Term 3 Reflection

Wow, what another super busy term!  I can’t believe how much we have crammed into this short term. 

Highlights:

·         Gymsport competition

·         Cross country

·         Pastel art

·         QR codes

·         Cultural Evening

·         Speeches

·         Children finding out more about their personal identity

Goals for term 4:

·         Have a go with Movie maker.  This was something I wanted to trial this term, but there just wasn’t enough time.  I’m thinking that I will use this to show our learning in either reading or in for our science learning in kitchen chemistry.

·         Start looking and my year 5’s and give them opportunities to take on leadership roles in our room

·         RP: this hasn’t been consistent and timetabled due to pressures and so much going on.  I want this to a non negotiable for next term for a couple of reasons.  Firstly because they are a great way for my class to bond, and secondly due to the nature of term 4 i think it will be essential to have time at least once a week for us to gather and remind each other about why we are such as strong team.

Ideas and new learning from the visit to Te Kowhai School 13 of August 2013

Was brave today and led a conversation about what i have been doing with QR codes in my class.  Was great to meet Kent who has a year 2 class and he shared how he’s been using QR codes with his year 2 class:

·         Vocaroo – voice recording tool where there is an option to get the voice recording published as a QR code.  Can save this as an image and load this up on the kids blogs

·         Get children to reflect on their learning about a piece of artwork – get them to record their reflections and print out the QR codes.  Then attach these to the kids artwork.  People can then scan the codes and listen to their reflections.

·         Book reviews using QR codes

·         Padlet – print this out as a QR code – children scan this using the ipad and it leads them to the padlet – he used it with a writing prompt.

·         He is now going to investigate how to use this effectively for some math challenges.

 

Check out my class blogs next week as we are going to give vocaroo a go for recording our mihis and creating the QR codes.

Ted Glynn Workshop

Here some of my notes and thoughts from the Ted Glynn workshop i attended as part of our staff PLD in the last school holidays.

Children at the Centre of Communities and Practise

Notes from Professor Ted Glynn Lecture 24 July 2013

A community of practise involves:

·         A community of practise

·         A domain of knowledge

·         A body of shared practises

·         Negation and construction of identities

 

A person’s identity is made up of the communities they are competent in.

 

·         Interactions enhance relationships

·         Relations that enhance interactions

 

Participation in a community of practise:

 

·         Engaging with other members

·         Accountability

Wenger 1998  - boundary objects, people and practises

 

Permeable Boundaries

Educators interested in inclusion need to consider the effect on learning of crossing boundaries between communities of practise.  E.G. communities of practise at home, and communities of practise at home.

 

Boundary Crossing

·         Sports team

·         Birthday parties

·         Shopping in the same community

·         Drive through the neighbourhood

·         Get seen in the community

 

Funds of Knowledge

·         Historical knowledge

·         Culture knowledge

·         Strategies

·         Resources

 

Find ways of respecting this knowledge

 

Uses phrases such as

·         ‘what is your knowledge about  . . . . ‘

·         ‘Can you share what you know about . . .’

 

Expertise – knowledge that comes from experience.

 

 

James Nottingham:  Believes that ability group can have a potentially negative effect – advocates grouping based on interest.

Welcome to 2013!

Hello and welcome to a new school year for 2013, we've got an exciting year planned so it's great to get stuck in and started!
My school year started the last week of the holidays, with a trip to Wellington to the International Thinking Conference with 6 other teachers from our school.  What a fantastic experience!  I enjoyed every moment of the conference and learnt something from every presenter I went to.  We heard from some amazing great ‘thinkers’ such as Michael Pohl and Edward Debono and gained much, not only from listening to them but also from talking and discussing what we heard from with each other.  We’ve come back to school with so many ideas to implement and to share with the rest of the staff.  One of the most important things that I got out of the whole thing is that teachers need to have a balance between school and leisure time.  Because if you spend all your time working and don’t have that balance; then you can’t be at your best, relaxed and happy for your students.  Makes total sense, so a goal for this year is to ensure I spent my down time on the things that really matter and make a difference for my students learning.  I look forward to implementing and starting this goal tomorrow on Waitangi Day!  Great having a Wednesday off during the term!