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Once again our school has come together to make something wonderful. We were entered in the 12 Schools of Christmas competition held at the Christchurch Airport. Each team created a decoration that incorporated the natural look of our school.
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17 & 18 November Gordon Neufeld Professional Development on Attachment
As a staff we attended this course about dealing with troubled kids. There was SO much that he talked about that just made sense of so many things. It is amazing that our entire staff were up skilled as it is now a school wide approach to working with children. Making attachments with children is crucial . Here is a video about it. |
Passion projects Term 4
Passion projects get bigger and better! We are using the senior school teachers this term to widen the options available for children's interests. Rochelle is bringing her passion for sport and Jude is bringing her passion for science. I am focusing on clay this time with art.
Passion projects get bigger and better! We are using the senior school teachers this term to widen the options available for children's interests. Rochelle is bringing her passion for sport and Jude is bringing her passion for science. I am focusing on clay this time with art.
Passion projects Term 3
This term we are introducing Passion Projects within Raupo team. This is a way to push our children's passion and share our own passion as teachers. I am really looking forward to having time to up skill children in their art. Natalie is going to make a small production using drama and singing. Jared is working on coding and robotics.
This term we are introducing Passion Projects within Raupo team. This is a way to push our children's passion and share our own passion as teachers. I am really looking forward to having time to up skill children in their art. Natalie is going to make a small production using drama and singing. Jared is working on coding and robotics.
We have been working on this presentation to show our collaborative journey through maths this year.
https://docs.google.com/a/westspreydon.school.nz/presentation/d/1-bFzdnIzyHStGI4cNZ2oCxfncDGM6ihXKrSBaN5PRcw/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/a/westspreydon.school.nz/presentation/d/1-bFzdnIzyHStGI4cNZ2oCxfncDGM6ihXKrSBaN5PRcw/edit?usp=sharing
Teaching teachers to teach maths - Beginning teachers meetings
During BT meetings we have been taking turns to teach a maths lesson at our level. It has been amazing seeing how we all use resources and share ideas. I love how our school is not a single cell style. We are open to sharing our resources and expertise to make everyone the best teacher. I found it a bit daunting teaching teachers but it was fantastic!
During BT meetings we have been taking turns to teach a maths lesson at our level. It has been amazing seeing how we all use resources and share ideas. I love how our school is not a single cell style. We are open to sharing our resources and expertise to make everyone the best teacher. I found it a bit daunting teaching teachers but it was fantastic!
Monday 15 June - Maths open day for parents
We decided we needed to let the parents see what collaboration looked like in our team. We invited parents to come along and view us teaching and see how the kids move in and out of the classrooms. We had some really positive feedback from this.
We decided we needed to let the parents see what collaboration looked like in our team. We invited parents to come along and view us teaching and see how the kids move in and out of the classrooms. We had some really positive feedback from this.
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Maths Strand - symmetry - 29 May
77 kids all on task learning about reflection for our strand maths on a Friday! The children created their own wrapping paper by reflecting a shape 8 times. Some of us were able to reflect really complicated shapes! |
ANZAC inquiry
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The ministry of Ed has designed an amazing resource for inquiry into the ANZACs for the centenary. There are 5 stages which as a team we are working through together.
Working together has been great as all the teachers have different knowledge about the war that can be shared. We have used Whaea Kayte a lot as she is very passionate about this topic. The kids are all learning the same thing so they might as well all be in one room! |
The need to colour code
Kayte teaches in our team twice a week. It has been really helpful having her as part of our reflection process of collaboration because she has to walk in and follow along with the plan that Nat, Jared and I have created. We know it because we designed it. If a reliever cannot make sense of it then it is not successful. After two lessons Kayte found it made sense, the organisation was clear and straight forward. Having kids in and out made sense once you can read the time table. We made an alteration by colour coding. Jared - pink, Nat - purple and I was green. So much easier for relievers to quickly look at and understand! |
Reading
At the end of Term 1 we decided we could transfer our collaboration model that we had designed for maths to reading. We met during the school holidays to group kids and work out the logistics of it. This proved to be a lot harder ! Reading is not as straight forward as maths to teach. We have a lot of kids reading around the same levels so splitting them was tough. We thought about what would be the advantages of having reading rooms targeted to their reading goals. It means we can now teach them literacy skills that they are ready for.
The kids understood the collaboration idea really quickly and happily molded into the new system.
At the end of Term 1 we decided we could transfer our collaboration model that we had designed for maths to reading. We met during the school holidays to group kids and work out the logistics of it. This proved to be a lot harder ! Reading is not as straight forward as maths to teach. We have a lot of kids reading around the same levels so splitting them was tough. We thought about what would be the advantages of having reading rooms targeted to their reading goals. It means we can now teach them literacy skills that they are ready for.
The kids understood the collaboration idea really quickly and happily molded into the new system.
Maths collaboration - term 1 week 8
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We decided as a team to start collaborating for maths. Jared and I gave it a go in 2014 when we were in Room 9 & 10. We knew from that experience that it was really important for our organisation and planning to be so smooth that anyone could walk in and carry on with it. We often have different teachers in our rooms and if they cannot follow the plan collaborative learning wont work.
The benefits that we could see going in to this would be that kids would start getting targeted for where they are at. Our classes had such a range of stages it meant that some groups were covering 2 levels because that was the only way as a single teacher it could fit in to the schedule. Nat, Jared and I met together after school and started by grouping all of our kids based on ability. Out popped 12 lovely looking groups! The organisation of what would happen is where I took over. Planning and thinking about the progression of the lessons comes easily to me. Each teacher would be a home base for a maths stage. This is where the kids go to work when they are playing games and doing activities based on their learning needs. Children go to their workshop teacher when they have a session. We created a timetable to make it clear what was going on each room. |
Workshops - The beginning!
On Fridays we have a maths focus called 'strand' in term 1 it was telling the time.
In my class i started arranging it in a way that taught the children to take ownership of their own learning. There were stations around the room that they could go to for practice. They then had to sign up to be in two workshops that they knew would help them with their learning. It was great to see the kids having discussions about where they were at and what they wanted to improve on. I found that I didn't need to tell them when they needed to be in a workshop. After a few weeks they had become very self reflective and honest. Year 4 Camp As a team we worked to our strengths to make camp run smoothly. Jared was amazing at sorting the logistics leading up to it. We decided I would organise skit night . This is something I have done a lot through my Camp America experience. Natalie and Jared worked with Mike to organise the Amazing Race. The three of us found that the entire time was a blast! We all have great relationships with the kids. We give it a go and are not afraid to get covered in shaving cream. No wonder they call us Team Awesome! |
We went to a professional learning day with Michael Fullen. He was talking about the 6Cs.
We are focusing on Collaboration and Character this year. I think this means: Collaboration - working with others to achieve the same goal. Sharing knowledge, resources, strengths and kids! Character - qualities of an individual. Michael talked about the word that allows for change = Motivation. It is important to know what motivates me as a learner and me as a teacher. I also need to apply this to how I think about my kids. What is it that drives them!? There has to be a sense of fun. There has to be purpose. There has to be progress. I love how he talked about creativity - it is a turn key. It unlocks the other Cs. |