- Inquire into and reflect in the effectiveness of practice in a ongoing way, using evidence from a range of sources.
- Critically examine how my own assumptions and beliefs, including cultural beliefs, impact on practice and the achievement of learners with different abilities and needs, backgrounds, genders, identities, languages ad cultures.
- Engage in professional learning and adaptively apply this learning in practice.
- Be informed by research and innovations relates to: content disciplines; pedagogy; teaching for diverse learners, including learners with disabilities and learning support needs; and wider education matters.
- Seek and respond to feedback from learners, colleagues and other education professionals, and engage in collaborative problem solving and learning-focused collegial discussions.
Professional Development
2018 Understanding Behaviour – Responding Safely (UBRS) January 30th
The workshop built on the document “Guidance for Registered Schools in New Zealand on the use of Physical Restraint. It showed us ways to prevent the need for restraint by de-escalating potentially dangerous situations. It looked at how to understand behaviour and how to assist students in being read to learn.
Key Points – understanding behaviour, encouraging read to learn behaviour and responding safely.
“Strong positive relationships increase the likelihood of constructive outcomes. It reminded us how important the relationships with our students are and how our response to a situation will have a deliberate impact on whether the situation escalates or de-escalates. Lots of the ideas were similar to the IYT Programme but it was a good reminder for us to focus on staying calm and ensuring that our reaction to the situation was appropriate.
Google Summit 2017 April 27th 28th (2nd week school holidays)
Day 1 Keynote Speaker. Nice start – this was about how innovation can make a difference in the classroom and how we can inspire kids to do more and think more and e more.
Session 1 – google docs, sheets etc. Useful for data comparisons for easttle, PAT, spelling and basic facts. Would also really helpful when teaching statistics. The students would be able to see how to turn raw data into a visible graph. Comments on google doc – sending notes to students about corrections or improvements that they can make on their doc.
Session 2 – Hapara Dashboard. Went over how to use the dashboard, how to check what the kids are doing and how to smart share a doc. Looked briefly at Hapara workspace, which is I would like to use in a more meaningful way.. Showed us how to search for a workspace that is already created and then copy it. The workspace then appears and can be edited or used.
Session 3 – Lessons from the future. Talked about the future of education and the development of student agency and personal curriculum. Also talked about global communities and how we can share and collaborate together more. Inquiry is an important part of this development.
Session 4 We learned how to manipulate data in sheets ad turn it into graphs and charts. We looked at how we can make data more relevant for kids and how to teach them to make it and read it.
data.govt.nz had data available to look at.
Day 1 Keynote Speaker – focus on making sure the kids have the key competencies they need to order to compete the tasks.
Session 1 – we worked on some add ons and google apps that might be useful in the classroom. We looked at text-to-speech, rewordify.com, fanfiction.com and ePub. All of these things could be really useful when helping kids to learn to read and write.
Session 2 – we learned about using you tube in a more helpful way and how to find things that are helpful for learning on You tube
Session 3 – this was about google cardboard. This was awesome! It was like 3D glasses. It was run with a cell phone and an ipad and would give students opportunities to experience things and places like never before. The one we looked at was rock-climbing at Yosemite National Park. There is also a place for the teacher to add notes for the students to read and a way to direct them to a particular place and read some information about it.
Session 4 – this was a repetition of session 3 on Thursday but because I didn’t plan my sessions well enough I ended up at this one again. Although the conversations and discussions went in a different direction. However, the gist was the same – that we need to focus on the individual needs of the students and on giving the students lots of opportunities to learn in their own ways, at their own pace and focus on their own goals.
Reflection: There were so many great ideas and different things to try. I need to go away and note down the things I want to try and think about different ways these ideas could make a real difference for students. It was great to be able to reread the power point after the session was over to remind yourself bout the new learning and how you could use it. It was a really awesome few days.
How this impacts learners: Lots of these ideas would really help with reading and writing, but mostly they are things that will make learning more fun and interesting and hopefully engage the learners in what they are doing. Editing writing –use Google Translate to listen to the writing to her where it could be improved and if there are any errors that could be corrected.
WIkiwand – use for reading and writing to explain what a word might mean.
2017 Core Education – Literacy in Modern Learning Environment
Suggestions for ways to use ICT in literacy programme. Linked into power point presentations and asked to choose 1 or 2 things that we would like to try. Lots of really good suggestions and I decided to try pobble and kahoot. I would also like to use Hapara Workspace sometime during the year.
