Term Two, yahoo here it goes!

I am really looking forward to Term Two. As I wrote in my last post I had rough Term One. I initially pitched my program too high and had lots of issues. Once I asked for advice and support from my management team  (which was completely provided) I was away. The last three weeks of Term 1 were so much better. I am finding myself feeling very behind after the rough start but will dig away until I am caught up.

As well as missing the mark with my class I was also constantly tired, emotional and did not feel 100% at all. Over the holidays I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes which explains how I have been feeling. I have completely changed my diet and have lost 6 kg in two weeks, my doctor says if I maintain my efforts by my next check up I may well be diabetes free. Now that I am not overloading myself with sugars that my body can't process I am feeling a lot better, clearer headed and evenly 'emotioned'. My blood sugars effect my moods really badly I am either very tearful, aggressive or both, I was like that when I had gestational diabetes with my son 14 years ago.

I am looking forward to ALiM and ALL, I always enjoy ALL and have already found some great problem solving sites for ALiM. 

This term I hope to continue making connections with my parents through our planned trip to the observatory and a bush walk planned for the end of the term. Unfortunately my call for parent helpers in any form  was completely unsuccessful but I will keep trying.

This term we are looking at Maori Mythology, the children voted for this. The topic will be integrated throughout our three key learning areas. The space topic we did at the end of the last term was brilliant and the kids really enjoyed it. 

I am going to incorporate science and music into our tuakana/teina time with Sandra every Friday, haven't quite finalised how this will look yet. 

I have been working on my data and am in the process of redesigning my planning sheets to include identification of my target students (ALL, ALiM, At Risk and School targets)

and identification of their 'next step, I am doing this to ensure they are always consider ed when I plan and their needs are in the fore front of my mind when planning.

So as I said in the title Term Two here we go!!!!!!!

Term One Overview

It has been a very challenging term for me. I had a great first two weeks getting to know the kids and we had lots of fun. Week 3 was all about establishing routines and teaching the expectations and procedures needed to follow my Daily Five and Daily Three rotations. I had researched this and spent many hours setting up my program to ensure success and engagement. I created a visual for each rotation and a buddy system so every child had a support person. I was confident I had set my class up for success so when it started to fall apart through weeks 4-5 I struggled to understand why. I have a group of 7 boys who are challenging and need constant management, I was beginning to feel like they were trying to sabotage my program. I was exhausted and unhappy, the class was not positive and I was starting to sound like 'one of those teachers'. I was away sick for the first 4 days of week six and when I returned Friday I knew things were not right and it was not just the kids, but I couldn't figure out what was wrong. After talking to one of our T.A's during morning tea on Monday week 7 I realised I needed a new perspective. I met with management after school and by the time I had talked through what was going on I had basically identified the problem myself. I had designed a great program for seniors working at L2e and above when really 20 of my 27 students are working a L2e and below. So with some guidance and a kick start from management I spent week 7 throwing my program out the window and launched our new Space focus with lots of fun activities and began bringing the joy back to my classroom. With the help of my mum I completely re-did my classroom, making room for daily craft, construction and play. I also redesigned my rotation program to suit children who are closer to juniors than seniors. I looked back to when I taught years 2-3 and pulled out things that worked well. By Monday week 8 I was shattered but the reaction from the kids when they saw the room and the many positive comments and hugs I received made it all worth while. Its not perfect yet, still things to tweak but my class is so much happier, I am happier and we are all feeling success and having some fun with it. Initially I was so disappointed in myself for missing the mark with my program and not initially being able to see what was wrong. But then I realised I am a reflective practitioner who is always willing to seek support and will listen to advise given. This is a strength and I need to give myself credit for this. Luckily enough to have a supportive management and great colleagues.
  

Korero Mai

Korero Mai Term One 2016.

This round of Korero Mai, I feel, was the most successful yet! I have a mix of students I taught as juniors and students I have not taught before. It was really insightful meeting the parents and having the chance to hear what they have to say about their child. The key focus for the first two weeks of term one (even more than usual) was too get to know our students as people and as learners. I had spent a lot of time talking to my students and watching how they interact with each other etc and had sent home several home tasks for them to complete with their family. The feedback from parents was really positive regarding the home tasks and class activities we had been doing. It was great hearing the parents talk about their child and what they have been sharing at home about their learning. Every parent reported their child was happy and settled and I was really flattered by the positive reactions from parents whose children I had taught previously regarding how they feel about their child being in my class again.
Several parents indicated they would be able to come in from time to time and share their skills and passions with a group of children. The parents were very positive about the physical changes in the classroom layout and the new learning program. They were particularly positive about 'Genius Hour' and are looking forward to seeing this develop through the year.
It was also really valuable hearing from several parents that they were concerned about their children making friends this year as they were not students who had caught my attention for social concerns. Now I know this I can check in with them and support them in making new friends in Kahikatea.
Bring on Korero Mai 2 I know its going to be awesome.

