Te Toi Tupu - Leading Change Workshop

On the first Monday of the holidays I attended a Leading Change workshop run by Te Toi Tupu.  This was a really interesting day and it was brilliant having the four of us who are working in the leadership team there.  This allowed us to think critically about where we were at as a school and engage in critical reflection.  I have copied in the notes that I made about the things that I viewed as important learning that we went through and they are a very interesting read.  Lots of models that allow us to view the change that we are going through as a school in a new light.

Leadership and Assessment - Effective leadership of change

Self and Leader Review - Appraisal Connector

This year as part of the Appraisal process at our school, we have been using Interlead Appraisal System. As teachers we are required to self review our Teaching Practice and then our Team Leader appraises us within the same time deadline. 

We have completed this appraisal once in March and once in September - below are aspects of my reports that I think highlight key aspects of the reports.

March: This is where I self assessed myself against the Registered teacher criteria and Tataiako in March

 The following areas were areas that I felt I needed to put specific work into.
 - Using curriculum knowledge in ways that honour students with different languages and from different backgrounds
 - Using student achievement data as a basis for reflecting on and making modifications to how curriculum is covered and students are engaged.
 - Students knowing the criteria for both summative and formative assessments.
 - Blending Maori culture into planning and teaching programmes.

Based on feedback from my students and leaders I believe that I have had success with the last three of these areas that I chose to work on.  The first areas is one that I am continually working on and adapting my programme to help honour these students.

September:
The September appraisal was slightly different as it made comparisons between both appraisals.  I have uploaded my data from the second appraisal here also. These first two are judging positive behaviour management (this was cut off) and the rest have titles that explain the picture.

I am please with how these appraisals have come out and believe that they do a good job of representing my growth in my journey towards gaining full registration. 

Video Observations

We have just completed our second video observation feedback session based on Michael Absolum's Clarity in the Classroom text.  Our first one was a term ago and we received feedback based on a rubric then and have just had to redo this now.  This second rubric highlights the growth that I have made in regards to student and teacher understanding of what they are learning, how and why they are going to learn it and how they will know if they are successful.

John Hattie - Success Criteria

As a school we have been focussed on ensuring that our learning intentions and success criteria are developed alongside our students in a way that enables the students to both develop ownership and achieve success.  We have been working through the book 'Clarity in the Classroom' by Michael Absolum.  I have really enjoyed seeing the link between university studies and working within the classroom as this is the first book that we have used at university that has linked directly into what we have been doing in the school setting.

Last term we were videoed and after that we worked alongside a mentor from the senior management team to develop ways in which we could be more successful in helping learning intentions and success criteria become more commonplace and effective within our everyday teaching.  For me, this is where all of my work with POGIL originated.

Last week in staff meeting we were shown this clip by John Hattie about learning intentions and success criteria and we discussed the importance of having these in very small breakable chunks for them to be most effective for students.  Below are the notes that I took during this staff meeting and presentation.  Some of this was just simply a reminder however aspects of it gave me something new to think about and consider.

• Learning Intentions are about what we are going to learn not what we are going to do.  Best way to show success criteria is to model what a successful one would look like.
• If you have a clear understanding of what success looks like you are able to get rid of what matters and teach just that.  If you don’t know what you want the kids to achieve in bite sized chunks, then it is impossible for the kids to know what they need to achieve.
• If we want to develop life long learning then we should not be the ones who are telling them they are successful – they need to be able to self regulate it against success criteria.
• Success criteria should not just be performance related – needs to be mastery focused also – and teachers need to show the students what mastery looks like.
• Need to have a deep understanding of where each child is to understand what success would look like for each kid – is it exactly the same for each child – and when it is not, how can we make it so that it is something that every child can achieve.  

I have attached the link below so that you are able to watch it - I personally found the first half of it most effective.

Reflecting on Room 16

Halfway through the year the students take a moment to reflect on their time in Room 16 - why they like being part of the class and what their favourite part of the year has been.

Feeling prepared and ready to go!

I love the holidays for two reasons. One - they are a time of rest and relaxation after a crazy term and two - you end them feeling like you are on top of everything and ready to take on the world.  And what a feeling it is!!

