Working Towards Independence in Learning

Year 5 students are starting to develop some strategies for greater independence in their learning. Self-direction becomes increasingly important at this stage of schooling. 

In year 5 this year, we strive to:

• explore, discover and find out for ourselves before we ask someone else
• recognise our own strengths
• identify our weaknesses so we can work out how to improve
• monitor our learning by setting goals and reflecting on our progress
• support and learn from our peers

Taking an Active role in learning: Celeste and Axelle demonstrate the use of Dropbox for their peers

Taking responsibility for our own learning involves critical self reflection. Learning reflections will become part of our weekly routine. Students are given sample questions to guide their reflections (below). With regular practice they will become better at reflecting critically, setting goals and articulating their thoughts.

Questions for Learning Reflection by Maria Mead

We have a range of apps that we can use to record our learning reflections...

We are looking forward to exploring these apps this term. Once we are familiar with them, we will be able to choose the best app for the job each time. My own app preferences may be different to those of others. That's OK. That's the beauty of the student-centred Learning Innovations program in Year 5. My iPad helps make me make the right learning choices for me.

Viva la difference!

Morning Fitness Activities

Lovely to see so many parents at the Parent Evening last night! The teachers presented some research indicating how their Daily PE program of morning fitness activities can enhance children's memory, attention span and learning throughout the day. We thought you'd like to see some pictures of your children starting their day at school today. They will be able to explain to you at home what happens at each station. ...They certainly have their favourites!

New App - Mathmateer

Dear Year 5 Parents,

Today your children were asked to install a new FREE app to supplement their maths program.  It is called Mathmateer FREE.

 Click here for a link to the app in iTunes

If you have advised your child's teacher of their Apple ID password, then this app was most probably installed yesterday at school. If not, can we please ask that you arrange to install the app on your child's iPad at home sometime over the next week?

We apologise for this extra task. We will try to keep extra apps to a minimum but occasionally needs and opportunities will arise that will be of benefit to your children's learning. If at any time you wish to advise your child's teacher of their Apple ID password, these extra installations can be managed at school.

Thanks very much everyone!

Please continue to email Maria (mmead@bne....) if you have any questions or concerns about any aspect of the program.

A window into Yr 5 learning spaces

We are gradually but surely progressing through our long list of iPad setup tasks with your children at school. We realise that certain situations at home (especially cyclones!) can compromise home wireless connectivity and tax a family's time and attention so we are especially grateful for your efforts in attending meetings and supporting this program. We trust things will settle for you soon (as the necessary demands diminish!).  Don't hesitate to email Maria (mmead@bne.catholic....) if you have any issues or queries.

We'd like to share some pictures of our early days in Year 5. We already have "favourite" places to work in our learning space. When we are concentrating on handwriting or listening to our teacher we sit in chairs at the tables. When we are creating, investigating or practising skills, we can sit wherever we are comfortable. We start the day with prayer in our own class groups but our dividing door is always open and we use the whole space. For most of the day we watch and listen as a year level group then proceed to work together on group activities. This way, there are always at least two teachers ready to help us. We're becoming very good at putting shoes on quickly. The "shoeless" space keeps us comfortable and our carpets and furnishings clean for lounging. Our teachers are "clean freaks" so we wipe down our tables each day.

Paid Apps - Activation Links Sent

-->   Year 5 parents please be advised that activation links for all paid apps were sent to students' BCE email addresses this afternoon. The students were shown what to do but had no time today to download these at school. They may download these at home or at school as long as their Apple ID is signed in Settings > iTunes & App Stores.

Below are the installation instructions that were included in the email. Please help your child with the second step below. The activation links will only work once. The apps will be owned by whichever Apple ID is signed into the App Store when the link is activated.

FIRST:

BEFORE you click any of the links, make sure that you are reading this email on your school iPad. Also you will need to be connected to wireless internet.

THEN:

Check that your iPad is logged into the App Store with your school Apple ID. To check this, go to Settings > iTunes & App Stores.

NOW:

You may click the first link below. The first app will start downloading automatically in the App Store app. You can then come back to this mail and click the next link. Continue until all your apps are downloaded.

If you have any problems with this task, please email Maria (mmead@bne...). 

We are all looking forward to using these new apps in our learning spaces!

Post Script:

Dear Parents, 
Please don't think you must create a NEW Apple ID for your child to download these PAID apps! This is definitely NOT the case. The Apple ID you set up for them earlier and used to download their FREE apps is fine!  We only stipulated "your child's school Apple ID" in the instructions above as we noticed a few student iPads still had parent email and iTunes accounts added (in error). Your child's Apple ID may or may not be set up using your child's school email address - whichever email you have used to set it up is fine.
It's always best to install ALL required apps under the same Apple ID. This makes it MUCH easier to update the apps, as no password is required.
Apologies for any confusion.
Thanks to those who have emailed for clarification.
MM

TUESDAY is Safer Internet Day

What's special about Tuesday 5th February, 2013?

It's the 10th Annual "Safer Internet Day"! 

... Hooray!

What perfect timing for our lovely Year 5 students as they begin their program of innovative learning with iPads... In honour of the occasion, this post will recap some of the issues addressed at our Cyber Safety Boot Camps and offer you a 'starter collection' of resources to support your home campaigns for good Digital Citizenship, including internet safety.

Revisiting Resources from Boot Camp evening:

"Let's Fight It Together" - video
This video clip depicts a boy dealing with cyberbullying. A crucial point to draw out of any discussion about this scenario is the importance of reporting incidents to a trusted adult. Situations can escalate and become unbearable if a victim does not seek help early.

