Archive+Discussion+2008

Archive Discussion page from 2008  toc

November
25th Shame that has to get in the way of a good lunch. I think we deserve something more than just coffee, although that is a good start I guess. How about we have dinner together at my place? When do you leave Glynis? Could we perhaps get together over the weekend? Or we could 'do' lunch at our place and bring the families. We could have a BBQ - as long as it's not blowing a gale. See you for coffee on Friday anyway, but we'll work on the rest.

Thanks for the drinks Glynis, they sure look inviting, especially from PN when i'm about to go to a poncy book launch and can't drink as i have to then drive home tonight.

Cheers, heather

Coffee sounds good - in the am - Silky Oak maybe or even at EIT Bean There Cafe depending on Janine's oral reporting schedule - failing all that it's drinks on Trish. Cheers Glynis

25th I'm up for Friday too though I have a meeting with Kathriona for oral reporting on Monday and she wanted to do lunch too so I would prefer morning tea given Trish has organised drinks for the afternoon. What a busy social life I lead!!!! J 25th I too have been rather remiss in doing on or to the wiki over the last couple of weeks. It was interesting that at my last LT workshop there seemed still to be a desire for the teachers to have the wiki happening. Where this goes to in the new Year is anybody's guess as a new faci;litator will have enough to do withpout keeping this up to date unless they use it or develop another for the express idea of communicating with their schools which is an option or possible way to start. I can only see them having their time cut out. If we could get together on Friday for lunch would be good. R 24th Glynis, you should check out the wiki stats on your site, there is something very strange going on. You have heaps of visitors and yet no-one has edited the site for a couple of months!!! I'm curious, perhaps they are looking for something? And have a look at the percentage of visits from US. Really intriguing. Presenting at NZARE tomorrow, think of me please! H

23rd People are adding to Paddy's Christmas party page!! Wahoo!!! How are all your party pages coming along? H

16th Anyone would think we've closed for the holidays! Apparently i was the only one who had Friday in the diary so sorry about the confusion. I would still love to hear how everyone is going, but i think this can be done casually - Whew!

I have had a tinker with the strategies page, it would be really good if you get some down time in the next few weeks to have a look at this page and add your thoughts. I think we've had a bit of a break now and are a bit fresher so there will be some ideas that have been brewing that will now bubble up to the surface. Hopefully. Thanks to those of you who have added to the party practise page, is anyone using the idea in their communities? I've suggested that my special school teachers could do it //for// their students to have a bit of fun, and as you know i have set one up on Paddy's wiki - one teacher has already contributed to that. Cheers, Heather

9th I've set up a party page for Paddy's SENS teachers. If you want to do a cut and paste you are welcome. Otherwise have a look and give me some feedback, what could have been done differently to make the teachers engage more. Let me know, it's time for you to critique my practice. H

3rd. OK, Robyn what is marshmallow cream? 6 pounds of fudge probably equates to 6 kilos of weight! You guys are really on to it, that party page is taking on a life of it's own, AND spinning off into our wikis. Awesome! Have a think about what i did to get you going. What was the scaffolding? What have I done since? Now go and do it to your long suffering teachers. you never know, some bright spark might actually do it with their class. Now wouldn't that be a coup! You've got to love me really:) I'll be watching the emails with trepidation... Heather
 * Now...**

2nd Great work Robyn. See what happens when i'm away for a week? We all knew there was another techie looming in the background, all you needed was time and space to prove it. The strategy looks interesting, pity there was no voice to go with it, I'm stuggling to follow it. Bohemian that i am. Well as you probably know i've put up a party page so we can practise for the end of the year. i thought we needed to do this as some of us are starting to think of Xmas already and it would be good for your teachers. a few of us are also having trouble putting pictures etc. up online. I had only got it saved by about 10 mins when Glynis had already found it - on Sunday - and added acouple of bits. that has to be a record time for responding to my wee requests. Anyway, as Glynis has done the groundwork on her wiki, if we get stuck we can ask her. I've put up a link that i used to get my first pictures, could you guys put up any links you find too? It will help us when we do it for our teachers. I have yet to find a music clip that i can upload without paying for it, so if anyone finds this please let us all know.

I've just had a look through the survey responses, thanks ladies, these are really reflective. Great comments, they will really help me to focus my thinking. I really appreciate the positiveness of the comments. At times it was really hard going this year but we all paddled the waka together - in the same direction surprisingly - and have an amazing result to skite about as a consequence of our hard work. Thanks so much.

Although the pressure is offically off from me now, I am hoping that this wiki keeps going and we find it a place to communicate as we reach into the hardest part of the year to maintain sanity. We don't see each other that often, so let's keep the momentum going. If things hapen on your wikis, please share them with us, we all need to see success stories to keep us engaged. cheers, Heather

30th Well I really am on the ball and thought I would share a discovery I made this afternoon- it may interest you if you don't already know it. I was looking through the utube videos and dicovered this one about multiplication. I have uploaded it to the Numeracy LT wiki and thought you might appreciate having a look so I am going to attempt to put a link here for you all. Gee!! I am becoming more adventurous. - cheers Robyn Multiplication Strategy

28th it sounds like everyone is having the same problem, it took me a couple of days to actually stop yawning this weekend, i'm only now coming right and i'm in Taranaki working! Well i will be tomorrow. As i said in the email (did you notice, i used an email and you're all on the wiki responding!!!) i think it went well from my point of view. i'm looking forward to catching up with you on friday to find out how the afternoon went. What's the writing on Friday? And the 4th? Cheers, Heather

28 October I agree about difficulty being motivated to work today...You have to love living in the Bay!! The job app went in this morning so who knows might not have to worry about going to work next year!! Thanks for Thursday ladies - I really enjoyed it even though it wasn't given the response by the powers that be that perhaps it deserved. We are a true COPs and we lead the way! So what next? We are looking forward to Robyn and Glynis's writing on Friday and the rest of us are getting together on the 4th. I'm in the office on Friday doing a workshop if you 2 need any support. Thanks again girlfriends, Janine

28th October Well I will be the first to write in this page since the presenttion!! I felt privaledged to be a part of such a professional group last week in Palmerston. Thanks all for your support, I think the whole thing went very well and interestinly have very clear ideas of how we would each like things to progress next year. I will certainly be interested in how it works out for everyone. Hope you all had a good weekend and a deserved rest. It was verrrry hard getting motivated for work this morning. Robyn

Have you got one on blowing up assignments!!! Glynis

media type="youtube" key="hvha8N3a28U" height="344" width="425"

This has been suggested as a way to deal with data.

media type="youtube" key="ZdVHZwI8pcA" height="344" width="425" A true kiwi way of handling life.

**Colours** (if you want to colour code your writing, but you don't have to) Heather #050666

October
13th Sorry Glynis. Should be fixed now, I'd forgotten to change the settings. Even the ex-spurts make mistakes - not that i'm inclined to admit that very often now. I realise it takes a bit of time, sorry about that folks. I really appreciate you putting the effort into it. I had a quick catch up with Alyson yesterday and we have a really rich set of data to work with so when we are in the frame of mind to have a go at writing this project up, we'll be able to do it without any real hardship. You guys are great to work with, thanks so much. Keep thinnking about the pedagogy stuff though, we want to keep this project going next year and i'd hate to lose the momentum and have to back track. cheers, Heather 10th Hi Heathter, A wee technical problem; survey monkey will not let me in; says "//thanks very much for completing the survery//!" Glynis 9th again thanks for doing the survey to the lovely person who has. No pressure now... Heather

9th Have you noticed they've finally sorted out the word processing aspect of this site? You can cut and paste with ease without having to wait for it to happen. About time they got onto fixing that wee issue. How are you all going with the stuff I challenged you all with on the 5th October? From what you were all saying in our meeting on monday I suspect it has made you think a bit. We are going to really show the world on the 23rd so make sure you can back up the discussion with how you've focused on your practice rather than talking about what the teachers have done - or not done! That's what INTSTEP is all about after all. Working from home today so i can get a bit of prep done for the 23rd. i hope. See you tomorrow possibly. cheers, heather

8th **Here's the summative survey ladies.** media type="custom" key="2101429" At least you know there will not be any more after this, and I won't be taping your conversations either, so you can tell the truth from now on. Thanks in advance. Heather 7th Great job yesterday girlfriends. Janine, you are really 'on to it". The presentation format is already up on our wiki and it looks great. I just have to say that Robyn has made a really good job, actually, a fantastic job of the technical, social and pedagogical cycle.

Well done Heather in reaching 4497 word. I hope you made headway with your assignment today Glynis. Nearing the end of this semester for you guys (Janine, Heather and Glynis), hang in there. You guys are great!!

Heather, it might be good to sit and discuss what's expected in here because I just filled what I have done(without too much thought,I must add). Sorry if that's not what you wanted. Clarification would be great. It probably needed some thought into the learning process that occured teacher/learner (in particular the adviser learning).

With regards to my next step, well..I know that I need to get the camera out again. I have tried to get teachers to take photos and put them on the wiki. So far, nothing has happened. I might have to use the Heather strategy of being pushy/challenging i.e make them take the photos while I'm there. Photos have up to now provided the stimulus to encourage and promote discussion, so I need to ensure that this continues and that they do have a reason to go there. Yep Heather we are in charge and I'm realising the importance of monitoring my wiki. Holidays seems to be a very quiet time - not attracting visitors Paddy 6th FYI i have a copy of the inspiration manual if you want to have a look. Heather 5th Hi all. I have been looking at our strategies page and see that a few of you have put some comments in the results column, great, thanks. I really feel that we are building up a useful resource here. Just a question for you about your 'results'...Do you think we are being a bit too pure about these? Remember that we have to get people into them first and scaffold them through the process of contributing, so some of your strategies will be about overcoming the inertia. Don't expect them to run before they can walk.

