Posts

Mega Meet - Equity and Success for All

Image
  For the first time in my teaching career, I was part of a conference that included Primary, Intermediate and Secondary teachers from the local area. Waiting outside for the powhiri to begin, I was excited to see a lot of colleagues I knew from 12 years teaching in this area. I also had the chance to meet new people.  The powhiri was really special - listening to the speeches and singing waiata, I felt the sense of unity - he waka eke noa - we're all in this together.   To add to my excitement - Russell Bishop was the key note speaker. The focus of his work is really close to my heart - developing teaching approaches that are highly relational, while also having very high quality teaching interactions with students.  Here are some key points that I took from Russell Bishop's address...  - When students are achieving at a lower level than expected, teachers often seek to explain it by saying there is a problem with the child/family/society.  - A more constructive approach is to
Post a Comment
Read more

Mini Meat - Best Start Literacy

Image
  In Term 1, I attended a Mini Meet at Drury School to find out more about their journey with BSLA.  BSLA (Better Start Literacy Approach) is based on a structured literacy approach along with oral language, whanau engagement and comprehension.  Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of structured literacy - mostly because I believe in reading for meaning and enjoyment, not reading for decoding.  However, I find it really helpful to have a consistent plan that I can follow - and BSLA seems like a thoughtful, systematic approach that covers core learning skills.  One of the most helpful ' takeaways ' for me, was the use of high quality picture books, with multiple readings. Also, substituting some of the English words for Māori kupu... what a great way of including te reo within a familiar context.  I was impressed to hear about the equitable outcomes it was achieving across the spectrum of learners.  Recently, I heard Russel Bishop discussing the use of Balanced Literacy and Structured
Post a Comment
Read more

Circle Time - Peer-to-Peer Conversations

Image
  As part of my professional learning I am working towards this goal:  By Week 5,  try some different ways of promoting peer-to-peer conversations during 'making time' so that our students felt comfortable sharing their ideas with their peers. The early childhood resource "Talking Together" from the Ministry of Education gave me some great tips: Environment :  - Provide activities that are creative and open.  - Choose activities that connect with the students culture and experiences - Small groups are most helpful for encouraging talk - The spaces should be calm and quiet without background music  Teacher prompts:  - Listening to a child talk and then responding with, "That reminds me of a time… does it remind you of a time…. " - Story telling - listening to a child’s story, recording and retelling (possibly with prompts) with other children joining in.  "That’s an idea I hadn’t thought of George. Has anyone got a different idea?" Using puppets to
4 comments
Read more

Māori and Pacifica Giftedness

Image
Māori and Pacifica Giftedness  Workshop facilitated by Melissa Powell, Rosehill College  Image by  Thomas Wilken  from  Pixabay     I'm publishing this post that I wrote in September but didn't come back to.  Coming into this workshop and taking the self-evaluation I realised I knew very little about Māori and Pacifica giftedness - in-particular how giftedness is seen in these cultures.  I have this habit of projecting my understanding onto another culture and thinking it works the same way for them too!!  (Seems to be a bit of a pattern as it happens in other areas too... that's why these workshops are so important because they wake me up and help me to see through another window)  What I loved about this workshop was that it taught us about finding the strengths of our Maori and Pacifica learners and see these strengths through their eyes.  Here are some quotes from the videos we watched... ...giftedness is about leadership and generosity of spirit and wisdom... - Melind
2 comments
Read more

Circle Time - Professional Development Cycle

Image
 Circle Time - Professional Development Cycle  I have enjoyed meeting with Gretchen twice to discuss my professional goals for this year.  We decided that the context for my professional learning would be small-group circle times (which I help to facilitate twice a week).  I attained some baseline data by collecting an audio recording of my conversation with some of the students while they were doing their art. I was being conscious of using teacher talk moves: - repeating back what a student is saying  - giving wait time  - saying, "tell me more"  The conversation I had, mainly with M, was extremely interesting. He was discussing a number of deep topics that came from his art - an island. From this came a discussion about religion, politics and how people treat him.  This really showed me how art can open up conversations with students and allow them to talk about things that they have on their mind and topics that are important to them.  Gretchen and I discussed the recordi
1 comment
Read more

Writing Programme

Image
  The Mini-Meet that I went to was by Ella Sharma at Papakura Central School.  Three takeaways:  - student ownership of learning  - students being able to articulate their learning - having a meaningful purpose for writing  This workshop prompted my thinking, "Why is it important for me to be an excellent practitioner in teaching writing??" These ideas come to mind... - Writing is about giving kids a voice (student ownership)  - Writing is about valuing the voice of students (meaningful writing purposes)  - Writing is an important transferrable skill to successful live in our society (knowledge/skill transfer)  Which makes me think... when our kids leave Year 6 - what would they be doing... - confidently delivering speeches and reports on topics that are important to them  - presenting original spoken word poetry or rap  - sharing their stories and the stories that they want to read - uplifting others through their stories, giving voice to the feelings and ways of thinking th
3 comments
Read more

Reading Observation with Hilton from SHARP Reading

Image
Picture from GDJ on Pixa Bay:  Hilton observed me working with the Year 4/5/6 Stage 3 Group, which I am taking every Monday.  Hilton's feedback to me included:  - I had a good grasp of the SHARP routine  - Next, facilitate the students actively participating to a greater degree  - I was still doing most of the heavy lifting (in terms of the teaching and thinking).  - The whole class routine needs to be tighter, stopping for behaviour management drags it out - I was using a lot of 'soft behaviour management strategies' - noticing the kids who were involved, redirecting those off task - but these strategies were not effective. - Get the group closer together (kids sitting away from the group is the first step to disengagement) - Stick to the unpacking sentences and a thumps up for feedback  I was very grateful for Sam and Michelle helping me to manage the group so I was able to get the most out of the session with Hilton.  I found the feedback very helpful and it reminded me
Post a Comment
Read more