Embedding Oral Language Course

In Wk 7 I attended a professional learning workshop with Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey called Embedding Oral Language Across The Curriculum.

The workshop covered:
• Speaking and listening skills
• Planning for talk: establishing routines and expectations for student talk
• Vocabulary learning, research and ideas
• Practical ideas that promote student talk, including drama, and speaking and listening activities.

What I got from the course, my focus goals:

• Create a stronger Think, Pair, Share culture (teach good listening, what does it look like? Less hands up, )
• Think, pair, square, 
• Students talking in full sentences, elaborating on ideas
• Introduce Barrier games
• Hi 5 Switch when sharing with a buddy
• Try doughnut sharing 
• Would you rather ....OL and then writing

I have already tried a Barrier game which really got them thinking about their positional language and working with a partner. 

Kiwi Teams Foyer Display

Staff Meeting 30/5/17 Appraisal Lesson

Tonight we had a PB4L staff meeting. We were given our Pukete behaviour flow chart and a referral form for students that are timed out in another classroom.

 

We looked at the data so far and then got into groups with a given behaviour scenario. We had to go through the behaviour plan above and write down how we would deal with the given behaviour. I was asked to share back to the staff.  I look forward to using this resource in our school and especially like the referral form for timing out children. 

I also had my appraisal observation today by Natalie. I planned and taught a maths session as part of my week's maths lessons here. We began with a quick skip count in 10's, then a number talk 'All about 10'. We then moved onto counting collections and the students did really well moving on from only counting 20 or so objects last time to having many more to count now. I also introduced a new sheet I made as the other one did not meet the student's needs. This meant they had to try and record their counting as they went. My next steps would be to begin teaching 'Groups of' or multiplication intro as some students are ready to do this. Some were also able to make the groups of 10's but not able to add them up so this is the next step for my triangles. I look forward to Natalie's feedback.

My assessment of the students counting collections today to help inform my OTJ's:

Staff Meeting/ Team Meeting 16/5/17 /CRT/ Facebook is Live

Maths Planning 
-Zoe took us through the layout of the new maths planner and how we can use one problem for each maths group when working on their rotation with me. A problem could last over a week. I have attempted using this plan alongside my detailed weekly plan successfully, however, I can not see it working for my class as my only maths planning.  I intend on using it for planning my problem-solving lessons specifically with an enabler and extender for ability coverage. 

Number Talks (See Below)

 "A five- to fifteen-minute classroom conversation around purposefully crafted computation problems that are solved mentally"

This is our main focus of our teacher inquiry and I am really excited about it (now I have the difference between Number Talks and Talk Moves sorted). I have been actually using Number Talk for the last two years after discovering some great videos (below) on the Teaching Channel Website (mainly in regards to Quick Images -10 Frames). I have seen huge benefits from just these simple 10-15 minute warmups (building number sense, flexibility and maths language) and love the new hand signals (we had made our own). I intend to do a Number Talk warm up for my appraisal lesson Week 5. 

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/visualizing-number-combinations

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/kindergarten-counting-cardinality-lesson

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/student-silent-signals

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/second-grade-math-lesson

Purposes: 

Provide students with opportunity to develop computational fluency (accuracy, efficiency, flexibility)in mathematics 

Accuracy:  The ability to produce an accurate answer.

Efficiency: The ability to choose an appropriate, expedient strategy for a specific computation problem.

Flexibility: The ability to use number relationships with ease in computation.

Encourage students to think more flexibly as they work with numbers and operations, increasing number sense

Develop student’s ability to communicate mathematically by requiring them to explain, reason, prove, and justify their thinking.

The Teacher’s Role

• Prepare a purposeful computation problem that supports mathematical goals in number and operations
• Present the problem or image
• Wait. Allow the students time to think
• Record all contributions
• Facilitate discussion leading to a consensus (usually) on the most efficient and accurate strategy.

The Student’s Role

• Think about the problem
• Share an answer and strategy
• Defend their thinking

Zoe Ogle &

Parrish, S. (2010). Number talks. California: Math Solutions Publications

Team Meeting
We moderated our EassTle writing samples from the Year 2's. Was a useful process of collaboration. It was my first time entering EassTle writing results online. 

Natalie shared with us how to use our report writing comment banks.  An amazing support when writing our reports and grateful for the time saver when I have to write 19 Achievement and 1 Progress reports this term.

CRT
I spent the entire day assessing my students in reading and maths (Running records and JAM). An important stage to capture formally for my students and I was thrilled to see how much they are retaining and learning.

Facebook
 After a lot of research, planning and thought our School Facebook page went live on Monday to the public.  We are so proud of what we have achieved and look forward to interacting with our school community in a more modern way.

Inquiry reflection questions:

Does my critical inquiry begin with an assessment of the needs of my ākonga and an evaluation of my capabilities to meet their needs?

My target students have been assessed with formal (JAM) and informal (Observations) assessment. I have identified their needs and will use my Lotus questions to improve their (and my classroom's) maths this year.

 

What impact does my own and my colleagues’ inquiries have on my teaching and outcomes for my ākonga?  

The collaboration with our MIST teacher and the sharing of resources have supported my inquiry into Number Talks specifically. I am looking forward to observing a lesson being taught by our MIST teacher in the junior school.

Where can I source information to more fully understand effective processes of critical inquiry?

Readings, online videos, observations and teaching time.

What changes will I make to my planning, teaching and assessing from what I learn from my inquiry, from feedback in appraisal conversations and observations of my practice?  

How do I ensure my appraisal, inquiry and reflections are a valuable and manageable part of my professional development?  

