Te-Reo 2022

 In term 1 we focused on learning our morning karakia, days of the week and our class names as well as attending kapa haka sessions to learn some waiata. Unfortunately due to the nature of the term with covid we only had a couple of kapa haka sessions and were unable to have the time in these to really learn any new waiata. As we had our BSU focus this term instead of having longer Te Reo sessions once a week we had our Te Reo focuses at different times of the day e.g. morning karakia time at 9, days of the week during our homeroom sessions and throughout the day we were learning to recognise our classroom/hub names.

We also used the Te Reo language for our movement breaks. The tamariki responded really well to this and thoroughly enjoyed when we do the movement breaks. We have these up on the wall beside our teaching station and can pull them off as a visual reminder if students need additional support to the oral language being used.

We also spent some time looking at our cultures and developed our cultural wall for this year celebrating where we all come from. We ensured that we talked about how we are all New Zealanders and that some of us have other cultures that we identify with also. We looked through this cultures slideshow to learn a bit more about each of our cultures.

Term 2:

We have continued learning the morning karakia, days of the week and our class names as well as attending kapa haka sessions to learn some new waiata, although this has been difficult as the children are not able to learn at the pace that the tutor is working at.

We have also been exploring the names of all the buildings in the school and when we leave the classroom to go to another space we use the name of that space for example we go to the whare manaaki at least 3 times a week and I feel if you asked the children where it is they would know. We do lots of little snippets of learning throughout each day. We have also explored a few more picture books for our story-sharing time that have a lot of Te-Reo in them or that are Māori stories also. See this link to check out the books we have explored. 

 

We used the How Maui slowed the sun as our book review for the leaders of literacy and it was exciting to see the children retelling the story in their own words and saying what they really liked about the story.

For next term: To help with our new children and whānau transitioning into our space I am going to put the Karakia up on the wall in the space of the classroom that we do it so they are able to see it and make connections to it. We are also looking at Karakia Kai and when we can do this. Moving to do Kapa Haka within our own space so we will explore the waiata and actions that we want our tamariki to be learning and strong in.

Term 3: Ekk Lockdown 2021

 All our programmes are planned as per our school guidelines and include all important information from the NZ curriculum. This term there was a lot of repetition in our term as we really had 3 weeks before we went into lockdown and then three weeks when we came back. The break in the middle made it more challenging to get as much learning done as we wanted to. I have included planning from week 4 but we only got to do two days of this before the lockdown.

Reading and writing

We have been teaching literacy together this term and I think this has been a really positive thing for the students. When we came back from lockdown Nicole and I made the decision not to switch groups as there was only three weeks left and we wanted to get as much strong learning done as possible during those weeks. We have continued to change our groups as much as possible to cater for the progress of different students, so they are in the best group for them. We have also been using topics that are familiar to the students for writing so they can produce their best work.

Reading plans (with assessment on plan): Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10

Writing: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10

Writing Assessment

Maths

We started the term with some algebra this term and we did two weeks on pattern making. We grouped the students according to the data we had from both our algebra testing and our assessment of their number skills as for some that didn’t recognise numbers still they obviously needed to work on simpler colour or object patterns.

Algebra Plan

Algebra Assessment

We then started working on number in week 3 but we were also starting this routine again and working with a new teacher to welcome into our classroom space so we hadn’t really started strongly before we went into lockdown. After we came back from lockdown we started using number knowledge pathways to more strongly get an idea of exactly what they know and need to work on. They loved them as well.

Week 3, Week 4, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10

Math Assessment

Shared Reading, Phonics and Poetry

This term for reading we used fairytales which were from the national library so they also included a CD as well as the story so that we both read the story and listened to the song too. This was a great connection for the students and they enjoyed having the singing aspect. We have continued to work on having two groups for phonics so that we can better cater for the needs of the students but we also did it so that we were working on the same poem that we would have for our poem of the week. We didn’t always get to the activity for the poem but we always did a lot of work on them throughout the week.

Shared story Plan

Phonics Plan

Poetry plan

Health/PE/Fitness/Zone/Behaviour/Mindfulness

These areas were one place that we really missed out on due to the lockdown as we didn’t get to do much of either food and nutrition or for our small balls unit due to when the lockdown occurred. We also had a fire safety issue arrive in the class and therefore needed to start this unit when we came back from the lockdown in order to ensure the students understood how important fire safety is. We have continued to improve our fitness and have been getting out there for more and more time which is great.

