LCS - Sharing the Knowledge

The Term 3 Staff Meeting has come around rather fast. I am glad I started preparing for the Staff Meeting during the holidays after discussions with the Principals during one of our catch-ups. Additionally, as I've been reviewing class and student blogs, I've noticed that when they share photos, they often end up in a list form. As a teacher and blogger, I know there are better ways to present photos. Whether they use Google Draw to create their own collage for sharing or explore other available resources, there are more visually appealing options.

For one school, I was aware that they had been working in Canva, so we explored that and allowed teachers to create so they could share. We also explored alternatives, such as audio recordings and screencasts, as some other schools wanted to adopt a style more akin to podcast or TikTok ideas.

My takeaway from this Staff Meeting was ensuring that there are various options available, and recognising that different people are willing to try different ideas. With less confident teachers, I needed to take a more step-by-step approach.

I also participated in the Manaiakalani Share Online Meeting. This occurs across the network where teachers can discuss an area they have been specializing in or working on as part of an inquiry. Our focus was on writing; thanks to Jacob for leading.

Create Hui with TPNoM

 Kia Ora,

I was asked to help with the Te Purapura Ngātahi o Manaiakalani (TPNoM). 

The first meeting was online. I helped the beginning group create a Toku whare/ Lo’u fale/ My house/home in Google Slides using a range of shapes. 

I am used to creating using shapes in Google Draw. Making a house in Google Slides was intriguing. It was not something I had thought to do before. One thing had to remind my group was to change the colour you had to have the shape highlighted (blue square around the item).

The second opportunity was at Kedgely Intermediate. Being kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) with people again was exciting. This time I was taking the middle group. It was enlightening as I have tried using Mote before, it worked the first time, but not after that, or so I thought.

I love sharing what I know, the opportunity to learn a new trick and share it even better.

Making the Most of Mentoring

 As Mentors in Education, we always want to know if we are doing a quality job and how to do it better. 

Teachers are constantly reflecting, so as a Teacher of Teachers that doesn't stop. 

Through Manaiakalani we have the challenge to monitor what we do and measure the difference we make. 

As a Mentor / Education Programme Leader, I modelled lessons using think-aloud so the teacher I am modelling for understands what I am doing and why.

An example of this is I asked students to discuss the meaning of share, copied and permanent. They turned to the person next to them about these words. At the end of the student discussion and subsequent sharing time. I explained to the teacher and students what a wonderful extended discussion they had participated in, and then explained how 'Extended Discussion' is different from other discussions.

But what more can I do...

The Education Hub has the above article - 

Talks about GROW

Goals

Reality

Option

Way Forward

This process enables powerful questions to help reflect on the situation
and set goals in order to develop solutions giving ownership back to those involved rather than being told what to do. I was given this card a few years ago when we looked at setting GROW Goals.

It is a great card to carry with me to remind me of questions I can ask to help grow my mentorees.

Through the Manaiakalani Programme the BIG aim to empower teachers to use a range of Google Apps to help empower student and learning that is ubiquitous, connected and visible.

I have picked a couple of teachers I am working with to do my class study they are both eager to learn they have different experiences and work with different age groups.

Toolkit - Digging into Mood

Term Two - Digging into Mood

This term the toolkit I am running follows up on PD I did last year with Dr Aaron Wilson and Selena Meiklejohn-Whiu for Year 7 and 8 Teachers. We looked into how authors create Mood and Atmosphere and then applied this knowledge to writing. 

At this stage, I have 16 people excited about being Moody. I look forward to seeing them all.

LCS - Create can Happen Anywhere

 Learn, Create, Share Staff Meetings were organised into 2 groups (depending on when schools could attend).  By having only two meetings I believed it would provide opportunities for schools to work with others in the cluster building relationships. 

This was the first Staff Meeting I was running with Ako Hiko and I thought it was important to reiterate the meaning of Create and where it fits in the Pedagogy of Learn, Create, Share. When I was first starting on this journey it took me a few times to understand the three parts and schools have a staff turnover.

One highlight I thought was where teachers were able to create and then explore. The create task was so tables had treats easily accessible in front of them.

then we looked at where they can find 'Create' resources through the Manaiakalani Online Toolkits Archive and Google Arts. I learnt about Google Arts at the end of 2022 through Summer Learning Journey and thought it was a great resource that needed to be shared.

Research Reflections - Where to from here?

 

Kia Ora Koutou,

Graphs like these want us to be teaching to the North East. So our data is in the top right quadrant.

So when I found out that was a focus for one of my schools Reading the Book 'Teaching to the North East', I wanted to know more. 

Check out My Posts to see how I implement these ideas as a Mentor and Teacher helping to build the digital capacity in classrooms.

Toolkits - Sharing the Love

 Term One - Google Arts and Culture

After the Summer Learning Journey and completing a few of the tasks together, in December 2022. The Google Arts and Culture tasks really sparked my interest with the activities that developed ideas in music and visual arts.

The toolkit was well received and teachers had the opportunity to play with some of the more creative features.

Check out the slides:

LCS - Learning happens all the time!

 Learning happens all the time how can we take advantage of that for Students?

We have just had the Ako Hiko Learn Create Share Staff Meeting with a focus on LEARN.

