The End of Year looms!

My 3 Great Steps:

1   Seek transformative feedback (not just information) that requires action to grow leadership.

How? Ask specific questions, engage in professional conversations.

2   Prioritise and balance responsibilities.

How? Book in social time and exercise, cull to-do lists weekly, ask myself if my contributions are 'token' or if I can commit fully.

3   Activate my professional reading

How? Write about it, record my synthesis, record my what now, and talk about it.

My biggest reflection on the year is that my goals were not great. They were mostly unmeasurable and non of them had a teaching focus - which meant that my teaching practice has not developed in the capacity that it could have.

My biggest achievement this year, has been what I've learned about myself and the way I deal with stress. Goal number two played a massive role here and creating time for myself has meant that I can read my own cues better to when I need to activate systems to deal with happenings.

There's been lots of highlights - being a part of the Innovation Incubator team, and the leadership that came with that, has been great. The team make-up was fabulous - serious enough but we had loads of fun, the topic was a passion of mine, and there has been so much learning! I've enjoyed taking a role in leading our team in some development around feedback and capacities also. And my team have been brilliant! I couldn't have asked for better people to work with.

Looking into next year I really want to bring my focus back to the classroom and the habitat. The leadership stuff will happen, now that I have got myself into it. I want to ensure that I'm modelling and promoting school-wide practices like capacities and learning conversations, which can run through progress pebbles.

Big goal: Progress pebbles

1. Use of capacities to drive reflection/evaluation of progress
2. Learning conversations/conferences/parent involvement
3. Instructional techniques to achieve pebbles

Relationships - putting it all on the line!

The bigger context: Our teacher meetings have been focussed around Absolum's Clarity in the Classroom, looking in particular at Learner Focussed Relationships (v Controlling v Caring v Activity Focussed). 

The context in question: Assembly technical rehearsal where the technology was not going quite according to plan.


I been thinking quite a bit about relationships with learners lately, and what type of Absolum's four teacher personalities I identify with. I have been noticing things and reflecting on them throughout the last couple of weeks and trying to make small adaptions to the way I talk and behave along the way. 

But yesterday, the words that came out of my mouth startled me and I went to bed feeling quite sick about the potential damage I could have done to the established learner focussed relationship I already had with those children. (The fortunate thing is that I think I have established that enough for my comment to be somewhat dismissed... I hope).

It is no excuse, but I was under stress at that particular point, with things not going exactly how I planned and my mind primarily focussed on two things. The children waiting were "in my space" and I asked them to move back to where the audience would be. They did so. But they did not go where I expected them to. Was this a problem? In the big picture no. In my head, at that point in time - yes. Then came a mumbo jumbo condescending mish mash of confusing questions that related only a little to our habitat focus of 'thinking'. Any observers would have thought I was barmy!

It goes to show though how pressure can effect a situation, and change your perspective and behaviour almost instantaneously. I'm certainly much more aware of that side of it now, after reading Clarity in the Classroom. 

I also have made a connection to the work we have done around HBDI and how elements of our thinking style can change under pressure. It would be interesting to do more work on how teaching style changes under different kinds of pressure. My prediction is that short, intense pressure (like a tech glitch) would result in controlling behaviours, but ongoing stress would result in either investing too much in a caring relationship as avoidance, or activity-focussed to "buy" some time.

Avoiding pressure is impossible, but I will be challenging myself (and hopefully you will be too), to notice what changes in your style when under pressure?

Am I moving towards my Desired Reality???

It's been a few weeks now since we set goals to reach our Desired Reality and it's time to check in on them. 


My 3 Great Steps:

1   Seek Feedback - constructive 70%/ positive 30%
The purpose of having this goal is to grow my capability as a leader. I have been getting some feedback, mostly in relation to co-leading the Innovation Incubator team, but I'm not really seeking feedback as the goal states. This one needs to become priority in Term 2. I have purchased a book called Thanks for the Feedback and I'm hoping I will dig into this over the holidays and get some inspiration. 

2   Honest conversations regarding priorities and balancing responsibilities
I have been persistent with some things and making my feeling known in habitat team meetings, sometimes without a result. Am I not being heard? Or is it that my priority is not a team priority? Hard to say - but working on my first great step could help with this. I am improving on saying no to things. In fact I can think of two examples where I have turned down 'extra' jobs because the timing and commitment wasn't right for me. 