Yay I'm back in!

Wow I have certainly hit the floor running this year! It started with an additional seven students I  wasn't expecting due to a colleague taking leave.  For the first time I had an actual holiday and did not start doing school work from day two of the holidays, instead I had a well needed break from all school work and did not pick up any work until the week before we went back. I am really pleased for me and my family that I took the break BUT I am now working overtime to finish all the prep I would have normally done over the holidays. I had spent a lot of time toward the end of last year exploring options for my learning program and had a good idea of what it was going to look like. However what I didn't account for was the amount of time it takes to create the visuals and sort supplementary resources. Thank goodness for my husband who has spent too many hours laminating and cutting for me.
Having said all of that the original version of my program would not have worked in that form with this class so I have been tweaking it for the last three weeks and possibly saved myself from making a bunch of displays and resources that were not needed.
It is all coming together now and i am excited to see how it works with this years group of children.

Hauora - Student Voice

My class blew me away today! We had been talking about Hauora and the four aspects of Hauora for a week or so, so I asked the children to tell me the different ways James Street School meets their Hauora needs. I recorded their ideas on strips of paper and then they put them under the appropriate health aspect. OMG! talk about filling someone's bucket they came up with so many ideas. It was really fulfilling to see that they really do get what we are trying to do for them. We are not just here to teach them how to read. I was so impressed I asked Norah to come and see what they had done and I have typed it all up and am displaying it in my windows for ERO to see.

YAY ALL TAKE 2!!!!!!

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo pleased we are doing ALL again. I really enjoyed ALL last year and developed a lot of new skills for teaching writing. I have no doubt I am a much better teacher of writing for having gone through the programme. So I am super excited to be doing it again this year. I have maintained full and updated Learner profiles for my At Risk students this year so they are all ready and I know exactly who I'm going to work with.
Yay ALL here we come!

Hmmmm, different kids this time, different challenges. The video taping and observations (although always slightly awkward) are really helpful for that reflection. Ana has been a great sounding board as I knew something wasn't going as well this time but couldn't quite articulate what it was. After talking it through with Ana I am now back on track and meeting my ALL writers needs.

Reciprocal Teaching Reflection

The children still use the language of the tokotoko during reading and are still able to run their own session. They really enjoyed the whole process, as did I. The thumbs up has naturally translated across the subjects. Unfortunately I did not take any photos during the process as it was always just go, go, go! Wish I had. The programme was great but not as easy to replicate without the extra support of the two extra adults in the room. We are learning to infer and re-organise with my L2 early readers and above as the pre and post probes showed they are not great at either of these skills. Due to this I am only actually running the RT system with my turquoise and gold readers.

At Risk register and OTJ's

It's that time again, writing At Risks IEP's and making OTJ's. So much easier now that I've clicked to doing it at the same time! Very excited as I now have children tracking across 14 IEP's looking foward to taking them of the register at the end of next term, all going well, that's a third of my IEP's! Majority have meet their goals which is great. Roll on next Friday as spent all of last weekend writing reports and this weekend writing IEP's. I am looking foward to chilling and watching my many hours of back logged recorded programs .

Reciprocal Teaching

This term we began our Reciprocal Teaching program. It has been really interesting seeing how quickly the children have adapted the system and are now using thumbs up when answering any questions during group teaching time regardless of the subject. My level 3 group has run with the system and could easily run the session independently, they are loving sharing what they know and researching the parked clarifications afterwards. The level 2 group has the ability to run the session independently but is still working on managing themselves when I am not with them. I anticipate the level 2 and 3 readers making the most gains from this program. The two level one groups are enjoying the process but I am not sure they will make the same gains, but we will see.

Staff Meetings For Term Two

We have been learning to use eAstle at our staff meetings. I have used Astle previously at my last school and really enjoyed using it. I am looking forward to using the new eAstle this term. I think initially it will be very time consuming but will get quicker as I become more familiar with the marking schedule.
This week (week 3) we re-capped the methodologies for Te Reo. I am going to print out and laminate the methodology sheets and attach these to where i can see them to ensure I am following the process correctly.

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.

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

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

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.

My Second Labels Post