Workshop Session

I am working on three presentations

Assessment for learning- looking ar Black and William approaches to formative assessments.

Literature Review- Guiding teachers on how to write literature reviews guided by RMIT handbook.

Referencing- Exploring with teachers on Academic Honesty

All will be done first week on December

The last two weeks

The last two weeks are here. Tier 1 on the professional Learning for educators series: Programme for teachers of english is coming to an end. The ten weeks have been full of learning. As aprogram cordinator It was an experience learning how to organise logistics as well as evaluate the program.The teachers I am working with have really transformed.

ICT INTEGRATION IN kilifi, Kaloleni, Nganze

Today we had a very fruitfull session at Dr Kraf Memorial.

It was a smasse session and I made a presentation on ICT integration in Science and Mathematics.

Here are some of the pictures for the sesion

MY PD

My PD

This Month I am doing an online training on MYP technology. The experience is very good and I am learning a lot. Next month will be more trying as I will have two online PD. I will be leading Diploma Physics Internal assessments and also I will be doing iEARN online course in science, math and environmental. The last quarter of the Year will be my learning Time.

Reflective Journaling

Writting reflective Journals is a practice which has helped many. Practitioners have been able to look back and track their progression overtime. One challenge is what to writ ein the journal. During the first week of November I will be having a session on How to write a reflective Journaling. You are all welcomed.

A reflective parent.

During the meet and greet session after the Graduation I come across a parent who had something to share. He explained how his children has been in this school and explained his thoughts of it. He further shared what he though is good practice.

The parent started narrating to me how his children have passed through this school. How he was very skeptic about the IB when it started. He explained how his friends removed their children from the school. He narrated how they urged him to follow suit or have challenging experience in the future. The parent thought otherwise.

He refused to listen to all the remarks and vowed to give it a try. He explained in detail how he read more to get to understand the program. Furthermore he explained how he attended all the presentations which were being offered then. He even travelled overseas to meet an elder brother who did IB back in 1980's. To me this was a determined parent and from his face he was glowing with joy.

He descriptively explained the transformation he has seen in his graduating child. What I was gathering from his descriptors was the IB learner profile laced with the AK strands. The parent was as happy as he gave the details and he flashed back how he went through difficult times in his schooling despite which he managed a place in the Royal collage (now the University of Nairobi). He made a comparison of when he graduated and his son's graduation. He said he saw a transformed child a child ready to face the future.

He saw a lot of potential in the school in terms of facilities and the software (pedagogy and curriculum). He attributed all this to the team spirit of the Student, Parent, and Teacher triad. As a professional he reiterated how he saw this curriculum appropriate and with potential to meet the demand of the future. He also expressed his interest to be invited in the career week to give a lecture. As part of this team I was very proud of the thoughts of this parent. The parent has an MYP child and also expresses the same hope for the development of the student.

As the parent narrated all this I was thinking of the effort we put in our work. I felt that it paid of and there is need to continue with the effort despite the challenges we may be facing. Stakeholder plays a very imperative role in our profession. If parents are able to make meaning of our efforts, they are bound to give up support as we support their children in their learning. This reflection made my weekend and it reminded me of the importance of my role as a facilitator to the learning of the students. I am proud of being part of the team.

Gioko, A

Bloggers and Wikispapers

We Lucy, Okemo and Myself have launched the Bloggers and wikispasers to our students. We shall look at all the opportunities to allow them utilize the facilities in their academic progression.

Research Abstract

Leadership model for integration of ICT in Science: Perceptions. Practices and Possibilities

Anthony Gioko Maina [1]
Professional Development Teacher
AKU-IED
Facilitator, Physics, ICT
Centre of Excellence Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa.

