Swivl DAT

My deliberate act of teaching was a reading group who were focusing on Self Monitoring.  We had worked on this comprehension strategy for a couple of weeks and were doing the last, refresher session on it before the holidays.

What Went Well
The learners had their self monitoring bookmarks they'd been given and they were able to refer to them confidently.  There were a couple of learners who were very confident with answering the questions that I had put up for discussion and could talk about self monitoring skills easily.  Over the previous weeks the group had understood what self monitoring means, the importance of it and the different ways to do it

What I Would Change
Next time I would set the swivl up at the back of the group so that the learners are in the video.  It would have been helpful for me to see their interaction so that I can better plan for sessions and to allow me to write narrative assessments on specific learners.
In the future I need to ensure that I move around a wee bit instead of standing or sitting in one spot, I think this would make the session a lot more interesting for the learners and would allow me to connect with more of the group (I follow a special needs teacher on Facebook and he uses this strategy to keep things interesting and keep the attention of his learners).
I need to use strategies for getting the whole group participating in the learning.  More often than not it's a handful of learners who answer all of the questions and do all of the thinking, perhaps because the others are shy, or worried about being wrong or language is a problem.  I think if I had them discussing, writing, mind mapping or doing some other activity in pairs or threes it would be a non confronting way for all learners to participate and access the learning.  This is my main goal moving forward.
I think I also need to think about the structure of the session and really plan it out a bit more deliberately so that I can get the learning I want out of it but keep the session short and sharp.

End of T1 Reflection

T1 reflection - what’s not going well

iExplore 

• Most learners are not following the learning model document and do not understand that it is more than creating a presentation. 
• Those who have done bake sales have needed significant intervention by Lisa and I.  They haven’t understood the process they needed to go through to get from the idea to the end product (finding a recipe, making a list of ingredients, doing a budget etc).  
• There is more of a language issue than I originally thought there was and I think many learners need ESOL support when doing their iExplores.
• I forgot to give the Sharks group the web quest that we created for them.

iDevelop

• Some learners aren’t getting enough instructional sessions on strategies and are not remembering how to use them. 
• Learners don’t automatically go to the slideshows on our Google site and do the capability tasks.
• When maths workshops are quite large I have found it very challenging to reach all learners and use materials with them
• Most learners aren’t updating their reader’s notebook.
• There doesn’t seem to ever be enough time for each subject area (reading, writing, maths)
• I don’t think we have enough maths games and language games out for learners to use to practise their capabilities

iExperience

• I have found it difficult to have enough time for visual arts on Tuesdays
• It has been difficult to offer workshops with only two learning coaches
• Many learners need language support with independent activities

Home learning

• Half of our learners are not doing mathletics at home.
• We haven’t got a way of checking that the learners are doing home reading

Other

• Provocations that are not on YouTube don’t seem to grab our learners.
• Many activities in all areas are not getting done
• Many learners sit with their friends and are very distracted during independent learning time
• They are very slow at getting organised when transitioning into a different learning area

End of Term 1 Maths

Assessment
Every second Friday we have been doing a pre-test.  This includes ten questions from various maths stages, all of the questions come from the planning sheets on NZmaths.  After the pre-test Lisa and myself mark them and put the learners into workshop groups based on what their gaps are.  Over the two weeks we run workshops that focus on the strategies in the pre-test and each workshop has a slideshow that accompanies it.  The slideshows are uploaded to the class Google site for learners to access for capability practise and to support their further learning after the workshops.

Daily 3: maths with someone, maths on my own, maths writing
We have been encouraging daily 3 with our learners and have a display on the wall to support the language of daily 3.  We have found though, that many of the learners spend all of their maths time playing card games or on Mathletics.  The card games they are playing are often snap or last card so they are not gaining much or practising their capabilities.  Following

Mathletics & Digital Tools
Learners are required to earn 2000 points each week on Mathletics (this number was decided on by the learners).  Activities are set for them that align with the workshops they have been, or will be attending.  They have been given time in class to work on Mathletics however we are finding that many of them are only doing Mathletics and nothing else so at the moment we have limited it.  We are also finding that around half of our learners are not doing Mathletics at home.

We have not started using Studyladder yet however I think next term we should look into this.  Some of the stage 5 activities on Mathletics don't align with the strategies we are teaching them (lots of algorithms which they shouldn't really be doing at stage 5) so it would be good to use Studyladder to fill this gap.

Moving Forward
It'd be good to find a way to keep our workshops going but make them smaller, less learners in each one so that we can use materials more easily.  Also I'm keen to build in a bit more repetition for those learners who find maths difficult and need to repeat the same skills many times in different ways.

First iExplore

The last two weeks we have been doing an iExplore around deaf culture, the Treaty of Waitangi and Chinese New Year.  The learners have been in three groups and we've run a rotation through the three topics.  The first two groups were really engaged in my topic (Chinese New Year) and most of the learners shared some really great thoughts from what they had learnt.  Today's group were the most engaged of all the groups.  I was a little concerned about how I was going to reach the deaf learners but they seemed to be really interested in the topic and were excited about finding out about the dragons and the mythical monster who terrorised a village.

