The first year in Queenstown

Next week is the final week of school for the year. Monday will bring the beginning of the end of the beginning! It's time to celebrate the highlights of the year.


Highlights:

• KJet ride
• Shotover Jet ride
• Double decker bus ride
• Arrowtown museum
• Earnslaw
• Helicopter visit (not a ride... this time)
• Being challenged and questioned

• many great cycle trails
• many great walking tracks
• Gondola and luging
• 4WDing and getting into Macetown
• skiing (even if I didn't like it much!)
• being closer to family
• wining and dining
• making friends and connections through clubs

I'm looking forward to what 2016 will bring! Bring it on!

Professionalism

Our teacher meeting this week was on the topic of Professionalism. Our guest speaker was Tony Burkin.

I thought it was a fantastic session. The one big takeaway I got from this session is that we are professionals. The emphasis is all too often on teaching practice - it is what teacher meetings are made up of and it's what appraisal is made of. Therefore, the perception by default, is that you are a good teacher if you can teach. The perception is only a portion of the whole.

It was easy to get caught up in the surface discussion of the session - the things you are allowed to do, the things you probably shouldn't and the things you aren't. Then there was the grey areas like drinking in public and crying. These have caused a lot of discussion amongst the staff and it's interesting to listen to the perspectives. 

But, there was more to the session, and the nitty gritty really is looking carefully at the code of ethics. 

1 - Commitment to Learners
2 - Commitment to Parents/Guardians and Family/Whanau
3 - Commitment to Society
4 - Commitment to the Profession

And the four Principles - Autonomy, Justice, Responsible Care, Truth




All of these can be broken very easily - missing deadline, not reflecting, making up awesome lessons when you have a scheduled observation, not reading emails, resisting change, poor punctuality, talking behind backs.... etc. 

The word of the day for me was Truth. I was fortunate to have attended an earlier session with Tony as well that talked about Truth being an indicator of a Growth Mindset. You have to be truthful to yourself and to others.

The session has certainly provided me with food for thought, and I'm pleased mostly to be thought of as a professional, but now there is a standard to live up to! 

Concept Curriculum

A few weeks back the teachers got together to discuss our Concept focus for 2016. 

I think it's important to think about why having a concept focus is important. The leadership team could probably add more to this, but I think the importance comes in consistency across the school (children having conversations about their learning with each other) and develops understanding of some quite complex things across a range of 'topics' and across the curriculum through an integrated approach.

This year our focus has been 'Change' - which was most appropriate as we embarked on the journey of our foundational year. Change is a huge concept to grasp, and across the two habitats, there has been some variation in the learning for the children. In the end though, it is evident that their understanding has changed a great deal.

At our meeting we were presented with a number of Pam Hook's Macroconcepts:

There is a number to choose from and we were able to select next years through a process of defining each one, 'selling' it to others and then voting.

However, it's not the children I want to talk about in this post... It dawned on me, that although we, as adults, have understandings of these things - developing our ideas around these is not a silly idea. One that really struck a chord with me is 'Structure'. As I grow and develop as a teacher and leader, I believe my ideas around structure are beginning to change.

The group defining structure came up with:

Structure in my head was the traditional model of hierarchy and control. It is only as I begin to understand models of leadership that I can see that although hierarchy remains as a technicality, the relationships, and the elements of the relationships (trust, compassion, etc.) allow structure to be much more complex. 

As I work through my journey of leadership, I will be keeping some focus on 'Structure' as my personal development in understanding this complex macroconcept. 

What Big Questions does it leave for me?
What is the impact of structure?
Where can you find structure?
How does structure form?
What would happen if we didn't have structure?
What causes structure to form?
What are the types of structure?
Why should we have structure?

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. 

Term Three Reflection

Term Three was hard. I tried to write this reflection in the holidays and couldn't bring myself to it. I tried to write it during the first two weeks of Term Four and I couldn't bring myself to it. It's only now, that I've had a long weekend away that I feel ready to record my reflections in writing. 

It's not that it was a bad term - far from it. I even quite like a busy term, so it wasn't totally that either. But there was something about the term that didn't go right and I really can't put my finger on what exactly it was. Unfortunately, whatever it was had a snowballing effect and by the end I was making big about little things. That's not really me. 