Abstract
Leadership has been identified to play a role in the development of innovations and its implementations in the schools. Technology has been introduced in the science curriculum and the role of leadership has been instrumental in foreseeing the level of ICT integration in science. The current status has been observed as use of ICT as additional or supplementary session to the mainstream syllabus. In some cases the use of ICT has been delegated to “ICT specialist” by the Science Subject leaders (SSL). The Middle mangers who are the departmental Heads are close to eh teachers who are expected to implement the integration. The model of leadership practiced by the SSL is evident in the practices of the teachers and successful integration will give students opportunities to undergo an experiential learning of the science concepts. This study explores the leadership practices of a SSL and developed a model for effective ICT integration in Science.
The study was a qualitative case study which was explorative and interpretative in nature. The leadership model was derived from the data obtained from field notes, interviews, and document and artifact analysis. Leadership is fluid and not identified within an individual but a responsibility hence the SSL was the focus and the people she integrated with in the projects also participated. The study observed a ten lesson (six weeks) project cycle in a private middle school in Pakistan undertaking IGCSE curriculum.
Three aspects emerged to inform on the leadership model of the SSL in integrating ICT; they were; leading manifest as leadership styles and technophile, technologic that is procession of skill and knowledge, utility level and training others and administration in shared planning, monitoring, mentoring and reviewing. I argue that the personality and technologic influenced the teachers to enhance integration
The study revealed the empowerment of a SSL builds up the leadership capacity. Furthermore the SSL skills and knowledge have a leverage to influence on the beliefs and attitudes of traditional approaches hence develop innovation. In addition collaborative practices impact on the effectiveness through networking with relevant resources. Thus SSL perceptions and roles must be attended to and not taken for granted the implications of the study include a) Empowering the SSL b) Allowing interdepartmental collaborated activities c) provision of resources. Nevertheless training and equipment require SSL leadership for integration to be enhanced.
The study was limited within one project implementation due to time factors, However many projects may have identified variety of factors.

To get links

To add links to your Blogs
Go to setting and scrol down the program
and the following segment after the profiles
Change the links accordingly

Previous Posts

• <$BlogPreviousItemTitle$>

Links

• Google News


• My Newspaper


• ME ANTHONY GIOKO

My groups

• IAP-Science


• Gioko Family


• Class 2007 IED


• Science Congress

My Calendar

• Calendar

Group work or collaborative learning

Group work or collaborative learning
 This model was developed to achieve at least three important instructional goals: academic achievement, acceptance of diversity and social skill development.
 One of the founders of cooperative learning, Slavin (1996) believes the group focus can change norms of youth culture and make it more acceptable to excel in academic learning tasks.
 Important effect is a wider acceptance of people who are different by virtue of their race, social class, ability or disability.
 Cooperative learning is to teach the students skills of cooperation and collaboration

Effects of group work
 The cooperative behavior is generated from the corporative learning, both verbal and non-verbal than whole class teaching. The students display less competitive behaviors and more cross Ethnic Corporation.
 Students with less ability learn more by working alongside those who have greater abilities and they later benefit from the process of serving as tutors to their lesser able peers.
 Humans learn from their experiences and strive participation in small groups helping students to learn important social skills while simultaneously developing academic skills and democratic attitudes.

Planning tasks for teachers
Choose an appropriate content
 Form student teams
 Develop materials
 Plan for orientating students to tasks and roles
 Plan for the use and space.

Conducting cooperative learning sessions
 There are six phases they include
 Clarify aims and establish set.
 Present information verbally or in text
 Organize students in study teams
 Assists team work and study
 Test on the materials
 Proved recognition.

Arends, R. I. (2001). Learning to teach. (5th Eds). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.

