TBCS - Craig - Deliberate Acts of Teaching - Maths

Teaching Maths

Maths is one subject I love to teach. I have seen such pleasing progress in all my students. Most of my students are happy to do their Math lessons, and some will even choose to do it at break times or when they have finished other work. I have had a multi-faceted approach to teaching Maths this year.
This year, I have had students working at all the Grade levels from Year 1 - Year 7


My deliberate acts of teaching have included...

• Testing each student at the beginning of the year to access where they are.
• Each student is placed at the appropriate level for their skills in the Maths Buddy Programme that the School Uses. (Please see my Blogg on Maths Buddy)
• Monitor how each student is doing by roaming the room constantly and encouraging and giving help where needed.
• Monitoring each student through my laptop after hours to identify students who need particular help or groups of students who need help in a particular area and writing them in my weekly planning folder.
• At the beginning of most lessons, students who needed extra help are brought down to a table so I can help them as individuals or in groups as required. They will go back to their individual desks once they are confident and have passed the lesson they were stuck on.
• Setting a minimum achievement rate of 80% or more in any given lesson before allowing a student to move on.
• Year 6 students are to complete a Diagnostic test at the end of each section to ensure all lessons have been learned. If gaps are identified in their learning, they are required to redo those identified lessons again to ensure they are confident before they move on.
• The emphasis I encourage is not on completing a certain about of work or working at a certain speed, but on learning the concepts and being able to confidently use them, especially in Problem Solving situations. 
• I encourage students to redo lessons, even if they have passed them at 80% if they are not completely confident in themselves.
• I place an emphasis on learning times tables which we start every day with.
• I get the students to do warm-up activities of times tables before they go on with their lessons.
• If there are particular lessons that the whole class needs to learn, I will gather the whole class around the board and we will go over them together. These have included... 

                      -  Understanding mathematical words like addends and sums, minuends, subtrahends,                              and differences, etc.
                      -  Greater than and less than
                      -  Rounding
                      -  Telling the time.
                      -  And other issues identified in daily classwork or testing such as e-asttle.

• I try to know where each student is at, and plot their progress on an XL spreadsheet to help me have an overview of the whole class.

Next Steps

Place a bigger emphasis on learning Time Tables and add a Times Tables test at the end of each week to keep the spotlight on our need to know them by rote.

Be more forthright with the expectation that the lessons need to be learned and not just passed. This will include encouraging the students to use a star chart to indicate how confident they are at the end of every lesson, so they can revisit or redo lessons that may have been passed but not confidently grasped.

Make better use of the e-asttle tests that the class sits to identify areas of weakness and get more group work established based on what is identified at the time.

Standard 6
Teach in ways that ensure all learners are making sufficient progress, and monitor the extent and pace of learning, focusing on equity and excellence for all.

Standard 5
Select teaching approaches, resources, and learning and assessment activities based on a thorough knowledge of curriculum content, pedagogy, progressions in learning and the learners.

Standard 4
Manage learning setting to ensure access to learning for all and to maximise learner's physical, social, cultural, and emotional safety.

TBCS - Craig - Reflection on Teaching Math with Math-Buddy

Maths Buddy

Where I come from.

I come from a background of teaching Math from a textbook. I must admit that I loved it and would not hesitate to go back to that way because it ensured I taught the whole syllabus and, with the addition of weekly revision test and the strick focus on learning times tables, my students became very good at Math. It's success spurred me on and I became very confident at teaching Math. Any of my students who left my class to go to another school were considered exceptional at Math in the schools they went to.

It worked because all my students had been taught the same way in year groups and were reasonably similar in ability. Repetition and Revision along with teaching the best way to do something instead of 5 different ways, enabled my students to have confidence in their ability as Mathematicians.

Where I am now. 

I now find myself in a fantastic little Christian School and in a lovely class that has three year levels and abilities ranging from year one to year seven.

My normal approach to teaching Math will not work in this environment.

Fortunately, someone before me has had the foresight to purchase the Mathbuddy programme for the use of all students in the school.

