uLearn 2016

This year our teaching staff is attending the uLearn conference in Rotorua. I have never been to a uLearn and this is the first full conference I have attended. I have booked in a range of breakout sessions and here is a quick overview: Te Reo Maori, finical literacy, iPads in the early years, developing creativity in the classroom, differentiating teaching and making the classroom more efficient.

I am hoping to gain lots of ideas that I can apply in my classroom and I am also hoping to hear some thought provoking messages that will question and challenge my pedagogy and teaching beliefs.

Writing goals

 This year we are doing some Writing PD and as part of that process we have been observed, collaborative teaching, videoed and had lots of feedback and feedforward sessions.
I have really enjoyed this Writing PD and it has given me a whole new view on Writing and the importance of oral language. In my class I always try to extend and develop oral language in all areas of the curriculum, however I now see that I need to do much more explicit teaching and modelling for my students.
In the past a Writing session in my class would consist of me coming up with a sentence, choral reading it and then the students finding the muddled up words and writing them in the correct order. This was due to my belief that having the kids write something was better then drawing out all the oral language associated with a topic and letting the kids come up with their own sentence.
I now believe that the oral language is the most important part of Writing in a new entrant class. My focus has changed from teaching the children about using full stops, capital letters and finger spaces to using time words and pow words. We explore using these words through lots of oral language experiences and I model the correct sentence structures and build on what the children say. I provide lots of time for this and often the children do not write an independent piece of Writing until the 2nd day/session.
I have a target group of 6 writers and I can see great progress in their confidence and use of vocabulary. I am yet to see their amazing oral language skills transfer to Writing but I can see the huge difference that this approach has had on my target students and I know that this will reflect in their Writing soon.

Maths target students

I have 2 target students for Maths and I am working in getting them to Stage 4 by the end of the year. These students only need to be at stage 3 by early next year but I believe that they can reach stage 4.
These students started the year on Stage 0/1 but they have really grasped and now really enjoy maths. The boy loves the problem solving approach and loves working with a buddy, the girl however often finds problems overwhelming and gets lost in all the words. They both are becoming familiar with talk moves and as a group, we (me included) are getting particularly good at using "wait time" and "agree or disagree." I have found that setting up the expectations and introducing the vocabulary to be the hardest part.
Last week I was observed for Maths and the facilitator said that she thought the problem would be too hard for my 5 year olds. However all of them could solve the problem and my target boy student took in further and was talking about groupings and skip counting.
I think that the students (and my self) are becoming more familiar with the problem solving approach and that is why I am now seeing positive shifts in their learning.

How can I accelerate progress in boys Writing?

I did a focus lesson with a small group of 3 boys today. I know that 1 in particular is crazy about dinosaurs and this encourages the other boys to play and talk about dinosaurs with him.
Today I showed them a picture from a book I have read to them a few times with dinosaur fighting a boy with a sword.
During their think pair share time I heard some amazing language for example- shiny sword, sharp and pointy teeth. The sentence that I was most blown away by was " This human tastes like sausage." (To which we added roared the dinosaur).
I have been putting a big focus on feeding and building on vocabulary and I can see this developing very quickly.
After they finished writing with me I sent them outside to write some basic sight words and the young boys who loves dinosaurs came running in to show me this piece of writing.

"I like dinosaurs"

Therefore I am going to accelerate boys Writing progress in my class by using exciting and engaging topics and really building on oral language before they begin writing. 

Co- teaching writing session

This morning I had a co teaching session with Paula Were. I found this incredibly useful. I loved seeing somebody else work with my students because I feel like I had gotten into a routine. There were a few things I have chosen to focus on these are:

• Pace and urgency- Less scaffolding because they already know E.G. full stops and the word the 
• Only focus on the WALT - Not all things on the writing prompt card
• More focus on oral language- More buddy talk and teacher modelling the vocabulary 

These things are small changes that I am going to start using tomorrow.  Here are some pictures of the work they produced today.

  

End of Term 1

I have had an amazing first term as a New entrant teacher! And my first term without BT release. I think the biggest factor has been class size. I am lucky enough to have stayed under 12 students all term. I find that I have time each day to work 1:1 with my students. There is more time in my day to differentiate lessons, slow down or speed lessons and to take students into break away groups to spend more time on an activity. I have also found with a smaller class size it has been easier to foster a positive and inclusive classroom culture. The students in my class love sharing ideas and supporting each other with their learning.