Every teacher - and every student - could tell you about the importance of teachers being energetic and lively and how this impacts student teaching, however I can certainly say that in the last few days of an 11 week term those words are not adjectives that I would have chosen to describe myself.

Having spent the past two days in school I feel refreshed, renewed and filled with enthusiasm about the coming term.  I have changed around my planning and have been inspired to create a mini inquiry into some of my lowest students for writing - these are students who are below and not quite well below but will still need a lot of directed and individual focus to get them to where they need to be by the end of the year.  My mini inquiry is based around the question: "If I work daily with my struggling writers, instead of seeing them twice a week, will this provide them with the structured guidance that they need to have moved up a sublevel by the end of term - and to also have transferred their learning across to their independent books?"  Usually I mark writing books with the students when conferencing and then make notes about what to discuss with them from their follow up sessions.  With this group I will be conferencing with the three of them daily in a group session but then also marking their follow up with them in the afternoon and having them hand in their independent writing books each night for me to be able to see also.

I have attached as google docs some of the planning that we have done for this term  - and also my weekly timetable for the first week.  I have not yet planned my Maths as the students will be doing a pretest before the lesson - also where it says POGIL this means that the students have their own sheets of activities that they work their way through - based on the focus within the teaching session and their choice of what they need to learn at that time - decided through conferences and goals.

Below are attachments that highlight what our focus will be for the first three weeks of school.

Unit Plans

Astronomy        Explanation Writing        Long Term Plan

As a school we don't do unit plans for reading or Maths - these are done individually as they are very particular to each class.

Class Plans

Weekly Timetable        Weekly Plan - Week 1

Examples of resources that go with plans

Reading
Speeches and follow up activities based on blooms for the follow people:

Bill Gates - Speech and Comprehension work

Malala Yousafzai - Speech and Comprehension work

MLK - Speech and Comprehension work

Kid President - Speech and Comprehension work

Kid President - Static text work

Writing
Explanation plan and written piece exemplars

Maths
Y6 Level Pretest

Closing one chapter - and beginning the next

I have been very lucky as a beginning teacher to have wonderful tutor teachers that have provided me with support and guidance over the past one and a half years.  Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for him) my tutor teacher has just become a principal at a new school.  The past six months have been a whirlwind for me and I have learnt more than I would have thought possible - and now that my final six months are beginning I have a new tutor teacher - who also happens to be my team leader.  In order to bring closure to the past six months I have compiled a written record of meetings and observations that have occurred in the first half of this year - in addition to this I also have pages of hand written notes, but will not put these up here as what I have recorded neatly summarises these anyway.  Over the past six months I also have records from observations from my team leader which I will post up here also as having all records of observations etc in one place will provide for an easy starting point for the rest of the year.

Tutor Teacher Discussions Feb - June 2015

Team Leader Observations Feb - June 2015

Feedback from peers

I have recently had a colleague through my classroom specifically to view POGIL.  This is the feedback that she gave me.  

Hi Sarah,

Thanks again for the opportunity to see your maths programme in action on Thursday 4^th June.

All the students in your class were on task and engaged in their learning. The students I spoke to could verbalise their learning and the reason for this.  They explained to me that following a pre-test, they then identified their own learning needs; learning that needed to be reviewed and new learning, in the area of Patterns and Relationships. They explained that POGIL was fun way to learn. A group of students I spoke with agreed that they could support one another with their learning in a group situation. They enjoyed the autonomy provided by the POGIL way of learning, as it gave them greater ownership. They could reflect on their learning using the 4E’s and explained what each of these meant.

Next for me is to trial this method of learning  in my classroom!

Kerryn

I have found it really helpful to have feedback from a person who does not usually see this programme in action as it has reaffirmed for me that I am on the right path.  My next step for my inquiry is to look into how I can effectively help my learners with dyslexia within the POGIL programme.

NZCER: Styles of Learning

As part of questioning my planning of POGIL I have been doing some research into future orientated learning and the different learning styles that this teaching style caters for effectively.  This is a reading that I found interesting as it simply restated what the different learning styles are and how they fit within a future orientated pedagogy.  A timely reminder.

