Gretchen's learning

Toolkit slides Use templates i.e. have our EOTC review forms in our school template gallery for future use Maybe teachers could gather student voice via Forms to contribute towards report writing - e.g. reflecting on goals set, something they're proud of learning in maths etc. nice feature in Forms where you can import questions from other forms using sections a good feature - can customise then so if you answer no, it will take you to section x, if you answer yes you'll go to section y etc. Can add results to existing sheet so have pages of results over time (will do this for TLIF) If want to filter responses can do this from sheet. Kerry suggested using forms to gather student voice on how easy it is to navigate class site. Other ways to gather student voice are Flipgrid and Screencastify Form below is a copy of example Kerry kindly shared.  Great to include Te Reo in forms :) Loading…

We have a great resource available to us for our own rewindable learning which is the folders of recordings and resources from past Manaiakalani online toolkits . Today - in prep for being in room 2 and wanting to upskill myself with some digital resources to use with the students - I watched Getting Smart with Screencasify. I'm assuming students in room 2 have used Screencastify with Cam during their digital facilitation but am aware I may need to set this up with them. check permissions on students screencastify folders (make public) Can switch recording between tabs can flip camera so if recording writing on paper it'll be right way round annotation tools available in browser and desktop mode - e.g. spotlight - good for highlighting things in a tutorial  My next step - to teach students to use Screencastify and use it to record their thinking solving a maths problem.

next steps -  Planning - look at our planning template considering page 111 of Classroom Talk: Understanding dialogue, pedagogy and practice (Edwards-Groves et al. 2014) as well as frame from the video - Elicit ideas, First hand experience, additional info, revise/refine ideas .  This is a good frame for science. Planning - include learning intention for science as well as for dialogue and reflect at end. Planning - create a doc with questions/prompts from Classroom Talk we can cut & paste into planning. Have my planning in front of me on a clipboard - script.  Use it. Book day in holiday for collaborative planning with Sally, Karli, Alida, Isabel, Sam. Book days with Susan S for 2020 TLIF team and staff call back day.

class observations scheduled for week 9, Friday - using tool for first time then.  Trying to better coordinate release for this - they need to be observing, chat with focus group, be observed and then have time together to reflect on lessons.  We've discussed teachers using own time after school for reflecting on lessons together and blog posts and then we will 'reimburse' release time.   my own and Alida's lessons/obs to start term 4 when in room 2.  Alida and I to sort this. not all consent forms returned - more notices sent home.  Will need to check focus group lists and see if all children in focus groups have returned forms - maybe amend.  Talk with team about what to do if focus kids absent. not all children's surveys done - emails sent to teachers to follow up with those students who still need to complete. Classroom Talk books purchased  Science planning day with Susan H - re-evaluate how this will look going forward.  Was an ...

1. Anne Milne - Equity is not the end game - sovereignty is.  Recognise the white spaces in education, in a classrooms.  Call it what it is. Recognise white privilege. Anne refuses to call Communities of Learning (CoLs) Kāhui Ako - giving something a Māori name doesn't make it good for Māori.  'success and achievement as Māori' - what does this mean? Local curriculum design - who will this be relevant to? Rather than culturally responsive, aim to be culturally sustaining.  It was interesting that Ann put PB4L, Resilience and Growth Mindset into a 'liberal empowerment model' - where movement towards the 'white core' is facilitated if you play by the rules - rather than changing the rules.  We need to be aiming for cultural pluralism - wider than literacy and numeracy, where our Māori learners can see themselves. It was much to hear and think about.  One think I will take away to start is to keep having conversations with my own children about concep...

We shared our class spaces this afternoon during a staff walk through focusing on the questions: Talk to us about your class matrix and how it supports learning and relationships in your class. How does you physical environment support positive behaviour? This was a good opportunity to share some great ideas and reinforced that we all do things differently and have much to learn from one another. I was thinking that when I am in other classes (release teaching, responding to behaviours) I need to be referring to class matrices/expectations more often. Going forward to next term, being in class with Alida, we will need to have a big Mana Atua focus and be sensitive about keeping what the classroom has already created and adapting it to fit us.  Alida and I will need to be communicating well and collaborating on our Mana Atua so children know we have the same expectations for their behaviour.  This will also provide consistency and support students feeling safe....

Three sessions in and I'm learning much from this, especially from how Lucy-Mary considers things. For example, after last week when we were reflecting on the session and I was expressing frustration about some of the behaviours and her response was 'hmm, I was wondering what I could learn from that.' It really made me pause and reconsider my initial response - what can I learn from the behaviours students express? - keeping in mind that children are communicating through their behaviour. Another example was today during our circle time it seemed to me like one of the students was being 'a bit silly' in his response - but Lucy-Mary gave it her full attention and treated his offering with seriousness and it sort of halted the silliness and he calmed his response and made it something more thoughtful.  After the session we reflected about this and she said what a valuable tool it can be when working with children and adults. Circle time is fabulous at giving the ...

