Staff meeting week one, term 2

We had a very successful meeting yesterday and used it as an opportunity to Stop, Check and Think about our Independent Learning Journey so far. We spent the time working in groups to look at a variety of questions and a lot of teachers came to the realisation that the teaching and learning opportunities that were taking place in the classroom were great and they should continue to do an awesome job!

Marama spent some time working with the staff and encouraged them to look at the goals they wrote last term. Seemingly, all teachers have re-written their goals in anticipation of the up and coming term.

Room 17 Independent Learning

I played around with some basic Ind Learning ideas with room 17 the other week and we had some great results. The children who normally have problems with focusing on a task, where really well behaved and on task for substantial periods of time. The feedback I got from the session included some interesting responses, like, "I was scared to begin with", but the majority of the class were keen to keep working on this idea.

staff posting to the Blog

I have given all teachers a business card with a login that will allow them to add their thoughts to the blog. I have heard some great ideas about possible names and also heard the ideas that teachers are implementing in their classes regarding Independent Learning trials. I hope they start adding ideas soon!

Second Staff Meeting Reflection

Yesterday I exposed myself to the staff...and it was not pretty! I videoed a lesson I took in a senior classroom and focused the camera on the students. I wanted to really see what they were doing while I was "teaching" them. The results were scary. In the 5 minutes the video played I saw yawning, frustrated faces. It was evident that I was selecting the students who I knew could answer the questions and, hence, not slow down the flow, but the rest of the class were not engaged on any meaningful level.

So, what of this? Well, it highlighted several important points. The teacher must understand the needs of the children...not as a whole class, but as individuals. These individuals can be grouped for management purposes, but we need to be thinking about their needs as leaners. I would also encourage teachers to be thinking about ways to lessen their whole class teaching opportunities...not the quality, but the frequency. Having a WALT that we need the whole class to work on, (The use of adjectives for example), should be delivered in ways that reflect the eneds of the students. Rich texts, challenge, examples, modelling, prompting and other best practice techniques should be evident in the lesson. Don't forget about differentiation!

Links to Resources

Along the right-hand-side of this blog are readings and resources that are useful. If you have any troubles reading them, then just check with Toby and I will help you out.
Cheers

ideas and feedback from the Victorian teachers

what we saw today reinforces best practice.
I was impressed with how well the students can articulate learning - it was easy for them to speak about it
There was a real sense of purpose in the classes.
What was seen today was: kids who can articulate their learning, students who were ontask, children explaining the trust cards, etc...no-one mucking around!
Open and flexible spaces - going from private to public teaching. This is beginnign to happen in Australia, but seen here today.
What is the next small step in having student input into curriculum content?
name suggestion - Open Air Learning!

Goals for next year - Writing

Catering for diverse needs - this is our major focus of next year when it comes to grouping and teaching. We are still weak in this aspect and has significant 5/15 numbers of teacher still in the little to some evident quadrants. There was major shift in the other quandrants and we need to celebrate this.