Professional Development Updates...

During this current Level 4 Lockdown I have taken advantage of several online professional development opportunities that were offered. Distance learning in LS2 was about doing what we could to keep our learning going, so that's exactly what I did. 

Reading for meaning - Teaching comprehension strategies: Sheena Cameron

Focus: 

• To explore what good readers do
• To unpack the levels of comprehension
• To explore the role of executive skills
• To explore the importance of talk
• To explore a variety of reading strategies

This year LS2 has been working with Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey on their poetry focus. This in itself has been a really valuable and purposeful learning experience for both myself and my students. A few weeks ago Dianne, Linda and I were invited to take part in this workshop which was an amazing opportunity as the LS2 teaching team were able to all hear a shared message about Reading. The powerful part of this learning came from the conversation we had the following day. We now have a shared understanding, shared language of instruction and a shared vision (photo below) to implement so that we can help our students make connections and gain meaning when reading, regardless of level.

My Takeaways:

• Good readers use specific strategies to gain meaning from text by searching for connections, asking questions, making inferences, identifying important ideas, synthesising/summarising information (as new information emerges opinions change when meaning is made), monitoring understanding by (rereading, reading on and looking up words), and visualising ideas in the text. They have a purpose, know why they are do something and what they will need to do with that information. Students need to be explicit about the strategy they are using when self monitoring.
• 3 levels of comprehension - literal (stated in text, can point to it), inferential (use text information and prior knowledge by thinking about the author and me when searching for hidden ideas) , evaluative (justify opinion using information from the text to analyse and think critically).
• Comprehension processes depend on what you read and your purpose for reading.
• Executive skills - working memory (keep something in mind while doing something else), cognitive flexibility (able to shift attention form one activity to another), inhibition/self control (ability to stay focused on task).
• Talk is key for understanding as it promotes listening between other ideas to consolidate understanding. Talk prompts need to be visible!
• Short punchy lessons remind students of strategies already known.
• Teach strategies in shared reading (use DATS)
• Make strategy posters visible.
• If you understand the structure of the text type and language features comprehension is stronger. Preview text structure before reading help students organise information.
• Purpose must be explicit!
• Remind students to adjust speed of reading to match text demands
• Key words are the most important words in a text.
• teach comprehension strategies with the purpose of understanding how to use and how the strategy will help support increased comprehension.

• Activities I will be introducing:
• Dot to dot connections
• Y chart predictions using images
• Use key words to retell information in a text by creating sentences with those words.
• Visual summary
• 10 word summary
• Story map
• Character inferences using props
• Picture inference
• Explain the strategy you used and how it helped you make meaning

Fractions Toolkit: Donna Yates - Link to Donna's presentation

Focus: 

• To explore the progressions for Fractions through the levels
• To explore online materials to turbocharge the learning.
• To unpack the misconceptions students have with learning Fractions. 

Donna shared some key ideas for fractions and reminded us what knowledge is required at each stage for understanding to be consolidated and connections made. From this alone I can see that for many of my learners it is the gaps in their knowledge that prevent them from making strong connections to the learning. 

My Takeaways:

• Remember to provide equipment for students to manipulate
• Students need conceptual knowledge before they can progress
• Use words to get understanding before introducing number representations
• Explain the parts of a fraction
• Emphasise use of 'ths' code using language and words before using  numbers and symbols.
• Remember not to use 'out of' - this is not a fraction!
• Links to creativity tools
• Give your create tasks a purpose eg: Make sure your DLO can teach someone new knowledge

Jamboard Toolkit:  Vicki Archer - Link to Vicki's presentation

Focus: 

• To explore the functionality of Jamboard - a collaborative whiteboard space. 
• To explore the basics and some tips and tricks to get you started.

Jamboard is a collaborative online whiteboard. It gives students lots of creative work space. It can be opened inside a Google Meet (with the link being automatically shared in the chat) or created from your Google Drive. Both options allow you to save the Jamboard in your drive. 

My Takeaways:

• Use to add visuals alongside a task explanation
• Sticky notes can be used to collate student responses
• Remember to click on the select tool to use another feature or move shapes etc.

E-Tap

Focus: 

• To walk through the features E-TAP offers as a student management tool

T-Shaped Literacy for teachers of Year 1 - 3...

