Gretchen's learning

Leslee recently shared the video below on her Number Agents facebook page.  I'm really interested in how Leslee teaches and admire her willingness to share her thoughts and philosophy.  Leslee is the principal of Kaurihohe School in Whangarei and teaches a junior class.  Her school uses Mantle of the Expert school wide - two of her teachers also attended Mantle Summer School paper I did this year.  I am interested in how she uses and values play in her junior classes. Leslee Allen's Number Agents blog notes from the TedX talk - The Decline of Play by Peter Gray Play is self controlled and self directed - that's what gives it it's educative power. Decline of play - 'schoolish' view of child development - that children learn best from adults.  Spread of fear (by media, experts)- warning us of dangers if children not monitored.  Worse world for children now - decline of play over last decades correlates with increase of depression, anxiety, suicide r...

Term one goals.. I have almost finished a Masters Summer School paper - Drama as Pedagogy - The Mantle of the Expert. I came across this paper after googling to find out who Dr Viv Aitken was.  I'd had great phone calls with her - she was a 'critical friend' assigned to support me with my Grass Roots Initiative inquiry and report .  I came across her website  and was intrigued. I still have much info from the past few weeks swirling around my brain and needing time to settle - and also a planning assignment to finish by Friday.  But what I have learned will impact my teaching greatly. In term one I have set some goals for myself to find out more about process drama ( see some benefits here ) and using some drama conventions in the classroom. I will try using lessons such as Viv's one here  and also explore the resource 'Playing our Stories'.  These will be 'preparatory activities' for teaching a full Mantle of the Expert in term 2.  I will also ...

I arrived into Room 6 & 7's science lesson with Susan as it was part way through.  Every student in the room was engaged.  The children were exploring a variety of magnets and a variety of other household objects - metal and non-metal.  It was very open ended, allowing the children to discover.  Every so often Susan would bring the tables more materials or another type of magnet, or invite the children to move around the room and explore with their magnets.  I liked how this was offered, as an invitation, so that children could stay at the tables and continue with what they were doing if they wished.  I loved how Susan referred to the children as scientists i.e. 'the scientists at this table...."  A bit like in Mantle - this elevates the position of the children, and aligns the children alongside the teacher - as in WE are all scientists, as opposed to the teacher being the font of all knowledge.  We are all scientists and all our noticings...

- copied all text from Standards of the Teaching Profession doc into wordsift to generate word cloud - then took a screenshot. PB4L - class matrices - revisit these early in term - a walk around classes together has been good in past.  A first step was thinking about our class matrices.  Learning communities need a kawa.  At my study these holidays we had a kawa.  It was co-constructed - students invited to add to kawa (maybe via video recording on Seesaw for juniors).  discuss contributions.  We were asked to note something from the kawa we might find a bit challenging and reflect on it at end of day.  I think it will be useful in class - invite the students to share their reflections on a goal Our kawa is handwritten and on the wall - Viv (lecturer, Dr Viv Aitkin - you'll probably hear her name a bit.  As well as Mantle of the Expert..) led a good discussion re importance of these handwritten artefacts in our classroom - student owners...

Louise Upston - Assoc Min of Ed. 'social investment' - to help work with some of the kids in 'your community'. Dr. George Sugai - keynote communities of practise/communities of learning - ensure substantive, demonstrate significant outcomes, evidence Sustainability - changes in govt policy  - documenting what works and how other things can be merged within/integrate. Doubling Down on PBIS: Increasing Our Precision and Implementation on Prevention and Behavioural Sciences Whenever a large societal or community swing occurs, associated shifts in behaviour norms and acceptability also can be experienced. The purpose of this presentation is to describe how our knowledge and experience with positive behavioural interventions and supports (PBIS) could be considered as an immediate, important, and effective preventive response when dramatic shifts in school and classroom climate are being experienced. We suggest that educators must “double down” now on their...

Strengthening learning partnerships with whānau is a priority for us at Park Estate.  We want to share our learning with our families and ensure our students have an audience for their learning.  I created this video using Tellagami and iMovie.  Tellagami is an app I have on my iPhone.  I took a photos of my computer screen with my phone, drew on them with the photo editor and used these for the backgrounds.  It would have been good to have used screenshots instead for better quality. It's currently on a page in our school website I'm not sure if it's had any views from our families.  We can share this whānau meetings to let them know it's there, ask if there were any other videos we could create and share for their interest/use etc.  It would be good to have this recorded in other languages our families use also.

DAY 1 w Mary Anne Murphy https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4sUPvwmj7UCVTNaUlBIMW5HUzA what is our natural way of being - and considering what we need to put more time into Considering Leadership team: Patterns: both more 'feelers' rather than 'thinker' thinkers otherwise,. Strengths: good balance in leadership team - coverage, difference, complimentary. Gaps: Thinker (Anna) Insights: delivery of messages from us both - how message is delivered. 'spun negative' - middle column, Passive....Assertive How might I be 'accidentally diminishing - 'idea guy' >evaluate, streamlining, organising, clarity, listen to others The standard you walk past is the standard you accept accountability conversations a la Bill Rogers (i.e. description of reality ...open to theory of action Enlisting - below the line > one liners - public. Raise attention to below line behaviours, don't walk past. Redirection (private) Calling it (priv...