On Monday 15th of February our we had a staff meeting for ESOL and ELLP. Last year I had a few children in my class that I was to put forward for ESOL funding so as part of that I had to fill out the ELLP finding forms. I was shown briefly by an experienced teacher as to how to fill them out. I have it my best try, but this year we had a staff meeting due to the fact that majority of the teachers did not highlight the ELLP rubrics correctly.
To get funding for a child, the ministry looks at what the children can do. The presenter went into saying that we can half highlight the stage, so the area that is not highlighted will be our "Where to next" for the child's learning and what areas he/she needs to work on.
The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) is first and foremost a teaching and learning, planning and reporting document. It identifies strengths and gaps in language learning and offers effective pedagogy for English language learners. The gaps found when filling out the form helps with deriving "Where to next"steps for children's further learning. Years 1-4: Foundation to Stage 2 Years 5-8: Foundation to Stage 3 Here is an example if a ELLP form matrix and what it should look like. Each time the students is assessed a different coloured highlighter is used. In this particular form the students has been assessed at 3 different occasions/parts of year etc.
In this particular example, the student is proficient at stage 1 where it has been highlighted in blue. So when recording for ESOL funding it would be recorded as stage 1 achieved which is recorded on the "Record of progress" coversheet for funding purposes. In the Matrix you can clearly identify what the students next steps will be from the unhighlighted parts in the form. After the staff meeting I was a bit overwhelmed due to the fact there was alot to take it, but I know that i will be capable to doing this with the help and guidance of the wonderful stuff at my School as well as reference to the ESOL on line website which has a lot of information that can clarify any questions that I can may that I am unsure of.
Two weeks have past and what a great start to 2016.
My class are starting to settle in well into the classroom routines and are always eager and motivated to learn new things.
To be able to manage my class and their learning I have slit my class into table groups. The groups, when thinking about how I would do this effectively the questions I posed in my head were which students would work well together, having a mixed ability of students at a table which gives the students that are finding it difficult to learn from the students that are more confident and competent in their learning. I also found that having the mix ability table groups also encouraged participation, collaboration, and collegial interactions as each student comes to the table with different views and perspectives and ideas. The children showed a lot of enthusiasm and were very excited to find out which table they would be at as I had named the tables groups after super Hero's- Iron man, The Incredible Hulk, Batman, and Captain America.
Working in a cooperative learning environment helps students with:
Thinking aloud
Taking risks
Develop understandings
Deeper order thinking.
Be more self confident as learners.
Develop oral language skills as students inputs into activities is valued.
Improve relationships with other students and their teacher.
Scaffold their learning through talk and the use of cognitive and graphic organisers.
Here are some examples of graphic organisers that we have begun to use in the classroom as well as going to use throughout 2016.
Y Chart
T chart
Venn Diagram-Making comparisons
The weeks also began with lots of team building to get to know each other and build better relationships with each other. What I really found effective was using mini energisers in between lessons which got children to have fun as well as get their ready again for learning with a fresh mind as I knew and understood that the children coming from a long summer holiday had to get their minds and bodies back into the learning mode.
One of the challenges I think I will face in the next coming weeks is because my classroom is a 1:1 net book class some of the children do not have net book which will make it harder in regards to their learning. So to cater for their needs and not having a net book, we will have to pair them up with another student that has a net book, keeping in mind that both students have an equal input in the learning and work.
Another very exciting thing is that our Syndicate, Kia Manawanui leader Aireen and our Manaiakalani facilitator have worked very hard and build a Kia Manawanui syndicate site which looks AMAZING!!! Well done to you both!! Which I am very excited to use. What great about having a Syndicate site is that we can also see what learning is happening in our neighbouring classrooms.
I have also have the opportunity to meet three new teachers that have joined our syndicate. They are wonderful. It has been great working alongside them and sharing ideas as well as building new friendships. I am looking forward to working with them this year. I also have the gratitude of being part of a fantastic school that has a great bunch of teachers where i have a feeling of belonging-they are like a family to me and have been so supportive during hard times and happy times. I belive this is really important in a School environment. Where there are teachers that can support you makes a huge difference. So a special Thank you to all the teachers of Tamaki Primary School, Arohanui
It is going to be an exciting year with positives and challenges. I am looking forward to embracing these challenges.
