PB4L with Karen



What we learned: 
Relationships - Know students names, know what they like, know what is important to them. Understand what it feels like to be them. 

Routines - Be really explicit, draw it, write it down

Reinforcement - Be specific, keep it short. "2 lines, matching leaders, Manaakitangta!"

My reflection: 
The values give students the reason 'why' we do something and remind us what we want our students to be: now and what we want them to take with them into their lives.
Great teachers create atmospheres where students can feel safe and their brains are ready to learn.
Teachers have great power to create memories - good ones, horrible ones. Learn from mistakes and share these with students.

My action steps: 
Use the 2:10 window to identify a student to spend 2 minutes with for 10 days.
Give really specific, short descriptions to reinforce.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
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
Read more

Working with small groups

Image
I feel so lucky to be learning so much from the kids that I teach.  Two of our students taught me new games that they had played during their art therapy time.  The first game involves drawing 6 doodles / scribbles / shapes and numbering them 1-6.  Then each person takes a turn to roll a die.  If the die lands on a 6, that person copies the doodle that is labelled '6'.  This continues until one player draws all 6 doodles on their paper.  The game seems to help students take turns and interact positively with each other while also creating a drawing in a structured way.  Another drawing game involves drawing a large circle or square (over most of the paper) and dividing it into parts. If there are 3 players, divide the shape into 3 parts. If there are 4 players, divide the shape into 4 parts. Decide how many minutes you will get to draw your first picture (1-3 minutes seems good). Then each person draws their first picture in one of the sections. Then we all swap pictures and dr
Read more