St Andrew's College Regulus November 2014

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Regulus
Teaching and Learning
11
showroom 165 antigua street, christchurch
trolls and inappropriate websites,
could be concerning. But not so,
says Sam. “Our students connect
through a student policy which
blocks a number of sites that are
considered unhelpful or particularly
distracting. Some social media sites
are permanently blocked because
they promote anonymity such as
ask.fm.”
Facebook is only switched on at
lunchtimes and after class. The
school wireless gets shut off at
10.00pm for boarding students.
The students sign up to a Cyber
Safety Digital Citizenship code,
which acknowledges the College
will monitor the websites students’
visit. Sam encourages all teachers
to speak to their classes about
cyber safety and digital footprints.
“Students are surprised about how
much information programs like
Facebook collect about them,”
he says.
Overall, Sam says the year has gone
according to plan and teachers and
staff alike have enjoyed the benefits
1:1 Computing has delivered in the
classroom.
Teachers are starting to embrace
technology in the classroom as it
enables authentic learning through
global connections.
The Year 4 classes recently had
the opportunity to interview
New Zealand’s very own science
superhero, Nano Girl. Written by Dr
Michelle Dickinson, an associate
investigator for the MacDiarmid
Institute in Wellington, Nano Girl is
a blog of science experiments that
has quickly become a favourite of
several teachers at St Andrew’s. Dr
Dickinson kindly agreed to speak
to the children via a Skype session
and held the students enthralled
with her engaging responses to
their questions.
A focus for the students was on
developing rich open questions as
part of their oral language skills
and being inquisitive of the world
around them.
The Year 3 class enjoyed an
internet session with a Viking
museum in York, in the United
Kingdom where one of its role-
playing educators played the part
of a Viking mother. “The children
asked great questions and enjoyed
real learning,” says Sam.
The Preparatory School classes
have also enjoyed a few games
of ‘Mystery Skype’ where their
teachers connect with a school in a
different country and the students
have to ask each other questions
until they figure out where in the
world each class is. “It’s a fun
bit of learning that broadens our
students understanding of the
world,” says Sam.
class in