Activating Prior Knowledge - Earth and Beyond

Term 4 has started with a rush and a roar, or rather a countdown and a blast off! This term for Inquiry we are investigating the Earth and Beyond, the Final Frontier, and began the unit by activating our prior knowledge. It's always a good idea to start with what you know. By discussing ideas and concepts (and misconceptions) that we already know about Space, we can identify areas we need to investigate further and make connections with new knowledge.

Mrs Manuyag did an awesome art lesson on the first day back as part of the Inquiry Unit's big reveal. The students created representations of our solar system, with planets, the Sun, and an asteroid belt using inspiration from the Mandala art technique.

A common way that we get the students talking and thinking about a new topic is by completing a bus stop activity. Miss Aireen and I came up with questions that related to the topic, eg. What words do we know that are associated with Space? 

Students are organised into small groups and start off at one of the bus stop questions. Before the activity started we had a rousing whole class discussion to get the brain juices flowing before setting off for quick fire stops. Students had around 2mins at each question to jot down their ideas.

Once all the groups had answered each of the questions we had a feedback session where groups identified the top 5 answers on their sheet. I recorded these ideas on a class presentation for the students to refer to and add to as a follow up activity. The feedback session generated some more interesting discussion and I can already tell this Inquiry topic is really going to generate some great questioning and debate amongst the students.

Onwards and Upwards - To Infinity and Beyond!

Oh and yes we have already had lots of giggles when mentioning the 7th planet in our Solar System, whoever named Uranus has a lot to answer for!

Ako - Learning and Teaching from each other

I am very lucky to be working in the Senior Syndicate at TPS with the wonderful, experienced, and 'expert', teacher Aireen Ah Kui. She is also my Mentor teacher supporting me towards achieving full teacher registration at the end of this year. 

TPS places a strong emphasis on fostering Tuakana/Teina relationships within the school, blending the Maori concept of Ako, learning and teaching from one another, with Vygotsky's idea of learning from the 'expert other' through scaffolding.

The mentor/PRT relationship is a great example of this process and Aireen and I have enjoyed almost two years of learning and teaching with, and from, one another. I recently had an couple of mentor observations; Aireen watched me teach, both a whole class lesson and 2 group instruction sessions, on written language. I received really useful feedback and feed forward and had very helpful professional discussions about where to next with my students' learning and lesson planning. 

Our written language programme is integrated with our inquiry topic of Practicing Peaceful Play and is focussed on speech writing. I first introduced the speech topic - "why it is important to practice peaceful play" and discussed the key features of an speech introduction.

Working with what Aireen observed during my lessons and the level that the students were working at, we discussed what the next series of lessons would need to focus on. Aireen came into our classroom and led an awesome lesson solidifying and building on what the students already knew. 

I saw repetition of key ideas, detailed scaffolding, student movement around the class, whole class/buddy/small group discussions, talk moves, think/pair/share, and student independent reflection and evaluation. 

To assist the lesson I created a detailed speech writing success criteria, along with exemplars of an introduction paragraph and structured explanation paragraph. These were written to a level 4 (Year 8 standard). These was used for annotation and as a learning and teaching tool for the students to refer back to when evaluating their own speeches.

After a whole class discussion and scaffolding of the learning task, students identified and highlighted examples of the key elements of an introduction and then shared these with the whole class. You can see from the photo below that clarification was necessary through whole class discussion to clearly show different elements of an introduction. 

Here you can see the students working independently, discussing and re-voicing ideas together on the mat, and taking part in the fantastic 'doughnut' sharing technique.

I was able to observe and discuss with Aireen all the different strategies she used during the lesson and gain an understanding of why she used them, along with identifying the needs of the students and seeing how Aireen adapted the lesson to meet those needs. The lesson was slowed right down and ideas were repeated and re-voiced again and again. It was great to see by the end of the lesson that all students were able to produce an introduction with all the key elements.

