2016 Appraisal

I recently completed an appraisal for 2016. Please find attached link.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__CfusRr9h6analE1ZIbk44ZwWLTEXViqmgEoDT7Sj4/edit

Camp

Year 6 school camp took place in week 9 of term 4 this year. Camp is such a memorable experience for the children and for most a highlight go their year.
We were lucky enough to have three days of glorious weather and amazing support from parents. Next year we are having our camp in Totara Springs again but in term 1 instead of term 4.
I think this will help to create stronger links in the class and across the year level.
One of the children was lucky enough to have her birthday on camp and I'm sure it will be a memory that stays with her for a long time.

Graduation Ceremony

On Friday the 2nd of December I attended my NZEI graduation ceremony at the Novetel in Rotorua on moving to full registration as a teacher. Myself and around twenty others graduated at the ceremony.
Their was fantastic support from the staff of Lynmore too with a large amount of staff attending to give their support.

Culturally Responsive Practices

We recently hadMaria Tibble from Core Education talk with us about Culturally Responsive Practices, Cultural Identity and the role Ngati Whakaue and Te Rangihakahaka can have in supporting your teaching in 2017. She discussed the importance of Maori achieving success as Maori and our responsibilities as teachers to ensure this happens. I have also started to read Ka Hikitia Accelerating Success 2013-2017.

http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Strategies-and-policies/Ka-Hikitia/KaHikitiaAcceleratingSuccessEnglish.pdf

Unit Plan

As part of my role as curriculum leader of the Science RLE group we were also tasked to try and create a new planning template for the unit.
We first looked at creating templates within our own group then the leaders met with the Deputy Principal and Principal to discuss the ideas we came up with.
What was clear was that we had all came up with similar templates which truth be told were not too dissimilar to the templates we had been using previously.
Then as a leadership group we tried to think more outside the box to create  a more responsive template that could change as the inquiry from the children changed so that we weren't stuck going down one avenue.
I am yet to see the finished template but below are some of the core ideas that came from that brainstorm.

Whanau Involvement

One of students who lives on a farm recently asked me if their mother could bring a lamb into class to  show the students and to explain what life on the farm was like.
I was lucky enough to have the lamb come in and the parent got to speak to the class about farm life which was unknown to most of the children as they for the most part live in the city.
It was also incredible to see how engaged they were and the great pride my student had as being able to share a piece of her life with the class.
It also showed me the value of guest speakers and family speakers as we have a wealth of knowledge and stories to be shared by our community so it is up to me to try and create situations where I can get these people in to my classroom.

Book Character Day

Our librarian who was also a classroom teacher and who has spent 50 years in education retired at the end of Term 3. As a way to honour this occasion we had a dress as a book character day. It was great to see all the students get so involved and make such an effort.
Also the length of service of my colleague is quite remarkable. It is very clear the respect that he has for the profession and the importance and value he places on the job.
If I can have the same love of education that he had at the end of his career throughout my career then I know I am on the right track

Reading Lesson

This is a reading lesson I recorded. The learning intention was for the children to be able to summarise the details of the speech, summarise the context of the speech and identify the main idea (author's purpose).

They also helped to create the success criteria and then be able to use this to reflect on whether or not they achieved their learning intention and to what extent.

Student Conferencing in Writing

https://literacyforpleasure.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/can-pupil-conferencing-replace-after-the-event-written-feedback/

Above is an article that was shared with me from a colleague.

Nature of Science

The Sir Paul Callaghan Science Academy runs intensive, for day professional development programmes that aim to build excellence in the teaching of science. Their vision is to create primary and intermediate teachers who celebrate science and inspire their students to explore and engage with the world through science. I was lucky enough to be afforded the opportunity to go this course.

As I stated above the course was a four day intensive course from 8.30-4.30 so to summarise that amount of information is a mammoth task, but I will try to briefly outline as to what I saw as being the key components.

1. Nature of Science (NOS) is the only compulsory year on year strand.

2. Understanding the scientific capabilities (Gather and interpret data, Use evidence, Critique evidence, Interpret representations, Engage with science) is understanding the NOS.

