PRT course - Responsive Pedagogies 30/07/14

Yesterday I attended my last PRT course. YAY!! The course was based mainly on ako (being a teacher and a learner) and reducing the gap in success between Maori and Pakeha students.

We began the day by discussing what we believe is important in a lesson (5 things) - most of us had very similar ideas. My five were:

1. Fun (engaging)
2. Collaborative
3. Hands on
4. Prepared (resources and teacher research)
5. Catering to ALL student abilities

This then led in to teaching as inquiry (something I felt I had a good grasp on as we have been doing a lot of teaching as inquiry professional development within our school). It was interesting to see others view points on their inquiry process with in their school and also the views of the speaker. It seems as though the process is very different across schools.

The last part of the day was sharing our stories about how we came to be teachers and what has happened on our journey so far.

We then had circle sharing time on what our next step to take back to the class would be. Mine was: to use student voice as part of data collection in the inquiry process. "What data evidence from my students suggests that this is what my students need to close the gap between where they are and where I want them to be?" - David Bradford 2014

There were 5 questions that David suggested using and these are some of what Lisa our literacy advisor has been using on my students.

1. What are you learning?
2. Why are you learning it?
3. How will you know when you have learnt it?
4. What will be your next step?
5. ???? I cant remember - will look at my notes tomorrow!

Overall the day was ok and I did come away with one or two things to think about. However I believe it would have been more valuable at the beginning of our careers as I feel I have learnt a huge portion of what was discussed in my school and the community who I work with.

Term 3 2014

The start of the third term, I can't believe how fast the year has gone. 

I have started the term off super organised and hopefully this will continue! I have 14 students this term, with 2 newbies. We have began the term by going over our classroom rules, expectations and independent activities.

My plan for this term is to continue to increase students literacy and mathematics through hands on, collaborative learning. I am still using the Daily 5 programme and altering it to suit my classes needs. I am running my maths programme a similar way and so far it seems to be working.

In writing over the last term I have been working on continuing to build my students independence. Our school is continuing to work with Lisa and I am currently trialing an idea that she has suggested - will update you next week as to how this is working out. I am aiming to increase my students writing abilities over the next term and I beleive they are all more than capable of meeting my expectation.

For reading as I said above, I am continuing the Daily 5 programme. I have a good selection of activities in my class, with the favourite being able to use the computer - why not use this to my advantage! I have signed my students up for the Reading Egg programme - this is very similar to Mathletics. So far from what I have seen it is really good at building their phonics, letter and word knowledge. Let's hope their engagement in it continues (the makers have set up a great incentive that students can play games once they get enough eggs).

I have started out maths this term with time. It has been quite fun as I haven't taught this subject before. The kids seem to be picking it up quick - I just have to make sure that I add it into my maths calendar to help them retain the knowledge.

I have changed my maths calendar this term and we are working through the days at school to help build number knowledge (this was suggested by Brenda who I am currently working working with for maths). 

My topic this term is native New Zealand birds for the first 5 weeks and then leading into Aeroplanes and airports.

Last term I took the class on a visit to the Otorohanga Kiwi house where we got to see a lot of NZ birds up close. We have spent this week identifying the features of a bird and coming up with our inquiry questions. My students all seem engaged and interested so I am pleased about that.

We have cross country in week 5 so every after we are busy building up our fitness through running and games.

I am hoping to update my blog on a more regular basis (hopefully once a week) and will try and include some photos of the fun stuff happening in our class.

Katie :)