Connect 2.0

With the release of Inside ISB, the Connect 2.0 blog has moved to a new home: http://inside.isb.ac.th/eshub/

Now all ISB blogs will be part of Inside ISB! Check it out for news and updates from all grade levels and divisions here at school!

We have updated our current library catalog to a new and improved system called Destiny. Destiny has tons of fantastic features for our students, including:

• Book covers shown in search results (like on Amazon.com)
• Related web searching, sites grouped according to grade level (when you search for a topic, the catalog will not only find our books, but also age-appropriate websites)
• Rating system using stars (coming soon)
• Book reviews to be authored by students (coming soon)

Check out the new and improved library catalog (from home or from school) here: http://eshub.isb.ac.th

We hope you will enjoy all of these new great features!

ISB subscribes to a number of fantastic reading resources, and one of our favorites is Tumble Books!

Tumble Books is an online collection of electronic books (e-books), animated, talking picture books from a well-rounded selection of authors. We used Tumble Books in the Tech Zone during our first Starbooks evening and are proud to announce that it is now available from home through our ISB subscription.

Check the ES Learning Hub bulletin board for the username and password!

Thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend our first Coffee Morning in the Learning Hub! We had a great turnout with a fantastic discussion!

For those of you that were not able to attend, or those who would like to review some of the topics we discussed, we will always post a “recap” of the session here on the Connect 2.0 blog. Please feel free to add your comments and questions so we can keep the sessions relevant to you.

The goal of these sessions is to continue to strengthen the home-school connection, to help educate parents about the exciting changes that technology brings to our world, and to provide an open forum for dialog about how to learn with these new tools.

This week’s session was a great overview and introduction to the changes happening in our society today. We sparked some excellent discussion with this version of the Did You Know? video originally posted by Karl Fish in August 2006:

We want to hear from you! Please feel free to ask questions, share resources, post links or just give us your feedback in the comments section.

Next Meeting Info: These Coffee Morning sessions will take place on the first Wednesday of every month in Project Zone of the Learning Hub. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, October 1st at 7:30 am and we will be discussing online safety and appropriate online behavior. We hope to see you there!

Now that a new year has begun, we are working hard to ensure that our Learning Hub is used as a learning space, much like a classroom. We love having students, teachers and parents read and check-out books, but it is important to remember that we also have classes scheduled in our space every day, almost all day.

Classes that come to the Learning Hub are either doing a project with their classroom teacher, working with Ms. Tara or Ms. Cofino, or enjoying a good book as part of their fixed check-out/quiet reading session (one session every 6 days for all grade levels).

Along with all of these great classes using our space for learning, we also have students that would like to come into the Hub during recess. However, as you may already know, recess and lunch recess in the ES begins at 9:00 am and continues throughout the day, switching between grade levels, until 1:00 pm. This means that recess essentially lasts the entire school day.

Over the past school year we have consistently had over 60 students in the Learning Hub during each recess time, in addition to all of the scheduled classes (sometimes as many as 4 classes at a time, which would be around 100 students) for a total of 160 students at one time. Unfortunately, this has made it extremely difficult to teach and learn in our space. The constant flow of students running into the Hub on their recess break unfortunately disrupts classes all day.

After much thought and consideration with our administration team, all classroom teachers, many students and several parents, we have decided to pilot a “pass system” only for students during recess times. The system functions like this:

1. Each classroom teacher has 2 Hub passes to use during the school day. These passes can be used over and over again throughout the day, but only 2 students from each class can be in the Hub at one time.
2. Each Hub pass has the classroom teacher’s name written on the front and the Hub Expectations written on the back. Each pass is color-coded for each grade level.
3. Any student using the Hub during the school day (unless they are with a class) must wear a Hub pass. One Hub pass is required for each student.
4. Any students causing a disturbance will be sent outside to recess and the teacher will be informed via e-mail.

We are planning to trial this process for the next month to ensure that all students that wish to use the Learning Hub during recess (to read, not to play) have the opportunity.