On Monday our staff attended Dr Rebecca Jesson's presentation 'T-Shaped Literacy for teachers of Year 1 - 3' at PT England School. Having used the T-shaped literacy approach for a number of years I know the benefits that can be gained from wide and deep reading. Seeing this done through the eyes of a junior school teacher has provided me with a deeper understanding as I know see how I can use this to meet the learning needs of my struggling learners too.

Here are my notes: Link

The video below captures the presentation.

Abstract noun senses poem...

This term I have had the amazing opportunity to be a part of a poetry focus group run by Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey. Each week Sheena has worked with a group of students who find writing a challenge, to front load them with the skills needed to find success in a poetry task. I then follow the plans shared by Sheena and Louise with the whole class during our reading and writing lessons. 

I have noticed that the students who Sheena has been working with are empowered and fully engaged in this learning, taking on a leadership role each and every time. The poems below are the end result of a whole class collaborative writing lesson. Our focus here was to use the 5 senses to describe an abstract noun using similes and metaphors.

TOD: Pause, Breathe, Smile...

Today we had a TOD to walk us through the Pause, Breathe, Smile mindfulness program. Here are my takeaways from the day.

     Freepik Flaticon

Mindfulness - take time to check in with yourself to support your wellbeing. It is a life skill that encourages you to put your head and feet in the same place. An intentional focus on the immediate experience so that you can approach what is happening with curiosity, openness, acceptance and love (COAL). It is... paying immediate attention to what is immediately occurring (happening now) with kindness and interest. 

Attention Regulation - No one tells us how to pay attention which means we can look focused but our minds are elsewhere. Attention regulation is about knowing where the attention is... knowing where it needs to be... and directing it to where it needs to be. The more attention you are paying to the present the happier you'll be.

Gratitude - This is one component of the program I am looking forward to. Taking time to appreciate the ordinary and the things we usually take for granted. Gratitude is contagious and helps us to notice what is going well rather than what isn't. Gratitude helps counteract the negativity bias that our brains are so used to holding onto. 

Emotions - If you can name it you can tame it... if you understand what the emotion is you that you are experiencing  you can calm down from it.

Pause, Breathe, Smile is an 8 week program that focuses on learner wellbeing by teaching our students to notice and describe their feelings, pay attention and be curious, and regulate emotions by asking 'Is this being helpful?'. 

Link to my notes from the TOD

Pau Te Hau (2021)...

In 2018 we participated in the Pau Te Hau research. Pau Te Hau or 'Get Puffed' and is a program of high intensity interval training (HIIT) that was devised by Dr Nigel Harris and his team at AUT. This program uses technology to motivate the students to challenge themselves to up their intensity. Heart rate monitors anonymously projected onto the screen show each student how they are going and encourages them to get puffed by turning their colour from green to red. What was great about that was the fact the students who didn't have high levels of fitness achieved the red zone first, this increased efficacy and motivation across the group. The challenge is against yourself and not the person next to you. 

This year Panmure Bridge School is excited to be one of the randomly selected schools who have been offered this opportunity again, so last week Dianne, Greg and I spent the day at AUT with the Pau Te Hau team. The focus of the day was set the teachers who will be carrying out the HIIT sessions up with the tools and knowledge needed to run successful sessions. After a tour of the incredible facilities at the Millennium Institute of Sport we took part in one HIIT session. What I noticed is that as soon as our heart rate monitors appeared on the screen both Greg and I pushed ourselves to turn our colours red. We weren't competing against each other as we didn't know who was wearing which monitor, but were both definitely motivated to succeed. Immediately afterwards, apart from being completely puffed, I felt alert and was fully focused.

Here are my notes from our guest speakers:

Professor Dave Lubans, Newcastle University, Australia 

Shared with us the benefits of running HIIT sessions has on learning. Apart from improvement in metabolic health, fitness and body composition, research has shown that the more energy our students burn, the better they learn with improvements being seen in cognitive performance, focus in class, memory and on-task behaviour. A real eye opener were the findings of global trends in fitness in kids which showed Australasian children would finish a 1 mile race 200m behind their parents at the same age due to the change in our lifestyles and the introduction of easily accessible screen time.