I have found this term particularly busy. Before school was preparation time, non-duty lunchtimes and after school were basically meeting times. I have found it extremely difficult to find time to work with Emma on Innovation Incubator stuff, so it is essential that I continue to prioritise this goal.

3   Make time for professional reading (learning environment goal and Innovation Incubator)
At the beginning of the year I set myself a wee target of four professional development books over the year. I have already exceeded this! I have read 1) The Element 2) chapters from The Professional Practice of Teaching in NZ 3) Expansive Education 4) Show and Tell and I'm currently making my way through What's the Point of School? 


My One Line Job Description:
To lead learning (for students and colleagues) that adds value.

I had to look this up this morning, meaning it is not yet cognitively portable - this is something I need to remedy.
However - do I think I'm doing it? Everyday? Yes and no. 
For colleagues, every day that I have an opportunity to work with the Innovation Incubator team or leading on behalf the team - yes.
For students, I would hope so. I think so. But more time and daily reflection needs to go into this one. A screen shot and laptop wallpaper may help me with this.

Guy Claxton - Achievement and Character: Can you do both at once?

I awaited with nerdy excitement for the day to arrive to hear Guy Claxton speak. With the focus for Emma and myself to pick up ideas relevant to what we are doing in the Innovation Incubator team. I left with some answers, and many more questions!

Here are my notes:

• Can you fulfill potential? How do you know how much someones potential is? Have you fulfilled yours? When? So why do we so often refer to wishy-washy terms like this?
• How do you 'evidence' values like Growth Mindset or resilience? I like how 'evidence' has been changed into a verb.
• Things need to be grounded in good quality research.
• How does time effect stuff - is a 45min period or one rotation going to allow persistence to grow?
• There are four Layers of Learning: today we were focusing on layer three - habits

• "Flounder" intelligently
• It is no teachers dream to turn out passive, docile, compliant, students - yet we do....
• Content gives a topic that you teach your habits through - "Today we are stretching our ______ muscle." E.g. questioning.
• Skills v dispositions - dispositions are far more important because it drives the development of the skill.
• Low socio-eco status kids benefit more from higher cognitive load. Don't go easy on them because 'their lives are already stressed'
• You can't teach attitudes and dispositions directly - they have to be coached, cultivated in culture.
• Epistemic apprenticeship

• If you diet is predominately 'efficient' then you're going to end up a bit lopsided!
• Removing own desks increases collaboration and collegiality in a classroom - proved somewhere in Australia (sorry I didn't get the details)
• Phrase: "hump of resistance" often used when referring to staff not willing to change or even explore change
• Performing v learning - learning has some form of difficulty attached to it
• Students learning to choose, design, research, conduct, troubleshoot, and evaluate learning for themselves
• Build power to teach themselves 
• Things should always be under review, status quo is not safe or neutral.
• Stepping in too soon during a learning struggle deprives an opportunity for that student to Build Learning Power. 
• Have a High Participation, Low Shame culture. Make it safe to learn.
• Display a final product with the draft - shift the focus from achievement to improvement.
• Flexing learning muscles - coach, coach, coach!
• Learning muscles to stretch (on the left hand side)

The final three points really resonated with me. This video that Guy shared with us shows the importance, and how easily coaching can be done from a very young age.

Austin's Butterfly

What next? For me:

• Read How Children Succeed - Paul Tough
• Give students authority and ability to challenge what people tell them
• Give activity and then give students think/peer/share time to decide how many people should be in groups - ownership and decision making onto kids.
• Two stars and a wish - go back to coaching children how to give feedback (I used to do this so well - why did I stop???)
• Mix up groups more - ensure children are frequently working with different people than usual.
• Use a distraction scale - show me 1-4 fingers how distracting that (plane/lightning/noise/class clown - don't actually say what was distracting though) was. If you show 5 fingers, you were the distraction. Children monitor their own focus.
• Use a kind continuum - children can move their own or others face depending on how kind/supportive/helpful they've been. Or not! Keeps an open dialogue of support.

