My 3 BIG Steps - update

Relationships - Having lost a bit of professional capacity over the last week and combine this with complete exhaustion I have gone back to herding. I am more aware of other things I should be doing and I do try and use some of the techniques (from Kevin Knight) I should be using, and not just “sweeping”. What I do, and what I think I do, may not be completely aligned and so next week I will either record or Swivel myself during mentor time so I can truly understand what I actually do and so what I need to work on.

To give myself some credit I do feel that relationships have been built as through the writing of the CL comments I became more aware of what they can do and their needs. Knowing their needs will enable us to set goals and build and develop the relationships further.

Architect of Opportunities – During concept time I was designing learning that was fun and engaging but as I said in an earlier post it wasn’t very focused. Weeks 10 and 11 (or Term 2!) I aim to be focused whilst also being adaptive to their needs.

Writing – Feedback from the team is positive about what we are achieving and how the writing sessions are going. I have some other ideas that I would like to try, although next term I might not be one of the “Writing Owls” so writing time for me will probably happen during Concept time.

My ideas are;

• Use progress pebbles as a way of tracking small achievements
• Set up an emergent group that focuses on the fine motor skills

o   Holding the pencil

o   Controlling the pencil to make firm lines on the page

o   Draw and paint within lines or mazes

• Split the writing sessions so we have creative and a technical direct teaching where the creative is focused on the deeper features and the technical is on the surface features
• Have examples of the different stages on the wall so children can see what "success" looks like.

Only time will tell what works and it's great being in an environment that is supportive of the changes and tweaks to the teaching we do. 

Pebbles and WALTs

I have started reading part of Clarity in the Classroom and something that struck me that I’m not currently doing and that I need to get better at is setting learning expectations.

Over the last few weeks whilst I’ve had fun (and the children too) exploring the world of our senses and movement I had no clear objectives and so the lessons kind of meandered through all sorts of areas very loosely connected to movement. Whilst I know it is essential to be adaptive to the childrens’ needs and interests, I need to be much clearer with my aims and communicate this to them so I can be held accountable for achieving these.

Maths is an easier area to have intentions and build a plan around them, but I still feel I haven’t done this particularly well. I need to start asking myself “Why?” when planning the learning to make sure that it links back clearly to my overall aim / focus / goal / intention. Our Progress Pebbles from last year are great to help with number knowledge and need to be developed further so they cover more areas in more detail – add/sub etc.

Before launching on my “Writing Inquiry” I draw up some pebbles based on our progressions to make them more cognitively portable. I need to dig these out and start using them – even break some of the steps down even further so we can see even the smallest progression clearly.

The Pebbles are a great tool for us to use to look at progress, and for the children to use so they can see what they have achieved and to know their next steps.

Whilst they can be quite time consuming to make I think that I would benefit from having most things “Pebbled” so I can see the progressions and the focus for learning and make this cognitively portable.

Job description

Who would have thought that writing your own job description – and just 1 sentence at that, would be so hard!

Went through many iterations to make sure that it summed up what was “essential”, what I should be doing everyday in my job as a mentor. It is the one thing for me to focus on and that (hopefully) at the end of everyday I can say “Yes, I did that”.

Drum roll please.....

Communicating Learning

I don’t know what it is about “reports” or “communicating learning” but whenever this rears its (ugly) head I seem to go into headless chicken mode and get all panicy about it.

Something that springs to mind is a session we had with Ben about maintaining our professional capacity even when we are under pressure and that this ability is what will make us individually and collectively great.

A week ago I know I lost a vast chunk of my professional capacity when it dawned on me I had to write 22 comments and take 22 photos to share with parents (with hindsight that is not a lot to do!). I am proud of myself as I did ask for help but then I didn’t really appreciate the help I was given as I felt it wasn’t “right”.

Having come out of the other end of this particular tunnel I can now see that I blew the task up so it seemed way bigger than it actually was, and although I did my usual list writing to help me all I needed to do was just get started. Once Claire pushed me to get started the task wasn’t actually that bad! Having read and re-read the comments and battled internally with the present and past tense of some of the comments I’m actually happy with what I have achieved and am feeling quite confident about the meetings next week – that I do actually know my children well enough to talk to them and their parents.

My Writing Inquiry

As part of my writing inquiry I decided I wanted to find out about childrens' attitudes towards writing so I designed  a little form that I completed with 2 writing groups today (the other 2 I'll do later).

Question 1 - the overwhelming majority do like writing - a great starting point! Have to make sure that this level of enjoyment doesn't decrease - no pressure!

When asked what they found easy, answers ranged from "writing I am" to "holding the pencil properly". Easy words and drawing a picture are the 2 most common answers which is interesting as a focus this week has been on drawing ideas.

When asked what they found hard, answers ranged from "nothing" to "everything"! Hard words and puzzled faces were the 2 most common answers. But other interesting points to note are "forming letters" (my words) from the younger children and it was also good to see some honest answers - "to start" from one of my chosen ones who does struggle to start. Showing great self-awareness from a 5 year old.

When asked what their goals were there was a difference in the age of the children  the Hot Air Balloons have generally been at school for 5 weeks whilst the Spaceships range from 15 to 45 weeks of schooling. It is clear to see that our focus as mentors has been on the finger-spaces, or perhaps it's the "wriggly worm" that has caught their attention. This is interesting as I thought my focus has been on the ideas stage but that is clearly not the message!

My final question was "What are you learning?" and some just looked puzzled as if to say "to write of course" and others said that. This tells me two things - firstly, that I need to be more careful about the wording of my questions as I was trying to find out the detail - the intentions, and secondly that we are not be clear about the learning intentions as none could really articulate this to me.

All in all an interesting wee survey and I will take the results back to the team, and alter some aspects of the lesson structure.

Slow Down

When reflecting on what was "On Top" for me this week the common theme was;

I need to slow down when it comes to;

• Writing -
• I want the plan to be working now!
• I need to work on my timing so children are enthusiastic - but I want to be able to do this now!
• How will I know that my teaching of writing is better? - I want to know now!
• Herding Sheep-
• With my mentor group I am definitely herding less, and they are more responsive - but I want 21 focused all the time (completely unrealistic I know!)
• Routines have changed and as mentors we are still getting used to this so I know I need to give the children time
• Claire give me some advice for the "late after lunchers" - a nice slow chat, and repeat it to chip away at the behaviours that need changing - rather than expecting one chat to fix it all!
• Concept - 
• I need to give children the ability to absorb what we are learning rather than rush my way through "it"
• I have been quite adaptable with this plan by changing as I have gone on - instead of an experiment per day we have done 1 every few days and written about it
• With my enthusiasm for what we're doing I have gone off tack slightly so I need to bring it back to the focus on Movement and Health and PE
• Maths - 
• We start Owling next week and I want to have the pebbles ready to go so life is easier for the Eagles
• Help set the children up for success when they are choosing during Maths time as they will know what the focus is for each area of the habitat
• This comes from a conversation with a child who was off task and when I pointed out that the focus was on ordering numbers a light bulb went off for them and away they went happy!
• I understand that to have buy in and understanding from the whole team we need to do somethings together, but I just want the pebbles up on their boards to help us all!
• This is also something I need to "Speak up" about as I am happy to set the boards up and then as a team we can do the Yellow, Visionary job of linking the pebbles to the activities and so on.
• Although having reflected further on all of this, perhaps all we need for now is a sign for each area with a picture the children can recognise so they know what to do with the materials available.