You're going to hate me but...Now that we are in the pedagogy stage of the research, I'm going to ramp up the questions...so, ponder this: There's also the fact that we are the ones who should be driving them at the moment, so what are WE doing about the issues we are experiencing is what this project is about. If they are 'lurking' great, they're in, so how do we take them the next step? If they don't see the value in the wiki, what are we doing to make sure they have a reason to go there? We are in charge, it's part of what we are offering in our roles as advisers, so it reflects on us if it's not attracting visitors. I'm not suggesting that you go away and do something about this (it's October and there are a few other pressing things on our minds), I'm just suggesting that this sort of thinking could help you to analyse what is happening to you online learning community. Anyway I've put a few hints up asking some of you to think about things you've done, perhaps you could describe what happened in those cases.

Methodologies DONE! 4497 words (I counted every one!). Well the first draft has been sent anyway. See you Monday, bright eyed and bushy tailed! (I sense a Tui ad coming...)

Heather

September
29th thanks Glynis, i thought that would be more appropriate after i posted it. I agree totally. And i have changed it. H I went to Alyson and Anne's presentation to day at the AforL Conf. - //Evidence based learning for those who help teachers learn//. It was interesting to make the connections regarding last year's Instep research and how it has improved and enabled our group's achievements this year. How they (the collective) had identified what worked and what were the challenges eg organisational support, challenges of time, more structure etc. I can now see the layers of research that are happening concurrently. That our COP is also a good model of a method of teacher inquiry is now reified. Brenda Service from Victoria is also doing some interesting research on changing teacher practice - some interesting ideas to ponder; reasons why teachers may be reluctant to make changes - a sociocultural approach using formative evaluation. I'm suppposedly writing up my assignment but I have gone off the boil...!! Just a thought Heather maybe you could use.... professional learning? Glynis Thanks Janine. I don't think you'd read this one - it's supposed to be 30,000 words! No flashy title will make it any shorter sadly. No, can't remember what you agreed to do, so anything we decide on the day will be your fault. I've got a couple of hours of tape you could listen to if you really want to find out though. It'll be in there somewhere. H

I like the name Heather - I'd read a paper titled that!!! Can anyone remember what I was doing for the presentation before Monday?? I seem to be having a senior moment!!! Thanks janine 29th I'm thinking of names for this tomb (tome) that i'm writing, what do you think about this? **"Becoming a blended learning community: A tuakana-teina approach to professional learning."** <span style="font-size: 90%; color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"> 28th Hi All. Sorry about all the emails you will have been receiving, but at least you know i'm working ... on the weekend! But i've churned out 2800 words for the thesis while I was doing it so it hasn't been all bad. I've rearranged the navigation pane so it's clearer, we had got a bit cluttered up with the support stuff that we needed when we began this monster earlier this year and i thought it would make life simpler if all the research (and relevant) stuff was grouped together.

Right! In our wonderful meeting where we generated the brilliant mindmap, we realised that we are now in the third cycle of our Action Research and that this one is around pedagogy. We've done the technical stuff, we've got them to socialise, now it's time for learning. So, with that in mind, here's my challenge: I've just visited Glynis's wiki and had a look at the pages she set up for each centre. The cluster centres in the middle - Tamatea/Marewa/etc have got some lovely pictures on their pages and a nasty question put there by Glynis! one centre has responded to the question and it's worth a read. There's some really deep thinking going on there. Now all you have to do (I make it sound so easy) is to get another centre to ask them a question about the pictures and their response and you're away! So...How are you going to facilitate that? You've finally got them to put something related to ECE up, so how are you going to facilitate some engagement and challenge from the other teachers? You'll somehow need to bring it to everyone's attention first though. I'd love the rest of you to have a look and make some suggestions to help Glynis out. Perhaps we could look at levels of questioning, what sort of questions would pull out the rich descriptions we want? Think about Blooms, Maslow, Rogoff, (anyone got some readings we could put up and link to here?) how do you get teachers to use the higher levels of discourse when they are talking digitally? ... You know the drill, respond or i'll haunt your dreams. I'm up early enough to do that these days.

Technical Hint: Glynis you might like to tell your guys about adding to the top of the page when discussing or they'll not realise there's a discussion going on. 27th <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Yay Glynis, I can open your mindmap! I had to save it to my hard drive first as it wouldn't find it otherwise, but then it opened! Great news. H 26th Thanks for your feedback on the strategies Janine, there's some useful comments there that are a clear indication of how it worked or didn't for your community. What are the rest of you feeling? No pressure now :) Warning, there's a final survey coming up but no stress, i've got plenty of time before I hit you with it.

26th Good question Janine. I wonder if the strategies below are more related to the 'formation' and 'sustaining/maturing' phases and what you are identifying is the 'transformation or disengaging' phase (Lai et al, 2006)? If so, do we need another level for our strategies? Perhaps that is the natural way your cop is going to head, but I still feel that the wiki is a good place for them to have discussions between meetings - a public place to ask for suggestions, strategies, confirmation etc. Are you thinking of it as having to be EITHER online OR face to face perhaps? Used as a resource dump it can still be very effectively managed to challenge thinking around how the resources could be used anyway. Have a think. The jury's out on this one for me at the moment. Heather I have a new 'concern' not sure where it goes? I feel my face-to-face cluster is so successful and meets regularly enough at the moment that the intended members of the wiki don't see a point in the space as a COP more as a resource place. Any thoughts? Janine
 * //Transferred from the strategies page...(I think that page is best kept clear of our comments so it can be shown to the masses)//**

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">26th Having looked at our action research picture again (it's my desktop picture - how sad is that!) i think we could ramp up this page a bit. We identified three cycles to our research this year, technical, social and pedagogical. I've developed three tables so we can see what we did in terms of strategies at each of these stages. Contributions encouraged - and I'll haunt your dreams if you don't comply. I've taken apart our original table to get it started. Can you guys please put up some comments about each of the strategies you've used as to how effective they were (results column)? Thanks. Heather 26th You guys have all been so busy. I have just been looking at Robyn's wonderful diagram on Inspiration for our presentation - she is very clever and it is very effective as it moves to a powerpoint of each cycle!!! I plan to do more of my share this week while stuck in PN. I intend to use the sit beside strategy more next year (if I'm here) only meeting with principals next term and forfilling external evaluation requirements so looking forward to seeing how some of your strategies are working as this will support my decisions. Janine

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">26th Now there's an idea Paddy, you could have a virtual hangi on your wiki!!! what a laugh that would be. They could bring fire, chooks, puha, wet sacks, beer, hangi stones, flax and wire baskets, the works. Not a party hat or balloon in sight! Not sure where they'd find such pics but perhaps they'd have them on their own computers from doing these with the kids. 26th Thanks Heather, I really appreciate and value your support. The members list is a great idea. If teachers can't remember their password, I address that right there and then. Selecting 'forgot password' and re-entering a new one is one strategy. The other is to delete them as a member and re-inlist them as a new member. I have had to do this as teachers will come up with excuses. This is addressed in the time that I meet them, so I don't let time become the issue or barrier to heir participation. The other thing is that I'm sitting right there and I can be quite pushy and determined (I owe that strategy to our resident expert). look forward to getting the enthusiastic teachers from the Te Awa Junior syndicate onboard. Thanks for hooking them in Heather. You are a real TAONGA.

Well done Glynis. Love the virtual party. Trying to find an appropriate picture to depict a hangi. Let's lay it on!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks whanau at Ruawharo for your support. It's really comforting to know you are surrounded by caring supportive friends, colleagues, whanau. Paddy

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">26th Paddy, our thoughts are all with you and your family at the moment, let's hope your weekend goes more smoothly for all. We can't begin to know what it's like for you as you pour your strength into others, but we are there for you.

Susan and I did our sessions with Paddy's junior forum yesterday and they went well (Susan's a great presenter guys, worth using her, particularly if you need to address your Pasifika outcome in your milestones). Although there are a few junior forum teachers who are really interested in the wiki, a few who come up with the usual blocks. A significant number haven't been on and wouldn't have a clue what their passwords are, you'll need to ask each one to sit down and try to get in again. STRATEGY (for others, Paddy has already started doing this in some of her schools): Perhaps you should print off the members page and glue it into your diary, that way at least you've got a record of who's joined and their usernames. That's a useful way of ensuring they are able to connect. I'm finding they won't tell you they can't get in, they will tell you they haven't got time as a way of getting around the real problem of forgetting their password. I've added that to our list of strategies.

I showed the SENS teachers the resources (links page) and Atareta said she didn't have time to go and look through them so i started to tell her that she would be looking somewhere anyway when one of the others jumped in and took the words right out of my mouth. It was great. "you'll be spending time looking for stuff anyway, so it's no different". Even told her that her excuse was a bit 'naff'. Atareta smiled and said no more! So that strategy from our list of suggestions works ladies.

I showed them the Sasa video (Susan had been talking about ESOL so I thought it would make a good link somewhere) and they didn't seem to make the connection to literacy but I may have pushed a few buttons anyway. Then we looked through the discussion page and Sarah's photo got them really excited. Having her there was a real bonus. There's a lady from Te Awa who was really switched on about it all, she's new to juniors but it would be really worthwhile cultivating her. Quite confident and may become a leader for your wiki.

