Inclusive education

As part of our session on inclusive education we watched a youtube clip which discussed inclusive practices in a range of different schools.  It featured the perspectives of teachers, principals, parents and the students themselves.  Something I found really interesting in this video was a discussion on using teacher aide time - one of the principals discussed using the teacher aide to take the class to give the teacher time to spend one on one with a child with special learning needs.  They mentioned that children can often become isolated if they are often working with a teacher aide - they felt that the presence of an adult deterred other students from working with them.  Another issue raised in this video was that children can become very dependent on their teacher aides, so one school rotated teacher aides through different classrooms at different times to avoid this.   This raised a number of issues I had not considered and will be something to reflect on when I have my own classroom.

GTS 3 Graduating teachers understand how contextual factors influence teaching and learning.
3A: Graduating teachers have an understanding of the complex influences that personal, social and cultural factors may have on teachers and learners.

Reflection on writing learning intentions and success criteria

Today on the first day of the second part of the refresher course face to face we looked at writing effective learning intentions and success criteria.  The question our group focused on was "How could success criteria be developed and used?" We reflected on the fact that success criteria are cyclical, informed by prior knowledge, observation and conferencing, and identified gaps in learning.  We discussed the fact that success criteria could be developed by discussing the learning intention with the students and getting them to co-construct the criteria that would demonstrate that they had fulfilled that learning intention.

Something I found very important from this discussion was the idea that a successful learning intention does not contain the context for the task.  So learning to write about how to write instructions you would write something like "WALT Write a list of instructions" not "WALT Write instructions for how to make a sandwich."  This helped to make success criteria clear for me and is something I will check my success criteria against in the future.

GTS 2 Graduating teachers know about learners and how they learn.
2B:  Graduating teachers have knowledge of a range of relevant theories, principles and purposes of assessment and evaluation.

Unpacking the curriculum - languages

This is a presentation we made as part of one of our first face to face classes - we were unpacking a curriculum area and my group did "Learning Languages."

GTS 1
Graduating teachers know what to teach
1A: Graduating teachers have content knowledge appropriate to the learners and learning areas of their programme.
1C: Graduating teachers have knowledge of the relevant curriculum documents of Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Poppies

I made these poppy wreaths back around ANZAC Day with a class of Year 2 and 3 children at Lincoln Heights School.  As an introduction to the activity I read the class The Eels of ANZAC Bridge and brought in a photo of the real ANZAC Bridge in Kaiparoro.  I also read them Lest we Forget by Feana Tu'akoi.  Both of these stories deal with war from a child's perspective, making the topic relatable to children's own lives.  The eels migrating to Tonga in The Eels of ANZAC Bridge really sparked the children's attention, and the eels in this book mirrored the soldiers going off to war.  I found this a very effective way to give context to the art activity.

Maths lesson observation - 8/9/15

Differentiated learning - writing lesson

This is a template I made for writing narratives, an adaptation of the hamburger model in Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey's The Writing Book.  I had been using this with all my writing groups but it became evident that one group found it too challenging.  The syndicate leader had popped in and observed some of my writing lesson and I mentioned this to her - she suggested simplifying the template for the group that found it too challenging.  I did this and found that they were able to cope much better with the task with a simplified model, and they were much more engaged with the task, proudly showing me their completed work.  This demonstrated to me the importance of differentiated learning.

GTS 5: Graduating teachers use evidence to promote learning.
5A: Graduating teachers systematically and critically engage with evidence to reflect on and refine their practice.

Stop your full stops crying - writing lesson observation

My AT observed me for this writing lesson - I took a small writing group (including the four students for my inquiry group) while the rest of the class worked on their narrative writing.  I noticed that many students were talking and not getting much writing done so I projected a 15 minute countdown timer on the whiteboard to give them a sense of urgency.  As noted in my AT's observation here and my reflection, the timer did help to get the children focused, however they got a bit silly at the end, counting down as it reached zero. Overall however I think using the countdown timer was an effective strategy, in conjunction with marking the starting point of 15 minutes in the students' books.  It was helpful for enabling me to see their progress and to get a greater volume of writing done. 

