To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world

The last month has been a time of exploration, trying new things and going back to my roots all at once.  It is an interesting and intriguing place to be - one that I am glad that I have been in also.  The title of this post - that to the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world has hit home in all aspects of my professional life over the past month.

Over the weekend, two of my mentors sent links to me that seem to have mixed together more than I thought that they would - one of these people works with me and is on a course and so directed me towards a strengths quiz that she is doing as part of this, the other used to be my tutor teacher and sent me an reading that he thought would be relevant based on previous discussions that we have had in the past and continue to have via email.  The reading is by Kate Mason and is titled 'How does personality affect teaching and learning: Judging or perceiving?'.  The strengths quiz is run through the University of Pennsylvania and is titled the VIA Survey of Character Strengths.  Both of these things have helped me to step back and see who I am and how this reflects in my classroom, rather than allowing me to remain caught up in the day to day running of a classroom filled with energetic, hormone filled 11 year olds.

My strengths as per the character quiz came out as follows:

I am lucky enough to have a range of wonderful mentors that I look up to within my workplace.  The first is my tutor teacher - she is always there to ask questions to and has a lot of faith in our ability to help our students achieve success even when things seem hard.

The second person who continually helps to shape and inspire me both personally and professionally is a colleague from another team within the school.  She is someone who uplifts me and inspires me with her practice and her relationships with her students and other colleagues.  I was looking up mentoring this morning and came across the following two quotes that I think summarise her mentoring style quite succinctly.
These are:

• "A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could, because someone else thought that they could."
• "The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but to reveal to them their own."

The third person who I look up to as a mentor and guide was my tutor teacher but no longer works at this school.  He asks questions that inspire me to grow, questions that he does not always know the answers to, but questions that he knows will hook me and help me drive my own inquiry.  The following quotes sprung out at me about this person when I was searching mentoring this morning were:

• "Always surround yourself with people who are better than you."
• "We all need someone who inspires us to do better than we know how."

During the past week I found myself reaching into things that these three people have taught me when facing a difficult situation with a student.  The character survey that I completed above was evident throughout this interaction.  This student is one of the most loving children that I know but she has faced difficulties that are emotionally beyond her years in her childhood.  On Thursday she left my class without warning and in a huge mood, she proceeded to tell other students many negative things about me and my practice.  However, thanks to the leadership that I have experienced and my background knowledge of this student I understood where she was coming from and how I could help her.  She calmed down over the next couple of hours and came back to class just before the bell.  I asked her to stay behind after the bell and had a chat with her, in which she emphasised that she just needed someone who could listen and care and did not feel that the other students were doing that for her.  I reminded her that I am always there for her, and we discussed the weekend excursions that we had been on previously to support this.  She went home a much happier child.  I did not see her until the following afternoon as I was away at a school gymnastics competition all day, however when I returned to school the following afternoon she came running up to me and told me how much she had missed me that day before proceeding to tell me all about her day.  At that moment I realised that without knowing it, I had applied mentoring techniques that I had learnt from those who inspire me to help this girl see the love this world had for her and to make her worth felt.

The only way to sum up the past month is in fact - to the world you may just be one person, but to one person you may be the world.  As teachers we never know who we are influencing and where our influence starts and stops and so it is crucial that we do indeed spend time with those who lift us up so that we can continue to be those people to others also.

Getting back into Term 2

The last week of Term 1 was a stressful one for me for reasons far outside my control and the first week of holidays provided far too much time for me to think.  What should have been a relaxing holiday at the beach was filled with stress.  As a result of this, the work that I was going to do in Week 2 got pushed back right until the end of the holidays so that I was able to enjoy at least part of my holiday.  Thankfully in the second week holidays did seem to happen and I was able to enjoy some time in Auckland and Mount Maunganui with good friends providing me with the exact brain break that I needed before starting back at school.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all spent in at school but I am definitely feeling relaxed and ready to start this term clear headed again which is key.

It was so nice being back with my students today - we enjoyed a day of exploring the MRS GREN characteristics of living and non living things in our school environment, brainstorming all of the things we loved about our school that we could write about in a report and developing a piece of ANZAC art that we thought appropriately captured the enormity of 100 years since landing at Gallipoli.  The children can't wait to do our 'thinkers keys' activities and make their own ANZAC book!