As with any pilot program, we are actively seeking feedback from all stakeholders. If you have any ideas about how to run this system better, or suggestions for maintaining the Learning Hub as a learning zone, please feel free to contact Ms. Tara or Ms. Cofino.

Please note that all students and parents are always welcome in the Hub from 6:30 – 7:30 am and 2:00 – 3:30 pm every day without a pass, as long as they are following the Hub Expectations.

We appreciate your support at home to clarify to your children that the Hub is a zone for learning and reading!

We are thrilled to see so many students and parents enjoying our fabulous Learning Hub! Over the course of the school year we will keep you updated about exciting events, news and information related to the Hub via Panther Paws parent e-newsletter as this blog.

To start off the year we have a few important announcements:

Date Change: Starbooks: Our first evening event in the Hub, Starbooks, will now take place on Thursday, 25 September at 18:30 due to a scheduling conflict. Our apologies for the change.

Parent Tech Coffee Mornings: On the first Wednesday of every month we will host an informal coffee morning for parents to share new and exciting developments in the world of technology that we will implement here at school. Recaps of each session will be posted here on the Connect 2.0 blog and in the Panther Paws. Our first session will be Wednesday, September 3 at 7:30 am in the Project Zone. All are welcome to stop by and join the discussion!

Hub Expectations: Creating a Culture of Learning in the Hub: We know that the Hub is a popular place after school, and we love to see students and parents reading and learning together. We kindly request that all parents, drivers, nannies and mae bans model appropriate behavior in this space. It is important that students do not see adults “napping” or “chatting” or just “hanging out” in this space, so that the focus on learning is modeled at all times. If adults need to wait for children after school, we kindly request that you please use the benches outside the Elementary Office.

E-mail and Computer Access for Parents: We understand that technological connections are essential for all families, especially those that are new to ISB and Bangkok. Stephen Lehmann, our IT Director, has implemented a wireless laptop zone dedicated to parent use in the Cafeteria and Main Library. Please bring your laptop to the EdTech Office for access. Computers are also available for parent use in the Main Library. We are asking that the computers in the ES Learning Hub be used by students and teachers only.

Please help us continue to focus the culture of our space by reminding students that the Learning Hub is a place for learning – not a playground. We look forward to seeing you here, learning!

We are pleased to announce that the Learning Hub will be open for check-out, and to support Summer School, during the summer holidays.

The opening hours are:

Monday – Friday 7:00 – 13:00

Please note that the Technology Zone will be undergoing some renovations during the summer and will be closed from July 4 – 14. During this time, the Learning Hub may be quite noisy and you may find restricted or reduced access to other areas as well.

We hope you enjoy this time to catch up on some fantastic books!

Readers,

Thought you might be interested in the direction ISB is taking with its technology and 21st century literacy professional development for 2008. We have tried out a few models and constantly tweaking and evolving our approach to try and differentiate instruction to meet all of our teachers needs. Here is what was sent to our staff that beginning of this semester.

Update – We have also decided to Ustream the Wired Wednesday to anyone who is interested. Come join us every Wednesday at 2:15 Bangkok time here: http://ustream.tv/channel/isb-edu-stream

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ES Staff,

In response to the results from our recent technology survey we have revised our PD strategy for the year. In an attempt to encourage whole-school sharing and collaboration we have combined the three divisions into two weekly sessions. It is our hope that by bringing staff together discussions around technology, 21st century literacy and the K ­ 12 philosophy will spread. Below are the new weekly in-service opportunities available to you.While our weekly workshops are a great way to spark and fuel ideas about how to use some of the great tools we have at ISB, the research on professional development is clear. Teachers and students learn best when technology is used in context to help attain the learning outcomes of the classroom. It is for this reason that we will be making more of an effort to embed ourselves in your team/grade/subject level meetings to co-plan with those teachers who wish to explore, promote and bring 21st century learning opportunities to their students

.Mondays: Personal Tech Support
Where: Main Library classroom
When: 2:15 ­to 3:00 pm

Need help with a technical problem? Want to spiff up a lesson? Need help finding online resources to support your unit? Want to know what Web 2.0 means and how it can impact your teaching? Want to collaborate with a global audience? Looking for some SMART Board tips? Just want to know how to podcast? Crop a photo? Download a video clip from YouTube? You have a tech question; we have an answer (we hope).

