Term 2 - 2020 - Day 1 begins!

What a day! Easter holidays are done and today we kicked off a brand new term in lockdown mode. We started the morning with an assembly using GOOGLE Meet for all Team 5 teachers and students - 75 of us in one hangout - what an awesome start! 

We had two subject MEETs for the day - 9.30am for Literacy and 11.30am for Maths - time enough to touch base with our students see how they have been over the break and ease them back into some kind of learning mode. It was great to see kids in the virtual flesh especially those who had gone to ground at the end of Term 1 and had not surfaced (via their blogs) during the holidays.  18 students out of 26 for Literacy; 12 out of 25 for Maths! Making a start!

The set up of our class sites followed the format from the end of Term 1 to LIMIT THE LINKS!

 and students can access their learning in just TWO CLICKS.
1) Click to the TEAM 5 site then,

2) Click on the individual teachers's learning pages:

So this is how my ROOM 2 Class learning site looks for TERM 2:

Parent feedback suggested it would help them out if we split Literacy learning into Reading and Writing - no problem!

Going forward, the key will be to provide tasks that students can for the most part tackle independently - will  be interesting to see how this goes and am at the ready to make tweaks as needed in the weeks ahead.

Looking forward to Day 2 back in the saddle tomorrow!

Looking back at 2019! Moving forward to 2020!

As week 9 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting back over the last 12 months - it really is hard to believe that my third year as a classroom teacher is almost over! Humps and hollows, sidesteps and missteps aside, there have also been some triumphs. Here are a few of my personal highlights from 2019:

• By year end, all 6 Year 8 students in my target reading group made gains of at least 6 months in their reading ages- one student moved 2 years while two students made a shift of 12 months. It was a very satisfying to know that half the group would enter secondary school with a reading age of 11 years - the benchmark set for the students at the start of the year that would enhance their ability to access the Year 9 curriculum.
  
• Collaborating with team of Pt England staff (made of teachers and office personnel) to prepare and present to a PD session for staff about Tataiako, the Maori learners framework. It was an awesome opportunity to work together and produce practical steps our colleagues could implement based on the framework - the focus being to promote ways to empower those students who identify as Maori
  
• Embracing the opportunity to teach extension students in literacy. This really pushed me outside my comfort zone and required me to adapt to students who could unpack the deeper meaning in variety of texts. The students and I engaged in meaningful discussions across a range of topics. Students seized the change to grapple with a range of themes including stereotypes, race relations, family dynamics and climate crisis.

Now looking forward to the new year, I am excited by the prospect of new challenges including:

• Being part of the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher (MIT) group for 2020. I am really interested in how we will apply the design thinking process to a rigorous teacher inquiry. I looking forward to meeting, working with and sharing ideas with educators selected from across the Manaiakalani outreach clusters.
  
• Continuing to develop my skills in teaching literacy, particularly writing
  
• Building my skills to teach Te Reo to Year 7 & 8 students

Farewell 2019 - thanks for the memories! Bring on 2020!

Where to from here? Update - Term 4, 2019: Teaching as Inquiry

Satisfying Results: Teaching as Inquiry - Update - End of Term 3, 2019

Inquiry Update - End of Term 1

How do you RATE your teaching practice?

Today's staff PD session led by Dorothy Burt was a timely reminder that effective teachers are THE key component in achieving success in the classroom.  The world of digital learning offers many bells and whistles but nothing can replace what a competent teacher body can bring to the classroom.

Dorothy introduced us to the RATE framework. I found it very useful to breakdown how I can access EFFECTIVE TEACHING PRACTISE and continue my own personal journey to develop my teaching skillset.

R = RECOGNISE Effective Practice by seeking out out teaching practices that work. We got to see this in action at the end of our PD session with staff split into groups, role playing a guided reading session with a focus on a specific element of the NZ Curriculum (Reading, Level 2) with a 'teacher'  supporting 'students' to overcome decoding challenges. Lots of great ideas on display!

A = AMPLIFY Effective Practise by using the Learn-Create-Share pedagogy. Staying connected to other educators through our networks, keeping good practice visible, feeling empowered to get out and put different ideas into practise and taking advantage of colleagues skills and experiences at at time and place that suits (ubiquitous) e.g. online toolkits

T = TURBOCHARGE Effective Practise by using digital technologies to provide learning experiences that were previously not possible (SAMR model) or were not available 

E = EFFECTIVE PRACTICE 

Inquiry Update - Term 4

UPDATE: I have continued to use a targeted vocabulary approach to support reading comprehension for my Year 7/8 class with ideas adapted from research by Paul Nation. I select 8 words and phrases from the text of the week for a given group and have them attempt to unpack their meaning and find clues to the type of text to be read.

OBSERVATIONS: Using this method, I have seen students who usually need extra support are visibly more engaged when they come to read the text. It seems that having an explicit purpose for reading helps them to focus on working out what the words/phrases mean. There is an (unintended) sense of competition so students are keen 'be the first' to read the text and check if their predictions about a set of words/phrases are correct. Students are quick to let others know they have gotten it right but there is no major fallout if someone's idea misses the mark.

NEXT STEPS: Continue to use this targeted approach but build student's usage of selected words/phrases in to writing activities. Encourage more student-led discussion around the meaning of selected words/phrases.