Another great Uru Manuka PLG

Manaiakalani Uru Manuka PLG 

It is always fantastic to meet with the leaders of learning each term. I get so many ideas out of the day and can't wait to come back and start implementing them. There are exciting things coming up for our cluster... 

We heard about a new apple classroom for devices in the junior school. This works on ipads like hapara works on chromebooks. I can think of so many benefits for this in the junior school with the ability to check in and see what students are on at any given time. I will be looking in to this over the next few weeks and talking to Rebecca about the potential it has. 

Another thing we learnt is that the filters have changed on google images. If you look up the top there is now an extra 's' https - s for secure. This means that the search is secure and that there is more privacy when searching the net. What this means for us is that it is more important than ever to ensure that students know how to be cyber smart because the filters do not work as well as they used to.  

There is an exciting new research out in the Canterbury community due to the behaviour that we are seeing - it is linked to the earthquakes. Some of the main ways to help support teachers and learning are to change the eating and playing times so that students are eating after they play. This means that they are having food for learning not using the energy during play time. An example of this is Rawhiti school. Their timetable 9-1030 learn 1030 play then 1050-11 eat 11-12 learn 12-1240 play then feed 1240-140 learning 140-2 play 2-3 learning. They are finding that students are focused and that the unwanted behaviours have stopped over the 6 weeks they have trailed it so far. Another bonus is no rubbish in the playground!!! 

We also discussed the PAT's and administration guidelines for sitting tests. We found that Google forms has a new feature that marks quizzes. We discussed making some cluster quizzes for reading to test multi choice - so that students get this before they do PAT. Side note: what a cool pre-test. 

We looked through a Template for recount writing - shared by Scott yr 9 & 10 and discussed how to write a recount using language features and scoring well on the rubric. Across the cluster we want our students to be successful. Teaching students about the ways of testing will help them to be successful.  

There is a cool online learning program which lets you earn apple teacher badges… Some great up skilling for junior teachers - you can do the test, interactive books to learn skills (use personal apple id). Once teachers have one badge they can move on to swift playground which is coding etc. Also, senior teachers will benefit from earning these - looks great on the CV! Here is the link https://appleteacher.apple.com/auth/#/signin/  It is recommended that you use a personal account - that way you do not loose it if you change schools. 

Whanau Toolkits - Exciting opportunity for our families.  Mark Maddren is running these on Thursday 6 April at St Bernadette's 7:30am, 3:30pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm. These sessions would be for around 30 caregivers to be manageable and would require a minimum of 10 pre registered for the toolkit to run.

Module 1: Kawa of Care and the Digital Immersion Learning Environment

This is an introductory course split into two parts.

Part One in this session covers all the physical features of the Chromebook. It also covers important aspects of The Kawa of Care and ways to practically apply the values of this document in the home.

Part Two is a basic introduction in accessing children’s work from relevant sites. In this session, parents will be shown a classroom site, a classroom blog and then a child's individual blog.

From here parents will be shown the difference between all three, how each site or/and blog may be relevant for different times and how to effectively use them as a means to engage with children’s learning, to to stay informed.

I will also include some support for commenting on blogs as well as answer any questions at the end of the session if required.

To help us get more parents signed up here is the registration form - https://goo.gl/forms/yJmj0sWtMXCQV7Bq2

Visiting Sockburn School

Following our Murray Gadd observation on Wednesday 22 February, Rebecca and I were welcomed for a visit to the Junior classrooms at Sockburn School. We were lucky to be there during their Literacy time and able to observe the implementation of their Action Stations and their Learning Coach and teaching groups in progress. 

They have a wonderful play based learning setup that I found so inspiring, particularly as it fits so well with my beliefs in the importance of play for younger students. It seemed easy to manage with the number and type of stations that they had set up and they shared how they plan for the stations together each week, with examples of their planning sheets as well. 

They began and ended each session with a variety of learning songs for alphabet, colours, rhymes etc. The children were engaged and learning by rote without even realising. 

Each station was set up with a visual prompt and a large number attached that represented the maximum number of students allowed at any one time at that station. Students opted into each station and were able to stay and play as long as they wanted. If they were called away for a reading/writing/maths group they could choose to leave their name there or remove their name and change to a new activity when they returned. They were able to swap activities at any time, provided there was enough space left in the group they wished to join. 

Students were able to choose from: 

Listening Post - headphones and stereo set up 
Quiet Space - couch and library corner 
Literacy - drawing activities for pencil control 
Fit Kit - Jumping outside with skipping ropes 
Tray Play - materials to pick up with scoops 
Role Play - family corner set up with kitchen/beds/dolls etc 
Fine Motor - threading beads onto pipe cleaners 
Creative - creating collage faces 
Snack Cafe - fruit and milk 
Science - Wonder table set up for exploring nature items 
Construction - Lego 
Maths (2 stations) - Snakes and Ladders game & Crocodile teeth counting game 
Inquiry - Puzzles 
Literacy - Reading hut 
Tech Ideas - iPads 

The activity headings stay there each week, but they change up the content in some or all as the weeks progress or they see a need develop in the students’ learning. 