Glynis's party page is fun and it seems to be really taking off. It's an interesting idea and I think I'll recommend it to others. What a great reason to get people over that first hurdle of putting something on a wiki page. Well done Glynis. What do the rest of you think? Could you use the concept with your learning communities? I don't think this is just something those crazy early childhood people would get into at all. I wonder if perhaps a few crazy comments might swing it even further, what do you think? You might need to be recognising that people have actually done something - "Wow great balloons", or "I hope no-one's a vegetarian" by the Tutira contribution for example. Big fun writing, party style. I wonder if you can change the page background somehow to make it more partyish. Hmmm... Heather 25th Thanks for retrieving my photos Heather your are a whizz! Wow look at that amazing diagram we are truly inspirational! See you Friday 3rd. Have a look on my party page to see what Tutira has contributed!! I will have to reve the others up! See "you-all" at the assessment conference. Glynis 25th Isn't it a beauty! Thanks Robyn for offering to make it into something a tad more professional. This will be a really engaging way to show the others how significant our work this year has been. 23rd <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">You'll all be very happy to know - well Glynis was anyway - that I have retrieved the photos from the card that is stuck in my computer. I have a copy of our diagram to support the inspiration one that Robyn is doing. The card is still firmly stuck, but at least Glynis has the pictures of her centres and kids back. I didn't sleep at all well worrying about that last night. Despite our apparent lack of wanting to really be there yesterday - milestones were the least of our worries really - we really hammered out a lot of stuff. The action research cycle diagram is a classic, a great expression of the journey (sorry) we've been through this year and the huge amount of work we've got through and knowledge we've generated. I believe this diagram will be the centre of our presentation in one way or another on the day. We have been a fantastic team and all of us have had huge influence on the others. The diagram proved that. It wasn't just one person driving the project, we all did at different times. I asked you all to think about what roles you have played during the year (see Lai et al 2006), when and why the time was right for you to do that. I'll see if I can generate some sort of graphic organiser so we can jot our ideas into this to help channel our thoughts. It shouldn't be too difficult for you to do this and I think it will help you to clarify what you did so you can recognise it in your own communities.

Notes from our discussion today about the meeting with Alyson when Heather and Janine were absent. Sorry they are a bit random, but we were like that on Friday**
 * 18th

we shared why our wikis worked: put in dates first and stuck to them sharing data from usage stats with our communities talked about the way the leaders worked expert and co-ordinator roles socio-cultural exemplified good discussion and good communication across the sectors has supported each other hints: lead team self selecting. we should affirm the leaders who are emerging - nudge, recognise and respond don't be discouraged with the numbers, a good online community will be 8 - 10 people what you end up with is a core group that is able to sustain the community Robyn's group of 60 is possiby too big. should be targeted to certain people within the cluister target people and set up discussion pages within the wiki - e.g. assessment for learning page Robyn has tried this but too early in the process one teacher says that no real discussion is happening advisers are learning the technical stuff to support their teachers time... the most significant barrier we need to shift the approaches; cops with all teachers, 1:1 with teachers, small groups, online innnovations of tec will need to become part of the contract we will need to look at the way we work as a SSS provider ece are trying to set up discussions online all teachers are saying the same thing about time. We are feeling tired at the moment, so are the teachers

what are we doing next year? supporting others, bring others into the group lead team voluntary, bring the others in as they have a need or want to join. Join at any time. focus? learning communities are really interesting. struggling centres are really in need of this type of support wikis are a great way of sustaining these communities

we've found that the work we are doing parallels the findings in the research our own lc has worked because we knew each other first community based lcs work, those that aren't struggle newcomers finding the sharing concepts difficult to handle schools sharing practice via a CD and charge $10

media type="custom" key="1940296" 13th Guess who's been playing with a new gizmo... 10th...still... Hi all. I've found this really nice blogspot that students at [|Tamaki Intermediate] are using to show the world what they are learning. I thought it might inspire you and your teachers. The students create short videos about things like Maori language, how to do the sasa, whatever, and put them up on the blog. It keeps parents and interested people up to date. If you look at their map, they are being watched all over the world. Paddy and I have taken some material from this blog and used it to challenge teachers on her sens wiki to have a go. We've also asked them questions around how could a Sasa video be used to engage Pasifika students, or to develop into strategies for enhancing literacy. We've created a Pasifika page (mainly so I can meet my expectations for milestone reporting against raising pasifika student achievement) as a place to generate their ideas. 10th Kia ora koutou Yep I'm pretty pleased about the progress on the Sens wiki. Much of what I am doing has come come from the team. Thanks team! I tried to make good use of that, however, I know the push and encouragement needs to carry on to ensure progress continues. I do agree with you Heather, in that, the photos provide stimulus for discussion. Sitting alongside the teachers, photos gave me a starting point to promote and support discussion. The first step was encouraging the social aspect, and secondly encouraging enquiry (with regards to photos). I must point out that the photos were about what teachers were doing in their class (formative assessment, ideas used). So it was probably going to be useful for others. Taking photos of classroom walls was a great idea. You guys will know what's good. Everything grew from there, to the point, that they genuinely wanted to know. Yesterday, Heather and I were at Maraenui School and yep we had a good afternoon, in that things are happening in the learning department, however, (I just want to share with you so you don't make the same mistake) Heather wanted to reward the successes of those present and guess what, I left that bucket in the office. They are pretty much aware of the chocolate fish rewards now. So, looks like there might be a bit of bribery on the up take.

Hey girlfriends, it's great to be working with a great team. I am particularly glad we have our resident expert. I must admit, through anxiety and frustration I have persevered reluctantly. To be quite honest, it has been through collegial support from the team that the inspiration, ideas have come and **must I say**, the thought of even wanting to continue.

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">9th I've put your ramblings onto the presentation page ladies, it doesn't work on the discussion page as it's stopping us from 'discussing'. I think we made serious progress on Thursday so i'm really looking forward to making it look pretty when we work together next week. The ideas you are all shaping up are all pretty much on the nail. The introductions need to just paint the picture of who we are, what our learning community is and why we wanted to support them through online environments. it needs to set the scene for the results of the research, not tell us what happened in the year. I've had a chat with Paddy around this and she admits to finding it hard to stop herself from rambling into this area, so i guess the rest of you will find the same. You've only got a couple of minutes so keep it simple, but give us some richness that will make the audience understand what sort of people we work with.

I've had an afternoon with Maraenui with Paddy taking them through the wiki basics and they are getting there! But, i've just had a look at the Sens wiki and Paddy, your discussion page has really taken off. It is now being run by **them**!!! and they are talking about **their practice**. Fantastic. Paddy I may want to use this when I skite to MoE this year. I really think it can be traced back to when the photos went up and you made them comment when you saw them. Pictures tell a thousand words, but bottom line is they are heck of a lot more interesting to look at than a bunch of words. (We have a new teacher's pet girls... ) <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Heather <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">ps, I'm impressed with your focus Janine, working in the building the day of the shake would not have been something i would have willingly done. Those cracks are impressive. It certainly was a great shake. My son who works for Geonuclear Science was really green with envy that he wasn't here to experience it. He just gets to process all the 'felt reports' that people send in telling GNS what it was like. He's been up and taken photos now so at least it made him want to come home for the weekend. I got a text last week a few minutes after the last one asking if we were shaking again, the whole crew were watching some trace (visual map thingy) of the quake as it happened, apparently it looked really exciting. Scientists!

August
29 Po Marie Thanks for today, you have all inspired me to get into wiki action once more! Heather, you certainly have some good ideas. It took me a looooong time but I managed to set up pages (with photos) for the Napier Cluster centres AND a party page; both of which I will introduce to everyone at the Cluster meeting tomorrow. Glynis

26 As the only adviser in the office I'm a bit nervous! Interesting how only staff are allowed in the building - does that make us the expendable ones??? Anyway I am ignoring the big cracks and trying to concentrate, I actually still feel like the earth is moving at times too. Anyway thanks to the 3 of you who are able to meet with Alyson on the 12th as I know we did change this date - I'm hoping you'll all get the main part of the report written in this time!! YEAH RIGHT! I have a telephone conference on Thursday with the other teams and intend to ask Anne about how our sharing day is going to look so we know if we need to stay down etc. I am assuming we are all there so if I don't hear any diffrent will put us all down for catering purposes. If you have any questions for Thursday let me know. Janine

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<span style="color: rgb(27, 75, 27);"><span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">23rd Love the topical analogy Robyn, very clever. As long as you're legally of age anyway, and I somehow doubt they'd be checking up on us. Sadly. It does sound like you've been busy this week with the wiki support. I've been getting emails all the time! The lead teacher meeting must have been valuable. I suggest you keep an eye on your man who suggested the discussion topic just so that he follows through. He may need you to sit beside him just to get him started. And then you'll need to make sure someone else gets involved to ensure the discussion happens. I think this is really important, the scaffolding has to be really overt in the early stages. Ask Paddy about the amount of support she is providing her teachers to make sure they contribute these days, it's made a considerable difference to her wiki buy in.

Robyn are you aware that two teachers have used the discussion tab and posted questions? Way back in June/July, so perhaps you possibly need to ask them personally if they want to put these up on the discussion page instead.
 * Discussion Tabs:** I suggest you inform all participants as to whether you want to use the discussion tab at all. It's something for all of us to think about, you can have threaded discussion there which you can't if you use a page instead. But, the tab is not so obvious so you have to go looking for it if you want to use it.

Re Alyson's email, I'm in Auckland that day so if you guys want to talk to her you'll have to do it without me. That is NOT an opportunity to talk about me while I can't defend myself either. I'm pleased you enjoyed New Plymouth and got to see the mountain. It is awe inspiring, I am envoius of people who live there whenever i go over. You really can't escape it. You may notice that i've put a cluster map on the front page. Playing really, but it will be nice to see where people who are following us are actually from more easily. It'll make us feel even more special. Heather 22nd Yes I've been out and about but am in the office today and can report on a reasonably active day on the wiki this week. I was able to get an individual leadT on the wiki on Wed morning as part of another meeting. I did show that Mac Computers are not as clear in their editing format as the PC's and took me a while to zero in on as it did look a bit different. However everything is there and it can be done. As stated in my Journal entry the response at the LT meeting held Wed p.m. was positive. Many said they had been on but hadn't done anything. Another suggested a discussion topic so I suggested he set up the discussion. I have just noted this a.m. someone has added to the discussion page since the meeting so maybe action is beginning. I think we may be doing forward rolls on the floorrather than sommersaults on the beam but I am more positive. I introduced the LT's to the skrbl pg set up and demonstrated the eas of use on the day with willing participants. So, all in all another shot of adrenalin has been given. I have to say I spent a couple of gorgeous days in New Plymouth earlier in the week when the mountain was in all it's glory infront of a blue sky both days. Magnificent!!! Has anyone replied to Alysons email about her visit on the 12th Sept. That was the original day we were going to meet and then changed to the 19th. Please inform of any changes. Have a good weekend. Robyn

21st <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Hi Girls. I've been watching from a distance lately as I've been in Wellington, but I notice the dearth of entries lately so I am assuming we're all out and about pretending to be busy. I've just got back from Wellington - a conference on online learning so that was interesting, although I have to say that they don't appear to be as up to date as we are! Wikis were new, Skype wasn't mentioned, but blogging was. I personally think that our journals are effectively blogs, but if we did this again, we could perhaps investigate this option. I see it as a potential way to get kids writing, a daily blog entry would have applications in lots of areas. If they could go online of course.