The challenge for me this term will be staying on top of everything with the huge amount of things that we need to have handed in.  Within the first 12 days of this term we have IKAN testing to do, running records to have begun, four daily sessions on cycle safety and a road ride with the local policeman, a trip to Lake Rotomahana and a videoed reading observation and interview of our students - all alongside our normal teaching programme.  I think working closely with colleagues will be a huge aspect of staying on top of everything this term and so am very grateful for the sharing of resources and knowledge that have already occurred on day one!

I am looking forward to getting back on top of my blog after the holidays also and sharing what I have learnt about working in MLE's and with Maori learners that I can implement into my own classroom - but for now planning for the next crazy couple of weeks awaits!

Feed back/Feed forward

As part of our on going professional development we have our team leaders come in each week to observe us, provide us with feedback about what they thought worked well and ideas about where we need to next focus our attention.  These get sent through to us after every third observation and there is an opportunity to discuss these notes with our team leader.

Below is the feedback and feedforward I have received about what my team leader has observed of my teaching practice and classroom environment so far this term. as you can see, a lot of the focus so far this term has been around the classroom environment.

The main focus that I will be working on from here is how to use the Apple TV to model work effectively with my students.  It is very different to using an IWB which is what I have had experience with so far and I am looking forward to the challenge.

In addition to having this as feedback and feed forward I have been doing some professional reading about how to ensure that my classroom is a place where I am engaged and ready to learn.  One of the readings that I came across had a very succinct and to the point checklist of the different factors that can instantly effect student engagement and therefore achievement, but also continue to do so in the long run. 

I have attached the checklist and how I will be using this is I will fill it out on myself and I have also asked my team members and team leader to pick it up when they are in my classroom during teaching time and fill in / check off what they are observing - and if they are not observing something happening to provide some advice and guidance to me about how I could get this working effectively for both my learning and the development and growth of my students. 

Understanding Dyslexia

Re-reading my previous posts after undergoing a quest to find out more about how to teach children with dyslexia effectively this sentence really stood out to me:
"One of my goals for this year is to ensure that all of my students have numerous opportunities to celebrate who they are and to experience success in all areas of their learning.  In order to do this effectively, and in order for this to become a smart goal I need to have a deep understanding of who my students are and what influences their lives. " 
At the time of writing this I was not aware of the extent to which a number of children in my class suffered from dyslexia - and this has just become all the more relevant with this knowledge. 

I have met with a number of teachers in the school regarding dyslexia - both the ESOL teacher who also commonly works with dyslexic students and previous teachers of the dyslexic students.  The advice I received from these ladies lined up with research that they directed me to on the subject.  I was given suggestions such as:

• Use pastel coloured paper to print worksheets on.
• Make sure the writing is large, bold and is in a basic font such as Comic Sans or Arial.
• Encourage the children to do lots of thinking and discussion first so you gain insight into their understanding - often they understand but it is the transfer from ideas to recording them that troubles them.
• Use lots of post it notes to help students be able to organise and rearrange their ideas, especially in writing.
• Use technology to assist students when possible - for example - in writing have students plan their ideas on paper but move to writing their story/argument/essay on the computer.
• Play lots of word games that allows them to become familiar with words and different parts of words in a fun environment where they are able to experience success.

Interestingly, when I talked to the students themselves, they also suggested the ideas in italics.

One website that I was directed to which I found extremely informative and insightful was http://www.4d.org.nz/edge/ 

The following areas I explore are all based around concepts I have explore on the sight and my understandings of them.  I loved this picture, as for me it allowed me insight into how dyslexic children might view what in my mind is a simple word - and therefore how daunting some of the tasks that I have been giving them might seem.

* If you get it right for dyslexics, you get it right for everyone.  This idea is explored in more depth in relation to differentiation of learning styles, the type of feedback you provide students and the way that the classroom is displayed.  

* Stepping back into the classroom, problems often arise when teachers equate weak basic skills with some sort of inability to think. If students are put into groups that are appropriate for basic skills but not for their thinking levels, they can quickly become frustrated and act out.  The solution is about placing students in thinking ability appropriate groups while supporting them with basic skills. This empowers them to develop high level subject knowledge and skills while their basic skills are catching up. All this requires a flexible approach to teaching.

This certainly provided a starting point for how I can potentially immediately change my teaching practice.  Whilst at the moment all students, including those with dyslexia, are placed in thinking ability appropriate groups for reading and maths I am not 100% sure that I could say the same with writing.  In writing, our assessment of students is based on what they can record individually within a set time frame.  In formative assessment with these children though I notice the discussion with them that I am having is often at a higher level than what I see them recording, and at a higher level at times than others in their group.  I wonder whether I should be moving these students so that even for writing they are being exposed to more extended and abstract concepts even if they are not able to transfer these into their writing - this is something I will need to discuss with other staff members and ponder.

