Gretchen's learning

We're making a commitment to change this term.   Something I will change - spend less time in the office so more time outside, in class etc.  This will mean more connections, supporting, building relationships, conversations, learning, visiting whānau etc. etc.  Ways I will support myself for this change is by putting it on the calendar initially.  Michelle and I will also hold each other to account over this (it's a goal for both of us).   Something I will stop -  I will be more selective and purposeful about my computer use.  I can get lost and easily distracted in front of my screen...my inbox, signing up to random newsletters, reading articles/opinions, registering for random workshops etc.  While sometimes these are of great value,  I can be more purposeful about my online time.  There is some admin obviously that will need to be done. I will filter my 'invitations'/online collecting to main areas of responsibility/i...

Drama NZ webinar with Dr Viv Aitken As some know, I'm a bit of a true fan of Viv's and of  Mantle of the Expert .  I learn from her, get all inspired and enthused then these treasures fade to the background as day to day life tasks seem to takes over my time and energy.  It was great to have the opportunity to connect with her again at this time, revisit this amazing learning and spark some thinking - and action! Viv has been working with teachers from Hillcrest Normal School.  Questions they have asked themselves during this period of home learning: What are our new assumptions? -'at home' means something different for every child -we're creating IEPs for every child -we are trying to be equitable -Learning from home is already happening (with whānau etc.) -we need to be flexible - moving from Level 4 to Level 3...how long? then what? What do children need in times of uncertainty? -we need to learn from whānau -connection to natural world -creativit...

This prompted much thought and I look forward to further conversations with others - webinar will be available via NZEI - well worth a look. My random notes from webinar: Relationships and Commonsense We're at home doing crisis (we're not at home doing work).  Many of us are spread out from our families. Welby spoke about his mother during polio epidemic - no school for 4 months.  His mum learned to ride horse, trapeze, can fruit... School is not the god of learning.  Most kids do most learning outside of school. On average day outside of Covid - 6 hours at school, 8 hours learning out of school. What's happening now - consider it a contribution. Teachers - may be feeling overworked, anxious, vulnerable. Anxiety we might be being measured. This is tough. Answer may be in collective ideas.  Talk and listen to the ideas of others, people we like and respect.  Multiple lenses - one lens is never as good. Look away from screen to what's around us, our hom...

Raranga Matihiko  is offering webinars to support teachers with creating authentic and challenging experiences for our  ākonga using digital technologies.  The one I attended this morning was on Game Based Learning - using Scratch . If you haven't used Scratch you'll need to create an account - it's free. Alisha Spekking (educator/webinar host) suggested these Scratch introductory videos:  https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NTY7jAODNqM&t=16s  (or  https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=A78BfUkRgRw&t=4s  for Te Reo Māori. Raranga Matihiko created 'Decoded for Learners'  tool which puts the two new technological areas from the NZ curriculum (progressions of computational thinking and designing and developing digital outcomes) into kids speak (MoE have approved these).  They emphasise that these are progressions, not a checklist. Much info about this curriculum area is on TKI  and well worth a look. Alisha shared this video - 7 Reason...

Our school report showed out school norm tracks below national norm, though it starts fairly close to the national norm at Year 3 the gap then widens. It's important to note we have students sitting above the norm and that these students need to be catered well for also - how are we extending these students to ensure they make further progress over their year. Some areas that are 'hot spots' for Years 4-6 are fractions, statistics and place value.  It's important the students are offered opportunities to work with materials and have maths problems presented to them in relevant contexts to them. We talked about the numeracy project books   which are a valuable resource, but maybe we're sticking to book 5 and not using the other resources.  I will take a stocktake of our books and ensure each room has the appropriate books here. Another thing we talked about was the importance of critical thinking and the students being able to solve word problems and also recogni...

Having the opportunity to teach Reading Recovery again has been great. My training tutor, Robyn Dillon, was good at reminding us about 'slow learning' and this is something I value about having 30 minutes to focus on one child's learning during Reading Recovery lessons. The structures of Reading Recovery help me order my thoughts and focus my teaching. There's also the expectation that we go deep into Marie Clay's texts and discuss our practice - which our OPD sessions are for. Apparently Auckland has the highest rate of referred students from Reading Recovery - these are students who do not complete RR successfully and are referred on to services such as an RT Lit.  A goal from the tutors is to decrease the rate of referred students. Our focus for today's session was how we can get more information during the observation survey when children are scoring very low.  The message here was to use emergent Ready to Read (level 2) for early running records. Old ...

-understanding what has been identified as effective practice (via Woolf Fisher data). -Recognise - amplify - turbocharge.  Teacher needs to be purposeful, 'have a why', be selective - just because it's in 'turbocharge' column, will not necessarily mean it's more engaging or better, just that it is using the affordances of digital technology. -very interested to find out more about Engage