They did start a flame though with some demonstrations of Second Life, a programme I haven't explored yet. Some lecturers are using it as a space for their students to go and have conversations. I am not convinced yet, but someone may show me a practical application one day and turn me around, but i suspect it is more a tertiary tool than one we can use at the moment. Not this year, don't worry!

I'm hearing a lot from you (mainly in face to face conversations) about the impact of showcasing your teacher work. From what I understand, teachers are talking about the photos you have put up on the wikis now, and with a bit of encouragement, they are prepared to do this online. It certainly has taken some time, but I really believe we have turned the corner at last. Those of you who have managed to get them to talk, what did you do to them to facilitate this? You need to let us into your secrets!

I share Alyson's congratulations on the analysis you've all done, it really is great to see what it helped you to see in your work. Now i need to do the same with our wiki so i can see what i've done to facilitate you :). See you next week perhaps. Cheer, Heather

Kia ora my isteamed colleagues Getting quite lonely here as I'm pretty much used to Glynis commenting on the wiki. Managed to encourage one of the principals to comment on th wiki. I hate for them to think that it's only for the teachers. I know that it is full on for Janine. Thinking of you girlfriend. I am gathering a range of photos/ideas from classrooms that may assist teachers (e.g. formative assesment). Creating a page, very much along the lines that Robyn has created will provide a place to display and explain them. Paddy <span style="color: rgb(240, 30, 25);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">

18th Glad to hear that Wellington turned on the good weather for you. I'm learning very quickly that things just wont happen unless you make it. Putting up class displays/work is giving teachers something to comment on. I'm feeling much better with the fact that there is a way ahead. It's great to have Heather's support. That's made an awful lot of difference. Actually, I am carrying out the strategies that Heather has applied to our learning. Paddy 18th <span style="color: rgb(250, 25, 25);">**Kia ora ISTEAMERS** Hope you all had a great weekend - I went down to Wellington with my family and the weather - we didithe tourist stuff and the weather was just wonderful. <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 204);"><span style="color: rgb(245, 10, 10);">Heather emailed me to have a look at the analysis of the wikis and so I have just had a read. Some really good stuff! It's great to see it all one one document and to see how you've analysed it in the table with adviser and teacher and the contents focus.

I have also read a bit of the journals and it has been exciting to hear what you have been trying out and your insights into your role and the BES and other readings. Paddy - it is good to hear how you've found sitting down with your teachers and supporting them to feel comfortable using the wiki and building relationships is really helping. I like the 'in class" section you had added on your wiki Robyn for techers to put up class display as another way to get teachers using their wiki.

So a big pat on the back from me to all of you - as the "teachers" of the teachers- it's important that we are also invovled in our own professional learning!. Arohanui Alyson

15th Kia ora oku hoa, Thanks Robyn for putting up the questionnaire. That made that task easy for me. I've just copied and pasted it on to the Sens wiki. Thanks Heather for your support, patience and perseverance. What would we do without **you!!** Glynis, I would expect nothing less than brilliant sunshine from the Ngati Porou district. It's the first place to see the sun. Awesome Glynis, I know how it feels to have completed pending tasks that have been put to the side. Well done. Sounds like we have all had a great week that has been very productive. Janine, I haven't forgotten about you. Looking forward to hearing what you are up to with your wiki. Thanks for sharing. Have a great weekend team Paddy

15th Well Heather is full of compliments and I certainly appreciate it. I am finding Fridays the only time I can really find to do much on the wili anad feel I have had a successful day today. I have been looking forward to Next weeks Lead teacher wkshp and will spend some time reenthusing the teachers of the possibilities the wikis can provide. I have redone the survey results from a link to a word document to actually being on the wiki discussion page and think this will be more attractive for the members. I am off to New Plymouth for two days next week and hope to gather some more photographic evidence of good practice which I could then upload to the wiki. Tologa Bay sounds great but I have actually enjoyed being in the office today (did I say that?) quite productive. See you all next week. Robyn 15th <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Hi Girls. I've just seen Robyn put up her data from the questionnaire, thanks for that. Have any of you had feedback from doing this yet? When you are in schools do you ask teachers if they have seen the results, and if not, what are you doing about it. I'd be interested to hear what the impact has been, if any. I've been having some great professional discussions with you all over the past week. I hate to say it ladies, but I think we are truly becoming a professional learning community. You've started to really analyse what is happening and critically thinking about the causes and what you are going to do about it. You've started using each other for ideas and asking 'what do you thing' type questions of each other. And I'm seeing real evidence of you using research to support your thinking and planning of next steps. Pats on the back ladies! Heather 13th Kia Ora, Good old Gissy the sun shone brilliantly today and I spent most of it up at the Tolaga Bay Playcentre what a treat! I have put my Journal (at last) on the journals page. To read it you will need Inspiration 8. A great wee programme. When you are reading my Journal you need to click on each part of the diagram to bring up the little note ikon and when you click on this a wee note pad appears with my reflections on it. Sorry about the complicated format but I wanted to try the programme out and it makes journal writing more visually creative for me! (-%. Glynis

13th Thanks Glynis, I hope the sun is shining on you today. It will great for movement to continue to develop and grow. Yep!! I must say that it will definitely work sitting beside them and ensuring it happens. I intend to do this with all teachers I visit (time permitting).

At the leaders forum, a survey of what teachers teachers considered as the most valuable ways of sharing ideas and knowledge provided interesting feedback and discussion. Responses identified the wiki as a valuable way of sharing ideas and knowledge. Leaders discussed the benefits of using the wiki and looked at what might motivate others to go on to the wiki. They saw the potential for sharing after viewing the present discussion occuring on the wiki and the implications/opportunities for sharing ideas and practice. As one leader pointed out, embedded in the social discussion was other information that they could tap into or inquire about**.** Hopefully, things are looking up**.** Paddy

13th <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Hi Glynis. Go to the wiki and at the top right of the page there is 'sign out'. click on that. That should take you to the sign in or join page. Get them to join up there. then they can try to go to your wiki and will be met with a private space notice. they can send a request to join from there. You will get an email telling you that they have asked to join which you will accept. You'll need to sign out as them and back in as you when you've done all that. heather 12 August Hi from rainy Gisborne!!! <span style="color: rgb(111, 44, 195);">**Fantastic Paddy**, I have just had a browse around the Sens Wiki and it is certainly moooooving!!! Good One. I have been a bit slack lately (well too busy really to have any time to do wiki things). Heather - a question. How do I get a teacher to sign up onto ece wiki when I am at their centre? I usually email to invite them on but I thought it might be quicker to sign them up there and then; on the SPOT!!! Cheers Glynis

11th again <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Have a look at the stats for our site ladies. Especially around the number of unique visitors, and the countries who are checking it out. 11th Way back on the 6th June we had a meeting that i've just analysed. I've found that we came up with a lot of suggestions around how to address the barriers we were coming up against around online learning communities. I've added these to the strategies page so the list is growing considerably. I found that some strategies belonged in a couple of places, and that some didn't have a real category, but i don't think this really matters. It's all good stuff and will be really useful to us all. 10th Hmmm...the only connection I have to that phrase was the advertisment for milk where a farmer said 'morning girls' to his cows. Not sure about the appeal of that connection:) It's really exciting to see the shift beginning to happen. It seems to be that the best approach is to do what you've suggested and actually sit beside them to get it started. Whether this is in a workshop or in their classrooms, it doesn't seem to matter, but it seems the effect is much stronger if you manage to do this. What do you guys think? I am also of the opinion that it is going to be something that still needs to be driven by you guys, once it starts to happen you'll not be able to just sit back and watch or it will fall over. From what I've seen of Glynis's wiki, the teacher who really engaged got stroppy when it was just him and Glynis chatting. Quite funny really. So, this suggests that perhaps you'll need to manipulate the responses too. Here's some suggestions i came up with, please continue the list as you think of ideas: <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">I've been listening to a recording of the meeting we had way back in June and we suggested this approach then! Glynis said "sit beside them and write for them...ghost write... then write a lead in for other teachers to encourage others to have a look. This builds their esteem, let's celebrate success. If your teachers have a heart, they'll respond, but we have to help them do this". Pretty good stuff considering we had really only just got to grips with what we were doing at that stage.
 * <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">when you're visiting teachers ask them to comment on other people's writing (when you sit beside them to 'force' them)
 * <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">invite responses from other teachers that you know have had a similar issue or success story
 * <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">redirect the person to another person..."thanks for that David, Simon had a similar issue. How about asking him what he did...
 * <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">??????

Now girls, how much of the above conversation is technical help, how much is developing social confidence, pedagogical challenge, scaffolding, reflective thinking, top down 'do this', etc... You've gotta love me really... Heather

1st Morning girls.........I know its not morning but I enjoy the implications/connotations Had a great week this week. My goal is to endeavour to get teachers socialising on the wiki. Each time I visit a school, I will make it my business to get them on the wiki while I'm there. Well.....I know this will work because it's happening. Actually, I'm taking on board the strategies that have been modelled i.e. sitting alongside the teacher to encourage and support them (// or is that force them //). One teacher has put up a picture of a wall display/learning to create discussion. I already have in the wings, examples of another teachers wall display to create further discussion. Just going to wait and see what happens.

