Staff Meeting - NZEI - Career Framework Project

Discussion:
- Where do you want to go in your career?
- What would you specialise in if you could?

Equal opportunities for career development and professional development.

How might your personal goals and aspirations be served by this concept?

Staff Meeting - UOI5, PD Review & Exhibition Part 1 - Tuesday 1st August 2017

What can schools do when students find inappropriate websites?

It's not "if"; it's "when." Despite schools' best efforts, some students will access pictures and videos that we'd prefer they didn't see. However, with best practice in place, the number of opportunities for things tp go wrong are far fewer. Here's what you can do to mitigate internet distractions: 1. Linewize (infrastruture) Many TTS schools use Linewize for internet filtering. One of the Linewize options is "Classwize" which enables teachers to see what students are doing in real time and intervene immediately should they need to. It also keeps a record of everything students do on the internet at school, even if the device is owned by the student. Click on the video to hear more or drop us a line at info@tts.co.nz and we can arrange for Colin to give you a demo. Click here to read more. 2. Classroom Management Transparency and accountability is key to ensuring students stay on task. A good way to do this is to make sure that their screen is visible at all times. Students who sit at the back of the room and hide their screen from everyone else need to move towards the middle of the room so that they can be kept accountable. If you'd like one of our Professional Learning team to speak to your whole staff, please contact us at pl@tts.co.nz.  3. Discipline Process Again, transparency is key. If students think there will be an over-the-top punishment, they are far less likely to report when they see or find something inappropriate, guilt when they have strayed, or let the teacher know when others have been up to no good.

Staff PYP Professional Development Day - Concepts - Friday 21st July 2017

Connecting provocations and wonderings - Understanding the types of engagements that will result in deeper and more enduring learning.

Thinking about what is essential to include in class - eliminating nice to dos. Student are excellent at accessing new knowledge through their use of technology so we need to think critically about what we will include in class - there must be a good reason.

How do you open up so that students have a voice in where the inquiry will go?

Rocket Writing - 1 minute to write
What is knowledge building?

How can you engage all students in the first 2 weeks of the unit?
How can you make units meaningful/purposeful for students?
What is the piece of the unit that the students are going to personally engage with?

Related concepts give you the direction of the unit and it will be these that you can use to engage the students.

Neil deGrasse Tyson - The Most Human Activity

How do you get in the way of student discovery?

How is this learning engagement going to take the students deeper in their understanding of the conceptual ideas? - Learning engagements can serve as a formative assessment.

What does documenting look like?

How curiosity changes our brains

Primary resources - People, places and things

Investigation to engage with something.

Using books is inquiry for information NOT inquiry for meaning.

Inquiry-Based Learning: From teacher guided to student driven

Authentic and purposeful experiences that are trans-disciplinary.

Real-world contexts.

"The greatest enemy to understanding is coverage" - Howard Gardner

Which are concepts and which are facts?

Concept - through the lense of...

You have to be connected for you to validate prior knowledge.

Provocations are key to help students connect their prior knowledge.

Look into: Upside-down drawing

UOI Review - Conceptual Unpacking

Provocation

Curiosity and Wondering Activity

What concepts may be focussed on in each provocation?

How could you adapt and change these to suit your on UOIs?

Resource Ideas - Austral Ed - Glee Books

Science Literacy: Sparking curiosity and solving real-world problems

Professional Readings - Learners in the driving seat

Class Management - Class Dojo

Over the past week I have been having a few issues with some of my students' behaviour. Being closer to the end of the term some students are lacking motivation and are becoming quite restless. I have therefore found myself searching for ways to keep them on task and engaged without effecting the learning or time of other students who are doing the right thing.

Today in my class I introduced a new behaviour management programme called Class Dojo.

 What is Class Dojo?

How can this be used in my classroom?

The students seemed to respond positively to this system. All students seemed more motivated to complete the set tasks and to do so to a high standard. I am hoping that the use of this programme will continue to be beneficial for my class.

French - Observed by Amanda Carrington - Thursday 22nd June 2017

Observation - Second Language Learning - French - Amanda Carrington

My feedback to Amanda:

• Students have a good knowledge of vocabulary - Student pronunciation is excellent!
• Warm-up - Revision using koosh ball - Made the students accountable, all needed to be listening. All students had something to say.
• Use of language targets - Revision of last week’s and then introduction of this week’s. The students have a clear idea about what they are learning. I like that all students have a copy of the targets to put in their book.
• Use of Oui Unit - Students are engaged in the video - the expectation that they must watch and follow along using their language targets has been set up.
• Oui Unit includes cultural aspect - Items that come from France.
• Students inquire further and question about the vocabulary on their sheet.
• Students have a go at pronunciation of the list.
• Routines are really well set up and students know what is expected of them.
• Students complete an activity from the Oui Uni - Written and Listening task that allowed the students to apply their new language knowledge.
• I like how you gave the students a goal to leave with - “Go home and say tell your parents where you come from”.