Reflection: Some really good things shared at this course and I really liked how they suggested that we look for a couple of things that might work for us and give them a try and then feedback on the portal about how we were going. Sometimes there is just so much information ion the courses that it becomes overwhelming and you don’t know where to start so to have it suggested that we just try for a couple of things was really great. I only thing that was a bit disappointing was that they didn’t address any management issues – tracking students, making sure they are all achieving something etc. This is something that we are working on but we got the impression that this would be covered.
How this impacts learners: I am now using Kahoot with the class in lots of curriculum areas – basic facts, strand maths (time, measurement, algebra), reading, general knowledge. The kid shave to get in groups of 2 or 3 (children they did not work with last time) and this is helping to promote a collaborative atmosphere in the room. I have plans to develop my own kahoot quizzes to use. I am learning to use the workspace and we have someone coming in to school to talk to us about how to use it. I am also using another sit for writing prompts called Pobble which has pictures as well as teaching points to enhance and develop vocabulary.
2107 Victoria University Mentoring Programme
I have a masters Student with me for the year and, as part of this programme, we meet with the lecturers and other mentor teachers regularly to discuss how best we can help the students, how to ensure all our obligations as far as observations and reports are met and how to manage these things. I find having student teachers in my room great fro two reasons. Firstly because they bring a fresh pair of eyes to the room and can often see things or notice things that I have missed. The second reason is it makes me question everything I do and reflect on my practice and think about how I do things and why I do them. I am looking forward to working with Juliana this year.
Reflection: I am really enjoying having a student in my room, but I think the university is a bit out of date. They insist on a specific learning intention for every minute in the classroom and expect every single second of learning to be linked to curriculum documents. However, this leaves no flexibility to grab “teachable moments”. This is a little frustrating. Other teachers working within this programme feel the same.
Another frustration is the lack of communication with the university.
How this impacts learners: I have an “extra pair of hands” in the classroom which is invaluable for numeracy and writing groups as well as during team literacy. She also brings fresh ideas to the class and can also help with the students that are cause for concern, that need extra support and that work best when supported. It also causes me to reflect on my practice constantly and be able to justify why I do things the way I do and I think this is a really good thing. When she is on sole charge I will use the time to work with Solomona, Daniel and Madison (students that are causing me the most concern and as risk of being below the standard).
2017 Kerryn Akers – Wellington Loop
Kerryn works for the wellington Loop and provides ICT support. I have attended 3 sessions with her and each time we have worked on a different aspect. We have looked at using the ipads and using an app called symbaloo (which is like a web page with links to apps and sites that are targeted towards specific learning goals). We have looked at Hapara and how to use this in the classroom and also Hapara Workspace. We have worked on using seesaw effectively.
Reflection: I thin the involvement of Wellington Loop could have a big impact on us as teachers and on our use of IT in the classrooms. I m really keen to earn to use these tool well and need to make this a key focus of my learning this year. I am going to mostly focus on using the dashboard first and when I am confident using that will focus on seesaw. I have used seesaw before so I can do the basics, but I would like to be more creative in my use of it and I would also like for the students to be using it as well. The ability to choose what is posted would be giving the agency and ownership and I am very keen to promote that.
How this impacts learners: Hapara/google docs and seesaw could potentially have a huge impact on whanau engagement and on sharing what is going on at school with the people at home. Seesaw could be used as on online portfolio or it could be used as as way for parents to see what the kids are learning about as school.
2016 Incredible Years Training
This programme ran all year – 7 sessions in total. I found this course a bit challenging. We had to develop behaviour plans to help us address behavioural issues in our classrooms and I really didn’t have any students that fit this bill. Some of the students I used for case studies and to practice these techniques tended to be kids who were unsettled on the mat and easily distracted but were actually not that challenging to manage. Most of the ideas were things that are tried and true and could have been taught over a day or two rather than 7 weeks. Most of the ideas were about being positive with the kids and about catching them being good.
Reflection: I can see how this programme could be great for beginning teachers (to help them formulate how their behaviour management plans and how they are going to manage tricky kids) and for teachers who are working with really difficult students and have tried everything that they normally would be successful with and need some new ideas. For me it was just a reminder of all the positive things we need to be doing, how ignoring the silly behaviour and praising the good behaviour is the best way to go and that the most important aspect of our job is the relationships that we develop with the students.
