Discussion+Page

toc PLEASE leave this here as it automatically adds to the Table of Contents. Add all new contributions to this page at the top and under the current month. Date and sign your contribution.

Web 2.0 tools
Here's a link to a website with some great teaching tools. [|Web 2.0 tools]


Babies in childcare: Insight programme [|click here] Here is the link to an interesting programme re the current debate. I urge you to listen to it. It is top of the list but may not remain more than a week, so save it by downloading for later listening.


Coming up on radio New Zealand National Sunday, 21 June 8:12 am The early childhood education sector has been getting a public battering lately. In April, many media reported that an Education Review Office audit of toddler and infant centres showed up to half of them were failing their clients. Since then, various reports have gloomily predicted dire futures for children under the age of three who are placed in child-care. But are they right? Penny Mackay goes behind the headlines to sort through the evidence on what babies and toddlers really need. David =March= Friday 27

**Survey**
Your opinion is valued. Please contribute your thoughts [|Click Here to take survey] Your thoughts will help us to ensure this wiki meets your needs and expectations. Thank you for participating Glynis

24th March 09 Hi Glynis, It's great to see this up and running again. I look forward to hearing and sharing what people have been up to in terms of assessment. Monica Cameron

(Your contribution and comments welccome here!)

Monday 23

Welcome back to our assessment for learning (and teaching too of course!!!!) wikispaces. Even though I am priviledged to be working with another bunch of keen Kei Tua o te Pae participants this year I have decided to keep this wikispace open to those of you from 2008 who wish to continue contributing - building and developing our Community of Practice!!! =** Focusing the sociocultural lens on your assessment practices. ** = Consider the following guidelines from the first nine Kei Tua o te Pae books - how are you going on your assessment for learning journey?

My undocumented and documented assessments:
 * include clear goals for learning (make the learning that is valued visible)
 * are situated in everyday contexts
 * protect and enhance children's motivation to learn
 * acknowledge uncertainty
 * included documentation of collective and individual enterprises
 * keep a view of learning as complex
 * are embedded within the 4 principles of //Te Whaariki//
 * are on a pathway towards bicultural assessment
 * provide opportunities for children to contribute to their own assessment
 * provide opportunities for family and whanau to participate in the assessment process
 * make a difference to; community, competence, and continuity
 * include infants and toddlers
 * reflect and strengthen inclusion

Survey
Look out for your invitation to contribute to a questionnaire via **Survey Monkey** coming to your email box soon. All contributions gratefully received and responded to. l

August
!4/08 Welcome Kevin, Yes you are the first to respond from the Future Kids crew. Here's enough chocolate fish for you and your team - if you can encourage them to join the discussion. Cheers Glynis

14th aug 08 Hi Glynis

thanks for the invite i look forward to exploring these pages once i have some free time from my assignments. I think that this will be a great resource. As for your challenge well i think that children not only build their literacy through their experence of the spoken word i feel that there are many ways to communicate and multiliteracys just look at Reggio. well enough of that i hope that this sparks some responses.

thank again kevin. PS was i the first to respond should i expect a choc fish or is it time to buy my own ha ha ha.

08.08.08 Kia Ora Koutou We have had a challenge : go to [|Literacy Learning Progressions] and tell us what you think? Glynis 4th Hello I am just test driving this wiki space with Glynis Chuckles

July
27th July My idea and understanding of why we talk about 'assessment for learning' is that I see assessment as being forward looking - looking toward to where we and the child are possibly going. To me assessment is about informing future learning, rather than assessment of learning, which is looking back at what has already happened. Am unsure if I am on the right track here and would love to hear what others think. Yes I am here and reading these, just rather slack about replying. Monica

Its me again, Tutira, It must be me and you Glynis where is everyone, I found something else to reflect on while I was cruising around the net, and wondered if anyone else had consciously thought about it. Why we say 'assessment for learning' instead of 'assessment of learning'?. This question is for the other teachers, I know you will have a great answer Glynis!! Cheers

19 July Great idea to visit Jill Bowker at Nelson Park, she certainly acknowledges that children come to school with competence and capability. Jill is also using assessment for learning (narratives and portfolios) to inform teaching. We in ece need to have courageous conversations with our Primary colleagues. We should all be looking for opportunities to tell our stories and share our pedagogy with teachers in the other sectors. Glynis Thanks Glynis I would like to hear her 'spin' on our wiki space. I'm also organising to visit Gill Balka at Nelson Park, apparently EC education in relation to 'setting the foundation for children's learning' is acknowledged and understood by the teachers at this school