It was a really odd feeling, it was like my head was full of fog and I couldn't see anything clearly. I didn't feel like I was doing my best work. I dealt with this snowballing by keeping the focus I had on the children and the team. I reduced whatever personal 'work' I could. I stopped tweeting as well as stopped publishing blog posts. There's a few drafts there that I will go back and review.

In an open space and ILE, your team are your flatmates. For 8 hours a day you 'live' with them. The are your support - like a machine in which all the components work together in a rhythm. Unfortunately one of our team members became quite ill for a time, and although no one is irreplaceable as far as work load is concerned, you do miss the rhythm that that person provides. 

If there's one thing I've learnt about this year, it's about teaming and collaboration. I've blogged before about the value of working in this way and I would find it very difficult now to go back to single-cell teaching. However, (and I'm very brave to put this out there) I do wonder if I'm the only one who sometime feels like it holds you back a bit. In some ways you can only go as fast as the 'slowest' person. Let me explain - when you're in your single cell you prioritise your next steps/focus: maths development, use of space, teaching technique, school belief etc. and you get on and do it. When you're in a team, each of you are still individual thinkers, so often your priorities will be different and two things can happen. One - you feel like your priority is not priority enough. Two - they all become priorities and then you feel overwhelmed because not only is there a number of different focuses, but there is a number of different people to bring on board. 

It adds a certain pressure to each team member because you're constantly trying to please everyone - and as the saying goes "you can't please everyone". Of course this is where a shared vision is essential and I feel most grateful that this is a constant focus of staff, teacher and team meetings. 

I would like to finish this post with some of the highlights of term three:
Skiing
CL conferences
Art PD
Pirate House Day
Open Evening
Flash Mob
The movement in some of my readers

Putting myself in the learners shoes

It turns out learning is hard. Especially if it is in an area that is not particularly 'your thing'.

I have a passion and interest in literacy and I mostly enjoy being challenged and put in the pit in this area.

Sport is not my area. And I have traumatic childhood memories of skiing. Nevertheless, I decided that it was something I should have another go at. 

Conditions were ideal - the sun was shining, there had been a little extra top up snow overnight, I had all the gear I needed and some supportive friends. 

I got out on the learners slope and was zipping up and down there in no time. It was time for the next step. The chairlift. This was my big barrier. But with some perseverance and grit I managed that - and experienced the joy that comes after conquering the pit. And to top it all off, I had been convinced that the bigger chairlift was just as easy as the smaller one.

And that's about where the good part of the day ends.

The mountain was too big. My legs were too tired. My determination diminished. I was trying to run before I could walk.

And will I go skiing again? Not this year.

I took away from this experience a few things as a learner.
1) Conditions have to be ideal in order for positive learning experience outside of someones comfort zone.
2) A gentle push is OK. But always take the smallest step to build the learner up.
3) When a learner says enough is enough - STOP now. It is likely they will come back to it and pick up from where they left off.

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?

Word Power

With a background and big interest in most things literature based, I thought I knew a lot about literacy. That was, until I taught emergent readers.

At the beginning of this year, I volunteered myself to take our habitat's emergent readers on. It was a challenge I really wanted, and I really needed it to prove to myself my literary abilities. It wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. I think almost everyday I initiated a conversation with our school literacy expert, gathering little tidbits of information and help where I could. 

I'm feeling a little bit more confident now, and six months later I can see the progress in the children. More important than just noticing reading levels increase, I am noticing changes in their oral language, alphabet knowledge, phonics, concepts about print (that was something I had never considered before with older students!), listening, writing, the list goes on! More than that, I had taken it for granted for so long that children would know how to spell their first and last name (let alone what their last name actually was!), and would know about concepts such as beginning/end, opposites and that things had to make sense! It really has been huge learning for me.

