First few weeks in Pounamu

What an amazing few weeks.

I feel truely privileged to be learning with many of the same children as last year and to be learning from new mentors.

It was daunting at first - being the addition to an already established team, but they have been very welcoming and supportive.

At the end of last year, these were some of my concerns;

• The other team members are an established team so worried I won’t fit in
• May view me as just “blue”
• May view me as having little to offer as still a BT
• Not sure the team will value my input as much as current team
• Pushing me completely out of my comfort zone with new team and new level of children
• Lack of knowledge of this curriculum level
• Lots of relationships to build - something I find hard

and here are the positive thoughts I had about my concerns;

• Should look at this as a challenge
• Bring lots of experience @ playbased learning
• Can introduce how we have used pebbles in RWM
• Can introduce and use more SOLO
• Data collection and analysis
• They will value my strengths
• Already worked with Rachel with II team, she knows me
• Good practice for my red side
• Great to learn from new people

Happy to say that my concerns haven't materialised. I still have lots of work to do and my mantra is still SLOW DOWN!

Term 4 2016 reflection - better late than never!

• Communicating Learning
• Was feeling good from about week 8 onwards as had finished CL comments! As we move forward with this I believe it will become more manageable to communicate more regularly and meaningfully, rather than the pressure to “get them done.”
• General comments:
• Some were really hard and I felt that I still didn’t know my children even after nearly 4 terms together (2 with some)
• Some we really easy too - the vocal or stand out (+ve and -ve!) kids
• Goal setting I found to be good, so I obviously knew my kids better than I gave myself credit for as all parents agreed with the goals set.
• Once the GC and CL were finished I felt I could actually focus my energy on teaching and designing meaningful learning! - A thought for going forward - how to have the balance despite the workload?
• EOY conferences were all very positive - funny how some kids react - some went hyper, whilst others were the opposite - note for self, next year prepare the kids more!

• Direct Acts of Teaching (DAT)
• Doing DAT in a 5 week rotation - 5 weeks of Maths and 5 weeks of writing worked really well as it was a decent amount of time to design meaningful learning and understand the kids needs.
• When I was writing eagle I designed learning for the whole group rather than stations (that could be tailored to needs) as I found this more manageable. Evelyn suggested a more play based learning approach but I couldn’t as lots of other stuff was happening and I wanted to have control. I would also have wanted to make sure the kids who couldn’t manage themselves were sorted having everyone do the same thing was just easier - perhaps this was an experience in Universal Learning Design!
• The last 5 weeks when I was Maths Owl, not much actual teaching happened with all the interruptions of end of term!

• Maths
• Love Muireann’s idea of having term 4 as a term of Maths strand whereby you link the knowledge and strategies learnt to other areas of maths.
• Wished we had used the pebbles more - as they are a great way of making learning intentions really visible.
• Perhaps an inquiry next year - use the pebbles (Maths first) as a CL tool - whenever a child achieves a pebble you post it as a comment. Might make comments more manageable and “real” and then would also help with my focus too.
• Team
• Working as a 2 was much easier than a 4 as we could both be more adaptable to kids needs and make changes more quickly - I did have to learn to let go which was a good thing!
• Sad to be leaving current team as we “fit” together and trust one another.
• Will be exciting keeping the same kids and watching them grow.
• Nervous about joining an already established team and starting again - respect, trust etc - I need to make sure I speak up!
• In the old team I did contribute by doing lots of admin type tasks which I enjoy so I hope i’ll still have that opportunity.
• In the new team I would like to;
• Look at playbased learning - will share the Pounamu 2016 BPP as a starting point
• Use pebbles more
• Keep up with our monitoring learning
• Introduce SOLO
• Ensure consistency
• Leadership
• From a leadership point of view as I am already quite comfortable with the management side of running a team I need to develop the skills to lead adults and find ways to grow team members. 
• Perhaps in the short term I will ask to lead an area (play-based learning?)

• Coming up next year also have the Cyclone conference with Evelyn to prepare for - busy times ahead!!