Observation Term 3 2014 - writing lesson

Maths 'talk moves' observations

ALiM teacher was to observe each teacher throughout the school over two visits. First visit I was ill with the flu but pushed through it as I didn't want to inconvenience the teacher by postponing. The lesson went reasonably well and we discussed the lesson afterwards.

In between observations which were a few months apart, I organised a time to observe the ALiM teacher in action in her own class. This was an awesome chance for me to pick up some new tricks which I then used in my class with success.

The second observation took place and through discussion afterwards, the feedback was all positive and it was nice to hear I was doing a great job. The ALiM teacher gave me some further suggestions for me to work on. Ace!

The Talk Moves in which we had professional development as a staff was a focus of mine. I used this as part of a teacher inquiry for 2014 and my practice definitely benefitted from professional colleagues who are maths lead teachers, ALiM and overall more experienced than myself.

Professional Development 2013/2014

2013

-        ‘Let’s Talk Maths’, symposium, Te Toi Tupu

-        Foundation Skills for Literacy, Louise Dempsey followed by ‘The Writing Book’ session where Louise was joined by Sheena Cameron

-        Writing workshops with Gail Loane (targeting reluctant writers)

-        IT focus: iMovie, iPhoto, Strip Design, Explain Everything, Life Cards, Puppet Pals. This PD was awesome, learnt a lot (probably actually too much as my brain often felt overloaded trying to keep up with each new App) but I have used all successfully in my classroom. 

-        ‘The Wilkie Way’, three maths sessions led by Charlotte Wilkinson, author of Pearson Education mathematics texts

-        Swimming with Cecilie Elliot, State Kiwi Swim Safe instructor

-        Coaching and development session with Taranaki Cricket

-        Football training and development session with Central Football

-        Beach safety education, East End Surf Lifesaving Club

2014

-        Incredible Years Training, six sessions over two terms.

-        Maths development sessions with Rhian Johnson, Te Toi Tupu instructor
- Visit to Highlands to see their maths in practise. Discussion with Maths Lead Teacher around Talk Moves and ensuring my maths was leading my year 6 children in the right direction. 

-        Restorative practice- school wide development sessions

-        Explicitly Teaching Writing led by Stephen Graham. This led to a senior syndicate focus on information report writing where we saw major successes in the development of the level of writing, with evidence from a pre and post writing sample. It followed clear guidelines as to how to outline a text and it made it clear and simple for both teacher and child to use. I think this was one of the better PD sessions I have done so far.

-        Story telling and creative workshops by Stu Duval

Incredible Years Training 2014

I was lucky enough to go on the IY training course this year. What an exciting professional development opportunity. 4, 2, 7

Key things I learnt:

• How to focus on the positives
• How to build and maintain relationships with whānau
• How to create learners who feel confident, who are able to self regulate, who are proud to share their successes and who feel their teacher invests their time in them
• What low level undesired behaviours can be avoided by using strategies such as proximal praise
• Overall be a proactive teacher

Early in the course we all had to develop a behaviour plan for a child in our class. My child's behaviour was not extreme, rather he was inattentive, not completing work, calling out and distracting others, which was getting frustrating as it was affecting his learning and that of his peers. Through developing the behaviour plan for this child, I was able to really focus on what triggers were causing the behaviour and then to work out how I could attend to it. I initially started by really trying to build up a relationship with the child- making time to ask how his day was, getting him to do extra tasks for me (deliver notes etc) which I felt was the start of letting the child know I was aware of him as a learner 1. I initially recorded some data about how often the behaviours were occurring, where and when 11, 12. I then developed the next steps in the behaviour plan and over several weeks push the frequency at which the child exhibited the undesired behaviours decreased significantly. The behaviour plan is still in place but is ingrained in my everyday practice with this child so it is less of a focused drive from my point.

Key thing I noted throughout the focus on this behaviour plan is that the benefits of using the IY strategies actually led to a decrease in the undesired behaviours of other children too. The children are more supportive of each other and they are able to recognise strengths in others and equity is an understood and practised value. Children have taken on much more responsibility for their own actions and learning 7, 8

I had two observations by Vicki Scouller (RTLB and IY Group Leader) who was pleased with my development using the strategies. It was great to hear the positives from a professional colleague and IY mentor and she gave me a couple of things to work on which I appreciated 1, 12. The 7 sessions made for amazing PD. The collection of teachers gathered really inspired me to make changes for the better in my classroom. Teachers are a wealth of knowledge and it was great to work with others (all were from wider Taranaki schools) and hear that we all have trials and tribulations and that we could focus on building up the positives for each other 1. Each time I went, I came back refreshed and ready to crack on.  Coming back to school meant trying new things and sharing some of the strategies with a colleague who has not been IY trained. This hopefully made some impact in some small way to her practice. 

IT buddy progress and development

As the school website was updated this year, each teacher who was deemed more 'IT literate' was buddied with someone who needed more support. I am proficient at using IT and as a staff PD we were taken through the ins and outs of a class blog on the new website 4. We were shown how to update the class blog and I picked it up first go. I have enjoyed using this blog to show my class learning over the year, and I have extended it to my class being able to write the blog from their perspective and I have then uploaded it.