Maths Buddy

Mathbuddy is a New Zealand created, curriculum-based programme that is constantly updated and research-based. It covers students from Year 1 to Year 13, including A Levels. Its strengths lie in the teaching videos for every lesson, the lesson summary available for each lesson, and the access each student has to every grade, not only their own.

Each learning area is broken into sections that have reviews to pretest and post-test. There are also weekly revision tasks that can be assigned. The work completed, progress made, and struggles encountered are easily identified by the teacher's console. You can assign tasks and give time constraints if you choose. A timeline history gives a breakdown of every lesson viewed and attempted with the resultant mark.

The students get instant feedback on whether any given answer is right or wrong and what the correct answer should have been if their answer was incorrect. There is an 80% pass level as standard so if a lesson is not passed, the student can rewatch the video lesson and attempt the lesson again.

Strengths of Maths Buddy

• It meets every student at their point of need. Nowadays, there is a big emphasis on individualised programmes for each student. Under normal textbook conditions in my class that would be almost impossible. I have, at the moment, students working at Year 1, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 levels. Each student is different. Each student works at a different speed and has strengths and weaknesses in different areas. Maths Buddy allows for all of these differences and allows each student to be challenged at their level. It doesn't hold back the progress of more advanced students and conversely, it doesn't push students who struggle beyond what they can handle.

• Every lesson has a clear teaching element which is designed to give the students the tools needed to complete the task. This frees me as the teacher from having to give what would end up being 40-50 lessons every Math period.

• If you are struggling in a particular area you can, at the click of your mouse, jump down a grade and complete the lessons at that level, cementing the groundwork for the lesson you will jump back to. This access to all grades can be a great help.
• It uses lots of real-life examples and 

• It covers the whole curriculum.

• When you finish your grade level, you can move to the next grade level and carry on. You are always learning and progressing.

What does that leave me as a teacher to do

Maths Buddy, just like any textbook or programme is a tool. It is something employed by me as a teacher to reach the goals I have in the area of Math. How you use Maths Buddy is entirely at your discretion. At the end of the day, my job is to teach my students how to understand and apply Math...

I have chosen to get my students to do every lesson in order. They are to watch the video, open the lesson summary in a separate tab, and do the lesson. If they don't pass at 80%, they are to follow the first three steps again. If after two tries, they still have not passed, I will go over the lesson with them and allow them to try again. If this still doesn't work, I will get the student to check in with me for every question before they push enter to go through their workings and resultant answer. When I am not giving individual lessons, I roam the room and check on the progress of each student and lend a word of encouragement or help as needed. I tend to have a good grasp of every student's work.

Through my teacher console, I keep an eye on each student's progress and struggles. I log the students progress in an easy to read XL spreadsheet and write any student's name in my planning book that is having trouble and the area I need to help them with.

Conclusion.

I very much appreciate Maths Buddy. Both my students and I have a positive attitude towards Math. all my students have progressed well over the course of the year. many have made outstanding progress.

Student Voice

Positive

It is fun but sometimes hard. Jak

I like that you don't have to wait till the end until you know the correct answer and score. (Portia)

I like how it has diagnostic tests so you know which ones that you don't know. (Zach)

I like how there is a video so it tells you how to do the lesson. (Chanyn)

It's very educational (Jak)

It makes your brain work (Ella)

I like the way you can choose the background colour and when you get 100%, you get some ribbons and confetti on your screen. (Madelynne)

I like how some of the questions are challenging but when you start learning them, they get easier. (Raphael)

The order of the lessons is helpful like fractions and decimals. (Mercy)

I like it because you can go onto the next year. (Reuben)


Negatives and how to overcome them.


Sometimes it doesn't tell you how to do a question in the video. (Madelynne)
Ask my teacher how to do it.

Occasionally it takes a long time for the questions to load. (Portia)
Reload the programme.

Some questions don't get explained in the video so I don't really understand it. (Raphael)
Ask my teacher or someone next to me.