I have been fortunate enough to extend myself through some professional development as well:

• A Ready to Read course (provided by Otago Literacy Association)
• Observation of teachers in our other habitat
• Observation at another local school in their NE-Y1 block
• Observation of our literacy leader working with my students
• In-house Teacher Meeting looking at ELPs Dimensions of Effective Practice
• Being observed with formal written feedback

The final one was a great way to finish the term and see some affirmation. It was great to see that:

• I'm doing a great job of introducing and de-bugging the book
• This children (but I think most/all) are really keen to read
• I'm encouraging correction through use of visual and meaning clues
• I step in at the appropriate time (this particular child can get quite stressed), but not too early to encourage learned helplessness

What does this mean for me now?

I need to allow the child to read on further (than I am allowing) to see if they can correct themselves and I need to show less hinting on my face. 

With the guided reading coming along reasonably well, my focus for next term is working on shared reading.

The power of Learning Beliefs

This term, at one of our teacher meetings we realised after some confusion between our school curriculum and national curriculum that we were using the terms Learning Values and Learning Beliefs interchangeably. We felt this needed to be ironed out. However, it wasn't a decision that was just made as people clearly felt more strongly about one word than the other. In the end it was decided that at Shotover School we would use the term Learning Belief. 

Over the year we have been unpacking these a little using the Beliefs to Practice model. It has been a valuable exercise in understanding the WHY. And this has led to changes. At the beginning of the year we had a 'Belief' for each of Thinking and Reflection. At one of our more recent meetings we combined those (as Reflection is a practice of Thinking) and toiled with the idea of Joy (not confirmed). Our other Beliefs are Curiosity, Collaboration and Growth Mindset. 

I think our Beliefs have hit the nail on the head in terms of current and future education. Growth Mindset alone has been a very powerful teaching tool, and the others compliment each other and learning just perfectly!

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. 

Staff Meeting of the Year - so far!

Being a foundation teacher at a new school is an interesting process. The 'nerd' in me thrives on all the developmental 'stuff' that is happening. Out of all the staff meetings we've had this year, today's was one I enjoyed the most - and not just because it all started with a visit from Mr Whippy - although that was pretty cool! There are two reasons why today's meeting really impacted me. One was because I've been thinking a bit about collaboration in Modern Teaching Practice, and two, because it gave me a chance to reflect back on our Hermann Brain Modelling and what that means to me now.


I'm going to start with number two. 

The focus of today's meeting was to begin the nitty gritty development of our Capacities (Key Competencies) further. It had been decided that these were to be based around the HBDI model, in that our business is to develop 'whole' children who can reach into each of the represented quadrants (Blue - analyse, Green - organise, Red - personalise, Yellow - visualise). 

Using our own experience from primary school, we had to think about what made a teacher memorable. Interestingly, many of our memories ended up in the Red and Yellow quadrants. My theory on this would be that a child remembers emotion and experience and doesn't know about the behind-the-scenes work a teacher does. 

However, when we were asked to think about the qualities we would like a student to have by the time they left in year 8, many more started to show up on the Blue and Green quadrants. My theory here, would be that the Blue and Green quadrants are perhaps a little more skills based (but don't get me wrong, because I believe you can learn strategies to be more Red or Yellow - or any colour actually), whereas, the Red and Yellow quadrants are more emotions based and we recall emotions quite strongly. 

So where does this leave me with my thinking about my profile? I am equally Blue, Green and Yellow with a little bit less Red. I get this - and I'm a big picture thinker. I have to know the details, I have to ask the question and if I don't know, I don't understand. For me, not understanding come out as frustration (I may or may not actually show this). Interestingly, the point of frustration comes out as quite emotional for me. I can get so caught up in something, sometimes the smallest of things, but I simply cannot move on until I've done the Blue/Green thing. For some time now, my biggest challenge is how to deal with the emotional bit - the getting from frustration to problem solving. I've tried many things. Nothing works quickly enough..... yet!

All of my dominant quadrants are satisfied by a thought-provoking meeting and even more so when it perfectly balances independent thought and collaborative practice.


How's that for a segway into the next topic!

I've been thinking about collaboration as part of Modern Teaching Practice. Collaboration is defined by Google as: the action of working with someone to produce something. I'm starting to define a bit more about what I believe collaboration is. 

So far, I think there's two main types: 1) The team all work independently on something and bring it together to share with others and 2) A facilitator fosters independent thought and brings it together so everyone has equal voice. 