July
31st Finally found time to work on the wikis and try to catch up. Congrats to Paddy for the next step in her development. Following your great success Paddy Heather has suggested I try something similar with my site and use some maths displays. I have some in mind and will go armed with a camera next time I go into these great classrooms. I have also decided I will set up a skrbl page on the wiki for teachers to make suggestions as to what they would like covered in the up-coming workshops. All you girls are an inspiration and I am now trying to think outside the square. Robyn 29th too! Oh I see why it worked for me - I only have ever set up 1 skrble pad!!!! Cheers Glynis 29th again Well, I did something strange and looked in the FAQ section on the skrbl site. Here's the answer!  <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">As session host you simply click on the current title (where it is displayed on top of the page) and edit it. For those of us who still couldn't work it out, the current title is **skrbl pad** and it's in the bar across the top of the page. Click in front of those words and use the delete button to get rid of them and write your own title. Half an hour later i had been through all my existing pads and renamed them so i can find the ones i want. Including all the ones we did with you Paddy :) Heather 29th Choc fish to Glynis - teacher's pet! But as I'm so fair, i'll give everyone a choc fish if they put something up. Re the skrbl answer, when i get a new skrbl page it has some terribly long senseless number in the url (web address), yours had glynis at the end of the url. I can't figure out how to save them with a name so i can work out which one to look at when i want to go back. I've got about 20 of the damn things and have to go through each one to find the one i'm looking for. And skrbl takes forever to open each page up and go back again. If we want teachers to use the tool as a quick way of recording kids ideas, we've got to be able to identify the pages. (just added the last bit so it sounded like a discussion around pedagogy rather than a technical issue). Heather 28th Kia Ora, Ummmmm!!! That's a tricky one Heather. I think I had saved Skrble on my favorites and then I just hyperlinked the web address into my Survey Results discussion. I had to join skrble pages at the outset. Does this make sense??? Glynis. PS desperately trying to conjour up some ideas to be first to edit the table on Strategies page. 28th <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">OK smarty pants. Now you have to teach the teacher a new trick. Glynis, how did you get the Skrbl page to save as your name? I know it is possible to name the pages, i've done it once, but i cannot for the life of me work out how to do it again. Heather - asking for help for the first time this year! Well the first time you guys have heard anyway.

It's really great to see the analysis you two have done already, there's some really deep thinking going on there. It will be fun to try and see the correlations once we've all managed to find time to do this.

Paddy is going to take the camera with her to WCC this wednesday. She's going to take a photo of something Sarah is doing and put it up on the SENS wiki. We had a wee chat about expecting teachers to discuss online before they had the first crawling steps and the trust stuff under control. So...I'm putting this up here so you can all watch out for the picture she is going to put up and talk about on her wiki :). And to keep her to her word :) Who'd have enemies when you can have friends like me eh! Heather 27th Morning Girls... I agree with you both, if we could all apply this framework we would have something in common to share - we could Moderate!!!. We seem to have agreed to have a go at doing that so can we put our findings up here as soon as that's done? We can then have an online chat about what it tells us. I don't think we've got another meeting planned for a while (29th August according to me) so this will need to be done online. However I have several days free in August if we want to plan a face to face before then. Use my shared calendar to see these dates.

I've been reading again...(got growled at - nicely - for losing my direction last week), so this time it's about developing professional learning communities - that's us by the way. We may be practising our strategies online, but we are not an online learning community, and we're not really a blended one either, it's just that we play in that environment. Having said that, there is no reason why we can't try to develop this a bit more. The closer we get to the end of the year, the more difficult it is to have a face to face the way we have been.

Anyway, I read a chapter by Gorodetsky (I'll get you a copy) and he? identifies 4 levels of discourse that occur in a collaborative group. I think these levels would be great to help us think about what we are doing ourselves as a group, and what we have managed so far in our own online learning communities. Inititally I wished I'd seen it before I asked you to generate a framework, but in fact I now think we could overlay it and see where any gaps in our own thinking are, or any gaps in this model may be given that it's a different type of community he is referring to. Are there differences? What are the similarities? what terms have we used that have been described below? Are the groupings the same?
 * 1) <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">**Small talk** - social and emotional issues within the group. this stuff, as we have found, provides the glue that generates commitment towards each other. this glue supports the development of shared 'mental models' that enable us to understand each other and co-ordinate the way we work. We've used this ourselves to try to create a climate of trust and engagement with our teachers and with ourselves online.
 * 2) <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">**Sharing** - where members present their thoughts but they are not specifically targeted to the shared problem or issue being addressed. This genre allows us to 'share and honour different individual approaches'. Where have we done this? What about the sharing of our wikis with each other? What about the resources we share with our teachers and they sometimes (e.g. Craig) share with us?
 * 3) <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">**Discussion** - where different alternatives/possiblities are provided around a specific problem or issue. These options are generated from similar 'world views' and an agreement comes from stronger arguement being put across. I believe we have been doing this as we try to figure out the solutions to specific issues we've been coming up with during the year.
 * 4) <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">**Learning** - guess what, this is what we are ultimately aiming for. This is where discussion is around the major theme that brings the participants together, which for us is 'how do we engage teachers in online learning communities?'. Different 'world views' or perspectives actively engage and contribute towards the clarification of the puzzle. What are these different views within our community? The solution is constructed by the group in this discourse. Sound like us? I think it does. There are three levels of learning to be considered. First order - where any changes deal with improvements on what is already done. Second order - discontinuity (hate the word but can't think of a better one) between what was done before and what is now done. A change in thinking generates new ideas, not just remodelled ones. Third order - based on the previous level but now recognising that the possible solutions are reflectively achieved from the learners within the group. //Authorship// is the lovely term for this. Where are we in these levels? Have we journeyed through them all?

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Well I hope this has created some issues for you to think about ladies. And I hope the lovely weekend weather saw you huddled by a fire instead of watching the rugby in some emotionally and physically miserable venue somewhere. Heather July 21 Excellent stuff Glynis, I am about to do mine and you have inspired me. Both those texts seem to be a good framework for us to use in this purpose. I suspect this write up could easily be part of our finished product which hopefully means we aren't giving ourselves too much extra to do! Janine July 21 I have just done a wee analysis of my eceassessment for learning wikispace to date using information from the graphs and the framework we used to analyse what was happening over the months from May to June and BES Literature Review and Synthesis, Lai et.,al. (2006). This was intersting and helpful to assess where the wiki is at and where to next. Glynis

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Great meeting ladies, i really had to think about stuff today. I've been reading BES again (Lai et al) and found some stuff on pp 39-40 that relates to our own wikis. it says that the more local a cop is the more relevant it is to its members (of course) but the less relevant to its global members. in our wikis, we are finding it difficult to get contributions from teachers. perhaps we should try forming structures that "promote both local variations and global connections". Wenger (2002) suggests 'bounded groups' and says these need a co-ordinator to maintain them and connect them to the wider group. If you have a look at the wiki that Paddy is running, she formed such bounded groups when she set up pages for her schools within the wikis. She's now trying to get these to function through targeting specific people in each school and encouraging them to help, and a couple of them are starting to work. I'm unsure how this would work for the rest of you, but give it some thought. They may need to be bigger than a school to work, they can talk to each other if they work together so why would they go online instead. But perhaps some other combination may work. A couple of you have lead teachers, some work with different ages that may share ideas, or perhaps a small sub group within a region may function. Alternatively perhaps these groups could form to discuss a particular problem. The basis of inquiry learning is an issue that concerns the class/group/etc so keep this in mind. <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Thanks Janine, i have to admit my initial reaction was anxiety - till i really looked at what was being said and thought about the conversations we are now having. We've all moved considerably. If we have a look back at the Lai et al BES report that we started with in the beginning of the year, it is all making sense. The time stuff you mention is key to the development of sustainable communities, so we're fitting in with the research well :) If you want to have a revisit of this research, i think you'll all make some connections to what it is saying now that we are down the track some way. In particular, section 5 (pp 32-47) describes how to design online cops and i found myself saying yeah, we did that when we ... It was really affirming.
 * 19**
 * 15**

I've had a look at Craig's input onto your wiki Janine and i think it really deserves some hyped up reflectrive comments. Perhaps you can get an insider to start the ball rolling to encourage others to give him some feedback. He's done a great piece of work - well it looks it to my untrained eyes anyway - so lets give him some warm fuzzies in return. Can you get Bev to comment?

Well done anyway, it's really excting to see that happen. What do the rest of you think? Any comments?

Cheers, Heather Hi, me again I have just read Heather's analysis of our questionaire and as usual instead of making me feel I'm getting somewhere now I have a whole lot more questions! Thanks for that Heather! Actually I do think we are clarifying our thinking quite nicely over time and making moves in the right directions. Now I have read this I can start to see where we have been. It is a nice reminder for us though that good things take time - we are always in such a rush to get results! A very astute principal said to me last term that not only do you have allow time for any change you also have to vary the speed in which you move, there may be times when you can speed up but often you've got to know when to slow down. anyway what does everyone else think? J
 * 14**

Hi everyone I'm really excited because one of my teachers has contributed to my wiki discussion page by sharing some of his school's thinking (around enquiry learning and EFS) and has asked for feedback from the others!!! The __big__ thing about this is that **I DIDN'T even BRIBE HIM!!!** Thanks again for all your work Heather and Tuesday will be good - I hope it's a magnum of wine!! Hope everyone is getting a break, cheers Janine

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Hi All. I've put up my analysis of what you said on the research tools page. I hope you get a chance to print it off and have a read. We've been having a chat through email about the next meeting. For those of you who have lost track of what is now happening, we are meeting in the motel at 4pm on TUESDAY as James Chapman is going to entertain us on Wednesday at 4pm. I've shifted my meeting with the e-learning team so that i can be there. I'll bring a bottle of wine with me so that should get us going nicely. cheers, Heather
 * 13th**