Design forLearning

• Structuring learning tasks so that all ākonga experience a degree of success, but also ensuring that they are required to stretch themselves to fully succeed.

Learning focused culture

• Effectively incorporating digital media into the learning environment.

TBCS - Craig - PLD - 4 Deadly Errors of Teaching Writing

4 Deadly Errors of Teaching Writing 

These notes are taken from the PLD conference I attended with Andrew Pudewa entitled Spicing up Your Kids' Learning.

1.  Over Correcting

Correcting is not a good word to use because it indicates wrongness.
  -  It has a negative connotation.
  -  Writing is not as black and white as Maths.
  -  It is not objective or clear.

Rather, use the word editing - to help the writer be the best version of them on paper.

• Mark to make it legal and not good.
• Say implement these changes and finish.
• Use corrections as lesson plans for teaching
• Teach to the point of need.
• A  acceptable
•  I   incomplete

2.  Withholding Help

"I might help too much"

• Students will tell you when they don't need help.
• When you withhold help, you limit learning.

"They need to sink or swim"

• You wouldn't teach swimming this way which is life or death, so why say it...
• Swimming is a skill and it is acceptable to coach.
• It is perfectly acceptable to dictate.
• If they could've they would've.
• Independence in a skill comes from spending time modelling, questioning, and practising.
• Help - Don't meddle.

3.  Unclear Assignments

• It is a form of withholding help...

4.  Over Expectations

• We often have a desire to compare children by age.
• Grade levels used to be by level achieved - it indicated a mastery level.

A book to read is "Understood Betsey" about a country one-room school "But what grade am I in?"

Music Teachers don't care:  

• When you start
• How fast you progress
• what others are doing
• Get on the path
• Are you moving forward?

Any child is expected to do their best, whatever grade.

Are we making progress - That's all that God expects of His people.

8-10 years - Whatever they do is cute.
11-12         - Not good enough.
13 +           - They will never get there.
                  - They need to do far better. 

                  - we need to solve the problem.

                  - Stop writing things that don't make sense!

It's like telling a plant to grow... you can add water and sun, you can sing to it, but you have to wait.

Kids go through phases awkward - then it clicks.

Don't compare kids on age.

Don't over expect.

Where to Next...

I need to focus on encouraging each student to do their best and to work on developing and extending their skills without expecting too much of them.
I need to be prepared to help as much as is needed to give my students confidence to achieve what they need to.
I need to develop the achieved and incomplete marking attitude and celebrate with students who attempt to go beyond the limits of the lesson. 

With students who are struggling, I will set them up beforehand to give them time to think through what is about to happen and help them orgainise their thoughts and know what they need to do to succeed.
With my students who are at level one, I will help spell words and write them on their page so they can use them with confidence, and model correct sentences and get them to copy them to train them.

• Professional Learning

Undertaking PLD and further professional reading.

Attending and contributing to PLD opportunities within and beyond my school.

Sharing PLD knowledge, relevant readings and research with colleagues.

TBCS - Craig - PLD - Nurturing Competent Communicators Andrew Pudwa

Two Things You Can Do To Build Language Patterns And Nurture Competent Communicators

These notes are taken from the PLD conference I attended with Andrew Pudewa entitled Spicing up Your Kids' Learning.

There is a false assumption that good readers make good writers...

Some get it (write and make sense) - some don't.

You can't get out (good English) what isn't in there in the first place.

Four reasons might be...

1.  T.V. / Radio etc. are not a reliable, correct, or sophisticated language to input.

2.  Peers are not a reliable, correct, or sophisticated language to input.

• Children change their vocabulary and complexity of language if with older children
• Children with the same age tend to dumb down and degress.

3.  Busy parents and adults.

4.  The way they read.

• Read lots - Read too fast and don't audibly hear complete sentences etc.                                                      - Skip unknown words                                                                                                   
• Read little - do other stuff and not get language from books.

Solutions

1.  Read to them.     

• Don't skip anything.
• Read nuance

Read to them above their own decoding level.

