Month: October 2018

Mysterious girl

The Mysterious Girl.
There was a girl called Evie. She was an only child and she was living with her mum because her dad moved out when Evie was two years old. Her Mum had a secret . She was hiding from Evie for a long time….

Evie and her mum aren’t ordinary people. They are from a world called Mythical Blue. She and her mum moved to Mythical Blue when Evie was little because Evie’s mum didn’t feel safe in the real world. 


They had a house in Mythical Blue and it was called the tree of life and they lived inside the trunk and the trees leafs dangled down to the ground. The trunk of the tree had an orange eye on it and you would go up to the eye and it would tell you in your mind the answer to your problem. 


When Evie was little and they moved to Mythical Blue Evie found a bunny.
The bunny had a bell around her neck. So Evie called her Bell and ever since that has been Evies best friend. 


One day Bell the bunny and Evie went for a walk in the enchanted forest and they saw a little bag hanging on a tree branch so they grabbed it off the branch and sat down with it and opened it. It was pixie dust….. 
They didn’t know what to do with it and so they took it home and showed Evie’s mum. In the Mythical Blue world pixie dust is really rare to be continued  


                                           The End.
Whaea robs feed back

This is a lovely mystery narrative. I’m looking forward to finding out what is going to happen next.
Next steps – Capital letters for names (aka proper nouns).
Increasing impact on the reader by using sentences of varied length.
Whaea rob

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Reversibilty, dont subtract, add.

This is what we have been doing in room three
and for me it has made maths a lot easier.  We have been practising the strategy reversibility  – don’t subtract add.
(The Math Problem)
Teone saves $536 to buy a new dvd player . The dvd player is $899.
How much does Teone need to save up to buy a dvd player.
   $536 + $363 =$899            $899 – $363 = $536. 

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The storm poem

We are learning to make a poem about a storm. Here are the things we use. Similes, metaphors and personifications. Similes is like this. “The water was AS clear AS a glass mirror.” A metaphor is like this. “the cave IS a dark bear.” A personification is an object given a human action.                                                                                                                                                                                       

The storm


The storm is an angry, speeding bat

Vicious and Ferocious.
Flying from tree to tree to catch its prey.
The colour of its fur blends in with the dark, damp wood.
It screeches as loud as someone scratching a chalkboard.
It squints at the cars, the headlights shine on it like spotlights,
It rushes back to the dark, damp cave.
The grumpy, dark storm groans to his parents,
“Where is my dinner I am so hungry!”
The storm flies back to its room
It looks out his window and says,
“Hmm, I wonder what it’s like to go to the moon?”

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Appraisal workshop: Monday 29 October in Whangarei

Monday 29 October

Whangarei:

Being an appraiser in an appraised driven world
Good way to start the week. Appraisal workshop in Whangarei led by Richard Watkinson of Evaluation Associates.

Notes:

Appraisal conceptual framework:
Learners are at the centre. Must be a teacher led appraisal. Every teacher should be in control of leading their own appraisal., with strong enquiry focus.
All 6 standards must be met annually.
Evidence of observations are needed. Gather student voice as well. Ask them during the lesson. Observer can observe the engagement.

Observations are really good. See how students are going/ engaging. Good plan for the teacher to video themselves, and the students.
The teacher can also then reflect about/on this video.

Evaluative Capability:

Appraisal is an evaluative process.

Do all appraisers have a clear understanding of what GOOD teaching/good practise is….what does good practise look like in our school?

Assessment of learning:

1. Describe what good looks like

2. Develop indicators (work with colleagues) to shape full understanding of “good”

3. Ask Q: “how does my practise enact each of the Standards for the Teaching Profession?”

4. Determine the perspectives/source of evidence to answer this Q.

5.Use suitable processes to gather this question.

6. Evaluate the evidence and what it tell about my practise.

7. Use the evidence to examine whether there is a significant gap between my practise and “good”

8. Answer the evaluative Q by reaching a reasoned conclusion and decide on the next STEPS.

What do effective appraisers do?

1. Focus on student learning

2. Focus on teaching and learning as enquiry

3. Ensure collection of evidence endures over time

4. Provide ongoing quality conversations over time

5. Recognise that the process is led by the person being appraised.

This ensures that the teacher meets the STANDARD.

Watch these videos:

conversations about practise video:

awkward appraisal video:

The importance of Open to learning (OTL) Conversations:

difficult conversations = awkward and can be confronting.