NZCER reading about learning

Back to the drawing board.

I find it is always just as you feel like you are finally starting to get on top of things - that something knocks you side ways and makes you question what you have been doing.  Today that something is a whole mix of little things - colleagues planning, professional reading and feedback from my students.

My children love POGIL, and they love to tell other people how much they love POGIL - they are extremely confident and familiar with their learning - and I am beginning to wonder if because of that they are starting to let their guard slip - that or we are in Week 8 of an 11 week term - or realistically maybe a mix of both.

As I am the only teacher in my school currently trialling POGIL styled learning across all subjects my planning, and how I have presented it - both to the kids and as a professional record - has changed each week as I try to find the best way.  I was sure I was finally starting to see the light with what I had done when the kids mentioned that it is difficult for a reliever to come in and pick up my planning and for the programme to run as smoothly as it does when I am in the classroom - which is natural with the style of planning that I do as it leaves a lot of room for student direction.  The problem here however is that I have a release teacher in my classroom once a fortnight for PRT release.

Over the weekend I have changed how I do my planning and whilst it is still spread out over a variety of sources for the children these have all been hyperlinked into my main planning document for weekly planning and there is a more detailed weekly overview with opt in workshops clearly marked also.

PaCT - My Experiences

Today we had a teacher only day where we looked at the PaCT tool and made professional judgements for our students based on the mathematics and writing aspects of this tool.  Whilst this tool may still be considered controversial amongst educators I personally found it to be quite a beneficial tool to use.  The judgements do not take too long at all to make and I managed to get through my whole class for writing in about three hours - not too bad considering that this is the first time that we have used the tool for writing.

Tomorrow we are making our maths judgements - as I have more experience with making Math judgements against PaCT I have found that the aspects in the tool can be quite useful in helping me to plan a differentiated programme within my classroom as they expose maths in a different light to the numeracy project.

Attached is a booklet that I found extremely useful for helping to clarify what the different aspects were in reading, writing and maths when I was making my judgements.

PDF instruction booklet - PaCT

POGIL and my Teacher Inquiry

It is week six of term two, halfway through the term, and therefore probably an appropriate time to do a formal reflection of my teacher inquiry for this term.

My teacher inquiry question was:

How can I, as the teacher of a year six class, use strategies associated with POGIL to help my students develop independence and autonomy over their learning?

When this inquiry came about I discussed with my tutor teacher the importance of having a variety of sources of evidence to show whether or not this is working and highlight areas that need to change/develop and so I endeavour to do so below.  I think that it is so important to have student voice as part of a measure of how successful I am in my teacher inquiry as realistically they are the ones whose learning it is affecting - and therefore they are the best people to be able to provide evidence.  At times this is formal feedback in terms of videos and PMI charts and at times this is in the format of questions that my tutor teacher asks my students when he comes to observe me.  As I will be referring to student answers to these questions throughout this reflection I have listed the questions below.

1. What were you learning today in …
2. Why were you learning that?
3. What tools have you used to ensure you are successful?
4. How will you know if you are successful?
5. When you are challenged in … what do you do?
6. How do you extend your learning?
7. What E score would you give yourself and why?

In order to do this reflection I am employing a variety of perspectives which I have attached as links either directly in here or in google drive:

 - A PMI chart from the point of view of my students

 - Video conversations with my students

 - The introduction of questioning cards to develop discussion for students

 - How blogging has provided a voice for my students
View the hyperlink above to see how blogging has given my students a voice - it has changed the class from our classroom where it is mostly teacher led to being there classroom where it is hugely student led.  Be sure to read the comments - it is heart warming to see the way that they support each other, both in terms of providing positive feedback and in the way that they help each other through providing appropriate and timely feedforward.  What is most amazing is the way that this feed forward and feedback has crossed from simply being an online tool and become part of how they communicate in the classroom - even my shy students are no longer hesitant to tell other students when they think they are doing well, or how they think they can improve.