Next Steps/Suggestions:

• Use formulaic phrases for instructions such as ‘ask’ or ‘sit down’ etc. Here is a link to some of the ones I am trying to use in my class: Language Placemat
• There is a song on the ‘1, 2, 3 Soleil’ CD (in the resource room I think) that goes through the different countries. This might be useful for a revision session.

An awesome session! The students were all engaged and knew exactly what was expected of them. You have covered so much already and the students are confident to use what they know which is great.

Staff Meeting - Tuesday 6th June 2017

Assessment is for learning rather than of learning?
- Can this be both??
- Are Summative Tasks for learning or of learning or are they both?
https://readingpart2.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/assessment-introducing-the-pyramid/

John Hattie - 8 Teacher Mindsets

Who is the change agent?

How does the PYP connect to the Point of Balance?

Which assessments are Formative and which are Summative?

Does it depend on how they are used?

The Argument for Feedback

- HOW? Verbal/Written - Specific.

-WHEN? In the moment - more meaningful. Often.

- WHERE? In books/verbally/small groups

- WHO? Teacher/Peers/Self-assessment

Numeracy - Observed by Regan Aspden - Term 2

Feedback/Forward by Regan Aspden

Observation - Second Language Learning - Norwegian - Trinity Ahie

- Lines students up outside and greets in the language.
- Waits for attention of all students - use of wait time.
- Consistently asks students to clarify meaning - students give meaning in English.
- Use of own videos to show meaning of words and create a relation with cultural aspect.
- Asks students for questions after watching.
- Revision of previous session - Listen and repeat vocabulary.
- Use of actions to recall numbers.
- Instructions in the language with actions so that students are able to comprehend.
- Demonstrates game with a small group of students

Game
- Students in circle with eyes closed - some have been tapped
- Questions students and they must give a respond
- Students who have been tapped answer with 'change'
- Teacher takes a chair in the change and then the student left in the middle must then question.

- Keeps students in a place where they can be seen - indicates where to sit.
- Repeats instructions/phrases several times.
- Use of flashcards - numbers.
- Students listen and repeat - cards are then given out to students.
- Holds up cards and says a number - students indicate if it is the correct number (Makes fun).
- Students play a '21' type game - demonstrates this with one student.
- Students have a go - very engaged!!

Second Language Learning - French - Reflection

Today I tried out some of the language games that we were introduced to in our PD with Jeanne Gilbert.

I created some matching cards where the students had to match the image with the French word. We also had a go at the group game of SNAP using the image cards. The students were very engaged and this was a great way for them to revise the food vocabulary that we have been learning in our past sessions.

MTPYPH Certificate

New Horizons 2017 - Wickedly Waitomo

This year I was responsible for planning and carrying out a 3 day camp for our Year 7, 8 and 9 students. I chose to take a group of 24 students down to the Waitomo area and go caving. The preparation for this camp was all new to me. It involved liaising with outside organisations, the organisation of parent help, activities, accomodation, food, transport and also the writing of SAP forms. This was very challenging as I did not know where to start. Thanks to the guidance of some experts I managed to successfully plan this camp.

Upon arrival to Waitomo we were told that due to the horrific weather all of the caves were flooded and that all of our planned activities had been cancelled. I was then presented with the new challenge of what to do with 24 students for 3 days in Waitomo in the rain. There were a lot of phone calls made and I managed to plan a programme that meant that the students still got to participate in some new experiences and enjoy themselves. This taught me that it is always important to have a back up plan and that as a teacher you need to be good at thinking on your feet!

It was a stressful 3 days and I was exhausted afterwards but it is something that I am very proud to have organised. The students and parents had a great time and I look forward to running this camp again in the future.

A few shots below show what we got up to over the 3 days:

Writing Book Monitoring - Thursday 30th March 2017

Monitoring of a random selection of Writing Draft Books from Room 8.

Staff Meeting - Gail Loane - Wednesday 22nd March 2017

Starting point
- Context
- Curriculum
- Student Needs (Whole class, Group, Individual)

Where are they now and what do I need to teach next?

Ensure that the children understand their goals and that they are not too abstract.

