Ellesmere College May 28, 2008
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Finally, the last school for this round of visits. I will have to rethink how I approach this next time, because it has been hard going for the last two and a half weeks. Much of the work I need to get through has been put on the backburner as a result, but I can now get my head down for the next couple of weeks. I think I will spread the load a bit more next time. Unfortunately there were some pressing issues that needed to be discussed at each school.
Today’s visit was to Ellesmere College in Leeston. Ellesmere is a High School of around 600 students. It is different from many of the other Cantatech schools in that 
it is not really that isolated. My last visit was just a chat with the principal, Ken. He was in hospital this time so I met the DP, Robyn, who organised a very productive day for me.
High on the agenda was a discussion about the needs of Ellesmere with respect to Distance Learning. They have no presence with regards to that this year – no distance teacher and no students. They are quite well resourced in terms of subjects and Robyn said the types of subjects they would be interested are slightly left of mainstream. Media Studies and Classics being an example. I am teaching Classics this year and I will teach Level 3 Classics next year if there is a need for it, so that could be a possiblitiy for a couple of Ellesmere students. I would like to bring them back into the fold so to speak. The Distance Learning is going to take a leap forward over the next year or two and I am sure they would benefit. One of the biggest barriers seems to be timetabling (different timetables running across schools) and a reluctance to release a teacher who could be teaching your own students rather than other schools’.
They are certainly keen on the whole elearning thing. It is the first Cantatech school I have visited that has an elearning committee and an actual plan regarding the implementation of elearning on a schoolwide basis. This is great, because it means I can work in with what they are doing. I presented the new Moodle Cantatech site to the commitee and should be able to get a few to become part of the Canatech elearning team to learn how to use Moodle (and hopefully other online technologies).
On the whole I was really impressed with the school. The staff were happy, collegial and obviously had a pride in the school. There was also a nice sense of calm as you walked amongst the students. Calmness is not always an atmosphere I have experienced in schools.
Hurunui College May 27, 2008
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Hurunui College is situated in Hawarden, north of Christchurch – quite close to Amuri and Cheviot. The principal there, Ron, is a member of the Cantatech Management team and is well up with the play in terms of our goals.
I initially met with the distance teachers. Alan teaches Human Biology and is site supervisor and has been teaching in Canatech right from the beginning. He is also Deputy Principal at Hurunui. We had a good chat, especially about the future of teaching in a distance environment. He is enthusiastic about where things are going, but isn’t a natural enthusiast when it comes to computers. He is very keen to learn how to use his more effectively in a VC lesson (must introduce him to the SVGA cable…) Laurel teachers economics and is part time at the school. In fact her distance course is her only teaching. This has both pros and cons, but does make it more difficult for her to stay in the loop.
I also talked to the staff at the end of day. Most of the discussion centred on getting a couple of people on the elarning team. I think Ron was hoping that my talking about it would gee a few up to give it a go. I also was feeling out the use of VC with junior students and asked staff to think about their programme and what opportunities there would be to connect with people/groups who could add something through a VC lesson. We will see what happens…
Akaroa Area School May 26, 2008
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I am finally getting to the end of my travels for at least a month. Today was the turn of Akaroa Area School. Another beautiful drive and of course another stunning setting. I really like Akaroa Area School. There is a great atmosphere in the school and a real sense of calm amongst staff. It is another school that can point to the individualised nature of its learning leading to success. All their year 12 students passed level two NCEA in 2007 and over 90% of of year 11s achieved Level One. The two students who didn’t gain level one took on apprenticeships. As a former secondary teacher who has taught in very large schools, this is what I like about Area Schools. The individualisation of learning – students can’t hide in this environment and they can’t hide in a senior class of six students! With the distance learning provided by Cantatech, students can stay in these sorts of small schools and still take subjects they want to.
The day itself was another productive one. The principal, Ray, had the morning well set up. Three more teachers on the elearning team, a good chat with senior management about the opportunities Cantatech can offer the school and a quick talk about video conferencing possiblities with two primary school teachers.
