At Risk Staff Meeting

As a staff we looked at our class data and identified our students who are not meeting or tracking toward the standard. Ana led the meeting. After identifying our At Risk students Ana reminded us of the need to write SMART goals. In small groups we discussed what the data was telling us about or students and what their next immediate learning step would be to best accelerate their learning. We shared our SMART goal with our small group and discussed any changes that may have been needed.

At Risk PD Slide Show

TOD Hauora and Behavior Analysis

Our first TOD was run by Denise Simons, who is a life coach from Relate Coaching (www.relatecoaching.co.nz.). The primary purpose of the session was to offer us tools we can use to help manage our stress so that we are not running ourselves down and needing time off. We began by identifying the positive and negative aspects of 2014. By doing this we were beginning the process of letting it go so that we are not carrying old stress into the new year. It was quite cathartic being able to voice the challenges of last year, as it was an exceptionally challenging year in many aspects. Next we listed the positives and negatives we anticipate for this year to help recognise and then manage the stress we are carrying on anticipated future stress. Which when you think of it seems a waste of energy to carry anticipated stress. I liked having the opportunity to express how I feel about the time off I had to have due to my back, as it wasn't only difficult for the school, it made my life extremely difficult and stressful. Next we were introduced to the concept of a Committed Listener. We practiced being a Committed Listener. I like this concept as I am one to talk my issues out and I will often seek out a colleague to bounce off. It's nice to have someone whose role is to be your listener and to be able to offer this back to another colleague. I am always impressed with what a open and communicative staff we are. We are very good  at sharing our views and thoughts and listening to others. Finally she talked to us about our 'skin bag' and our 'wairua'. our skinbag is our physical body and the nagging voice at the back of our mind. Denise talked to us about not letting the skinbag overtake our wairua. Take time to pull our wairua forward and find our center again. Overall I was not sure how the day would go I thought it would be airy fairy and of little use, but in fact it was great! 

The second TOD was run by Robin Harawera. The focus was on functional behavior analysis. We talked about how to identify the trigger to the behavior, what happened next and what was the direct result of the child's behavior. We talked about the need to recognize when a string of behaviors are all still a continued response to a single incident and not to treat them as separate incidents.As a result we have now modified our GGL behaviour tracking sheets to include the functional analysis. 

Maths Teaching Inquiry PD Reflection

Today we have been looking at our data and identifying our three groups of learners. Those who are above, at or below the national standard. Once identified we needed to select with group of priority learners we are going to target in our first maths inquiry. The key thing we needed to think about was what is their next immediate learning step as these inquiries and designed to be short, sharp, tazered targeted learning that result in realistic and achievable movement of our priority children within or through to the next level.

We have been asked to reflect on the following questions as a response to the teaching criteria 9ii:

I am already above the NS expectation for my age / year.

• What actions are you taking to ensure I continue to work above the NS?

• I am exploring and accessing e learning and hands on games and teaching sites that are challenging and target problem solving (as they are stage 8). These boys love to share their mathematical thinking with each other and challenge each others strategies and problem solving procedures. So I give them plenty of word problems with multiple stages of solution to solve together as they love to use maths speak with each other.

I am already meeting the NS expectation for my age / year.

• What actions are you taking for ME so I continue to meet the NS or accelerate above the NS?
• I hold my children who are at to high expectations as they can become lazy or complacent in their learning when they know they are meeting standard. I do not allow them to resort to lower strategies for ease of solutions and challenge them when they are with me to look at new ways to apply their knowledge to solving a problem in a new or more advanced way. When they are working independently the tasks are far more scaffolded to allow the children to have a sense of success without becoming bored or unchallenged.

I am a priority learner in maths. I am below / well below the NS.

• What actions are you taking so I begin to taste success in my maths group?
• Incorporating fun and interactive learning sites that are aimed at their current level to allow them to feel success, As many children who are below become disheartened easily if they are not managing the tasks difficulty level I leave the challenging tasks and new ideas until we are working together. The teacher group dynamic has been activity set up to be a safe place to take risks and ask questions when in doubt.

Routines and Expectations Visuals

I have spent more time on establishing our class routines and expectations this first term than I ever have before and although it is only early days I am seeing the benefits of giving this enough time. Several of my returning senior boys quickly showed me that they hoped to fill the gap left by my previous year sixes by showing off. Being consistent from the get go in what is expected of our children, particularly the year sixes, has helped to tone down the over excitement of these few boys in a way that I will endeavor to maintainable as we move into the term. We have worked on table set up, mat manners, book work presentation, entering and exiting the class room and how to move around the school in lines. All these key expectations are tied into our GGL programme and are rewarded with dollars. The children of Kahihatea have taken these expectations on board with enthusiasm. On Thursday I enforced the expectation that we wear hats at lunch and gave school hats to the children who did not have hats and we walked out to lunch looking very smart. As an added reinforcement the teacher on duty (whoever that was, thank you) gave nearly all of my students dollars throughout the lunch hour for wearing their hats and being great role models. They were all very excited that they had been acknowledged for wearing their hats. What a great example of GGL working as it should.

Reminder visual for bringing a positive attitude to school 

 Visual for lining up and being sunsmart

 Visual for table set up

Bonding In The Pool

Kahikatea having a great time in the pool, bonding and breaking down personal space barriers. A great activity for helping the children become more comfortable with each other and to co-operate together.

Kahikatea 2015

What a great start to 2015. This is my fabulous new class. Our signs say JSS, GGL, PB4L, we rock, Kahikatea, safe, proud, respectful.
These are the key words that reflect what is important in our room.