3. Be explicit in your teaching "We are making observations because that is what a good scientist does."

4. The question for investigation is the key to a good investigation. The why question is too big. Get the children to ask questions that they can answer through investigation. 

5. Engage at the start of the lesson with an activity don't use it as a carrot in the distance. If they are engaged the good questions for investigation will come naturally.

6. Topic content does not have to be the driver, it will find its place if the activity is correct.

New Zealand Sustainability

I was fortunate enough to go on a four day science P.D course in Tauranga, which was excellent, I will discuss that in my next blog. The course is named after Sir. Paul Callaghan a New Zealand physicist. Sir. Paul passed away a few years ago but the course started with a clip from him based on the idea of sustainability in New Zealand. I have linked the clip below as I felt it asked so many questions with regards priorities within New Zealand education.

Museum Trip

As part of our unit on myths and legends we visited Rotorua Museum, which is an amazing resource. There we had a museum facilitator talk to us about some local myths an legends. It is fantastic for the children to have such a fantastic resource at their doorstep and for them to be able to engage in the local myths and legends as there is such a depth of story in the local area.
There was over 10 parents that joined us on the trip and some that I spoke to said how they had forgotten a lot about the stories they heard growing up. So I feel they realised the importance of engaging with the local history.
The museum was also running a super interactive programme on the sun and this complimented the unit that we had just completed on space so students were able to bring what they had learned through our space unit and extend it during this visit.

One of my students exploring one of the interactive sun experiments

Integrated Programme

This term as a Year 6 team we had a greater focus on integrating the curriculum. The topic we chose was space. We integrated this across our maths, reading, writing and afternoon topic. It worked really well as the students were engaged and were able to have a greater depth of knowledge on the topic and they were not seeing things in isolation. In maths they worked on the idea of 3D shape to make nets that would be used to create space equipment such as rockets and satellites.
It culminated with them giving a presentation to parents and friends based on the scenario that earth has been destroyed and humans need to relocate. They were able to present the information in a way of their own choosing. Some made space clothes or Pontoons, iMovies, PowerPoints, posters and models.
It was a very successful unit and integration is something that we will look to do for the rest of the year.

Video Observation

As part of my ongoing professional development I am having a lesson I teach be observed so that I can view it back and gardner feedback from my peers too. I recently had a writing lesson recorded. You will find the lesson below.

Reporting

With the end of Term 2 came mid year reporting and there has been a format change in Lynmore School. The PACT tool is the central tool in making OTJs. If you are unfamiliar with what PaCT is please allow me to explain.

The PaCT has been designed to help teachers make dependable judgments on students’ progress and achievement.
The PaCT is more than an online tool:

• ›  It supports the New Zealand Curriculum. It prompts teachers to notice what students know and can do across the breadth of mathematics, reading and writing. It helps teachers to understand the learning progressions set by the Curriculum and amplified by National Standards.
  
• ›  It supports moderation. It moderates individual teacher expectations through the frameworks and illustrations. It provides a common framework for teachers to discuss their judgment decisions with one another.
  
• ›  It also supports assessment for learning. The breakdown of mathematics, reading and writing into aspects gives greater clarity about what to notice when making observations of students, in learning conversations and through set tasks. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

Running Man

A happy fun environment to work in is going to help create positive outcomes. If you work in an environment where people are having fun and happy then it is inevitable that you will be happier and have more fun and this by extension creates a positive, safe and happy environment for the students under your care. As I have said in previous posts I am very fortunate to work with an awesome team of teachers in Year 6, and below is a link on us jumping on the juggernaut of a craze The Running Man.

PACT Reading

My Year 6 Team Leader and my BT mentor recently went on PD course on PACT reading. This year will be the first year at Lynmore that we will be using PACT for reading. Below our her notes from the seminar which gives clarity on reading and PACT.

Reading to learn - PACT Otonga
Presenter- Melanie Winthrop

Was does reading to learn look like?
How does this relate to the children we have in front of us everyday.

Reading to learn:
Making links to the reading processes and strategies years 3-6
Revisiting the literacy learning progressions - expectations for year 3-6
Reading to learn - with the curriculum learning areas
Exploring and making sense of the pact reading framework.