What is Limitless Passion? I have always been fond of inspirational quotes and believe in implementing them into my classroom environment to create a purposeful, inspirational classroom culture.
Today, I watched a video clip on the well known Tony Robbins. He is a motivational speaker who is well known all around the world.
One of the things that I really found really compelling is that Tony Robbins clearly remembers an important message that one of his teachers said that left an effect. The message was " Its really simple! If you want life to change, you gotta change. If you want life to get better, you got to get better. Its the only way it happens. Luck will show up for people and then will leave them, but if you are constantly improving who you are and what you give, game over!"
It shows how as Teachers, children really remember things that we say, the message that we say and how we say it. The words that we choose can empower our children and get them thinking about how our state of minds and how we think really can affect our actions and where we are heading towards.
I believe that we as teachers and role models to the children that we teach need to model this type of language and frame of self talk to be able to motivate and inspire our learners so that they have the power to achieve great things in their learning and in life.
"Great leaders know how to step into the uncertainty and bring the certainty to the situation" Focus equals power. If you want to thrive you need to focus on what you can control. Focus on the difference that you can make. The things in your life that you are grateful for"
I am really looking forward to using Daily quotes and daily inspirational videos and growth mindset activities in my classroom to create a empowering and positive classroom climate for 2016.
Today for our Teacher Only Day we had Professional Development on PB4L (Positive Behaviour For Learning). It is a School-Wide initiative to enhance behaviour and learning.
It involves Series of 7 elements to assess behaviour management in the School and look at areas that can be developed on. Its applies to all children. The focus of the programme is what is successful for students and developing on this.
Sub-systems: Evidence based, smallest effort. It is for all students and all teachers and is a general approach for preventing problem behaviour. This programme is developed for you and your school.
PB4L aims to move from traditional discipline to school wide discipline and to enhance and create and effective school environment.
It identifies and teaches replacement skills and builds relationships. The programme has shown improvements in behaviour as well as achievement.
Does not exist of long lists of NO and NOT and DON'T.
It involves teaching the children what to do and the skills on how to do it. It teaches children about expectations as well as consistency of Language.
PB4L builds on:
Social skills
Natural context
Behaviour examples.
Links to key competencies and values of the New Zealand Curriculum.
Use of school wide reinforcement for student behaviour.
Use of regular feedback through good data gathering.
DEVELOP CONSISTENCY-Clearly define problem behaviours.
Minors and majors- Distinguishing the difference.
Data based decision making.
From Primary to Precise-Primary being vague statements which leave us with more questions and answers.
Developing online resources: TKI.
Creating a students based Matrix based on School values and what it looks like in certain environments.
I am really looking forward to this learning experience and implementation of this programme throughout the School wide environment.
"PB4L helps to foster positive behaviour, strengthen relationships,
and increase student well-being by creating caring, inclusive
learning environments. Research2
shows that such environments
have positive effects on children’s and students’ behaviour,
resilience, learning, and achievement". (TKI website)
The PB4L programme helps to build and develop inclusive leaning environments that enable all children to:
Participate
Engage
Achieve
Belong.
Having an inclusive learning environment enables children to be able to express their needs and feelings and have a personal voice in positive ways.
POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR FOR LEARNING: THREE TIERS OF SUPPORT
Today for our staff Professional Development we learnt about Jolly Phonics and how to "Create Independent Readers, Writers and Spellers" in the classroom.
The programme is useful from year ones to year 8s. The research states that when Jolly phonics is implemented children's reading skills were 11 months above the level of their expected for their age.
Jolly phonics comes in Precursive or Print letters. It is recommended to use Jolly Phonics in the classroom in print format.
Jolly phonics is useful for different learning styles such as Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic/Emotional, Tactile learners.
The first stage is learning to read and the second stage is comprehension. It takes approximately 3 years for the results: 1st year-Jolly phonics, 2nd year-Jolly grammar/Jolly readers.
Children learn basic 5 skills altogether: Learning letter sounds, letter formation, blending, identifying sounds in words, tricky words.
1: Learning the letter sounds:
Everything is done in colour.
After you have started first letter sound they can start spelling.
There is a specific letter sound order for teaching sequence.
