Digital Immersion (Term 4, Week 1)

Today, and lately, I have been thinking about how digital technology will affect and change teaching more and more. At Ulearn, I experienced two major breakouts in this field - the OMGTech session and the session where a teacher explains how she did game coding with her class. 

From someone somewhere, I was linked to this. This is an idea about what education in NZ will look like in 2025.. Have a read..

 Even now, we are starting to see this type of education already - kids using VR and augmented reality (I myself have done this with the Anatomy 4D app), teaching kids to code and programme, and preparing them for jobs that don't yet exist. 

Education has become an active social process, compared to the passive content-retention classrooms of the past. What will be the next big thing? How will this change the role and need for teachers?

On that note, today we did Hour of Code.
This is a digital coding programme is designed for children and adults alike, to slowly, step-by-step, introduce the key ideas behind game coding and get you doing each of these steps, before setting you off to make your own game/play around.
There are two main ways of coding..
Using blocks (i.e. like Scratch) and using Java script (i.e. like I did when I programmed the robot at Ulearn).

Here are two videos made up of screenshots, of me working through the two types of game formatting.

I found the Hour of Code really helpful and easy to use - it builds your skills one by one and exposes you to more complex ideas as you progress. This approach would be much better suited to kids, rather than jumping straight into using Scratch or Gamefroot with no preparation beforehand.

I think when I do coding with my kids (either end of this term, or next year..) I will follow this semi-structure.

1. Introduction to games (boardgames, knucklebones, card games etc) - aim: to build understanding of the purpose of games, the reason/need for instructions and get kids evaluating/reviewing games to see strengths and weaknesses.
2. Hour of code - aim: to build basic understanding of how game coding works
3. Use scratch to build onto basic game understandings - multiple characters, how to build in levels/points. Any game with no specified purpose - just practice!
4. Find a social problem in our community and design a game that will help/teach/inform about this social issue
5. Students form groups and design, then build, their own game using scratch.

I think I would also like to have a 'code club' as a lunchtime activity where students from any year level can come and code together to revise/build upon their skills.

Science week - the 'share' bit!

To finish off our human body week, we made a video to teach other people about the organs we learnt about. 

Check it out!

I posted this on the class blog and sent it to all the teachers at my school asking them to leave comments in support of my kids. Check it out here.

Science Week - HUMAN BODY (Friday)

Today was our day for filming our Manaiakalani movie, so we didn't really have time to finish our bodies off. I wanted to post about it anyway to complete the weeks worth of reflections about this unit. 

Throughout this week I have been constantly AMAZED by my kids. These are a bunch of 7 and 8 year old rug-rats, who love to dance and play tag, and play silly games on their netbooks and half-jokingly try to eat my lunch sometimes. 

They're just kids.

But this week in particular, they have worked harder than some adults I know. 

The amount of information they have consumed is enough to blow my mind, but the level of deep understanding that (most) of them have now about their bodies is unfathomable. Most of the stuff they learnt this week about their bodies, I didn't even know (as an adult) about my own body.

Every person who came into our class, wether it be another teacher, a visitor or the office lady, these lovelies would almost ambush them trying to teach that person about their body (and they did it using the proper words for the body parts as well - no 'tummy' here!). Even waiting to cross the road after school yesterday, some of my kids were explaining the function of the gall bladder to the teacher on duty. They are so excited about their learning, and obviously are so proud of themselves!

Yesterday while I was 'in the zone' with my body-part assembly line, the kids who weren't helping Archana or I were independently reading and writing about the organs we hadn't had time to cover yet. All on their own, and doing a good job of it too.

Even after I got mad at some of the kids who just didn't even try to do any learning yesterday, and I gave the class a lecture about how hard teachers work and how much it hurts my feelings that they didn't even try, some of the kids stayed after school to help me finish off the bodies and didn't leave till I kicked them out. 

Even at my worst, when I'm feeling stressed and tired and exhausted, they were amazing...

Then they left comments on Monday and Tuesday's blog posts...

Just. 

These are some incredible kids.

There is no other way to describe it.

And I am so lucky to have them.

P.s. expect to see a movie next week as we finish off the 'share' part of Manaiakalani's learn-create-share learning pedagogy.

Digital Immersion/Annual Hui (Term 3, Week 5)

Today the MDTA's were invited to the Manaiakalani Annual Hui, held at the Panmure Yacht & Boating Club. It was a great day, with lots of different speakers having their bit, all coming together to share the message of the work Manaiakalani has done over the past year. 

First up were the student ambassadors from each of the 12 schools. They each shared part of their learning which demonstrated use of digital affordance, the learn create share pedagogy, amazing teacher creativity or student creativity with their blogs. 

Next up were the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers, sponsored by the SPARK Foundation. They each shared about the research they have been conducting this year. I created this sketch-note to help myself remember key things that different people presented that I thought were awesome/inspirational;/thought-provoking. 

After morning tea was the team from the Woolf Fisher Research Centre presenting data collected from the 12 Manaiakalani schools and introducing the next set of ideas and goals to work on. Again, I created a sketch-note to record my thought process while they talked.

After this, Russell Burt, prinicipal of Point England School, put things very simply. We know how to move the 'bottom' students to the 'middle', and only some of us are doing that, and now the team from Woolf Fisher had just told us how to get the 'middle' students to the 'top'. Russell's message - JUST DO IT! It is for the benefit of your students. You as a teacher choosing not to do the things we know will work because you don't like them, agree with them, whatever, is to the detriment of your students, so get over it, and do it for your kids.

After lunch, Dorothy talked the crowd through the Manaiakalani Outreach clusters. These are groups of schools around the country which want 'our recipe' for success with low decile low achieving students. Although it is not that simple, these outreach clusters are now on a fast-tracked 3 year programme modelled from the Tamaki cluster so they can accelerate their students as well. 

I created another sketch-note the record snippets of the discussion as it went along.

Overall, it was an awesome day at the annual hui. I learnt a lot about Manaiakalani (when I thought I knew everything... ha!) and definitely got some food for thought to reflect on for my own practice. 

Kia kaha Manaiakalani!

Modelling book magic

One thing I have noticed about myself when teaching is that I often forget to record what the students and I are doing, hence have no evidence of it for either of us to refer back to.

Today during reading I set myself two goals

-1, to read with every student in my class, and 

-2, use the modelling book to record what my students did during this guided reading lesson

For context, we read another story about chess. Last week (some) of these students read a fictional story about two sisters learning to play chess and participating in a tournament in their school. Today,  (some) of us read this story which talks about one school who have chess experts and the people who helped get them there. A different type of writing, a different context and setting about the same theme. 

Using our modelling books..

Before we read, I drew a balloon and students wrote in their predictions based on pictures and the title. This is something we did a lot last term, so we don't want them to forget!

With a couple of my groups, we focused on their reading goal which is "ask questions about the text I have read". This goal is based on their need to really comprehend what they are reading, and being able to ask questions is a good way to show you have understood what you have read and that you have thought about it, not just read it and forgotten it straight away. 

So we had a box where the students wrote questions they had about the text, which they freely wrote independently as we read each page as a group. At the end of each page, we would stop and answer all the questions they had written and ticked them off as we answered them. The students answered each others questions, with me stepping in when they got really stuck.

We also had a 'new words' balloon, where myself or students recorded new words we came across in the text. At the end of each page, we discussed these as well and looked up the definitions.

Overall, each group had a page that roughly looked like this...

It was awesome to have the students so engrossed in their stories, thinking of heaps of questions which led to rich discussion around the text, learning new words and making connections to these. I think I definitely needed to start using modelling books again, as it gives more opportunity for students to share their thinking without the social pressure of interrupting the groups reading to ask a question or define a new word. It provided such rich discussion and we were able to make deep connections (e.g. the characters chess club was called Eastern Knights because a knight is a chess piece, and they lived on the East Coast. Whats the East Coast? *looks up then draws NZ map*...).

After the group meeting, I gave students the chance to go and practice playing a game of chess, which MOST of them were stoked to do! And again (see previous post), they loved having an abstract follow up.

We didn't have enough chess sets for the whole class to use at the same time, so some students started playing online (note - they discovered this themselves, I didn't instruct them to do this!). 

I really enjoyed using modelling books again today during reading and getting such rich results out of my time with the students. When they went off, they were still engrossed in the topic and used the new vocabulary they had just learnt to discuss their strategies as well.
Kia kaha kids!

Reading fleuntly

This term Archana and I are really trying to accelerate our students in all learning areas. In our class, we have a group, of about 8 students, who are very low in their reading abilities (level 15-ish, for year 4's). We have really been pushing these students to read fluently, read everyday, multiple books a way. We have modelled to reading fluently with shared books and had other students read fluently to the class as well, to show that kids can do it too!

Some of these students have made HUUUUUGE progress in the past month alone. They not only can read more fluently, but they have a better attitude towards reading and learning in general.

Check 'em out!

Cordez and Denzel reading 'Storytellers' together. You can hear that Cordez still hesitates and copies/repeats from Denzel a bit, but for him to even be comfortable to read aloud at this level is awesome!

Kordell reading 'Two Homes'. You can see and hear that he is still unfamiliar with some of the words, even after reading this book several times. What I was impressed with was how when he got caught on a new word, he (mostly) would start the sentence again to try and clear his head and get the word right a second time. Another thing I noticed about his reading (and this is a new thing as well!), is that he is looking at the pictures for clues. In one part, he doesn't know the words 'hot chocolate', but looks at the picture of them drinking from mugs in the cafe, so he says 'cups of tea'. Although not the right word, its a strategy he can use to help him figure out hard words! Kordell has shown a massive shift in his attitude towards reading. All year whenever he is asked to read, he instantly shut down and would say "but I can't read". He has slowly been changing this mindset.. Go boy go!

This is Lopiseni reading about seals. He stumbles every so often, but for him to be reading this fluently from a LEVEL 2 SCHOOL JOURNAL blows my socks off. Everytime he read with either Archana or myself, he would try his very best. He wanted to get better. He loves to read with his friends in a group, as he is shy to read aloud, but look at him go!

The biggest shift has been in Wikitoria. Here she reads sooo fluently from a level 2 school journal. This girl was reading level 14 books a month ago, with too many pauses and hesitations and misread words than you could count.

She has worked incredibly hard!

Archana and I are so proud of out students, and we will keep pushing them to read more fluently and at harder levels as well. With this much progress in one month's targeted teaching, imagine how far they can go with another 5 weeks of the term left!

Our own class on air!

Today Archana and I were talking about the film festival, and I suggested we should get Ipad Tripods to film with, and how they would be awesome for filming ourselves for PD as well in the long-run. You can just set it up and leave it, rather than having to have a cameraman or woman give their time to film for you. This allows you to record yourself much more often, and more spontaneously as well. 

Since Anne's last visit, Archana and I have been talking about Manaiakalani Class-on-Air, and especially how Archana would love to participate in that programme next year (I would too, but it is only available to teachers with at least 2 years experience, and next year I will only have 1 years experience so I can't yet apply). 

So we decided, we would do our own filming, our own class-on-air type thing thing year. It is a great combination of digital skills and growing pedagogy. 

This afternoon, I decided to get filmed with a small group of my students! 

Warning - the footage is kind of messy. The first few shots were filmed by Archana, and are beautiful, and the rest by one of my 8 year old students.. And bless him, he got a lot of unflattering close ups and weird angles which I have cropped out. I made sure to leave in all the actual learning, so there may be periods where what you are looking at doesn't change, but the conversation was important so I left that part in.. if that makes sense :)

_____________________________________________________________
WALT/Big maths ideas: find regions of a number
Question: Grandpa has 24 chocolates. His jacket has three pockets. He put quarter of the chocolates in one pocket, and half of them in the second pocket. How many chocolates were in the third pocket?
Goal: to use talk moves and some materials in a problem solving approach
Context: Mixed-ability group of year 4 students (Stages 3-E5) in the problem solving approach

After the filming stopped, we kept discussing how we got our answers, eventually getting to the fact that half of a half is quarter.

(Cover half of the fraction frame with your hand)

(Keep the half covered, now cover half of the other half - what is left showing.. one quarter)

_____________________________________________________________

As this is me putting myself out there, please no harsh bullying! It is scary to post this.. but, we as teachers should always be sharing our knowledge and seeking to improve our own pedagogy. 

If anyone has any feedforward and constructive criticism, please leave in comments below.  (We at TPS are using the problem solving approach and talk moves). I'd love to have your ideas on what I need to work on.

Things I have thought of myself are..

-where I was sitting was good, as I could see all the students working out without any obstruction

-I went back to the question lots of time and reread it with the students to emphasise this point! (good mathematicians always reread the question!)

-these kids needed a warm up to remind them about halves and quarters before launching into the problem. They did not have the solid understanding I was depending on for this problem. I also could have broken down the number 24 before we launched the problem - what do we know about 24? 

-I gave students the choice of paper/pen/counters to try and solve it with, but did not have fraction frames out ready for them to use. 

-I only used talk moves well in a few places

The learning pit!

This afternoon we had a staff meeting run by Sue Pine, our maths PD facilitator.

She reminded us that as teachers, we are never in the position of uncomfortable learning and the 'unknown', i.e. the learning pit. We are always the ones who know everything, and yet we expect out students to be comfortable being uncomfortable. 

Sourced from http://francinemassue.weebly.com/the-learning-pit.html

We discussed different things we were struggling with in maths, that were leaving us 'in the pit'. It was refreshing that a lot of us were struggling with the same things.

She then introduced some ways to encourage students to talk within themselves productively about their learning. 

For both terms 2 and 3, the senior syndicate has done the Week of Inspirational Maths upon Sue's recommendation. This is a great way to build class norms about how we act and think in maths.

We discussed..

What do good maths learners do?

They...

• Ask questions when they don’t understand
• Explain their thinking so others can understand
• Use different ways to represent their solutions (visual,
• equipment)
• Revise their thinking when they learn new information or
• strategies
• Understand that mistakes are learning opportunities
• Value a deep understanding not speed
• Check that their solution is sensible
• Check back in with the problem and what it is asking
• Support other mathematicians to develop their understanding

Sue reminded us that we need to explicitly talk about those things in our classes, and have it displayed somewhere in our class so students and us as teachers can always remember. 

Next we discussed how we can support our students to be those good maths learners we want them to be.. 

A few key ways are 

• ensure groups are mixed ability (not 'smart' groups and 'low' groups)
• ensure groups are not larger than 4 students 
• giving students roles within the group (e.g. in picture below)
• giving students question prompts to use
• explicitly teaching group/teamwork skills

One key thing Sue talked about that really resonated with me was the idea of the 'low status of learners'. This means, that there are some students with low self-efficacy, no confidence, etc., so they sit and don't try in group work. Even when they do, other students see them as 'low status' and often don't even listen to what they have to say, assuming they don't know anything and/or are wrong. This resonated with me because this is exactly what my case study for uni was about. I noticed four of the students in my own class had very low self-efficacy in maths, so I wanted to increase that. One gem moment from my case study was one of my students Lopiseni. He often sits back, doesn't try, doesn't engage in group discussions and lets others do the work. One day however, as I was browsing from group-to-group, I found his group were very confused on their problem. The girl who was scribing was leading the group down the wrong track, and none of them seemed to realise it. I asked Lopiseni what he thought, and straight away he offered a helpful strategy that would bring the group back to the right path. He knew all along, but either didn't want to say, or his group wouldn't listen. He then kind of took over the group, with his confidence boosted, and together they found the answer to the problem. This is exactly what Sue was talking about - finding those opportunities to lift up those 'low status' students, so they can fly on their own. That moment definitely was a highlight of that day. 

Something that really challenged me was Sue's idea that we act as if maths thinking is private. In all learning areas, students are encouraged to talk, think, connect, predict etc. In maths however, we seem to expect them to just think and write and know. Why is there such a difference? Why is reading knowledge so social, so discussable, so debatable between students, but maths isn't? Why is maths always 'this' answer or its not. Why is it so individual, when no other curriculum area is? Sue challenged us to think about the way we think about maths, because that influences the way our students do. If we can be comfortable in the learning pit as teachers, this is how our students will learn to do the same. We need to challenge ourselves to change our own conceptions about maths, brought about by the rote-learning we all did as kids. Why did we do that? Was it helpful? How did it effect our overall picture of learning, or what makes a 'good' learner?

I came away with lots to think about from Sue's PD today. Some of it a celebration of my students success, some of it questioning my own personal experiences and beliefs about teaching maths.. Food for thought anyone?? 

Student empowerment through their own E-asttle rubric!

This term as part of our cycle of inquiry, Archana and I have been discussing with our students how they are assessed and what this means for them - trying to make everything explicit.

The biggest example is how we mark E-asttle. 

Within the first two weeks of this term, we had gone through the National Standard illustration for year 4 writing and marked it against the E-asttle rubric with the students helping us. As we went, we explained WHY we would give each section that particular score, and then gave examples of the other scores for comparison. 

For example, if we gave R4, we would then look at exemplars for what R3 and R5 looked like, so students could see the difference.

It really was a PD for them.

Next, Archana and I developed our own version of the rubric for students to use. We had a Tamaki Primary School version, but the language was (in some places) beyond the language use of our young students. 

For example, we changed 

to

We also added where they should be aiming for - note the below, at, above to indicate that if they achieve R4's, they will be writing 'at' the national standard for year 4's. 

There were also minor things we had to change in the language, so there was some familiarity for our students. For example, where the rubric said 'elaboration', we would say 'with detail', as that is the words we have used with them all year, so they are more familiar with it. 

I printed out the rubric, laminated them and put them on ring clips. That way, small groups of students could use one rubric together to evaluate a piece of writing. They wrote a narrative using a picture prompt yesterday. Today, Archana and I again went through a piece of writing (this time, one actually from our class) and explained how we would grade it and why - and what this meant in terms of next steps for this person and wether they were below/at/above national standards. 

I videoed some of the small groups discussing their piece of writing (which belonged to someone within the group)...

Considering it was their first time EVER using the rubric to mark writing 'with their teacher hats on' so to speak, they did a great job! (Some needed teacher support, but it was their first time!) They were very fair, and respectfully would say to the person whose writing it was what they thought of it and gave constructive feedback. 

It was exciting for Archana and myself, as it was just another way that the students reflected the positive and supportive class culture we have worked so hard to build. None of the students teased each other or laughed at the mistakes that person had made, but recognised these as next steps in their learning and some even offered advise on how to achieve those next learning steps. Once they had marked one of the group's writing, they then fought over whose they would do next!

It was a positive step towards the students being aware of what they write and what we are looking for. These things are not surprises or mysteries to students, as they are things we are teaching them all the time (e.g. this term, how to plan using a brainstorm and write in 3 paragraphs). For a lot of the students as they marked, they would realise they had forgotten to use paragraphs, add in a metaphor (etc) and have a Homer Simpson doh! moment. So next time, they will really remember to use what they know and put it all in!

We truly have a fantastic bunch of kids and some very talented writers in our class. It was awesome to see them empowered and taking ownership and control over their own writing, working well in a group, being honest and fair and looking forward to trying again! 

Anne's observation (Term 3)

This morning I had my observation with Anne Sinclair from Manaiakalani. She discussed with myself and Archana during her last visit, that she wanted to see something a bit different.. It seems that every person she went to observe was doing maths or reading! And fair enough too..

So myself and Archana decided to do inquiry on this fine Monday morning, which for this week was Fire Safety. 

You can view the plan here.

My own focus, was trying to include the 'share' part of the Manaiakalanai 'Learn, Create, Share' pedagogy within the learning time frame. I find that a lot of the time, the learn happens, the create begins and is never really finished, so nothing gets shared. Or if it does, it happens on a Friday during Managing Self time, when I am not there..

I also wanted to ensure I had something digital to hook in the students and to use as an example. 

One such example was this rap I included.

The lesson went fine, and I made sure we recorded the students create (the rap/song/poem/poster) they created, and then I shared these using the data projector for the whole class to review.

You can view Anne's written feedback, and our discussion around the PTC's here.
But here are some highlights..

You are really well organised, so not fumbling around for resources, but having everything at your fingertips to get started.

The class went off to their groups without any problems and got onto the task with enthusiasm and interest. I loved the way they talk to each other about what they are doing, which is also clarifying their understanding. They are working well in their groups so good on  you for the work you are doing in fostering this collaborative practice.

With 2 of you in your class you can both move around and really extend their thinking, pushing them to think more deeply. I like the way you probe and prod their responses to get them to think beyond the surface features.

Time permitted you to show the work the learners had done on the screen  and the class were so excited to have their work displayed and heard. By taking shots of the poems, raps and posters meant that their important learning was captured, shared and enjoyed and an indicator of their understanding. It was great to hear/see their understanding through the catchy words in the raps and the poems, which was evidence for formative and summative assessment. The posters also had strong messages and the learners were able to explain the dangers in the home through their visuals.

And here are some short clips of my students sharing their poem/song/raps

Digital Immersion (Term 3, Week 2)

For this weeks Digital Immersion, the MDTA's are joining the other first year teachers within the Manaiakalani teachers at Panmure Bridge School. We first discussed....

Connecting with each other: WWW of Manaiakalani Goals

How can I see the Manaiakalani goals in my school/classroom/teaching?

What is working?

What isn't working?

What do I need help with?

Including Sharing begins with us - how do we Share

Dorothy then asked us, in our school groups, to discuss how we share our personal, social and professional lives, and the boundaries between these.

Screenshot from https://sites.google.com/a/manaiakalani.org/digital-immersion/digital-immersion-plgs-2016/plg-august-2016?pli=1

Our group, mostly made up of first year Tamaki Primary School teachers, discussed that we don't actually know what our school policy is around teachers sharing information publically, or about sharing personal information about themselves.

Teaching as Inquiry Speed Dating

Next we took turns discussing our teaching as inquiry projects throughout the 35 people in attendance today, in a speed-dating type format.

Then we each recorded our reflections on this slideshow. 

(Note that this slideshow belongs to Dorothy Burt)

Learn Content: Woolf Fisher Research on Summer Learning Journey

After morning tea, we discussed the research done into Manaiakalani schools by Rachel Williams. 

There was some stunning results...

She found that the 'summer drop off' was HUGE (the red line) when students did not actively learn or practice their previous learning over the holidays. The blue line was students who participated in Rachel's research, a summer-long activity based around reading, writing and blogging. 

This youtube clip explains it in a very concise way.

This supports the Manaiakalani statement that our students turn up to school at 5 years old, with the knowledge and skills of a 3 year old, and EVERY year, EACH student needs to make one and a half years progress in one school year, in an attempt to catch up.

Implications for sharing in our classes and schools
Dorothy asked us to share our ideas onto a Padlet (below) as to how, why, what we should be sharing with our learners based on the 'summer drop'.
Here is what we came up with...

Created with Padlet

However, if we want students to work independently online, we need to prepare them to do this.

Screenshot from slides owned by Dorothy Burt

Finally, we viewed our own blogs as an avenue of sharing. 

Learn: Exploring Infographics - Building Knowledge
Here is mine

Digital Immersion Day #1 (Term 3)

Today, as the first week of Term 3, transitioned into the 'SHARE' part of the Manaiakalani pedagogy. 

We talked a lot about how we share, the purpose of sharing our learning and where/who/how we share. We used padlet to record some ways that we share in our classes.

We discussed having an authentic audience for students. We then looked into creating Sketch-notes as  a form of sharing, so decided to share about sharing. Sketch-noting is a form of visual note-taking, that is more focused on recording key points using text, images and different structures. 

Here is an explanation

And a example I found

From http://seeyourwords.com/new-gallery/

Here is my sketchnote - 

I used the app Explain Everything [EE] on one of my school Ipads, one because I wanted to learn how to use it, and 2 because the school security settings wouldn't let me download any new apps (fair enough!)

I spent a long time just playing around with EE, just learning how to use it, what buttons do what, how to undo mistakes, change colours etc etc. It was a learning curve! 

Here is what I created just as a way to play with EE and organise my thoughts. 

End of term 2!

The same as last term, I sent my students a survey to find out their thoughts and feelings about their learning this term.

It becomes obvious who really thought about the questions and who just wrote anything. 

You can read their responses here.

For a quick overview, I have taken some screenshots.

For the questions 'what was something Miss Ashley was really good at?', and 'what is something Miss Ashley can get better at?'