Leadership and ICT

A lot of research has been done in the developed countries conserning the role of leadership in enhancing ICT integration in science. I did my reserch on ICT integration by the Middle manager that is the subject leader. Below is the abstract of the research.
ABSTRACT
Leadership has an influence over the development and implementation of an innovation in a department. In a bid to integrate ICT teachers have been developed and facilities are provided. In contrast the prevalent status is use of ICT as an addition in projects and delegation of the integration to the “ICT specialists” by the science subject leaders (SSL). Exploring the SSL leadership will identify the practices that can enhance ICT integration and thus improve student learning experiences. Therefore the question “How does a SSL perceive and enact her roles to enhance ICT integration in PBL” and What are the factors influencing SSL in the integration of ICT in PBL” was the focus of the study to contribute to the current body of knowledge in leadership.
The study was conducted through qualitative case study which was explorative and interpretive in nature within a grounded approach. Data from field notes, interviews, and document and artifact analysis was used to explore the SSL leadership. Leadership is fluid and not identified within an individual but a responsibility hence the SSL was the focus and the team she interacted with in the projects also participated. The study observed a ten lesson (six weeks) project cycle in a private middle school in Pakistan undertaking IGCSE curriculum.
Three aspects emerged to inform on the leadership of the SSL in integrating ICT; these were: leading manifest in leadership styles and technophile, technologic that is possession of skill and knowledge, utility level and training others, administration in shared planning, monitoring, mentoring and reviewing. I argue that the personality and technologic influenced the teachers to enhance integration. The study revealed that the empowerment of a SSL builds up the leadership capacity. Thus SSL knowledge perceptions and roles must be attended to and not taken for granted. The implications of the study include a) develop knowledge and skill of SSL b) empowering the SSL c) allowing interdepartmental collaborated activities d) provision of resources. Nevertheless training and equipment require SSL leadership for integration to be enhanced.
The study was limited within one project cycle due to time factor; however, many cycles may have identified a variety of characterizing influences.

The Course is almost OVER

The M E.d course is comming to an end. After two years we are soon going to clear it.

Revision Notes

I was referred to this site by a friend and it is really good. If you want you might refer your students to it or you could use it yourself. The revision notes site has a variety of notes for different subjects.It covers IGCSE and IB curriculum. One can also register to become a member.The site was started in 2004.

INTEGRATING ICT IN THE CLASS

Most of the time we use computers in preparations for our lessons, keeping records and searching for information. I attended a workshop where i learned alot of information. The report will give what it entails.
This report is aimed in enlightening future PD developers on what they can offer in their future training.

REPORT
Introduction
This report is written about a ten day workshop held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It explains the workshop activities their implications on Pedagogical and Subject knowledge skills.

Workshop
The workshop was attended by teachers from, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kenya. It was an IAP sponsored workshop led by Henry Wilmer from Phillips Academy, Andover and Azra Naseem from Aga Khan University, Institute of Education. The workshop covered several major areas Surveys, Blogs, Web Quest, Video Editing and Projects.
Survey used a share-ware called SurveyMonkey which can be obtained as a free ware but it has limitation of use. The survey can be used by teachers in several ways like
-Getting prior information from students.
-Getting a feedback from the students on a topic or a project.
Such information may be important, because the teachers can then analyze the feed back and plan their subsequent classes accordingly. The program is easy to use though it is limited to ten questions in the free ware format but can offer more option when purchased.
Blogs are current information billboard on the net. Teachers were taught how to make blog and use them. This exercise exposed the skills of making and using the blogs. Blogs can be very useful as teachers can upload their instructions for assignments, projects and lessons. Blogs can also be used to upload useful sites for other teachers and students. The students can then access this information at their own pace. The blog offers comments options, thus students can comments on the uploaded information. On the other hand the students can also create their blogs which can be access by teachers and fellow students. Thus the blog creates a communication forum that can be accessed by all at their own time.
Web quest is use of web to find information. The web has a lot of information. Teachers were exposed to skills of using the web, to access the information within the shortest time possible and appropriately. Before teachers give web based assignments or projects, they have to get the appropriate Web sites before the list them for the students use. The teachers hence need skills to use the web effectively. The Web is a resource which, when used efficiently can source useful information to be used in class for, teaching, demonstration or evaluation in the classroom.
Video editing is a skill full process. However there are programs are available and easy to handle. Vision is a very important aspect in learning and it impacts on the retention power. The exercise involved actual video shooting in the field and later editing into a quality piece of work. Teachers can use this tool in many ways including preparation of demonstration and documentaries. Students can also be encouraged to integrated video in their projects. Audio-Visual is an integral part of teaching and learning the ability to manipulates sounds and pictures can be useful in the classroom.
Projects can be very useful in teaching. They tap the inquiry skills of students exposing the students to problem solving skills, planning and working together. It’s a concept which has not been explored fully and in some cases not used appropriately. The workshop exposed the teachers to real life situation where the teachers had to undertake a project. This gave the teachers hands-on experience of what the students undergo when doing their projects. It was an opener as the teachers got an insight on how to design projects so that the students can be able to effectively use theme as a learning tool. The design of an assessment tool and the presentation took the teacher’s to a deeper understanding on how to deal with projects in their classrooms. Projects can be one approach which can be used in teaching in the classroom. Project nature the student’s creativity and research skills, it bonds into the student’s social skills of working with others.
For those who had some knowledge on the concepts, there was implicit knowledge which was not part of the mainstream planning. This was planning, undertaking the workshop and evaluation of the workshop. The workshop leaders did there planning online which gave learning opportunities to those aspiring to undertake a workshop. They also shared their planning with the participants, which also provided a way of tracking what is happening. Those who attended which a view of learning how to organize an ICT workshop had a lot to learn from the activities. The opportunity was enhanced because they took part as participant observers giving them hand-on experiences on what the workshop participant experience from the leaders planning.