* The website talks in extensive detail about the 'notice and adjust' philosophy - which read in consideration of the New Zealand curriculum is effectively what every teacher should be doing each day anyway - providing differentiated learning activities and a range of tasks that best suit the learning needs of each individual child. They explore a number of ways of doing this:

• Set clear lesson objectives. Write them on the board and refer to them frequently during the lesson, and especially at the end. Students need to have a purpose for their learning and will respond better when they know why they are doing something.
• Fortunately, this is something that we do effectively at our school and something for which support is continually in place for so that we can provide the best understanding of what they are learning for our students. 
• Differentiate to provide opportunities for success, and differentiate by outcome as well as task. By outcome means setting different activities based on levels of achievement. By task means setting the same activity for all students but letting them choose how to demonstrate their learning.
• I constantly differentiate by outcome within my programme, however differentiating by task - and letting the children choose how to demonstrate their learning is not something I have considered or experimented with - however is something that I would be interested in looking into exploring with my TT. 
• If board work is needed, use black or dark markers. Avoid red or green as many students find these difficult to read.
• At the moment I use all four colours frequently with little thought as to when I am using what colour and why - this is an easy fix and something that can be changed instantly that will make a difference to the students. 
• Encourage the use of colour to help organise notes.
• Since working with my release teacher who has dyslexic tendencies I have come to appreciate the importance of having this in my programme for the children and am continually considering different ways that I can do this and that I can allow my students to do this. 
• Technology can be a dyslexic student’s best friend, enabling them to use visual strategies or overcome handwriting or spelling difficulties. A laptop to word process work and reinforce numeracy skills, a dictaphone to record work, and phonetic spell checkers can enable learning.
• The use of iPads, and class PODs should hopefully help out these students tremendously - my challenge will be finding a way to use them that engages and challenges the children keeping them on task rather than just providing the students with the tools and no instructions for how to use them. 
• Link learning tasks to previous knowledge. This is about creating ‘building’ blocks which show how new things relate to previous lessons. Dyslexic processors often require additional exposure to new learning to make these links and retain understanding so that they can retrieve information and apply to other settings and tasks.
• This is a big aim within my programme anyway, but is something that is good to know to focus on.
• Emphasise strengths of student’s work, with specific praise.
• Something that I aim to do with students individually each day through conferencing, but again a big thing to keep in mind and to ensure that I am constantly doing.
• Empathy is the key. When a student feels understood and supported they can be encouraged to take learning risks.  Even more debilitating than having difficulty with basic skills can be an accompanying feeling of failure or low-self worth. 

I tried to put myself into the shoes of the dyslexic children in my class and realised that at times they may feel, that due to finding it harder to be able to complete some of the tasks given, and other students recognising that they are struggling, disheartened or as though they are failing.  On my student blog I have set up the following link - Appreciating each other's differences - that I will explore with them over the coming week looking at how everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, the importance of working as a team, and how even though something may seem tough at first, it is so important to keep on persevering if we want to achieve success.

I know that I am barely even scratching the surface of dyslexia and would love to find out more about this interesting topic, how to help my students learn and how to teach ALL my students effectively - if I am getting it right for dyslexic students - I am getting it right for everyone.

Dyslexia

I have a child in my class this year who has quite severe dyslexia.  As I have not worked with dyslexic children before my first challenge is to understand how I, as the classroom teacher, can most effectively support his learning within the classroom before seeking outside assistance.

In order to do this I have at the moment made contact with his previous teacher and the Dyslexia specialist teacher within the school.  I have had a chat with the student himself to see what will help him and at this stage we have decided that I will make sure that any work I set for him is written in bold, that it is printed on a light blue piece of paper and that he has a way of communicating with me when he is stuck without having to have him put his hand up all of the time.  I am interested to find out both what last years teacher had to say and also the advice I will receive from the specialist teacher.

One of my goals for this year is to ensure that all of my students have numerous opportunities to celebrate who they are and to experience success in all areas of their learning.  In order to do this effectively, and in order for this to become a smart goal I need to have a deep understanding of who my students are and what influences their lives.  I gained some knowledge of who my students were from a range of factors within the first week: results from last year, poems where they identify their wishes, dreams, and fears, ice breaker activities such as two truths and a lie, and conversations with both the students and their parents.  However, I felt that I still did not know who my students were and how I could help them achieve this success across all areas of their learning.

