Term 2

How's it gone so far?

• Learning in Room 03
• Most children moving along well. Good learning happening in all areas. There is a group of around 10 children who are reading and writing at or above the  level you would expect them to be at. They are producing good results and taking responsibility for their own learning. Some of the others are beginning to move forward and can see how their learning is beginning to move forward and are now gaining success with what they can do. The important thing for me is to keep celebrating the successes the children  have. One or two children will need to be monitored closely so that we know where they are at and what can be done to help them. To that end some have been going to Early Lit with Nic McGrath and this has helped with their literacy learning.

• Ipads, Ipads, Ipads
• Now that the children are confident using the iPads we are moving along nicely using them to enhance their learning. Some examples:
  
  
  This is a video made initially in Book Creator and converted to a movie to show an understanding of the letter W and the sound it makes. Children took photos and added voice.
  
  
  This video also made the same way shows children;s understanding of adding with 5.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Something I am beginning to explore is the use of the voice recorder for various situations. One of my students misses out words (usually pronouns)  in her writing due to her ESOL background. By recording the sentence she needs she can continually replay it and ensure all the words are there in the sentence. The voice recorder could also work as a fluency enhancer by getting the children to record themselves reading their guided reading texts and listening back to see how fluent they are. Something I will be using next term.
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• PB4L
• A lot of work done by the team this term both in working with staff to increase their understanding and knowledge of PB4L  as well as starting to develop our own PB4L vision. This has included looking at developing our Matrix of behavioural expectations which is well along the way and reflects Porritt Pride while also leading to specific teaching of behaviours. There has been work on developing our incident reporting form as well as making some changes to our reward systems. We have also engaged with whanau with a succesful evening and plan to hold another in Term 3. Our teachers are becoming more comfortable with PB4L and are having more input into it as we begin to develop more resources. We can feel happy about how we are going on this PB4L journey

• EIT Candidate Teachers
• One of this group decided not to continue with her training having decide to look at a different avenue for learning. The others have continued and are becoming a part of Porritt School. Their next big challenge will be their practicum early in Term 3. 

• Edge/Reports
• I have been working with Edge (Our SMS-Musac's online version) and slowly getting to grips with what it can produce. We have tried one of the report formats for our mid-year report and feel it worked well. Some would have liked a little more space for comments but Edge limits this. The next step is to look at the end of year report and see how we can use one of Edge's formats for this.

Term 1 2015

How's it gone so far?

• Another class of great kids
• Yes. The class is a group of hard working New Entrant/Year 1 children with a great attitude. All are progressing, some quicker than others but all trying to do their best. Already some stand out as possibly needing learning help with Literacy skills and knowledge and are getting some early lit help from Nic. Some early maths knowledge is not yet showing with some also but with the Maths PD progressing through the year I am hopeful of addressing this. Behaviour wise this class is not presenting any real issues and I feel the IY training I have had is of great benefit to me and the children in the class.

• Ipads, Ipads, Ipads
• It's taken a while but we are finally up and running. The children show no fear when using them and are already producing some interesting work that shows and enhances their learning.

• PB4L
• Still in it's early stages but can see the benefit of a consistent approach from all staff along with the gathering of data to inform our next steps and overall direction.

• EIT Candidate Teachers
• Good to have them on board. They have found the experience informative and rewarding as they begin their journey into teaching. Coming up for them in term 3 is their first practicum where they spend 3 weeks in the classroom.

• A wedding

2015

This Year-2015

• Another class of great kids
• Ipads, Ipads, Ipads
• PB4L
• EIT Candidate Teachers
• Maths PD
• ULearn
• A wedding
• Another Grandchild

Should be a good year.

Term 3 Revisited

What went well?

• The children in my class-Their learning is progressing well, they have a positive attitude to school and they make me smile.
• The hockey team-even though we won every game up until the last one, thus coming second, they are a great bunch of kids who improved over time and had such a positive attitude to the game and the team.
• Incredible Years PD-A lot of it is common sense and a validation of a lot of what we are doing in the classroom already. However there is always something new to learn and apply in the classroom and I feel it is having an impact on the way I deal with some children in a positive way. This shows in the positive changes in behaviour from the targeted children in the class. Part of that change is also a reflection of the improved learning happening with these children.
• The Art Exhibition-some great stuff created by the children. Our parents were impressed and very proud of their children's work.
  
