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.

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

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.

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.

Tutor Teacher

I have been fortunate to have two excellent tutor teachers this school year. My first tutor teacher went on maternity leave in term two so I have had a different tutor teacher from week 8 Term 2 until the end of the school year.
I have had a very positive relationship with my two tutor teachers. I have been eager to listen to their ideas and I have been able to use them as soundboards too. The clear depth of their curriculum knowledge and classroom experience allows me to get succinct feedback and a clear action plan as to what I need to adapt in my classroom environment, lessons or planning.
Their feedback also reflects the positive things that are happening in my class and positive reinforcement definitely helps to build my confidence as a teacher, especially when I can be very self critical.
It has also been very encouraging for my tutor teacher to say that they have taken ideas from my lessons that they have implemented in their own programmes.
Below I have the observation notes from my tutor from Term 3.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mq-ghxAsZaQ2dJRo8ZGqaFM3SX9tHt2jQdnCh_kg25s/pub

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xczPxnd6DTKaSLQ98CaJZ0daVMahJRtcg6W3YRChKIk/pub


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_dgkva65KaB2wvleYT4PeV7YUPJEdFtWJDWf3AEgDcs/pub

Haka

I have recently been helping the Year 5 and 6 boys practise the school Haka. The importance of the Haka to link the students to their school is very significant. It also allows the akonga to demonstrate their respect to the Maori heritage, language and culture.

The boys get great mana in performing the Haka during special events and it can leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing up when it is performed correctly.

Reading Plays

We have started plays in our reading unit and the students are highly engaged. The students are eager to take on the role. It also means that they are fully engaged with what we are learning to do in the lesson. On a topic like inference the students find it easier to infer the motivation of a character or the actions a character might make because because they are that character.
I have given the each group time to practise their plays together, generally outside, so that they form their character and decide the things that they want to add to the character. The group then performs the play to the whole class and then we have a feedback session outlining the positives and then adding anything we can work on for our next performance.
This active engagement has allowed for greater understanding of the plays and the WALT's in their respective lessons.
I have attached a link to a video of one of the groups performing and you can see some students even brought props from home to get further into character and setting.

Intermediate

Term 3 has seen a proliferation of open days for intermediate schools as my Year 6 students have their eyes on the next big step in their educational journey. The large majority of my class (22 out of 27) are going to go to Mokoia Intermediate and we went on an open day to see what intermediate school is like. The students got to participate in a range of interesting activities from baking, sewing, Spanish, music and much more.
It gave them pause to think that their time as a primary school student is close to an end and that are growing up!
For me it gave me time to reflect on how quickly the school year has gone, with less than half the school year now remaining, it also showed me how much the class had grown and matured in seven brief months.
The class and I do however still have another term and a half to work together to learn more and to enjoy being the role models for the school for the remainder of the school year.

Classroom Displays

Recently I got the opportunity to go around four different classrooms to view the displays. For me the most striking thing was the amount of child produced, as opposed to teacher produced, displays through the rooms. There were some great displays with photos of the children doing their work, the step by step plans of students, brainstorms and many others examples.
Whilst I do have a lot of the children's work on the walls in most curricular areas. It is in the area of maths that I need to make the most concerted effort to display their work.
I intend to take photocopies of some of the children's work to use as examples of how to use a strategy and how to present our work.
This will give the children greater ownership of their environment, promote an engaging environment and give them more approachable exemplars rather than only teacher based maths posters that can be more abstract and removed from the child.

Reading Lesson

A whole school audit of how we teach in Lynmore was taken in Term 2. This was to allow the school to have an overall view of the way we teach individually and collectively. It was to highlight our strengths, get us to reflect on our and teaching and guide us to become better teachers. 

Each teacher in the school was videoed during a typical reading lesson.

The school principal Lorraine videoed my lesson. She then interviewed the students involved in the lesson. The lesson is shared below. 

After the taping I watched the video and held a meeting with Lorraine to discuss the lesson. My next post will outline the nature of that conversation and how it will inform my inquiry and change my day to day teaching practise.