Students need to do more than just read (or write). They need to use their reading (and writing) to meet the demands of the curriculum. These demands are integral to many of the teaching and learning activities that support students in developing the key competencies as well as knowledge and ind skills in the essential learning areas.

Partner task- With a partner, discuss your responses to the follow questions.
Think of your class and all the reading they do in school day, including out of school.
At the end of year 6, what sort of readers do your students need to be in order for them to succeed at intermediate, high school and beyond.
How are you setting them up to succeed.

The discussion around the text is so important.

What do we know about readers entering year 4.
By now most students:
Have constrained skills pretty much under control
Can monitor their reading
Use some basic comprehension strategies’Have some knowledge of how basic text work
have built up sight vocabulary
Can evaluate straight forward information
Can identify the authors purpose
Are fluent readers

Literacy Acquisition:
Diagram in literacy progression.
Engagement in literacy activities.
Learning the code - decode, understand punctuation...
Making meaning - awareness of what you are doing
Thinking critically - evaluating, purpose, my response, what do I think?
These all work together at the same time - fluent readers do automatically.

Integrating sources of information - 
Diagram in literacy progression.
What children bring to the text is so important
Knowledge and experiences
Meaning
Language structure
Shapes and sounds

Partner task
Group 1- The literacy framework.
Group 2: Integrating sources of information

Group 1 task:
Learning the code is…
basic level- read and write.
More advance- build on basic skills, increase on vocal, more complex text structures, visual features/ diagrams.

Making meaning:
involves understanding the text are written for a range of purpose for audience

Thinking critically: 
considers different perspectives and the different intentions of the text.
Reflecting on them, finding rewards in being a reader… and writer.

What does all this mean when teaching reading?
Using a range of codes, understand who the writing if for, reading a range of more complex text to apply their skills.
Think and talk about the learning and how to apply the learning of new concepts.
Advance readers will automatically do all three together - make connections reading and writing. Deliberate acts- control of their knowledge. 
Prior knowledge, pull the text apart with discuss, word knowledge.

The literacy Context:
Effective literacy
The New Zealand Curriculum - is central.
Reading and writing standards
Learning through talk

By the end of year 4: 
locate, evaluate information and ideas (navigate, have read it and understood, vocabulary…)
Within text

By the end of year 5 and 6:
Locate evaluate, and integrate information and ideas
within and across a small range of text (pulling information from a range of texts and link it together across a small range of texts)

By the end of year 7 and 8:
Locate, evaluate, and synthesis information and ideas- (synthesis- a new idea is developed)
Within and across a range of text

Reading to learn for a curriculum purpose -
Reading to learn strategies- tools to achieve a purpose (many strategies working together).

Reading and writing as interactive tools:
This means that students read and write texts in ways that help them:
Organise their thinking
construct and create meaning
communicate information and ideas in print and electronic text, an
reveal their developing knowledge of content across the curriculum

Introduce the purpose for reading-
Why are we reading this…. introduce the text. Reading has a purpose … find out information or pleasure.
Need to tell the students about the purpose - why are they reading it and why its important… before the W.A.L.T.
Introduction important to the text.

Need to keep showing students how to keep using taught strategies.

By the end of year 6- they need to have a combination of strategies use them independently.

A note on …. comprehension strategies

Students need to be able to use some key comprehension strategies by the end of year 4, with some support, and be able to select from a repertoire of comprehension strategies by the end of year 6, mostly by themselves.
Specific strategies instruction needed
Teaching of strategies sports a wider reading/learning purpose.
By the end of year 6, student need to understand how strategies work in combination to meet reading purposes.

Very important to show and model your enjoyment around reading. Also model the purpose for reading.

High 5 strategies: Enhancing comprehension
Sue Dimick

Activating prior knowledge
Questioning
Analyzing text structure
Creating mental images
Summarising (quite highly skilled task)

Kids need to be ask question - not the teacher asking question.

Activating prior knowledge: High 5! #1
Make connections between what they know, what they have experienced…with what they are reading
Differentiate between back ground knowledge that is useful for their reading purpose, and background knowledge that isn’t useful?
Articulate how back ground knowledge helps them to enhance their understanding of what they are reading.
Need to be thinking in relation to the text.