The number 1 predicator of good writing in Adults is being read to by your parents.

The 2nd is audiobooks.

Reading to others does the same.

As an adult...

• Read what you want to read.
• Read whole books.
• 1850 - 1900 was the golden era of writing and language.
• Read to the whole family

2.  Memorizing and Recitation

Memorization of anything is de facto good for the brain. It makes you smarter.

• Poetry
• Music and Drama
• Choreographed Dance
• Precise Memorization

In the olden days, "I have to go to school to say my lessons."

Memorising grows the brain and database of reliable, accurate, sophisticated language and syntax etc.

Suzuki Method is one example.

When learning another language, you can often hit a wall. One way passed is memorising a book (e.g. Jack and the Bean Stalk) 

At school and even pre-school, it is good to memorise poems every week and keep reciting all of them all the time.

Where to next

2019 will see me begin to teach recorder. It will include teaching the students to read and play music with confidence but also learning songs by memory. 
I will continue to prioritise reading aloud to my students with nuance and at a level above their own decoding level.
Memorising Memory Verses will be a priority for 2019. I will also add memorising some poems to the programme.

• Professional Learning

Undertaking PLD and further professional reading.

Attending and contributing to PLD opportunities within and beyond my school.

Sharing PLD knowledge, relevant readings and research with colleagues.

• Learning-Focused Culture

TBCS - Craig - PLD - Writing Conference

Our School Goal this year is on improving writing.

Earlier in the year, my wife was contacted about a educational conference that was being offered for home-schoolers and teachers by Andrew Pudewa, the author of Writing With Excallence. The conference was entitled Spicing Up Your Kids' Learning.

I applied for leave to attend the conference and my request was granted and my course and travel costs were also covered by the school.

The Conference was held at the Bishopdale Reformed Church in Christchurch, August 10-11 2018

The following topics were covered:

- Nurturing Competent Communicators - The Power of Linguistic Patterns
- The Four Deadly Errors of Teaching Writing
- Fairy Tales and the Moral Imagination
- Paper and Pen: What the Research Says
- Mastery Learning
- The Four Language Arts
- Seven Keys Of Great Teaching
- Teaching Boys & Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day
- Lessons Learned From Three Decades Of Teaching
- + Question times

The conference helped very much and enthused me lots and gave me a lot of things to think about in regards to the way I teach and the way I could be teaching Writing.

In blogs to follow, I will share What I learned...

My wife and I also bought a couple of resources that I hope to use.


Bible Heroes Writing Lessons With Structure and Style

Teaching Writing, Structure, and Style - Seminar with practical workbook and 12 DVD's

TBCS - Craig - Maori Language

I have a lovely new student in my room called Waihou. She started at our school only a few weeks ago. She was not able to swim during our swimming lessons last Monday, so we got to talk while sitting and watching the lessons.

She told me that she had come from Christchurch, where she had attended a Maori school called Haeata Community Campus. She was not allowed to speak any English there. I commented on how good her English was and that I didn't know very much Maori.

She taught me how to say ice cream in Maori 'ihecreamy'

She then asked me what Maori words I knew. As I said them, she would say the meaning in Maori and say, "What other word? ... What other word?" till I had exhausted all the words I could think of on the spot. She then proceeded to tell me Maori words that I should know and I told her the meanings in English. I knew all of them and had not been fast enough to think of them while she quizzed me earlier.

She was very proud of her knowledge and she seemed really keen that I should know more so I made a bargain with her. I would teach her English, Math, Reading, Typing etc. and she would teach me Maori. I asked her to teach me a new word every day and to test me several times over the day so I would remember it. She agreed.

Today's word was

• 1  Regular use of te reo Māori.
• 1  Recognising, valuing and utilising Māori ākonga knowledge within school setting.
• 4  Providing opportunities for ākonga engagement in co-operative learning, and reciprocal teaching. 
• 4  Fostering tuakana/tēina relationships.
• 4  Learning phrases of languages that are familiar to my ākonga who come from different cultures.
• 6  Where appropriate seeking out and validating the prior knowledge that Māori ākonga bring to their learning.