Plan and small ball assessment

Te Reo

This was another areas affected by the lockdown as they weren’t for the most part being exposed to Māori in their homes during this time so it meant when they came back we basically had to start again and repeat the lessons that we had done at the beginning of the term. So for this reason the assessment doesn’t look that great as we didn’t get the long stretch of time we needed.

Te Reo plan

Te Reo Assessment

Inquiry - Science and Drama

Our science this term definitely went a lot better than our drama. We focused on simple concepts for science and this meant that they were able to develop an understanding quite well. We will continue working on this next term and integrate our technology into this unit to get more out of both areas. For drama we have only really just gotten started and we need to do a lot more in this area to work for the students to build a stronger understanding of drama skills.

Drama Plan

Science Plan

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.

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. 

Zones of Regulation and Health & PE

Our Health and Zones work this term was particularly powerful for our students this term. We used our health topic to address the unfriendly nature that was creeping into the classroom and then really explored our feelings through the zones of regulation. We used a variety of activities that I feel the students really connected to and overall they were being better friends and using the recharge station independently to recharge their energy when they needed it. Overall a very successful unit.

The PE was also fun though in general the skills are not great. We struggled with extending Malaefou and are working on ways that he can get that extension with athletics next term. Overall they made some good progress with small balls, though the skills of athletics are a struggle for them.

Zones/PE/Health Plan - PE Assessment

Lockdown Relationships and Hero Reporting

 Lockdown Relationships

Maintaining relationships was definitely made more difficult through the level 4 lockdown. With only email and phone conversations available it was definitely difficult to maintain relationships not only with students but also with their parents. It was extremely important to make sure we were there to support the families and students during this difficult time. I called all families multiple times, though I found that email was a better form of communication for most families. I communicated through email and through the linc ed hero emailing system also. I managed to maintain good communication with around half of the families in my class. They all knew that I was there if they needed me and some preferred to just keep to themselves and their own family. Others emailed me with questions and also with a request for a phone call as they wanted more information. I wanted to be there to support but I also didn’t want to annoy anyone by trying to contact them too many times so I tried to just follow their lead.

Nicole and I alternated each day between who would do the daily video as we felt it was important for them to see both of our faces. We also sent virtual fish tickets for students who were doing Mathsbuddy, Sunshine books or sending us photos or work from what we had posted for thats days learning on our site. It was cool sending the fish ticket to them and parents would respond which was very cool. Some of the children were printing them out and putting them up on their fridges.

It was really to cool to see students commenting via their parents on other students blog posts of work that we were putting up too.

When Nicole and I returned to school at level 3 it was great as we were able to do the videos together and host zoom sessions with the class which we really enjoyed and we played games of scavenger hunts and tried singing songs and doing tik toks together, these creating the fun element and allowed for the children to communicate with us and each other.

We also had a junior hub talent show and tell during our home learning time and we had lots of buy in from it and I then created a slide deck so we could share it for everyone to see I called it Whakatau Super Talents.

Linc Ed Hero Reporting

We took this unusual time and chose to document it through our reporting this term and share with families some of the key things that the students had taken away from the very unusual but also very special time at home, below you can see examples of this.

 

Covid 19 Lockdown and return to school

 Zoom meetings - Lockdown Student relationships

It was so important to try and do what we could during the lockdown to support families to keep their children to be happy and to feel supported and not scared by everything going on in the world. So we tried our best to do this by creating our hub site sharing videos everyday of ourselves to have some sort of normalcy for them and making fun activities for them to complete. As well as sharing their work on the blog so they could keep connected with their peers. We also started hosting zoom meetings where we had lots of fun, gave them the chance to share and where we were able to connect with them and they were able to connect with and see their friends. This was all really important to help support the students and their mental and emotional health.

Physical environment

Our physical environment remained basically the same except upon their return we labelled their chairs rather than the table so they actually stayed and didn’t fall off as they were continually doing on the table. We continue to work on their teamwork skills by having them sit at group tables and learning to work together and help each other out when they need it.

Transition back to school

It was super important to transition the students back to school after the lockdown so they felt comfortable being back at school and being away from their families when they had been with them for such a long time. We took a week to settle them back in and to reflect upon the time we spent at home. Here is a link to our timetable from that week.