18 July Great provocative discussion, thanks Tutira. What do you all think? Click on [|Literacy Learning Progressions] for school entry to see for yourself what the identifyed school entry progressions are. Here at Ruawharo we have a Literacy Advisor who is also an AtoL (Assess to Learn) advisor, Janine's email address is j.remnant@massey.ac.nz she is willing to answer any of your queries. Would you like to hear her "spin" on the Language Learning Progressions as a guest appearance on our ece wikispace? Glynis

16 July Tutira here, We do our best as EC teachers to provide a safe and caring environment for children and their whanau. We do our best to provide learning opportunities and document these for all to see, we are learning new ways to better our practices and understanding about child development and learning, but what happens when EC and the school your children are going to attend are on a different page? Where equality is the focus not equity? How well have we prepared our children for their next big step into the wider world (school) where literacy skills seem to be the priority? Where the MOE has given new entrant teachers a list of things that MOST children go to school knowing? and it seems only some children know? How do we close the gap between EC and primary? Should we be including schools in our 'community of learners' or somehow in the Kei tua o te pai exemplars around literacy? I don't know but would like too. Does anyone else have any ideas?

4.7.08. Thank you Glynis for coming up to our presentation night. This evening has had a very positive response from the parent't who attended which has been great. It has lead to the Parents now putting learning stories from home into their childs profile and sharing learning that has been happening. We are now going to invite the Principals and the head of the junior dept plus teachers to come to our next presentation in term3.We will be sending out the invitattions when we get back after the break.I will have a look at your following opportunties and will discuss with my team. David continues to update our blog so have a look. We have just had a special roast lunch which the children prepared all the vegetables for plus the fruit for the kebabs.They great fun using a knife and fork ! Adrianne.

10 July On the 6th of July Radio New Zealand had an interesting item on teams on the sunday morning ideas segment. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/ideas/ideas_for_sunday_6_july_2008 it's about an hour long and talks about leadership, the key elements of a successful team especially variety, and makes you think that your team includes your customers as well as the more obvious. It talks about common purpose and it finishes by discussing three elements teams have to fight against to work together, the culture of silence, the culture of me and the culture of secrecy. It notes regardless of what you say it is what you do that will be noticed. It talks about how you need to shift leadership back and forth style from collaboration to authoritarian

To me A team works well when it has purpose Purpose comes from vision/ visualisation, Vision comes from experience (personal or vicarious) Shared vision can come from shared experience and vision coconstruction, or can be communicated by rolemodelling or use of parable to put new concepts into familiar enough terms that all can envision them.

Such a parable could be team work can be like a driver and a team of horses. The driver sets up the harness, gives a touch of the reins were needed and brakes as well to set the appropriate speed for the road, they train the horses to lead themselves. The driver watches the road, and blinkers the horses if need be, and matches them to their strengths so one side doesn't pull harder than another. Through the drivers coordination, the horses pull more together than they could individually. Each contributes their strengths, none more valuable than the other. The driver also ensures the horses are well cared for and feel appreciated and makes sure they all see each other being well treated for if one horse sees another being ill treated, no matter how well treated it is it will always have doubt about how it may be treated. Taking a team in a new direction requires a slow and careful turn, especially if turning from the familiar to the unfamiliar. The whip can get bursts of speed, but is likely to shake up the cart as the horse's stride changes and will have consequences for cargo, horses and the drivers control.

David

3rd July Hello out there... What's news? Here are my offerings.

What are your thoughts about the following opportunities?
Are you interested in becoming a COI (Centre of Innovation) - selection for Round 5 closes early August. Is this a challenge for your team?Follow this link for more information http://www.lead.ece.govt.nz/default.htm

Have you heard of the NEiTA Foundation and the 2008 awards for exemplary teachers in NZ schools and ECE centres? The awards promote public recognition of the teaching professopm and specifically those teachers who have demostrated excellence and commitment in their work. The programme calls on individual parents, Parents Associations, Boards of Trustees, Management committees to identify and nominate teachers and leaders who are an inspiration to their peers and to their communities. Go to http://www.neita.com.au/index.asp?menu1=nz2&menu2=1&content1=read_more1.htm and discover who this year's recipients were.