Mt Hutt College May 25, 2008
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Today was a very interesting day at Mt Hutt College, although not that productive. Unfortunately the new principal, Cathy had some rather major stuff on her plate, and while she attempted to see me, it wasn’t to be. I felt for her actually. She had a rather challenging situation on her plate.
I decided to have my VC lesson from the school (Friday is my usual VC day) and it went very well. It is great to catch up with my students face to face while I am travelling around. Both sets of students from Twizel and Mt Hutt were able to give me some feedback on how things were going. Although the new Moodle site is great for allowing me to track student work. I will post on how I have found Moodle soon.
I must say that this is the first school I have been to where numerous teachers came up to me to have a chat. One teacher wanted to know about some of the Web 2.0 technology I identified in the elearning survey I put out to schools. The Head of ICT wanted to find out about the International Computer Dirver’s License, so I offered to do that. Two lovely older ladies were chatting to me about techonology and the frustrations they were having. They were quite hilarious, and although found technology frustrating to learn, they were both very keen to learn more. They just found there wasn’t much support for learning the basics. They wanted to do certain things, but didn’t know how. Great to see such enthusiasm though!
Cathy and I decided we would catch up via VC to have a discussion about Mt Hutt and the future of Cantatech. That’s what the technology is for after all.
Rangiora New Life School May 22, 2008
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Rangiora New Life is a Christian school in the town of Rangiora in North Canterbury. Unfortunately Gregg, the Principal was away sick today, but he had set up everyone to see me at an allotted time. It was extremely well planned. A rather strange situation for me. Here I was set up in the Principals office with everyone coming in to me see me at a time they had been told. I felt like I was taking interviews. Nice work space for a day though!
I discovered some needs in terms of NCEA moderation and collaboration. Some staff haven’t had a great experience in VC meetings before, so it is important that there is a real focus to each meeting that is set up. The suggestion from the DP, Trevor, that keeping the groups focussed on certain year levels within a learning area, is a good one andsomething I will take on board when I start organising these.
The school already has a learning management system, Myclasses, in place, so I wasn’t sure whether we would have anyone on the elearning team to learn Moodle, but two are, which is good news. We certainly won’t be pushing the Moodle with all the staff though. Little point in that and increasing the use of eLearning is the aim, rather than the use of a specific LMS. I’m sure Rangiora teachers will be keen to hook into the collaboration we hope to get going on the site though.
Rangiora is the second school I have come across which doesn’t have a dedicated VC room (the other being Darfield). The room actually has a bookable computer pod in it. If we get things going like we want to this is going to become an issue, but for the moment is manageable.
Cheviot Area School May 21, 2008
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Well, today was the turn of Cheviot Area School in my seemingly never ending journey. Forgot to take some photos this time.
Cheviot is yet another small area school. This time situated about 1 1/2 hours north of Christchurch on the way to Kaikoura.
The principal is off on sick leave, so the school is being led by the DP, Robyn. Unfortunately she has been out of the loop with Cantatech and misinterpreted my emails so I didn’t get a chance to talk with her. We will catch up via VC at a later date though. Going to be a busy time for I imagine.
I did meet with the two distance teachers at the school as well as the teacher who is to be part of the elearning team. All were very interested in the Moodle site and I took them through a good one hour run down of what can be done. A lot of enthusiasm which is great to see. Both Marilyn and Tod had already created an account before I even got there so they were really on the ball. (In fact Jason from Amuri has already got some of his students enrolled which is getting very keen!)
The distance teachers and I had a good chat about the distance programme, possible professional development and the propse appraisal scheme. I loved their attitude. They certainly saw the advantages of taking the learning online.
Twizel Area School May 20, 2008
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Monday afternoon I drove out to Twizel to visit the school today. It’s a stunning drive. I have put some photos below.
The history of Twizel is interesting and the town itself is rather idyllic. It has a slightly temporary look, not surprisingly, and you can walk around and meet very few people, especially in the evening.