What next? For the Innovation Incubator team:

• Give mentors strategies to embed teaching of character so it's not 'more teaching'
• SOLO - depth of though, not level of thought
• Review, review, review - this year and into every other year Shotover School exists!

2016 Current/Desired Reality

3 Great Steps:
1   Seek Feedback - constructive 70%/ positive 30%
2   Honest conversations regarding priorities and balancing responsibilities
3   Make time for professional reading (learning environment goal and Innovation Incubator)

Discovering 'The Element'

I've owned this book for a few years now. I found it in a second hand bookshop at the ferry terminal in Auckland. At the time I thought, 'that looks like a good read,' but every time I tried to read it, I got to a certain point and switched off. Clearly, I wasn't ready for it's message. After finishing the past year though and being surrounded by the positivity of mindshift, it was time for me to give it another crack - and I'm really pleased I did. I think that it was a great way to sum up everything I had consciously and unconsciously learnt this year about the future of education and the children that we are teaching. 

The importance of the element, I believe, is far deeper than happiness. It is what is going to make things happen, make things change in an ever developing (and complex) world.
The book defines The Element as "the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion."

Below I have listed some of my take-aways from the book:

• Sir Paul McCartney recalled in an interview that he had been through his entire education without anyone noticing that he had any musical talent at all. Even in the hierarchy that was English and Maths during his education era, this astounded me and made me wonder if that could happen in a school today - I know that I would struggle to pick out a student who had specific talent here, so do we have enough musically talented teachers, evenly spread from Y1-Y13, that each student would definitely come across at least two or three during their education? What about other areas - do we have enough talent seekers to inspire, mentor and coach across a wide range?
• "Many of them (children) will certainly have jobs we haven't conceived yet. Isn't it therefore our obligation to encourage them to explore as many avenues as possible with a eye toward discovering their true talents and their true passions?"
• The book places emphasis on The Element requiring passion, not just natural aptitude. It is possible to be very good at something, but not feel like it fills you with joy. 
• Intelligence comes in many, many, many kinds and combinations too. If it weren't for this a number of things would never have been created - ballet, abstract painting, hip-hop, design, self-service checkouts.... They all require different abilities.
• "A lot of my work with organisations is about showing that intelligence and creativity are blood relatives. I firmly believe that you can't be creative with acting intelligently. Similarly, the highest form of intelligence is thinking creatively."
• Working in your Element is being in a zone that means your 'work' becomes effortless and time becomes something you no longer 'feel'. Using a thinking style that comes naturally to people things become easier. The example used was that of his daughter who was unable to recall information from lectures. However, being a visual person, when she mindmapped the timelines and information she was able to recall, with understanding, everything she needed to. It's important that we give our students multiple ways of 'digesting' the same information. 
• "To make the Element available to everyone, we need to acknowledge that each person's intelligence is distinct from the intelligence of every other person on the planet, that everyone has a unique way of getting in the zone, and a unique way of finding the Element."
• Part of finding your Element, is finding your Tribe. This point was a great reflection for me as it has helped me to articulate why the move I made at the beginning of 2015 was such a significant one for my career. Although I've enjoyed every other teaching job I've had, and each has contributed a great deal to the teacher I am today, I feel now that I have found my tribe, I have found the ones that speak my dialect. 
• Creative teams are able to achieve more together, than they can separately. Three key features of intelligence enable this: they are diverse, dynamic and distinct.
• Diversity stuck out to me more than any of the others. It speaks about different sorts of people that compliment each other and I know that is something that has been considered greatly in building teams and workgroups within my school. It has such an importance to raise the level of achievement.
• When elaborating on the feature of distinction, I found it interesting that a creative team was compared to a committee. Committees don't require everyone's full attention all of the time and the people are usually only there to serve a particular interest. A creative team, on the other hand, is there to get a specific job done in whichever way it needs to. This made me think about my role as a BOT member and the continuum of management to governance. I can see similarities between the BOT that manages / is a committee and I suspect there may be a number of boards operating in this manner...
• I found the section on 'groupthink' fascinating, where intelligent and well-meaning people were willing to give up their thoughts and beliefs based on what their peers were saying. My thoughts were exactly as it was written: "It raises questions about our ways of education and and the values that guide our conduct." We must allow our students opportunities to think for themselves and to be proud of their beliefs.
• The roles of mentors: to recognise, to encourage, to facilitate and to stretch. It is this last one that I think is the hardest one to achieve, particularly in a primary school setting where teachers are often a 'jack of all trades, master of none.' Because of this, they must seek whatever assistance is required to continue to mentor or to pass the student on to. Mentors "take a unique and personal place in our lives... open doors for us and get involved directly in our journeys...show us the next steps and encourage us to take them." Heroes don't do that.
• When you look at people who have done well for themselves, including the stories throughout the book, there are a number who didn't do well at school. I wonder if the changes that we're making going to encourage them stay and do well? Is that going to benefit them? Or will it just lie 'the problem with education' elsewhere? Is the change happening in the primary sector and halted by the secondary or tertiary?
• "The key to this transformation is not to standardise education but to personalise it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions."
• Should we stop thinking about school as separate subjects and more as sets of disciplines. "The idea of disciplines make possible a fluid and dynamic curriculum that is interdisciplinary."
• People need the right conditions to grow - they need synergy with the people and environments around them. It is the job of our schools to do that. "For all our futures, we need to aim high and be determined to succeed."

