Gretchen's learning

On Friday I tried Viv's lesson plan - Mrs Grinling's Problem ( summary of plan - warm up game of freeze, explain we we're doing something a bit different, tell children I'm going to be going into role, explain what that means and how they'll know (a signal - today it was wearing an apron), go into role as Mrs G and explain problem - husband is missing, should have lit the light in the lighthouse by now but I don't know where he is, come out of role, talk with kids about what Mrs G's problem was and how was she feeling, read part of book for more info/clues about problem.  Book tells children that Mr G is always falling asleep.  Children are asked to work with a buddy to create a 'freeze frame' showing what Mr G and his cat might be doing.  Discuss and list possible solutions/ideas.  Work with buddy to show freeze frame of solution.  Teacher goes into role as Mrs G again and asks children about their solution.  thanks them for their help.  Teacher ...

How can I use dramatic inquiry in the classroom to promote communication and participation? Targets? - Jason, Pihanga, Te Neha, Karayje Challenging questions At this stage of the inquiry you can ask yourself: What's going on in my classroom for learners? What do they say about their learning? What do I observe? What are my "hunches"? What do I need to learn more about to make this better? What's not working in my classroom? What is? What's going on in the classroom for my learners? Some wild and feral behaviours. Disengagement. Bored students. Unsettled. Defiance. Lacking class culture. Relationships being established. Two teachers. Absences. What do they say about their learning? >> I need to gather student voice. What do I observe? Te Neha chooses  Mathletics, lego.  Is creative. likes stories being read to him.  will offer opinion, ideas, joke.  Difficulty dealing with disappointment.  Enjoys hanging ...

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...