What have we been doing in science already? Sally shared slides she uses with students (inspired by Gaylene's) which explicitly show 8 Science and Engineering Practices. Susan highlighted importance of keeping the science experiences fairly simple and 'joyful and wonderous' (i.e. not too big and heavy like climate change - this can be pretty depressing and also requires much teacher prior learning.)  Remember our main teacher learning at the moment is shifting our dialogic practice. Suggested we use resources on TKI - i.e.  science capabilities  (also suggested by Cathie during NZCER workshop). Looking at Explorify site - e.g. focus on structure and function by using  In Your Eyes Discussion - provacation - Be explicit with students around purpose of discussion/dialogue - 'we've had a discussion, now we know we're not thinking the same - that's why discussion is important...' What structure do you think these all have? (leading them to eyes).  ...

current understanding of dialogic teaching students are talking and listening - to each other, to teacher. the teacher is not the font of all knowledge. there will be a shift in power balance away from teacher, with students feeling more empowered. there are talking structures like think pair share that will support this there are prompts teachers can use - 'talk moves' IRE has a place in classrooms, but I know I overuse it, and effective dialogic practice will mean less IRE  Needs to be planned for in lessons - i.e. carefully crafted questions. IRE place - e.g. revision.  Need more in our toolkits.  students not responsible to listen to each other - feed through teacher. Reading - Talk Science Primer, Sarah Michaels and Cathy O'Connor, TERC 2012 What is productive talk? - videos Creating a culture of talk: think about layout of class, power of being in a circle to talk. Talk rules. Developed our own 'rules' for our school - to be in all ...

Today was the start of 16 art and play therapy sessions that 12 of our students are fortunate to be a part of.  I am also very fortunate to have this learning opportunity and will be learning and supporting in the group (10 students) sessions. One thing I noticed today in our group session was how the circle time was immediately comfortable and familiar to students from room 1.  (We've had support from Trish (RTLB) to learn about and implement Circle Time in room 1 in terms 1 and 2.)  The children were responsive to the cues (such as a talking object) and even the structure - sitting in a circle. It has really emphasised what a valuable place Circle Time can have in our classrooms to support communication, emotional literacy and relationships.  I think the structures within it and the consistency provides safety for our students.  Circle Time is definitely something that I would like to support other classes at Park Estate to have a part of their learning pr...

18 June TLIF Workshop #1 - attended with Susan Sandretto. (SS) Project monitoring and evaluation  - we will be assigned a 'monitor' who will receive our checkpoint reports and provide feedback. First checkpoint report is due July 20 and will outline what's happened so far.   Budget  - at first checkpoint report need to invoice for 10% of budget.  Prior to July checkpoint budget needs to be revised.  Changes to include more accurate costings re teacher release days (increased teachers involved, time for coordinating, planning, reflecting, data collection reporting to ensure teachers adequate time to contribute to quality inquiry), time with SS, kai for teachers, offsite venue for some of the release.  Term 2 actions: student and teacher  interview formats  - teacher and student interviews and student surveys  focus group student group selected  - need a selection of Year 4 and 5 students. Will need to be quite a few due to tr...

My focus students for this inquiry is a group of 6 year 4 students - 5 girls and 1 boy. Some things I've noticed during group work, individual chats and GloSS interviews: reluctance to contribute to group sessions comments such as  'maths is hard' and 'I find maths really challenging'. Difficulty interpreting number problems difficulty describing how they solved a problem gaps in key knowledge - place value, number facts, and sequencing most of this group are at stage 4/early 5 in addition and subtraction, stage 4 for multiplication and division and stage 2-4 for proportions and ratios.  By the end of the year, the students are expected to be working at level 2 of the NZC (stage 5) Things I'm doing: number talks - maths talks that focus on different strategies we can use to solve problems, which ones are efficient etc. rather than getting the correct answer using a variety of equipment such as tens frames, animal strips, number lines checking in...

In September 2018 the Ministry distributed Tapasā: cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners. The aim of Tapasā is to build a confident, culturally competent education work force which is able to engage successfully with Pacific learners. Last night I attended a workshop which aimed to assist us to:  • Understand Tapasā’s background and its relevance for you as a teacher  • Develop a quality and empowering learning environment for Pacific learners  • Have a strong understanding of both your own and your learners’ identities, languages and cultures   • Improve learning outcomes for Pacific learners, their parents, families and communities  • Apply the lens of Tapasā to the Standards of the Teaching Profession and the Code of Professional Responsibility  Some takeaways for me: The importance of relationships and of all our students feeling safe, happy and connected.  Talanoa (quality talking - which Jacinta talked w...

We had a good session at our staff meeting today going over 'best practice strategies for responding to minor/major behaviours' One that I am going to focus on in  my teaching is using signals or non-verbal cues. This will be good for me and Room 1 students as I realise sometimes my own voice is loud and can be dominating and I revert to a loud 'oi' or such comment sometimes too.   Rather than using a loud voice to discourage noise, I am going work with the class to come up with some signals we can all use when it's getting too loud and we want someone to shush so we can focus on our learning etc.  If we co-construct this together, the children will have ownership of it and will hopefully feel empowered, or have another way, to tell someone to shush. I'll display pics for visual prompts, make sure we have lots of practise and reinforce with positive comments (and non-verbal cues ;) I will ask Kalo for feedback as to whether she notices my loud voice...

Link to Kootuitui Slides ' Wide and Deep' explained Manaiakalani Wananga 1 November Kootuitui data presentation 13 November These presentations prompted us to consider what were 'opportunities grasped' and 'what opportunities we had yet to take'. Some opportunities grasped: Our cluster data shows a rise in generative feedback.  This was a particular focus for our cluster so it is good to see this reflected in our data.  I wonder what actions have impacted this rise? Conferencing and extended discussion has increased Some opportunities still to take: students reading other students' blogs - this is providing model texts and also can engage in dialogue with other students. 'homework' - whānau feedback is that they would like more homework for their students.  how can we make this work? How can we move to genuine collaboration rather than cooperation? How do we get to critical thinking? (check our 'wide and deep' explained - ...