Steve - 5/12/18 - God's Girls - Devotions - PLD

A report from the Leaders of God's Girls.

God’s Girls – Report to End of 2018

God’s Girls began after the Christian Schools Conference last July when God prompted me to begin a lunchtime group with our Senior Girls (Year 6,7 and 8) and talk about issues relevant to them. The focus is on being secure in who they are in Christ and being “Gritty Girls” – girls with purpose, diligence and passion. Sandra Clark and I began meeting with the girls weekly over their lunch break.

I have used some resources from Vanessa Gatman from Kingsway School in Orewa who runs an organisation called “You-are”.  Their aim is to equip teenage girls to be the best version of themselves through conferences held in Auckland and Hamilton.

To date we have discussed issues such as influences of social media, characteristics of Gritty Girls that we would like to develop, looked at Biblical and modern day women displaying these characteristics. Personal matters such as resilience, positive self-talk, anxiety, modesty, friendship, forgiveness, gratitude, power of our words have been discussed; along with physical health – sleep, exercise, healthy eating etc.

Once or twice a term I email the Mums to let them know what we are chatting about, and have had numerous positive messages back from them, and the occasional suggestion of things we could cover in our time. 

Most of the girls commented in their recent report reflections on how much they have enjoyed our group, and gave specific things they have learned. I was surprised by some of the comments as it showed that God is doing beyond what I think we are setting out to achieve – isn’t that so like our God?!

What a privilege it has been to meet with these girls and share life with them. Sandra and I look forward to next year with a new bunch of Year 6 girls joining us.

Thinking:  Professional Development Outcomes.

The drive and emphasis of our school is not restricted to what the Education Department requires,  nor is it what we (staff, proprietors, BOT) seek. This is an example of Professional Development of our Spiritual selves, including all staff, to go beyond what we see as an outcome.

Next Steps: Ensure we  (I) provide opportunities for each of us to grow in our Spiritual walk, noticeably PLD among other Christian Teachers.

This is the result of an enquiry led by support staff. Never undervalue the resources we have.

TBCS - Teacher Wellbeing - Judy-Anne

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teachers-mental-health-anxiety-panic-attacks-insomnia-education-a8592551.html

So once again we got to the end of the first day of term and all realised we were behind already.

I recall an ERO visit when I was at a previous school where the Deputy Principal  commented as we took our paperwork over to their office space that this was the first time she had been up to date with her paperwork in 30 years!

Why do we do this to ourselves? How do we stop?

Some people seem to have developed a good system for themselves, working set hours and not taking work home except around report time. But others are posting on facebook, whether it be showing what they have been doing or asking for help with some curriculum area or behavioural issue,  at all hours of the day and night,  "non contact- holidays" or not.

I liked the idea discussed at a recent NZSTA training where one board is looking after the well being of their teachers as they realise that that ultimately affects the well being of their children.

I have tried many different ideas over the years so maybe it is time to write some down and post some results so I know what works best for me.


Ideas:
. Set hours for work - tricky when we are carpooling and I want to take chances to spend time with Danni when it is available. Maybe it just means putting a limit on hours worked in a week.
. Massage - love this one so need to try and find somebody I like and ensure money is put aside for this
. Craft
. Reading
. Gardening
. Coffee- not relaxing for me, but maybe make time for an alternative eg hot chocolate, iced coffee, at someplace nice
. Follow relaxation tips from the relaxation/ massage therapist we visited in Wellington.
. Accept that some things won't get done
. Make a 'done' list instead of a to do list
.Set realistic expectations, both for myself and others
. Delegate
. Do the less desirable tasks first


Teacher Inquiry:

How can I spark more energy and joy?

Start with registereing for Outdoor classroom day November 1 2018?


.

Reflection - Rob

What's on top for me...
I thought you all did really well yesterday - it was a day of lots of new skills, quite 'heady thinking' around learner agency and looking at school systems. The biggest areas of progress from my perspective related to:

1. Learner Agency - you are doing some great work on deepening this.
2. Digital Skills - Google Forms, Sheets, Team Drives, Document formatting, Blogger (labelling, 
3. Introduction to the SAMR model - to help you decide the quality/depth of the learning outcomes students are producing.

I have a couple of questions in my head today:

1. How might you use the rubric for Learner Agency with your classes so they can delve into what it is, how to grow it, etc.?
2. How do you know the outcomes your students are producing are quality? 
3. How might you unpack what inquiry into practice is so that it is useful, relevant, manageable for your school?

Reflection - Learner Agency Room 1 - Judy-Anne

I set an activity for writing on seesaw, giving the children options of how they could tell me about their perfect day. Most chose to write about it, some chose to make a video and one drew and then put a caption on her drawing. They also chose to work in different places and no-one sat in a student chair at a desk, some were kneeling, some stood, some sat in comfortable chairs and swivelled.

One of the writers discovered the emoji button and they all discovered that spelling options came up underneath what they were writing so they didn't have to type every word. Most used lots of emojis, particularly when the appropriate picture came up with their word eg pizza, tv.


