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

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 .

Manaiakalani Teacher Orientation day

It was fantastic to connect with all the new teachers in the cluster and to welcome our 2 new members to Panmure Bridge School. I always enjoy sharing my education journey as part this cluster and how my pedagogical approach now reflects more of a collaborative and engaged environment drawing on digital affordances. I look forward in sharing my knowledge with them and sharing our passion for Learn, Create and Share.

Burst and bubbles

 Having attended a few of these over the years I was surprised by some of the inquiry questions that were chosen and it made me think about more carfefully about mine...

Am I trying to complicate things? 

Am I trying to always think of the next big thing and trying to reinvent the wheel instead of keeping it simple?

For next year I decided I am actually work backwards. Im going to use the Burst and bubble speaking frames as a guide to focus my inquiry path. This could also possible be my titles for my blog posts. 

I am also thinking of asking Robyn Anderson our CoL in school teacher about whether these speaking frames could be used as a means to assist the new teachers we will have in the junior team. 

Explain Everything in Year 1

 This has been a busy term having my own class but also using part of my management day to work in Room 1 showing the year 1 learners and their teacher how to use Explain Everything and its many tools.

It is important for the learners to go into next year where they will be year 2 with some basic iPad skills.

The ones I deemed important are:

How to hold and move with the iPads: hug hold, always hold in your lap if on the mat and leave on a desk when not in use. How to put it on charge and remove it from charge without damaging any chords.

Basic skills: How to find and navigate their class site, how to swipe and clear iPad after using it, how to take a photo using their camera, how to access apps on their iPads not on their class site.

Explain Everything: how to open and EE link, start a new EE, give an EE a title, upload to their drive. We also worked on taking a photo and changing the background colour, accessing the pencil and draw tool and how to add more slides.

The learners are picking up these skills really fast and are attempting to help their teacher become more adept at using them. The concern I have is that over time, less time is being spent mastering these skills during the week thus only leaving them using EE's on a Thursday. One way I could tackle this is to make EE's and add to the class site allowing learners an opportunity to hone their skills over the course of a week. 

Whether this will be bough will only be determined next year when they move onto a new class and they are able to use the basic skills taught without the teacher having to reteach it. 

Back into the Classroom

 I'm back in the classroom! It is exciting to be able to implement some of my learning  this year including learning through play, digital curriculum and Tapasa. 

What I am most concerned with  is ensuring I create a good balance of learning through play and the development of oral language skills with the fundamentals of learning and teaching i.e. pre reading reading and writing skills.

I want to ensure that the learners are transitioned to school and not suddenly faced with formal teaching which in many cases will be the exact opposite of what our learners would have experienced in an ECE environment. 

As we are in the last term of school my planning will be around the key competencies and developing this in our Tamariki.  I am currently looking at how I can adequately reflect this in my planning and accomodate this in my classroom. 

For my class site and planning, I have divided the term into 2 week blocks focussing on 1 big book and having all learning through play, Digital activities and games/ pe sessions related to the book.

The morning session will be focus time with some pre - phonics work, key competencies, maths and pre reading and writing skills.

Some ideas:

Pre phonics - guess the sound, tap the rhythm, I spy

Key competencies - Relating to other, Managing self

Maths - colours, shapes, 1 to 5 number knowledge, same but different

Reading - listening and enjoyment, how to hold a book, telling own stories using pictures

Writing - name, fine motor skills, crossing midline

Digital - Finding the class site, how to hold the ipad

My class site is simple but hopefully effective: 

Assessment Protocols

 Back to school for Term 4 this week and a huge emphasis on assessment protocols. This data is used to write our reports as well as to inform groups at the start of the new year. Teaching will continue to happen after testing/ assessment week with emphasis on consolidating knowledge and reinforcing critical thinking and resilience. Having 2 new teachers in the team since the start of the year, special attention is given to why we have the protocols and how to administer the assessments.

It was interesting to hear the views expressed by teachers on assessments and why and how they are administered. The rationale for having these protocols and testing will be addressed at Team meeting and a buddy system encouraged so we can all help and support each other.

It has made me think more about what testing are we doing?

Why are we doing it?

Can it be streamlined and or adapted? - This would be for school purpose testing and not Manaiakalani testing.

I have made a note to talk more about this with Marie Hirst our Maths Facilitator and ask her assistance in unpacking our current Maths assessment schedule.