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Link to Sway: https://sway.office.com/ddmUTRLwZgI6gXYZ?ref=Link
The skill that I would be working on would be for Collaboration. I find that children find it very difficult to work as a team, share information and make decisions together.
In my sway they have to work together as a whole class and in small groups. I really took ideas from the module for putting it together.
The class will first brainstorm a topic to do a project on or it could be an area from SESE that we would like to further explore.
Next they will write key words that they know about the topic on sticky notes and display them on the board.
We would divide the notes under headings.
Groups chose areas of interest based on the headings.
The groups work together to put the key notes into sentences.
Groups complete more research to further develop their knowledge about the heading.
Once all the information was gathered the group then have to decide how they are going to represent the information, how they will make the presentation and then what roles they will each take on during the presentation.
Each group would have to make a quiz using Forms to share with the rest of the class after the presentation.
Also the group can design activity cards and a whole class art project based on their heading for the class.
Finally the group would reflect on the success of the group to give feedback to the teacher.
Digital learning is something that we really need to work on improving in our school. The teachers in senior classes use laptops to do a bit of project work on Word but really we need to invest in IT in the school. I am a relatively newly appointed principal in the school and i am still getting a handle on everything the role involves. Looking at the digital strategy for the school will be something that I will need to focus on in the coming year. I was familiar with the SSE document but the Digital Learning Framework was something that i really had not looked at.
I would like to change the mindset in the school that IT is just for the 5th and 6th class.
There are so many things that digital resources can enhance the teaching and learning in a classroom.
All the previous suggestions in the other modules such as using the quiz, One Note and Teams.
I love the idea of getting feedback for the SSE from the pupils and also the parents – what is it they expect their children to be able to do using IT?
I would also like to move us more towards storing information, assessments and record keeping to a more digital format rather that paper files.
I will need to sit down and work through the statements in the SSE guidelines and the DLF to see myself as a principal where we are at as a school and make the SMART targets. It will be hard to not become too overwhelmed as there is so much to do.
Also by using more digital files then resources can be shared better among staff so more can benefit from shared ideas. It would be an asset to have a person on staff who would take responsibility for IT and digital learning in the school.
I believe the gathering data stage of SSE will be the most important to establish where we are as a school and guide us in how we progress forward. Using Forms to get feedback from staff, parents and also pupils will be a great way to gather evidence and have it all in one place.
It is nice that the documents from the Dept and linked and of the same format so that you are not trying to wrap your head around different forms of assessing our teaching and learning.
I think this will be a huge task going forward in the coming year which will require involvement of all staff and a lot of collaboration and cooperation.
Link to OneNote: Junior Infants
I will not be in a class in September so I just put together a few little bits to get practice in how to insert the various items and getting familiar with the layout of One Note as it is not something that i have used previously. I can see the benefit for the older classes to use one note. It would be a great way to get started on a project, create group work activities and even have individual projects that pupils could work on at home over the course of a period of time. I would not really see it being very applicable in the younger classes as I believe it would be a bit too complex to navigate. It would also be a great way to reduce the amount of school books going home for homework as this could be set by the teacher to complete various activities at home and then the teacher can view them afterwards or display on screen in class for whole class discussion on their findings after engaging in the work at home. Of course in order for this to be the case you are relying on all pupils having access to the needed technology at home. This is something that all teachers need to be mindful of before engaging with online school content.
I can see that at times the Teams app would be very useful. It is definitely something that I need to become more familiar with and I felt the overview of it here was a bit more of a whistle stop tour. I would need a bit more support and guidance in it to better see how it would be of benefit to the staff and pupils. I am somewhat competent in using technology but there would need to be upskilling of staff so that everyone would be confident in using it for shared staff communication and then for use with pupils. I found it challenging and as I said I am not computer illiterate!
I do feel that it would be a very good way to share resources but i feel this is already very well covered by using sharepoint which we use as a staff regularly. Maybe going forward I would try to switch over to using it for online meetings rather than using Zoom. I can see how the assignments section would be handy for more senior classes in primary school and really would have been of a greater benefit when we were remote teaching!
I completed the PowerPoint recording but did not have the facility to upload to Stream. I’m not sure if our version had that function.
I look forward to taking the time going forward to see more of what teams has to offer and implementing it more going forward.
Back to School
School will be back on August 30th
Go to this SwayAs a principal I think that Sway would be a great way of creating newsletters to share events and activities and information with parents. It is a quick user friendly way put together a nicely presented newsletter to be shared in a very cost effective manner. It also would be a great way for me to keep staff up to date on new projects that we will be running in the school and how various staff members can participate. It will be something I look forward to exploring in the coming year.
The quiz is something that I was familiar with using before but I never knew about the settings for recording names etc which is great as that is a setting that I have struggled with before. Many times I used a form where i probably should have been using a quiz instead.
I think the quiz would be great for getting feedback from staff on various initiatives or curricular areas that would be strengths or weaknesses in the school for school self evaluation. Often people are more comfortable giving feedback online rather than in person so I believe this would be a great way of getting honest feedback and opinions from staff.