Ako

Today I was observed for Maths with a specific focus on the problem solving approach use of talk moves. Both aspects of my teaching I need to focus on because I still struggle to use these to further develop the students learning and understanding in Maths. My one specific goal from this session is going to be utilising pair/share by putting more though into who I pair together. This links to our new school value Ako, which is teaching and learning, learning and teaching.

Whanau conferences

I really enjoy having a specific time to sit down and talk to parents. I know these students very well by now and for some families this is the first time I have met them! Some parents I see regularly but this is during the busy school hours. Before and after school I have times for brief chats however this is rarely uninterrupted. I really appreciate families coming to these conferences to discuss their child's learning and the children are always happy and excited to show their whanau around our classroom and show them the work we do. I would like to think of more ways to have families involved in the classroom because I think that would be beneficial for all involved. I will look into ideas such as; Parent reading before school, expert afternoons (having parents come and teach something, language, music etc).

What is the best use of in class support?

This year I have a student who did not hear until she was 3 years old and therefore is still learning to communicate. I meet with her SLT to create specific goals and discuss her learning. This time is so beneficial for me because I have some time to sit with and specifically reflect on this specific student. This student receives some support with a Teacher aide either an hour or half hour a day. Recently I have been thinking about the best use of this time. Some days the student and TA work in class and other days they work in a separate room. I was thinking about whether it would be more beneficial for me to spend that time working 1:1 with this student. Throughout the rest of the day majority of the work is very hard for her and even though her activity is differentiated I still feel she doesn't have the time to work at her own pace or level. Next week I might alternate days where I work with the one student and the TA works with the class. I feel that because I only have 10 students in my class this might be possible and I believe that this will really accelerate this students learning and confidence in the class.

Writing structure

Last week I started a new writing structure. In the past I have written a range of genres with the students each week E.G. recount, descriptive. The focus would be on finding words around the class to use in their story. Last week we focused on 1 sentence structure (I am). We read a big book that used the structure and wrote that same sentence structure every day. On Thursday I let the students come up with their own sentence. This worked wonderfully. The students were offering up sentences each day and even expanding on them. The students were confident with the sentence structure and all but one of my students wrote their own sentence on Thursday morning.  The student who didn't has special learning needs and was able to orally say a correct simple sentence, which is great for her!
We have begun our new sentence structure this week which is building on from what they already know, the word I. This week we are writing I can sentences.

Language Learning Intervention workshop

Earlier this week I completed the LLI (Language Learning Intervention) workshop. This was run by the SLT who works with the students at our school.
I am using a core board for a new student in my class and the amount of progress I have seen in her confidence and ability to communicate with not only me but everybody she encounters at school has been amazing!

At the workshop we looked at examples of different students language and learning experiences and were asked to make the link to our student. I found this very easy to not only identify my special needs learner, but also many students in my class. This reaffirmed my idea that all students in my class can benefit from these directed acts of teaching and specific feedback in relation to oral language.
My big takeaway from this session was the importance of specific feedback. I always try to give specific feedback and I think I am particularly good at doing this in regards to behaviour management. My goal for this week is to give specific feedback in regards to oral language for ALL my students. For example if I am reading a book with a student and they say "ball" I could reply with "yes that is a pink ball." This is developing their language by building on from what they have said and modelling a correct sentence structure.

A great start to 2016!!

This year is already progressing so quickly! This year I have moved into a new classroom and am teaching a year group lower, the lowest primary level in fact, new entrants. I have already had a steep learning curve after having to readjust my thinking, planning and expectations after day 1!
I had taken time to plan out my first week, filled with activities I was sure would be appropriate. It took me about 10 minutes to realise that majority of my planning would not be suitable for the 5 children that had turned up. 



We are now starting week 3 and my roll has grown to 11 students. They have already progressed so much. I have found at this level I am excited for all the small achievements such as, knowing where to put their school bag, cutting open food packets independently and recognising the word I. 


I have had an amazing start to the year and have enjoyed meeting all the new students and whanau. This year I am going to focus on all these little achievements and continue to celebrate them!