Reflection on Day 1 PLD April 17 - Judy-Anne

Felt as though my brain was mush by the end of yesterday. It was quite difficult to compartmentalise and things were going on with my family so I was also distracted. We covered a lot and I found that I had forgotten how to do some things that I used to know how to do.

It was good to be able to find my google photos on the laptop later in the day. I couldn't find them in the morning but discovered that putting a search in eg "April" brought them up. The blog looks so much better with photos!

I think we had some good discussions about stream lining some of our work. Teacher Meetings will hopefully be shorter with the new agenda we have and a system for all putting in our comments before we have our meeting.

Next steps:
I need to ensure I am scheduling time to practise skills.

It is wise for us to share our planning, good apps etc. Rob suggested having places named "Great Resources" and "Great Strategies" and has put those labels on the blog.

Ideas to motivate boys or reluctant writers

Here are some ideas from another one of my clients about motivating reluctant writers that might resonate with you ;-)

If you want to take these ideas and edit them as text, you can import this image into Keep and then convert the text.

 

Keeping Your Children Safe Online - John Parsons

Check out this great book by my friend and colleague John Parsons - would be great for your parent library.

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??

Tie-dyeing in Room 1, Judy-Anne

We took photos of our tie dyeing to send on seesaw. It was quite challenging to think about lighting, focus and framing. We explored good places to position ourselves and our tie-dyed product.

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. 

Reflection - Steve - Plans

PLANS

I had a process in mind after our pld and teacher meetings.
So much I wanted to achieve. So little accomplished.
Not actually true but seems like it.
Things I wanted, not yet achieved.
1. ERO reading for meeting, prep for student achievement.
2. Observe Reliever to get a feel for application for position.
3. Appraisal system we are starting to share with staff not just teachers.
4. Ensure communication options are taken up by parents.
5. Go through procedures from the Student Achievement Policy from School Docs.
6. Writing Plan consistency.

Achieved
It was good to spend time not just observing the reliever but getting to 'pop' in to the classrooms, getting a feel for the atmosphere, attitudes etc.
Have a BOT member contacted all families to help them have Seesaw and School Loop.
Procedures checked.
Very 'pleasing' to see the outcomes of JA & C working together to have a confident approach to problems solutions, working together and being comfortable with where they are going (reading), and to see it in action in the classroom, great.

 Outcome: a realisation that my staff are competent, working towards the same outcomes I am. We are a better team than I had thought. My need to achieve/accomplish PLD, procedures, appraisals is more collaboration than me doing. I am not indispensable. Hope I can keep to this.

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.

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.

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.

Reflection-Steve-Term 1 2018

The most noticeable item for me has been the reminder that when learning I need to be more open to accepting the learning opportunities that are outside what I had previously thought where the main ones. i.e. not reading, writing, maths for Nat'l Standards, nor that writing is restricted to pen and paper. The use of audio is an appropriate format for conveying meaning - I guess that is literacy.

Developing our school goals as collaborative has started. Making our practise more streamlined, i.e.
using the blog for our appraisal process, with the Teacher criteria, with the school goals, PD, reflections etc.




This crosses over into so many other areas of my practise. I will focus on this one and hopefully become more open to seeing other opportunities.

Relationships: the mixes we have in school have altered or maybe I have.  The teachers have strengths and abilities that I have drawn on but maybe not helped to develop. I am becoming more aware with help from others, that I have certain mindsets that may be worth modifying? How do I do this?


The change from Teacher which has it's own set of dynamics to Principal which have a whole other variety of similar but different requirements. i.e. the way I run the classroom is not how I am managing my role on the BOT.
Again how do I change this?

Teacher Only Day Planning

As far as next week goes here are my thoughts thus far:

• please be prepared to share 5 examples of student learning each (Steve you can do a minimum of 3) that shows: digital learning with writing or English in some shape or form. If you've not done a lot of digital learning in writing, then just digital learning is fine. We need a number of examples as part of what we will do will be analysing these together...
• goals of the two days include: continue lifting confidence/skill at using digital tools, looking at student learning data with a view to designing teacher inquiries (these will feed into your appraisal process), unpacking and expanding on your definition of learner agency and how this can influence planning programmes for T2.
• Would you each please take a series of photos during this week that depict different things about learner agency in your class or in the school? If you can have 3-5 each that would be ideal.
• I reckon we will work from 9-4pm each day

Remember when posting to the blog to put your name as the label also - you'll see links at the top to your posts now, plus a section we'll populate for Inquiry into Practice.

Please help relabel labels for ease of access on blog. Steve
Check e-mail shortcuts i.e. year groups etc. Steve
Google for room 4, docs etc.

Craig wants to know how to set up a room drive, because his teacher didn't use a pencil and Steve asked him how to do it...

Craig wants to know how to set the mistake levels for writing on Room 3 because at the moment it doesn't help at all.

Examples:
Seesaw- Journal
Seesaw- Activities
Lexia
Sunshine Online
Pobble 365
Learning for fun
Sunshine Classics
Photos with ipads
Reading Plus
Epic
Typing
Maths Buddy
Sumdog- Reading and maths
Room 3 drive- writing
ANZAC discovery kit

Writing - TBCS - Rm 4 Target

Writing
In the use of seesaw, Craig shared what he was doing, using another mode of communication than text, he was using audio. I thought about the use of audio in seesaw instead of text for my class. Communication has been differentiated by me in the past, I didn't really use audio as a means of communication with parents. I can see how audio is and should be part of literacy. To that end.

Action
I promoted the use of audio for explaining our last posts in lieu of the normal written explanations.
Responses have been varied, some continue to only 'like' while others have made their responses using audio as well.
A positive is only 3 families are not on seesaw, I am hoping that the children have recognised that their posts aren't being seen at home. I know this was one reason for signing up.

Reflection/next steps
Continue to monitor what Craig is developing and look into extending my posts, maybe even drafting a script? Looking at developing the 'writing' for the audio?