I would love to see us take steps towards implementing some of these ideas when we enter our new learning space. Unfortunately we lack the space required to implement them now - hurry up new building! One of my favourite things about learning through play is that the children are pursuing their own interests and learning while having fun. I loved listening to some of the conversations that they were having - play based learning is fantastic for oral language development and social skills. I have had many years of experience with play based learning at the preschool level and have read so much about it at the school level but never seen it in action until now. I walked away thinking ‘This is how I would love to teach!’.

Our Writing Journey Continues

It was great talking with the staff today about our Writing Journey with Murray!

We were able to reflect and think and share ideas around...

🤔   What excites us from what we have learnt
🤔   What challenges us with what we have learnt
🤔   What we want to try with our writing programmes
🤔   What we have tried already
🤔   Our AH HA moments

Here are our ideas below

I am looking forward to many more great discussions throughout this year.

Murray Gadd comes to town!!!

For those that have not met Murray Gadd yet, please do!  A top man with expertise within Literacy that is highly sought after all around the world.  This year alone he will venture between Waiheke Island- where he is based, Sweden, Scotland and of course Hornby!!! ( And many more I am sure)

Murray brings such a wealth of knowledge and understanding which allows us all to benefit.  For me personally, this is the second time to work with Murray and I am very thankful that I have the opportunity.  Staff came away from the session buzzing, which is no mean feat on your first day back for the year!

You will be wondering why working with him is so powerful, so I'll try and outline that in a few bullet points :-)

His experience :
He has worked in almost every role within education and was responsible for developing the writing exemplars which are used nationally.  He also developed the effective literacy practice book which is widely used by educators across the country.  Through all of this, he is able to break down what really makes a difference when helping to teach students how to write.

Expert advice... some of Murray's messages :

• Make sure everyone has something to say
• Have a clear and authentic audience
• Effective teachers are aware of the writing stages that the students will go through. Planning to crafting etc...
• We need to have good content knowledge in order to teach others
• We must understand what students should be able to demonstrate and achieve as developing writers

Students in Year 1-3 are learning to write, Year 4-8 are writing to learn.  This is echoed in reading.

• Effective teachers have high expectations of their writers
• Students need to be given the opportunity to write freely and for extended periods, own topics of their own choosing as appropriate
• Instructional writing needs to happen 4 or 5 days a week and can be integrated
• The instructional programme should include a range of teaching approaches, for us, giving students experiences is right at the top of the list (Writers MUST have something to say!!!)
• Write for a purpose.  I loved Murray talking PIES- not steak and cheese :-) This referred to the dimensions of Persuade, Inform, Entertain and for Self, imagine students being able to identify which piece of the "PIE" they are biting off today!

Do we make sure that at all times students are aware of the purpose, the audience and why we have chosen that type of text???

• Let's look for authentic and purposeful writing topics
• Students must get a chance to write on student selected topics as well as teacher selected topics
• Have fun with it -  Talk about ... your first birthday party, the naughtiest thing you have ever done, a person or place that is special etc...
• Get outside, walk around, talk about what you see, prior to writing about it!
• Motivate your writers through story telling, discussions, you tube clips etc...
• Talk with the students so they know what they need to do, in order to be successful at the task
• Differentiate lessons through writing groups
• Ensure instructional lessons are focused and direct
• Make the links between reading and writing explicit, after all, everything written is for someone to read...
• Quality writing floats on a sea of talk- Make sure an oral language programme is in place
• Use available resources wisely
• Be passionate!!!  Make it fun!!!  We have the world at our fingertips.

Some great adages provided by Murray

‘You’ll never be a writer unless you have something to say’.

‘No student ever got excited by a learning goal or a genre.  What excites them is the topic and the task’.

‘A good writer re-reads, reflects and re-crafts.  In doing this, they think continually about the reader’.

‘We need to continually ask ourselves: Who needs what teaching, when and how?’

Murray himself also comes into our schools, models and allows others to watch best practice in action, something often missing as part of the PLD component.  He then returns later in the year to watch our staff in action, offering feedback to the staff to support their teaching.  Watch this space!

Writing is the area that our students struggle the most with, I am excited to see what the teachers achieve with our students over the course of this year!

2017 has arrived - What does it have in store for us?

When reflecting on 2016 in order to prepare for 2017, there were some really common threads coming through.

2017 is a huge year for the Gilberthorpe school community in so many different ways. We have been on a fantastic journey and this year will see us walk further on this pathway together.

2016 highlights noted at our staff development day.

