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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In term two there was a whole school audit on how we teach and I along with every other teacher in the school was videoed for a reading lesson. I was videoed and then I reviewed my video and had a meeting with the person that videoed me, in my case the principal Lorraine Taylor. I then completed a rubric with Lorraine outlining where I thought my teaching sat.
This process has been carried out again in Term 3 same principle but with the hope that some of the questions raised in the first session will be answered and my feedback rubric will have moved forward.
Watching ones self back on video is a very informative and analytical process and definitely allows for thorough self analysis. My lesson went well and the things that I had looked to implement namely co-creation of success criteria were present which was pleasing. The full video and feedback forms I will post in my next blog and you see the steps forward that I have made and the steps that I still need to make.
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.
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.
After my recorded reading lesson Lorraine interviewed the students and logged their responses. I watched the lesson and recorded my thoughts on the feedback form which I was given. Lorraine and I then had a meeting to discuss the lesson.
The whole process allowed for great reflection on how I teach and the things that I can add to my teaching to become a better teacher. The feedback was very positive, which is always good to hear, but the discussion with Lorraine also showed me a clear path in which to follow.
From the way the lesson was set out and the responses elicited from the children it was clear that I was the driving force for the WALTs and that I was the one who quantified whether or not the children had done a good job. It is clear that I need to give the children greater control over their own learning with co-construction os success criteria, which should in turn lead to co-construction of WALTs. This is now what I intend my teacher inquiry to be based around and in my next post I will explain why.
