You might be interested in joining us in tomorrow's webinar:

  WEBINAR: Engaging with whānau and the wider community - a kura perspective: Wednesday 19 June, 3.45-4.45pm. Join Tui Yeager, Principal of Te Kura o Matapihi as she shares her story about keeping whānau and iwi connected, informed and encouraged to participate, with school. This webinar will look at ways to foster home/school partnerships through, with and about e-learning. REGISTER NOW! 

Looking forward to ‘seeing you online’ this term - hei konā mai,

Karen, Tessa & Catriona |  Blended e-Learning Online Team

This fortnight's e-member of the week is each and every one of you!

BYOD

• BYOD - How have different schools managed the process?Karen has pulled together a few of the stories, from last year's Enabling e-Learning: Leadership group NAPP thread, so you can see how different leaders tailored their approaches to suit their school community.

• The great BYOD debate. Is the class teacher prepared to be the first port of call with a range of devices?

latest webinar recordings
up-coming webinars
lots of techi tips and tricks
conversations about leadership of e-learning
Feel free to join us, jump in and have your say or pass this on to your other networks: http://www.vln.school.nz/blog/view/814283/e-learning-round-up-18-june-2013

...we need to remember that giftedness isn’t only present during school hours. Behaviours associated with special abilities and qualities may present themselves in different ways in different contexts, including after school on the sports field, on the weekend at the marae, at bedtime while Nana reads a story, during Sunday church services, on Tuesday in their one day a week programme, or busking on the street corner Saturday morning. Therefore, our identification needs to be inclusive of parents and whanau, community providers, church leaders, sport coaches, and private providers of gifted education. Gathering the many different perspectives of giftedness will provide a more complete picture of giftedness and talent.

See the full post at http://giftednz.org.nz/247-challenge/  

Twelve of the fourteen schools that indicated their involvement in OtBF this year are now on line. We are also working with another 6 sites on related projects. We figure that we can probably connect with up to 20 OtBF schools this year, so if you know of any other schools (6) that might be interested in joining OtBF, please pass on details.

This year there are 114 Year 12 students involved in teaching lessons on OtBF. An additional 24 Year 13 students will be rejoining the programme shortly.

Each OtBF school is a little different from the other schools in terms of connectivity, the age of
students and their interests. Our Rosmini students are also coming to this project from a different skill,
knowledge and interest base. It is always fascinating for me to watch these students start to take charge of their project, and become responsible for planning, and showing up on time to deliver their lesson. Recently one of the young men said to me that he thought, “Teaching was easy”. I think this young man will take a different behavioral path in his own classes in the future having experienced first hand the “joys of teaching”.

New Schools joining OTBF: This term we welcome the students at Nabua Sanatan Primary
School in Suva and Ahuroa School, near Walkworth to OtBF. Thanks to Elaine (Ahuroa) and Dasha and
Emmanuel (NSPS) for helping make this connection happen. Nabua Sanatan is a One Lap Top Per
Student school. They are collaborating with a number of aid agencies and the University of the Pacific to implement that programme.

Pindrop: Rosmini College is working with the University of Auckland/ACC to help deliver a message warning young people of hearing damage resulting from repetitive exposure to loud noise. These lessons will be taught in Term 3, once training has been completed.

U-Learn Conference (October, 2013), Hamilton: Three presentation slots have been
requested for OtBF related programmes. If you are planning to attend the U-Learn Conference we would love to include you in these presentations.
The proposed presentations are: 1. Update on Over the Back Fence; 2. Replicating Over the Back
Fence Project; and, 3. Using Skype and other VC tools in the Classroom to promote collaboration and
learning. The second programme will demonstrate how OtBF is now being replicated by schools in other countries and will include (as will #3) video links with teachers overseas. You will be enthused, learn what Kristina, Cook Island’s, is implementing at Rutaki School, and hear how OtBF might find new bases in the America’s and Europe.

Year 8 Environmental Health Project: A class of Y8 students at Rosmini was working on an inquiry project (FINZ) with a school in Finland. The students worked in five groups that included students from both countries. Each group examined environmental health/sustainability a. Air pollution, b. Deforestation, c. Global Warming, d. Urbanisation, and e. Water Pollution. Last Thursday the Finns got up early to meet with the Rosmini students (and parents) on Skype to present their findings (see picture below). The one-hour conference was a great success, and both classes requested continuation of this collaboration. Each group worked in their FINZ project wiki and followed a 5-step inquiry process.
We are going to replicate the project with two more classes of Y8 students. If you have a Year 8 class that would like to join us (late June-July) on this project, please send me an email
gwood@rosmini.school.nzand we will try and get your class on board. Three overseas schools have indicated an interest but as with projects like this we will see if it works out for them to join.

Year 7 Transportation Safety Project: We are looking for up to five classrooms that might
be interested collaborating on a Transportation Safety Project. This project will replicate one we ran
with (lessons learned) last year in collaboration with Auckland Transportation and Takapuna Normal
Intermediate School. There have been requests for participation information from schools overseas. If
this interest is strong we might push the start date out later (see below) to accommodate northern
hemisphere schools. Currently the project will start in July with a finish date around the end of August.
The students will work in 12 (?) groups made up of students spread across the classrooms involved.
Wiki’s, Skype, blogs will connect the working groups. If interested, please email gwood@rosmini.school.nz for more information.

THANK YOU to the following educators who have helped make the Over-the-BackFence project work and grow: Robert D & Catherine E (our pioneers who respectively bounced
the idea); Meidy I., Erika B., Diana L., Anthony S., Leslie W., Jessica B., Theresa C., Ramona
E., Phil OC (all who have been very patient with me and sustained our collaboration); Rick W.,
Tracey S., Jess B., Jarad., Kath J., Anne K., Tim F., Rebecca S., Rex W., Renee H., Melinda
B., Elaine D., Stewart S., Rochelle J., Robert M., Kristina C., Emanuel K., Dasha S., Wallis E.,
Nicola T., Pauline S., Pirjo L., Jodie D., Andre B., Farzan Q., Derek W., Eddie R., Ian T., Lawrence B., Andrew C., and about 350 Year 12 students at Rosmini College who have all contributed to help get this project rolling. A special thank you is extended to Rachel Roberts (Matata--e-principal VLN-Primary) for her support and guidance on this journey. On behalf of the Rosmini College OtBF students -- THANK YOU!