How this impacts learners: Tricky students do impact on other students so I think learning to manage this behaviour is really important. The students that re exhibiting the behaviours are also impacting their own learning. I do think behaviour management is a really important part of the classroom and this course certainly gave you lots of tips and things to try.
2106 Cyclone – Ipads in the Classrooms
We jumped on this course at the last minute as we were finding the ipads tricky. They re a great tool but we didn’t feel we were using them well. This was just a quick few hours after school and it was advertised as an opportunity too see how effective the ipads can be in a classroom.
Reflection: It was really just a promotion for the company to come in and deliver professional development and we didn’t really take away any new ideas to try.
How this impacts learners: None
2016 Bek Galloway Thinking Skills and Modern Learning Environments
Bek talked to us about changing away from the rigid groupings that we have always used to a more flexible and needs based idea. At first I wasn’t sure, so I tried it with my writing. It worked so well I also tried with maths and that was awesome. I’m just not sure about how this could work with reading in the junior room. I can see further up the school it would but we need to get these kids reading first so I will think about that one. Things I have implemented in my classroom – The Thinking Dwarfs, Think Crews and flexible groupings in maths and writing.
Reflection: At first I wasn’t sure. I didn’t see the need to change. But I tried a few things anyway (like the flexible grouping) and I found that it had some good thinking behind it. I am keen to keep working on these ideas and t see how I can get them working well in a year 2 room.
How this impacts learners: I think they are learning to become more critical thinkers, that they are learning to solve their own problems, to pose, think about and answer their questions. Some of the ideas like the thinking dwarfs are so helpful, especially at writing time and also in the editing part of writing. The thinking crews provide students with opportunities to be collaborative, to work with students they wouldn’t normally work with and to share their ideas. The flexible groups are working really well – I am using a google doc linked to my planning so I can see where kids are and what they need to be doing. Students are beginning to opt in to groups but generally I just call them to the mat.
2015 – 2107 Sportstart
Our school has a Sportstart contract and so this is how we run our sports programmes now. The main idea is the “Physical Literacy”, about the development of fundamental movement skills and fundamental sport skills, alongside critical thinking and communication. I really believe in the programme and have enjoyed implementing it with my students. I think the programme is well set up and easy to run. I can see great development in the children’s skills and they enjoy the programme greatly.
Reflection: I think this programme could have a big impact on our students. The programme is well set up and it looks relatively easy to run. The equipment has all been bought and we all have sports buckets in our room so we have everything we need to get started
How this impacts learners: I think sport is happening more. The planning and ideas are all there, you just have to get out and do it. For my students, I think their skill level has increased, but most importantly I think their “sportsmanship” has increased. They have become more aware of how sport needs to be played, that it is just not about running fast or catching well and that is it also about the team.
2015 2016 2107 Accelerated Learning in Literacy
I have been involved in this programme for 2 years. The ALL programme gives us opportunities to focus on different groups of students that are below the standard. For the last 2 years we have worked with these groups in a withdrawal situation. We looked at their assessment date, specifically easttle and then decided what our focus should be in order to help these students make accelerated progress in writing (see power point presentation and ALL data). We decided that the withdrawal plan was the best for these students and our intervention lasted for 12 weeks. We are also monitoring these students for the duration of their time with us so we can see if this progress has been sustained.
Reflection: I really like the withdrawal model – I think it gives the students time to think and work in a quiet and non-threatening space. I think they like the fact that the other students are all at the same level as them and I think this has a really good effect on the confidence.
2107 We are running the programme in classes. It has been tricky to find (worthwhile) things for the other students to do while I work with my ALL group but I think it is all running well now. I am running another ALL group (8 students from room 7 and 8) during our collaborative Literacy Time (one week behind my other ALL group so I using the same activities and ideas) so I am pleased that we are picking up 20 students between our 2 rooms.
How this impacts learners: The students that need support are getting it. The ALL ideas impact on the other students too. Every time I run an ALL group I run another one in my room as well so double the students are getting extra support. I think this programme has a massive impact on students and it is a shame that this is the last year that we will have funding to run it.
2015 Shine – Joy Allcock
Joy Allcock has written a spelling programme and this was an introduction to how it works. We have been a testing school for the last 3 years (our data has been used to track against data from school that are already running the programme). She has some great ideas and some of the things she said about how children learn to read, write and spell made a lot of sense.
