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.

Research on ILE

Have just found this and don't want to loose it so am putting it here:

The start of one of my 3 BIG steps

My Writing Inquiry
Am currently immersing myself into the writing process. I have selected 3 children from my mentor group and I will follow them as we progress through the year. They have different needs and hopefully my analysis of them (with help from Jill) can inform my teaching practice for the other learners.
Before starting on this journey Jill asked "What do I want to get out of it?". I want to know where to start, how do I get my desired outcome of running a successful writing programme.
So my first question is "What does a successful writing programme look like?" and my current answer is I want children who are;
Engaged - in the flow of writing
Motivated - want to write
Confident  - have an audience and feel valued
Take risks  - will have a go and try

To try and understand this more, and how I might start getting these things, I will spend some time observing RT who I believe runs a great writing programme.

Following on from a conversation with Jill I have come up with this progression;

I'm sure the above image will morph as I go further in to this and as we work as a team.

The aim is to keep the plan and the structure of the writing session the same and then change the context. This way the children will get used to how the sessions will work which, in time, should enable each session to be more about the children writing than us modelling.

Claire linked these ideas to;
The Plan - stems from the children's needs, (getting to know thy learner)
The Modelling - is around the teaching goal, (knowing the progressions linked to learners)
The Groupings - be based on needs so we can workshop  (Yellow thinking - Vision, all children writing everyday - mustn't rush this though!!)

I'm feeling more confident even after reflecting on one weeks worth of work and excited to start next week. Must make sure I feed all of this forward to Eve who I am team teaching with, and to SLOW DOWN, it doesn't have to happen tomorrow!

Finished Desired Realities

Found it quite hard to go back to my realities a week later - learning for me, I should have carried on whilst my thoughts were fresh! Despite this my image is finished as are my 3 Great Steps.

Step 1;
Go on a "Personal Writing Inquiry" I need to learn how to help my learners;

• Asking for internal support from experts
• Make the progressions portable
• Read, read and read!
• Follow my chosen 3 on their writing journey and use the learnings to help all

Step 2;

Be "an Architect of Opportunities";

• Differentiate the learning
• Use the environment
• Be adaptable to needs
• Observe and ask
• Let it go (accept and become more comfortable with adaptations)

Step 3:

Relationships - build, maintain and grow through;

• Respecting all (children, mentors, students)
• Listening and asking
• Getting and giving feedback
• Observing
• Read, read and read!

Current and desired realities

The whole staff PL meeting was all about using our goals from last year and developing our current and desired realities using the Patti Dobrowolski visual goal setting.
As with last year I found it hard to start but Patti's point that by starting to visualise things, you can see more clearly, worked for me. I started writing a list of where I am with regards to my goals and then from that came my metaphor and image.
It's still a work in progress but it links with my FA2 goal about behaviour management, and my growing understanding of whole brain thinking.

FA2

Following PL from Kevin Knight in January, a real focus for me is to make sure I have children at FA2 (or FA1, but they are only 5!) before giving instructions.

According to Kevin this means that the children are very attentive - quiet and still, some fidgeting, no talking, only 1 or 2 continue to work, children are attending. With 5 year olds I will aim to have none working as they are not developmentally able to be doing and properly listening - that will come!

One of my relationship goals for the year is around behaviour management and if I can nail FA2 then I think other elements of my practice will become easier.

So, how will I do this? Here is my game plan;

• Tell my mentor group what my goal is
• Practice with them

• get them to be noisy (FA6 or FA7!)
• call them to attention – using the 5 pattern clap we agreed on as a group of mentors
• practice the different techniques Kevin talked about;
• Sweep
• Praise
• Quiet voice
• Stance (body language), plus non verbal cues – wait with hands on head / shoulders etc so it is easy to see who is listening and focused
• Wait
• Tactical ignore (making it clear to all that I was ignoring the behaviour)
• State the obvious – in a neutral manner (so be careful about body language)
• Neutral prompt “NJ what should you be doing?”

Then I will need to be consistent in my actions and as Muireann said I just need to give it time so I will have to be careful that I don’t get impatient and lapse back into talking over them.

I’m going to monitor how I’m doing over the next couple of weeks and I have asked Muireann (and I will ask the other team members) to give me feedback based on this one (rather large) goal.

4 minutes of me

A task we were set, to introduce ourselves to the whole team, was to talk for no more than 4 minutes about;

where you are from?

where you have taught/lead? 

What, in the last 5 years, has influenced your beliefs about teaching and learning and the impact this has had on your practice?

I decided to start mine with a mini mihi. Couple of reasons why I did this. Firstly, something I think is important in learning is to feel safe enough to enable you to take risks, and secondly, Te Reo Maori is something that interests me and is an area of learning I want to develop further for myself and my learners.

I was very nervous, spoke way too quickly but I think it showed my beliefs  as I took a risk - many in the room were much better at speaking Maori than I am, but they appreciated my effort.

Influences on my teaching were primarily in the room as I have learnt so much more from being on the job and surrounded by amazingly inspirational mentors, rather than through the GradDip.

So much I didn't say, but I was proud of my mihi and as nerve wracking as it was I'm very glad I did it!