Another lesson was delivered in a team-teaching style the following week with both the Year 7 & Year 8 students (both Aireen's and my class). This lesson allowed me to put together how I teach, with the ideas and techniques that Aireen utilises. Delivering the lesson together allowed us to 'riff off' each other and build on our existing written language techniques and strategies. We were also able to identify specific areas of the writing process the students were struggling with and target those with tailor-made resources and more exemplars and discussion. 

The speeches are still being written and as this is the last week of school for Term 3, the students will continue to craft and re-craft their speeches until next Term. I am sincerely looking forward to hearing the different ideas and explanations that the students are coming up with - next step: presenting skills!

The importance of Hauora or just be kind to your knees.

I love sport. I love playing it. I love watching it. I love talking about it. 

Unfortunately my body does not always keep up with my love of sport.

I had my first knee surgery at 16 and on Thursday last week I had my 4th knee operation, removing a bone spur and one of the pins in my left knee. The procedure went well and now I have an interesting memento to share with my students when I get back to school in Week 7.

My second year of teaching is throwing up a multitude of challenges, obstacles, and learning opportunities.

It is frustrating to have health issues interfere with your work life but it very important to take note when you are not well. 

As teachers, we know that our students pick up on our moods and respond to our general disposition, so when one area of hauora is unbalanced this affects more than just the teacher, it affects the whole class.

Hauora refers to 4 key areas of personal well-being: taha tinana (the body), taha wairua (the spirit), taha hinengaro (the mind), and taha whanau (the social). Dr Mason Durie's Whare Tapa Wha model is embraced at TPS and we help students to recognise the importance of having balance and stability across all 4 areas of self to promote health and well-being.

So I am practicing what I teach :-) and taking care of my taha tinana.

I am very much looking forward to getting back into the playground and running around with my students - with 2 working knees.

Cat's Cradle, Witches Broom and an Eiffel Tower - Learning String Games

Learning String Games - Tuakana/Teina Session

In Week 3 we decided to link our inquiry topic - Practicing Peaceful Play - with a Tuakana/Teina session and had the students exploring different types of string games.

It was fantastic to see a mixture of 'expert others' in both the Year 7 and the Year 4 classes. Students who were able to share their existing knowledge of string games (for example Cat's Cradle) and teach their buddy.

I introduced the students to a selection of youtube clips and they were off!! Students watched the videos and taught each other how to complete the more complicated string games like the Eiffel Tower and Fishnet. 

It was really interesting to see the different ways that students learnt - some responded really well to the videos while others learnt better by having a buddy talk them through the steps.

A couple of the students showed great patience teaching me how to correctly make the Cat's Cradle and to 'cut off my fingers', and I think this kind of learning and teaching experience is invaluable. The students are empowered to take control of their learning and to understand that they have skills and knowledge to share. 

My highlight was seeing the persistence and focus of many of the students, who set themselves challenges to complete complicated and difficult string games. It certainly paid off with many students mastering a range of different games.

Following on from the exploration session, the students were asked to create step-by-step instructions to teach others how to complete a specific string game. Check out Marcus, October and Mason's instructional presentation here.

I found that some students were much more suited to oral instructions and so I borrowed a couple of Ipads and got some of the students to make their own instructional videos. These just need a little editing before posting but check back on the class blog soon.

A thoroughly enjoyable set of lessons and it's great to see that these types of old fashioned games still make up an important and fun part of children's lives today.

Conquering the summit - thanks to Kids Can

                         

Today some of the students from Tamaki Primary School were given an awesome free trip to Rangitoto Island, courtesy of Kids Can, Tasti and Fullers Ferries. It was so great seeing the children all bright eyed and very excited in the morning, all smart and warm in their Warriors Jackets (thanks Kids Can!).

The bus ride and ferry terminal were filled with the enthusiastic and very loud voices of approximately 60 students, all eager to start the adventure! The photo below is of a large group of the students taking part in a new and noisy game of 'Pukana' which was a lot of fun and also provided some entertainment for the tourists walking around the Cloud this morning!