I have worked 4 times with my IT buddy, each time working on her creating a blog for her classroom and slowly going through the steps providing support and encouragement. One session was on the transfer of photos and videos from the teacher iPad over to her laptop. This was something we will spend another session on if need be. 1, 5

A couple of colleagues have made it known that they are struggling with their own personal blog for their RTC. I have offered to show them the basics this afternoon to get them started on their journey. There are still things I do not know on here but it is about exploration and trial and error.
I feel like I have approached my colleagues who need support with an open and non-judgemental attitude which I know they have appreciated. I have ensured that they do not feel embarrassed about needing assistance as I am sure many a time they have helped me out without a second thought. 5

In development of my CV, I have added my class blog address so prospective employers can see a glimpse of what happens in my classroom. I feel this shows not only my teaching practice but also my IT skills to a small degree. As of Feb 2015 I have removed this link from my CV as I am no longer at Central School so the blog address has been wiped. 

Dealing with extra curricular sports

Holding a sport unit this year has been a positive challenge. RTC 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 12

I have coordinated around 50 children playing cricket in term one (and just starting up another 57 for term 4) and coordinated 80 children playing football in terms 2 and 3. I also coordinated the interschool sport competition- more of which I will go into later.

Dealing with outside agencies such as Central Football and Taranaki Cricket has been on the whole quite easy. Aroha and Mick at Central Football have always been ready and willing to help guide me through the role of organising such a large number of children and their parents and whānau. I have always engaged in professional conversations with these people and I have met with them on various occasions to deal with various issues. I attended the pre-season meetings at Sport Taranaki offices at Yarrows Stadium along with other sport coordinators from around Taranaki. I have met new contacts through this which has widened my knowledge of how things are run. 

Early in term 1 I attended the Taranaki Cricket pre-season information sessions for coaches and sport co-ordinators. This was hugely beneficial as I was about to lead my first independent management of a code. I found the staff at TCA to be helpful and always ready to answer my millions of emails querying how things we done and what happens next! One of the parents in my class is the draw convenor so I have always felt comfortable contacting him regarding grading and team placements. This professional dialogue has continued through to this term as I lead the second season of cricket for 2014. 

Other professional relationships developed over the course of this year include sport lead teachers during the winter season of interschool matches. I liaised with teachers who were in our first division pool; namely co-ordinators from Oakura, Bell Block, Welbourn and Woodleigh Schools. Also I had to coordinate with referees who would oversee our home games. These people included Ray Hopkins (rugby), Bruce Sutton (rugby), Dominic Barry (football) and Katie and Charlie (netball). A number of parents were also included in the mix, namely Corina and Donna (netball). This was quite a stressful process as I did not know the rugby refs beforehand and it was quite difficult tracking them down (retired so often away and playing golf). I feel much more confident about contacting people now (I detest phoning parents) as there was no option but to just get on with it. 

I want to try and find out who potentially might take up the sport unit next year so I can be sure to hand over any contact information to make the changeover as easy as possible for the next person. Also need to inform the new unit holder which parents may need extra support or guidance. 

The final football breakup was an interesting event- I had contacted the person who ran the breakup last year to find out how it is usually run and what awards should be given. I wanted to appease the parents whilst also putting my spin on things as I believed it could be run more effectively. I got the trophies collected and engraved, new POY medals made and contacted all 9 coaches/Game Day Leaders to find out POY, Most Improved and Fair Play names. Because I didn't want to take up too much of everyones Saturday morning (and my own) I decided to change the format. It was difficult on the day as the person who ran it last year turned up just before the breakup started and basically told me I was doing everything incorrectly which stressed me out. I kindly explained that this was the way I was running it this year. I was worried that perhaps I had messed it all up but the next few parents that arrived were hugely supportive of how I had decided to run things which was a really positive result. It really helped me see that actually I am doing a good job and to stick with my decisions. It was a great success and the children really enjoyed the event. 

I have found dealing with parents the most difficult aspect of the role. It is always struggle to get parents or whānau to offer to coach and help our budding sport players grow and succeed. I understand it is a time issue sometimes and we really do appreciate the support many parents give- usually it is the same parents who keep putting their hand up to help.

When I have made it along to the games (mostly the cricket and football games held at school and First Kicks and Fun Football at Western Park and some of the basketball- I attended the netball in the 2013 season) the children have always commented on the Monday how awesome it was to see me there supporting them. It is a valuable thing to do but also it is difficult to get around all of the teams and often I have other things to do also. A reminder for the next unit holder will be to put the draw up in the staff room to try and encourage other staff members to head along to some games. I often had a thank you email from parents thanking me for showing up too which is a positive.
Indeed a parent of one of the football children had spoken to a friend about me just this weekend past and told him to tell me that I had so far done an excellent job being the sport co-ordinator this year and that he felt supported and well unformed throughout the season. It is this kind of feedback that is encouraging and reaffirms why I do this job.

The sport unit is definitely not something to be taken lightly as there are many hours put into it. At the beginning of the football season I found I was meeting to spend much more time on sport stuff (organising teams, devising permission forms and newsletters, ringing parents, sorting equipment etc) than on my own class which I found rather frustrating and very tiring. I think that next year if I was doing the sport unit it would be much easier as I would be able to tweak the notices I already have etc to save time. Also it was all new learning. Again I want to be able to help guide the new unit holder through this but this may not be decided til after the summer break in which I will have moved on. I will put all of the information onto the server in one folder to try and help that way. Jan 2015: All information I had gathered from the two years as Sport Co-ordinator I have put together in one file and sent to Central School's principal to hand over to the new co-ordinator. This should be of help when implementing sports code of conducts etc for 2015. March 2015: I have spoken to the new co-ordinator and he has said the information I shared was beneficial to the start of the year and he is slowly finding his feet in the role. He has my cellphone number should be require support.