Kevin

Kevin is a fluffy soft toy kea that my AT uses in her classroom as a way of motivating students and building relationships. Students get to take Kevin home for a variety of reasons, sometimes if they've been shown working particularly well on something, or they have the most dojo points that day, or it's their birthday.  Seeing who will get Kevin is a nice end of day ritual, and builds a connection with home too - one boy while I was there left Kevin in his mum's car, which she left at the airport when she went to Sydney.  His dad wrote an email 'from Kevin' to my AT, saying he was trapped in the car at the airport, and the class were delighted to have this email from Kevin and a link to home.  For a simple soft toy he is a very effective tool for building positive relationships!

GTS 6 Graduating teachers develop positive relationships with learners and the members of learning communities.
6C Graduating teachers build effective relationships with their learners.

Diagnostic snapshot

One of the first activities I did with a maths group on my practicum was a diagnostic snapshot to check students' strategies for adding in parts.  I used these tens frames to see how the children added beyond ten and noticed that many were counting on their fingers, as my AT had predicted they would.  This informal assessment was valuable for checking where this group were at, and gaps in their knowledge, so we were able to practise with the tens frames for several days afterwards.  A strategy for tracking the effectiveness I picked up on my practicum was to make a table with the learning intentions for the unit on one side and the students' names on the other, and note who had 'got' the concept that related to a particular learning intention in a workshop and who needed further practice.  This is something I would like to implement in my own classroom, to make sure I keep track of learners who might need more practice in a particular area.

GTS 5 Graduating Teachers use evidence to promote learning
5b. Graduating teachers gather, analyse and use assessment information to improve learning and inform planning.

Zentangle

We have been doing zentangle as a fun way to explore patterns and a calming activity to do after a rainy lunchtime - I think this would be a fantastic activity to pull out at short notice as a reliever and could work well with a wide range of age groups...

KCs/Learning Areas/Values

This was a poster our group made at the first part of the TER course, representing a vision for a school that linked parts of the curriculum document - the key competencies, the learning areas and the values.  

GTS 1 - Graduating teachers know what to teach.  1C - Graduating teachers have knowledge of the relevant curriculum documents of Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Writing lesson observation

The success criteria we co-constructed in this observed lesson and the sentences in which children corrected my punctuation with a different coloured pen to emphasise correct use of full stops and capital letters.  

GTS 1 A Standard One: Graduating Teachers know what to teach a. have content knowledge appropriate to the learners and learning areas of their programme

Observation and reflection on maths lesson 1 September

Standard Five: Graduating Teachers use evidence to promote learning a. systematically and critically engage with evidence to reflect on and refine their practice

Managing self

This "job tree" is a resource that I've noticed has really contributed to the key competency of 'Managing Self' in my AT's classroom.  Students are assigned tasks for the week and these are clearly displayed on the tree.  At the start of the week the owls fly down the tree and the tasks are rotated.  I have noticed the effect of having such a visually appealing and clear resource to keep track of these tasks - if the students are unsure about what to do during, say, packing up time, they will refer to the tree and see what job they are meant to be doing.  The pride that they take in doing these tasks is evident and it seems like a very effective way to reinforce the key competency of managing self.

GTS 1 C - Graduating teachers have knowledge of the relevant curriculum documents of Aotearoa New Zealand

Formative assessment strategies

https://www.teachersolutions.com.au/resources/learning-strategies/formative-assessment

Modelling bottles

We have been making some art to put on fundraising calendars this week and used it as an opportunity to teach the children about shading and the colour wheel.  The children have been drawing bottles and practising shading them according to a light source, drawing the sun in one corner of the page to remind them where the light is coming from.  

After some practice they set out a composition with four bottles and planned a background.  

