Using the Environment

A great korero this week centred around what's on top, responsive stuff and wonderings. Our weekly chats are something I have begun to really look forward to. I especially appreciate the reciprocal nature of learning at our chats. Many thanks!

We continue to talk about writing and meeting the needs of the kids we are working with. We followed up from a recent professional learning session about activating and using student voice. It has been a real shift in thinking for Kimi aakau to students giving their voice to what happens within the school and the classroom. We want to encourage children to know that their experiences, opinions and ideas are valued.

You've used this well this week with your discussions with the kids about what they would like to achieve with their writing. They are clearly driven by their audience and the format of posters. As mentor and the holder of curriculum knowledge you have been able to make links to the children's voice and you have managed to engage the children to write for a real purpose. I look forward to see how that goes next week.

We discussed the environment and how to plan this to have an impact on learning. After some hesitation, we ascertained that the environment and how we use it is a significant part of learning relationships so still fits with your focus for the term. I came to a point of shift in my career when I viewed Ewan McIntosh's thinking about the link between digital and physical spaces. It's a little out of date in a short period of time but still a good provoker....

I loved how you made links from this to the work you are doing in maths at the moment and the fact that the learning pebbles which are already on the wall could be accompanied by examples of maths language and vocabulary. I look forward to seeing what that looks like. 

Piecing it altogether...

I'm just preparing our next professional learning meeting based around the learning model in maths, the place of materials, imaging and number properties and I re-found this Think Board. I have used think boards with kids but never as a tool to help me reflect/ plan. 

I thought this fitted nicely with a discussion you and I recently based around your maths group and ways to extend their understandings and knowledge to real application. 

From the Add/Sub and Place Value booklet

Gathering Steam

It's fair to say that the main events of this week were the 3-way conferences and the official hand over of the zebra group to you.

I have realised how fortunate we are to be working in this environment and the opportunities it has presented us for your induction. You have spent three weeks getting to know the children really well and developing learning relationships. In a conversation about resourcing this week, you talked about the children you have been working with ease and it stood out to us how well you know where they are at and their next steps.

The 3-way conferences gave you an opportunity to sit in with Muireann and the parents to discuss each child in your mentor group. It was a very effective way for you to culminate what you have observed over the past three weeks and to meet the families of each child. The children and their families were very welcoming of you as their new go-to mentor.

Challenges this week have included:

• gathering children's understandings of scientific change
• adapting the task on the fly when you realised what was planned for a group of children was not appropriate (You did this particularly well, BTW)
• defining our BPP for the PCT programme and really thinking through the expectations we have the people involved. 
• linking knowledge cards to the learning pebbles; can the knowledge wall be the planning document with the practice activities added to it?
• getting ready for Linc'Ed 

Next week, you are setting up a Maths/Science station as part of the Habitat's Concept Literacy. We've discussed the idea of following a child to find out what learning looks like from their perspective. I am looking forward to hearing your observations and encourage you to feed your findings and reflections back to the rest of the team.

Scratching the Surface

I think the key message for both of us this week has been accepting the fact that we will be crawling before we walk, before we run, before we sprint, Tetli. I picked up this phrase from Tony Burkin on Tuesday and believe I have used it several times, already. It's a phrase that resonated for me because it reminded me of the importance of the metaphorical foundation we are building in our new school and in our new roles, along with the fact that we need to make our inquiries iterative. 

I enjoyed our discussion this morning! We covered a lot of ground and it gave us both a lot to think about:

• The special nature of our school and the starting dates of our children beginning school is a wonderful reminder that we are about stage not age.
• An  indepth discussion with Sharon about early concepts of print. This affirmed our discussion above when we looked at one lad who showed up requiring a 6 Year net but he has only been at school for 20 weeks. (How can we count weeks on our SMS? I wonder)
• Knowledge vs Strategy in Mathematics and the developmental stages of introducing equipment. The order that equipment is introduced is important. The children that you are working with are working towards imaging and they will need time to make and unmake, bundle and unbundle numbers. This is a pre-requisite to add/sub. This can be followed by money and then the abacus. 
• We then moved into a discussion with Ben about BT induction. It's refreshing to be thinking about this process and starting with a blank page. We used Julia Atkin's BPP circles (Beliefs, Principles and Practices). I liked the way that Ben pointed out that this period of your career is about aligning the knowledge you acquired during your pre-service training with authentic practices at Shotover. We need to be mindful that the latter consistently aligns with our principles and belief. 

My new thinking/ epiphany today was that if we are going to continually walk the talk at SPS, we need to build the learning beliefs into what we as adults do on a daily basis. Initial thinking:

1. Curiosity = questioning, TAI
2. Thinking = reflection, evidence
3. Collaboration - Akonga, this blog, the actual induction 
4. Growth Mindset = thinking outside the box to make this process genuinely authentic and not compliance driven.
5. Joy = celebrating our successes and the wonder of being here. 

So What? Next week, we will complete a final draft of the BPP. Tetli is going to have a play with the Swivel and have a go at capturing some short interactions on video. The purpose of this is to begin defining the way that we "observe, talk and appraise ourselves". 

Week 1: Done and Dusted!

Congratulations, Tetli. Your first week is done and we are loving having you on board! Your focus this week has been about orientation including getting to know the children, the team and the ins and outs of what this space looks like...

At our first meeting, we had a very informal chat about the week that was including different learning and teaching models and the value that we hold with regards to relationships, trust and transparency. 

The learning, un-learning and re-learning is obviously going to be an on-going part of our cycle which presents a true "Climate of Possibility" in everything we do at SPS. There are many themes from the 'backwards bicycle metaphor that we can use to support our conversations and our journey.

Your timing is impeccable and reiterates the AKO model. From your induction, I too am learning and testing some of the micro stuff based on your feedback. It is hard to believe that we overlooked the traditional right of passage into a school ie, the key and PIN to the alarm! Instead I was determined to ensure that you were connected and able to collaborate from the start which meant ensuring your iPad and MacBook were good to go.

t's got me wondering if that's also an indication that the shift in our beliefs about belonging are changing also?

Tetli, as your Teaching as Inquiry blog evolves, it would be great to see the trends in your reflections related to the SPS Teacher Criteria. I suggest you get into the habit of labelling your posts with the relevant criteria. The word cloud created from your labels will help you track your reflections and growth in each dimension. Here's a wee cheat sheet that shows you how to pre-set your labels. 

Next week, we will meet with Ben and begin to develop our beliefs, principles and practices about working towards full registration and the mentoring programme. I am looking forward to learning with you, Tetli!