TBCS - Craig - PLG

Photo taken on the way to PLG

On the 29th May, I attended my second Moutere Hills Cluster PLG.

It was a chance to talk about how things were going for each of us and to encourage each other.

we shared together about what was important for us at the moment.

We discussed various topics together including..

- Developing relationships in large teaching spaces with double classes.
- Getting 'invisible children' involved. (What interests them? Front loading - make the kids experts
Use the sticks - no hands up - after elbow buddies, Sheena Cameron - the oral language book)

- Enabling oral language skills and confidence.

- Keeping balance with all of the expectations of class and school.
- CRT time being used up with assessment.
- Literacy targets.
- Understanding children with autism. 
- Keeping up the concentration of students.
  ( Brain gym )
https://blog.cognifit.com/brain-gym-activities-keep-brain-young/ https://ilslearningcorner.com/blog/2017/01/19/2017-01-brain-gym-simple-brain-gym-exercises-to-awaken-the-brain-for-learning-readiness/)
- Catering to a range of abilities. 
and for me
- Developing better writers and ways that technology might aid that.

I was given these resources.

Brainframes

Episode 52 - Prepped and Polished (Teaching students to overcome writing difficulties.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4-2xBNukUs

/

We were all encouraged to join the Learning Support network.
Hub 1 was free...

Learning Support Network

• 3 Discussing my practice with colleagues and being open to new ideas.
• 2 Being an active member of professional learning communities.
• 3 Appropriate and professional communication with colleagues, ākonga and whānau.
• 3 Establishing collegial relations by participating with colleagues in staff activities, and taking an interest in what others are doing through positive professional interactions.

TBCS - Craig - Kahui Ako COL Meeting,

On Monday 5th June all the staff went to a combined teachers and leaders Kahui Ako COL meeting.

It involved staff from around the region and included primary and secondary teachers.

We looked specifically at the achievement and buy in of our Maori students through creating a family atmosphere and doing the most we can with what we have. (Not waiting for anything to change outside of the class)

Notes are as follows...

Please click Here.

TBCS - Craig - Voice Typing Trial - Something I Love

I decided to try to increase engagement in Writing by getting the students to write about a subject of their choice.

I asked the students to find a photo of something they loved and write me paragraph about why they loved it, using complete sentences.

The next writing period, I introduced them to voice typing to allow them to put more ideas down on screen and excite them about the process. 

The intent was to give them a tool to get their thoughts down quickly and completely and help reluctant writers to enjoy the process and to begin to allow their creativity to flow and not be hampered by the writing process.

It was a messy lesson and it ended up being about experimenting with microphones etc.

They were very impressed when I said full stop and it did!

Where to next.

Use this to cement the show where full stops live and to get the students to think and speak in sentences.

Try to engender excitement and engagement with Writing.

I will blogg results as time goes by...

• 4  Effectively incorporating digital media into the learning environment.
• 6  Use of relevant resources
• 6  Monitoring of ākonga learning during the implementation of a programme of learning, so that the programme can be adapted where needed to better achieve desired outcomes for ākonga.
• 6  Using appropriate pedagogies to accelerate progress of ākonga who are achieving below national expectations.

TBCS - Craig - Learner Agency Examples Room 3

These were my examples of learner agency in Room 3 

They showed students going beyond what was expected, students helping one another, Students teaching each other aspects about devotions using the whiteboard (at break time), setting a goals and choosing to do it while everyone enjoyed Sumdog.

Where to next...

Put it up on Seesaw to share with parents.

There are other things on the rubric which can be added.

Share it with the rest of the class.

Loop it on T.V as an example.

Add video and get students to articulate what they are doing and learning, and where they are going.