High 5!#2: Questioning
When reading, can your students:
Ask ‘wondering’ questions?
ask question to clarify confusions?
Search for specific information that answers their question, think and search question, beyond the text questions.

Language of the learning areas:
Each learning area has its own language or languages. As students discover how to use them, they find they are able to think in different ways, access new areas of knowledge and see their world from new perspectives.
Using the proper language.
For each area , students need specific help from their teachers as they learn:
Specific language to that area.

Partner task- essence statements 
Health and PE
recipe reading
personal goal setting -fitness goals
understand specific exercise by understanding the exercise
Puberty- 
healthy community and environment - reading, talking about finding out about their own and others wellbeing. More opinion based - facts/opinions.
How they contribute to healthy communities - promoting supportive physical and emotional environments - role playing...
achievement awards - community task
Need to make connection more with what we are currently doing.

High 5!#3 Analysing text structure
Recognise common text purposes ( to narrate, to describe, to recount, to explain..etc..)
Recognise common text structures for fiction and non fiction text (sequential descriptive, persuasive, problem - solution, cause and effect. compare and contrast?0
Negotiate continuous and non-contiguous text.
Recognise different text types within a text?
Recognise and use specific language and visual features of the text?
Look for the text structure by noting key words, subheadings, etc. that reveal the text structure
Recognise and use signal or cue words
Follow and keep track of pronoun references
Build ideas within and across increasingly complex sentences
Articulate how using knowledge of text structure helps them to read and understand the text.

Purpose - what has the author done to achieve their purpose?

High 5! #4 Creating mental images
Its probably not what you think…
Visualise how the text is structures as they read.
Can they read like architects?
Can they see the ribs and bones of the text.

My reflection-
Find out more about passive and active voice.
How to ensure during my guided reading I promote student to ask questions - not just me as the teacher.
Not to rush through texts….. spend more time on them.
Sometimes start teaching/train students by using a lower level text - one they can easily read.

Afternoon session:
A closer look at the PaCt reading framework.

Measuring how students are using reading across the curriculum.
What it looks like when students are using their reading across the curriculum.

The following aspect comprise the reading framework
What are the knowledge and skills a reader needs?

Reading for literacy experience
Acquiring and using ideas & information in informational texts
Reading to organise ideas and information for reading
Making sense if get: reading critically
Making sense of text: vocabular
Making sense of text: text structure
Making sense of text: processing system

The components of an illustration
Annotation - The interpretation of the response and why it fits
Text and task
Student response- What the student does or says

Looked at Tevins response to the task.

Pre-reading task……. read to find out….

What is the place for fiction in reading to learn?

Empathy cultural values

High 5!#5
Summarising
Can you students:
Delete irrelevant details?
Combine similar ideas?
Condense the main ideas?
Connect major themes into concise statements (that capture the purpose.

Connected-
Fact or fiction?
Purpose for writing
text structures generally mirror how scientist communicate ideas and information
includes content relating to NOS
each year a different

Cycle Safety

Every year at Lynmore School we are lucky enough to have Constable. Neil of the Rotorua Police Force come into our schools and teach the Year 6 students cycle safety. He comes into the class for an hour and a half each day from Monday to Thursday. He talks around the issues regarding cycle safety it is also a practical hands on experience with the students partaking in cycle drills with Con. Neil. The week long course culminates with an on road cycle around the local area. I was lucky enough to have half a dozen parents from my class volunteer their time to go on this cycle. It was great to see so many parent be willing to donate their time to this activity and without them we would not be able to run such programmes. The benefits are obvious and significant to the children, and as Rotorua is becoming more and more a biking Mecca the importance of cycle safety will grow exponentially. it also gives the children the opportunity to engage with the wider community including the Police.

Parent Pupil Discussions

The relationship between teacher, parent and child is very important and PPDs (Parent Pupil Discussions) act as a great way to link between home and school. The format of how I ran the 15 minute discussion was we would talk about the five key competencies so I could give the parent an overview of the child. I then discussed the core subjects of reading, writing and maths and shared some testing results. This was followed by an outline of their work in the area of afternoon topic and then any questions they might have.
For me it is very important to keep the conversation positive I want to focus on what the child can achieve and give some guidance as to what they need to do achieve to the best of their ability. The conversations that I had with the parents was overwhelmingly positive and that myself and the parents were on the same page with regard the child.

