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.

Preparing for 2019

After a lovely summer break, I'm ready to embark on yet another teaching adventure.  This year I have the senior students at Paparore School, and look forward to challenging them and learning alongside them.

This year I have also been asked to work for Manaiakalani one day a week, support teachers on their path of becoming 'digitally fluent.'

I look forward to strengthening my understand of the Manaiakalani Kaupapa and using their framework of "Learn, Create, Share" to support the learning of my students. My class site is ready for the start of the year and will continue to develop this with my students in mind.

My professional goals for the year include:

• Building positive relationships with students that foster the love of learning;
• Raising the achievement of my target students (more than one year's progress), using the Learn, Create, Share framework in numeracy and literacy;
• Further develop my te reo and including this in my everyday routine;
• Providing my students with an up to date site, which ensure all learning is rewindable at all times. 

These goals may change or evolve as the year progresses.

Google Docs Ninja Challenge

Today we completed the Google Docs Ninja Challenge. I have earned my black belt.  I found it tricky working out how to add a table of contents, but worked it out with the help of a colleague. I also learnt how to embed a google doc so that it is large enough to read without loads of scrolling. 

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.

Manaiakalani PLD - Connected Learners Share

Explore one blog post - What was the purpose of the post?

This student had been learning about perimeters and how to find the perimeters of 2d shapes. The slides the student created were informative and helpful for other students who may not know what a perimeter is, or how to find it.  She/he made it interactive by adding a quiz at the end.

Take a screenshot and create a reflection of your own. Insert the screenshot into the post as a image with a link back to the blog. Comment on the blog post using the Positive Thoughtful Helpful sentence starters.

You have clearly identified the learning involved, sharing what you learnt and what you found challenging. You made you DLO interactive by creating a quiz for your audience to complete to see what they understood/learnt from your slide. What is the difference between circumference and perimeter?

Can you find a threaded conversation on a blog post? Why do we try and encourage these? Reflect on this as part of your blog post.

This encourages students to think deeper about their blogs posts and comments.

After looking at the Planning, Feedback and Examples from Slide 13 what strategy or new approach you could take in your classroom/hub/studio.

I like the idea of having all the week's planning on a google slide hyperlinked to all the resources the students need.

Parent Interviews

At the end of Term 2, we had our annual parent interviews.  This year we had to think of another way that we were going to run our interviews as we had 54 students with two teachers. This would have only given our whanau and students 7 minutes each to talk to both teachers. We decided this was not long enough for students to be able to share their own learning - student agency.

To trail a new system, we had four students within a half hour block along with their whanau.  We had an introduction korero sharing how we work within our learning spaces and what our expectations are for the students.

The students were set-up around the room with their books, portfolios, chromebook and a STEAM kit each.  All students actively discussed their learning with their parents, sharing what they have been learning, what the enjoyed and what they found challenging.  As teachers, we roamed around the room and sat with the parents for short sessions to answer any questions and concerns.

Deb and I felt that this worked really well in the sense that it was less intimidating for students and parents. This gave students ownership of their own learning with less of a focus on the teacher.  We are currently surveying our parents to find out what their thoughts were on the process and any suggestions that they would like to make.

Manaiakalani Creativity Workshop with Donna Yates

Today with Donna Yates we looked at Creativity in the classroom. What creativity have we completed with our students? What have we created using technology? When was the last time I created something.

Creativity empowers learning. The image above shows the variety of ways that students are able to create - using vocals (singing, etc), whole body (dance, etc), hands, spiritual, feet, and with technology - which helps the learning - the brain in the middle.

Creating doesn't always have to be the end product, it could be the hook to 'hook' them into the learning, in the middle or at the end.

So my challenge, how can I create with my students more often? What creativity can we include in our learning.