I am the type of person to reread books (or rewatch movies) and pick up something new every time. I will be adding this one to my 'revisiting' pile.

Term 4 Reflection on Desired Reality

My January desired reality was:

I altered it slightly at the end of term one when I had a better idea of things. My goals were:
1 (continued from Term One) Develop a strong understanding of students and their relationships (personal and learning) in Y1-4.

2 Build effective and and interesting literacy practises to engage foundation (emergent) students into reading and writing.

3 Be proactive about interactions with parents

In the middle of the year I wrote about my progress on those goals. And now I get to do the final check off! It's nearly time to complete the appraisal process for the year and so it's a good time to have a think about where I am with my goals. 

I've really enjoyed the appraisal process as an on-going event. Not a scramble at the end of the year to check the boxes. It is especially important as being part of the foundational team to keep the culture of reflection and not lose sight of the "climate of possibilities".

1 Develop a strong understanding of students and their relationships (personal and learning) in Y1-4.
I have learnt so much about 'junior' teaching this year and I'm grateful for all the professional development opportunities I have had from the experts within the school, and also externally - particularly with literacy. I recall one of the SLT saying at the beginning of the year "you've all had children you've taught at Level One, the only thing that changes is the age." And, it is so true! I've really enjoyed my learning here and I hope I get another chance in the near future to consolidate my new understandings here.

2 Build effective and and interesting literacy practises to engage foundation (emergent) students into reading and writing.
This has been a big learning curve here and the biggest thing I've learnt is that I can, and need to, push harder. I've seen massive improvements in my literacy groups and it really has proven that 'if you focus on the learning, learning will happen'. 

3 Be proactive about interactions with parents
Wow, I'm actually a little bit chuffed with myself on this one. I was a little like this penguin in the video - but once I'd made a 'stumble' and was 'thrown in' I realised it really wasn't so bad. It's scared me for so long and I really don't know why. I've been making an effort to go out of the classroom at least a couple of times a week at the end of the day and mingle with parents. It's really not that scary and it's made necessary conversations so much easier and far less 'eventful'. Toastmasters has also probably helped a little with confidence too. 

I defined my job to be: to make learning successful for all students.
How did I go on this? 
I think all students have progressed this year in all areas - including growth in character. I have absolutely done my best job in achieving this with the time, resources and energy I had. Having said that, there is a lot of improvement that can happen from here. I feel like I've had too many focuses, and therefore flitted from one thing to the next. 

Development in reading has been one of the biggest areas I've focused on and I know a great deal more now, but I wish I knew it all from the start. Writing has been the area of least development for me, and the least satisfaction, yet it was probably one of the ones that I thought I would be more competent at. Maths has been great. I've loved teaching collaboratively all year and having the chance try different things out with my teaching buddy. My struggle is that with so many children I don't feel I know them as well as I would like to in terms of knowledge and strategy ability.

