Day Two of the 2012 school year, 55 senior primary students, class teachers and support staff  jumped in the deep end – collaborating, connecting and creating.   Firstly, we took the opportunity to participate in World Safer Internet day activities.  Beginning with an on-line ‘Blackboard Collaborate’ session presented by Greg Gebhert from ACMA and arranged by DEECD.  We were thrilled when 9 parents joined us having only been given a days notice.

We watched the presentation along with students from approximately 60 schools across our state – getting a sense that there is a bigger picture – a shared journey with similar issues and questions.

Following up from the presentation, we decided to test our ambition this year to include lots of collaborative activities with our students and staff and therefore conducted the first of what I hope will be more Jigsaw activities.     I loved learning along with the kids when a colleague lead the children through the philosophy behind this strategy.  Each teacher took on a role and shared the responsibility.   Co-teaching has so many benefits and I am looking forward to reaping many of them as the year progresses.

As the day progressed, the students watched a variety of Cybersafety videos and read brochures and posters. They learned together, shared their learning with others and then created CommonCraft style videos to display their learning. Here is one

Untitled from vgridley on Vimeo.

 

All in all, a successful day and start to the year.

 

There are some wonderful resources out there and here are a few we used today