Setting up for success and high expectations -take off!

 Setting up for Success

Nicole and I worked really hard to establish a positive classroom environment for all our wonderful students. It is so important in those first few weeks to establish a strong positive classroom tone so that students are happy and so that we are able to forge strong relationships. We learnt about each other and also worked to develop their relationships with each other. Our classroom looks warm and inviting now and Andrew remarked in our observation about how well the class was doing and that we had such calm and positive natures that really and how happy the students are. This was great to hear about how well we have worked to create such a positive environment. Below are some of Andrew’s comments which show our strong relationships with our students.

Setting High Expectations

We always ensure we have individualised high expectations for all the students. So that they are being pushed to keep making progress but that this progress is based upon themselves and not any expected standard as all students are different. This term we have also begun writing goals for the students to focus on next term. You can see our display below.

Having fun with Te-Reo!

 Te Reo Language Term 2

This term we worked on increasing our integration of the Te Reo language we were teaching. At the beginning of the term we were learning about shapes and so we brought this into our language teaching. The students used some of the same games/activities from our shape lessons to learn the maori words for the shapes at the same time. We had lots of fun with this and the students enjoyed learning about the different names.

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We also did an integrated art/english/maori unit with our myths and legends art. They always enjoy the myths and legends work that we do and again we took this into creating sun artworks in the classroom, looking at koru symbols also and what these mean. We took this up a different step this year by also using the knowledge we learnt from Christine Brown about harakeke. We decided to take the students out and harvested harakeke. We said the karakia to the right and then we harvested it as we had been shown. Finally we put out mats in our classroom, set up appropriate protocols and had the students try to plait some flax as they did in Maui and the sun. This was very difficult but I think it was so worthwhile for the students and us to do and I would definitely do it again in the future. I think this was great to use our skills and actually incorporate some of the other areas that are important in maori culture, not just language.

Te Reo Plan

Te Reo Assessment

Term 1 Evidence

 Cultural Responsiveness

We looked at our goals from last year and then I reflected upon where I got to with this. I celebrated more language weeks and am trying to slowly use more vocab in the classroom in terms of Maori language first and then bring in other cultures that are in our classroom. We also put out a survey for all the families to be able to share all the things that are important in terms of their culture. We used this to fill in our know the learner slides so we know what is important to celebrate within the classroom.

Setting up for Success

As part of starting the year off well and setting our classrooms up for success we set up our cultural wall and worked through some activities to think about our cultures. We created this cool display where they have their work showing their country's flag. We emphasised New Zealand Culture first, as we are all New Zealanders. We worked through this slideshow. Looking at all the different cultures represented in our class.

Te Reo Language

We focused on some basic Te Reo work this term. We spent a bit of time on our classes and used an activity in particular that Lee-Anne had given to us at the teacher only day. We added to the sorting by also including the faces of people in the school. The students have loved interacting with this on the wall. We also worked on greetings and have added another karakia to our everyday by having the karakia kai also (as well as our morning and end of the day karakia). We continue to work on adding more Te Reo throughout the day.

Te Reo Assessment

Te Reo Plan

Staff Meetings Term 2 and Learnings and Relfections

 Staff Meetings

Inquiry

This was a good staff meeting, where we went back to planning the unit the old way, with paper and figuring out how many lessons we have and what we would focus on, it really allowed us to be well thought out and have a clear idea of where we go from the beginning. I enjoyed this meeting and being able to have my thoughts and ideas valued.

Mel - WST, AST’s - Clay, Heather, Jo

These meeting were basically about what their positions are and letting us know how they can help us.

Math - Joanne

Joanne shared feedback in this meeting as to how she is going working with the students and what she has been learning. As always it was great to talk with Joanne and get some ideas on things we could be doing. Most of all though this was a reflection session to think about what we are doing at the moment and what we need support with.Joanne also met with us 1:1 to share her observation feedback and I enjoyed being able to ask her questions about the numicon and new ways that I could be using it.

Christine Brown

She came at the end of the term and this was all about preparing for our Marae trip next term. It was really good for me to be reminded of the protocols of visiting a marae and the process of mihi whakatau. I enjoyed this workshop as I have been a couple of times previously and believe I have good knowledge of this process, Christine even said that with the paired task of matching cards that Rebecca and I did together. I am looking forward to going next term and preparing the class for the visit, It is great that Christine is coming back next term as we didn’t really get to make a start on our mihi work. I think that I am going to have to take most of mine out though as she said it was not appropriate to share at the marae.

Teacher Cluster Summit

I supported Kathleen as she was a presenter this time. She appreciated me being there and supporting her. It was really disappointing how unprofessional people were who attended though.

Structured Literacy

This has been such an important term for us in terms of using the information we have gained and really working on how it looks for us in our classroom. Nicole and I have now worked out a system of resources that we are using in our classroom and it has been great to get this well set up so we are both doing the same thing when we are teaching reading. This was good when we had the student teachers as they could also see what we were doing and were able to follow our same structure. The structured literacy team and myself led the structured literacy whanau workshops. The parents need more clarity on what they should be doing with their child at home so next term we are going to implement a home learning book where it will let them know in one place what they should be doing at home for the night. We will also be using our structured literacy groups during writing time and we hope that this will strengthen their work further by reinforcing the work we are doing in reading time.

OTJ discussions

This was a really great and robust day where we were able to talk through all the students in the hub. I really enjoy these times as it is good to think about some of the higher levels and what these actually look like in terms of their physical work as most of the time the students I teach are only in the 1b/1p area.

Whakatau Team Relationships

 I feel we have a good team in Whakatau, and we are all supportive of each other and always help each other.

We had a really successful OTJ meeting and we have good team meetings, we always help each other find successes within one another too.

I have created a weekly doc that I send out on a Sunday to keep the whole team up to date and I also shared this with our interns whilst they were there. 

I like to do small things to acknowledge the team and this term I gave a Whitakers sante bar to thank them for all of their hard work and for them to know it doesn't go unnoticed. 

I also like to make them feel special if it is there birthday, I like to write them a wee novel, as I feel words are more powerful and appreciated than a gift. 

Professional Relationships

 I feel I have made some huge inroads with Clay this year, I am really enjoying working with him on PB4L and I feel we have mutual respect for one another.

I got this note from him, and I said to him I felt the same way.