Dance with Susan Nel

In Matai we are very lucky to have Susan Nel come to see us every week on a Wednesday after morning tea. Susan is a certified therapeutic dance teacher using the movement process to help with the physical, emotional, cognitive and social integration of the individual. Susan does this be incorporating the use of music, movement and props in a fun and understanding way that is part of the holistic approach that offers a chance for creative expression for our children supported by our awesome teachers and teacher aids. 

In Matai we were very pleased to see our children participate in the school-wide Star Jam jump jam for children and young people with disabilities allowing the school tamariki to come together through the love of music and dance.

Looking around as we all took part in the Star Jam I was struck by how whakahi (proud) everyone was. Our children shone on stage and interacted well with the Rata children who were on the stage to support our Matai children.

With the rest of the James Street tamariki participating in front leading to a fantastic vibe with huge smiles all around along with our awesome James Street teachers.

Supported with a mufti day we were also able to raise money for children with disabilities.

A huge thank you to Sandra Sells for your organisational skills and time. 

Syndicate meeting 12/8

During our syndicate meeting last week Norah visited and brought along a bright and colourful bucket and explained that this is a metaphor for filling the buckets of others.
The bucket represents the mental and emotional thoughts and feelings that we have Norah asked us to think about how we feel when our bucket is full and then when it has been drained. This lead me to going online to find out a bit more.
When your bucket is full you feel confident, calm, secure, patient and friendly you will have positive thoughts and you would expect positive results.
And take the time to think about your bucket overflowing there would be a happiness that would spread to those around you and if you received a happy smile or positive feedback or compliment there would be a great big ripple effect.

Now let's think about if your bucket was drained how would you be feeling there would not be so many positive thoughts and it would be easy to be sad, nervous, insecure, negative, stressed, worried and even possibly physically ill, affecting your behavior and emotions leading you instead to empty the buckets of those around you.

After doing more online reading, I want to think about bucket filling and how my actions and words affect others and not intentionally dipping into the buckets of others.

Staff meeting 11/8

At this week's staff meeting, we took time again to view and discuss another set of possible questions pertaining to the ERO school visit in week 6. Again we worked in small groups and then shared our findings with the meeting. our questions this time were 
What does effective teaching look like for our school?

What does moderation look like in our school? 

Again very insightful discussion took place and I have made some notes for my own reference and a collection of answers to these questions over the 2 meetings will be available to us in the near future.    

Art in Matai

We have been enjoying our art in Matai
and this time when we went for one of  our  walks we collected natural things we could paint with. We found many things including branches with leaves, flower heads and seed pods and the following afternoon we got to try out our findings.

professional observation

Just going to share the observation of one of my lessons that happened last week, Thank you Natalie, for your insight.

Teacher: Stacey Hanright Observer: Natalie Williams

Lesson: Mathematics Strand: Algebra

Learning Intention: We are learning to recognise a repeating pattern using numbers

Start time: 11:25 Finish time: 11:35

Group lesson

What did the lesson look like?

• Before you started the lesson you talked about prior learning, and you modelled on the whiteboard using objects, and asking targeted questions depending on the level of the learner
• You modelled on the whiteboard using objects and 2 different colours and children responded positively to this
• You drew a line after the 2nd colour in the pattern and this was a great visual prompt to remind children about what they were expected to do
• You used the sign for ‘same’ to support visual learners
• Before moving on to the next part of the lesson, you ensured that children had a good understanding
• You linked prior knowledge and you talked to the children that "now we are going to make a pattern using numbers"
• NATURE - immediately said the new pattern sequence 1,2 (FANTASTIC)
• When children answered incorrectly you responded by having a positive approach (you acknowledged their answer, and supported them to find the correct answer)
• You lesson ensure that all children were participating and contributing
• You left the familiar pattern sequence (objects and colours) and wrote the number sequence underneath. This provided a visual prompt for children
• You also identified that you needed to draw a line after the 2nd colour in the sequence as children still needed this visual prompt
• You then moved onto using a 3rd object (orange) and moved onto the pattern 1,2,3

Where to next…

• Nature was not initially engaged in the lesson and she was sitting to the back of the group (I identified that this could be because she was on the floor and everyone else were in chairs, so I put her on a chair and she was engaged) - So just make sure that all children are comfortable and set up to participate in the lesson before starting.
• Saxon started getting bored e.g. playing with his hair, rocking (this is an indication that he needed a sensory break)
• Because introducing a repeating pattern using numbers is a new concept for all children, I recommend that you focus on the 1,2 pattern in the one lesson and introduce 1,2,3 pattern once you know that children have understood.

Pleased with the observation plenty of good feedback and where to next to think about.

  

6/8 syndicate meeting

Instead of syndicate meeting we had a staff meeting to discuss the upcoming ERO visit and how this might proceed.

In groups we discussed some key questions for our school.

What are the six things you are most proud of at our school?

What defines our school culture?

How do we keep our students safe and manage bullying at James Street School

What are the key aspects of the James Street School curriculum?

Much insightful discussion and sharing happened and recorded for referencing.

Junior syndicate followed the meeting with time spent wrapping rewards for growing great learners.