Teaching as Inquiry

I posted with regards setting myself a teaching inquiry at the start of the year http://teacherandrewdoyle.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/goals.html after discussions with my tutor teacher, my year six team and a meeting with the Deputy Principal my inquiry has been set out for next term. The link below will outline the inquiry and the goals.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mZNnaC-vofdi9p7CRM0Y7yX4ABgQo96wpZg_2RRw2t0/edit

Water Challenge

Teacher as role model is something that I believe is very important and something that is central to me as a teacher. With this in mind when I received an email promoting drinking water only for the month of April I discussed it with my class and asked them if they wanted to try and take on the challenge with me.

In New Zealand obesity and diabetes are an increasing problem, and a major component of this is the intake of fizzy drinks, energy drinks etc. This challenge could act as a locus of change in their thought process with regards to their intake of copious amounts of sugar through their choice of drink.

We had a guest speaker in to talk to us about the amount of sugar in certain drinks and the health value to changing to water.

I have been super impressed with the way most of the class took on the challenge and they are so proud that they have gone so far on only water. For me it has been a challenge too. I went two weeks on only water or milk (midterm break). I know when I return to school on Monday I will have eager students who will beam with pride that they have managed to go a whole month on only water and I think that is a credit to them, but it also shows the importance of leading the way as a role model.

Below is a picture of my class with our guest speaker.

Run Bike Run

Lynmore School is a major part of the community and the links between school and community are very important. We look to strengthen these links and to develop closer links with the community at all times. This is a day by day process but it can be seen in significant way when the school holds events and one of these events took place this week.
Run, Bike, Run is a whole school event that is about taking part. It is what the title suggest we start with a run then a bike and then a run. There are no prizes for coming 1st, it is just about enjoying the day, cheering on other participant and dressing up in your house colours.
The students, teachers, teaching assistants, parents and  the wider community helped to make this an awesome day full of colour and singing. It really created a great buzz within the school and hopefully within the wider community.

Community

Each Friday Lynmore School has a whole school assembly, called Community. It is a great way for the school to come together to strengthen the bonds between, students, classes, school houses and the wider community.
It is also a chance for the school to acknowledge achievements of students. There is also another element. Each week one class puts on a Community Item. This is a whole school class performance of any description it is at the discretion of the individual teacher.
This week it was the chance for my class to put on a show. We brainstormed ideas in the class as a collective and the idea of a variety show like the X-Factot or New Zealand's Got Talent was the idea that garnered most traction.
I wanted to create a fun show that the rest of the school could get involved with singing along, clapping, booing our pantomime villain and really for it to be very interactive.
We had a four day week to put it all together (due to Good Friday being a day off). The students could chop and change the script and ad lib lines and reactions. They really seemed to enjoy the process and we created our show in just three days!
It was great to see the students working in a different context and how much certain students loved to perform and those that might be considered quiet were able to shine when the stage lights shone on them.
I have attached the video below and I am very proud of the performance my class gave.

Running Records

One of our recent professional development staff meetings was on running records with Wendy Johnstone. She was here to outline the importance of running records and the importance of consistency across the school when marking them.
It also it posed the question as to how effective Probe, which is the resource used at the senior end of the school, is as a running record tool. The idea of a seen text being a text that the student has already read in an instructional setting setting such as guided reading. Is this happening with the use of Probe at the senior end of the school?

Ministry of Education (2000)
Using Running Records: A resource for NZ classroom teachers

"The text used for a Running Record will usually be a 'seen' text- one that the student has previously read......The child's familiarity with the text will support the reading by providing prior knowledge of the content and the language, and so the reading is likely to be an example of the best processing that the student can do."

