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". 

The Golden Circle

Big discussion today about the BT induction in relation to the 3 circles – “why” (belief), “how” (principles) and “what” (practices). “Why” being the thinking circle, the fundamentals of your beliefs, the “how” being the principles surrounding those beliefs – the practicalities of how that can happen and the “what” being the actual practice – the doing.

Easiest circle is the outer one, the what – what do we do, or need to do. But there needs to change in the way of thinking so the focus is on the inner circle – the “why” are we going to do something (and not because we have to!). From the why we can then come to the how and then the what.

“What” is easiest to articulate simply because it is what we do, all the time. This is at the forefront of our mind, it’s what we do all day, everyday. I guess it could be thought of as the habits of doing and we all know just how hard it is to break bad habits! We need to flip this so at the forefront of mind is the why of something which will then make sure our actions are “justified”.

When coming up with plans we need to be able to validate an outer circle action using the two inner circles. For a BT Induction programme the what might be an observation, the how is that it needs to be done in a trusting, respectful manner, leading back to the belief that we are marrying the theory of teaching with the actual realities.

If an action on the outside doesn’t link with the principle of how it can happen or the why it should happen, then it is an action that needs to be re-thought. For example the practice of doing a running record each term…ask why? If it’s because you always have then that isn’t a good enough answer to justify the practice. It needs to connect with the belief (at SPS) that assessment is “for” learning not about learning. Therefore a running record should be done only to increase your understanding of the strategies being used so you can use this to improve the learning experience…. It becomes a “for” learning not an “of” learning practice.

Lots of food for thought with this discussion on the simplicity of 3 circles which should turn how you think upside down.

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! 

Week 1 at SPS

Week 1 - Amazing is the one word summary. Was scared at the thought of not having a real "purpose" in the Innovative Learning Environment as all the other mentors are carrying on as normal, but my fear did not eventuate.
Day 1, Blue pebble Maths group
Day 2, Starlings and Waxeyes Reading groups
Day 4, Sparrows Reading group
Week 2 will be planning for Ben 10 writing group and teaching Ben 10 and Thunderbirds groups.

SPS really do walk-the-talk of collaboration. We're each planning different writing groups but not teaching all the lessons, PE we've decided on a theme and will follow the same lesson plan, reading groups are taken from each mentor group, as are maths groups. Concept time is a time to dig deeper and cover multiple curriculum areas, and there is still space in the week for a "joy"session - doing what you love as a learner / mentor. What more can you ask for?! 

It's the little things that help too.... SPS use hangouts to communicate with each other so there aren't 15 new emails every time you look at your computer. Discussing students is easy as all mentors are accessible, open and right there when you need them. Feedback is immediate, if you make a mistake and another mentor is there it is easily fixed (such as phonics - it's mmmmmm, not m m m!).

Then there is also the bonus of being surrounded by amazing mentors, absorbing what, why and how they do things to add to your repertoire. It is easy to feel somewhat daunted by this too, as they are incredible, but with a growth mindset I know my beliefs, principles and practices will just get refined and improved which can only be a good thing for the learners.

#mlap14 Maths Like a Pirate

I was a bit mean, on the timetable I put "MLP" and had them guessing what it meant. They all thought it stood for Maths, Literacy and Painting! Little did they know!!

Maths like a Pirate (#mlap14) has been amazing. Challenge 1 – bridge building was great, all students actively engaged in their mixed ability groups, and so competitive…a perfect example of collaboration and competition as per an #edchatnz twitter chat of a couple of weeks ago. 

Students identified so many areas of maths that were used and their bridges were all very different…one even held the weight of an average sized year 3 boy!  

 The marble run wasn’t quite as successful which I attribute to tiredness from camp and the fact that not all students knew what a marble run was! 

Discussion about why it is Maths like a Pirate and not a Princess or Dinosaur was interesting, students came up with team work, having fun and getting the treasure… a good start! Looking forward to this week’s build a tower from tooth picks and marshmallows!

Will check on the school's policy about posting photos on the web before adding to the #mlap14 blog.

Coming up for air!

Well I feel I can finally come up for some air! Two weeks of my own classroom and i’ve just about stopped looking over my shoulder waiting for feedback or suggestions about how to do things!

Being in someone else’s classroom is a blessing and a curse….so many resources, but finding what fits for me has been challenging and time consuming. I found that I wanted to use everything, and so became slightly over whelmed about what was available. The way I have overcome this at the moment has been to look at my plans and what needs to be achieved and then find the resources to fit. At first, I had the resources and tried to get the learning to fit…completely the wrong way to do things! It’s all about the learning – for me and my students!

What has also helped me cope has been 2 planning days; my class went to camp without me, so I was able to re-arrange the classroom so less students had their backs to the whiteboard, put up my resources to support the learning, and generally make it mine! I feel like I’m wearing my own shoes now, not someone else’s.

Can’t believe 2 weeks are done and only 5 more until the end of the year. Two jobs have come up at QPS so will be applying for them…fingers crossed!