SPS Teacher Criteria and looking forward to 2016
I have also had a look at the teacher criteria I need to meet and reevaluated the progress I have made along the continuum. My appraisal team will be able to see this doc, where I had made judgements at the start of the year of what I was doing. Now I have highlighted my progress for each of the criteria and also my goals for next year.
Some of the things I will be working on (one from each area)

• communicating confidently, especially in leading difficult conversations
• coaching individual children to know their potential as well as to know they're supported in goal setting and action
• recording the actions I take from reflections
• knowing that children are engaged by the process of learning
• using the physical environment to show value to the learning process and children's work
• taking on a whole-school leadership role

Many of these things I am kind of doing, but have little evidence to prove it or I'm not doing them to a standard where I feel I can say it's being done. 

The first point will be my main goal for 2016. I feel it's a good continuation of my 2015 Desired Reality 3 and applies not only to parents, but to colleagues too. 

Can change happen in an Open Learning Environment?

A fellow tweeter posted this quote: 

"Great teachers change their methods min by min: while being staunchly consistent in their relationships with students."  @Charbonneau 

with their own comment, "One of the reasons I love my single cell classroom! I love change & are always trying new things!"

Naturally, this got me thinking.... The big question that popped into my head was, well if I'm not a single cell teacher does this mean I cannot change my methods and therefore I'm a poor teacher!?!? But it's more important to answer the little questions.

• Can I and do I change my methods min by min?
• Have I made changes since moving from single cell to open environment?
• Are my changes any less?
• Do the students 'miss out' because I may not be able to make an immediate change?

I think there are different levels to what you might change in a classroom. 

There are those days where students or the teacher is 'not feeling it' and so in the morning, or throughout the day you 'throw away' your planned writing and you spend that time doing something else - an experience that leads to great oral language, values building, skills in other areas, and then perhaps even writing about it at another time. In a single cell classroom, this can happen on a whim. In an open learning environment it can require a bit of communication but actually, there's no reason why the group of children your with can't have that opportunity too. As a school and a team we believe in the importance curiosity has on 'in the moment,' engaging learning and therefore it is always our best intention to have the children's idea and questions be the vehicle for any learning.

Then, there's the changes of groups. At this moment in time, with the phase we're in (phase - suggesting we're changing/refining the way we work), for some learning areas a student is assigned a mentor for that area. For example, I have a group of children who always work with me for literacy, they are 'my' literacy children. Within those children I DO frequently change their groups depending on their needs and pull them out for workshops based on that. This is not necessarily levelled, but based on their needs. What about between mentors? Well, overnight they move mentor groups. Assessment, planning and anecdotal notes (most importantly conversations) are open for all mentors to see. They are really 'our' children. And yes it does work even with high numbers - but that's a whole other blog post!

So what about within groups? Well that's easy. It's no different to a single-cell classroom. For example, if you're trying to teach subtraction and you quickly observe a student or students can't count backwards, you immediately change the learning purpose for those students.

Quite simply, I don't think I have lost any freedom. We are encouraged to be innovative, share ideas and make change happen for better learning. The team are always talking to each other and when you have support from others, I have found it's often easier to put change into place.

Am I lucky with the support I get from the team I work with? Maybe. Or is it the culture and expectation?

Mid year check in: Goals

Setting goals at the beginning of this year was a bit of an unknown. Fortunately at the end of Term One we were given an "official" chance to review where we were heading in terms of appraisal. 11 weeks later and it's time for a check point.

1 (continued from Term One) Develop a strong understanding of students and their relationships (personal and learning) in Y1-4.
This has been a really interesting part of my professional development. Of all the ages, I really thought that I would dislike NE-Y2 the most. But I have surprised myself! I actually really enjoy working with that age group. I have learnt sooooo much this year and have a greater appreciation of all junior teachers. Every teacher should work at least one year in this age group to fully appreciate the development of a child from a New Entrant. Everything, absolutely everything, is a lesson - social interactions, self management, management of equipment and belongings, and of course the curriculum based lessons! The children are so eager to learn and the most important thing I've learnt that it is our job to make learning desirable and enjoyable in these early years. To nurture and care for the child to set them up for successful schooling. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to consolidate my practice here.

2 Build effective and and interesting literacy practises to engage foundation (emergent) students into reading and writing.
This is going very well for me. Literacy has always been a passion and strength of mine and I thought I knew a bit about literacy..... Turns out I didn't know nearly as much as I thought! I'm learning so much and really enjoying it. There's another blog post coming about this, so watch this space.