<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(5, 6, 102); font-family: Arial;">Morning Girls. I’ve been thinking… <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Before you paste the analysis stuff onto your wikis, have a think about why you are doing it. Do they need the analysis of //all// the questions? <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"> What will that achieve for you? We definitely should let them know the barriers and expectations stuff, it’s really interesting to see what they think they’ll get out of an online learning community. This could be used to structure your rationale for having the wiki. For example, “You said that an online learning community would enable you to blah, blah, so let’s see if we can really make our wiki meet you expectations”. Or “these are the things you felt would get in the way of you being able to use the wiki effectively. Blah, Blah. As a result, I thought that I would blah, blah to ensure you were not hindered in any way”. On the other hand, do they really need to know that they understand what a professional learning community is for example, or that they are involved in them mostly at school rather than outside of it? Wasn’t that really just to give us an indication of what they already knew? I’d be interested in your thoughts J Nice ones <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(5, 6, 102); font-family: Wingdings;">J <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"> Cheers, Heather pd ask Janine what she did to get her teachers to respond so well. I suspect we may have a potential blackmailer in our midst.
 * 7**

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As promised, I have emailed you my thoughts (and put it on the wiki). I haven't changed much apart from a few minor additions. You did a great job of identifying the key points. Hopefully it will encourage us to make some suggestions as to what we can do about what they are saying. <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hope you're having a nice break and are not suffering too much with the cold. Chilli and I have had a lovely day attempting some training - puddle type - so the open door has not gone down too well considering the temperature. Good thing Alec was on the farm, what he doesn't know won't hurt him :) Cheers, Heather  <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">
 * 6**

Well whatever you did it must have worked judging by all the emails i've been getting. They are all going for it! And they are quite proud of themselves for getting there too. Good on you Janine. Going without me must be the secret :) I actually thought you'd all seen the Wikis in Plain English video, it really is good and quite simple. Perhaps we could have a look at some of the other videos that Lee LeFever has done, they cover lots of other yummies like social bookmarking, RSS feeds, pretty much all the new toys, and they are all equally simple and good. Heather Hi guys, I'm feeling very proud of myself as I've finally been up- dating my site and have worked out __some__ of it without Heather! Thanks to you all as I've been pinching ideas for a "How to" page that was sadly lacking on my site and much needed! Special, thanks to Glynis for the teacher tube video. I am about to tell my schools that all dates and plans for term 3 will only be on the wiki - not sure if it is very brave of me or very stupid - we'll see. Next job is to get my diary up on this site - I to would like to see what Glynis has been playing with i need toys to keep me keen! If you aren't coming to drinks and are having a break over the holidays have a good one! Janine
 * 5**
 * 4**

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Well that tells me that you'll need to get Freemind on your computer to be able to see it - do a google, it's free. Same will apply for Inspiration. Heather Checked out Garrison and Anderson: the free mindmap. I'm not sure we have got what we were meant too. It's a mindmap in its self. Not particularly inspirational. I'm sure the real thing will be great. Glynis, I see that you have formatted your journal in Inspiration 8. I would really like to see that.
 * 4**
 * Kia ora e hoa ma,**

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Thanks Glynis, i saw you were on the wiki too so i got out in case i kicked you off. We've just got Chilli back now that we've got a puppy proof enclosure for her, couldn't leave her at home during the day in case she got curious... She hangs around the old dog pretty faithfully so i think we'll be all right, but i wasn't happy to risk it when we weren't there. Alec has built her a great run but i guess she'll be a bit upset at being locked during the day and not allowed to play with Diva until we get home. Good thing we're in the country and won't disturb too many neighbours. I wonder if we could upload inspiration files to the wiki, not sure but i'll look into it. Keep going with the creativity, if it works for you anyway. I've got it on my laptop too. i think you could just save it and load it through the tree icon. worth a try anyway. Heather Hi there, I was just offering suggestions for names when I saw that you too were editing!! Good name! I wont bother with my offerings now. I'm in Gisborne working with Playcentres... I havn't offered them the wiki yet but I might do that tonight. I reckon though they have too many other things to implement in their every day Playcentre life. I could be full time up here just working with the 10 Playcentres!!! No journal from me as yet I (stupidly) formatted mine in Inspiration 8 just for fun and creativity... and I did that on a free 30 day trial. Jan is at this moment organising the software for me through Massey! (If you hav'nt got it on your computer contact Jan Macfarlane right now at J.M.Macfarlane@massey.ac.nz Glynis
 * 3**

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Thanks Paddy, but she'd need a sex change for those. We've decided to call her Churchill because it's very grand, and Chilli (with an 'i') will be the name she is known as. It suits the temperament - hot and spicy - the colour, and the stroppy character - too much can be a bit overpowering...wonder if there's a family trend here? Heather Kia ora I have just pasted my journal on the wiki, however, I need to do something about how it's ordered. Heather, does Sebastion appeal? He looks like he could be a Sebastion. How about Beau?

Have just pasted my journal onto the wiki and will now continue it from here. Heather we did spend some time discussing questions about the info but came up with only the two (i think it is as written in final column) Robyn.

Churchill appeals, Alec would really be into that, he's talked about him all weekend for some strange reason. I could feminise it by calling her Chilly... other ideas... caffeine, barista, paprika, expresso, mocha, tandori, fudge, spice, toffee, hazel

June
I see what you mean - cute!!! Well I have two suggestions for a name Churchill -there is a waterfalll in the Labrador area of Nth America called the Churchill Falls - very classy I think. Bowdoin - is the canon under the above falls, could be changed to Bowdown if you so wished i guess. Will keep my thinking cap on. Robyn
 * 30

30** So here I am finally putting something onto this wiki!!! It took a cute puppy to do it! Sorry no clever names yet but still working on it, our last choc. lab was called Chip. the framework was e-mailed to you today to have a look at and I'll get it of to Alyson in a couple of days. Thanks, Janine

June 29th<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"> Sounds like i missed a great session but i'll listen to the tape and make sure you weren't talking about me too much. I'll do as i'm told and email my responses to you all, i've just had a quick skim and they look great. You may want to think about what questions you want to phrase up around them to get the teachers to actually engage with the info.

Just bought a new pup, quite a distraction when you're supposed to be working i must say. Isn't she cute? <span style="color: rgb(174, 72, 19);">**Now the latest wiki competition is to come up with a name for her.** She's a chocolate lab, but don't even think about names like Milo or Cocoa. Something with a bit of class please! Chocolate fish for the best one??? LOL

[[image:CIMG0011.JPG width="357" height="270" caption="I've just woken up...and it's raining!"]]
June 27th We decided to <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">analyse the pages from early May to find out what sorts of contributions were happening at that time. Our headings could be: information, scaffolding, responding, contributing, learning conversations, reflective dialogue (we will use these to get started others may come up as we go through the data. We synthesised the results of the survey into a report which will be put on our wiki spaces. <span style="color: rgb(0, 1, 255);">Robyn is emailing this to Heather for her input and then they will be emailed out to all. We will then <span style="color: rgb(17, 24, 176);"><span style="color: rgb(25, 15, 219);">enter them onto our wikispaces in our own creative ways. Janine is responding to the INSTEP evaluation.

<span style="color: rgb(17, 24, 176);">June 24th <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"> Great discussion today everyone, I really think we have changed the way we think about our practice since we embarked on this wee venture. On Friday we have agreed to work on writing up our findings from the survey so we can feed the information back to the teachers. Once we have analysed what it is telling us, I think we will be able to make some suggestions ourselves about what to do next. Ways to overcome barriers, make use of the teacher strengths, promote the aspects they see as really positive about online communities etc. Of course you've suggested you need to do this with your surveys (see below if you don't believe me:), I guess that means I should do the same with the results of your surveys for me! Damn! I've been looking at a new 'toy' (as Robyn succinctly - and rightly - puts it) today and I'll play with it to see if I can put your ideas into this format. It's called [|Voicethread]. You may have seen it on Chrissy Hellyer's (from Taradale Int) class wiki perhaps. I think it has huge potential for teachers to use with their classes, but it also may be another medium for teachers to use to engage in online conversations. Especially those who say they haven't got time to write.

Meantime, keep up the great work, and it's all great so don't put unnecessary pressure on yourselves to measure up. Each of us has a different set of constraints to work within, and different starting points, as well as very different people to work with. Alyson's saying we're really on to it so keep that thought in the front of your minds and keep hearing Janine's lovely voice saying..."it's not a competition".

Meanwhile, have a look at the red request below, perhaps we can talk about it on Friday too. It could be the beginning of some helpful hints I think. Heather

Analysis of survey data
[|question one] question 2 - 75% have been involved in a PLC question 3 - teachers don't consider they are part of a PLC within their schools - don't see their staff as a learning community. do they really understand what a PLC is then? it's the every day stuff as not seen as a PLC. is it just the terminology that is causing the issue? might be telling us that the staff meeting environments are considered for the school not for their pd. [|question 4] [|Question 5] Next steps? Their expectations are interesting. perhaps we can analyse the survey and generate something that could be put on our wikis for them to see the results.

June 22nd <span style="font-size: 110%; color: rgb(225, 5, 5);">**ACTION REQUIRED - RESPONSES EXPECTED (pretty please...with sugar on top)** <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">I've been checking out the SENS wiki and Kate (bless her) has put up some really good stuff. I wonder if engaging with this would be a good starting point to help encourage the other members to participate? <span style="color: rgb(25, 149, 15);">**What do the rest of you suggest that Paddy does in response to these postings?** There...I've thrown the ball into **your** courts at last, I'm finally letting go of the reins :) Link to WCC page with teacher voice, although the other stuff Kate has put up is worth reading too.

Also on the SENS wiki are several pages compiled by Sharon. Apart from really entertaining stories about Harry the dog, these are great, just the sort of thing we want from the other teachers. How could we share these with other teachers? What do you guys suggest that Paddy do with this material to encourage others to contribute at this level????

Katrina, another WCC teacher, has shared her programme material for building character descriptions with the others. What do you suggest Paddy does with this? what would be the best way to interact with this teacher's work so that the others would start to comment, feedback, ask questions around such things as how it is used and what the results have been?

Both Sharon and Katrina did these pages last year. What happened to bring them to other people's attention at the time? Is it these types of strategies that we really need to develop? I can still hear Lesley saying that teachers didn't engage last year, perhaps they did but weren't recognised in ways they could see so gave up. What do you think?