 - The purpose of success criteria, and how these have influenced what and how my students are learning

 - Excerpts from professional discussions that I have had, both with my tutor teacher and with other teachers within what I consider to be my professional learning community

 - Reflections on my planning for this style of teaching and how these have changed week to week

Success Criteria
I have hyperlinked Reading Success Criteria that students have created since the start of this term.  This is entirely written in student voice with the children referring back to Sheena Cameron's reading comprehension strategy sheets when they get stuck.

I believe that success criteria tie in very closely with POGIL in terms of helping students have responsibility and ownership over their own learning.  The following quote speaks volumes about this:

" If learners are to take more responsibility for their own learning, then they need to know what they are going to learn, how they will recognise when they have succeeded and what they should learn it in the first place." (An Intro to AfL, Learning Unlimited, 2004).

Between the learning intention covering the what and the why - and the self created, and peer reviewed, success criteria covering the how students are able to gain insight and control over their own learning - and this is demonstrated both in the PMI chart and the video that are hyperlinked above.

Professional Discussions
When running a programme such as POGIL in a classroom it is important to consider what deliberate acts of teaching I am still doing as a teacher.  Recently we were video observed and these were some of the deliberate acts that were discussed:

My focus now is to move away from questioning as the students have the tools and the experience to do that and move towards prompting as my key form of feedback - obviously all strategies are going to need to be applied at different times.

Reflections on Planning
My planning has changed nearly every week that I have been running a POGIL based programme in my classroom.  The children contribute to the changes, telling me what they like and what they do not like - and what is beneficial to their learning and what is superfluous.  Based on my most recent discussions with my Tutor teacher I will be changing three things:

1. Writing the learning intention for the week in the format of 'We are learning to... because...' so that students can see immediately what the relevance is and therefore be able to discuss this.
2. Recording the way that I frame the activity and the learning so that students are able to clearly identify the difference between the two. This is where students have been getting stuck when asked the questions identified earlier - whilst my top students are able to highlight the difference without any problem some of my lower students struggle to and this is the group that I need to be specifically targeting.  An example of this is recorded below:
3. Giving students full control about what they learn and when based on appropriate data.  An example of this:  We are just beginning an algebra based unit.  The students have all recently completed a pretest - the level of which was determined by me from looking at data against knowledge and strategies.  The pretest has each page set out in the following format: 
   
   Each skill that the children need is recorded at the bottom of the page and once we have marked each page together they select 'not yet', 'kind of' or 'got it'.  The students work with other children in their skill level and determine their learning for the next five weeks.  They have decided to split their data up into two categories for them to focus on when they are with me: a revise category, based on the problems that they kind of understand, and a learn category based on the problems that they do not yet understand.  An example of this is recorded below
   
   
   
   This style of planning where students have such a high level of input develops feelings of responsibility, pride in what they have already achieved and a sense of direction and ownership in what they will achieve next.  Obviously I still have to make judgements based on their self directed pathways - but planning this way and letting the children access and read their data is very much personalising both the planning and their learning journey.

Overall - when I reflect on the question of "How can I, as the teacher of a year six class, use strategies associated with POGIL to help my students develop independence and autonomy over their learning?" the following things come to mind:

What I have already done and need to continue to do:

 - Continue to use POGIL sheets to structure students learning

 - Continue to use question sheets 

 - Adapt my planning to meet the needs of my students

 - Use the weebly to make learning interactive and engaging for students

 - Allow students to direct their own learning

What I need to do next:

 - Provide students the opportunities to have a real contribution to what they are learning

 - Use their weebly as a place where all students have the opportunity to view similar problems (for want of a better word) to the ones that they will be working with when they are with the teacher.

 - Move away from questioning and towards prompting

 - Change how I structure the learning intentions for students - especially in writing and reading.

Children beginning to share their learning

As the children now have a live blog audience with children from other schools commenting on their learning they are wishing to demonstrate the skills and knowledge that they have in a visual format.  Here is an example of their first try - feel free to pop to the weebly to see all of the comments and feedback and feedforward that they have left each other.

Strategies for maths

The power of blogging

Up until now, our class weebly has been an interactive website run by myself that allows students to share their learning, allows parents to view what happens in our classroom and becomes a noticeboard.

