DFI 6

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Today we had a deeper look into class sites. It was great to see everyone's sites get some awesome

feedback on mine. We heard from a teacher at Tautoro School who had a great writing set up on her site.

Essentially it is a shared doc with a writing prompt. The difference to my shared docs is that the writing is

contained within a table and each student has a row which is bookmarked. This way no one can interfere

with anyone else's writing but students can see each others as they are being created. Awesome!

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
Hopefully learning a bit more about creating a nicer looking and easier to navigate site I have
created a more streamlined and user friendly experience for the students and their whanau.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  
See above

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life.
I suppose this new found digital confidence is beginning to make me confident generally around google
and all things digital!

Whanau Kauri Partnerships

Last week's Whanau Kauri Partnership meeting was a great success. We had a visit from our Cognition Education Relationship Based Learning facilitator. I started using screencastify for last week’s whanau partnership session. Whanau loved it and were able to lead the learning session while I stood back and had time to chat and share kai with everyone. The shared doc was visible and totally collaborative which everybody loved.


last week's lesson

Todays DFI 5

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?Today we learnt a lot of shortcuts, control f was awesome for searching!

This afternoon I used screencastify to pre-record a spelling lesson for my Thursday Whanau Kauri partnership group.

Whanau Kauri Workshops (Maths)

I am looking forward to seeing how the whanau navigated around the class site and what feedback they have.  I am also looking forward to introducing Jenna to the group as part of our Alim observations.

I think I will get all of my students to work on their personal reports tomorrow, prior to the after school session, and have their levels, where they are at and next steps ready and printed for whanau to see. I will then try and do another shared doc where everyone is working on an activity based on their next steps. I will then put out rotation activities to do after that mini session.
I need to start using google groups for my whanau/kauri partnership sessions so that everybody is ready to go and has a record of what we have done.

Hopefully our dfi work today will hill me to use Hapara more effectively on this!

Whanau Kauri Workshops (reading)

I have been thinking about how to move forward with our Thursday student/whanau workshops as they start to get bigger. I think I might try and ask at DFI today how I can set up a shared doc that will be up on the screen where each student/whanau group can collaborate in real time and can be seen as distinctively their own and therefore differentiated.

This could work really well instead of teacher at front of the class, as the momentum of the group dictates the pace. I might try a spelling workshop based on my usual spelling lesson, but instead of me at the front the students will collaborate and teach their whanau how to do it and therefore take it home to continue.

I will try a range of activities to blend on tables such as rainbow words, backwards words, crosswords and wordfind that the students can do in choice based rotations after the initial mini lesson on the screen using chromebooks and online dictionaries.

High Expectations Seminar

Today we had a Manaiakalani TOD at Taipa. Some really interesting and tough listening around the connection between deficit thought and student outcomes.

While I believe that Oruaiti school has an excellent culture of student expectation I do think that there are some improvements I/we can make:

• Whole school mixed level groups
• Whole school goal setting and student led reporting
• Whole school Whanau based learning 

I think I will continue to keep a record of the relationship based projects and as Diane asked, share back my findings with the team at the end of the year.

I am wondering if we could use our pd funding to combine coaching and our lesson study with Rhona to focus on the Teacher Expectation Project (TEP)

http://www.education.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/schools-departments/ldpp/ldpp-research/ldpp-research-projects/teacher-expectation.html

Intrinsic Motivation vs Extrinsic Motivation

My Show me 5 table reward system is extrinsic so I need to modify this slightly. I might try points based on habits of mind, e.g., persistence for meeting the challenge line in their writing.

Or instead of the Habits of Mind, I could follow a more culturally responsive course!

Whanaungatanga – building strong classroom relationships, collaborating; welcoming, personable, approachable

Kotahitanga – classroom community, sense of unity, respect, committed to Māori student achievement

Manaakitanga – supporting students academically and emotionally, understanding culture, connection with community

Whanaungatanga – building strong classroom relationships, collaborating; welcoming, personable, approachable


Rangatiratanga – responsibility for learning, autonomy, engagement, motivation; teacher monitoring and feedback

Wānanga – joint goal setting, short and long-term goal setting, academic focus, encouraging of questions

Mana motuhake – teachers care about student performance, clear feedback, goal-focussed; self-motivation, improvement-focussed, perseverance and resilience

Whanau Kauri Partnership

Last week's meeting was a real success. I gave the students their levels for reading and maths and then they filled out blanks reports with what they can do and what their next steps are.  It was definitely a step up from reading the learning intention off the board!