Google Docs

I am moving toward using Google docs across the classroom. My W.A.L.T.s and M.O.Ss on each subject and each group are going to be created using google docs and the class can actively co-create the success criteria and then they will be able to go back in and look back and add comments.
Today I also trialled an interactive lesson on Google docs with one of my reading groups. I had sent the group a document on energy to fill out. They were each given a colour to type in, each child had  an iPad and were all logged in and working on the same document at the same time.
I was not in the classroom I was working in the staffroom but I was watching them complete the document and I was able to pose questions and comments to them as they were typing. It was great from my perspective as I could see the work they were doing and how they were able to use the technology. It also felt even more interactive and engaging than if I had been in the room posing the questions to the children.
I talked to the children afterwards to get their opinions on it. They were positive in their feedback and super engaged.
With these live documents it really allows more of an ownership and engagement and I hope that it will become a feature of the class.

Questioning In the Classroom

As a teacher asking questions is what we do on a daily basis. The reasons we do this and the manner of the questions may differ. It is however essential that the child understands what is being asked of them.
Judith Thomas was presenting at our staff meeting on questioning in the classroom. She talked about four levels of questioning. The first level being based around more straight questioning. Who? What? When? Where? The level 2 being more the how? and why? The next two levels were about getting a deeper understanding of the topic more inference based answers and an understanding of the wider world.
For me personally I feel my choice and range of questioning is a strong point I encourage the children to access prior knowledge or use inference and most importantly I give them time to answer.

Boys Club

This year I have taken on the responsibility of running the Year 6 Boys Club. The purpose of the club is to encourage and allow the Year 6 boys to play games and do things that they want to do, even if it is rough and tumble, in a structured environment.
In our first meeting together we brainstormed some of the things that we would like to do. The consensus was for a game of tackle bullrush. Bullrush a game that was prevalent around the schools of New Zealand a generation ago but in more recent times it has gone into near extinction. (I have linked an article to its reintroduction in a Christchurch school http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/schools/8797378/Bullrush-back-at-Christchurch-school )
I believe the fear of injury in a game like bullrush is not a true reflection of the reality. The rules around the game were set out at the start and I wanted it to be student led so if any problems arose the boys themselves would call a timeout and resolve the problem.
Over the last few weeks bullrush has been are go to activity during boys club and the boys have enjoyed their games without conflict or injury.
This type of physical game is great opportunity for some boys to use some of their energy in a structured way.
Over the next few weeks the boys club are going to go into Waitawa Bush and play some games in that environment.

School Values

Our afternoon topic for the first four weeks of the school year has been based primarily around the School Vision and the School Values. It was important that the words that the students see around the are understood by the students and have a real meaning for the students.
We deconstructed the values of Honesty, Aroha, Perseverance, Initiative and Respect in different ways such as acting out scenarios, word clouds, storyboards and news reports.
This allowed the children to take real ownership and understanding of the values.

Above is one of the word clouds they created and below I have linked a video of a news reports about the values being shown around the school.

Goals

We emphasise the importance of goal setting to our students within a classroom context. We then measure and evaluate their progress and realign their goals accordingly. This goal setting is a vital aspect of a teachers practise too.
I feel sometimes that goal setting can be an internal conversation "I want to achieve this". I think it is important to externalise the goals that I have for the coming school year. I will use the SMART goal setting above to work toward my goal. Below I will list my primary goals for the year and then on further posts I will deconstruct each one using the above criteria

1. Achieve full teacher registration

2. Set out an inquiry based around the use of I.T in writing

3. Clarity in the classroom cornerstone of my teaching

These three goals are my starting point some will run the course of the year others may be achieved at earlier points.

Team

Even though teaching can be perceived as a very individual job, you alone are in your classroom front and centre to an audience of children everyday. The reality is you are a part of many teams, the class, wider community, wider staff and my Year 6 team.
The Year 6 team that I am is a vital part of how I progress. I am fortunate to have a very supportive positive team leader that is always willing to listen and give honest feedback. I have formed positive relationships with the other members of the team and feel comfortable to go in to any of my teams room to ask for advice or to share an opinion.
These kind of supportive relationships help to ease pressures and create a positive atmosphere that permeate throughout the wider school and your life outside of school.
I have been in many different work environments throughout my life, some positive and some negative and the difference a positive environment has on achievement in the workplace and happiness in and out of work is significant. So I feel lucky to be part of such an awesome team.