Both types, I believe, have their merits. Organisation of events, timetables etc. are suited well to Type 1 and are a good way to distribute workload. This type of collaboration is generally easier to manage, especially if team members have expertise in necessary areas. Type 2, seems to be a powerful tool for fostering a shared understanding of beliefs and terminology. It is more time-consuming and requires facilitation (not leading), but it is essential to get consistency amongst a team.

The 'nerd' in me, I'm sure, will continue to enjoy the process and thought behind the principles of Modern Teaching Practice, as I continue to develop my understanding of what it's all about.

Addition: July 4 2015
This interesting blog post just released by Core Education's Greg Carroll reminded me of my previous thoughts about Collaboration. It continues to be a hot topic and a very intriguing one too! I feel like there's more to come.

Solitude is important

This is a must watch TED talk. I don't feel like I want to say much about this, as I think Susan Cain sums it all up pretty well. I do want to acknowledge that I identify with the idea that creativity comes from solitude and we mustn't forget about this power. I like the notion that there is nothing wrong with bringing wisdom back to the community, and then collaborate.  

One of the most powerful questions to come out of this, for me, at this moment, is, 'Why are we making children feel guilty about their desire to work alone?' 

I feel this is one of those presentations I will watch over and over again. 

Why I will try to never use the word potential again.

When you Google the words "potential growth mindset" together, up comes a list of links to all sorts of videos and books encouraging you to reach your potential using a Growth Mindset. The guru herself, Carol Dweck, titled her book Mindset: How You Can Fill Your Potential.

Mary Cay Ricci's book, Mindset in the Classroom sends a different message about the word potential. I don't know how many times I have used the word when writing school reports or during conversations with parents or students themselves, but from now on I will try never to use the word again.

After reading the sub-chapter on the Role of Potential, it seems that the word itself suggests a endpoint. Once you have reached the endpoint, there is no further. Ricci uses the example of Michael Phelps. Once he'd achieved his tenth Olympic Gold Medal in 2008, many thought he had reached his potential. Of course, he went on to shatter that in 2012 with another 8 Gold Medals.

As Educators, I think we sometimes hinder further learning when we see 'potential' has been reached. A child may have succeeded at a learning intention, so we tick that box and move onto the next, rather than allowing them to further grow in that area. 

The system itself often creates a barrier to learning and pushing potential. I believe I experienced that myself, back in the day, as a first year NCEA student. I was a reasonably able student with potential to gain Excellences, however, I didn't feel the need to push myself any harder because I gained no extra credit for it. (I can see now how it would have paid off - but that didn't mean anything to me as a teenager.)

I see part of my job as teaching students to be successful and perform to their best by having a Growth Mindset. I will be telling them to think beyond their potential - you never know unless you try!

Growth Mindset

Where does Growth Mindset fit with your 'Comfort Zone?'

Let's say there are three levels of comfort - Totally OK with this, I'm willing to try, and No Way I don't like it.

I believe I have a Growth Mindset and every day I'm working towards developing myself..... in my work. There's the catch. I'm driven by my work and I have a desire to succeed.

As I read more about Growth Mindset, I am begin to associate it a lot with desire. I believe I could train for and run a marathon - but along with believing I could, I would have to have the desire to do so.

Stamina and perseverance is equally as important - I could run a marathon, learn a language, become a great artist, be a designer and a builder (?!?!) but to learn it all would leave me exhausted (and probably broke!).

I think that everybody shows a Growth Mindset and a Fixed Mindset. It's the other qualities in the end, that determine how much effort you are going to put forward to achieving something.

Having a Growth Mindset will come naturally to some situations. Perhaps it's a new mother just trying to be a better mum, maybe it's a child learning to talk, or a homeless person looking for warmer and safer spots to sleep. Are they aware of their growth mindset? Probably not. 

I think it's what we do outside our comfort zone that is really going to grow our minds - but we must have a TRUE desire to do.

What should a teacher wear?

My Own Opinion:

This article was published a little while ago in the New Zealand Herald.
Dress to impress, teachers told - The Herald

I couldn't agree more with the NZ Teachers Council regarding dress standards. We are professionals. We expect to be paid like professionals and we expect to be treated like professionals from our leaders, our children and their parents. 

