Sunday 24 July 2016

PLG Meeting Term 2

I love these sessions! They serve as a reboot of the system.
Sometimes it feels as though you are constantly hitting a brick wall within your own surroundings. These PLG sessions are a chance for all of The Sharp Ones in our Learning Cluster to get together. We talk about what is happening in our schools. What's working... What's not... What we'd like to know more about... It's essentially a think tank in our own wider community.
Walking out of these sessions, I always feel reinvigorated with ideas and things I want to try and push in our environments. It gets the juices flowing again and I'm excited about what I'm doing even more.


The Invisible Classroom Book was discussed and is now top of my holiday reading list!
  • sight sound motion -videos interactive

  • Linked Ed (West Rolleston) - Paul Gibson - Ex Fendalton Principal
  • Be Funky tool
  • Voki - For teacher avatars on our site.
  • Yaldhurst Rimu Unit - optimising spaces.
  • Pat Sneddon uLearn - transformational journey improve student achievement
  • Thingaverse… 3D printer

Ideas?:
  • Writing/Mark segment… what if the class used what they had learned in the segment with Mark, to develop some writing around that in the other half with Cara and I. It could be as simple as blogging about it for some things; writing based on it; etc… It exposes Cara and I to the tools and learning that has taken place, whereas at the moment we aren’t aware of what the kids are doing.
    • Mindmup to summarise Reading activity.
    • Using the Go Pro
    • Create a Google Doc of links for Maths number knowledge to share among cluster. (collaborative Doc)
    • Assessment Folder on Drive - Will archiving effect this? Best way to share data? Idea of having individual IKAN sheet showing progress, however is this manageable? Is there a way to have this transposed from a main sheet onto the students?


    PLG Jun T2 Slides

It's about time we burst the bubble

On the Eve of Term three getting underway, I can't help but think about bursting the bubble. We all know what it's like to be in a bubble. Sometimes the bubble is our classroom... our syndicate... or even our school. In order to improve our practice, we really need to step out of our comfort zone, just as we ask our learners to.

This term a co-teacher & I are sharing the load a little, by collaborating in literacy. We will combine our two literacy classes, then each take either reading or writing for the week. We intend to swap each week so that we are both teaching each curriculum area, however we will focus on teaching one area to the equivalent of two classes.

We came to this idea after discussing our collaborative four. We are questioning whether dividing the learners into four sub-classes and then taking them away to teach them is the best collaborative practice we can come up with. So for this term, we are going back into two's for literacy (as we did last year for all learning). The benefits are that the learners have more students to collaborate with... Learners can be more specifically catered for by merging groups and pulling out sub-groups as needed. 

This term, I am also going to Share a bit more, of what we are doing, with the outside world.

Sometimes a bubble needs to be burst by using sharp objects from the inside!

Sunday 3 July 2016

Befunky.com IS funky!

Here's a new tool for the toolbox!
It only took about 5-10 minutes to create this, from the free templates available.
I see the possibilities for students using this in their learning:
- Step by Step processes
- posters
-infographics

The students are already beginning to use the ability to embellish photo's for their reading activities.

Saturday 2 July 2016

Pat Sneddon visits the Hornby Cluster

It was great to have a reminder from Pat Sneddon, on the importance of the work we are currently undertaking in order to drive the shift in our Teaching & Learning, towards a future focus.

https://plus.google.com/+MarkMaddren/posts/edvgwsEgL7S

Here's his inspirational ULearn presentation:


The transformational journey to improve student achievement through public good partnerships in Manaiakalani at Tamaki from EDtalks on Vimeo.

ULearn blog

Pat Sneddon visits the Hornby Cluster

It was great to have a reminder from Pat Sneddon, on the importance of the work we are currently undertaking in order to drive the shift in our Teaching & Learning, towards a future focus.

https://plus.google.com/+MarkMaddren/posts/edvgwsEgL7S

Here's his inspirational ULearn presentation:


The transformational journey to improve student achievement through public good partnerships in Manaiakalani at Tamaki from EDtalks on Vimeo.

ULearn blog

Friday 1 July 2016

We value Whanau

Implementation of School wide values system - PEOPLE POWERS
Is the teacher supporting learners to identify when they are choosing a positive attitude in the way that they respond to their learning?