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.    

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.

  

Staff meeting 4th August

Focus of tonight’s meeting is ALLs Accelerated literacy learning.

Ana explained that the focus for All’s was looking at what has been successful, what are the barriers to learning, and what have been useful resources. That we were first doing this as a small group discussion and then sharing to the meeting as a whole.

What I took from the small group I was involved in was a couple of Shelley’s ideas. Like having a shopping list of ideas for her children and involving children numbering their ideas 1, 2, 3 then this becomes what’s the first thing that you are writing about then what’s next going back to the shopping list to remember what they have decided to write about, also in use for her low learners is a picture planner where they draw a picture of what they are writing about so they have a visual to refer to for their writing.

Then sharing continued staff-wide with many meaningful successes, barriers to learning, and useful resources shared.

Can’t emphasise enough how valuable it was to be involved in the sharing and problem solving with peers.  Ana also gave us all accelerating writing achievement by Rebecca Jesson a senior lecturer in the faculty of education at the university of Auckland reading to peruse in our own time.   

Staff meeting 21/7

For our staff meeting guided by Ana, we read a 1^st chapter copy from the book Learning in the fast lane 8 ways to put all students on the road to academic success by Suzy Pepper Rollins. Having not read this book I am only summarising my thoughts from this copy of the 1^st chapter.

In this chapter we deal with the issue of remediation and how this could be hampering our students that are deemed to be the furthest behind (gathered from the many various diagnostic pre-testing that teachers perform routinely) and that it is widening rather than closing the achievement gaps.

Suzy Pepper Rollins an experienced classroom teacher and educational consultant explains her belief that the best way to support struggling students is in the acceleration of their learning. Pepper Rollins goes on to explain her thoughts and how to implement her steps.

Including make standards and learning goals explicit to students i.e. learning intentions (Ana gave us all a copy of How I explain the importance of learning intentions to my class, Barabra Anne Alexander)  

Increase students' vocabulary—a key to their academic success; Build students' motivation and self-efficacy so that they become active, optimistic participants in class; Provide rich, timely feedback that enables students to improve when it counts; Address skill and knowledge gaps within the context of new learning.

After our reading, we then participated in a Rubric evaluation of the Effectiveness of classroom teaching practices for students achieving below curriculum expectations in literacy.

Being involved in a discussion at where your peers think their classroom practises and expectations sit within the rubric was interesting and thought provoking.  

Staff meeting 24/3/15

Writing moderation

Before the sharing of student writing examples of a recount, we spent time previewing the New Zealand curriculum writing standards, for  more about the reading and writing standards including using the standards look here http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards/Reading-and-writing-standards

After our preview of the examples we got together in small groups to share and compare the process of writing to ether confirm or adjust writing levels of students this was a group collaboration to establish an understanding of what the standard looks like and whether the student has the requirement of the achievement level. This lead to various discussion to use the evidence to judge each students writing in relation to the national standards making an overall teacher judgement from specific evidence gathered and teacher experience from a particular point in time.  

I see the need consistence and comparability both in the task set and the marking and to understand is close enough good enough to establish an agreement of their writing level. This is easily said however I am thinking not so easy to be done in practice.  

For a Ministry of education Moderating asTTle writing power point look here  http://connect.vln.school.nz/p11095800/     

I E P's

This post is not a reflection on any one student.

With gaining a full 11 weeks employment in Matai (special needs unit) for term two I have been trying to gain as much insight as I can to these learners hence I spent yesterday morning viewing a selection of Individual Education Plans An IEP sets goals for the student and shows how the student will be supported to meet those goals. It is developed by the team of people who support the student, including their parents, family, whānau and the student themselves. to find out more follow this link to the Ministry of Education http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/SpecialEducation/ServicesAndSupport/IndividualEducationPlans.aspx      

By the implementation of consistent management and communication strategies for the immediate learning and safety of the student I hope to develop an understanding of their learning, the resources and equipment needed for his/her strengths and needs to be meet through my teaching.

A sensory profile presents information about how a students experiences and processes information from various senses from auditory (hearing) vision (sight) vestibular (movement against gravity) tactile (touch) smell taste proprioception (deep pressure/body sense from joints and muscles).

This can tell me many things as a teacher such as whether a student is wary of loud noises, how able the are to sit for a long time, needs a favorite object in his hand , the need for simplify instructions.  

There's an involvement of many different services including but not exclusive to physiotherapists and occupational therapists to work with both student and teacher; viewing effects such as safe movement (both the students and their ability to move and accesses within the classroom) student ability to take part in the learning activity especially physical and the tools needed to undertake and complete the lesson.  

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