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!!

Learning Centres

For 3 days of week 10, term 3 we tried learning centres;

• Day 1 we had the children in Whanau groups and put 3 groups together for each area, so a total of 7 groups, and we had 8 areas.
• On reflection we thought that were too many children in each group and so;
• Day 2 we had 8 children in each group, a total of 9 groups, with 2 leaders and 9 areas.
• We also rotated them in a logical way so they moved around the space rather than criss-crossing
• Day 3 was humming!

Here is a more detailed PMI;

Can't wait until next term when we can iron out the "M", carry on the "P" and make use of the "I"!