Justin, Dennis and Kim will station themselves in the Main Library classroom every Monday for any sort of tech question or help. We can work individually or present something to a group.

PD tailor made for you. You can’t beat this kind of personal, differentiated attention.

Wednesdays: Wired Wednesdays
Where: Main Library classroom
When: 2:15 to­ 3:00 pm

Are you interested in talking about technology, the future and how both will impact education? Wired Wednesdays are about that conversation. Come to these sessions to be immersed in progressive and current thinking about how teaching and learning is being redefined in a rapidly changing world and ISB’s plan to keep up. These sessions will have a strong audio/video component so whether you want to get deep or just want to be edu-tained, these sessions are for you.

Hope to see you there!

Justin, Dennis and Kim

Good news!

The Learning Hub will be open on weekdays from 7:00 – 3:00 on the following days:

December 20 -24 and 26 – 27

January 2 -8

That means that we will be closed on:

December 25, 28

January 1

Please feel free to stop by to read, check out books, or return those overdue books you found during the holidays!

Happy Holidays from everyone at the Learning Hub!

Now that we have been teaching and learning (and playing) in our new space for the last three months, we have taken some time to reflect on how we can further develop a culture of learning here in our Hub.

We have defined an exciting, learning focused vision for this space:

The ES Learning Hub is a dynamic and flexible teaching and learning space that is innovatively designed with best practices and research in mind. The facility is at the heart of our school community and elementary school philosophy and offers seamless continuity between the library and the classroom. The ES Library enables, encourages and empowers teaching and learning for all members of the elementary school community.

In order to facilitate best use of the Learning Hub, we have focused on defining and improving our services in the following ways:

Tuesdays and Thursdays

We have closed the Hub to lunchtime and recess on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This allows our space to be effectively used for teaching and learning, especially by our Primary age students, who truly benefit from a very quiet and focused learning space.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays: Lunchtime and Recess Expectations

The Learning Hub will still be open for lunchtime and recess for all students (which begins at 9:00 and runs through to 1:00) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. During these recess times, we expect students to be using this space for quiet reading and learning. This is not a playground zone. Students that feel the need to run and play, or to chat with friends, should utilize the playground or the gazebo area during recess.

After School Expectations

We know that the Hub is a popular place after school, and we love to see students and parents reading and learning together (just like Elaine Lyons and her daughter, Teresa, above). We kindly request that all parents, drivers, nannies and mae bans model appropriate behavior in this space. It is important that students do not see adults “napping” or “chatting” or just “hanging out” in this space, so that the focus on learning is modeled at all times. If adults need to wait for children after school, we kindly request that you please use the benches outside the Elementary Office.

Tech Zone Activity Programming

We have developed an activity program for the Technology Zone during our early morning (6:30 – 7:20) sessions, along with lunchtime and recess. Khun Wan will be running special “theme” days for the Tech Zone for each day of the week. We are starting with Chess Master Mondays, Typing Tuesdays, e-Book Wednesday, Typing Thursday, and SMART Art Friday. We hope this brings a much-needed focus to our exciting Technology Zone.

E-mail and Computer Access for Parents

We understand that technological connections are essential for all families, especially those that are new to ISB and Bangkok. Stephen Lehmann, our IT Director, has implemented a wireless laptop zone dedicated to parent use in the Cafeteria and Main Library. Please bring your laptop to the EdTech Office for access. Computers are also available for parent use in the Main Library. We are asking that the computers in the ES Learning Hub be used by students and teachers only.

Please help us refocus the culture of our space by reminding students that the Learning Hub is a place for learning – not a playground. We look forward to seeing you here, learning!