Inquiry Story Hui

Today I shared my inquiry with staff around the story hui format. I had 5 minutes to talk through my inquiry. What I have been doing at the beginning, middle and end? Giving myself a chance to reflect back on what learning is happening and what is working and not working in my inquiry.

As a reflection I got some student voice from my inquiry and asked these three questions here is some of the responses.

• What do you learn when you come and work with me? Am more focused during small group time, learn more things that we didn’t know, 
• Why is it helpful when you work with the teacher? Because sometimes you teach us something we haven’t learnt, would be hard without the teacher, teach skills and goals so we get better at our goals, we tell you the goals we need to work on and we focus on that during group time, 
• What do you think about working with me in a small group? Fantastic, do more, not distracted, so we can learn and sometimes we can learn something that we don’t know, bigger words we can learn, practise skills we didn’t know before, if we have a small group we won’t be bored it’s fun. 

I reflected back and think that I need to set up more models and vocabulary set up on the walls so that students can look back on this when they need to. 

Kapa Haka

Kapa Haka
In our school all of the teachers are required to be in charge of an area of leadership around the school. As Kapa Haka has become such a big area our lead teacher needs another teacher to help with managing juniors and seniors. We have decided as a staff that each term a different teacher can take up this job to help out and also learn the songs, movements and help to improve general Te Reo Maori knowledge.
I feel that this will help me with my standard around Te Tiriti o Waitangi and help me in getting some more evidence around these areas

• Understand and recognise the unique status of tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Understand and acknowledge the histories, heritages, languages and cultures of partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
• Practise and develop the use of te reo and tikanga Māori.

Week 32- Reflective Practice

This week I am going to reflect on a key change in my reflective practice. I have learnt a lot from being involved in Mindlab. Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection (Rolfe et al., 2001). The key change I will be reflecting on will be related to one of the themes from Our Code, Our Standards (Ministry of Education, 2017). The theme of "Professional Learning".

Step 1 (What):
Before I started Mindlab I thought that I was pretty confident using ICT and had a good classroom culture of student agency set up. I used Ipads in my classroom mainly for games and Seesaw. I had also started my professional blog but was not really using it to its full potential. I also had many questions around how I was using the devices and if I was using them effectively or not.

A key change I believe that has changed is how I am using the devices to be more effectively from the professional learning I am learning in Mindlab. Professional learning in the Our Code, Our Standards (Ministry of Education, 2017) is all about "using inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners".

Step 2 (Now What):
Below I am going to use the Cycle of Experiential Learning (Osterman and Kottkamp, 2015) to critically reflect on my key change.

Stage 1 Problem identification
My problem was that I thought there was a more effective way to use the devices I had but I didn't know what or how to improve this. My students were using digital devices but were they using them as effective tools for learning. I thought I was giving students chances to show more student agency but I wasn't sure if I was being successful or not.

Stage 2 Observation and Analysis
The data I gathered is mainly knowledge through Mindlab. Mainly in the areas of:

• 21st Century Skills
• Collaborative Learning
• Agency
• Inquiry Learning
• Digital devices and apps

All of these areas I feel that I have benefited and begun to use them more in my classroom. 

Stage 3 Abstract re conceptualization

I new skills and knowledge I have developed have allowed me to become a more confident and meaningful teacher. I now have a strong foundation of knowledge which outlines my thinking and actions. 

Stage 4 Active experimentation

Through my professional learning around Mindlab I have learnt to become more reflective around my learning. I believe that I am using the devices in my classroom more effectively and students can re-call what they are learning when using them and what helps them with their learning. My new understanding around ways to use devices as more of a tool for learning and around the 21st century skills/learning means that I am able to respond effectively to the needs of my 21st century students. 

Step 3 (What Next):
I intend to continue my learning journey. Continuing on my reflective practices on Blogger so that I can use these as evidence towards our teaching standards. I also want to keep up to date with the available apps and digital tools that would continue to help the students in my class to be more effective.

References:
Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from
https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standard

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical Reflection Model. Retrieved from: https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveModelRolfe.pdf

Learn, Create, Share

We have been involved in Manaiakalani so far this year. One of the main ideas of Maniakalani is to learn and then create something, and then share it online. In the classroom we have been using Ipads to investigate about our learning around oceans which is our inquiry topic. Students love to search for information and use the ICT to help them. One thing that they need to work on is pulling out the main ideas from sites and readings instead of just copying word for word.
Our create activity this week was to create a 3D cube that displayed different pieces of information on each side of the cube. The students loved this activity as they could choose their own sea creature and then display it.
The students then were asked to share a photo of their learning onto Seesaw which is our class learning site until we use blogger. They needed to explain what they did and what the activity was about.
My class is thoroughly enjoying the learn, create, share as they can go back and see what they are learning and they are able to get feedback from other students in the class and feedback from their whanau.
I need to go onto Seesaw and give the students feedback as it will give the task more purpose and meaning for the students.

Netball

On Wednesday 6th June I took 8 teams to Kaitaia for netball, this was relating to professional relationships with students and whanau. Learner's needed to be focused with their learning around netball and I was making sure that I was trying my best to make new relationships with whanau and students that I hadn't seen out before. I had to make sure that I was communicating effectively with whanau and students so that I didn't have students leaving the grounds and that behaviour was maintain. Today was a fun day and all students had a great time.

Learning the new standards

There are now 6 teaching standards

-Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership: Demonstrate commitment to tangata whenuatanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Eg: matariki, whakapapa, maori myths and legends, reflections

Professional Learning: Use inquiry,collaborative problem-solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.
Eg: mindlab, literacy leadership, obs and feedback, teaching as inquiry

Professional relationships: Establish and maintain professional relationships and behaviours focused on the learning and wellbeing of each learner.
Eg: site, admin, collaborative planning,

Learning-focused culture: Develop a culture that is focused on learning, and is characterised by respect, inclusion,empathy,collaboration and safety.
Eg: Photos, learning setting(quiet area), group work, why have you set up the classroom that you have, groupings

Design for learning: Design learning based on curriculum and pedagogical knowledge,assessment information and an understanding of each learner’s strengths,interests,needs,identities,languages and cultures. Eg: formative assessment, needs analysis, Te Reo planning, specialist teaching (Alim), planning,

Teaching: Teach and respond to learners in a knowledgeable and adaptive way to progress their learning at an appropriate depth and pace.
AKO
Takes responsibility for their own learning and that of Māori learners
Eg: technologies, learning activities, assessment, same as first 2, need written reflections in each