Kia Ora, Talofa lava, Greetings .
My name is Sonya and I am a teacher at Newmarket School.
My name is Sonya and I am a teacher at Newmarket School.
This is our first year for TravelWise. We are a Green/ Gold Enviro School and one of our focus this year is traveling to and from school.
A little bit about me, I am a Samoan bilingual, I am ESOL trained and last year I was awarded an efellowship with Core Education.
I have been teaching for over 25 years and have taught in all levels of primary school and have also spent time in tertiary teaching.
Those of you with smart phones and with access to social media please do not turn them off but use them to broadcast today and use the hash tag #TravelWise
You can find me on Instagram, Linked, Facebook and Twitter. You can also find me on Myportfolio and the Virtual Learning Network. My online name is Ulimasao or you can find me by searching Van Schaijik
Thank you to Jamie and Samuel for giving me this opportunity to share our learning story with you. Thank you to TravelWise for this day of professional learning and the opportunity to make connections.
Today I am here to share with you our planning for real day that took place in May.
To be more specific I will share with you how we used Social Media to make national and global connections during the day.
It was a combination of events that all came together about the same time.
First- we had been invited by Superclubsplus to put our name forward for the BBC Global Assembly as there were no New Zealand Schools involved. We had previously been involved in a global activity as part of our Enviro project and with our work with trialing Superclubsplus as part of the Netsafe project.
So this is how the first connection was made. Then when Jamie and Samuel came for a meeting with regards to our Planning for Real Day. I mentioned that if we could pull off the day and tie it with the BBC invitation, why not aim for within a fortnight.
So we did. Jamie and Samuel coordinated the large school map and resources. I made contact with Superclubsplus who gave us the BBC contact. BBC agreed to interview us later in the BBC assembly and called for all our phone details. We also had to create an article in regards to our school and we did.
We selected a group of children who began preparation for the interview.
Then we received a call that Breakfast TV wanted to share our story so it was all go.
We alerted staff of the short notice for the event and they were supportive by preparing the children for the Planning for Real Day.
The planning for real day went to schedule and we took the map into the studio. Last minute phone calls were made to get parental permission for the televised session. We already had permission for the BBC project. Our children reminded the interviewer not to use their last names. Here is the interview.
We waited for the phone call from England but unfortunately this did not eventuate. However with huge apologies from their part, BBC have highlighted us on social media and this is quite extensive.
We did not waste the children’s prepared speeches and have used this on a school video which we hosted on our youtube channel.
After the planning for Real Day we displayed the map in our foyer and already we can see a pattern and what we need to plan for next.
We uploaded the photos to our picasa page, uploaded the videos to our youtube channel, and have been broadcasting #BBCassembly on twitter and facebook.
How many of you use social media? One key idea we foster is ‘learn from doing’.
We know our children will have access to most places online when they go home.
So what we teach is keep yourself safe online and be respectful when using the Internet. This is the same as when they interact face to face.
We also work through the same challenges with our teachers. We encourage them to experiment and become familiar with the tools. We remind them about their responsibilities when working with minors and their legal obligations.
Here are some of the tools that the Ministry of Education encourage us to use in our professional learning. I will use this to plug a webinair that is happening today after school in regards to global citizenship.
Our connections with our Planning for Real Day.
You can find our social media sites on the front of our school website.
As much fun as it is in making connections using the nodes of Social Media, I draw your attention to the ‘space between the nodes.’
The space that cannot be seen but without it the nodes are meaningless. I liken the space to the air we breathe, or the sea that is such an important part of our survival.
Relationships and making connections are not easy to assess but they are important in maintaining the social media nodes.
So for TravelWise I am keen to make connections and develop relationships with those of you with experience in this area and with those of you just starting out like me. One idea is to have a group of children working together collaboratively on a common goal that is TravelWise based.
I shared with you our planning for real day that took place in May.
I shared with you how we used Social Media to make national and global connections during the day. I suggested that I would like to make connections and to build relationships between schools on a collaborative project.
So if anyone is keen to become involved, then please do not hesitate to make contact.
I welcome feedback and suggestions via twitter or email.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/RvecGdyWRgo?list=PLzH5saR6I_oHHd0u6CLk0cT7qlB3Bv7zn
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/RvecGdyWRgo?list=PLzH5saR6I_oHHd0u6CLk0cT7qlB3Bv7zn
Sonya @VanSchaijik 