Talk to you all on Tuesday.

Heather

June 20th<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"> That sounds like a good idea Robyn. I'll be interested to see if it has any effect. I don't think it's too underhand at all. You might even like to ask a question that is loosely based on some issue one of your teachers actually has. We could explore the discussion tab for this perhaps, it may 'feel' a little more private for them to talk in as you need to click into it and answer a specific issue. Not sure...

I've found a list of language levels that I'll put in here (click the link and have a look) We could look at these next Friday, they may help us to see what we are currently doing. I plan to show you how to do some thematic analysis of what's happening on your spaces, this should help us to identify the next steps. I also want to look at what the survey results are saying to us. I found some interesting trends coming through when I looked a week ago.

I don't think we really need to stress too much about the fact that half the year has gone and we haven't started yet, we actually have done heaps and the wikis are going places. the only slow bit is getting the teachers to sign up. We have a significant amount of data in the form of the wikispaces and the surveys, all of which can be analysed. The wikispaces will show a heck of alot, if it's significantly adviser voice, it's still data so don't worry. It will tell us that at this stage, that's what happens :).

By the way, according to the Massey Deities, we are one of two Instep groups that are doing well, so stop worrying!

June 18thEntered data from another survey this a.m. I am considering asking advice on my wiki to see if anyone enters into discussion to solve a hypothetical situation. It would be interesting to see if there are any responses. Is this being too underhand? Robyn

June 17th Some interesting discussion coming through. I have been absent from my wiki for a number of days - priorities. I did go back through the process etc with Napier LT cluster last week and have invited another 5 as a result of that. I also recieved more surveys for which I will enter the data today. I am afraid things aren't taking off the way I had hoped and now we are half way through the year I would like to have seen more progress from my wiki. - any suggestions? Robyn

16th Kia ora, The workshop that Heather ran with the lead teachers was fantastic. Heather sat in with us prior to her workshop to listen to discussions and get a feel for what was going on in the schools. She used this information to continue further discussion using the wiki. Actually what was planned initially was canned and PD took on another form which I believed was in context to what was relevant to them and would get them actively involved. How did she do this? Well!!!!! she posted questions from the discussions mentioned above on a **skrybl** page to stimulate active participation by everyone. A great hook in Heather, you are very clever. It was relevant and fresh in their minds and they could record it. Hey you guys, don't tell Heather I told you this, but you might want to make good use of her in a similar situation (leaders forum/lead teachers etc...).

There are 48 teachers registered as members of the SENS wiki. Approximately twenty attended the lead teachers forum,however, only a small percentage of this group knew their passwords, a couple were not members at all. A dead give away on how well the wiki was utilised. So despite the fact that Heather had pre-planned the session, this clearly indicated the starting point. The initial intent was to develop class wikis to get teachers communicating (sharing practice, knowledge etc.) with each other within a school environment to develop confidence and then eventually venture out cluster wide. I am so glad that Heather had sat in earlier because what was planned didn't happen and she really had to be thinking on the spot. I realised my own lack of knowledge and expertise in using a wiki and I would have been absolutely lost. Thank goodness for Heather. She's a real taonga, her skills in facilitating, knowledge and expertise in this area came through, thank goodness!!!!!! Once again, a fantastic workshop. Teachers actively involved using the wiki. Hope this continues. Like me, I know they all need to be told about //**notify me.**// <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Hi Glynis (et al), I found the new responses, thanks for that. They have some quite different thinking coming through in places, especially the final question. It's all making sense now and the trends are quite clear. You guys have some real data to play with now, I'll help you with the analysis. I had a chat to Alyson on Friday and she is quite happy with the amount of data we have now and is suggesting that we move into the next phase of the project. Apparently we're going really well in comparison to other instep groups so that's encouraging. We're a great team after all, but something tells me that sharing an office space is certainly helping us maintain the focus and momentum. However Alyson is encouraging me to actually get something moving so hopefully when we next meet we'll be able to look at the information from the surveys and share feedback about what's been happening so we can make some decisions about where to next. I had an interesting workshop with Paddy's lead teachers on wednesday that we could share with you. it was amazing how it all fitted together so well, more through them coming to the realisation that they were ready to develop a learning community than anything we did. whatever, it worked so we'll let you know what happened as it could be a way of working with your clusters. Heather Kia Ora, I have added 4 responses to the Professional Learning Communities Survey!!! I will hopefully have another 4 or 5 to enter this week. Had two great cluster meetings these past two Saturday mornings; many are keen to give the Wiki a go. (without bribery but with knowledge and know how). Glynis
 * 15th again**
 * 15th**

Thanks for that Paddy. Useful stuff. <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">I have been cruising through a couple of your wikis and there are teacher comments coming through!!! Fantastic - they're actually reflecting on things. Robyn is getting people commenting by using questioning strategies, and Glynis is very happy about her teachers actually contributing at last (she bribes them). It would be great to hear from you about why you used these strategies guys. Clever Paddy has linked her wiki to a Skrbl page and asked her teachers to write down what they want from the wiki. It will be interesting to watch and see if they are prepared to put down some ideas. Janine and Glynis are going broke buying chocolate fish to entice people to join up but i think it will be worth it. Good teachers are really just big kids at heart and like to be treated that way occasionally. We had a brief session today and had a look at the data that has been generated from your surveys. Despite initial reservations, there is some real data here you can analyse. I've shown Paddy and Glynis how to highlight the common themes so as more and more of your teacher data is entered, you can ask these two how to do that. It would be useful if it was done by the time we next meet so we can come up with some actions. General feeling is that we really don't need to worry about follow up interview questions just yet, there is enough data coming through. It may be useful at a later date to ask what sort of help they want from us, but it's ok at the moment. [|heather's delicious] For some reason, Glynis wanted this 'play' link to remain here. It's a social bookmarking page called del.icio.us where i keep all my favourite websites (ask Paddy how to set one up if you haven't already got one - and if you want one of course). It means that you can use anyone's computer and get access to your favourites. It also means you can search the world's del.icio.us sites for things that are bookmarked about ... action research for example. That way you get other people's favourites and it saves you trolling through the internet yourself when you're looking for useful sites. Heather Kia ora koutou, I thought I'd share my helpful hints seeing as Heather is bullying me and they are on the How to page Paddy
 * 6th**
 * June 3rd**

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Minutes from the April 24th meeting are now on the meetings page. There is a reading on Future Learning Landscapes on the readings page that is quite interesting. Heather
 * 3rd**

May
<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Sounds like things are beginning to actually happen, great. At our next session we'll have a look at some of the discussions that are happening i think, and see the levels of thinking that are beginning to emerge. We'll think of you Janine as we dig into your teacher responses without you here to defend them:).
 * 28th**

I am intrigued by the suggestion that we get teachers to rate the issues they had, great idea Janine. <span style="color: rgb(221, 19, 19);">**Hopefully someone will pick up the idea and have a go at another survey of some sort so that we can share the outcomes. Any offers?**
 * <span style="color: rgb(221, 19, 19);">Robyn ** your uptake is great, it's interesting that the teachers are not the ones you intially thought would give it a go. <span style="color: rgb(221, 19, 19);">**Can you share the extra questions and resources you have developed with us please?** And what links are no longer active? If they are teachertube or youtube videos, they are only kept available while people are accessing them, as soon as numbers drop they delete them off the site. Shame really, but it means we have to check them before we use them on the day or we head for disaster.


 * <span style="color: rgb(221, 19, 19);"><span style="color: rgb(221, 19, 19);">Paddy, do you think you could upload your notes onto this wiki for others to use ? ** Perhaps they could be useful to teachers as well:)

If you could all get as many of your surveys uploaded as possible by the 6th that would be great. <span style="color: rgb(221, 19, 19);">**Glynis, do you need a hand at all? I'll be in the office the week of the 3rd June if you need me.** Heather

Had a reasonably successful Thursday afternoon recuiting members of the wiki to become part of the research. I have left forms with a total of 7 teachers now although only 3 are from the original list I thought of asking so it pays to keep your options open. Some discussion has also been taking place on the wiki and following this I have added another couple of questions hopefully to stimulate more thought. I have also added some more resources that we used on Thursday at the course. I am feeling ever more hopeful that this may work. There has been some disappointment that some of the links weren't active so I have deleted these and may be will upload them at another time.
 * 25th**

The good news is that our comical session with my cluster on Thursday worked!!!! I have all except 2 that were present now on the space and some disscussion has even taken place! Sounds like the 6th will go ahead without me - can't say I'll be thinking of you as I bike around Western Plains Zoo! But it would be great if we had a questionaire where teachers rated the issues so we know where to start in our facilitation of support. How are you going with Alyson's survey? Just make comments for yourself - why you joined, what have been the successes and what are the challenges. I'll collate it and get it to her. Many thanks Janine
 * 20th

19th** I have am a bit slow at getting the surveys out... hoping to get these out to selected participants this week. I am planning to get onto the wiki during my cluster meetings coming up; June 7 and June 14. Luckily I am here at Ruawharo so will just use the house computer on the data show and model useage and get some people to practice. Your little episode was a dag Janine!!! Are we having a meeting June 6, I can do that. Cheers Glynis

Gee what a lot oif reading after a hard weekend. No not at all all - good stuff. I was rather more encouraged when opening my emails this am to see one from a L teacher who had seen the wiki advertised in the newsletter. I invited her last week and she has since been on, done the orientation task and added to the discussion. I think I might nab her for the instep stuff as she is very keen and hopes the idea takes off. Things just pop up sometimes.
 * 19th**

Kia ora Koutou,
 * 18/5/08

Had a great meeting with Heather on Friday. Learned and recorded the 'how to' stuff we covered in my diary. The bottom line is I would probably forget how it was done. Well, now I have the step by step process recorded that I can look back at. Thanks Heather, you are a real taonga. That was great!