Dr Isaac Warbrick, AUT

Telling the stories that inspire these exercises will help students make connections to the learning. These activities are connected to maramataka - cycles of the moon based on the observations of the tupuna from yesterday and the changes in nature that comes from responding to these cycles and rhythms with the movements connected to story of the creation. Creates links to tikanga and NZ history where two worlds are blended by valuing both worlds. Maori stories are not myths and legends - they are Maori science and understandings that explain why things are the way they are - it’s is the talk that is passed down - is called purakau. 

Dr Denise Atkins, AUT

Shared with us ways we can connect to the curriculum and encourage our students to reflect on their own performance. By monitoring feelings before and after exercise students will be able to reflect and see the benefits (physical literacy). Feedback strategies should be formative. The fact this program allows individual students to anonymously monitor their own progress removes the feeling of being disenfranchised from constant failure. If the reflection is done 10 mins after exercise students will be able to appreciate euphoria from exercise. It is also important for teachers to reflect and observe the impact this program has on the students.

• What did you like/not like? 
• How would you rate your performance? 
• What could you do differently next time? 
• Did you achieve your target?
• Could you help someone who was struggling? 
• What progress have you made?...

Pau Te Hau is an exciting opportunity and having run this once before I know the benefits it brings. Even more exciting this time around is that we have the option of using prerecorded sessions or making our own. There are 40 exercises to choose from and I am looking forward to seeing the changes in my students as we work our way through this program and they begin to see the benefits that short burst of exercise bring. 

Manaiakalani Cluster TOD...

We ended the term by coming together as a cluster to learn with and from each other as we explored the topic of effective reading practice. The bullet points below are the notes I made from each of the workshops I attended. 

Ko te Kāhui Ako o Manaiakalani

Keynote speakers: Dr Rae Si'ilata and Kyla Hansell 

Link to presentation

• Transfer language - trans languaging does not represent the spirit of the reo.
• If don’t have the opportunity to connect to your language you lose the connection to it and it becomes devalued
• Bilingualism and biliteracy as well as giving chn the keys to the language of power. Are we improving English or losing the first language - L2 students are emergent bicultural learners - we should be adding English not replacing their heritage language
• Tchrs need to be linguistically and and culturally sustaining and revitalising the languages. Needs to be more than culturally responsive
• Privilege the first language speaker by asking them to read the language - helps all hear and connect to our new but their first words
• L2 integrates the work... input channels listening reading and viewing / output channels - speaking writing presenting - communication modes need to be integrated and connect between learning areas
• Who’s knowledge is valued in what I teach and how I teach
• Need to value the deeply embed cultural and language practices of our learners to strengthen the connections to the learning. (eg: translate the Haka and tell the story)
• Build from oracy to literacy to open up the linguistic space
• L1 builds a rich conceptual system to bridge the gap with L2 - ideas learnt in one language do not differ in another
• Input in L2 is translate to make meaning in L1 then transfer back to L2 for outputLiteracy practises in the home may differ from school... need to embrace the cultural practises of the L1 - our world view informs our literacy practises
• T willing to share the power with the chn in class where L1 is valued - T don’t need to be fluent in another language
• Dialect is not the same as accent
• If language is used to communicate it is a valid language code
• Reading is about making meaning by drawing on PK and own literacy practises - privilege the L1 language and literacy practises as it shows how they unpack a text to ensure meaning focused learning
• Mirror texts help us make connections to text as we see ourselves and our ways of life/life experiences that we can connect to
• Share rich opportunities for learning by tapping into the cultural capital of students and valuing the literacy’s in the funds of knowledge with school literacy’s
• Challenge critical consciousness- what is the schema you draw on to make predictions
• If we don’t know the context our predictions will be not connected to the topic
• Provides texts that are mirrors that reflect back the chns faces of the home
• Don’t be too hasty to cast aside your cultural treasures/literacy practises
• Eg: pronounce names wrong - text could reflect this provocation - chn cld create an app to show tchrs how to pronounce your name - tell us the history behind your name
• What do I need to teach - data - can I use a resource that shows the faces of my learners or their languages/empowers learners - make connections thru critical thinking and cultural values
• Tell story through the waiata and siva and link to literacy practises of reading
• Name Maori and Pasifika writers illustrators
• Open up what literacy is beyond a journal story - stories and symbols are a way of unlocking meaning
• Whakatauki - unpack the meaning
• History of NZ - learn from those who have gone before us
• Sylvia Ashton Warner taught Maori to read by getting them to write their own stories using their words - read about your kaupapa (strengths) as you bring a wealth of pk to the text
• Chn use meaningful lexical chunks to make meaning when lng a language
• Reciprocal power sharing relationships are a 2 way relationship - valuing the knowledge of the home language literacy practises and values