DFI 4

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Share is not a linear, tick box idea. It is fluid and prone to change. I love how using flipped learning I can
share at moments that are out of my control, as I am shifting the ownership to my students.

Garden Science Site

          Flipped Maths Lessons

          Class site

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I feel like I am getting quicker and finding my way a bit quicker. I am more confident with my ability to use our class site as a means for flipped or additional top up learning. I am also using my new knowledge each week with my whanau Kauri partnership group (which is up to 8 families now)

• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I think I have started to tailor my site more to the needs of the learners. More aesthetic and user

friendly, and accessible from home.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life. I am still not sure!

Student Self Assessed Reports

I am going to share reports with students next week. They are going to save a blank report to their blog or drive. Then I'll model writing a report in first person and get them to use the exemplars and wall displays to guide them, as well as using their reports. Will be massively scaffolded but a start. Aim to ask Diane if they can trial this for class end of year reports. Will also think about printing them and displaying as it is student led so perhaps not fixed mindset?I want to make it multi modal, so the students can embed and link their work into each sentence. Makes it meaningful!The report doesn't have to have the same format. Could have video, audio embedded and a different look to the traditional report.

Whanau Kauri Partnership

We had and awesome turn out this week, despite the weather. We discussed sharing learning success on the class site and student blogs and how I will be updating the class site with work each day that can be re visited at home. We also talked about the power of self assessment and student goal setting.

The students shared with their whanau where they are at in reading and maths and their next steps.

DFI 3

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Create within the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

The presentation given by Mat this morning clarified my understanding of create. I think that as a school collective we were getting too hung up on following a linear progression of first learn, then create and then share. Today I saw the learn create share pedagogy as a more homogeneous arrangement. The video on one of the slides was of Oruaiti School in the 1960's when it was an experimental school. The clip was used to demonstrate creating and the enjoyment of active integrated learning. We are continuing on from Elwyn Richardson at Oruaiti now with projects such as the duck pond for eggs, making hinaki to catch eels, bees to make honey and beeswax, and the fantastic art through screen printing.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

I created a screencastify to my mihi on my class site. I have recorded audio over the original image. I just hope that my pronunciation is as sharp as the site! I was quite pleased with my About Me blog picture as well!

• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I have started to look at how my students will effectively access their work on the class site. Also how to manage the student blogs a little better.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Still not sure how this helps my personal life.

Wall Displays

The chalk pens arrived and I have finished laminating...for now. The exemplars are all taken from the gloss tests (I decided not to use student work as I want it to remain neutral). The stage didn't come out well in the photo but stands out nicely in the classroom. I have started to discuss the displays with the students and they are getting excited about finding their levels from their reports so that they can place themselves and start to chart their growth.

Student Survey

I wanted to survey my class to find out how they like to learn.  Students were asked to order their top three learning preferences. It was interesting that the top two were slightly contradictory and that the top three were the top three on the list however, it was a useful exercise in promoting student agency and allowing students to reflect on how they learn effectively

Whanau Kauri Partnership

So, yesterday was our first meeting since inviting more parents and whanau. It was great! We went through introductions and the student's talked briefly about their learning before I ran through two short sessions in reading and maths.

In total we had six families there and I have invited a couple more. I think the parents have gone home happy that they can be more active participants in their childrens' success.

We looked at times tables practise and spelling. I wanted to dispel myths about rote learning and the evidence behind it.

Everyone has gone away to practise, new ways of teaching and learning, particularly the parents, which I believe is the key to the success of this programme.

DFI Cohort 2 Session 2

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Today I dabbled with google hangouts, with limited success! I found that google keep was a useful tool for

notetaking. I found benefit in updating calendars, bookmarking websites and even little things like adding

a signature to my email.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

I suppose today was a great admin sharpening day! Streamlining and organising workflow!

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Not a huge amount that I would feel confident introducing to the class tomorrow.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Streamlining and organising workflow! Perhaps allocating particular times to emails.

Buddy Coaching Session

After today's meeting we got into our buddy coaching groups to work on short goals relating to our teaching as inquiry focus of greater student agency in terms of knowing and demonstrating what they have learnt, the task and what their next steps are.

I am getting really close to achieving my smart goal. Today I spent the afternoon laminating the maths progressions for my class. I am getting through a lot of laminating sheets and velcro tape!

 I have had to use window space as well as the back wall. The back wall is only reading levels!

