Gerard:
In our current unit we've been doing a research assignment on a famous person who's made a difference in the world. Traditionally as a teacher, you would have to book in and compete with other teachers for computer access. Be very rigid – these are the days that you can do research, these are the days that you can't. It wasn't very adaptable. If a kid missed the day, they missed a day of research, so they didn't have the information.
I think for this unit, what's been most useful is... we've been doing biographical writing and the internet has actually provided a whole range of models for students to see what biographical writing looks like. And they've picked up on that writing style and that voice that you need in biographical writing. And they've picked it up a lot quicker than they have in previous years.
Having a teacher site where all your work is... I've endeavoured to plan term by term, which, as some of the students said earlier, means that whenever they've finished work there's a next step for them to go on to. And just as a student, they can see the big picture of it because they can see it there on the site and they can see where it's going and where it's heading to. It also means that they have access to their work anytime, anywhere. And I think for a lot of our Pasifika students particularly, who live in big families and big homes, often a lot of their work is done late at night once everyone is in bed. And I've had the experience of sitting up on Google at 11 o'clock at night and students starting to log in at that time, and work through to one, two in the morning because that's the best learning time that they have. And that was surprising for me as a teacher because I didn't think that was the case. But I think you just never know what's the best time for an individual to do their work.
Student 1:
I dislike waiting for the teachers because I'm not the only student in the classroom. And teachers, they go around and help others. And if we're working on our Notebooks, there's always another activity for us to be able to do. But if we're on our pen and paper, we have to wait and wait, and wait, like forever. And sometimes when I wait forever I go off task when I'm on pen and paper. I talk to my friends and that's how I go off learning.
Back to Gerard's class - teaching inquiry
Published on: 29 Oct 2012