We had our own chartered Fullers ferry for the journey over and all of the children received a Charlie's Bottle of Water and assorted Tasti snacks which were promptly devoured on the ride over to Rangitoto. For some of the students it was only their first or second ride on a boat so again the energy levels were very high as we made our way out of the harbour. Many of the students had never been to Rangitoto before and were a little bit daunted when they saw the summit we were heading for way up in the distance.  

The wonderful group of volunteers supporting us were from Tasti and once we had sorted the students into their groups we started off on the ascent. After a false start where the leaders tried to take us to Motutapu Island we made our way onwards and upwards through the stunning volcanic rock and interesting vegetation. The older students were practically running their way to the top - which provided more rigorous exercise for the teachers than expected!

It was an invigorating, educational, talkative and fun ascent and descent with a quick stop at the top for lunch. A lot of the children were knackered by the top but still found the energy for games, loud conversation and lots of joking on the way down. Needless to say we did not see any wildlife and other visitors to the island definitely heard us coming! It was so heart-warming to see the excitement and joy in the students and I was so proud of them all for showing resilience and perseverance. The thank you speeches at the conclusion of the day made me proud to be part of such a great group of students and so thankful for organisations like Kids Can, Fullers and Tasti that support our students to experience these types of amazing adventures. The students will remember this for many years to come!!

New Maths: Talk Moves

This year our school is continuing with maths professional development however the approach has changed. Building on the diagnostic approach and direct instruction from the previous year; the new focus is on Problem Solving and Talk Moves.

Here is some of the literature behind the Talk Moves initiative. The main idea is that maths thinking and learning is supported and developed through talk, between the teacher and students but with the emphasis on discussion being student-led.

The five practices of Talk Moves are

1. Anticipating
2. Monitoring
3. Selecting
4. Sequencing
5. Connecting

Anticipating:

How will the students answer the problem?

What strategies might they use?

What might be their misconceptions?

An activity that is likely to increase the amount of time spent in planning a lesson.

Monitoring:

Give the students the problem and then allow them independent thinking time to answer it.

Record the different strategies during anticipating and then using that to record when monitoring what students are using each strategy. Not just watching but also questioning students to check their understanding.

Selecting and Sequencing:

Identify students that have got a correct strategy, although still choosing the students who have common misconceptions and sharing and discussing those answers too. Try to have students sequenced through their different strategies eg. from additive to multiplicative.

Connecting:

The Teacher draws connections between each of the students’ strategies. Highlights different strategies or indicates progression from additive to multiplicative thinking.

This approach seems quite different, noticeably in lesson delivery, than the previous years maths instruction. As such I have identified that I need to focus on my maths instruction and have set the implementation of this approach, merged with the previous years approach, as a goal of mine this year.

New strategies, new knowledge

Flash forward to the classroom.

I was teaching in a Year 7 & 8 classroom with students who were achieving at standards ranging from Level 1 to Level 5, or stages 2 - 8. A massive range for me to get my head around.

My school has identified maths as a specific area of focus and as such significant professional development has been, and is still being, administered for teaching staff. As a beginning teacher in my first year I made sure to make the most of any opportunities to observe maths group instruction, and tried to take full advantage of the professional development we received through a facilitator from Cognition.  

Towards the end of the year I was able to observe the Cognition facilitator deliver the same lesson to year 5 & 6 students and my own students in year 7 & 8. The group dynamics were a big factor in the delivery of the lesson content and the progress that the learners made. To be able to compare the learning experiences of my learners was invaluable.

It was great to see the progression of the learning experiences - knowledge check, use of materials, recording of student strategies, clarifying of maths language, to the co-construction of WALT at the conclusion of the lesson.

Certain concepts were not understood in the session with my learners and so had to be addressed through the use of materials.  There was unbalanced input from only certain members in the group which led to an uneven exchange and the facilitator was not sure of the understanding of all group members.