3 Be proactive about interactions with parents
Although I continue to work on all areas of my practise, this is the one really essential one that I feel I need most work on. I'm getting better at approaching parents before/after school and having conversations, not only to build relationships but also to have those essential conversations. The bit I need to focus on is structuring the conversation to get my point across succinctly and worded tactfully. (The 'blue' part of me tends to blurt a little bit, and the confidence side of me tends to get flustered!) So my plan is to develop some confidence by going to Toastmasters next term. But first I just need to talk myself into actually turning up!

The morning after the term before.....

And was it all a nightmare? No - barely any of it!

This year was not only the start of a new job for me - it was the start of a new school and a new lifestyle. I'm sure anyone in construction will tell you that the foundation is a key element in any new structure. As part of the team building the foundational elements of a school I can tell you it's not an easy job - but it sure is rewarding.

So this week we've moved into July and ended Term 2, marking the halfway point of 2015. Where has this journey taken me so far? And, where do I hope it will take me next?

For a start, it has taken me to one of the most beautiful parts of NZ - this morning when I woke up I pulled back the curtains to a sky blended with pink, and outlined by the towering snowy mountains. It has also taken me to a place of learning, acceptance, appreciation and sharing. What has been invested in building the team collaboratively and in professional knowledge shows the value that has been placed in us to make this thing happen. 

When I announced last year that I had been offered and had accepted a position in an ILE (MLE), amongst the congratulations and the praise for going for what I believe in, I could sense some doubt. Some asked the questions - How will work? Won't it be hard working with other people? What about all that noise!? What will happen to those children who can't cope with all that distraction? How can you actually build effective relationships with all those children? Then, I have to admit (although I didn't outloud!) the seeds of doubt started to creep in. How could I have come this far on a belief and not question that it would never be able to work!? 

Now though, from all those questions, I can see, nobody asked the WHY? I have since learnt about the power of why and wish I had been able to articulate it at the time (and not just believe it). I also have the experience of it now. The actual environment is freeing. Children who had been behaviourally 'flagged' by their previous schools have been of little issue - some, no issue at all! The noise is barely a factor and generally sits at a learning hum. I don't really know how, to be honest, but you just do build relationships with all the children. The distraction I believe is less - perhaps because the children are engaged in what they're doing, or perhaps they just know that everyone is learning differently doing different things. The children have some freedom to move to a space suitable for their task, spread out, and to where they will be able to work free from distraction. They have more choice about who to collaborate with. They have more choice about what/how they will learn. The actual timetable/collaborative nature of the day is still developing and will always be - that is how we react to the needs of our learners, and our stage in our personal development of pedagogy. One of the major benefits I've seen of that is better use of time to support learners with needs. An example of that is while one teacher runs the morning slot,  three other teachers can work with individuals or small groups on targeted needs. You'd never get that opportunity in a traditional classroom.

We finished up the term with an evening for the parents on Thursday night. We invited the parents in to share our 'Habitat Happenings' from the mentors point of view, with a short 20 minute presentation. It was lovely to be able to have a quick chat following with some very pleased parents! Some of the comments I had:

• My son loves maths! That's big for him and I can see his progress.
• *** actually likes to coming to school. I no longer have to push him through the door. I think it's something about the space - he hates to feel crammed in.
• *** lives for Curiosity time. I don't though (laughing)- he's started to pull apart things that actually work! 
• I'm really loving how I can talk to *** at the end of the day about what they've learnt. (Referring to our communication with home via our Habitat blog and learning apps/websites)
• My child tells me it's ok to feel like it's hard and fail - it's all part of learning.
• Thank you. (From several people, who clearly weren't just meaning for the parents evening.)

What a great way to finish the term. But what next......

As our experience (as mentors) and pedagogical knowledge within an ILE grows I would like to see our level our collaboration go up. A power of three or four teachers is obviously more dynamic than one, and I would like to see us continue to let go 'old practice' and make use of each other in both a planning and teaching sense. Something else I will be working on is how I can more effectively teach our Learning Model (Inquiry) with junior students. 

Is there really a gender gap?

TVNZ's Sunday programme has presented a story claiming a gender gap between NZ boys and girls. 