• 6  Using appropriate pedagogies to accelerate progress of ākonga who are achieving below national expectations.
• 6  Having high expectations for all ākonga and sharing these expectations with ākonga and whānau.
• 6  Undertaking a detailed evaluation of learning programmes and their impact on all ākonga, that takes into account ākonga feedback.
• 5  Structuring learning tasks so that all ākonga experience a degree of success, but also ensuring that they are required to stretch themselves to fully succeed.
• 4  Discussing my practice with colleagues and being open to new ideas.
• 3  Participating fully in school/syndicate/faculty/department meetings and be an active member of the team. Share ideas with others.
• 3  Participation in professional development (PLD), both in school and through outside agencies. Working with colleagues to enact the new learning. 

TBCS - Craig - Reflection of Term 1 2018

This term has gone really well and there have been lots of positives. Most students have progressed really well in Reading and Math, and Bible has progressed well with the students learning Genesis well and being challenged about how the Word of God impacts their every day lives.

One area that has been a challenge has been writing. I have tried lots of different means of getting the students to write and it has had mixed results. The term goal was about sentences. That still remains a challenge.

We have started using ICT to improve writing outcomes, but this is still in the learning, messy stage. The kids are excited, but our school goal has not seen improvement yet using this media.

I have seen improvement in the students that struggle, but most of the problems are ones of attitude and head space, not so much in ability. I have worked tirelessly to point out strengths and abilities and to create empathy for others. Once they can look outside themselves, they will more quickly see the impact their actions and words.

The students wrote some great reflections of their learning which showed the progress each of them had made. It was really encouraging for me.

• 2  Reflection on how aspects of PLD have been enacted and the impact on ākonga learning.
• 3  Participating fully in school/syndicate/faculty/department meetings and be an active member of the team. Share ideas with others.
• 4  Discussing my practice with colleagues and being open to new ideas.
• Promotion of positive and appropriate relationships with and between ākonga.

TBCS - Craig - Reflection Kaea and reading groups

I noticed yesterday how Kaea struggled to concentrate, keep up, and participate while we were reading in a group situation.
I expect with her hearing loss, that while she hears me clearly enough, she struggles to hear the other students, especially in a group situation.
(The back ground is that Kaea has refused to wear her hearing aids this year and has not brought them to school at all.)
After talking to Steve we came to the conclusion that if we could get Kaea to bring her hearing aids to school, if only to use them at reading time and take them off again, it could help her be engaged and learn more than she is at the moment.

Action plan.

Speak to Judy, Wendy, and Rrbekah about contacting the family to get the hearing aids brought to school.

23/2/2018
I spoke with Judy Larkin today who has in turn e-mailed Rebecca to find out about the hearing aid situation.

Hopefully we can see some progress soon.

28/2/2018
I spoke to Judy today and we discussed the hearing aids which haven't turned up. She was going to see if she could help to to get them in class.

14/3/18
The hearing aids turned up a week ago. When we have the gear all charged properly charged, it makes a marked difference and allows Kaea to be involved with the group and allow to hear the other students clearly.
She says I am too loud, so Judy is making an audiology appointment so the aids can be set to the correct levels and I am not so loud in her ears.
I have also learned how to ensure the aids are turned off. If they are not turned off over night, they go flat over night.

31/3/18 We had an IEP meeting with Mum, Judy, Wendy, and the educational psychologist about Kaeas behaviour and her refusal to wear her hearing aids. See here.

2/7/18
After having a bad start to the term and lots of work from Judy, Wendy and myself, Kaea is wearing her hearing aids almost full time at school. The audiologist said she needed to wear them as much as possible to allow her brain to use them effectively and to set the pathways.
Success is sweet. Not only is Kaea hearing better, but her compliance in wearing them is part of an overall improvement in her behaviour.

• 2  Following an inquiry model appropriate to my setting, and using goals and/or inquiry questions that are linked to identified priorities for my ākonga and school.
• 2  Making time to have professional discussions with colleagues.
• 2  Effective communication with ākonga and whānau about ākonga achievement, learning and well-being.
• 3  Appropriate and professional communication with colleagues, ākonga and whānau.
• 3  Engaging with whānau and ākonga to discuss ākonga well-being and achievement. Engaging in regular professional communication as appropriate. 
• 4  Observations in my classroom that focus on the learning environment.
• 4  Classroom observations with a specific focus on this standard.
• 6  Using feedback from classroom observations to improve learning programmes.

