Newsletter - Term 3 Week 10

Kia ora koutou!

The weeks are flying by and it is almost the end of term 3! Totara are working hard on a couple of assignments at the moment: The biological effects of climate change and visual art sculptures relating to climate change. This term we have tried to incorporate Social Science, Science and Visual Art learning around a common topic - climate change. The rationale behind this is to give students a chance to explore ideas in more depth and also broaden their understanding. It will be exciting to see the end results of both these projects!

We are embarking on a piece of work relating to cyber citizenship and would ask that parents/caregivers please keep an eye on the class blog for suggested activities and to have discussions at home to reinforce those we are having at school. In the first session last week we looked at the huge variety of tools students use in their online lives, as well as watched a very thought-provoking video about what we post, and shared a strategy called the ‘Triple Filter Test’ which guides people to consider whether something they come across (or share) is Truthful, Good or Useful.

We have asked students to consider where the ‘stuff’ they share online ends up and we will be discussing this on Thursday for our next session. Please check this post on the blog for further information and the movie which we’d like you to view at home with your son or daughter.

We have some changes coming in term 4 not only with student and educator changes but also another timetable change. There will be some reflection time before the end of this term to discuss ideas for an engaging term 4!

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Cybercitizenship - what we use, what we post, is it good?

Today we began a series of sessions for students to help them learn about what sort of citizen they are in the online world. This is particularly important at the age and stage many of our senior students are at.

Here is an overview of what we did and ideas for how this can be transferred into the home:

1. Firstly we did a survey of the tools/services we use to connect and communicate - this entailed us brainstorming the various tools students use and how many of use are using each one. Many of the tools on this list are ones the adults in the room were unaware of (and you might be also unaware of them). We've put the numbers of students next to the tool/service who said they used it (students may not have wanted to share this so it is likely an estimate), what percentage of our students in total are using the tool/service and some blanks columns we'll fill in as we go.  




2. Next we played this movie clip from teachthought.com about the dangers of social media sharing for teens as a way to get the students thinking about what they are doing, or what their 'friends' are doing. Note I put the word 'friends' in inverted commas as this term is pretty loose in the online world. Here is this movie which we strongly encourage you to watch with your young people at home and have a discussion together:


3. The third aspect of this session is to get students to consider what happens to the stuff I share online so they can get a sense of how easily information (video, audio, text, etc.) can be in on-shared in online spaces. This is set as a task for students to consider then we will invite a couple of them to present to the group to explore how this can happen.


4. Lastly, to conclude this first session, we introduced a great tool called the Triple Filter Test. Originally credited as coming from Socrates, this is a test of any kind of information coming at you, or in some cases from you. This is something we think our learners can 'take with them' to help guide them in their journey.
   
   The second aspect of goodness is particularly interesting in the online world as it delves into areas such as morals and ethics, which ultimately children will need to decide for themselves, with the help/modelling/support of the great adults around them.

We encourage all parents to go through this session, watch the video with your son/daughter, and begin the conversations which will help us in how we are trying to guide the students at school.

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Totara Newsletter - Term 2 - Week 6

Kia ora koutou!

Firstly we want to warmly welcome Meg to the team. Meg joins us from Miro! We also welcome Nathan from Miro - Nathan is joining us on Thursdays. It's great having you both with us!

Last week’s debate was a great success. Thank you and well done to everyone involved. We will be spending some time on Wednesday to re-watch the debate and analyse how it went. This week is also Peace Game week! We are all really excited to be involved. The sessions will run for three weeks 9:30am - 12:30pm Monday and Thursday. If you have any questions or comments about the Peace Game please let us know and/or refer to this link: www.worldpeacegame.org

In maths this week we are moving from investigating triangles and getting more into angles and properties of other polygons. Students are making some rather complicated 3D polygons as a fun activity - these will be on display as they get finished.

The school recently implemented a new system called Google Apps for Education. This includes an email address for every student in Totara (we are starting with the secondary first), plus an online area for storing and collaborating on documents. You can email your child on his/her address which is in the format: annac@sevenoaks.school.nz. We’d love you to ask your child to show you what they’ve done so far as this will reinforce their learning. This is linked to the Totara Ultranet site, but can also be accessed from any web browser by typing in one of: docs.sevenoaks.school.nz, mail.sevenoaks.school.nz, calendar.sevenoaks.school.nz.

A couple of expectations we have for use of this system include:

1. Parents are able to log in to the student email, documents and other areas of it at any time. Students may change their password as long as their parent(s) and educators are informed what this is.
2. Any aspect of the system - emails, chat, Google Plus, documents can be monitored at any time. We do however work in a high trust environment where we expect all online work/communication to be appropriate to learning and respectful at all times.
3. As more of our work and learning moves online, we will be exploring various cyber citizenship issues such as plagiarism, safety, managing our online identity/digital footprint, passwords and sharing information and so on.

If you have any questions please email us.

Nga mihi,

Kerry, Rob and Ella

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