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.  

   

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.   

Another busy week in Matai

It's Te wiki o Te Reo Maori, Maori language week at James Street School. The theme this year being Whangaihia Nga Matua --- helping parents to pass on Te Reo Maori to their Tamariki.

With expectations for the James Street Tamariki to make and then take home a resource each day to help encourage parents/caregivers to learn and share Te Reo.

And the children in Matai eagerly participated making resources provided by Nat, with fridge magnets and phrase cards going home to celebrate the learning with Whanau

Syndicate meeting

For our syndicate meeting this week we discussed the events that prominent in the timetable for the next two weeks. Teachers then discussed their literacy inquiries and brainstormed challenges and solutions in a supportive environment. then as a team we dedicated some time to our professional blogs.  

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.  

Term three :)

Wow first week of term is over already and it has been a challenge getting back into work mode!!!

One of my goals for this term is to write on this blog more, trying not to be overwhelmed by the work involved picking the relevant content to go into
this forum and keeping it short and concise :)

Term 2 in Matai

It has been in the back of my mind to pick this up and do a post all term  it might have been a 11 week term but it been very busy. So 1 thing I've learnt is its planning planning and more planning. Make sure you are planning to the right level, have set learning intentions and that is what you have targeted in your PLANNING, check your resources, be reflective  (it goes a long way ) don't over think things sometimes easy to get caught up in over thinking and above all remember to breathe while looking towards to term 3