Reflection: Some of the things she said about teaching the students the code (sounds of the letters and blends etc) made so much sense. There are so many resources she has produced to support students that it’s hard to know where to start!
How this impacts learners: I have talked to Joy and she is going to come and see a couple of students in my room who are not making satisfactory progress and see what she thinks might help. She is also happy to give me some resources to try out with these kids to see if it makes a different. I think our school will take part in the pilot next year and become fully involved in the programme in 2017.
2015 Kim Register SLD Learning Support
This PD was about teaching children who have non-specific or undiagnosed Learning difficulties. We talked about how best to support these students and she asked us to select a specific student that we were concerned about. I sent her details of this student and the concerns I had about his learning and then we met and she talked me through some ideas about how I might help him.
Reflection: She has some great ideas and I have implemented all of them.
How this impacts learners: Some of the ideas that she suggested apply to any student that is struggling. It was extremely helpful to be given specific ideas and they were good ideas too. She helped me to remember that, if a student is not successful in your classroom, it is up to you to change either what you are doing or how you are doing it. If it is not working then there is little point in continuing to do that same thing in with the hop that at some point you will get a different result.
2015 Alison Davies Writing Workshop
Writing workshop with lots of ideas to get kids writing in authentic ways. One of the things she talked about was writing about the “little moments’. So now, when I model writing a recount, I make sure I write about something very small and minor – often walking the dog or doing the groceries. Her point was that lots of kids don’t do really fun and exciting things and this can make them feel inadequate so we need to validate the story they want to tell. She showed us how to do this trough planning before we write (using the coat hanger) and that sometimes there might be enough planning there for several stories and that the kids should feel free to go back to that planning and use it again. She also showed us some ideas on how to plan using post it notes.
Reflection: She had some good ideas about getting kids to write, mostly reluctant writers. We will be getting a copy of her book so will use that in some planning this year.
How this impacts learners: I have tired the writing about little things and I find that to be really successful and helpful. I am working on the coat hanger idea as well. I do now encourage students to go back to past planning to see if there are some ideas in there that they haven’t used or that might have another idea in them.
2014 Yolanda Sorryl Phonics Programme
We decided to implement this programme in the junior syndicate. We felt that it would help with spelling (something that was flagged in easttle) and also with encoding. Our children (generally speaking) are reading at the standard by the end of year 2 but more children are below the standard for writing then we would like. Yolanda also explained hoe the programme has changed to make stage 5 2 separate stages – early and late – to cover for the students that need extra support. As a syndicate we have decided that the students will be cross-grouped according to assessments and moved into different groups as their needs change.
We also attended the Early Words Course and decided to use this in our classrooms as appropriate. Some students need some more support when learning sight words and this programme may be suitable.
Reflection: I like the idea of a specific and targeted spelling teaching. We just assume that kids will pick up spelling rules but actually they need to be specifically taught. Our easttle results show that our spelling is low, and although this is only a surface feature of writing it does become a barrier if the student is very hesitant when writing, and also if they have trouble reading their story back to you.
How this impacts learners: Stage 5 is huge and by splitting this stage up means we can split our big groups up. Need to assess more often so we can be sure the kids are in the correct groups, especially at the stage 5 level. Need to keep reminding them about the vowel sounds in CVC words (stage 4). These vowel sounds are vital and I think we have some students working at much higher stages that don’t have these sounds. May need to just quickly check that they are all ok here???
2014 Julie Roberts Maths
We looked at the importance of place value and Julie talked about how she feels this is not well addressed in early numeracy. I decided to add a separate place value component to my maths programme; mostly by way of the daily hotspot (whole class) and also to make sure this is addressed during the number knowledge component.
Reflection: Julie has some fresh ideas about the approach to numeracy, especially when it comes to place value. On reflection I don’t think I place enough emphasis on place value and so will look at my overall numeracy plan and see where I can make some changes. I just assumed that students picked up the learning they need about place value and did not explicitly teach it but will make some changes and see how that works out.
How this impacts learners: By explicitly teaching place value I think students will develop stronger and more embedded number knowledge and this will have an impact on the their strategy – it make more sense to use some of the strategies (like 30+40=70 because 3+4=7) when you have sound place value knowledge.
Comments
Post a Comment