Don't forget to add your news, challenges or celebrations. Cheers Glynis

June
23rd June Kia Ora, Last Wednesday on a cold winter's night in Waipukurau I was privileged to witness the teachers from Hunter Park Kindergarten having the "courage to give something new ago". Adrienne, Jo, David and Monica sent an open invitation to their kindergarten community and 20 fabulous parents and whanau came to listen and share. Each teacher gave a presentation making visible and accessible learning that is valued at Hunter Park Kindergarten and also their fervent goal to encourage and foster a "community of learners" who are involved in, and participate and contribute to ongoing learning pathways for children, parents and teachers. It would be great to see some photos on our Portfolio page! // E kore nei te tangata, i pakari, i runga, i te wai mārino A person will never grow if they remain in calm waters // Glynis

17th June Tutira here Iv'e just had a look around the site 'learning together'. The link is in reading and resources, click on the 'dispositions for learning together project'. Well worth looking at for providing template ideas that encourage parents to contribute and share their child's learning. Simple, non threatening, not too much reading so parents hopefully will feel obliged to contribute to their child profile books, which is one of the goals we are working on at the mo Cheers

June 17th,2008. Thanks to David i am now on it !!!! Look forward to seeing you tomorrow night .. we have twenty Parents coming so will be a good night. David and Monica are doing a power point presentation.Jo and I are not!! Please bring my chocolate fish when you come. Adrianne. June 16th I have made it on! Thanks so much for facilitating such great PD on saturday Glynis - was a great opportunity to share. Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday. Monica June 11 Kia orana Angela from Footsteps thanks Glynis for the great pd on Monday and insights into our practices...Thought prompting meeting! Will make one of these cluster meetings, sounds like a great opportunity to share with other professionals. Tena Koutou Ange

June 8 Joy giving it a go. Don't know what I am doing but will find out as I go I hope. I am a little lost about finding my way around but I guess practice makes perfect or a little better each time. Takes me back to Italy and not speaking the language!!! A lifelong learning journey so they say so I am just thinking that this has to be good for the brain's wiring. Ka kite Joy P.S Thanks Cath for the lovely feedback for me, I am loving your enthusiasm and responsiveness to new ideas its like a breath of fresh air.

8th That was interesting David and I were obviously editing at the same time and oops mine got lost. Luckily Heather showed us how to retrieve lost wisdoms... Kia Ora Koutou, Welcome to those from the Napier Cluster meeting yesterday who have accepted the invitation and challenge to become participants in our online Community of Learners. Remember you can not make mistakes - it is all learning! Thanks for everyone's contribution to our meeting yesterday; it was great to hear teachers talk about their progress towards achieving their professional learning goals. Thanks also to those who brought along evidence in the form of documentation and photos, I'm sure other participants found this helpful as they continue on their journeys towards implementing "wise" sociocultural teaching and learning practices.

A Challenge
Give this ago...upload some of those fantastic photos onto our new "Assessment for Learning Portfolio" page. (Instructions on how to upload photos or files are on the page). Thanks to Heather Bell our Technology expert who came along and sorted out some of our questions and problems!!! We will take up one of Heather's suggestions - Please add your contribution to the top of the page under the current month's heading. Write the date and then your addition to the discussion. Now I must go an get on with my assignment. Cheers Glynis

Jojo trying things out... l'bm,wvo['jk w4pkgq4[ ltg ]w3f

David looks above and says, Hmm someone's had to many chocolate fish :) Here's something I wrote for another site I'd like to share. To make a good carving, it helps to select the best wood, selection can go right back to what you plant ,where and how the tree is tened and shaped. If you can't select the best then you need to work with what you have and not try and make it into something it isn't suited to, but instead emphasis it's strengths, turn it's weaknesses to features. That inconvenient knot, how can I use it to enhance the sculpture? Good preparation of the wood is important, wood that has been properly seasoned and aged in the right conditions will be more receptive than wood rushed to the chisel, or poorly seasoned. (Think about the work we are doing as ECE teachers, but also apply this to student teachers.) The more your carve upon something the harder it is to change the direction of the carving, some patterns will be more open to later reshaping than others, but some of the most unique patterns only give you one chance. (You could compare this to a student teacher, an inexperienced teacher is very impressionable. A more experienced one will be directed and limited by the work that has already been done, less impressionable and more resistant to reshaping. There is strength in both generic flexibility and in purposeful uniqueness.) I gave you a seed you rolled it in your hands you lost it and a tree grew, it allowed you to hide and seek it grew bigger and sheltered us from the weather, we played in it's branches and collected it's seeds. It fell I took it's wood and made a bed frame for you. the bed frame broke I carved swans from the knobs and pieces your swan fell in the fire it warmed us on a cold winter I took the black char ground them and mixed them with egg yolk, we used them to paint a picture. The picture faded, it inspired a poem our poem was forgotten but shaped a mind We gave that mind a seed to roll in their hands .