The discussion post group session involved establishing a group treaty of expected behaviour including not calling out and all members participating. This was a very interesting observation for me, as a beginning teacher, to see how important behaviour and group work expectations are when teaching in groups.

Here is an example of the format and modelling of the type of maths instruction that our school focussed on delivering last year. I have borrowed this image from my colleague Aireen. I was lucky enough to work alongside Aireen last year in a team teaching environment and she continues to be a wonderful mentor for my development as a teacher. This is how I tried to shape my maths group instruction in 2014.

New maths and newer maths

Over the next few weeks I will be reflecting on maths teaching and learning within my own practice. It is a goal of mine this year to focus on and strengthen my maths practice. It is also rather pertinent considering the recent media coverage of the state of maths teaching in NZ.

I have never been strong at maths.

Throughout my schooling I really had to apply myself and put in significantly more effort to understand (or at least utilise) mathematical strategies. I got extra tutoring at high school and asked for help from higher achieving peers to pass Maths with Statistics in 7th Form (Year 13). But I did it, I passed, and I was proud of my hard work paying off.

When I started at teacher training, maths lessons still did not come easy. Maths, as I knew it, had changed. A lot. No more learning rules and applying formulae to solve equations. This was my first introduction to the Numeracy Project. Developing number sense through teaching number knowledge and number strategies. Some strategies I remembered, while often times it was like I was learning maths for the first time. Looking back it was a great experience for me to understand and relate to my learners. It was pretty powerful to have 'aha' moments as an adult learning maths aimed at year 7 & 8 children.

I found that I had to work hard again at maths and again needed to rely on discussion and support from my peers to help me understand the different ways of thinking. It was a great opportunity for us (as trainee teachers) to see how maths should/could be taught in NZ classrooms. One of the maths teachers especially stands out for her fantastic work - Gail Ledger. She made maths interesting, relevant, and fun. Her lessons were wonderful models and she also worked hard to make us all feel supported. Through hard work and help I did rather well in my maths study yet I was still not confident in my maths teaching practice and being able to deliver instruction based on the Numeracy Project.

Kia Manawanui @ Auckland Museum

Today the Kia Manawanui senior syndicate went on an adventure to Auckland Museum. The sun was shining and the students were excited, a fantastic way to start Week 4!

We organised the trip to help our students investigate myths and legends as part of our inquiry unit this term.  We had two educator sessions; Te Ao Pasifika looking at the world through a Polynesian perspective, and Ancient Civilisations where the students became archaeologists and investigated artefacts from ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy and Scandinavia. 

A few spare minutes were also used to check out the amazing and very moving war memorial monuments and galleries, still decorated with beautiful remembrance poppies.

We had some wonderful parent and teacher helpers on the day and the students had a full on entertaining and educational day!  

Sharing and Learning @ BYOD 2015

BYOD 2015: Making it Mobile

I had the honour and privilege of speaking at the BYOD conference yesterday at Hobsonville Point Secondary School. It was great to be able to share some of the knowledge I have gathered from my time in the Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy (MDTA) and from the classroom working with some expert teachers at Tamaki Primary.

My MDTA colleague Treena and I worked hard over the holidays to produce a worthwhile and (hopefully) helpful resource for educators to take away and use to help them apply some of the many affordances that technology can provide when offering feedback and feed forward to learners. Check out the presentation below.

It was great to contribute and learn from the growing community of digital educators in Auckland. It was also awesome to have our practice and pedagogy validated and supported, listening to fellow presenters like Mark Osbourne from CORE Education, refer to the same research and findings and the application of them in the classroom.

I picked up some great tips and tricks that I look forward to trying in the classroom this term! I will report back on the trial of Kahoot and Quizlet.

Overall it was a very enriching and rewarding experience, and I hope to be able to contribute to the learning community again in the future.

In a constant state of flux

This is probably the best way to describe our Kia Manawanui learning environment this term - in a constant state of flux. The space is ever changing, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily to meet the needs of the students and in response to reflection on students' interactions with the space.