The writers spent about twice as much time as usual engaged in their writing and only stopped because it was break time.

Learner Agency was shown in the choices that they had available and also discovering learning for themselves. I had no idea that would happen with emojis so it was exciting learning for all of us.


Next steps: Use more activities on Seesaw rather than just posting to the journal each time.

SAMR Reflection

This learning fits in the Modification section of the SAMR model. The children were given what would normally be a 'writing' task and given the choice of how to tell about Their Perfect Day. This was then shared on Seesaw with their parents. Some parts would almost fit under Redefinition because we would not have had the ability to share videos with parents previously. (Could have shared the writing and drawing.)

Taking it further:
. Some of the children discovered the emojis and what they could do with those so it would be good for them to teach the others about them.
.  We could go further with learning about making quality videos
. One child already went further with putting captions on her drawing when a drawing was enough. We could also talk about the value of doing more than just the minimum required.
. Look into more of the Activities pre loaded on Seesaw
. Make more Activities for Room 1 on Seesaw
. Consider the success criteria for the learning- eg communicating clearly, using full sentences??

End of Term 1 Reflection - Judy-Anne

This term seems to have flown by which is quite amazing since in reality it was a long term. I found running Preschool Play dates to be quite challenging as being on show to large groups is outside my comfort zone. It is one of our ways to promote the school though so needs to be done. They seem to have gone well and I think we have a relatively easy 'formula' programme to follow now.

We have used see-saw quite a lot. The children were initially reluctant to post their work without me checking it but are generally happy to do so now. We have good buy in from the parents and often the feedback is really fast. I have made one activity for them to follow and that was really successful. A number of the girls spent about 40 minutes writing that day - they found that they got words underneath their writing so they didn't need to know how to spell everything plus they got pictures to add as well. Some of the boys chose to record their work and made a great job of coming up with good sentence structure and relatively good sound quality.

My big challenge is figuring out how to make ICT an integrated part rather than an end in itself.

Next steps:We need to look at improving the quality of our audio in videos so need to look at what better quality means and then find a way to be recording for our subjects- maybe it will be writing.

Reflection on the term - Rob

I've had a great term. I've really enjoyed working with you all and am excited to see your progress and where we can go to next.

I've also had some exciting learning that I've been doing during the term, with the highlight being going to Sydney to train to become a Gallup certified Strengths Coach. This is a coaching framework which takes the philosophy of 'what if we only focussed on what people are naturally good at, rather than what they aren't good at?'.

This is something I'm super excited about and I am applying this to the work I do with school leaders, leadership teams as well as collaborative teams. I've done the youth version with Isabella, my 11-year-old and it has also given me a new 'language' to use with her as her Dad.

My team has grown in my business, with Tabitha Leonard who is based out of Auckland and has specialist skills at inquiry into practice and design thinking/SOLO taxonomy, as well as two new people to help in the background of the business.

In terms of the progress for Tasman Bay Christian School, it's great to see how attempting new things is challenging each of you and the mixture of skills, confidence, and pedagogy coming together as you learn to more naturally integrate technology into the learning process.

LLI Workshop - Reflection - Judy-Anne

Mel and I had the chance to go to a workshop to support Karaitiana on Tuesday. It was run by Jaki (speech language therapist) and Tania was able to join us too.

We gained a few things from the actual presentation but the major value of the day was being able to sit and talk together. We learnt a lot about life at home and were able to discuss a lot because we had a large amount of time.

We discovered that Karaitiana used to be very reluctant to come to school and had a transition object to help encourage him to come. He has been away a lot recently and is again very reluctant to come. Routines are difficult to follow at home at present, sometimes breakast does not happen.
I suggested Karaitiana could have his breakfast at school. Tania said she would box up cereal for him and he could have it with his milk. Apparently he bounced out of bed the next day and was happy to come to school, though a little confused about why he could have his breakfast at school!

He has now had cereal at school two days in a row.

Yesterday we talked about him staying with me at Junior Sports Day, he was happy with the idea, arrived at school today and stuck close to me at Sports Day- but he was there! This was a huge step for him as he does not historically deal well with large groups of people. Mel wrote a social story for him about going to dancing tonight so we will check tomorrow on how dancing went. had forgotten about social stories but think this could be a useful tool to use to help him with his anxiety and increase his confidence in social situations.
Action Plan Use social stories for helping Karaitiana with new / uncomfortable situations ( will help the whole class) Memory games for Karaitiana ( will help Brianna too) Personalised alphabet book for Karaitiana and Laila - Karaitiana to be the 'expert'

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.

Reflection - Trouble shooting - Judy-Anne

What did I learn today?
It was very hard to focus with other things going on eg the carpet guy arriving to fix the carpet in my room.
It was good to be reminded that there is a lot involved in this so we need to take time and explore different aspects. We won't get it all at once.
I learnt more about taking and dealing with photos
Use blogger for reflections, use Google Keep for some important documents and  lists / tasks, sheets for learner Support register.

So what?
This is something I need to talk about with the class as it is very easy to get distracted from your learning, and sometimes you just need to go with the distraction.
The kids also need time to explore different things on the ipad.

