Reciprocal Teaching

At Edgecumbe Primary today for reciprocal Teaching PD. Very interesting and looking foward to starting in the classroom.

Star Testing

I have just finished analyzing my star results and overall they were good. My next steps will be to include a guided lesson on closed comprehension each week rather than to just include it in my tumble, as this is the problem area that stood out for my children who achieved a stanine 6 or below.
I will continue to do the DTRX and wood hunt during guided reading lessons as this will help to develop the children s vocab. I am off to the Reciprocal Teaching training on Monday and am looking forward to seeing how this will impact  my reading lessons as I am lucky enough to one of the two trial classes.

Interschool Swimming Sports

I took 12 students down to the Aquatic Centre on Wednesday to participate in the interschool swimming sports. It was a very hot day with a lot of time in between the events. The kids managed themselves very well and again demonstrated how the GGL culture is carried outside of the school, sometimes even better than in the classroom! Its always tough for our kids at swimming sports as they are often competing against children who have had swimming lessons and some who belong to the swimming club. We were the smallest group there but three children managed to qualify for the next level! These kinds of days are not really my thing, I would much rather be in the class, but having said that apart from cooking all day it was a real pleasure to watch the kids compete and gave me the opportunity to make connections with senior students I may not otherwise have had a lot of contact with except on duty which is usually because I have had to respond to a problem behavior.

Meeting with the Architect

The architect came this week and presented two possible plans to the staff. They both gave us plenty of food for thought and generated a lot of discussion. The plans have been posted on the wall for feedback. I don't really know if there will be a consensus come to but at least people will be able to share their views. At this point in time it all seems a long way away but potentially very exciting.

eAstle and GGL Parents meeting

Today at staff meeting we watched a video outlining how the updated eAstle writing assessment works. We will be doing further PD on this in term 2. I have used Astle before at my previous school and am looking forward to using it at James Street as I really liked using it. I lead the second half of the meeting as we feedback on the last fortnights GGL data and feedback on the GGL parents meeting. The GGL parents meeting had 8 attending and was very positive. Norah presented a power point on the origins of GGL and how we have progressed through the programme, parents were then able to ask questions. The final part of the meeting involved me giving the parents a tour through my room, Ponga and outside to look at the visuals used to support the programme. In response to a parents query about how we inform parents of when their child has received a major referral, we have now asked staff to contact parents after a child has received their third referral. The highlighted again the importance of making those positive phone calls in between.
GGL Parent Meeting Power Point

House of Science

Had an excellent staff meeting today with the Maples introducing the new House of Science resource. Looks awesome and can't wait to try it in my class. Great self contained science units with everything you need to run the programme. This was our representation of the eels that were killed after a pond was drained.

IEPS

Writing IEP's can be a long and arduous task, but a very valuable one. They seem to take me ages as I have to constantly refer to the curriculum documents and other support material. I went through my previous IEP's and inquiries to see what strategies were successful and what ones might apply. For each goal I created a hyperlink file which my students can access to support the learning of their goals with targeted online games (targeted practice). I referred to the PD's on writing inquiry and IEP's to remind myself to keep my goals SMART and to focus on strategies not the activities. I wrote new learner plans for my writers as these give a clear view of their 'best-fit' writing age and updated my returning students.

Maori Achievement Strategy and Te Reo Maori me ona Tikanga Implementation

Kiri and Norah have updated our implementation plan and went through these changes with us during the staff meeting. There is a greater emphasis on student well-being and Maori leadership which Kiri is going to take a greater role in developing our Maori leaders. Our updated implementation plan has also been sent out to our parents to keep them informed. Part of our responsibilities is to ensure Maori students are given the opportunities to learn in contexts that are relevant and authentic to them and their whanau.

Literacy Inquiry Staff Meeting

Today's meeting focused on identifying all children below or unlikely to meet the standard by the end of the year. We were challenged to think about what new strategies we can use to move our targeted students forward in a short time frame. It was really difficult and frustrating at first trying to distinguish strategies from activities. Ana directed us to a great resource 'Reading Rockets' on which I found some great strategies  that I am now using in my reading programme.

Literacy Inquiry PD

Growing Great Learners

A new year and new experiences as Lead Coach. I am passionate about GGL and have seem amazing changes in our schools environment, physically and socially. Our GGL Monitors are loving the new vest, hip bags and dollars. The monitors are showing leadership, self management and are participating and contributing.

The student coaches seem to be a hit and are attracting both juniors and seniors.The recent GGL cluster meeting was an opportunity to meet the incoming area coach and farewell the outgoing area coach.