History

=" LEEP"ing into Leadership =

History
Stage 1 In the past Berwick Lodge Primary School had an ICT specialist teacher. Students were allocated one hour each week and their teachers had Planning and Preparation time. The problem with this approach was that the lessons in the ICT lab were kept separate from the classroom practise and teachers were not really advancing their ICT skills.

Stage 2 - 2008
Things needed to change, so for one year teachers attended the lessons with their students. This was part of their Professional Development. The role of ICT specialist teacher was extended to ICT staff mentor. Finally the ICT lessons were becoming integrated into the Inquiry Planner and teachers were enthusiastic about their opportunity to develop expertise in ICT.

Stage 3 - 2009
The following year teachers were responsible for taking their own ICT classes. This was a big step but they still had some support for planning in teams and new teachers were supported in the ICT lab in a similar manner to the previous year. This was the first year that we ran the LEEP program - Lodgers Elearning Extension Program. The program is an ICT extension for gifted and high achieving students in grades 2-6. The LEEPers became ICT student leaders - role models and helpers in their grade.

The Present - 2010 The program is gathering depth and students are taking on more roles each year.

Future Directions - Assign Blog masters to junior grades from the beginning. I think this will facilitate the blogging process in our school in two ways:-
 * it will be helpful to take the technical pressure away from the teachers so that they use their blogs to collect work samples and to communicate the good work that they are doing
 * it will help students see how they could be blogging in their own classrooms by heightening their awareness