I have decided that as I am finishing mid year reports at the moment. I will share the levels with students in short conferences. They will then have a clearer picture of where they are going into the holidays. I have started to put some examples of work up as exemplar bench marks, however I am struggling to reconcile fixed mindset levels, particularly with students that are well below their expectations for age.

As advised by my colleagues today,  I will most likely use exemplars from the web...or other classes maybe?

DFI Cohort 2 Session 1

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Learn: I learnt heaps today. Probably the most exciting for me was how to effectively use
read-writer for students. I also learnt a few tricks to assist with my mini ALIM inquiry
towards increased students learning outcomes trough improved home/school partnerships and
increasing parent efficacy and understanding of reading, writing and maths levels and what they
mean.
Create: I created an awesome group with my parents, for them to communicate with me, and
me with them
Share: So, I created a google group to share info with whanau and also a snappy poster to make
it feel less confrontational for harder to reach parents. The poster is advertising my after school
student/parent refresher sessions which are really working at accelerating below and well below
student outcomes.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Loads of useful things, especially how to use Google groups. This will be useful to build transparency and whakawhanaungatanga with my students' whanau.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I learnt about using voice type properly and to use it as a tool for greater efficiency for

all students, and not just reluctant writers.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Not sure, about this one yet. I think it is still early days and I still feel far from confident in terms of digital fluency.

Wall Displays

So, I have finally got around to making the wall displays. I decided against doing them myself from scratch and used the best of what was currently around.

Mark gave me an awesome maths progression, Diane gave me a similarly good writing framework and I used our reading walts Jess discovered a couple of years ago that Kara re-found for me. What an awesome team!

The displays all needed to be printed in A3 and some blown up and printed twice, which took ages. I started pva gluing them to cardboard, but that looked really rubbish as the paper crumpled and absorbed the colour of the backing paper. Plus it took me four hours just to do one maths level.

After a night to think about it, I decided just to laminate and velcro fasten them to the walls. The problem I now have is that the back wall isn't going to be big enough, as I want to follow the linear progression of the bump it up wall displays. I may have to either take classroom furniture out like cubby boxes and bookshelves or reclaim window space.

Relationship based learning - research

So, I have stripped the back wall of the classroom, with the help of my students. I have started to explain to them what we are doing, and why, and they seem fairly interested.

I started researching best practice around feed-back and feed-forward and found this (below). It seems perfect for what I want to achieve with my inquiry.

Kai Ora Hui

Oruaiti School was recently awarded $1000 towards or chicken run project. Today I went to a networking session in Kaikohe to share our panui and listen to others'. It proved really useful, as I now have a number of contacts from Whangaroa who want to get involved with our school. There were a couple of people who wanted to help us source good laying chickens, another who recommended ducks for our dam, and most exciting, a cooperative farm in Kaeo who want us to take cuttings from our manuka, to supply them with manuka saplings at $1 ea and potentially buy our next year's crop of honey from us.

The opportunities to support our local communities are exciting and I felt among the community groups present, a real sense that our school has built mana within the community in recent years.

Post Coaching Group Meeting Reflections

After a rigorous discussion around our school-wide inquiry focus we have re-jigged the focus to students demonstrating their learning, instead of articulating their learning. The group agreed that their observations confirmed that students are more able to demonstrate than just describe or explain what they have been learning.

The video clip below of a student following the success criteria shows that she can demonstrate what she has learnt but my subsequent questions confirmed that articulating what she was learning was at best reading from the board and most likely not embedded and merely memorized without deeper meaning.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMFuvV7BSfGt1IZCTG4h1YMljTbhKz29Uur8mrA

Today's Reflections from Coaching conversation with Su

Rob Coaching notes Oruaiti

DATE: 14 May 2019

GOAL: How to get the students to articulate and explain what they are learning,
why they are learning it and how they know they have been successful

To have visible exemplars on the walls for students next steps for R, W, M

WHY? Data from RBL has shown that when we ask a cross section of students they
aren’t able to answer that. In order for learning to be fully embedded they need to be
able to articulate their answers and thinking.
If they can do this then they can apply their knowledge and understanding to new situations.
Building the motivation and skills for life-long learning and problem solving

REALITY:

At the moment they are reading it off the board

Can’t necessarily apply it to a new situation

Not transferring skills to Gloss test

Want on the back wall:

ADD/ SUB example of a problem the strategy the next steps all in a line across the wall.

E.g.

Stage 6 I have 112 sheep in a field, I add 126 sheep. How many sheep do I have altogether

Making tens

Making tidy numbers

Place value partitioning

Stage 7 Add/ subtract four digit numbers

So that after a test they can go to the wall and point to where they are at and therefore what
their next steps are.