TBCS - Craig - Reading - Reflection

I started the year feeling a little under prepared. I had a good understanding about the Lexia and Reading Plus programmes from last year and had them sorted and operational for the start of the term. The thing I was not sorted with was reading groups. Judy-Anne and I had meant to get together, but it had never happened. Thank the Lord for C.R.T days!
I had a C.R.T Day on Tuesday, and Judy-Anne put her class with mine so we had the morning together to sort out what I was meant to do and how to achieve it.

The groups were established from data gathered at the end of last year. Only one student had no data to work from, so we went from her level on Lexia, which as it turned out was far below her reading level. This  became a blessing because although we will have to do a running record on her, she has realised how far below her level she is working on Lexia and has determined to catch up, which is great.

One problem I ran into was that one of my groups has 6 students in it and we do not have many sets of journals with 6 or more. It became a real problem till I had an epiphany. Sunshine online has a great reading resource of journals at the levels I need and because every student in my class has a device, they can all access the same journal at the same time. The added bonus is the extra activities attached to each journal.

I have also given each student access to sunshine classics to use for homework reading if they do not have a novel they wish to read. I have set up each account with books at their individual levels.

My big teaching books were set up using the rocket reading sheets.

I will report on how things progress.

Judy-Anne and I also discussed Spelling essential lists and the Gloss test.

• 2  Making time to have professional discussions with colleagues.
• 2  Observing and learning from experienced teachers.
• 3  Understanding and using existing models of effective practice (e.g., Te Kotahitanga and Ka Hikitia)
• 4  Discussing my practice with colleagues and being open to new ideas.
• 4  Observing other teachers practices and approaches in the establishment of an inclusive and supportive learning environment.
• 5  Structuring learning tasks so that all ākonga experience a degree of success, but also ensuring that they are required to stretch themselves to fully succeed.
• 6  Observing other teachers’ use of resources and teaching strategies.
• 6  Seeking advice and feedback from colleagues on planning units, useful resources, and strategies to enhance ākonga interest and engagement.

TBCS - Craig - Reflection on Learner Agency

Although I do not understand the word, agency as it is used in Learner agency, I expect from discussions that it refers to you being in control of what and how you learn.

What might the teacher do to develop it?

• Foster a desire to learn and grow, develop excitement about all things new.
• Show where each subject is relevant for now or the future.
• Goal setting.
• choice of themes or activities.
• Wait time.
• Questions that encourage self reflection, How did you go? What went well? what didn't work so well? How can you improve?... etc.
• Success criteria.
• Develop high expectations.
• Foster an environment that encourages risk taking and allows for failure.
• Model different ways to learn.

What might the teacher not do in order to develop it?

• Allow the students to have no imput into what they get to learn.
• Do things the same every time without reflection and and feedback to shape where to go next or next time.
• Teach without giving the 'why' so students don't get the big picture and can't see the value of learning what ever it is.
• Teach to get it taught and over with, with no passion or enthusiasm.
• Get upset when students get it wrong.
• Give no time to think or process.
• Don't allow the students to reflect on what they have learned.
• etc...

• 2  Undertaking PLD and further professional reading.
• 2  Engaging with school-wide inquiry approaches as expected.
• 2  Ongoing active involvement in a school/community of schools or other professional learning communities (PLC).
• 2  Reflection on how aspects of PLD have been enacted and the impact on ākonga learning.
• 2  Attending and contributing to PLD opportunities within and beyond my school.
• 3  Participating fully in school/syndicate/faculty/department meetings and be an active member of the team. Share ideas with others.
• 3  Participation in professional development (PLD), both in school and through outside agencies. Working with colleagues to enact the new learning. 
• 4  Involvement in appropriate PLD.