Today, that all changed...

We have become a part of an Australian/New Zealand blogging group which has provided student with a real life context for which they are blogging.

The students have spent this afternoon learning how to transfer all of their learning onto the blog - whether it be text, photos, or videos that they have first had to upload to youtube and hyperlink in.  The students are already seeing sharing as a key aspect of why they wish to complete their work to their best ability - so that they can share it with others and help them learn also.   These children know how to use categories to search for their own work and share it with their parents.  Since uploading the work this afternoon, these students have had four comments on their blogs in four hours - all providing some form of feedback.  This provides students with feedback that their voices are being heard, well and truly.

As part of the NZ/Oz blogging group, the students rotate around the blogs and each class has a week where everyone focuses on commenting on that blog and sharing for that week.  I look forward to seeing the spin-off effects for the children wish to continue sharing their blogging with this.

Learn, Create, Share, is one of the key ways that Manaiakalani run their programme - it underpins mostly everything that they do for both the students and their staff.  One of the key benefits for Manaiakalani taking this on board is that it allows them to provide parents who aren't comfortable coming into school, usually their Maori and Pasifika parents, with a way to view their children's learning in real time.  I hope for this to have a similar

I aim to run a similar programme that works alongside, and underpins, the POGIL learning that is currently occurring in my classroom. The way that they do this learn, create, share framework also allows students to assess each other and provide each other and myself with insight into their understanding of the task and their success criteria.

Take a look at the last few posts of the sharing page to see how the children are beginning to take control of their blogging...

Superstar Bloggers!

Future Oriented Learning - POGIL - What do they mean for me?

I decided that the long weekend was the perfect time to do a reading (as well as go to the beach and see friends) and so I did some research to find readings that weren't POGIL related but focussed on similar themes!  I came across a report by the NZCER titled 'Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching – A New Zealand perspective' and thought that that sounded interesting.  The following notes are insights that I gained from this reading that also connected with principles behind the POGIL style of teaching and the writing in italics is how this can, or already does, apply to my classroom.

Knowledge

• ·      Need to adopt a much more complex view of knowledge that incorporates knowing, doing and being
• ·      Knowledge – currently our views are underpinned by two different epistemologies of what counts as knowledge.  These are: knowledge as content, concepts and skills from the selected disciplines – and – knowledge as creating and using new knowledge to solve problems and find solutions to challenges as they arise on a “just-in-time” basis
• ·      A new view of knowledge and the implications for schooling – We can no longer predict exactly what content specific knowledge students will need as they move through life in the
• 21^st century.  But we do know that they need: opportunities to build their sense of self, challenges that will develop them into becoming self-reliant, critical and creative thinkers, the ability to use their initiative, the ability to become team players and the drive to engage in ongoing learning throughout their lives
• ·      In order for students to remain engaged in the long term they must be able to actively interact with knowledge rather than just reproduce it – they must be provided with the opportunities and skills to understand, critique, manipulate, create and transform it.
• ·     21^st century learning literature argues that today’s students need to engage in knowledge-generating activities in authentic contexts – we need to move away from formal contemporary learning to the messiness of real world situations in which the answers and outcomes are not known, or predetermined by the teacher, but rather where teacher and student work alongside each other on a learning journey.

In my classroom - knowledge is shifting from knowing to incorporating doing - I have not yet discovered how to get to the being stage with my students yet.  I have found that with the students using POGIL styled activities they are working with activities that are much more engaging, hands on, and higher level thinking.  With the two different epistemologies I think it is important that both play a place within my classroom - and this is evident through the way that I teach - students both understand knowledge in regards to content and skills and create their own knowledge in order to problem solve in a range of situations.  Hugely within my reading and maths sessions students are provided with opportunities to understand, critique, manipulate, create and transform knowledge thanks to the POGIL style of learning.  Within reading at the moment students are completing challenges that at first made me uncomfortable largely due to the fact that they are higher order Blooms creative styled challenges - these children are going to be creating work where their answers cannot be predetermined because what they are doing is authentic knowledge building.