OPTIONS:

Change the task section on board to a why

Change ‘success criteria’ to ‘How’

Look for ideas for wall displays on pinterest to help students identify their next steps.

WHAT NEXT:

By the end of week four I will have researched different examples of classroom exemplars
so that I can modify them to fit our school.

Bloom's Taxonomy

I think this could be the answer to students articulating their learning and next steps. I have shared it with everyone and we are going to discuss it at our group coaching PD session later today.

Bloom’s Level	Key Verbs (keywords)	Example Learning Objective
Create	design, formulate, build, invent, create, compose, generate, derive, modify, develop.	By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to design an original homework problem dealing with the principle of conservation of energy.
Evaluate	choose, support, relate, determine, defend, judge, grade, compare, contrast, argue, justify, support, convince, select, evaluate.	By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to determine whether using conservation of energy or conservation of momentum would be more appropriate for solving a dynamics problem.
Analyze	classify, break down, categorize, analyze, diagram, illustrate, criticize, simplify, associate.	By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to differentiate between potential and kinetic energy.
Apply	calculate, predict, apply, solve, illustrate, use, demonstrate, determine, model, perform, present.	By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to calculate the kinetic energy of a projectile.
Understand	describe, explain, paraphrase, restate, give original examples of, summarize, contrast, interpret, discuss.	By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to describe Newton’s three laws of motion to in her/his own words
Remember	list, recite, outline, define, name, match, quote, recall, identify, label, recognize.	By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to recite Newton’s three laws of motion.

Coaching with Su - Wall exemplars

Having discussed my ideas with Su in our coaching session I have decided that a simpler approach like the one above will work best. So, the exemplar is on the top, going across in stage order. Instead of names below in colours I will have student friendly success criteria.

I have agreed that by the end of week 4 I will have completed my research of current wall displays and have decided finally on what I will go with for maths.

Health and well being

One of the things I am really bad at is looking after my well being. Particularly during busy periods of the term. Juggling sole parenting while Su is away, school and renovation takes its toll physically, mentally and emotionally. I don't want to get to the end of term two a total wreck like every other term end, so I am committing fingers to keyboard in order to initiate my well being overhaul.

It appears that my diet is too acidic and that a more alkaline diet will provide me with more energy, focus and clarity. These are three things that I have struggled to maintain of late.

So, improved diet is key. Rich in dark green vegetables and low in caffeine, dairy, sugar, alcohol and refined carbohydrates. How exiting?!

I am going to try a week of high alkaline consumption, this week I have the following to salivate over:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

Wall exemplars

I am considering putting gloss questions on the back wall.  They will be in rows according to add/sub, mult/div and proportions.

Under the word problem will be a breakdown of the stage and the appropriate strategy for that stage.

Students will know what stage they are at for each domain because after week they will do a brief snapshot which will be assessed and feedback given.

This will clearly show where they are and what their next steps are.



Add/sub questions → strategies/exemplars → levels

Mult/Div questions → strategies/exemplars → levels

Proportions and Ratios questions → strategies/exemplars → levels

Assessment for Learning

I have just marked my Gloss Maths tests for term two, pre reports. The thing that stands out is that the content that the students are learning is not being related to the questions well enough. Therefore the students are not making the connection to their prior learning.

For example, when I give the year 5 students a piece of work that is levelled at stage 6-7 they can complete it successfully. Conversely, when I put a question in front of them in test conditions, the strategy that they were confident using a week or so ago has slipped away.

So, do I gloss test a strategy at a time after each piece of learning? I clearly need to make more explicit connections to the word problems. Below is an example of what I am currently doing.

On reflection, the success criteria is not clear enough and the question is too broad. I am going to try again. This time I will try a Gloss question, with really tight success criteria and then test the students afterwards. 

Critical thinking - Teaching as Inquiry

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IA2fBvHntIRYm4U9P2IqlO6hyKR7jd_1SGxF6q2av5U/edit?ts=5cd4dbd2

For our school-wide teaching as inquiry focus we are looking deeper into students' critical reflection and how well they can articulate their learning goals, why they are learning it and what their next steps are.

While I am developing my wall space to clearly show exemplars, levels and next steps I have also worked towards clearer learning intentions and success criteria.

However, the reflective questions that the students answer seem as if they are just repeating what is on the board and they are not speaking from their hearts.

I am having a coaching session on Tuesday and this is going to be my focus...