The school itself is small and caters for 5-18 year olds. It is situated in the centre of town and is very open in its design. At the moment the buildings are going through some major re-development.
We have one teacher on the new elearning team. I had a good ½ hour to chat to her and she was very keen. In fact she has some great IT skills in web and graphic design which may come in handy down the track.
I had another excellent discussion with the principal, Bill who explained the needs of the school. The major one for them was that word again – collaboration. I had decided to put the organisation of this on the backburner for later this term, but I think it would be great to get a few meetings going reasonably quickly. Time to talk to Vicki and the subjects advisors at the Univeristy of Canterbury…
Mackenzie College May 19, 2008
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Mackenzie College is a small high school in Fairlie, set amongst the stunning scenery of the Mackenzie country. The principal, Mark is new to the school this year and has some challenges facing him as any new principal does. Mark has a good knowledge of the IT side of things, because that was part of his portfolio as a Deputy Principal. It does make it easier when the Principal really understands what you are talking about!
I had a good chat with Mark and the senior leadership team (again, great!) and identified some areas of need. They have their own Moodle site going, but there has been little up take in it so far. Mark is pushing it this year and is keen that it is used in conjunction with the new Cantatech moodle. This is great to hear, because they can work together without it being an extra burden for teachers. Mark is especially keen on the collaboration plans we have for Cantatech schools and thinks it will work well with the new Moodle site. There is certainly plenty of room to create collaborative areas and this is a key goal for the cluster. This will work well with video conference meetings.
One thing that REALLY impressed me was Mark stopping during our discussion and asking what I wanted from them. This threw me for a bit, because it was unexpected, but very refreshing to have a principal ask this sort of question. “Buy in” is the most important thing for me – if the leadership of the schools doesn’t support where we are going then I have no chance of making headway with staff.
Darfield High School May 17, 2008
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Today’s visit was to Darfield High School, my base school, so I know it reasonably well. It is the biggest school in Cantatech with around 750 students, from year 7-13. The principal, Allison has been extremely supportive, but she was away today so I got to talk to the senior management team. This was great, because so far I have only really dealt with Principals and it is very important that all the leadership are on board and familiar with the project.
I outlined where Cantatech was going and our main goals for the next two years, which they responded to well. There was quite a lot of enthusiasm for what we want to achieve and some interesting ideas too.
After this I met with the five teachers who are going to be a part of the Canatech elearning team. I took them through the Cantatech Moodle site and outlined the plan for this. All were keen to be a part of the team and were enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn more. The only question came over the availability of computers in the school, which seems to be a bit of tension for some teachers. If teachers can’t get their students into computer rooms, then it will be difficult to get buy in from the staff. Something for the future…
The last group I met was the year 7 and 8 leaders. I wanted to look at how we could get junior students using video conferencing to enhance their learning. At the moment most Canatech schools only use their VC for the seniors, but there are wonderful opportunities to enhance junior programmes through VC. One keen teacher wanted to link up with Te Papa (for Kiwiana) and Denver Museum (North American Indians). I will be investigating…
Amuri Area School May 15, 2008
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Today I visited Amuri Area School, which is about an hour and a half north west of Christchurch. I spent the day their discussing the needs of the school with the principal, Neil, talking to the distance learning site supervisor, getting a couple of keen teachers ready to join the elearning team, and finally meeting the whole staff after school.
It was an extremely worthwhile day and I came out of it with some real insights into what the school needs.
Unfortunately Amuri only has two students in the distance learning programme, because the courses available simply didn’t meet the needs of the students. This meant that some students are doing corrspondence rather than one of our courses. As I have mentioned before, this is one of the issues we need to solve.
Neil is especially keen on the idea of collaboration. Amuri is a small school, so any linking of sole charge TICs, curriculum areas and opportunities for NCEA moderation can only benefit. They have a gifted and talented programme running and would like the chance to take part in cluster wide opportunities in this area. I’m sure this is something other area schools will be interested in as well. It is just a matter of finding where the expertise is within the cluster and harnessing in.
