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.

CoL in school

 At the beginning of the year I approached Robyn Anderson our in school CoL teacher on how she could assist me with supporting the teachers in the junior school. I found it really hard at the start because I had  a full class of year 1's, 1 year BT teacher, 1 year 2 BT teacher. In term 2 we also employed a new to NZ teacher who was experienced but needed support with understanding and navigating the New Zealand curriculum as well as digital technology. 

Robyn and I planned for her to join us each term for 1 team meeting and then for her to meet with each teacher as a follow up within the same week. Robyn and I also met separately twice a term to ensure that the teachers were heading in the correct direction and how we further needed to support them. My role was to support them with curriculum knowledge, advise them, suggest reading material and evidence based research. Robyn assisted with helping them record their inquiry, suggest blogs etc from other CoL teachers that might have a similar inquiry and to help if inquiry had changed and how to reflect this.

This process has helped extensively in relieving the pressure as well as Robyn being an excellent model for clear, succinct , in depth inquiry. 

CAPS and Magenta

 Today Mrs Salmon, our Reading Recovery Teacher and I had an in depth meeting and look at our current reading wedge graphs and how our resources meet the need of the learners and the teachers. We have noticed that some of our learners are staying for an extended length of time on Magenta books. This is not the pre- reading stage but actually reading every magenta book we have as a resource.  As this is a concern we have decided to cull all readers that does not actually lend itself to successful reading, namely readers with one word on a page, readers that do not use punctuation correctly and readers that are not actually telling a story.

Knowing our learners start with a significant lower literacy knowledge that most of New Zealand, we looked at the Learning Progressions with specific focus on Starting school: 

To know when to move learners on our criteria was set around CAPS specifically:

Early Reading Behaviours Looking at the pictures, memorising text, reading from left to right and pointing to each word.

These are all early reading behaviours and the steppingstone for comprehension would be the pictures and retelling the story no matter how basic. Pictures play an important role in problem solving especially tricky words and therefore the images MUST relate to the story. We also stated that the learner should be recognising between 10 to 20 words. 

Learnings/ Aha moments

Our learners are spending a long time on Magenta books and not roaming around books as pre reading.

Ramblings/ Rumblings

Are we doing our learners a disservice in not moving them along sooner and are we staying in the deficit thinking model?

Effective Maths Warm ups

Today we had Marie Hirst in school helping us with our PD on Maths. Our focus was Effective Maths Warm ups that included Daily Maths. Picture number talks, Odd one out, Solve emoji and Same but different to name a few.  

My New Entrant class will be starting soon, and so my focus on oral language and incorporating the 'talk' into my Maths programme more, lends itself to the same but different task and number talks.  I am also considering how I have done my Maths Calendar work in the past and how by simplifying the Daily Maths Wall initially, how we could build a strong knowledge on number. 

My second train of thought was HOW AM I GOING TO SUPPORT TEACHERS IN MY SYNDICATE WITH INCORPORATING THESE ACTIVITIES INTO THEIR OWN CLASSES. 

one way to assist teachers could be to ask each teacher to share at team meeting one warmup they have tried, what worked, what didnt, how did they adapt and or extend it for their learners and digital capabilities. 

Learning/ Aha moments:

Remember that every moment is a teachable moment. Using the correct terminology sets our learners up for success,

Ramblings/ Rumblings

How to effectively us maths warmup for maintenance,  reasoning,  maths talk,  and fluency.

 

Tapasa

Tapasa is a cultural competency framework for teachers of pacific children. Some important aspects that I have learnt through this PD run by Jeremy:

The Va - the sacred connection between people. Love, Service, family and spirituality.

Jeremy suggested we use this language with parents: The Va : I want to establish the va with you OR the purpose of this meeting is to establish the va. In Samoan can you also say Tauhi va.

Tapasa is all about:

* Cultural confidence

* Connections

* Culture

* Consistency

* Collaboration / collabor action.

My goal is to use this language more with Pacific Island families. 

 

Maths PLD

Today was my first day of having to work with a facilitator and the principal in outlining a plan to implement a professional development plan for the school. The process helped me focus on what I believe the fundamental ideas and foundations in Maths are that will help our learners achieve accelerated shift as well as improve and develop a positive attitude towards mathematics for both teachers and learners. 

This reaffirmed the importance of building strong relationships and knowing, in this case, the staff as well as our learners. The right fit, the right product, the right motivation, the right balance. I look forward to not only working closely with Marie Hirst but also learning from her.