What evidence do I seek that my teaching and professional relationships (see Criterion One) are advancing the achievement, learning and well-being of all my ākonga?

Staff Meeting 2.5.17- Facebook sharing, Maths Acceleration Readings, PB4L

So good to be back teaching after a few weeks to heal my injured back! Really happy children who are progressing nicely.

Hilary and I shared our Facebook Guidelines to the staff again as we are hoping it will go live Thursday this week.

PB4L- We were given our Minor and major behviours so we can monitor/keep track of daily in our school. Also a new way to keep this information has been designed and shared by our Pukete PB4L team.

Maths Readings- Accelerated learning (My Inquiry)

Scaffolding -https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber

Number Talks Build Numerical Reasoning-http://www.mathsolutions.com/documents/numbertalks_sparrish.pdf

Differentiating Instruction- Sousa and Tomlinson 2011

Summarising the articles:

LLI and Vulnerable Children Meetings

In week 7 I attended a day long LLI (Language and Learning intervention) meeting at MOE with Shirley Debeer (Speech Therapist) in relation to a student in my classes progress and goals.  Her parents also attended as well as Michele, her LA. We began with positives and negatives from her parents then we spent the morning going through what a day looks like in Room 2 at each step and this was noted down by Shirley. We then looked at strategies at each step to support this child in her growth.  It was a positive experience and I enjoyed working with another professional such as Shirley.

Also that week I attended a one on one meeting with a lady from Children's Action Plan about a student in my class and her well being. It was good to be informed about this student's background and to know about the support around them that is in place. 

Hats Off To Me!

Loving our new staff appreciation vouchers! Great relationship/team building. Here are a few of mine:

Staff Meetings

28.2.17

• Managing Minor behaviours- Read 'Responding to Minor problem behaviours' PB4L and as a group we summarised and role played using teacher signals/non-verbal clues when minor behaviours arise. 
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• Key info when responding to these behaviours: Calm and immediate, Consistent, Specific yet brief and quiet and private for the student.
• OTJ slideshow by Donna - 3 sources used Observations, Assessment Tools and learning conversations, Involves drawing on and applying the evidence gathered up to a particular point in time, Moderation is key and will be happening more often at team meetings.

21.2.17

• Consistency in planning schoolwide (new maths plan to discuss from Zoe)
• Counting collections NZ Maths and Video from Teaching Channel - Great way to teach number sense and my students really enjoyed this last year. Week 5 we will have some fun with counting collections in Room 2.
• Gavin's research 'Angry Boys' was shared and summarised.  Some key points that hit home for me:  

-There is always more going on in these children's lives than we know (iceberg)

-Their brains have not developed the same so function differently to stress and emotion

-Trauma and neglect affect the brain development (especially young) of children

-Building strong trusting relationships with these children is vital

-Predicting behaviours before they happen

-Structure and routine traps these children into compliance

First 4 Weeks 2017

• I have built some great reciprocal relationships with my students and are continuing to do so.
• Whanau are openly coming into the class to chat with me about questions and concerns and really enjoying the communication via emails and the blog.
• The reading programme is running well and all kids PM benchmarked today on CRT. Writing routine begun and groups have begun this week for this. Maths has begun with number sense each morning (100 days) and statistics.  
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Term 1 goals:

• Build strong relationships with my students and their families.
• Build strong routines 
• Teach our specific virtues, Respect, Responsibility, Resilence, Courage and Caring....what do these look like at Pukete School?  (PB4L)
• Continue to upskill my Te Reo in my own time to pass onto my students.

• From my last PRT report T4 2016:

Goals for 2017: -To continue to develop a structured circle time into our routine and integrate this with oral language, talk moves and social coaching. -To continue to grow my maths resources and professional knowledge (especially strategy teaching).

Room 2 Behaviour Matrix We Created Together

Staff Meeting 7/02/2017

Classroom matrix designing with students. Look here for Pukete version.

http://www.pbisworld.com/
-Behaviours, what they look like and our strategies around these in our classrooms.

Teacher Only Week 24/25/26 Jan

• PB4L -Designing School Wide Matrix to use in Term one within our school and classrooms for consistency.
• Hats off to You -Staff rewards by Chantelle (Love this idea, and I took the photos)

• Role Playing Behaviours and possible strategies around PB4L Matrix (Teacher doing negative behaviour role playing).
• Planning explicit teaching around the 'Expected Behaviours' at Pukete like Bridgets Staged photo collages.
• Behavioural recording of all minor, major incidents (email as well for major).
• Incredible years refresher and link to PB4L *Key is relationships.

• Reading and reporting back 'Teaching Expected Behaviour', PB4L Section 5, as a group.

• PB4L Classroom strategies- Maximise structure (environment), routine and expectations in the first 2 weeks. 
• Create the routine expectations matrix WITH my class (add in me as a teacher).
• Active supervision- Move, scan, interact.
• Give students more opportunity to respond to stop the calling out and frustration (thumbs).
• Maths- Zoe as MIST.... Talking Maths- Prove it '"What's in your head?". Teach active listening, Talk moves, Supporting others, communicating ideas, growth mindset. Think about maths ability grouping rather problem solving teams. Thanking your brains for thinking.  'Accelerating Learning in Mathematics' reading. Number sense and place value are vitally important. When teaching Stats- do some probability. Worthwhile, contextual and fun maths tasks. 'Every student can become a successful learner of maths.' Effective Pedagogy In Mathematics

• First aid course- Intensive but good day, great team building also for our staff.