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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