Professional does not mean expensive and it does not mean uncomfortable. It also does not mean powerful. We are role-models and we should be expected to present ourselves tidily and appropriately.

I have now taught 5 year olds to 11 year olds. I have never had a problem wearing a skirt, going out to a sports field or sitting on the floor, and I have never had a major paint spill (I did splatter dye on a knit jersey once - could easily have been lunch I spilled down my front if I was in a different job).

As part of my classroom kit, I have an art apron that I put on during art time, and I keep a pair of old sports shoes in the cupboard. 

I'm not perfect, I have made some errors in judgement before - I'm not the fashion police but in general, there are a few things I try to avoid.

1) Faded jeans (Jeans itself is an interesting debate, I generally try to avoid them, but if accompanied with a dressy top and shoes they can be acceptable at times)
2) Spaghetti straps
3) Rubber jandals with no back strap
4) Skirts any shorter than just above your knee
5) Ugg boots
6) Sweater hoodies

At the bottom

I have three blog posts in draft form currently. They're all from the last couple of weeks of last term. At that point, I was tired. I'd worked hard. I kept thinking, 'I'll have more time and energy in the holidays.' The holidays came - I spent a good 10 days switched off from school, I re-energised and then I never quite got round to the blogging - pushing it down my priority list. 

Term two started and it was more intense than I expected. Then it seemed the blogging didn't matter anymore. Until this week. This week I hit the bottom of the pit. (I hope it's the bottom anyway!) Reality has hit, with the honeymoon period over, I got a cold (more than just a sniffle), and I temporarily lost my growth mindset. This is me kicking my positivity back into action.

It's important to emphasise that I've just had a bad week. I still love what I do and believe in the same things. But these are some things I'm going to work on to improve my teaching and well-being:

1) Take some time - it's very easy when in a shared environment to feel like you always have to be intensively teaching, especially if there's someone in a 'roamer' role. 
2) Be patient - I have surprised myself how much I have enjoyed working with the younger years, but I do still get frustrated at repeating myself a lot. I need to chill and remember how young they are.
3) Don't put aside reflection and change - There has been so much to adapt to this year that I think at some points (now being one of them) that it has been easier to just ignore what's not urgent and then carry on pretending everything is fine.

There is some great PD that has happened and is happening this term - so back to blogging it is! And maybe.... I might just go back and finish those posts in draft form.

Phonological Awareness

 

Thank you Helen for posting these questions to think about! Here's what I think!

HA: Will be interested to see how today's Phonological Awareness training sits with prior knowledge...
Did it:
- Confirm what you already knew?
- Build on some of your base understanding?
- Get you to think in a new way about language development?

Confirm what I already knew?

With a background in linguistics and a general interest in language (particularly phonology and oral language), it was great to have some self-confirmation that I was doing ok - even now that I'm working with an entirely different age level and even a stage level I have not yet experienced.

Build on understanding?

Yes, it was good to be reminded of a few things that are crucial to language development at certain stages. I had completely forgotten about syllables! They are now in my plan. It was also good to be reminded of the importance of scaffolding - no wonder the children struggled at literacy time to generate rhyming words straight off the top of their heads!

Thinking about language development?

It's probably not new thinking for me - it has concerned me for some time that an increasing number of children seem to be starting school without good oral language and phonological awareness. ECE is going to become a integral part of this language development, and it wasn't until today that I found out that most ECE teachers are not trained in phonological awareness. 

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague the other day regarding the 'state' of children's language. As an ex-linguist my argument was that language is constantly evolving. I'm sure those who spoke Old English were just as aghast as we are about what was happening to language. I have to admit though - the 'development' (or is it regression?) does worry me - I do have that natural tendency to want to protect the perfectly good version of English we've got!

Noise

When I tell people I work in an open learning space, usually their first reaction is something about "the noise".

I have always had a noisy classroom. Part of my philosophy is that learning is social and that children love to talk about about their learning (and everything else too....). However, I do believe it has to be a good working noise for the task given. 

I thought going into a Modern Learning Environment, that noise would not be a bother for me. Generally it is not...