Cultural Capital in the Classroom
Presenters: Zhydah Petersen and Hevaha Tu'akoi

• How we can respond in a cultural way to all the learners we have
• We need to be culturally responsive because the backgrounds and cultural capital is diverse and should value all children
• Know your learners

Strategies:

• Activate pk
• Pronounce names and words correctly - students as experts be prepared to embrace what you don’t know and ask for help
• Make texts or conceptual concepts mirrored - chn need to see themselves in the work and resources
• Value the cultural contributions and capital - chn as experts 
• Build relationships and connect to the surrounding community
• Classroom environment should reflect the cultures of the students 
• Explore the taonga of names - get chn to explain the meaning behind their name and talk about the connections it may have to their history
• Be inclusive

Structured literacy for older struggling students: where it all goes wrong and what to do about it.
Presenter: Betsy Sewell

Skills that underly reading:

• Learning to read is about recognising the patterns
• Older students need to abandon pk and learn from new
• Frog - fr merge/ og merge students need to realise the word frog means your mouth goes to 4 places - understand how words work
• Split words into onset and rime to mix and match fr+og = frog... knowing these basics means many more words can be generated - Use affixes to extend vocab
• Need to stop and chunk the word to connect to spelling patterns - self teaching by problem solving sound chunks allows for stronger connections to be made
• Use context to figure out unknown words that are being derived from a visual connection
• Struggling spellers can’t figure out words they already know
• Try this... How many words can you read in a minute - graph result
• Shift the way chn read using decodable texts 
• www.agilitywithsound.co.nz has free assessment tools. The spelling test and decoding test will be the most revealing

Getting the Talk Going in Reading

This is the workshop that I presented with Chantal Millward. We shared the activities we use across the school to get our students to talking about the texts they have read. 

Toolkits: Awesome Audio

This afternoon I took part in the Awesome Audio toolkit run by Cheryl Torrie. We explored the chrome extension 'Mote', an accessibility feature that allows you to add voice note feedback or instructions for students within Google Docs, Slides and Sheets. 

When using Mote in Google Slides you can leave verbal instructions making this extension a great tool for rewindable learning. Having both written and spoken instructions gives students a better opportunity to access the learning. To demonstrate this I have used a slide from last week's distance learning that was set for the students who require teacher aid support in class. By clicking on the Mote speaker icon and format options you can change the colour and audio playback options for each voice note. A bonus feature is that a Mote recording can be copied and pasted into different slides.

To insert the spoken instructions I clicked on the Mote icon which can be found in your extension tool bar if you have pinned it, or next to the comments icon in Google Slides, (refer to the image below). After doing this a box appears on the screen and prompts you to begin your voice recording. What I liked was that the box is moveable so that meant the need to memorise instructions was removed. Recording the instructions allows you to add a personal comment eg: 'Have fun!' which is often in the text lost when written.

The Mote extension also allows you to leave sound bites in the comments tool. To use this feature you need to click on the purple Mote icon in the comments tool. You then record your feedback and click done. Your voice recording is then inserted into the comments tool and can be accessed by clicking the play button. The comments tool is the only place Mote can be accessed and used in Google Docs.

Mote recording sit in the cloud and allows you to see who has accessed (viewed and/or listened to) your voice recording. This was a great toolkit to attend as I am already thinking of ways this extension can be used creatively and purposefully to open the connections to our learning up to a wider range of students. 

2021 PBS Teacher Only Days...

Hearing a shared message is always the best way to make sure as a staff we are all on the same page. This year our professional development helped us strengthen our connections to Maths, and to Physical Education through Healthy Active Learning. I am really looking forward to implementing my new learning in both curriculum areas.

My notes from the Maths PD with Marie Hirst

My notes from the Physical Education PD with James McIntyre