A day with professionals

It has been quite a while since I have been at a school based Non-Instructional Day as a member of the staff. I was honoured to have  been asked by some of the staff to share some ideas about the use of a software program called Kidspiration which the school has a license for but which has not been used much at the school. It is a really good program for many different things and I did a review of the tools available in the program and looked at the many ways it could be used by students, in groups or with other adult assistance.

Prior to looking at this software program, I showed them how to use a network / shared space on our school server which is available for them to use as a "Primary" place for the classes to sign into on the days they have access to the COW. As I wrote before, Friday has the laptops set up in the Library for them to leave on and rotate their classes through. The session today was to share some new ways to use that and the staff has some great ideas.

And, prior that that ... we watched the first 30 minutes of the video I have embedded above that gives the presenters point of view about the value of play, imagination, and creativity in the lives of learners. I offered this video as it is pretty close to my thoughts about what real learning is all about.

For the afternoon, the staff worked on their own planning as individuals or in small groups and I enjoyed greatly seeing them as the professionals they are.

I look forward to greeting the students again tomorrow...