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.

Appraisal Principal Meeting & Reflection from here...

Seesaw soars!

E-portfolio of learning

Seesaw in the classroom

After investigating blogger and seesaw as a medium to share learning online with parents and provide an authentic audience for middle syndicate children, I decided to implement Seesaw.  the reasons for this is it is easy to use both on Chrome Books and iPads, teachers and children can easily upload learning and teachers can communicate instantly with parents e.g notices.

As we move into term 2 both the children and teachers will begin to use it to communicate and demonstrate learning and progress. Seesaw is also a great way to practice digital citizenship while building ICT skills. We will begin to share our learning on our Seesaw blog so to give the children a wider audience and continue building our GAFE skills with docs, slides and gmail.

Here are some examples of children presenting and sharing work on Seesaw in term 1 -

Example 1:
Antonio's self-assessment & teacher assessment electricity inquiry (image with audio file - teacher giving overall level achieved, what the student can do, and next steps)

Example 2:
Student choosing to present and share their work in Seesaw by embedding their google doc:



Example 3:
Student sharing work using notes within seesaw:


Example 4:
Student taking photo of presentation (poster) and sharing ideas on Seesaw:



Example 5:
Student reciting mihi using Seesaw video:

Leadership Reflection Term 1 2017

Leadership

This year I have been leading a small team in the newly created middle syndicate (years 3/4). We are a small syndicate of 2.4.

In the beginning, it was difficult knowing what was expected from me as a leader and I guess it is a role that I will continue to grow in over time.  I have been lucky to be working with my syndicate leader from previous years and now the DP who I have been able to get support from and much of my developing leadership style has been cloned from watching and observing how she's lead a syndicate in the past.

I have enjoyed leading and thinking about the programs and direction the new syndicate takes. I have learnt to delegate as I've realised I cannot do everything!  This year our BT has really stepped up and used her initiative with getting jobs done, which has made it a lot easier.

I find our senior management meetings invaluable as a way to learn from the other leaders and know what the expectations are.  I also found meeting with the board and sharing our data helpful and also to hold my syndicate accountable for our practices and ensuring progress for our children.  It is great having their support with resources and finance to put our ideas and programs in place to benefit our children.

I really enjoy monitoring progress and data.  It is highly motivating to see what is working (and what is not) when we are tracking our children so closely!

The middle leader course I added this term was insightful.  I do believe it was too short and the course should have been spread over at least a couple of days.  Things were glanced over but I guess we know where to look.  I think the best thing for me was learning how to have difficult conversations with others (question prompts), and making sure our inquiries and programs are research based in accordance with BES.  I can be a bit of a 'driver' (just give something a go) but I know I need to make sure I need to do my research first and make sure our programs have gone through the scrutiny of research!  Lastly, that all syndicate leaders should be meeting regularly to discuss BES, leadership, programs etc.  Mainly to make sure we are communicating, sharing and creating consistency through the school with what we are doing in each of our syndicates.

Parents are one of my biggest challenges.  I need to be more diplomatic and listen more to their concerns and problems.  I will need to continue working on this.  Balance is important.

This year we are making a real effort with goal setting with the children and also sharing progress with the children and their parents.  This clarity is important so they understand what we are doing and how their children are going.  For the children, it is about preparing them to become better self-managers of their learning and begin to understand that they need to make decisions over what their next steps are.  Introducing (honest) reflection is a big, part of them being able to do this.

Lot's to keep working on!!!

End of Term 1 2016 Reflection

Teaching a new level - year 3 & 4:

2017 has seen a change in syndicates.  I have moved from the senior syndicate in Mahi Tahi (years 5-8) to the new created middle syndicate, Team Whanau (years 3-4).

The challenges I have found this term are:

Behaviour management

With moving to modern learning practice and 60 children, behaviour management has been challenging, especially with our boys.  We have tried rewarding through verbal praise,  modelling, giving school-wide tokens for positive behaviour and being explicit with reasons for the token, a block jar which when the blocks get to a certain level the children get a reward e.g. free time, class party etc.  The children we are trying to influence don't seem to care.  I believe this is because overall children 'expect' things for behaviour.  The mentality is "if I do this for you, then what will I get out of it?"  I think this is reinforced at home.  If you 'pass' this test, be good etc then I will buy you a phone, new game for your play station etc.

Individual children have proved challenging and a lot of behaviour management has taken time away from teaching.  I have found this very frustrating.  Our next step would be 'Joseph Driessen' behaviour techniques and RTLB/Paediatrician follow-up's for challenging children. 

I think this term we start the day in homerooms to reduce numbers down and settled students after transition times.  This will help keep key personalities apart, reduce noise and easier to manage for each teacher.  Other techniques (preferably with a research base), should be tried and we will brainstorm what these might be at our Term 1 holiday planning meeting.

We do need to ensure consistency between teachers.  We will need to write our expectations down so they are explicit and there is less chance of individual teachers being more lenient or strict with management.  The children feed off the inconsistencies!

Parents

This would be the second biggest challenge.  Parents that are struggling with accepting their children are no longer in the junior school.  Middle school is the bridge between junior and middle school and therefore expectations change, especially over self-management and being responsible for your own learning.

The successes

Daily 5 

Daily 5 has improved literacy outcomes (as evidenced by end of term 1 reading testing and the progress of our target children especially).  The noise is hugely reduced during this time as is on-task behaviour.  Children are actually reading!  We are looking at implementing Daily 3 Maths due to the success.  At the moment teachers are managing behaviour during numeracy. Children do not make the 'transference' between Daily 5 habits and other areas!

Inquiry - Electricity

Great seeing the children learn the inquiry cycle and the skills needed to be successful at inquiry learning.  Particularly exciting seeing the children incorporating docs and seesaw into creating and presenting their inquiry.  All children now understand what circuits are for electricity to flow.  Most had misconceptions about this at the start of the inquiry.

Technology 

Children are embracing technology (GAFE) and are highly engaged in using technology.  Great seeing their digital citizenship and use improving when it is being incorporated in their learning.

Seesaw has been highly successful with engaging students in their learning and also communicating with parents.  We have 46 connected parents.  The students are now beginning to share their own learning on there and teachers are beginning to report progress on there as well.  This is with a view of seesaw being on online e-portfolio.

Overall I am enjoying the new challenge of younger students.  I have to be conscientious of not having too high expectations and it is teaching me not to over plan!

Welcome

Welcome to my 2017 blog.  This blog will contain evidence of meeting my practising teacher criteria for 2017.  It will also include term reflections, personal development (PD), leadership and information on computer science and digital technology.