Learning

• ·      Requires that all of those involved in education are involved in continuous learning
• ·      Focus in future oriented learning needs to be on equipping people to do things with knowledge
• ·      What we know about learning:

o   Learning involves thinking

o   Experiences are critical to learning

o   Learners need to be encouraged not to search solely for the right answer but also for the right approach to solving a problem

o   To learn, people need to be actively engaged.  They need to be doing something, thinking something and or saying something that requires them to actively process, interpret, and adapt an experience to a new context or use.

o   Learners have to want to learn the material – both in the short term and in the longer term they need to see a purpose to learning it.

o   Learning has to be personalized – they need to feel that they know what they are doing, and that they can control the pace of their learning

o   Learning often needs some kind of structure

o   Learning involves interaction – testing out and trying ideas with others.

• ·      In order for captivating learning to occur there is the idea that the learner ought to be transformed in some way through their learning and the idea that the world can be transformed by the learner – that what they are learning can impact their world almost immediately.

I like the idea that all of those involved in education are involved in continuous learning.  I know that through my own professional and personal learning I develop as teacher every day and that if I was the same person that I was at the start of the year even, and if I taught in the exact same way then the learning of my students would not be enhanced.  Future oriented learning does indeed need to be focussed on equipping people to do things with knowledge.  With knowledge being so easily accessibly through the internet these days it does not become so much the content of the knowledge that will drive the future of our students so much as what they do with this knowledge - how they manipulate it and use it to enhance the lives of people around them.  Within my current reading programme at the moment students are experiencing a variety of experiences that involve them relating what they are reading about directly to the world that they live in - with this, the activities that they are doing do not have a single right answer, but rather a variety of correct answers and what matters is the way that they get there - I would like to further incorporate this idea within my maths programme also.

Key Competencies

• ·      Learning that is future oriented is closely linked and connected with the Key Competencies.  This article states that ‘deep learning’ involves self managing, being creative and critical thinkers and learning with others.
• ·      The Key Competencies are so important to how we teach – when we have developed the understanding and application of these effectively in students is when students are able to transfer the knowledge and skills that they are learning about to whatever context they find themselves in.

Whilst my WALTs may not match directly with the key competencies the students are required to fill out an evaluation at the end of each task that is directly related to their key competencies - there is a focus on each of the key competencies but these are written in student speak.  When the students arrive to teacher time with me we discuss what they need to work on next time and through this discussion we focus on what is important for allowing them to learn and grow effectively.  It would possibly be effective for me to discuss these evaluations in the terminology of the Key Competencies and this is something I may explore doing.

Diversity/Authentic Learning

• ·      Diversity is key for learning that supports children in the world that they will be a part of tomorrow – this calls for greater engagement of learners in co-shaping their education to address their needs, strengths, interests and aspirations
• ·      Diversity encapsulates the current focus on developing strategies to ensure learners from all backgrounds can achieve success in ways that are meaningful to them.
• ·      The goal with education today is not simply to find better ways to raise every person’s achievement to an identical view or standard – which is a tricky concept with national standards saying the opposite – but rather to support each individual to reach their full potential.
• ·      Deep expressions of the practice of personalizing learning occur as listed below:

o   Learners have genuine input into shaping what happens in their learning, not only how they learn but also what sorts of learning activities occur within their class.

o   Learners (not just their teachers) believe that students have input into how things happen in their classroom or school.

o   Learners can link their schooling to other aspects of their lives, or see connections with their goals or aspirations for their lives beyond school

• ·      In regards to authentic learning opportunities – it is not enough for the learning to seem as though it is relevant, engaging and connected to student interests. Rather, we as educators, need to provide opportunities and strategies that support students themselves to feel engaged with, connected to and invested in the work that they are doing.