"Jigsaw Assembly" - video from Think U Know
What constitutes personal information? How do we keep our personal information private? See what you can learn from this girl's frightening mistakes.

"Never Seconds" Blog
A great example of the value of web 2.0 technologies as tools to learn, communicate, collaborate and  share. See how a 9-year-old girl has used her blog to make changes for the better in our world, starting with reviewing her own school lunches.
Tip: The blog was launched last April. If you take a look at this page and read from the bottom up, you will get a better picture of how it all began.

The Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship
Mike Ribble describes each of the nine elements of digital citizenship. Consider which are the most important for your child at their current stage... Comment below if you wish to share your thoughts.

The Digital Compass
We borrowed this discussion activity (from Mike Ribble's book) on Boot Camp night, looking at familiar scenarios involving technologies and discussion the actions taken. You can use the digital compass to discuss any technology-related dilemmas. The discussion of how and why you selected each response is most important. Completed worksheets are being collected at school for regular discussion throughout the year. Please use the comments below to suggest any tricky digital scenarios that may be beneficial to discuss at school or at home.

Image Source: Copyright 2007, ISTE ® (International Society for Technology in Education), Digital Citizenship in Schools, Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey, iste@iste.org, www.iste.org. All rights reserved. Distribution and copying of this excerpt is allowed for educational purposes and use with full attribution to ISTE.

Children have much to learn from the discussions they have with their parents about these issues. The current parents of 21st century students had no need or opportunity to learn about digital citizenship at school. But we have a wealth of world experience and bucket loads of common sense to draw on. To borrow the words of a 19th century philosopher:

“It is a thousand times better 

to have common sense without education

 than to have education without common sense.”
Robert G. Ingersoll

Other Useful Websites with "Digital Citizenship" Resources:

CyberSmart
A national cyber safety and cyber security education program managed by the Australian Government's ACMA - Australian Communications and Media Authority. Resources such as Hector's World and the CyberQuoll program are used throughout the school for digital citizenship education.

Think U Know
A UK website from the wonderful people at CEOP - Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

Information for Queensland Parents 
Further resources from the Queensland Government - Department of Education, Training and Employment.

Cyber-Safety Button
A free installation for MacOS or Windows from the Australian Government - Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Stay Smart Online
Website for home users from the Australian Government - Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Getting Your Accounts in Order

Learning activities undertaken in year 5 and 6 will be supported by a range of online tools. Many of these tools require users to register email addresses and create accounts on a website. Parents, we ask that you create this accounts for your child as registration often requires the user to be over 13 years of age. There will be no cost involved. By all means keep a record of the login details for each tool so that you can monitor your child's activity at any time if you wish. Legally, the account will be owned by parents.

We appreciate your fabulous support in devoting your time to Cyber Safety Boot Camps and all the necessary setup for your child's iPad. We are hoping that you will have time to create accounts at the following online tools before Monday 11th February so your child is ready for full participation in classroom activities.

Which tools are required?
Please create an account for your child at each of the following:

• VoiceThread - for creating online slideshows with a comments feature (text, audio or video).
• Fotobabble* - for posting and annotating images.
  (*please do not use a Facebook account to sign up to Fotobabble.)
• Evernote - for accessing and sharing files, images, task lists etc across devices.
• Google Docs** - for sharing, managing and collaborating on online documents
  (**if  your child has a Gmail address then they  already have a Google account which can be used to access Google Docs. Login and click the "Drive" tab to create or access Google Docs.)

Which Email addresses should I use to sign up?
Each tool will require registration with an email address and password. To make things easier for your child, please use the same email address for each registration. The children each have a BCE student email account. However, because this BCE account contains your child's surname, you may wish to restrict its use to secure BCE sites*** and for emails to and from other BCE addresses. If you created an email account for your child's Apple ID, this address could also be used. If you have not yet created an email account for your child there are many free options available, such as Gmail. There is no reason your child will need this email account for school as they will use their BCE student email account for all school-related communications.

What is my child's BCE email address?
BCE student address consists of your child's BCE login then the suffix @ mybce.catholic.edu.au
Their BCE login is the first initial of their first given name + their surname + (optional) a number may follow if there are duplicates
So, a sample email address would be: cwalker24@mybce.catholic.edu.au
If your child does not remember their BCE login, please ask them to write it down from the lists in the classroom. It will also be recorded in last year's student diary. They should avoid writing down their passwords.

What else do I need to know about Passwords?
A number of the students have not remembered their BCE passwords from last year. These will be reset overnight. Please help your child to devise a password that is easy for them to remember but difficult for others to crack. This video clip from BTN on "Password Power" may help.

It would be great if you kept track of your child's passwords so that you may monitor your child's online activity. To make logging in to the online tools easier for your child, we recommend that you use the same (or very similar) passwords for each of these accounts. To ensure security of passwords and information it is safe practice to vary passwords. However, as long as the password for the online tools is different from your child's BCE email*** account, we do not foresee a significant security risk. If the security of one of these accounts were ever compromised, the passwords for all could be changed with a minimum of effort.

One more thing...
A Dropbox account is also required. Dropbox is a cloud storage facility. A free account allows limited storage space but extra space can be earned by inviting others to join, or by accepting an invitation from an existing user. For this reason we request that you do not open a Dropbox account for your child until their teacher sends an invitation email. Of course if you already own a Dropbox account yourself, by all means invite your child to join. That way both of you earn free space. If not, when you create an account for your child they can send an invitation to other family members and earn more space that way.

***Students' BCE email addresses are required for login to secure sites under the Brisbane Catholic Education domain:

• BCE Student Portal, including Sky Drive and Student email
• LIFE (BCE's learning management system)