Friday 31 July 2020

Engage Workshop

Engage is a self regulation programme for improve life- course outcome. This was run through Manaiakalani. Lots of practical ideas were shared on how to help and teach learners to self regulate.

The games were given were divided into the engage domains.

I am keen to try some of these games with my New Entrant class and build on them as the year progresses.


Friday 24 July 2020

Sheena Cameron Reading

 


Panmure Bridge School along with Glen Taylor School joined to have a Reading professional development day. Leading the day was Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey. 

Some key points and highlights:

Link to maths with Talk Moves

Link to phonics with Yolanda Sorryl

Ideas shared around how to do daily Shared Reading

Good shared reading alleviates the anxiety around guided reading.


What was reaffirmed and resonated with me especially as this is something we have previously discussed in our junior school team meetings:

* No round robin

* reading within a colour band

* Digital modelling books to refer back to -rewindable learning / Ako Ano

* Good universal LI's for Ako Ano and follow up activities.

* importance of multiple opportunities to read

*Big Book/ Shared Book

This also linked really well with HLP's 


Interesting - No modelling book in NE - I think by having a digital modelling book where the learners can hear and see cancels out this theory.



Thursday 28 May 2020

Mid Year sense making


The Manaiakalani Senior Leaders meeting focus was to make sense of our current data and identify what we currently do, what we need to incorprorate and what we need to change to get the required shift across all learning areas. The  5 key points made about High Leverage practices:




 

My focus is on how do I ensure these HLP's are integrated and embedded into a classroom setting and support teachers in doing so. Coming out of lockdown the emphasis on teacher and student wellbeing is of utmost importance. Creating a well balanced non threatening  environment will need to be carefully considered. 

Step 1 - less team meetings. maybe every alternate week. This would give teachers time to breathe, time to focus on learners and creating a well balance programme that incorporate HLP's. 

Step 2 -  1 Team meeting, 1 learning area.   

Step 3 - Highlight and discuss HLP's for that learning area. Look at research, evidence based practice and teacher professional contributions within the team.

By going slow, being thorough and sharing of ideas I hopw we alleviate stress and everyone feels well supported.

Monday 6 April 2020

Supporting online learning

 My role during lockdown is to support teachers develop an online programme that is streamlined but meets the needs of our junior learners as they do not have devices that they take home. To make a decision  on how online learning will look in the junior school there were a few factors to consider:

* Current expertise and capability of learners

* Access to a device

* Ability of Teachers using GSuite

* Communication with whanau

* Possible home circumstances of learners

* Learners ability to access email

We decided to keep it simple and streamlined with somewhat similar throughout the junior school. The aim of this is to encourage the junior students to visit other class sites and attempt their activities as well. A decision was made to use quicktime and screen castify. This would be used to:

* Record a message to students explaining how online teaching would work

* Teacher recording a story/ poem and  maybe a Maths activity.

Having so many new teachers that are new to using G Suite, I have attempted to make step by step instructions for them to follow. With no microphone, step by step instructions were done using google docs. I hope to update this using screen castify when I have a new laptop. One major positive is definitely that Teachers are receiving a crash course on using GSuite tools. I also made step by step instructions on how to upload to site,  publishing sites, blogging, and slide decks. 

I have asked all teachers to familiarise themselves with Google fundamentals even if they don't actually take the test but only work through the modules. 


Wednesday 18 March 2020

Principals Trip to Christchurch

 The ever changing face of  learning environment pedagogy and the redevelopment of the Tamaki area has led to the Manaiakalani cluster principals making a trip down to Christchurch in order to see  how schools have rebuilt after the devastating Christchurch earthquakes. We were able to see some amazing building with sound pedagogy and research invested into making these learning environments sustainable and meet the needs of the school community.

The schools we visited were Rawhiti School, Marshland school and Rolleston College.

Some key ideas I liked:

School cultural narrative

Assembly areas within a hub

library areas within a hub

A seperate whare for kapahaka and a meeting room

Dedicated are for headphones

coloured boxes for reading books

Climbing rocks

Hobbit hill and slide

Bike trail








Tuesday 11 February 2020

New Year, New Role

 It was decided that because I have:

1 BT year 2

1 3rd Year Teacher

1 Teacher returning to New Zealand and

1 experienced Teacher new to New Zealand,

I will be walking for the first part of the year or until a new class needs to be opened. 

This first week my focus has been on welcoming the new teachers and assisting them with setting up their classrooms and the importance of building a good relationship with their students and wider school community. 

My second focus was the importance recognising our learners culture and the important role of the Treaty of Waitangi and why and how it must be used and adhered to in a classroom environment.

To help them become acquainted with life at Panmure Bridge I gave each new teacher  a welcome to the junior school document. LINK 

I also decided to keep a virtual diary to show how I spend my time during theses days. LINK


My second focus was getting them acquainted with Assessment protocols and procedures. I explained how all these would be accessible on our team minutes for them to see at anytime. LINK

Thursday 6 February 2020

Panmure Bridge Maths ToD

 This week we were welcomed back to school for 2020. After meeting the new members of staff and Richard Johnston giving us the 'State of the Nation' address we had our Maths professional development was with Marie Hirst.

Session 1: We started with a revision of some warm up activities and a chance to get our brains working again.

Warm up:

Alphabet letters are given a number and bring it down to 1 digit. Look for your corresponding meaning.

Some key learnings in this session and ideas for weekly planning:

10 principles of effective maths pedagogy.

Fluid groups for target teaching. Monday - Needs based maybe Tuesday and Wednesday - collaborative problem solving Thursday - Needs based  Friday as required.

Strategy Teaching Model Bk 3 Getting started. Make connectionswith number within the same lesson. 

Something to do: Make magnetic tens frames for trs. Number line 1-100 on whiteboard. Number 1-20 on tr station.

Make sure you use the language that will be needed and put up on Vocabulary wall.

Do LI at the end… what have we learnt today i.e. to split numbers to make a tidy ten. 

Robyn Anderson has a think board on a google doc, can share so Trs can make a set for the class. 



Session 2: How to set up a successful Maths programme

Learning environment should have some if not ALL of these:

Annotated clock

NESW

Thermometer

Calendar

Height chart.- different facts e.g. red kangaroo

Number line 1-100 on whiteboard

Angles by the door

Horizontal vertical by door.

Maps with focus questions or pictures.

Something to do:Ensure all classes have these items and Teachers are referring to them when teaching .