Coding & Robotics

Over the year I have begun to introduce coding via a seniors code club and a middle syndicate code club, putting into practice what I learnt in 2016 and at the 2017 Google Summit.

Seniors experienced CS First and Scratch which they enjoyed as were able to direct their learning at their own pace.

Middle school has experienced an Hour of Code course and have enjoyed the block coding that this provides.

After attending the CORE Digi Roadshow, I'd now like to try Code Avengers which is NZ Curriculum aligned and can be used whole school from juniors to seniors.  I will trial this in my syndicate in term 4 to see if it is worth paying for when the new DT curriculum is introduced in 2018.

CS Unplugged for Computer Science is also a valuable resource for teaching Binary Numbers, Data Representation, Networking etc.

I now have to put together an ICT proposal for greater software and hardware.  Initial thoughts are:

1.  Schoolwide Seesaw Plus - alternative to Blogger which the Senior School is failing to engage with.
2.  Coding/Robotics Kit - range of robots in a kit that can be rotated School-wide (teachers learning alongside the children).  Whanau Syndicate is trialling Edisons for our Term 4 inquiry (very exciting)!
3.  Coding - Code Avengers; Hour of Code;  Scratch etc?  What is best school-wide for 2018?
4.  iPads - what do we need?  So many are old and cannot update apps etc.  Great for junior coding.
5.  Chromebooks - Middle Syndicate - 10 more (increase ratio to 1:2), so total of 30.  Senior Syndicate?  Will any more be utilised?

Here are my intial thoughts on robots hardware suitability for our school:

Planning Engaging, Curriculum Focused Learning Programs

An example of our Team Planning - using children's interests (fidget spinners), science (blowing up balloons), Dragon's Den etc in writing as an example.

Assessment informing planning and learning support

End of Term 3 Reflection - Behaviour

Behaviour

Reflecting on behaviour this term, it has overall improved with the use of Dojo (prize box) and daily Star Student awards.  It has become evident how our children are extrinsically motivated and that they have a "what's in it for me" attitude.  I believe it is a reflection of society at large where we have a generation of entitlement and with a general increased lack of responsibility and respect.  We will continue with the use of these rewards as the children are motivated to behave to a higher standard and work harder for this type of recognition.

Our high needs boys have been really challenging this term.  It is disappointing that the success we had with "R" towards the end of term 2 was not continued in term 3 and actually worsened with higher rates of physical violence and refusals to work.  Counselling will hopefully assist with identifying needs and next steps, however, a mental health referral needs to be considered.

"W" has since been given RTLB support and CAP in place however it is frustrating that his family has missed 3 doctors appointments in having him assessed for ADHD.  He is both miserable and not enjoying school because he cannot manage his behaviour and we as teachers are increasingly frustrated with having to deal with the constant 'annoying' behaviours. 

On a more positive note, "K" since meeting with Mum and RTLB (CAP now in place) has made huge improvements in his behaviour.  He has been more compliant and focussed in class.  It is disappointing that regardless of a positive ADHD diagnosis his mother will not medicate him.

I think the biggest difficulty with our children comes down to the large number of them in our space as well as the combination of personalities within the team.

High expectations and school values are also key in promoting positive behaviour in the classroom.

Arowhenua Marae

On the 7th September, Team Whanau travelled to Arowhenua Marae.  The children prepared by learning about marae protocol and learning their mihi.  On arrival, we were welcomed onto the marae with a beautiful Karanga.  Whaikorero followed, along with wonderful waiata and haka powhiri from Arowhenua School.

We learned about the local area and Tangata Whenua.  It was wonderful making links and beginning our journey with our local marae.

The children and teachers enjoyed Kai, along with learning a Haka, Ti Rakau, rock painting.  All the children shared their mihi and it was great seeing some of them do this with confidence and increasingly accurate pronunciation.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to our next visit.

In term 4 we will now focus on counting in Te Reo Maori up to 100 as part of our program.

Waiting to be welcomed onto the marae

Rock Painting

Sharing our Mihi

Sharing our new haka

Powhiri

Ti Rakau

Education Leadership with Joseph Driessen

Evaluating Arinui & Appraisal

With BOT winning $1000 credit/trial with Arinui the school is to consider whether Arinui may be a better consideration for recording and evidencing teacher learning and practice (as compared to Blogger and labels being our current method).

After watching the video and exploring the Arinui website, these were my questions and considerations which I shared with the Principal -



Another person also asked about Arinui on a Primary Teachers Facebook page and here were other teachers responses -

I think my biggest reservation is the ongoing cost, ownership of the individual teacher's pages doesn't remain with the teachers but the school, and that any benefits do not outweigh our current method of evidencing meeting teacher criteria.  Maybe, what needs to change is the focus - improving teaching and learning rather than proving criteria?

