John Key came to Owhata Primary (Rotorua) on Thursday 12 March 2009. He spent some time in classrooms seeing what the children are doing with Interactive Whiteboards.
In the brief time he was in classes, he learnt how to draw, write, freeform capture, record himself and insert a sound file into an interwrite document. This shows how easy the programme is to use and how many skills our 6-8 year olds have acquired in guiding him through these processes. He was impressed with the level of technology these children were using.
A fantastic experience for our children and staff.
The priority has to be ‘raising the standards’ – of course we have to raise the standard in Education- Why would we lower them. But I’m wondering how best to do that without developing the League tables for schools idea that has had such a detrimental effect on the teaching profession. How do we raise student achievement without beating the life (and passion) out of teaching?
Shane Taurima questions Helen over Labours failure toward Maori boys. Youth appreticeships form 13?? Surely there is a need for a more though grounding in education than that. I feel that this is spelling of the 19th century model Ken Robinson spoke of with broadening out the ‘working class’ education for the majority of the ’skilled’ labour. Perhaps if education isn’t suiting my kid I could just send off down the pit to work those blast door for ther pit pony’s and leave the educating for those smarter kids!
All I want for my kid in primary school is that he is learning to read and write. Perhaps the two of them are talking about opposite ends of the education system. Of course I want my primary kid to learn to read and write. But equally, I’ll want my 16-17 year old being prepared for the work in the 21st century, I’m not sure appreticeships will address that issue.
Now we’re onto parents paying for Free education. Of course if I want my kid to go on the school trip skiing or to Japan or on some geographical fieldtrip to investigate lava flow I’m willing to pay for that… It looks, feels and probably is above and beyond the classroom experience. But would I expect to be charged for the regular ‘in class’ education of my child, certainly not if it is touted as ‘Free’.
My current situation is partly board funded due to the Ministry of Education stating that the class size is too small to warrent an extra teacher. So what does ‘board funded” mean? It means the school is having to raise addition funds to pay for me to drive up the road and deliver that ‘free’ education labour talks about.
Now I’m off on a rant so feel free to stop reading… but….
It’s a little like the ‘free 20 hours’ for 3-4 year olds. That scheme was under funded and had to be subsided by the parents. The hourly rate underthat scheme was too little to support the wage requirements of the teaching staff. If the government came out saying it was a subsidised scheme there would have been no issue but them saying it was free caused a right row in the ECE sector.
Helen Clark highlights the fact that we do not have to pay these school contributions. Wow what a statement. I’d love to see what would happen if, as a result of that statement ALL PARENTS, EVERYWHERE, right across the country went into their schools and asked for a refund. What would happen to those school budgets this late in the school year.
Over the last week my boy has been practising with the mousepad on my computer. Here are a few links to helpful sites than enable your average pre-schooler to engage with the Web.
Have just started my new post at in a rural school. The school is actually really well equipped.
Up-to-date computer (6)
IWB (1)
Network, hardwired.
Everything is needing to be hardwired as there is no signal for anything out here. I question whether they can get TV coverage. No cellphone, no wireless. The job has kept me too busy to really notice, but I have been off-line now for over a week and I’m feeling it. Plus I’ve been too busy and too tired to sit up at night. This is the first late night blogging I’ve done for some time now. Maybe there aren’t enough hours in the day or maybe I’m just getting too old to be burning the candle at both ends.
I’ve tried to keep up with my blog reading but even that is proving difficult. So, sorry to all those I’ve skimmed and couldn’t find 30 seconds to make a comment…. I feel bad about it, I really do.
I’ve hit the road again today, spent all afternoon travelling from Hastings to Tauranga. I forget how beautiful NZ is and its not until you spend sometime on the road and actually look around as you go that you fully appreciate the scenery.
But that is not why I’m posting today. It is the middle of the school holidays and I have Breathe Technology Staff meeting in the morning. I’ve spent a lovely evening with my boss, her partner a colleague of mine and the Easiteach trainer. More of that tomorrow I guess. Sometimes it is really difficult to get out the conversation about Education but we did hit upon the topic of internet dating.
From what we talked about it seems to be;
a) a) a lot more common now and
b) b) a lot safer.
I was wondering if that were true or not or whether it is just our perception of it? If anyone has facts and figures on such things please comment.
My other question was surrounding cyber safety and the ‘internet dating’ thing. I fear that the Internet-dating will be the sex-ed of the cyber safety education programme. I remember the thoughts of:
‘Let’s not talk about sex in the classroom.’
‘If we start talking about it, more students will experiment with it and we’ll have a bigger social problem than we already have’
So my question being where in the ‘cyber-safety curriculum’ does internet dating appear?
John Key came to Owhata Primary (Rotorua) on Thursday 12 March 2009. He spent some time in classrooms seeing what the children are doing with Interactive Whiteboards.
In the brief time he was in classes, he learnt how to draw, write, freeform capture, record himself and insert a sound file into an interwrite document. This shows how easy the programme is to use and how many skills our 6-8 year olds have acquired in guiding him through these processes. He was impressed with the level of technology these children were using.
This is the first late night blogging I’ve done for some time now. Maybe there aren’t enough hours in the day or maybe I’m just getting too old to be burning the candle at both ends.
I’ve hit the road again today, spent all afternoon travelling from Hastings to Tauranga. I forget how beautiful NZ is and its not until you spend sometime on the road and actually look around as you go that you fully appreciate the scenery.