I believe that developing authentic learning within a classroom is an ongoing thing that changes continually with what you are teaching and how you are teaching it.  Developing an attitude and practice that allows students to engage quickly with authentic learning is a different thing.  This is something that I am working on in both my reading and maths programmes at the moment.  In writing we have set genres that we have to cover at certain times, however students get input into what they write about.  In reading - on a Friday afternoon, students are provided with journals that have articles in them that may capture their interest about the current topic of study.  Each group usually has about three or four choices each week.  From here, the students are able to decide what they want to learn about within this topic and choose a verb from the three higher levels of BLOOMs taxonomy that relate to what they are wanting to learn.  Within Maths the students sit a eAsttle test that provides them with next steps within their current subtopic and from their they direct where they want their learning to go based on both needs and interests.

Roles of teacher and student

• ·      The idea of personalizing learning call for reversing the logic of education systems so that the system is built around the learner rather than the learner being required to fit in with the system
• ·      We need to rethink the role of the teacher and students – as it is no longer the teacher’s job simply to transmit knowledge and the student no longer has the main purpose of absorbing and storing up knowledge to use in the future.  We need to consider about how we are structuring roles and relationships in way that draw on the knowledge and strengths of both teacher and student in order to best support learning.
• ·      Classrooms need to not be labeled as student centered or teacher driven whilst these terms are still being loosely thrown around but rather should involve teachers and students working together in a knowledge building environment,
• ·      Students are most engaged with, and get the most out of, learning that allows them a degree of choice, flexibility, motivation and self direction in their learning.

PD - Applying learning in my classroom

Towards the end of last term I spent half a day at a local school that work primarily with Maori and Pacifica families.  My school does not have a huge proportion of these students however nearly a third of my class have Maori backgrounds and so it is a need of mine to be able to teach these students in a way that they best learn.  I have attached a photo of notes that I took whilst observing a number of teachers in this school in action.

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Based on these observations and further reading on POGIL work I have begun to adapt my reading lessons.  

Applying POGIL to my programme, my reading lessons naturally took on a more self directed format - however these students were given a must do and a can do list - as well as evaluation sheets that they filled out every week.  The sheets look like this but usually included a can do sheet also.  

This week, we have completed two immersion lessons where the students have had the opportunity to become fully engaged with this task.  This provided opportunities to do hands on work where they were exploring the school to try and locate living and non living things within their own environment and using MRS GREN to help them determine whether or not they are living.  Armed with this knowledge the students today looked at different native animals and identified which MRS GREN life processes they had adapted to best suit their environment.  As habitats tie in closely with adaptations the students spent an hour today identifying their own habitats which they thoroughly enjoyed and which allowed them to link their lives directly to their learning.  Over the next week they will be choosing four of the six activities on the following sheet that interest them most - as well as completing activities on the blog in order to allow them to self direct their learning to their own interests but yet stay within the learning focus.  In addition to this they will also be pulled out for guided reading sessions with me about specific animals that are native to New Zealand and have had to make appropriate adaptations.

I look forward to seeing how this will engage my Maori - and non Maori learners and whether it will be more effective than the current practices that are underway in my room.

Linking my learning with that of my students

As a class we use weebly instead of Blogspot to record and share our learning.  As this is becoming a more and more interactive website that students are using to both learn and share their learning I believe it is important that this is recorded on my PRT blog and so have attached the link here - Sarah's Superheroes

Children begin POGIL.

This morning in class the students had their first experience of POGIL - as it was an introductory exercise the children completed fun team building activities to introduce them to the concept of working in teams after watching fun animated videos of what team work involved.

The discussions around what team work involved were very interesting as the children came up with ideas such as collaboration and supporting each other, challenging each other and individual responsibility as all being key factors in team work - ideas that were very prominent in the reading about POGIL also.

Here are a few things that the children had to say about what they learnt from this morning - and how they think they could put this to play in their normal classroom.

Planning

Planning Week 2

Student Voice

In order to maintain an open growth mindset I have asked ten of my students to provide me with honest reflections about their experiences of being in my class.  They were asked to answer the following five statements and questions:

1. The way that my teacher helps me the most is...
2. One thing that challenged me most was... I overcame it by....
3. I enjoy being part of Room 3 because...
4. The thing I am most proud of this year is...
5. One piece of advice I would give to my teacher is...

Below are videos of these students reflections.  Please enjoy and leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

Student Reflection on being in Room 3 - 2014