Sunday: Oh Boy!

Lisa Rodgers from the Ministry of Education is interviewed near the end of the video and points out that the gender gap has not grown over time (according to the MOE???). Boys are mathematicians and scientists, girls are readers and writers. In general, and in my opinion, I would lean slightly towards saying this is true. However, I truly do not believe, from my experience, and what I've seen in my classrooms, that it is totally right.

Children are born with the potential to excel in anything. I think there are a combination of factors contributes to a child's strengths in the end (and these are not limited to): individual wiring of a child's brain (some will just not get it!), genes, childhood experiences, parental pressure/expectation, parental strengths, and teachers - passion for teaching and learning, attitude, encouragement, subject strengths. 

I agree that boys are usually more active. I believe a good teacher can cater for that throughout the day and develop strategies with the students that empowers them to take control of their own learning and learning breaks. I'm not saying that boys classes are not the answer - but I do agree with Lisa Rodgers again, when she says that if it's working for that community, in that school, great! It's not necessarily the answer.

I have one other small problem with this report.... The part when it says boys can't learn because there is not the resources to engage them. For as long as I've been teaching (so at least the last five years), there has been talk around engagement of boys. Both of my previous schools had excellent resources to engage boys and as a teacher, it was my job to make sure I sourced resources and activities to actively engage ALL students.

In fact, I would go as far as saying, there has almost been too much of a swing! I don't think I have ever had a guided reading session using books about ponies and princesses.  For the past two years I have had classes that have been two thirds girls. At times I have struggled to find resources that would engage them. 

The story presented by Sunday was a great way to get people talking about some of the issues in education, and I hope they continue to present similar stories. I think the part of the story that was missing though was the individuality of each child. Each child needs to be engaged and the teacher has to find that spark and help to ignite it in any way they can.

Week One

We made it! We opened the classrooms for formal teaching on Monday after a somewhat tear-ier start than we anticipated. 

Otago Daily Times: School's In

It has been a truly tiring, but one of the best, experiences ever! It has been so great to be working with the children in their purpose-designed learning space. My group has activated all but one area in the habitat so far and the children are already beginning to respond to how those spaces have been activated. (There is one space I will definitely be making an effort to 're-activate' in a more positive way!)

There has been so much learning happening for me - getting to know the children and their caregivers, beginning to understand the stage-age relationship, being more adaptable than ever, working with and by the team during learning time, working with the team after-school, recognising strengths in others, dealing with issues as they arise and at rare times learning to be tactical in approaching possible difficult situations. 

What I have really enjoyed is spending time getting to know my mentor group - their interests, their abilities, their personalities and what drives them. I have also really enjoyed our afternoon rotations working with the other mentor groups. I love that within our habitat ALL the students are 'mine', and all the other teachers. I believe having that flexibility to intra-change is going to be a powerful practice to support learning.

What am I looking forward in the week approaching? I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time with other groups and developing a deeper understanding, not only of my group, but of the other children. I look forward to the focus we are going to have around collaboration and enabling those students to have the ability to strengthen their working relationships with others.

Opening!

A new school generates a considerable amount of interest within a community and here in 'little, old' Queenstown we are BIG news - so I discovered when I was recognised in the supermarket! It is fabulous that people are taking an interest in the future of education and the direction that we are going.

As part of the opening sequence (I guess you could call it!), we hosted the community for an open day. It was lovely to see such a diverse range of people there. Young couples, who haven't yet had children, and those with very young children - right through to older generations who just wanted to see what the fuss was about. Of course, the foundation children and their families attended too, and it was lovely to see the children interacting with the spaces. 

Some spaces were a lot more popular than others, which was great to observe in an informal setting. It has sparked discussions amongst the learning mentors but how to 'activate' the other spaces and how to 'manage' the popular ones!

Part Two of our opening sequence was a BBQ and welcome for the families. The children received a name tag with their name and their 'mentor' teacher on it, as well as a treasure hunt. The children had a great time heading around the school finding all the places they needed to know about - library, toilets, fountain, bike stands, kiss and drop, their habitat, and of course, their learning mentor. It was lovely to meet the children formally, finally and for it all to start feeling 'real'. I can't wait for first day Monday!