With regards to the focus day on the 6th June, that is fine with me. Paddy**

17/5 <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Thanks everyone, i've got all your surveys now. I waited until they were all there so i couldn't tell who had written what, you'll be happy to know :).

Robyn, as you know, has suggested a meeting on the next focus day which is in a couple of weeks. We really do need this to have a look at the data you've gathered from your teachers and see if there are any patterns emerging. But primarily we need to develop the interview questions that we talked about in Palmy. Looking at the information that has come out of the first 7 teacher surveys, we really do need to have the interviews to get something more concrete to go on. I think it will just be a few of the teachers not all, but we'll talk about that at the meeting. Alyson and I think this will only be a 5 minute interview so not something you really need extra time set aside for.

I had a meeting with Janine's lead teacher group this week and you'll be happy to note that things didn't go that smoothly. We couldn't get either the telecom or vodafone aircards to work (no coverage in Waipawa) so needed to use a teacher's laptop (school network) and connect it to a data projector. The screen needed to be propped up with pillows (and fell down) and the teachers needed to sit on the floor to see it as the power cord wasn't long enough to let them stay in chairs. On top of that, I tried to show them how to join wikispaces by inviting a teacher but i was not the organiser of Janine's space so the email i sent her didn't link to the right place. Finally, I took some photos with the school camera thinking i could show them how to upload them and also put the first teacher posting up. But the camera card didn't fit the computer and the school couldn't find the proper lead... All in all, it wasn't a great way to encourage teachers to see what a useful thing this wiki could be. But... we did get into the wiki Janine had set up and showed them what they could do, and //**I**// got a lot of practice at learning what //**not**// to do. Everyone went away with a couple of tasks to do - join wikispaces and put up their names with an email link. I'll be interested to see how qiuckly this happens.

Next time I will (no, i didn't have a learning intention): Find out about broadband coverage before I get to the workshop location Check the computers can connect in some way - if not, make sure a data projector (and screen) is available Check things like extension cords, cameras, etc before the workshop. This is the trouble with being flexible enough to see an idea and run with it, you are not always prepared for everything that means! Find out the starting point before I plan. These teachers were not members of wikispaces so i changed my thinking on the hop. This meant I tried to show them how to join and got caught up with the level of administration required to do this.

Thanks Janine for letting me lead them astray. I enjoyed it, i think they learnt a few things, we'll see what happens next. Heather 10/5/08 Thanks Robyn, I think we all did if the discussions i've had since are anything to go by. <span style="color: rgb(53, 73, 237);">**Need to talk to principals when we give out the ethics letter** - video requirement should be crossed out (by them), 4.5 hours needs to be discussed as a maximum and not a reality for our projects. <span style="color: rgb(41, 242, 13);">**Questionnaire has a few problems, however we will run with it** and see what it generates. good idea to point out the difference between plc and online plc questions. <span style="color: rgb(245, 191, 15);">**Decided to use the results of this questionnaire to focus our next discussion with the teachers**. This will be in the format of a semi-structured interview with them around questions 4 and 5 to pull out some real data. <span style="color: rgb(238, 242, 38);">**<span style="color: rgb(177, 6, 145);">We are all going to start a reflective journal ** to record what we are doing. I think most of you will use hard copy rather than online for this. <span style="color: rgb(255, 3, 0);">**Heather's survey is on the wiki** - needs to be completed ASAP (pretty please) Heather is available for your teacher meetings if you need support when launching them.
 * Key points...**

8/5/08 I found yesterdays meeting with Alyson very useful. I think we are developing a really open forum for discusion. My issues are actually time-tabling my visits to teachers as these are extra to what is a very full diary. I was hoping to be able to send the letters by post or email but now believe it will be more effective to do so in person following Paddy's experience. Thanks Heather for your support and encouragement. Robyn

May3/5/08 <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">ISTEAM it is! Sorry about those of you who wanted the R, I really tried but it didn't work for me. I needed a simple name that sounded good when it was read. I have changed the name of the wiki to acknowledge the change, if you have it saved anywhere you may want to change the name there to help you find it. If you still type the name into the URL (I'll show you how to be a little more clever if you ask) then it is now http://isteam.wikispaces.com

I've just been listening to the discussion we had with Alyson in the last meeting, it is very clear that we need to be seriously attending to our baseline and ongoing data gathering. We have since developed a great questionnaire and Janine has managed to get her ones completed (but it's not a competition I hear you all say). I suggest you ask her about what she found as a result of getting her teachers to do it, she did suggest some strategies to help them that may be useful to us all, but she was also conscious of not leading them. //<span style="color: rgb(255, 53, 0);">**Janine, can you share your ideas here on the wiki for us? Good opportunity to practice your reflection skills :)** // Janine will enter the data from her teachers so we can look at the results when we get together on Wednesday evening before dinner. Hopefully it will begin to show up some patterns that may help us identify where we go to from here. No stress on the rest of you, it will happen when it can.

Alyson suggested we need to keep diaries to monitor the things we are doing. All of you are making comments about what your teachers are asking and the suggestions you come up with to help them. You need to write these things down, this is the 'intervention' that we need to know about so we can see teacher shifts and identify our role in them. Perhaps we could also look at strategies to help us record such things on Wednesday. //**<span style="color: rgb(236, 68, 19);">Can you all bring your ideas along so we can see what we are all / could be doing? **//

I will have my survey ready by Wednesday too, apparently it takes about 15 mins to complete. I will show it to you, but ask you to complete it online. That way it is anonymous. Heather

April
Kia ora,** I like Isteam. How about adding the 'R' this way: R-Isteam (Ruawharo esteem). Naku noa Paddy
 * 30 April

Kia Ora, I like Isteam if you want a R how about Risteam or Isteamr !!!! (I just had to write something!!) Cheers Glynis
 * 29 April**

I agree with Robyn, Isteam is a little friendlier than Mistes, tho the later is probably nearer the truth! Sorry the creative brain is on holiday so haven't had any further brainwaves or ways to add the "R" either. Something might come to me inthe next couple of days. Janine
 * 29th April**

Great ideas Heather. However, I do wonder a little negatively about Mistes since none of us are Misters. Isteam suits well, a pity we can't have an R in there somewhere for Ruawharo. Robyn
 * 28th April**

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);"> Hi guys. I need to have a name to refer to the group by when I’m writing. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I personally think that Ruawharo Researchers is a bit of a mouthful. Thanks, Heather
 * 28th April**
 * Mistes** (Massey in-service teacher educators) came to mind and I wondered how you felt - misty eyed - bleary eyed....
 * Isteam** was another idea (in-service teacher educators at Massey) held in high esteem of course.

Hi all. you may have noticed that my question has changed since we began this journey. I will be looking at my own practice, trying to identify the most effective ways to support you to develop your online PLCs.
 * 27th April**

Thanks for trying the survey, at least we know the questions have been set up correctly. I've sent the link to Alyson so she can check our thinking. I think we did pretty well today, we developed a good questionnaire and learnt how to use a new programme. On top of that, we left the room talking about how teachers could use the programme in their own classrooms. We were actually modelling reflective practice. How good is that! Well done everyone. Cheers, Heather Our work with Alyson on Monday and our work on the questionaire with Heather today has been most valuable in giving me clearer direction for my part in the PLG. I have, this afternoon, selected the teachers I hope will be my instep 'devotees', compiled an email to give them more direction and will now await their responses. I have also been in an trialled the questionaire - very simple. I know I have a way to go but I think the train has left the station with me on board. Thanks all. Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday with Alyson at 2pm. I could be a little late as I have my keen bunz workshop. We are required to fill out ethics forms as advisers so I will find these in the pile and have them ready for this meeting. Many thanks Heather for sorting our ramblings into some kind of intelligent form I think the haze is beginning to clear slightly! Janine <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Hi all. Another great session and now that i'm listening to it again, it's amazing the ground we actually covered. I'm analysing the tape of our discussion about barriers and enablers, and what we found from the reading. I'll post the results here soon.
 * 24 April**
 * 17 April**
 * 2nd April**

We suggested in our meeting that we would invite people to our primary wikis so we could see what each other is doing. I'll start off by inviting you all to go to the Masseytech wiki. I think it's going to be interesting to see how these change over the year as we identify new ways to engage our teachers.

Meantime, here's a challenge that could end up in some interesting discussion next time. Have a look at your own wiki and see if you can identify what it is currently trying to do. How do you know? Did you realise this before you looked?

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">To create a link to your wiki;
<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">(if you don't already know)
 * <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Click on **edit this page** first.
 * <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Open a new tab and go to your wiki that you want to invite us to.
 * <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Highlinght the URL (address bar at the top of the page) and copy it (Ctrl C).
 * <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Go back to this wiki page
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<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Heather Janine Robyn Glynis**
 * Paddy

March
7th March 08 <span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Hi all. great beginnings yesterday, thanks so much for all wanting to be involved. I think we have shown a significant level of understanding of the 'puzzle of practice' already.

<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">Our question...
<span style="color: rgb(5, 6, 102);">As i see it, we are individually going to try to find out <span style="color: rgb(137, 25, 154);"><span style="font-size: 130%; color: rgb(236, 9, 9);">**"What I can do to strengthen teacher learning through using online professional learning communities?"** Please jot your thoughts down so we can refine it further until we are all happy.

My question will be around the overall results of us working collectively towards this issue. I think! As such, I think i will be inputting things like data gathering tools as we think we need them, helping us to identify themes that emerge from our work and discussions, and being part of the overall challenge to keep us focussed.

As you will have seen already, there are several readings that are around action research and learning communities. Most of them are pretty dense but i suggest you just skim through and look for headings that look interesting. I will also photocopy some easy stuff about action research for us so we have a handle on what we are doing. if anyone has some other readings, please put them up for us to flick through. Heather

Kia ora RR's It was great to get together yesterday and share our ideas about research areas and how we can work together. I think having the shared focus of developing collaborative learning groups to enhance particular aspects of pedagogy/curriculm etc will work out really well.

I look forward to seeing your specific areas of interest within the shared focus.

Alyso