Implications
The teachers who attended this workshop will try the skills in small scale an observer the development. The teachers will then improve the integration in the subsequent cycles. After the cycles the teachers will then share among themselves. ICT is a crucial component in the pedagogical aspects, how well it is utilized will gauge its effectives in the achievement of the objectives. Learning among the teachers can open avenues for exponential growth as individual teachers bring along diversity in knowledge and expertise. The documentation of activities online will offer unlimited access to many people. Study has found out ICT resources are usually under utilized in schools at a rate raging from 25% to less than 50%. Such a low rate is partly due to lack of integration of ICT in class. Participant observation is also a very important aspect in workshop as it induces future trainers to the workshop environment. The inclusion of Participants observers ensures the continuity of the training where they can be given roles in follower-up workshops.

Conclusion
ICT integration can be one of the PD components which are done continuously. Teachers have diverse expertise and experience. When they are put together they can share the knowledge giving an opportunity to those who don’t know to learn and those who know to experience the teaching of the same. Teachers are life long learners and with the growth of ICT hey need to keep a breast with the development. This will improve their pedagogical skill as well as the subject knowledge base. The students to have effective learning opportunities they need teachers who can craft such opportunities effectively.
Gioko, 2006

Demonstration Videos

Hello are you interested in video demonstration, just visit the site videosite. I found it very interesting. Again it will give you an idea on how to make your own demonstration videos. This can be very interesting because once you make one demo you show in in your next class and perform a different esperiment. Is it exciting. Within no time you will have a bank of ideas and you can share with other teachers in your school.

HAS ANYONE TRIED IT

Hello,
How are you all, Most of the people are in school now.
How is the going on the integration. I hope all is well. Please do share the challeges.

Teaching physics through spreadsheet

Spreadsheets can be used very well in physics lessons. they use formulaes and the can be used to creat graphs. Hence after creating one situation it can be use to change for the " what if situations". Use of spreadsheets in class has made my students understand some concepts of waves like superimposition and others.

Assessment in Physics, Biology and Chemistry

This multi-media bibliography represents a selected listing of materials by Saskatchewan education department. It was last updated in 2004. It is very appropriate as support for the Secondary level science program. You can preview and choose materials in order that the needs of students in each particular school and community are met. This bibliography offers Assessment in Sciences which includes resources that were submitted to Saskatchewan Education during the pilot stage of the Secondary level science curriculum development project and which were positively reviewed. Teachers are encouraged to evaluate other new resources as they become available. The use of fiction and other genre as extensions and integrations for the new science curricula is encouraged. Titles that fit these categories may be found in respective subject area bibliographies published by Saskatchewan Education.

Teaching physics with technology

The WebPhysics project was started by Wolfgang Christian and Gregor Novak during the spring of 1995. Testing of these documents and other WWW curricular material will begin during the '95-'96 academic year at Davidson College and IUPUI. It contains a variey of links to very good sites like
-course material for physics
-Students work
-Some physics educational software
-Computers in Education
-Links to the Webphysics servers

Useful Blog

Hunblog is a very intresting blog which was updated on 11/07/06. Its a blog about how students can be encouraged to use blogs in their learning. It also has connection in constructivism, hand-on activity, inquiry based teaching, padagogy and Science Education. The connection is free and the links are working they are very useful for both teachers and students.