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!!!!!!!

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.

Awhi 4 Autism

I had a new student start this term. He has Asperger's Syndrome and has a tendency to react aggressively if he thinks someone is laughing at him or bullying him. My other Asperger's student has been interesting to watch interact with my new boy and I have tried to allow them to get to know each other. Unfortunately my first student, who has come a long way regarding being a part of the class and following routines, is now showing signs of her old behaviours. Today a colleague and I attended a brief afterschool course on Autism. It could not have been more perfectly timed as I have worked with a severally aggressive Asperger's student at a previous school, quite successfully, and was reminded of all the things I knew then about how best to meet my new boys needs. It was refreshing reminder that I can do it and manage the rest of my class.

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.

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.

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

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.

Participating and Contributing

Blog reflection.

Today I have been learning about how to set up my own blog to record my personal professional development. I did this as a part of James Streets Schools Teacher Only Day. The purpose of the blog is to record my PD and to share ideas with my colleges. I am looking forward to adding future posts and making the most of this resource.
We collaborated on this document today to list all of our blog addresses and ideas on how to ensure we are using this tool effectively and regularly. Click here