In the Pit

Well i've been in the pit and have climbed back out of it! It's taken a couple of weeks of reflection to figure out what put me in there and to try and identify triggers so if I feel myself peering over the edge I can take a detour to avoid the pit!

What put me in there?

• Week 1 of my second term at SPS 
• and the first time I've taught two consecutive terms!
• Un-settled and out of routine 
• I had a vision meeting with Ben (amazing) and a CRT day which meant less time with my children
• Expectations of students behaviour too high
• I didn't really consider the 2 week break and the impact of no routine would have on certain children
• An activity that went on too long and so some students not fully engaged
• Bringing a story to life I had a cut and colouring activity which most did a great job with, but a group of 4 boys and another of 3 girls were noisy and disruptive
• Another mentor having to come and speak to my group to quieten them

Realisations 

• My excitement about going back to school wasn't matched by all the children!
• Discussion with other mentors about the children and acknowledging the fact that behaviour will have changed because of the holidays and so to have this at the forefront of my mind
• Next week 1 to spend as much time with the children in the habitat
• Other mentors speaking to my children is a good thing! "It takes a village to raise a child" and I have to be comfortable with this in our environment

Change

• Bringing a story to life - I've made it more hands on and creative with clear expectations
• I also swiveled myself to look at my interactions with certain students
• Whilst I like children to choose where they work and with whom, sometimes that is just not practical and that it is fine to move them!

Reigniting the love of learning

 One child in KA has been particularly disruptive and disrespectful during the first 2 weeks of term 4. According to the other mentors he has regressed back to how he was at the start of the year when he didn’t want to come to school, didn’t like school and didn’t like learning. This is in stark contrast to the end of term 3 when he was caught on video talking about liking school because he liked learning.

We had a meeting this week with the child and his parents to discuss what we could do to bring the love of learning back. They have troubles with him at home and he is quite a lively, energetic child who has trouble staying focused and gets easily distracted.

To help combat some of this and encourage him to manage himself we are going to move where his mentor group meet to a less busy area, we will create a learning space for him to go to (a carrel type set up), have ear muffs available when the noise gets too much and bring in a wrist band reward system. Whenever a mentor catches him doing the right thing he gets a wrist band, when he has earnt 5 then he gets extra play time (something he chose).

Hopefully by focusing on the good (ignoring the bad), and having a space for him to learn that has less of a sensory impact we can make a positive change and restore the love of learning. He does have to realise that learning is hard and that by using a growth mindset he can grow his brain and that managing himself and being motivated to learn will enable him to succeed. We just need to put systems in place around him to enable this.

Fingers crossed it works!!

Professional Development

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/neuroscience-behind-stress-and-learning-judy-willis


One thing I need to do is find a way of tracking the PD I do and whilst I grapple with the many different options I'm going to post some images from the Art in Literacy course I did in term 3.

Not all the activities and skills taught would be possible with a group of 5 or 6 year olds but perhaps there is a way to adapt some of the ideas.

Quite like this, done using a finger only, starting with blue paint and then working up to the lighter paints. Was copying an image which is a great way to get some focus!

Think of a word to describe what is important to you, fold your paper and write it then cut it out. Draw a border and add more information.

This picture was done using a vivid for part and then water colour pencils for the colouring. When water is sprayed on the pencil it runs. Mine doesn't really show this! The writing is a Haiku (5,7,5).

Using Maori

One of my (many) goals it to use more Maori in my day and to make sure that in my planning (and that of the team) the bi-cultural heritage is being respected.

I'm not one for token-ism and so I'm trying to use Te Reo Maori in a genuine way. Greeting students in the morning and afternoon, giving basic instructions, and learning basic vocab with my children. I believe that if they see me as a learner of Maori then they will be willing to give it a go too.

In the writing centre I have also put in some Maori writing to be done - a very simple Mihi, and I just need to explain what needs to be done so they students can do it with minimal support during Learning Centre time.

Guided Reading Lesson

During week 10 of term 3 I recorded myself taking a several reading lessons. Very hard watching yourself work - and quite cringe-worthy at times!

From the analysis of the video there are some things I am going to change about how I go about running these guided reading sessions!

1. Focus on one child at a time but for a shorter time period
2. Listen to those who really need the support (rather than every child in the group)
3. Speed it up so the children don't get bored!
4. Give children time to solve the puzzle of the word
5. Turn on my peripheral vision!

Here is an edited version of the lesson! Was also great to try and grow my skills in using iMoive too!

My term 4 goal

During a meeting with Claire I was prompted to look at my current and desired realities (all the other mentors did this during induction so will have had 4 terms to work on shifting)  and pick one to work on for the term - My goal is to speak out when something is bothering me. This all stems from a question Ben asked about the culture of SPS and trust and transparency. Whilst I firmly believe that I can speak out and that my voice is important, I find it really, really hard to do!

I have talked to the team and they will support me in this. We all also said that it is much harder speaking out than receiving the feedback so I'm glad others in the team feel the same way.

Now I just need to be brave and do it!!

BPP of teaming

During our team day we started talking about what makes a good team.... this then morphed into a why - Why we believe that working in a team is better.

We had lots in our How - the principles;

• willingness to try
• visible, open and transparent
• support each others performance
• knowing each others style
• making mistakes is OK
• bravery
• communication
• trust
• flexible

But it was (and still is) really hard to come up with a belief - why do we believe that working in a team is better? We believe we can cause richer/deeper learning by working collectively with a common commitment towards..... our collective knowledge, skills and experience..... and by being mutually accountable.... As you can tell this is a work in progress. Hopefully the next team meeting we'll get version 1 of our belief clarified.

Gathering Evidence

For Maths in Term 4 we are going to try and have a focus on add / sub as well as the number knowledge pebbles. As I want to make the learning as personalised as possible I have used the diagnostic snapshots from NumPA book 5 and taken the blue pebbles through the questions. I did multiple questions to give me the best chance of finding our what they can do and what strategies they use. Looking at the results I need 3 groups - one with a focus on addition, another on subtraction and the third needs to look at groups of 10. To help the team I'm going to group the basic Add/ Sub together and do an on-line lesson support for the 2 children who need to work on Key Idea 4. This will free up some Owl time to help bring the Yellow Pebbles up to speed. Everyone's a winner!

Work Life Balance

Week 1, Term 4, 2015 Monday...Exercise, first time in 6 months (except for Skiing!). It felt good. Loved being there and felt like I was taking control of my life. Just have to remember this tomorrow when my whole body hurts!!