I realised after the first group that I needed to get the learners to record something about their learning of Chinese New Year customs and traditions so I got the second and third groups to create their own slides on my slideshow and write something that stuck with them.  I absolutely loved what some of them created, a couple linked videos that they'd found and pictures of different things and enjoyed getting up and sharing their slides with the group.

After the second group I went in and left feedback on each slide.  This time around I kept it brief and positive and thanked them for sharing, I felt that at this point of the year I want to create a positive feeling around feedback so didn't give any feed forward this time.

Going forward I need to remember to get evidence of learning every time we do something.  I also need to work on making my planning more thorough and link the correct things to it.  I need to think about what sort of feedback and feed forward I want to give on this sort of activity where it's a shared document, in terms of privacy do I want to be critical in public or keep it positive.

Attach the slideshow when it's finished. 

#Oresome Challenge

Team Collaborative

1. This week has been an overwhelming cascade of information. 
2. We have learnt about the learning model and how they relate to the seven principles of learning.
3. We learnt about the importance of the space between and how we can utilise this space to create collective intelligence. 
4. This week half of us began the journey of learning NZSL. 
5. For us, this week's learning has had a real 'wow' factor because there has been so much learning about deaf culture, and we've collaborated a lot.
6. Today we have had the opportunity to go into our space and imagine how it might work with the furniture and the different areas of the room. 
7. We discovered that poo can go into a worm farm.
8. PB4L was interesting and we're excited to implement it in our habitat.
9. Over the week we have learnt to decipher the induction timetable and the many acronyms have become clear. 
10. As this space is rubbish free we will have to learn how to manage our rubbish as well as encouraging the learners to do the same. 

 

Induction - Day Four

Throughout the day I have gained a lot more confidence and the pieces have started to fall into place a lot more in terms of how things will work in LH3.  The discussion we had this morning with the LH1 learning coaches was very useful and clarified a few things for me, such has what our focus might be for the term/year and how hapu groups will work.  It also made me feel a lot more comfortable with the level of freedom we have with topics.  I still have a long way to go before we're ready for learners to come in next week but I now have a clearer direction for what things we'd like to cover and the ideas and opportunities that came out of the discussion seem endless.  

We also discussed provocations which is something I've thought about before but never done.  I love the idea of generating interest and motivation in this way and leaving the ball more in the learners' court, this seems like the start of real inquiry and real thinking.  I found an amazing video clip this morning for Hit Record (https://www.hitrecord.org/) which could be extremely motivating for some learners who are more creative or who want to be creative but aren't sure how. The Hit Record idea encompasses the four Cs and the key competencies while allowing learners to go in a number of different directions (or not if they're not into it). I think it would allow learners who aren't naturally creative to experiment with the support of their peers through group learning. It would be exciting to introduce Hit Record to the learners at some point and see where it takes them (I imagine it could lead to amazing iExplore topics!!).

I really enjoyed the session on NZSL this afternoon. I knew the fingerspelling alphabet from uni but it was useful to get a refresher and to learn some basic words and phrases. I feel a lot more confident meeting the deaf learners next week, now I can introduce myself! I'm really excited to have the opportunity to learn more throughout the year. It was also really useful to learn some things about deaf culture so that I can make sure I'm doing the right thing for the deaf learners in LH3. There were some things I hadn't thought of prior to today, such as appropriate attention getters, the clothing that I wear and not standing in the sun. I'm keen to talk with the deaf learners and make sure they know that they can tell me what they need and let me know what I'm doing right and what I need to change!

Induction - Day Three

My three feeling words from this morning's discussion of the 3rd space were frustrated (when I was thinking about 'cookie cutter' education), curious (when talking about connections I wondered how this relates to us as educators) and overwhelmed (when wondering how on Earth I will achieve it).

On reflection these feelings haven't changed all that much.  I still feel frustrated at the traditional sense of 'one size fits all' education (incl. standardised testing, reporting styles, curriculum and expectations in education).  On the other side of the coin it's very exciting to think that here at Ormiston Primary we are challenging traditions and reconstructing teaching and learning in an authentic and effective way and that I will become part of that journey. 

During the discussion I realised that the connections relate to me as an educator and a learner because I will be responsible for facilitating the learners' connections with each other and their world and I will also be forming my own connections with colleagues, ideas and information. I still feel curious about this as I'm keen to see how this will look and where it will take us.  

I feel overwhelmed by the ideas presented today as it seems like a long journey to take, and will possibly be difficult to measure and keep track of.  I feel like as an educator I need to fully prepare children for their today and for their future and I want them to be well rounded, collaborative, creative, forward thinking, innovative citizens.  This seems like a huge mountain to climb but I think it will be hugely satisfying and exciting. 

Update

This afternoon I came home feeling quite overwhelmed but after taking some time to digest the information presented I'm now really excited to get stuck in.  I feel very inspired by the general philosophy of the school and the ideas presented today and know that they will provide a much richer learning experience for myself and for the learners.