There are those times though when you have your group doing a nice, reasonably quiet activity and there's another group who are creating dramatic plays, or practising their music, even watching a short film can distract other groups. (Have you noticed children have amazing ability to pick up computer/TV noise, no matter how quiet, and immediately be distracted from whatever they are doing!)

How do I cope? The best I can - sometimes it's me that's being the noisy one, or has a noisy group. It comes back to the learning mentors making sure we are setting those expectations, having those conversations, developing a plan to ensure our learners can stay focussed. Some of it will come down to timetabling or making sure a quiet space is available. And I'm sure once our school facilities expand, some of those noisier lessons can be taken elsewhere!

What will reading look like?

Previously I have taught Years 4-6 and this year with Year 1-4s has been quite a learning curve. I was ready for the move and have found the first few weeks insightful and I am beginning to understand now the development of the full child - mainly the social and the fundamental skills. Now it is time for us all to dive fully into the reading programme. I have taught some very low readers before and have been fortunate enough to have worked with and guided by some great RTLBs and literacy experts. My background in linguistics and affiliation with the Canterbury Literacy association has led me to put my hand up to work with the very emergent readers in our habitat. It's a challenge I'm really looking forward to.

I had heard a lot about Daily 5, but had not read the book or followed the programme. I knew a colleague had tried it before, so I asked to borrow her book. She was more than happy to oblige, however gave it to me with a warning. She said something along the lines of, "I'm sure much of it you're doing already without even noticing. This is very prescriptive - it's worth a read, but I don't think it's necessary to follow it completely." 

She was absolutely right - especially for the environment we are working in where flexibility plays a big part in our day. 

The Daily 5 principles are: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work.

How might this work for me? I envisage some stations set up each week, based on the 5 principles. Each day children have to complete at least three. They have to complete each one at least once over the week. Self-direction is key to engagement, so I believe the children should be given some choice. They could be given a sheet at the beginning of each week with the names on it. Each activity has some smiley faces beside it. Every time a child completes that activity, they colour in a smily face. As long as they are spending some time on each of the key literacy principles through quality activities, I'm a happy teacher.

Ideas for stations

Read to Self
big books
poetry
picture books
browsing box

Read to Someone
stuffed toys
buddy
iPads
poem on stage

Listen to reading
sunshine online
other online stories (two for week)
buddy
music with words

Work on Writing
letter formation hair gel bags
handwriting iPads
creating words from letters
self-planning (prior to workshop)
choice writing

Word work
sight words games
letter/sound of the week activities
word finds
spelling challenges


Will this be a reality? I will only know after spending some time with the learners.

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.

Assessment

Tomorrow we have a teacher Professional Learning meeting about our assessment procedures and practices. We have been asked to think about the following questions:

• What is it for?
• Why do we assess?
• When do we assess?
• What are examples of great assessment?
• What are examples of poor assessment?

So what do I think?

What is it for?

I believe assessment is for real time guidance about future learning for any independent child, in any particular area. It is important to track progress over time as well.

Why do we assess?

Students are here to learn. Learning is new information or skills that that child didn't know before. Therefore, we assess for information about if they have achieved what we were teaching them AND for what they don't know - yet!
Assessment is only useful if it is analysed and used for the purpose of guiding future learning - a number generally won't tell you that.

When do we assess?

Actually, all the time. I think the most critical of assessment is the informal observations that we, as mentors make continuously. Of course formal assessment needs to happen regularly, but it depends on what it is. E.g. Running Records should be done when you think they are ready to move up a level (guided by observation though). Some assessments need to be made annually, or bi-annually to meet team/school/national/exteranal service expectations. 

What are examples of great assessment?

Continuing informal assessment of processes and strategies across learning areas. Some assessment of knowledge that relates to strategies - i.e. Knowing your times tables will make a difference to a student working at Stages 5-7 in Numeracy.
Children need to be involved in assessment, after all it is their learning. This can be done by talking to their results and next steps or involving them in developing rubrics for the stages of learning. Assessment is part of the learning process, not separate from it.

What are examples of poor assessment?

Assessing knowledge of content areas - e.g. How many wings does a penguin have? (You may however ask 'How does a penguin use it's wings?' to gain understanding of thinking strategies).