May
Congratulations you have found the ** chocolate fish. ** Now fill out your details in the table below and you will be in to receive a chocolate fish at our next Cluster meeting; Napier Cluster - Saturday 7 June @ Ruawharo EIT 9am - 12pm Hastings Cluster - Saturday 14 June @ Ruawharo EIT 9am -12pm

Remember before you can add your centre and name to the table hit the Edit this page button at the top of the page and wa-lah you are on the page!

To plan planning visible and inclusive to parents and children. || Date I wrote this: 29 May 2008 || To provide ongoing learning opportunities for children || Date I wrote this: 20th May 08 || Strengthen links between home and kindergarten. || Date I wrote this: 29th May 08 || Strengthen links between home and kindergarten. || Date I wrote this: 29th May 08 || To implement effective assessement for learning practices that strengthens engagement in children's learning || Today's date: 3 June 2008 ||
 * Centre Name: Colenso Early Childhood Centre || My Name: jo ||
 * Our professional learning goal for 2008:
 * Centre Name:tutira early childhood centre || My Name:shari ||
 * Our professional learning goal for 2008:
 * Centre Name:Hunter Park Kindergarten || My Name:Dave ||
 * Our professional learning goal for 2008:
 * Centre Name:Hunter Park Kindergarten || My Name:Jo ||
 * Our professional learning goal for 2008:
 * Centre Name: Chuckles Childcare || My name: Fiona ||
 * Our Professional Learning Goal:


Ka Pai To those who have given the "wiki" a go. Bring along your assessment success stories to our next Cluster Meeting. (Click on: Notices Cath, if you dont mind sharing YOUR profile book it would be cool for your to bring it along. Looking forward to hearing your stories of success and achievement. Regards Glynis

What's happening in your centre?
 Hi Cath from Colenso here, Finding this a bit of a challenge and I have lots of experience with online communication but think I have finally worked out what I am doing!! As a room we are finding our new system of assessing children learning and our own teaching focus everyday really positive for both children, whaanau and ourselves - we have found using lots of photos a big draw card. The children's profile books are down at their level so they can look when they like but our assessments are not so our next challenge is to get those down at the children's level so they can look and revisit whenever they want to. Our wonderful new teacher Joy bought a fantastic idea with her from her last centre - teacher's own profile books, which I was very excited to put together myself!! These books have stories about our home lives, children, pets, holiday tc as well as teaching stories written by either ourselves or other teachers in the centre. The children have shown a great interest in looking through these and parents have also had a look and a laugh at our haircuts back in the 80's!!! Thanks

Hi, Tutira here, I'm in; how did you know chocolate fish are my fav!! Where we are at with our assessment for learning is that we found that to extend childrens attitudes, knowledge, skills etc its really important for teachers to extend their own knowlege and understandings by gathering information on whatever topic so you can provide ongoing, meaningful learning experiences. So what we have done is each of us have made a resource folder that we refer to, to plan further learning experiences (that may or may not work) and which give us a better understanding of what children are possibly learning or developing skills in that area, interest etc. I have cut quite a few articles, pages out of the 'Littles' magazine for example which I have been using quite a bit. At this stage it seems to be working really well. Basically we feel its important to research and learn ourselves so that we can provide awesome learning for children.

Kiaora koutou Ragnar aka David from Hunter Park here. This year we started blogging, we had a little trouble as blogspot decided we resembled a robot generated spam site, but after 6 weeks (if should only have taken 5 working days according to their site, they reopened us and now our blog is up and running. We might shift to a a phb forum or a wiki, as communication is pretty much one way at the moment and it's a big hard to organise as it just goes by date. But thats the exciting thing (not scary Glynis :P) about trying new things.

**March**
Kia Ora, Thanks for being patient... I am just a learner in this space. I have discovered some important information to alleviate frustration when downloading the readings. I have posted this important information on the //Readings and Resources// page. Go now and give it a try. Please write any comments or suggestions you might have for this Wiki right here on this page. Cheers Glynis