Kids need to learn what the sound is for theme to spell them
Story line and Actions:
For the teaching for the sounds stories and actions are used. There is also videos and songs on you tube. For example: Learning the letter "s" Action: Weave hand like a snake, saying the phonic sound ssssss.
The Phonics Handbook:
Used as a useful teaching took which provided detailed teaching notes, sound sheets and games and activities.
When the children have learnt the first three sounds, they can then be taught to blend the sounds together and they learn to read s-a-t.
children then learnt to identify the sound and where in the word it is located. For example, neck, nip, hand, man.
Children then learn to progress into learning capital letters and the names of letters at the end of the third group of letters. Children need to learn to know that capital letters make the same sounds even though they look different.
Digraphs:
There is a structure to teaching Digraphs.
There are 9 digraph sounds.
There are 27 letter combinations to make these sounds.
You start with the simple sounds like ai, oo-Two or more letters that make the same sounds. Two vowels go walking the first one does the talking(Rule)
Word book: Everyday have list of words ready for practice.
Blends with Consonant Blends:
pl-a-n....plan
tr-i-ck...trick
br-u-sh....brush.
There is a phonics words book for blending word practice.
Word building cards used for children that learn by doing so they are able to create words that they have learnt.
4:Identifying Sounds in Words:
Game and activities:
I-Spy
Counting sounds.
Word families.
Rhyming words.
5: Learning Tricky Words:
Identify the tricky part of the word.
Use colour to highlight.
Reading it as it says.
Write it as it sounds.
Use word flowers or build your down tricky word tree.
Spelling technique: Look, cover, write and check.
Lesson guide:
Create story and teach action.
Show Flashcard, sing song.
Letter formation.
Listen for sounds.
Blend sounds to make words..
Tricky words.
Dictation.
Game, miming, letter mat etc.
I found the Professional Development session on Jolly Phonics which was presented by " Jayne Fynn" very informative. She presented a range if ideas and how Jolly Phonics is used in the classroom. I look forward to implementing the activities and strategies in the classroom.
Here is an example of Teaching jolly phonics using actions and jolly phonics songs.
Today a whole group of new teachers met at Glenbrae Primary for a professional development workshop on "How to create an effective blog".
It was really good to meet a range of teachers from a range of Cluster Schools and converse and share ideas about the features of what an effective blog looks like. We had a look at a range of different schools and compared blogs and discussed why we do blog posts? What are they used for? How to capture an audience?, What types of things can we include in our blogs to make them more effective?, such as photos of children's work, google slides, videos and pictures.
We also talked about how blogs can be used as evidence for student Official Teacher Judgement, reports, assessment as well as for teacher registration.
I really enjoyed this learning experience alongside the new teachers.
In Term 4 our school inquiry topic has been about "Planet Earth and Beyond". The children in the Kia Maia team did not know what our Inquiry topic was going to be about so as a reveal the children watched the movie "Home" in the first block which they really enjoyed.
In the second block of the day the children explored making "Rockets". Part of the Learn process was for the children to learn how to make a rocket of their choice by researching online different ways of making rockets. The Create part of their learning was for the children to choose a rocket of their choice and test their theory as to how far and fast they fly. Miss Kyla's class, Mr Minton's class and Miss Shiriwastow's class all made rockets and then they all gathered in the hall for a challenge to see which rockets flew the furtherest and fastest. The children really enjoyed themselves and were very proud of their rockets. Miss Kyla gave our prizes for the ones that flew the furtherest and ones with the most innovative designs.
It was a great learning experience for the children as they learnt about what causes the rocket to travel faster and why. For example, when you blow in the straw the air gets trapped causing momentum.
Here is a photo of Curtys who created a straw Rocket
Here is a photo of Kenneth and Siale who won a prize for the furtherest flying rockets.
Here is a photo of the Room 7 children enjoying testing out their rockets.
It was a fun day for the children of the Kia Maia Team!
On Monday 15th of February our we had a staff meeting for ESOL and ELLP. Last year I had a few children in my class that I was to put forward for ESOL funding so as part of that I had to fill out the ELLP finding forms. I was shown briefly by an experienced teacher as to how to fill them out. I have it my best try, but this year we had a staff meeting due to the fact that majority of the teachers did not highlight the ELLP rubrics correctly.
