End of Year Results for 2019

Wow!  What a year!  My first year teaching in the same class as well as working with Year 5's.
Definitely so much to celebrate for 2019, at the same time so much to learn for 2020.

#9 Digital Fluency Intensive - Revision

Week 5 already - how time flies so quickly!  We had several celebrations this week, on Wednesday our Year 5&6's cricket girls took out first place for 3 years in a row for Auckland Champs!

On the same day, we all headed down to Sylvia Park to watch our Manaiakalani Film Festival movies.  Wow!  A lot of work and energy went into producing these 3 minutes movies - great work from everyone!

This is our last DFI course, so much has been learned.  I have a few things I will definitely implement on day one 2020, setting up routines as well as being more smarter with my time.  I've met some great people on this course, look forward to reading what they're be implementing 2020.

#8 Digital Fluency Intense - Devices

This week we've been preparing for Athletic Day (today) as well as students re-reading their plays to show to the whole class.  Funnily enough, all our students (low/high readers, shy/confident students) all want to participate in the play - especially wanting the main role.

My heart was chuffed when one of our low readers wanted to participate in the play.  This student was ready, willing and able to participate with a group of actors.

Week 8 at DFI - we looked at devices that our students use for their learning.  It dawned on me that our learners has the world at their fingertips.   

#6 Digitally Fluency Intensive - Dealing with Data

It's only week 2 but already it seems like time is slipping away. Last night our school had their disco, it was great time to see our students in a different light, but the reality they don't have long before they head into Year 6's. We've just started our testing however, I needed some tools to help me assess where the students are at. 

This is the session I have been looking forward to the most, as I know little about google forms, sheets and google mymaps. 

Normally during our team meetings, I'm in awe of how quickly our team leader produces these excel spreadsheets with data & graphs from our student's results. Then I will ask him "How do I do that??" .. then his ghastly expression which indicates his time is precious. 

I'm looking forward to this labor weekend, not so much the 1-day break but setting up google sheets to help me with my report writing .. YES!!

 

#5 Digitally Fluency Intensive - Enabling Access Sites

This week we celebrate our Niuean Language Week "Fakaalofa lahi atu!"  

Returning back from holiday - I was looking forward to getting back to class, seeing how our students have grown.  Day 1 - students were excited to share about their holidays, students were relieved to be back at school and connect with their friends.

Already have started on 'Gloss test' for our students, setting up reports writing and reminding my class they don't have long before they head to next year - so make it count!

Back to DFI - this part explained a lot why our team leader kept our site 'less' colourful -and font & images.

Inquiry

Wow!  Where did term 3 go?  So much happening in the life of Pt England School.  Starting with netball prize-giving,  our annual cross country, film festival filming, ongoing sports games that our students' rep and our school production that is showing this week.  On top of that, I'm enrolled in DFI (digital fluency intensive) and graduated with postgrad with Mindlab.

Looking at my enquiry for this term, we looked briefly at mathematical language as well as on-hands activities.  One plus, is my target students are more willing to participate in DMIC/small groups to solve word problems.  Our class has been working on maths times tables 2-5 and encouraging our students to use castify to record their work.  By this week, will test them to see what shifts had been made.   Feel free to provide any feedback, this would be appreciative. 

#4 Digitally Fluency Intensive - Collaborate Sites

Bonjour!  Been a busy week!  

On Monday our school participated in our annual cross country run.  Our Year 5's ran 1.5km, a great effort for those who participated. 

 On Wednesday, I graduated alongside my work colleague Sandy Lagitupu from Unitech - Postgraduate certificate in Digital and Collaborative Learning.  With hours to go before finishing and handing in our class Film Fesitval movie .. eek! 

Week 4 - we got to hear the importance of 'Share' from the Manaiakalani LCS, as well as creating our own google sites.  We also got to hang/meet with our Gisborne cohort, who shared tips on our google exams.  Key was to read the questions and copy & paste (lol!).

From last week, I decided to share a google slide.  Feel free to drop a line.  Au revoir.

    

#3 Digitally Fluency Intensive - Media

"Poipoia te kakano kia puawai"  

Nurture the seed and it will blossom.

Kia ora whanau - it's week 3!  We're celebrating our Maori Language week & looking at different forms of Media we can use.


What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?
What defines create?  ‘Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery.  With children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process rather than concern for the finished product.  ‘Create’ - is the hook in your lesson plan/practice.  Begin with ‘create’ & then let the learning emerge.  The learning is richer now with chrome books using online.

For students who are disengaged - Start with the ‘hook/create’, what will they be designing.  Our students should be creators of content, instead of consumers.  Learn-create-share is a linear process.  Will look at ‘create’ to be a spiral inquiry.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
Using youtube, I can create a channel, to begin a playlist.  Instead of asking students to research on youtube, I am able to direct students to the youtube video that they need to view. 

Google draw - able to create pages with pictures, even mind mapping or comic strips.  Multiple purposes of using google draw for our students to create.  Being able to set the canvas size, crop pictures, change the picture format including using word art.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
Google slides - creating animations slides.  From our inquiry this term, I was able to design an animation slide about the rocky shore featuring the starfish.  Being creative, not just using the standard themes including sound to accompany the slide.  By planning, plan and plan this will help our presentation be more effective.  The last slide is my pepeha, rather than speaking, but showing visuals to support my pepeha.  Feel free to leave a positive comment

My Inquiry Plan 2019

This year, my professional inquiry focus was looking at the dynamics of DMIC and grasping
the concepts which are relevant for the teaching of this method to my students. In
retrospect, I have also been looking at how my teaching could lift the achievement levels
of students through a culturally responsive lens.

My questions leading into this inquiry were:
* Through the lenses of Tongan/Samoan and Cook Island languages/cultures how could
I increase my students learning levels within their maths understanding?

* How could I create learning tasks that were relevant and deeply embedded in the LCS

framework to inspire and share with others?

Reflecting over my mathematics programme and teaching for 2018, it seemed that I
needed to look more closely into the maths content knowledge in order to keep my
students engaged and on task.

While learning how to facilitate and teach a DMIC plan, I could see the students struggle
with number knowledge. This realisation occurred during independent or group tasks.

While reflecting on what could have improved within my teaching, I discovered that the
followup experiences should have reflected the WALT of the lesson in more detail and
could have been more hands on. I fell into the habit of reusing a lot of tasks and plans
of other teachers. These were tasks that were not specifically designed or reflected the
needs of my own students. This was a major factor in the disengagement of the students.

The follow-up tasks were more like time fillers instead of focusing tasks on specific needs
of the students.

My 5 priority learners are either an ESOL student or students who portray behavioural or
learning challenges.  I will endeavour to blog and gather data on their progress
throughout this year. I am hoping to improve their learning levels and see a positive
shift in how I plan and teach a diverse range of students.