPortfolio is a complete LMS, we were focusing on the career education aspect.

EPrincipal Leadership Group Meeting with Sue Winter (Principal Mentor) on 5th June

The professional leadership group consisting of myself, Conor Bolton (ePrincipal of Volcanics), Jan Collier (ePrincipal of Coronet), Janet Akhurst (ePrincipal of Taranet) and our Principal Mentor Sue Winters meets monthly via VC.

Sue is focusing on the Levels of Questioning in Reflective Interviews:

The purpose of the first level of questioning was to clarify the details about events, situations, actions and feelings that the interviewee had referred to. This level of questioning often began with “Tell me when… what… if… whether… how…”

The second level of questioning was used to clarify the purposes or reasons and the intended consequences of a certain action which the interviewee had referred to. This level of question often opened with “How… why…who…which…”

The third level of question was used by the interviewer to encourage the interviewee to reflect on the consequences of the action that the interviewee had taken.

Suitable openings for this level of questioning were “so what happened?”; “So what differences were there?”;”So what did this tell you?”

This is a great opportunity for us to share in a "no mask" environment because we feel the group is a safe environment. I am enjoying having the mirror held up for me to reflect on my practice. I am also gaining a great deal from being the "observer". Looking forward to the next session.

NZQA Matters completed on 3rd June

I have been working on the MOUs between FarNet and the other schools. Worked out a good system where I act as the Principal Nominee for each school, send two copies to the PN at each receiving school with a stamped addressed envelope for them to send back to me. This has worked really well, with 100% return. I just need to give them to the PN at our schools to meet NZQA requirements.

I have also shared this information with the other ePrincipals at a VLN meeting, some of them were not aware of what they were and other's were not aware of the importance, so I feel good about sharing my experience to assist them with their leadership development.

VC Teaching Class - Accounting on Friday, 30th May

I am starting to feel more confident with the use of the VC equipment in the online teaching environment. I am still having to travel up to an hour to the closest VC unit. The students seem quite relaxed with me, and we have discussed moving into level 2 standards after they have gained some understanding of accounting at level 1.

Meeting with Andy Kirk on 29th May

Had a meeting using DimDim with Andy Kirk who has been trialling an online environment called MyPortfolio. This was the first time that I had used DimDim to meet. It is very similar to Adobe Connect. My camera wasn't working, but it was good seeing Andy. I really like the MyPortfolio environment and think it would be great for work with senior students tracking their future career pathways. We are going to arrange for a VC introducing MyPortfolio to career advisers.