End of Term 2 Reflection

Highs & Lows!

Daily 5

Daily 5 continues to be a positive in the classroom literacy program.  The majority of children are spending quality time (increased mileage) reading or completing reading based work.  Testing is showing good progress, although some children with the benchmark change have appeared to have gone backwards or not as 'above' prior to coming to us.  With comprehension being the focus in middle school with the transition to senior school reading is now about understanding and less so about decoding.  

I have noticed fewer children choosing writing and a lot of children copying what they are reading into their work on writing books.  We have reflected and we will check independent work on writing more regularly and also the children must write twice per week.  We will also provide alternative spelling options to try and increase engagement.

We are also introducing handwriting and current events as independent choice options. Steps to Literacy children will be able to choose to complete their online program.  We hope this provides the variety and retains the engagement and motivation in the program.

To give the children greater self-management we are also introducing a Daily 5 choice sheet.  This will reduce teacher time managing choices in between rotations.  The downside is greater photocopying and collecting books in to check choices.

Phonics

The Yolanda Soryl program has been running for a term now and I have enjoyed the structure and step-by-step nature of the program.  The children I have had (stage 2-3) have been really engaged with the program, mainly due to the use of whiteboards and the challenge of the revision (element of competition keeps the boys engaged).  There is some transference coming through in writing of initial vowel sounds and the reading progress of some of our low children could be attributed to phonics as well.  These children still struggle with some sounds like 'r' and all vowel sounds and will need to be repeated.  I look forward to teaching a new level next term (stage 5-6).

Flat Stanley & Inquiry

The children have loved Flat Stanley and sharing his travels around the world.  They are proud to see their Stanley up on the map!  It was a great hook into our inquiry but we feel it was not as well linked to our inquiry this term.  The children ended up choosing countries different to where their Stanley's travelled.  It would have made sense for them to have a question and be in inquiry groups around this country.  

In hindsight, greater teacher direction was still needed, especially in the researching/finding out phase.  The children learned how to use google slides to present their information which was a great way to incorporate technology.  It would have been a good opportunity to see the children skyping experts or other school children in their chosen countries to get information, as well as have a bigger, authentic audience to present their work.  Once self-assessments (and teacher assessments) against the rubric are done it will be great to see the progress comparison from term 1 inquiry.

Matariki & Visual Mihi

Over term 2 my focus in teaching Te Reo Maori and Tikanga Maori was to complete a visual Mihi following on from the term 1 focus on introducing ourselves using our Mihi.  The visual Mihi gave the children the chance to use pictures to represent their awa, maunga, moana, marae, iwi & whanau.

Model used to create our visual Mihi

We incorporated ICT with the children learning how to take a selfie on a Chromebook and how to insert it into a google doc.  They then typed their mihi in the google doc to print off and place on the visual mihi.  The children then decorated their Korowai (cloak) using symbols or words that were important to them (family, flag, friends etc).  Unfortunately, we couldn't explore Maori art (symbolism of koru, mangopare etc) to support the decorating of the cloaks as planned as WIFI was down.  We have displayed our visual mihi with our matariki art in our corridor learning space.   Our children greet all our visitors and families each morning.

Model of the korowai

The children's next step is to continue practising their mihi orally and work on accurate pronunciation in preparation for our Arowhenua marae visit.

We also read different Matariki stories over the last couple of weeks school.  For many children, this was the first time they had heard different stories around the Maori New Year.  We then finished our term with a shared lunch to celebrate Matariki with the children and one of our classroom sponsors. Reihana was given a leadership role of karakia mo te kai, with Cooper chosen to support him to do this.  Lara (Reihana's Mum came in to support him also).

Reihana doing our karakia mo te kai

The children enjoying our Matariki feast!

This was a wonderful way to reflect on our term and relax together and catch-up.

Leadership and next steps

After attending Neil O'Reilly's ILE workshop with the other middle leaders, Anna and Shane, we all agreed about the importance of public unity, consistency across the syndicates and the importance of regular meetings in which best practice can be unpacked and discussed (e.g. BES).  Also, what and how we are doing things in our own syndicates to help each other and understand our practice.

As a new leader, I really value the support from the other middle leaders, hearing their ideas and what's been working well, and the chance to talk about what's on top.  I look forward to really unpacking best practice in term 3 and passing this onto my syndicate.  I realise we need to know why we are doing what we are doing and are we doing it the best way to make sure we have quality teaching and learning at the forefront.

Here is an example of our meeting minutes from our first two catch up's as middle leaders.