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Mega Meet - Equity and Success for All

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  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
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Mini Meat - Best Start Literacy

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  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
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Circle Time - Peer-to-Peer Conversations

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  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
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