Ten Week Paid Sabbatical.

At the end of last week I found out I was one of the small group of fortunate teachers in New Zealand to be awarded a 10 week paid sabbatical in 2012.  Half the time is for learning and half the time is for relaxing and living a leisurely life!  I am delighted to be given the time. I really look forward to it.

                                                                   

My goal for my sabbatical is:

To investigate how I can use tools of the twenty-first century to develop in my Year 5 – 8 students, digital literacy and network literacy.

To investigate how I can do this in a way that empowers them to be intelligent and critical producers and consumers of a full range of media texts.

The questions I will investigate are:

·         How can I effectively use digital story-telling, podcasting, vodcasting, voicethread and other tools to empower my students  to be critical thinkers about what they and others produce?

·         Are there benefits to using such sites as Facebook and Twitter in a primary classroom?  What other ways are available for networking and collaborating?

·         How can I develop the reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and presenting abilities of my students through these tools?

·         How can these tools meet the diverse needs of students in our senior school?

·         How can I encourage a process and product that empowers students to engage in work that has the mark of excellence? 

I will explore:

How other teachers are already using these tools through reading about their experiences with them on their blogs and wikis and attending webinars.  I will read books and articles from teacher magazines that refer to the literacies I am exploring.

A book called, Digital Storytelling by Richard Lambert and Adam Brice to develop my ideas and learn from the experience of those who have already been very successful in the digital storytelling field.

Each tool I learn about I will ‘play’ with, developing my own skills so that I can share them with my students.

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