We wanted them to use colours that were next to each other on the colour wheel, so showed them examples of the colour wheel and modelled painting colours that were next to each other on a grid.  

This was my model, quickly drawn up before school and at morning tea

Here are today's artworks drying, showing the grid and the compositions in progress.  

I found this exercise very interesting as it really showed the power of modelling in showing children what is expected - they responded so well to seeing artworks their teachers had created and it seemed to work so much better than just giving the instructions verbally.

Here are some of the finished artworks, displayed on the window.

GTS 2:  Graduating Teachers know about learners and how they learn.
2A: Graduating teachers have knowledge of a range of relevant theories and research about pedagogy, human development and learning.

Matariki stars

This is a star display I made with children at Parnell Library for Matariki.  Sitting and doing a craft activity like this with children was a good opportunity to talk about the significance of Matariki, and what people do to celebrate it.

Children's activities at Parnell Library

Here are a couple of activities I've done to engage children through Auckland Libraries - dancing with a starry cloth at a preschool storytime and dressing up as a pirate for the Tall Ships festival...

Glow in the dark

Another Matariki activity I organised for the school holidays at the Parnell Library was a special glow in the dark room.  We covered up our storeroom in black paper to keep the light out and borrowed a blacklight to make some glow in the dark fun.  Children tried out drawing with different luminescent liquids such as liquid laundry detergent and tonic water (the quinine in the tonic water makes it glow blue) and different colours of highlighter.  I also gave them some different coloured glowsticks to take into the darkroom. This was an excellent activity for generating and testing ideas, and making predictions. Linking to the idea that Science involves "generating and testing ideas, gathering evidence – including by making observations, carrying out investigations and modelling, and communicating and debating with others – in order to develop scientific knowledge" (NZC, 2007), I asked the children to make predictions about what the different materials would look like under the blacklight, and to test their predictions.

 Liquid laundry detergent under the blacklight

Next, Theo, Anh and Otis were off to see what their glowsticks looked like in the dark at the movies!

Matariki singalong

 Here are some photos of a Matariki singalong I organised as part of the school holiday programme we ran at Parnell Library in July.  We did some waiata, including the song from the book Matariki by Sharon Holt and Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in te reo.  We then did some planting, sowing some beetroot seeds as a new beginning for the Maori new year.

GTS 6 - Graduating Teachers develop positive relationships with learners and the members of learning communities. E. Graduating teachers demonstrate respect for te reo Māori me ngā tikanga-ā-iwi in their practice

Manu Aute

These are some Matariki kites I did with children as part of my work at the Parnell Library.  I created a template and then used that as a basis for a drawing competition (decorate your own Matariki kite), a workshop in which children decorated carboard versions of the kites and attached feathers to them, and a display for the library.  I modelled decorating the kite and it was interesting to see children using some of the elements of my model in their designs.  We used the kite-making as a way of starting conversations about what we do at Matariki - make goals, remember important people in our lives, do planting, look at the stars...

The kites all decorated with feathers

The Matariki kite template I drew

I loved seeing the variety in the way the children have decorated their kites, and they have loved being able to point out their kites in the display to their friends and families.  

Rainbow feathers

 Here are some more examples of the artwork I have been doing with the children at Lincoln Heights.  The children were doing a unit on the colours of the rainbow, so we made these rainbow feathers and created a rainbow in the classroom to reinforce the order of the colours in the spectrum.

Starting out

 At the moment I am volunteering in a Year 2/3 class at Lincoln Heights school in Massey teaching art lessons.  This is some of the student work from my most recent day in the classroom, with the children making Matariki kites.  I read Melanie Drewery's Matariki to the class as an introduction to the lesson and we had a class discussion about what we do to celebrate Matariki.

GTS 3 Graduating Teachers understand how contextual factors influence teaching and learning
3b. Graduating teachers have knowledge of tikanga and te reo Māori to work effectively within the bicultural contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand.