Reflective Practice

As any teacher will say, it becomes clear (quite quickly) that differentiated instruction for you class is all but impossible.  Trying to create individual learning plans is an incredibly time consuming endeavor and in my experience is a one-way trip to teacher teacher burnout. To implement said plans a similarly mammoth task.  That being said, the kids in my class deserve to be scaffolded as they require when problem solving.  Vygotsky’s ideas around the Zone of Proximal Development and the subsequent ideas of others working in the social learning discipline address the ideas of diversity within the classroom.  “Design learning is all about trying to meet the diverse and variable needs of all students in your classroom.” ( TKI ) “Planning can incorporate students “in the margin” while at the same time benefiting all students in the classroom. Addressing diversity through the UDL lens helps teachers accommodate individual differences through inten...

Mid-year and end-of-year reports are the worst part of my teaching year.  Written reports are all about how we communicate information about each student to their family and whanau. But there are times when I wonder how valuable these written reports are to parents...or are they just more of a mystery?  Regardless of how I personally feel about them...they still have to be done.  I can’t say my school hasn’t tried to make them more meaningful and less mysterious...  But a miss is as good as a mile. I’m not sure that our parents really understand them. And this is probably due to the fact that teachers are not great at writing them. I spend a great deal of time agonising over writing my reports.  Trying to succinctly say what I tried to teach a child over six months is no easy task.  Trying to write it in ordinary language without parents requiring a B’Ed to understand can be a mission in and of itself.  So after a number of years ...

This year many of the St Mary's staff completed  a "home" based maori language paper through Te Wananga O Aotearoa.  It was nice to have a group of like minded learners working together to complete the mahi. Our tutor was Madrina and she was very helpful and understanding as we completed the set tasks.  The course was an interesting blend of familiar ideas and language as well as delving deeper into some areas of maori that I hadn't yet studied.  There is a certain satisfaction in completing these courses as it shows that as a staff we are committed to acknowledging we need support. The course was very well resourced and the cards and other books were succinct enough that I still use them with my class.  In particular I enjoyed the last module about copyright and how certain ideas that uniquely maori need to be procected even if they are used with the best of intentions. Trying to teach maori in an authentic context with in schools t...

http://www.ero.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/ERO-17763-Teaching-Strategies-that-work-Mathematics-v7.pdf ERO created a 68 page document in 2014 (see link above)  to identify what schools around NZ did to be effective in accelerating student progress in mathematics.   Honor Ronowicz, our maths facilitator, has been helping to create change in how teachers at our school teach maths.  It came to a point that no matter what PD we did around maths it did little to change the outcomes for our students. This need for more extensive PLD was triggered by my attendance at an ALiM.   The professional development Honor has provided (along with the maths leadership team) to our school is well-planned and targeted for the needs of our staff. This PLD was designed to improve the teaching of maths in our school from year 0 to year 6.  It became a more collaborative approach to how we used to teach maths. That we as a staff had a collective responsibility to improve our...

High expectations is one of the eight principles set out in the New Zealand curriculum document.   "The high expectations principle means holding high expectations for all students relative to achievement. This means a genuine belief that all students can achieve much higher levels than they currently are, and then putting the learning and action plans in place that make sure that students actually get there."  Professor Christine Rubie-Davies Goal setting is an important way of ensuring that I have high expectations of my students and that these goals are created and communicated with/by students and their families. High expectations help to motivate my students’ learning when they are created together with the student and me and their family. “When students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning, goal setting is a logical step in the process.” (ERO 2014-ish) My role is to help my students set relevant goals, to scaf...

Last year a number of teachers decided that they required support to help them to more confidently deliver te reo Māori content throughout their teaching.  Our principal was involved in a language based course at a local high school. We expressed interest in getting something similar happening in our staffroom. Instead we registered for a paper based, self directed course offered through the Wānangna o Aotearoa.  I already completed a Maori language for beginners course (Te Ara Reo Māori). What I think I really need is another course similar to that to help me with figure out how to better pronounce māori words with my Canadian accent.  I personally need someone to help me...a language is too hard to do on my own. Although this year’s course is not the confidence boost we can directly use in the classroom. It is a step in the right direction to answering the question “How is the teaching of my class effective for Māori learners?” Course Description: He Papa ...

This year our senior classes took our classes to have an authentic two night camp on a local marae.   Students were part of the p ō whiri and welcome onto the marae.  The only other context many of our students had was on the school welcoming groups to special assemblies.   These would often involve the kapa haka group taking the lead with the remainder of the school left to follow along. To support the children (and me too) to make the most of this fantastic opportunity, in class we learned the vocabulary, completed puzzles to help students remember the order of events.  The team leading the camp were very supportive of schools coming with a low base of marae based learning. There were teamwork activities involving paddling a waka down rapids in Kawerau, making poi, using a taiaha.  There were games played and links to local history through the carvings in the whare. My class loved playing Ki-o-rahi.  It was new and fun...and I promised w...

I had a look at my e AsTTle marking in a bit of depth because I don’t have enough to do already.  But I had a question. Why were my spelling scores low for my class? I think I found out. But I have no idea what to do with what I’ve found.   I analysed the data to help scaffold my learners to set goals based on their learning in writing.  What I found surprised me. For instance the rubric for Ideas.  There is a score for level 2, Level 4 and Level 5...but no rubric for level 3.  Why not? If I my students are at R3 it is equivalent to 2P, and R4 = 4B and and R5 = 5B.  ( I looked at each of the scores provided in the e AsTTle printout for my class. The rubric for Structure is similar.  R3=3B, R4 = 4P and R5= 5P. It is hard not to score my class above or below...especially a Year 6 student.  The Organisation rubric is fair. Each curriculum level is evident and it is 2P, 3P, 4P and 5P. Vocabulary again there is no level 3 available. ...