Things I was good at - soccer, growth mindsets, helping, reading with the students, helping them with maths and teaching them how to tell the time. 

Things the students think I can better at - learning other languages (this has been a focus this term and I always say "I'm trying, I'm only learning!" when pronouncing other languages). Discussing with Archana, we think the students didn't really understand what this question was asking them, but that's alright.

It was awesome to see most of the students thinking hard about what they have learnt throughout the term. Lots of students learnt doubles, how to group numbers (i.e. 2 lots of 3 is 6, which is early multiplicative thinking), what a half and quarter is, equations with blocks (using physical materials to help him solve problems), skip counting and times tables. Yay!

We have had a real focus this term on making connections between the text and their own lives, using powerful words to describe characters/settings in details, and sounding out unknown words and learning their meaning.

Kiwi-can is an outside provider who comes into the school and teaches students values and some life-skills. A lot of my students remembered learning about integrity, taking ownership of their own actions and being held accountable for their own learning and actions.

I also put in a couple questions to get their thoughts about what they want to learn about next term.

We did a two week unit on plants this term, and myself and Archana want to do the same again next term. I asked the students to vote out of a given list which things they wanted to learn about (green column) and then if they had anything else they wanted to learn about (blue column). 

My students are getting better and better at thinking about their own learning, and they enjoy having their voice heard and being asked what they want to learn - having some of the control back. 

Definitely some food for thought in here!

Update on Bob!

This week I really tried to change my mindset around Bob.

Due to the success on Monday, I felt so encouraged and motivated that he could change and make huge progress.

As Bob is always saying "I don't know" to everything you ask him, I thought I needed to change my attitude from inwardly rolling my eyes and writing him off as he wasn't listening etc, to maybe he actually doesn't know... Maybe he didn't understand the language I used to explain, maybe he isn't familiar enough with the task he is supposed to do, or the tool he is supposed to use, to understand the verbal instruction given, maybe, he actually doesn't know. 

I decided to change my mindset around this particular student, and the ones who are always with him and whom show similar behaviour patterns. I was going to be more supportive, more involved, show them physically/digitally instead of just explaining with words, guide them onto the right task/tool and explain how to use it, show where to click etc, and work more closely alongside them for longer periods of time than I have previously. I also talked more with them - explained in more detail what/how to do, walked through the steps with them, talked more about the thinking we are doing and why we need to do it, how we can support each other, etc. I made deals with the students, for example if you finish two pages of writing (which I wasn't expecting) you can draw a picture of your story. 

And guess what,

it worked. 

Yes, he was not perfect. I'll be the first person to admit that. He still punched someone (only one person though, which is a decrease on his average), and he and his buddy broke a pair of school headphones in our class. He still got distracted sometimes, he still played around during mat times.
But lets keep positive - it was soooo much better than his norm.

I got him to read aloud with some degree of fluency, to write independently and of his own ideas, to collaborate and share his ideas with friends, to take turns to talk, to listen and answer questions, but most importantly for me - he finished a piece of work. More than one actually.. I don't think that happened the whole of term 1 - him actually finishing something on his own, to a standard acceptable for his age. (i.e. one sentence doesn't count as a story).

He wrote two stories - one about his birthday (a follow up from the story we read together) and one about a girl escaping a giant (a writing task using a picture prompt). He was so engaged in these tasks, knew what to do, wanted to finish the work, wanted to add his own picture to support what he had written, came up with words like 'whacked' instead of 'hit' to make his story better, helped me fix the mistakes in his story (e.g. capital letters after full stops). It was so encouraging. He definitely felt that I was making more of an effort for him, and I could feel he was more open to me and more open his learning as well. Our relationship changed for the better.

I also noticed a change in his attitude towards learning as the week progressed as well. On Tuesday, he played up during reading because he wanted to do his writing already.. By Wednesday and Thursday, he was bursting to read the story, then write about it, then draw his picture about what he wrote. He wanted to learn. He wanted to work, and he knew he could! 

He began to increase his self-efficacy, which is really what I wanted. 

This kid can work. He can read. He can write. He can listen. He can make good choices.

Now I just need to make sure he knows that, everyday.