I have moved some storage out of the year 7 space which has freed up some premium wall space. I am currently in the process of deciding what to put in this prime location. I want it to be key bits of information and scaffolding material that the students can refer to easily. This is what I have so far after a creative Sunday session. What do you think?

Next up was our Kia Manawanui Year 7 Waka 

- He waka eke noa (loosely translated as we're all in this together) 

At the beginning of the year our lovely year 7 & 8 students were all put together to learn in the TPS school hall. As we now have our very own learning space, I really wanted the students to make a claim to their classroom. Some of my fabulous colleagues from the Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy gave me the idea for a learning journey waka populated by my students. 

Each panel represents one year 7 student - the learning task was to represent the different people who support you on your learning journey. Each person was represented using a koru shape to symbolise new growth and strength. Each student also chose one word to describe themselves as a learner, and this is displayed on their waka paddle.

I have included the beginning stages of the display to showcase the process. Also to showcase how long it takes some students to complete learning tasks - this task was given out in week 5!

I look forward to showing off the completed waka - populated with our ever expanding group of students!

New classroom, new displays, new resources.

The senior students moved into the new Kia Manawanui open plan learning environment in Week 4. It was a relief to be moving from the hall into our very own space! The students felt quite special to have brand new classrooms and also new lockers to set them apart as seniors. 

The new classroom has lovely high ceilings which leads to lots of natural light in the room but means that ladders are necessary to put any displays up!

As I grow more accustomed to my new classroom I have begun to decorate the walls with resources, learning activities and our students' learning journeys. 

In response to the needs of the students I have created a poster to refer to when posting work on their learning blogs.

The Tamaki Primary and Manaiakalani ethos of Learn, Create, Share is displayed in relation to the literacy cycle here. This outlines the different stages of writing for the students to follow.

Here is our writer's corner with different frameworks and scaffolds for students to refer to - this year the writing genre is recount.

And here are some photos of the actual learning space - this is the year 7 homeroom.

This term we are focusing on focusing how to interact and learn within our new environment. It is an ongoing process and one that I will be reflecting on regularly through the year.

When the going gets tough . . .

Term 1 Week 3

This week was tough.

It was a week of long hours, staff meetings, planning meetings, syndicate meetings and sports trainings. Hot weather and 60 students learning in a school hall with 4 fans is not what you expect for a typical learning environment and this week it was tested to maximum.

In our newly formed Kia Manawanui Senior learning hub, we have identified maths as a key curriculum area to focus on. So this week was about establishing our maths programme as we mean to go along; prioritising maths in our always busy timetable, along with providing more practical activities for the students to work on consolidating and building on their existing mathematical knowledge.

We spent over 3 days preparing a wide range of maths games including; nzmaths multiplication and division board games, basic facts card games, Figure It Out activities and loop cards testing all areas of basic facts. The first 2 maths sessions were introductions to some of the more in-depth games. Activities were broken down and learners were scaffolded to ensure that everyone knew how to play the games correctly and what particular maths learning was taking place. This proved to be very successful and fun for all our learners.

On Wednesday we then moved to group instruction and attempted to carry out instruction in a hall with 6 other maths groups all carrying out their group activities. Let me repeat our current learning environment: one school hall, 60 year 7 & 8 students, 8 maths groups, 2 teachers trying to work with one group each. Needless to say group instruction was rather difficult in this environment. Even with reminders to keep the noise level down, the sheer number of learners all trying to communicate with one another made the whole endeavour rather arduous. 

At least it was a half day as our first whanau conferences of the year were being held. I found it heartening to connect with so many whanau members. Beginning of the year meetings with whanau are about fostering a strong home/school partnership and involving parents and caregivers in their child's life and learning at school. It also helps to make connections with the people who care for and support our students and provide them with guidance on how to continue supporting their child's learning at home.

