Reflection

The first two weeks of school has gone extremely fast. We have already packed in so much learning.  

What worked well?

Our Ahoy Waitangi day experience in Paihia was a hit with all the students, and was a great opportunity for me to build positive relationships with my students. 

Our getting to know each other activity, where we wrote down three things about ourselves on a paper, scrunched it up and through it at each other, was a great hit. The kids loved going around to each other and seeing if they had their paper. 

What needs changing?

After some assessments, I have noticed that there is a huge gap in the achievement of my students, some achieving 3 years below the expectation, to those achieving at 2 years above the expectation. This had me thinking about how I can continue to challenge the high achievers, and at the same time support the low achievers in progressing quicker to their expected level. 

Acceleration and not remediation. This is something a work colleague has always told me, and something I will focus on this year. 

So how can I support acceleration for these students?

Where to next?

I need to ensure that my class site is always up to date, with relevant learning and resources, so that learning is always rewindable for my students. I have already noticed in the two weeks at school, that students love going back through their work, and using our class site.

I need to record some of my teaching to make that available for my students to view at a later date.  As well as recording myself, I need to record my students explaining their learning, which will support other students understanding.

Manaiakalani Facilitation

Day three of Manaiakalani facilitation, done and dusted.

It impresses me how much students already know regarding technology, and how quickly they pick up the new skills taught.

What went well?

All the students in each of the classes that I have been in to this week have been focused and engaged. I have expected that students that don't have posts of their blogs, post one before my session was finished - most of them achieved this.

In classes where students were well on their way with blogging, we focused on creating positive, helpful, thoughtful comments to leave other students on their blogs.  This was a very positive session with the two classes at Pompallier Catholic School.  The students enjoyed looking at other school blogs, and finding people they may already know outside of school.  The comments they were leaving other students showed depth and thought, and fit within the Manaiakalani kaupapa. 

What needs modification?

As this is my first week, some things have been less organised than what I would have liked it to be. For example, not having access to class sites to be able to upload work I would like the students to have access too.  This is now sorted at Pompallier School and some of the teachers at Ahipara School. Allowing me this access will make life easier when sharing documents to students. 

I'm also very used to have my own projector and being able to display the activity I would like the students to complete. This allows me to show them exactly what I would like them to do.  This has been a little bit more challenging as the different schools have different systems in their class for projecting student work. 

Next goals/steps:

I would like to get all the students in the Far North cluster collaborating via their blogs.  This has started successfully already with some students from Pompallier commenting on Paparore School Blogs and on Ahipara School blogs. I would like to match all the 'like-aged' classes together to increase their audience they already have on their blogs.

I would also like to comment on every student's blog that is in the Far North cluster Pilot classes. So far, Ahipara school blogs have been commented on - as long as the students had a post.

I look forward to extending my knowledge of Manaiakalani and building relationships with all the students I have met and will be meeting.  This is a great opportunity, one that I will embrace while I can.