• Staff relationships
• Collaboration
• Building project
• Student achievement information
• Use of the online world
• Our library
• Use of technology
• The freedom to experiment, try things out and review and reflect :-)
• Our systems and many new and improved documents

2017 Goals and targets

• Developing our school gardens and enviro school concept
• Having the junior school and senior school hangout together more
• Embed key systems and structures
• Establish a school leadership group similar to a council
• Connect with our whanau even more, develop strong learner centred relationships
• Use the information we know about our learners to improve outcomes for students
• Timetable well so our priority areas are protected

Some final wonderings around some big ticket items...

1) Time to embed
We were very happy and proud of many systems and structures that were put in place last year and this year is all about embedding those.  These allow us to know exactly where are students are at and where they are heading.  These documents are regularly reflected on, with action taken to ensure we are meeting the needs of each individual child. We really do know our learners, now what will we do with the information?

2) Learn Create Share - Manaiakalani Outreach
Our work with this amazing programme continues and 2017 will look to make bring the learn, create and share model to the fore.  What does it look like @ Gilberthorpe school? What would you see?  How are we ensuring that the research is informing our practice?  We are receiving high quality feedback from the Woolf Fischer research team about what is making a difference, it is vital that we do something with the information we are getting. How else will we move students forward?

There are 5 key areas to delve into :
Engagement - More time on task, student choice, interesting and purposeful activities.

Powerful teaching conversations-  More time for interactions- digital and face to face, greater knowledge of "where to next" for each student.

Complex tasks- accessing scaffolds, multiple text types, multi modal - so things can re presented and of course the ability to share their learning.  Using students as experts of new knowledge!

Increased collaboration- Use of google sites to scaffold, collaboration to support learning.

Visibility- A genuine audience, use of blogs.  This informs us and others and obtains other points of view.  Visible teaching and learning.

This link takes you to a fantastic summary of the progress being made within Manaiakalani and a great statistic shown about the impact of "Manaiakalani medicine"  The bottom line being that students who stay within the programme- at the same school make accelerated progress, which is absolutely vital in order for students who begin school behind the eight ball if they are going to catch up and work in line with their age expectation.
http://manaiakalani.blogspot.co.nz/2016/11/digital-pedagogy.html

We look forward to making this work at our place!


3) Our rebuild.
Happening right in front of our eyes is our rebuild, which will allow us to work in much more purpose built spaces.  We look forward to working in these at the end of this year.

Uru Manuka PLG for Manaiakalani

Uru Manuka PLG Friday week 4

Every term I am fortunate to attend a PLG for Manaiakalani with other lead teachers in the Uru Manuka cluster. This Session we spent looking at Five dysfunctions of a team (which is a book about leading others and how to work together), knowing our learners and the majority of the day was spent on Multi modal reading (what it looks like, how to achieve it and the impact it has on our learners when we get it right!).

I have copied the relevant slides about Multi Modal Reading as a way to use UDL from the presentation to show you the main pointers that I came away with from the day.

I came away from the session with a bit of a buzz. This way of teaching Reading creates a large opportunity for students to learn in other curriculum areas, by using reading strategies to unpack ideas in science, social students and even the arts. In a packed curriculum this makes a huge amount of sense to me. Also, it is a cool way to teach to students interests! It is time consuming to create (for sure), but when we have a bank to share from I can see how far we can get!

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini ke.

My strength does not come from me alone but also from others. (Cooperation of many can bring best results).
It is important to note that text in this model is anything that conveys a message i.e. audio, video, visual, written form. Also that you need around 4-6 texts per subject.

Another good thing to look at when we are designing L.O.'s are the words in the foundation document for Learn, Create and Share.

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I am looking forward to our school session on this in week 6 - and can not wait to get stuck in to this for next year! 

Matific - Kelsey

Last week while I was off… I met with the Matific guru Inba to secure a free month on Matific for my math class.

The program is super easy to use, links to curriculum and from what I am seeing the students are in love with it! They are going on it at home and are motivated to get the top number of stars for each learning game they are playing.

This is what the students see when they log on:

I love the language of math missions and the layout is clear and easy to follow - students are not overwhelmed with what activity to chose or spend learning time deciding what to go on. They also collect monster cards when they have achieved a number of points - a sort of reward program within the game.

The episodes are colourful and interactive. The programing is easy and up to date digitally (knowing what I know from my UI/UX design partner). It has won a number of awards for visionary pedagogy and best practice. Also, you can send home reports to parents and assign homework and school work on awesome islands.

Here is an overview of the program:

The thing that I love most about it is that you can preview the episodes before assigning them to the students. This way you can see exactly what the students will be doing and therefore what they will learn or practise through the episode.

Here is a link so that you can have a free trial and play with the program.

https://www.matific.com/nz/en-nz/resources