When Writing:
- Forming intentions (Often we do this for students but do we need to?)
- Finding what you want to say
- Saying it
- Checking

• Build up ideas for writing in Writer's Notebook - Help students with their topic selection for independent writing.
• Think as a writer.
• Students need to write often in order to improve.
• What do I have to do to take these students on and to help them to be independent writers? How can I help these learners to feel good about writing now?
• Useful for the student to see the teacher using writing territories.
• What do we know about ______?? What more can we add to our knowledge?
• The Storm - Activated nouns
• The forks...  - Rather than - I saw the forks in the trees...
• Get inside the sentence!
• Use of a modelling book for writing that can be reviewed - This can promote student agency - Writing draft books are a form of record that can be revisited.
• Sometimes you have to take longer to go deeper.

- Check in at every stage
- The importance of story in teaching - Book - Anecdotes/storytelling are so important in teaching. Any thing can be talked about.

Gail Loane Observation of Teaching - Wednesday 22nd March 2017

- How do we describe? Show not tell.
- One sentence that shows me it's autumn - Repeats to ensure that students understand - one student shares back.
- Sorts students into learning partners - Now complete the task as a pair.
- Holds the students accountable - picks a pair to share back.
- What have we learnt about writing so far this year - tell your partner one thing, you have 10 seconds.
- We have learnt to be more descriptive but how? What do we have to do to be descriptive? Exact in choices/precise, sometimes means adding more information.
- Writing territories - what is going on in my world?
- Sand dunes - sets the scene - engages the students.
- Why do you think it is not a good idea for people to just go down the sand dunes in their cars? - Tell your partner - Selects students - What did you think?
- Emphasis on no hands up.
- Story of children at a school that our students could relate to.
- Reads out examples from her own writing territories - discusses some further e.g. storms.
- Discuss how your writing territories have changed - link to noting these in your writer's notebook.
- Prepare the students when they need to use their partner.
- I had a wondering... Writers have wonderings.
- Explain wondering (Gives a back story to engage the students) - draw picture to help explanation.
- The question/wondering that I have is: Why is the Sea salty?
- Turn to the person next to you - What do you think?
-  Without talking because you have had your talking time - Write what you know about why the sea is salty - You have 2 and a half minutes.
- Let the pen do the talking.
- Quickly and quietly find your partner. If they have got something you haven't add it. GO!
- Who got some extra information?
- Look around the room and think about who looks intelligent about this - pair up with another pair and share. You have 2 minutes.
- Bring the class back together.
- Indication of idea - none, some?
- Who has a question that they would like someone to answer.
- Write down one question that you really want to find out to add to your jottings.
- Holds accountable - you must have a question - picks out certain students.
- Who has a theory about what happens? You can't be wrong, we are theorising.
- Your are going beyond what I know - not afraid to admit don't know everything as teachers, we are also learners.
- Gives a piece (explanation) for each to read independently but sat next to partner incase they need to check in.
- Did you learn something/who has discovered something?
- Stand up somewhere in the room with your partner without any papers and explain why the sea is salty - A different way of getting the students to comprehend what they have read - movement to keep the students engaged.
- How would we start an explanation about this? What would your first line be?
- Passive voice - detail.
- Gives out another text - it is a poem - how do we know it's a poem? About the water cycle.
- Look at what this author has done.
- Could we use a poem to describe why the sea is salty?
- What has the author done? The first word is sun - what kind of word is it - noun - naming word - Look at the first word of each line - each one is a noun.
- Look at the second word - verb - doing word/action word - makes the noun do something - repeats to get point across.
- What is the purpose of writing this poem? To inform us about the water cycle - Could we do the same thing using why is the sea salty?
- What is the first line? Tell your partner.
- Asks for response - Water cycle is endless - adapts to fit structure - water cycle, what does it do.
- Repeats expectation (just two words - noun and verb) and asks to go back to partner discussion.
- Says a few aloud and then asks the students to choose one and write their first line.
- Take what you like as you hear it - you might get some help.
- What did we learn about writing today? you can inform through a poem.

- Writing to learn - rather than writing to present learning
- Economical language - Manipulating language
- Achievable for the students
- Get the students used to participating
- Let the students inquire rather than telling them the information
- Do a search - see if you can find one thing that you didn't know before when reading the text - Reading lesson could be a lesson in itself
- Children to be aware of their environment
- Different kinds of explanation

Observation - Literacy - Wednesday 22nd March 2017

Staff Meeting - Student Support - Part 2 - Tuesday 21st March 2017

Waiata

Physical Altercations
Disclosure - abuse out of school
Agencies

Writing - Observed by Regan Aspden - Term 1

Feedback/Feedforward from Regan Aspden