What strategies do u use?
1. Model good practice
2. Give lots of hints
3. Be direct
– tell how it should be
-:tell them the expectations
4.Ask lots of Q’s
5. Tell lots of positives and sneak in area 2 improve.
6. Put it in writing…have opportunity to go away and think about it
7. Totally avoid the issue – have a nice chat instead
4 key OTL CONCEPTS

1. Everyone has theories…to effect real change..engage with beliefs
2. We have espoused theories (how we think we act) and theories in use..how we actually act.
3.there is often a tension between progressing the issue and maintaining the relationship.
4. Everyone has a ladder of inference..it makes sense to them
Talking about the ladder of inference
Be open, honest and respectful. Share what u think, the reasoning, see what the other person thinks…check in.
Effective discussions:
Establish clear purpose
Share your thinking
Share your reasoning
Check in..enquire into others view
Evaluate views
Co-construct POA

Open to learning

What is open learning
Suggestion:
Put this template up on staff room wall.
Column 3: WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IN OUR SCHOOL?
Column 4: WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE OF THIS IN OUR SCHOOL?
Staff/whole school complete. This will lead to teachers asking the question:
“do I engage in this practise?, What evidence support this practise?” And if the answer to this question is NO, then it can be the “work-on’s” for goal setting if it is not happening.
What does appraisal without the arinui tool  look like?
1. Must have evidence of improving
2. Goal settings
3. Evidence of goal(s) = achieving
4. Evidence of students’ achievements.
5. Evidence of at least 2 observations.
6. Evidence of more than 1 source.
7. Thinking/looking at time (not only before the end of appraisal, but throughout the year/cycle)

STANDARDS→evidence ↤ PRACTISE

The evidence is the tool to connect the STANDARDS with the teachers’ PRACTISE.
If you are interested in using arinui head to: www.arinui.com for a free trial

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Lots of AROHA for my babies…

Don’t you just love working with the youngest students…they are so FULL of energy and not reserved or shy to let you know exactly how they feel.

Had a highlight moment today in class:
We are busy with INTEGERS and I sang the song on my video and in class yesterday :
(ROW ROW ROW THE BOAT )
Same sign: keep and add
different signs: subtract
Keep the sign of the biggest number
then you’ll be on track
(and I added)
and never smoke crack..

So today, I gave them a worksheet and started singing, and a few sang with me, to remind them about the rules for addition of integers.

How cool!!! Love my job (especially on a Friday).
Lotsa blessings!!
ps. one did tell me: please just don’t sing…hahah

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Marlborough Sounds

Marlborough Sounds
The Marlborough Sounds is located at the top of the south island of New Zealand, We will be going there for a trip to Curious Cove, at Curious Cove we will be doing different sorts of activities.

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Taumarere trip

Yesterday  Raukumara and RauTangata  we went to Taumarere to find out the history about Taumarere, first we did the roll then we all walked down to the train station,    she told us all of the rules before we got on the train on our way their she talked a bit about taumarere,  we arrive we got off the train and walked into this building, and  sat down she told the history of Taumarere  than we walk on to the bright to have morning tea,  we carry on walk we walked  about 8 to 10 km on way their we had to  do a scavenger hunt, than we stop at the other bright to have lunch and then we walked our way back and waited for the train at the club rooms.

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Counting my blessings on the second Friday of term 4

All teachers of seniors, would probably understand the emotions surrounding the “final weeks”  of teaching our senior students.  Some of them won’t be returning to school.  Some of them are focused and working hard, others have already passed their year level, and are just wasting their time away, others are totally stressed out and nervous about the upcoming externals…I call it my  QUALITY STREET moments…the whole MIX, and in South Africa on the smarties box, it says one word: wotalotigot…How blessed am I to guide my students through these last moments of their school year. While I’m sitting here a tear is crawling over my cheek.  I am so blessed to still care about my job as much as I do, and yes, I must admit, the special students that I have, make it so much easier to have this LOVE for my job.

It is also the FIRST year of my 35 years of teaching, that I feel my students have all the tools that they can have for preparing for their externals.  I have the JOY of putting these “tools” , worksheets, exemplars, teaching videos of myself and other teachers, on their class site.  Now, it is the fine line, of revising with them, keeping in mind: Am I doing too much, and they too little, am I leaving them to do it totally on their own, do I spoon feed them if they spend too much time with me?? Do I try and control their learning for the next few weeks up to the external??? In the words of one of my year 13’s: I actually feel good about the upcoming maths exams, as I know that I am doing my best, and : “miss this is really helping that we are doing it mostly on our own, and just ask questions, as we go along”….yay yay…hopefully it is working for ALL of them.

Well, at least I know that I’ve done my BEST, to encourage them to go FULL OUT ! I’ve put the tools in their shed (class site) and it is now up to them to take the tools and “build” something.  I am at peace, happy and content…I’ve done my part.  Good luck to all seniors doing externals.

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