Photos- think about what constitutes a good photo, teach about it, play, delete the rubbish ones.

What next?

• Tutorials from Rob eg forms, sheets
• Play with google keep
• Learn about taking good photos, practise taking good photos, delete bad photos.
• Organise the ipads so that the children's ones are backing up and syncing to room1@tasbaychristian.school.nz rather than my email. 
• Make it a habit  for the kids to always sort photos and delete the bad ones. 
• Make labels / flow charts for taking photos  (framing, lighting, focus, delete)

PLD Touch Base - 7 Feb

Items discussed:

1. Using Google Slideshow (Craig) - how to capture student reflections
2. Setting up iPads to manage photos (Judy-Anne) - discussed the need to set up a class Google account so that photos
3. Health Consultation - Rob to get Steve example form to adapt and use
4. What makes a quality reflection - for conferencing a student
1. Is it better than last time?
2. How do you think you did?
3. What did you do well?
4. What are some areas you think you might need to improve in?
5. What is your goal for next time? What is the one thing you are going to improve on?
6. How can I help you?
5. What makes a quality professional reflection?
1. How well did it go?
2. How well did the kids learn? why?
3. How does it fit into what I already know/believe/do?
4. What would I do differently next time?
5. What might my/our next steps be...?
6. Dealing with 'to dos' - looked at tasks/reminders in Google Calendar, plus Google Keep as a great note taking/list making tool
7. Ways to manage learning support register - suggest Google Sheet.
8. Where to next: 20th Feb meeting is focussed on teacher inquiry, then Rob will be at the school 13-16 March.

Next steps:

1. Craig - 
2. Judy-Anne - 
3. Steve - 

Reflections on TOD - Day 2 - 27 Jan 2018 - Judy- Anne

1. Slow down. We don’t need to try and do everything at once. In fact it may be better to pick one thing and do it well before adding something else. It is very tempting to just get on with all the fun stuff though.

2. I need a system to ensure I put time aside to learn how to use ‘g suite.’ There are so many apps I am getting a bit muddled about which to use for what.

3. What is the best place to put the Learner Support Register? Teacher meeting minutes?

TBCS - Craig - Reflection - Day 1 - January 18

What is standing out?

• How many tools there are!
• What a lot I have to learn.
• How much time could be taken trying to learn each one.

Where to from here?

• Get e-mail links to parents sorted.
• Understand how to use see saw
• become more confident with what we have covered today.
• find some practical things I can start with my students.

• 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  Attending and contributing to PLD opportunities within and beyond my school.
• 3  Participation in professional development (PLD), both in school and through outside agencies. Working with colleagues to enact the new learning. 

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.

Reflection on Learner Agency - Steve

What do I think it is?
It is the ability to identify and choose how to learn a skill not mastered previously.
It has a goal and next steps involved in the process.

What might I do or not do to get it?
Model it with examples.
Structure the environment to allow risk taking to help learn how to identify gaps in the skill base for a particular goal?
Encourage questioning to enable students to discover the next steps, try them and report on the outcome.
Guide them to develop another strategy form the results.

What might the teacher do to develop it?

• Model what it looks like
• Attitude
• Environment 
• Encourage risk taking to identify areas in need
• Improvement is the goal
• Goal setting for targets
• Encourage self reflection
• Success Criteria
• Co-construct goals
• Feedback - Feedforward

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

• Constantly set goals for them
• Have unwarranted goals
• Predetermined expectations without consultation. 
• Closed questions
• Give answers only.

What might be standing out?

1. The whole range of possibilities to meet our needs even the ones we didn't know about.
2. The Blog for developing our notes, has a good potential especially for appraisals.
3. Shared Notes for our staff meetings.
4. Amazed at the Google Forms, can't wait to try for our Sexuality Consultation.

What are my priorities to learn next?

1. Stop think focus on one area to work through.
2. Discuss our Blog especially if we are to use it for our appraisals, then see how we share it with all staff for theirs.
3. Change bookmarks, no words for ones I know.

Reflection on Learner Agency - Judy-Anne

We discussed learner agency during lunch and felt that it is about the learner having some control over what they are learning, why and how they are learning it. It could involve being able to access help to improve and sometimes  may even mean choosing not to improve on what they currently know.

The teacher can help in a number of ways for different learners and purposes. It may be necessary to tell why something is being learnt, and to show learners that there are different ways of learning and to help them discover the best way for them. They may need to discover for themselves that they learn different things in different ways. The teacher can model that they are a learner too. Also there needs to be an environment where risk taking and making mistakes is valued.

• Foster a desire to learn and grow, develop excitement about all things new.
• Show how each subject necessary in life.
• Goal setting.
• choice of themes or activities.
• Wait time.
• Questions that encourage self reflection, How did you go? What went well? What do you need to do next time? How can you improve?... etc.
•  Learning Intentions and Success criteria.
• Model different ways to learn
• Model making mistakes
• "Talk alouds" for your thinking and processing
• Foster an environment that encourages mistakes and risk taking