We had a great meeting at Mangere East School on 3rd April last term. Apologies for the change in date necessitated by the NZEI meetings.

Thanks to Anthony Noble-Campbell and his staff for hosting us, providing a yummy afternoon tea, showing us through their new ‘Phoenix’ block, and sharing part of their ICT/Learning story with us.

The new Phoenix block incorporates the latest in educational thinking - that children learning in different ways in a varied, comfortable physical environment, with provision for easy interacting and use of mobile devices. Double storied, each storey has 5 teaching/learning spaces opening out into a large shared space, separated from the shared space by only floor to ceiling glass walls. This enables a range of learning/teaching styles within a regular class setting as well as various sized shared sessions in the larger area. There were also a number of group withdrawal rooms, again separated from each classroom by glass walls, for transparency.

Furniture included soft bean bags, soft stools around discussion tables, chairs with armrests for using a device or note-taking, and cushions, as well as regular tables and chairs. Looks like it will be unexciting learning space.

We also discussed a number of other issues including google docs and cloud computing.

Our next meeting is week 3, Thursday May 22 at Finlayson School, 85 John Walker Drive, Manurewa at 3.30 for a cuppa and starting at 3.45pm.

Please come prepared to input - an app, an issue or problem, something ICT related that is going well at your school, etc
We have managed to get a good knowledgeable speaker on Teacher Dashboard and Google Apps for Education for our next meeting this Thursday.

She has had experience administrating and using Google Apps and Teacher Dashboard in the classroom. It will be worthwhile seeing this presentation if your school has just started, or is planning to start using Google Apps and Teacher Dashboard, or were wondering what Teacher Dashboard is all about.

Could you please respond urgently with answers to these questions:

Is your school starting to use, or considering using Google Apps for Education?

Do you use Teacher Dashboard, or are considering using it, or are you just interested in finding out what it is and how it works?

See you there :)