Phil took us back to the Kaupapa of Ako Hiko and Manaiakalani:

Connected | Rangitamiro, Empowered | Rangitū and our focus for the day

UBIQUITOUS | RANGIWHĀ & VISIBLE | ARIARI 

We watched this clip.

During the second viewing, we had to identify blocks the team made so the returner could succeed. 

With this in mind that the runner is the student and as teachers we are to stop or limit the barriers that hinder learning.

In order to make learning ubiquitous it needs to be rewindable, not just available online, but workable. So not just a list of questions where the book is at school. Maybe include a video on the same topic, and a copy of the book with audio so a student can listen if they prefer.

We had the opportunity to look at Class onAir and how teachers their make lessons rewindable for other teachers and students through their class site. A wonderful opportunity as you can search lessons for age or topic.

And I thought this was something to think on!

Orientation 2023

The January Orientation was completed through a tag team effort this year. Phil led, preparing the slides, while I added tidbits, ideas, and thoughts as they arose. It was a great experience, serving as preparation before taking the lead starting in April, where I conducted the orientation again due to staff changes.

 

My biggest takeaway from participating in the orientation was to ensure a thorough understanding of the speaker notes. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that the slides are relevant, showcasing the latest events and learning opportunities within the Ako Hiko Clusters.

The second part of the day focused on in-class facilitation. I found this set of slides important, as the teachers with whom Phil and I will be working need to understand the different roles.

The afternoon session focused on creating a class site, and I'm glad there were two of us available to assist the teachers and address their questions. One key takeaway is to remember to duplicate a site you've created to start the following year if you're satisfied with your previous work. This link can then be shared with students, enabling them to access their learning materials quickly. If you make changes each term, it can become confusing for students to locate the information they need.

Building Relationship

More and more teachers are discussing the importance of developing relationships with students and involving whanau (extended family) to ensure everyone is on the same page. This approach is well established in some countries where teachers have the same class for multiple years.

Ten years ago, I had the opportunity, more out of necessity than design, to teach a range of year levels. I started by teaching Year 1 and 2 students in a school. The year following, they needed a teacher for a Year 2/3 class, so I moved up a level and continued teaching the same students. The year after that, I taught a Year 4 class, and eventually, I became the Senior Teacher for Years 5 and 6. As a result, I had the privilege of teaching half of the students for multiple years.

Each year, I would begin by calling the parents to discuss how their children were settling into school after the break and to address any concerns they might have had. As I had taught some of these students for 3 or 4 years, parents were more comfortable engaging with me and discussing their concerns. However, it took time to establish these connections.

More recently, I moved to a different area and level of teaching. To build relationships with the parents and students I was now responsible for, I started by calling them to introduce myself before engaging in more challenging conversations. Unfortunately, this was the same year that we faced the challenges of COVID-19, and students rarely attended school on a regular schedule. This made it more difficult to establish connections with students and their whanau.

As a school, we read 'When the Adults Change, Everything Changes' check out my posts to see what changes I make as a teacher and mentor.

 

Words - Can you make them make sense in Maths?

What do we know from reading that we can apply to maths?

• We can find the key ideas or information (What we already know after reading the question)
• We can find out what we need to know!

In this particular lesson, students are being shown how to use a tree diagram to organise the choices or options available from the question.

Click on the image to go to Class onAir.

Squares Squares and more Squares

What is a square to you? Have you ever really looked at squared numbers?

I was once teaching students about multiplication using grid paper. We create 2x8, 3x8 and many more to help students understand their times' tables with a display. When we realised the 2x2, 3x3 and 4x4 (yes, I did know they were called squared numbers), students kept coming and saying, 'this one is a square'. And I knew I had to use this student-created realisation and build on it for them. 

Teaching Year 7 and 8 students who again know about squares but didn't know about the 'power of' was an opportunity to bring this back to life. Especially when we also had to look into square roots, the opposite of squares.

Click on the Image to go to the Class onAir lesson.

 

What the Point?

When we write, there are different perspectives the author can take on or use. 

The most common is the first person, where we are right there in the story. Words such as; We, us, our, and ourselves are first-person pronouns. Singular first-person pronouns include I, me, my, mine and myself. This gives the feeling of being inclusive, making the reader feels part of the story.

We have the second person where the word you is used frequently, almost like it was all about them or their fault. Again the author is very involved, but they may understand the background behind the issue yet.

Third person perspective is one of my favourites when writing. The author is writing as if looking through a window or door and watching what is happening. It helps to use your imagination and create pondering thoughts about what they could be thinking or what might happen next.

Justifying my Answers

Students are learning how a different point of view changes a story. They were asked to evaluate evidence to help justify their thinking. This needed to be more detailed than just having I, me or he and she in it. It needed to be in sentences from the story.

The students got this concept and were able to give examples. Next, I would like to see it in a more challenging text with speech, as this is written in the first person even if the story is not.

Ako Hiko LCS Hui

 Celebrating How Far Have We Come

With Phil moving on, we looked at what the Cluster has been doing and achieved over the last 3 years.

We started by giving ourselves a superhero. I gave myself courage. Then we gave one to a colleague. Which would you pick for yourself?

Insights in the Staffroom - Sharing the Light in the Dark

There are many things Ako Hiko Cluster, do that my previous Cluster doesn't, and many that the Manaiakalani Cluster do.

I found this activity interesting as I look to take over the Facilitator Role, what will change in 3-5 years when I think about my next step?