Developing our learning culture

Developing learning focused relationships

We spent a lot of the first term getting to know our students and working on finding out more about them. In the photo to the right you can see that the students made these lapbooks about themselves. We have played lots of games and done lots of fun activities together.

Foster trust respect and cooperation

We are working on this in a few different ways. The first is through the behaviour/values lessons. Each week Nicole and I take this very seriously to try and get across the importance of each value to the students. We model these lessons and encourage the students to tell us what we are doing wrong so that they can learn well what they should and shouldn’t do. Behaviour Expectations.

We have also been teaching cooperation by creating group tables where the students from both classes are mixed up at tables. They earn group points for doing the right things and for working well as a table. This will be something we continue to keep working on how they work together and how they can learn to share ideas with each other.

High Expectations

We set our high expectations by making goals with the students and their parents before the beginning of the year. We talk with the students about what we expect both with behaviour and their learning often. I think the most important thing is that the students really develop self belief and self confidence in their own abilities so it is important to help develop their confidence.

Physical environment

This year Nicole and I have worked hard to set up the learning environment in a way that is clean, tidy and organised for the students. As well as making it a space that they feel comfortable in and that they can feel like they belong. We did this through spending a lot of time having the students create and complete artwork to fill the walls, filling the class with their own things. I think this has gone well and the students are really learning where everything goes so they can better help keep the space tidy and organised. The environment also displays the cultures of our students and some brief information about where they are from.

        

PB4L day at MOE

 I really enjoyed going along to the PB4L session with Rebecca and Clay. As I am doing the values side of the behaviour lessons it was interesting to go and understand the book more and to have the chance to look at it in-depth and to focus on our direction of where to next for us as a school. IO took a lot of notes and I enjoy taking notes and it helps me take it all in. As I have been helping some members of my team this year work on their behaviour management strategies it gave me more ideas to bring into the team. I have had the book since before we started on the PB4L journey and after the session I am really hooked on it and totally believe we should be using the key ideas from there. 

I was buddied up with Clay due to their Covid level 2 restrictions so I was very impressed with how well we worked together, ever since our wee clash I have worked hard to maintain a good professional relationship. 

I am quite happy to be involved with Clay and Rebecca moving forward and being part of the planning team for the whole school staff meeting etc and I appreciated having them listen to my ideas and thoughts. 

Section One of the book is huge and key to setting up your classroom and all teachers need to focus on this area heading into the 2021 school year. It will set you up to have success!

Team Relationships

I have been working on continuing to strengthen the relationships within my team. I am always thanking them and praising them for their good work and offering support in any way I can. I also give wee chocolates as a pick me a up often like a Sante bar which the team all love and appreciate.

     

I have also been doing the team week ahead document again this year which the team find beneficial with whats happening for that week and important notices and deadlines. When I send this out each Sunday night I always write a wee message to go with it. 

                   

Lockdown learning/teaching/blogging

During our time at home in lockdown we still aimed to maintain the best possible learning programme for our students while also understanding that this was a tough time for students and families. Therefore we provided them with resources before they left and then also set up daily challenges that they could take part in. We tried our best to continue their Te Reo learning by sending home their mihimihi template and including te reo in our daily challenges. Here is a link to each week’s lockdown planning: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5. We tried making it fun and engaging for them and had to think about what resources and equipment they would have available to use at home. e also wanted to make sure we were exposing the students to aspects of what we would be learning about if we had still been at school following our long term plan. This planning then went on the site, here is an example of that on our site. Students shared their learning with us and we would put it on our blog.

There was a lot of new learning I experienced whilst undertaking the home learning and I enjoyed the relationships and support from my team :D

      

 

 

Celebrating our Cultures

 This year we had another cultural day where we celebrated our cultures through creating the wall below. We identified the cultures of our families through a cultural survey sheet and also how we are able to best support them and their cultures. This was noted down in our know the learner document and transferred onto linc ed. On our school wide cultural celebration day we began to look at our different cultures through this slide and we had a shared lunch together as well as a cultural show and a flag ceremony.

We love celebrating the cultures within our classroom and will use these greetings with the students. During the lockdown time at home I also responded to student work using some language to them for praising their efforts.