As we are likely going to have 1:1 devices within our class this year I thought that it would be a good idea to introduce the idea of video diaries/working with web 2.0 technologies to my students.  Each child was provided with some time to brainstorm who they are and to discuss goals with their friends - the only restraints on these goals were that they had to be smart goals and that they had to have a goal that related to school and a goal that related to their personal lives/home.  The students quickly came up with goals that reflected who they are and their priorities, both within the school environment and within their home.  We then videoed the students recording their goals to make them accountable to these, have made an iMovie out of them and will be sharing them on our class weekly.  I have one student who still needs to complete this and then will be posting this up on our class blog - www.sarahssuperheroes.weebly.com

The fact that the student's set these goals before we worked on targets together was quite important to me as it allowed me to gain insight to where these students believed that they are in their learning/schooling without having any adult input/direction.  These goals will be evaluated during this term and the children will set some more goals - these will probably be more learning orientated as after two weeks I can already hear my student's making comments along the lines of areas in their writing and maths in which they believe that they can improve.  It is interesting to note, in reconsidering this, that we have been asked to do exactly this also - set our own goals and be prepared to discuss these and share how we can achieve these with our deputy and associate principals during specifically set aside release time towards the start of this term.

I am meeting with my tutor teacher this week to discuss my own goals and I am interested to see where my goals lie before and after my discussions with him - and how they reflect both my personal learning journey in regards to teaching and my professional learning and development and how these align with the school.  I am sure that the insight that I gain from this will be just as interesting as the insight that I gained when my students set their goals.

Connections, Connections, Connections

As it is the start of a new school year I have only had my students for two days, however I have already been able to see connections that they have been making between their learning last year and this year.  What has been the most interesting thing to watch is that it is often a group of students making connections and building off each other's connections.

At the moment in Art we are creating self portraits.  For the students to make these they have to follow a four step process.

1. Trace/Sketch a photo of themselves onto A3 paper
2. Practice using finger painting to create bold lines and light shadows using a mixture of the techniques of dabbing and flicking
3. Choose appropriate colours and experiment with mixing these to create colours that they believe represent them
4. Apply this learning to their paintings in order to create a finger painted self portrait

One of the Art topics that all of the students in my class did last year was creating a still life finger painting that represented either a single flower or a group of flowers.  They have all previously done work on complimentary colours and learnt the techniques of dabbing and flicking. 

When I mentioned to a student today that I could see the effort that he was putting into flicking with the right amount of pressure to create the effect of shadow, the learning conversations that took off around what they learnt last year and how they could apply it to their new style of art were incredible. The quality of their artwork instantly improved also as they all wanted to make improvements on their work from last year. 

I guess that the learning that I have from this at the start of a new school year is the importance of providing the students the opportunities to connect their new learning with previous learning in order to develop their understanding of a topic.  This is something that is always on any teacher's mind but the importance of it was definitely highlighted today for me.  A beautiful reminder at the start of what is promising to be a wonderful year!

Below are a couple of photos of my students at the first two stages of this process.

2015 - PRT, Year 2!

It's hard to believe that I have already completed one year of teaching - I have learnt so much, struggled at times and conquered many challenges.  When I look back on the past year I feel honoured to have worked in the school that I did, and to have recieved the support that I have from such a range of people.  I loved being a year 6 teacher and thoroughly enjoyed working with each and every single one of my students, I don't know how any other class can compare with your first class - so many firsts together and so many special memories made. 

However, a massive part of reflection is looking forward and so that is what today is for - considering what I want to achieve this year, how I can best help my students, how I can best help myself grow professionally, how I can help others grow. This year is going to be insanely full on and busy but I think it will be challenging in a fun and exciting way! 

2015 checklist:

* Begin Masters

* Become fully registered 

* Consolidate learning from last year 

* Explore and effectively teach using iPads

* Reflect at least once weekly

* Enjoy! 

Begin Masters

* Meet with Kirsten in January 

* Set topic and finalise supervisor

* Apply for IES funding 

* Enrol in paper for first semester 

* Talk to other Rotorua schools to see who I can work with

Become Fully Registered

* Ensure planning and reflection is kept to a high standard

* Keep records of children's work and achievements

* Discussions with tutor teacher on regular basis

This is a start on how I hope to achieve some of these things - will reflect more later on this week and in more detail closer to school! 

Getting very excited to be back in school and student mode!