The key idea that came out of these meetings was that parents were unsure about how to allow their children to access the internet or their netbooks at home. Many were worried about their child going on the wrong kind of sites, or spending hours watching youtube videos. Others did not believe that their children needed to go on their device if they had no school work to do at home. This was interesting feedback in relation to the Manaiakalani Woolf Fisher Research meeting we attending the previous afternoon. Research carried out via parent interviews by Woolf Fisher found the same concerns by many parents along with restricting hours of use at home and concern over appropriate websites to access. From this dialogue I have decided to create a page on our class learning site that will contain a range of different links to learning sites and resource sites that we use in the school already and that will hopefully extend the learning opportunities for our students out of school hours. As a work in progress I value any suggestions or feedback and will post again about the progress of this endeavour.

Being a Beginning Teacher in NZ

I was lucky enough recently to have a wonderful evening catching up with a group of teacher friends from university. We had all graduated from the Grad Dip programme at AU and all come from an amazingly diverse array of backgrounds. We were all taking advantage of the beginning of term and the 'last free time' we expected to have for a while. 

After the congenial chatter died away we moved onto the inevitable topic of being a PRT and what that meant for our year ahead. We reflected on the stark reality of being a beginning teacher and trying to maintain the balance of workload and expectations with any form of a social life. We all know that it is necessary to have a good 'work/life balance' but trying to achieve that balance is a mighty challenge.

I will admit that sometimes feel that I am not cut out to be a teacher. I spend so much time preparing lessons, creating resources, planning, reporting etc. that I come to the conclusion that maybe I'm just not cut out to be a teacher, let alone the kind of teacher I want to be.  I understand that as a new teacher, it is going to be harder, take longer, and be more challenging. Learning any new skill or role takes time and of course is going to be more 'full on'. I love learning, reflecting and improving my practice but at some point you have to stop and think does it really have to be this hard? 

I am fortunate enough to be working in a school with an amazing mentor teacher, in a newly formed learning hub this year. We collaborate and co-construct planning and lessons, either face to face or using the ever convenient Google Docs.  Upon further discussion with my peers I realise how truly fortunate I am to be in a genuinely collaborative and supportive environment. In my first year I reached out for help and advice from my Mentor, Senior Management and peers to help me cope with the workload, behaviour, and classroom management, and they were all willing to give it.

My friends have had varied experiences in their respective schools but the common theme is one of doing it largely alone. Yes they have Mentor teachers who support/advise them to varying degrees but when it comes down to the day to day, they are in their classroom on their own.  One of the biggest benefits I have found from my experiences as a PRT in a team-teaching environment is the feedback and reflective practices inherent within. I am able to unpack my lessons if necessary, review my classroom management techniques and reflect on my teaching practice regularly and constructively with the guidance and opinion of a peer. 

Self reflection is an important part of any profession (I would go as far to say it is a necessity in life) but to do so with an expert other is the true meaning of social learning and Vygotsky's ZPD. 

It would be fantastic if some kind of apprenticeship programme could be developed for beginning teachers, providing the opportunities for PRTs to learn and develop with the aid of an expert other. Experiencing the day to day realities of being in the classroom and what the role of a teacher really involves alongside co-construction of resources and planning would set new teachers up to succeed. Current university placements don't even come close to the real thing. John Hattie mentioned in his talk at last year's Festival of Education that there is an alarming retention rate for new teachers and that many leave the profession within their first 5 years. 

I am thankful for the support and mentoring I receive but it makes me wonder if I am struggling, how are PRT's coping in less than supportive environments?

New Classroom and new beginnings

Kia ora and welcome to my new blog for 2015!

Because I am in a new learning environment this year (Kia Manawanui Senior Syndicate), and also because of some technical difficulties (losing admin access to my tpswhaeapetra.blogspot.com account) I have decided to create a new blog for this year.

I have moved my first 2 reflections for this year onto the new blog and I look forward to documenting my 2015 learning journey at Tamaki Primary.