• Nicole-a very competent trainee teacher who showed empathy with the children and the ability to take on the teaching role easily.
• Kapa Haka-Our kids looked great and performed well. 

Personal Highlights

• Seeing the 3 target children in my class begin to learn and st art to progress in their literacy and numeracy. They are not there yet as far NS are concerned but they are progressing and beginning to realise that they can achieve.Reasons for this would include the extra assistance they are getting with Talk to Learn and Early Literacy and also some of the targeted teaching I am doing with them.
• Going to California!
  

Could Be Better

• I don't think we put enough into the digi awards and as a consequence the number of entries that have been selected for the finals is small. Some teachers felt under pressure with the art exhibition happening this term but I think also that some of our ICT work did not fit into the categories. We need to talk about this keeping in mind our future direction with ICT and how we see it working in our school.

Looking Forward To Next Term

• More IY learning
• Looking at our future directions with regard to ICT
• My daughter coming home
• Christmas!

Incredible Years

This year I have been taking part in the Incredible Years programme run by local RTLB's through the MOE. It's a programme that focuses on nurturing positive relationships with students and parents to promote academic growth. So far there have been 3 sessions and the overall view I have so far is that although a lot of it is not entirely new and is often what I am doing in the classroom there are aspects and ideas that I can use in the classroom. It's also a conformation of the way my class works and how I relate to the children. 
A couple of points I have taken so far from the programme are centred around the need to focus on the positive and the language you use and the way you use it. A good example of this is  Positive Forecasting that outlines the positive behavioural outcome expected in a way that tells the child that they are capable of achieving it. It is also essential to look closely and analytically at the behaviour of the children who are the focus so that interventions and solutions can be targeted specifically. Maintaining positive contact with parents also plays a big part in the programme.
I look forward to further sessions to gain more insight and knowledge.

Term 2-How did it go?

FAST!!!

What went well?

• Children's writing.Nearly all writing at least 1 sentence independently with good use of high frequency words and and making use of letter sound knowledge to try and spell unknown words. Pleasing to see the progress, albeit a little slow, being made by the target group. This I feel is due to consistent and constant direct teaching with these three along with the extra assistance being provided for them with Early Lit teacher and Talk to Learn.
• Children's reading. All making good progress and by end of term only one group of children (again the target group) had not made the shift from emergent. Once again the letter sound knowledge and the learning of hfw has been the driver for this progress.

Personal Highlights

• The hockey team-haven't lost yet. Still got some games to go though and not sure how well we'll do at Spooner shield. It's been good though to see the kids develop new skills and start to use them in a game. Great also to have a team member selected for a rep team. Good kids and good parental support.

Could Be Better

• My health...and the children's!
• Still some aspects of my maths programme. Children's number knowledge is improving and some beginning to grasp addition strategies. My organisation could be better. My teaching has been more whole class and there needs to be more group work. Something I don't use that could enhance the learning is a modelling book so will try  that. 

Looking Forward To Next Term

• Starting the Incredible Years PD
• Kapa Haka
• The Art Focus
• Going to California

Term 1's over-So how did it go?

What went well?

• The children-All brand new 5 year olds starting school who settled in so well to a new situation and started learning straight away. A tribute perhaps to our pre-school visit programme that prepares them for the change. The class has nice feel to it with great attitudes from the children and some very supportive parents.
• The children's learning-Apart from a small group of 3 children who will need constant monitoring and some extra assistance as they move through the school the children are making good progress with their literacy and numeracy. There are some great artists and a few good thinkers who have interesting ideas and more than a few active children who enjoy the physical activity of movement and games.
• The Literacy PD and the outcomes that are coming from it, both in my own teaching and the learning and progress that the children are making.

Personal Highlights

• Seeing my small group of 3 who are making very slow progress begin to pick up some literacy knowledge (Identifying and saying letters and sounds/recognising some high frequency words). A long way to go but it's good to see things happening.
• Finding more ways to use a tablet in the classroom.
• Our class assembly-The children were great and did a very good job of presenting themselves to the school and their parents.

Could Be Better

• Parts of my maths programme. Need to identify and work with children who are not developing their number knowledge as well as the rest of the class. Also need to look further at developing authentic problems as a way of enhancing learning.