Searching, reflecting, noticing and hypothesising.

As in my previous blog post, Project Based Learning is now implemented into my classroom programme. Our first unit was the Animals Unit where the students carried out project using the theme of Animals. Each curriculum area has their own tasks to complete. During the first Project Based Learning unit, I observed the interaction of my students with the work and the change in the way they were learning. 

For the first week, it was a challenge because this is a new programme for the students and a change in how we have been learning in my class.

I am trying to decide on what I will focus on with my inquiry in accelerating the reading of my students. Project Based Learning is focussed on individual student inquiries and self management. At this stage, I am considering focussing on self regulation in reading and learning activities to strengthen student autonomy and accelerating the students' progress in reading. 

Here are the units for the Animals Unit which my students started this term. 

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini

Yesterday we had our second CoL PLG. It is always an empowering and inspiring experience because as I looked around the room, I saw leaders, collaborators, passionate educators, innovators and also challenges. All of us have expertise which we can share with each other. Collaboration thrives in our Manaiakalani Cluster. 

Our convenor Russell Burt gave us a few wero to think of as we begin to identify the challenges we will be addressing in our inquiries this year. When identifying our focus, to be specific about the changes we will be implementing to cause lift in student achievement. He warned us about having big inquiries. For example: Accelerating boys writing or boys reading. That in itself is a big focus and I would imagine the inquiring teacher would go around in circles trying to implement so many changes to address the issue. 

We were encouraged to think about what practice changes we were planning on applying to our target groups to change the outcomes for our students. This also reminded me about our previous PLG where we were reminded not to think of solutions yet but to identify the challenges in our student data and have discussions with our school leaders and colleagues before identifying our focus for our inquiries. I think diving into the deep a saying which comes to mind when I think of this. I feel it is very important to be clear in the challenge you want to address, then reflect on what has been happening so far to address the challenge, then make a plan on changes to teacher practice which will change the way students learn.

We had the opportunity to have learning conversations with our other CoL colleagues about our inquiries for this year. We are all at the planning stage but we already know which area we are focussing on. I found my conversations with Clarelle, Danni and Hannah very valuable. We were able to share ideas with each other and also ask questions to identify other areas to explore about our inquiries. 

Where to now?

I am now at the finalising my focus for my inquiry. I am inquiring into accelerating the achievement of my students in Reading through Project Based Learning. This is because I am implementing Project Based Learning in my class now. I am looking at self regulated study, independent research, purposeful inquiries for projects, implementing Learn, Create, Share in the project learning curriculum for my students. There are many aspects I am thinking about at the moment and I am having conversations with different colleagues to share my thinking and gather some more insights. 

I am also identifying my target group. I plan to have at least eight in my target group. After finalising my target group, I will then profile my learners which is a task I enjoy because it gives me a lot of insight into the learning journey my students have been on throughout their primary years and enables me to understand more about their learning needs. 

There is a lot of mahi to be done. It is a journey which I hope will be of success but I also know will have a lot of challenges along the way.

Possible inquiry focus for 2021

This week has been a busy week with my classroom teaching, assessments, DFI and all the lovely frills and spills of being a teacher. I have to admit it feels like I am running on all gears this week. Full steam ahead. I have always said busy is good and my other favourite saying is change is good.

Last year we had a meeting with Rebecca Dow from Innovative Education Consultants about the Project Based Curriculum. Our principal had visited South Auckland Middle School and observed how project based learning was implemented at this school, she was very impressed and asked Rebecca if she could meet with Mrs Raj and I as we will be co-teaching in Room 7 this year. 

Our own visit to South Auckland Middle School was yesterday. Mrs Raj and I observed how the students were engaged, self managing, focussed (well most of them). I was quite impressed with the vast variety of topics the students were learning about in their projects. The villas in South Auckland Middle School classes were from Years 7-10. In every villa (hub) we visited, we saw students in these year levels working on their projects. Some were on independent activities and some were with their teachers in class discussions. The maximum students in each class is 15. We were told there is also a big waiting list of students wanting to attend South Auckland Middle School. 

What is Project Based Learning?

Here is the Innovative Education Consultants - Project Based Curriculum website for more information. From my understanding, the projects curriculum is already planned and there are project for each year level. There are eight projects for the year in each year level. The projects are linked to the New Zealand Curriculum and are very much inquiry focussed encompassing core subjects in the New Zealand Curriculum. From what I saw, there is definitely a lot of room for our students to Learn, Create and Share. South Auckland Middle School do not have blogs or use the apps which we use in the Manaiakalani Cluster so my students will have many more avenues for exploration and creation for their projects. My students will also be able to constantly share their learning progress with their project through blogging. 

From Term 2, we are planning to start Project Based learning in my classroom. In discussions with my principal and Mrs Raj yesterday, I shared for my teaching as inquiry this year, I will be looking at how project based learning will change the way my students learn and if that change in learning style will accelerate their achievement Writing, Maths and especially Reading which is our area of focus this year. 

Project based learning is definitely a change in the way my students will be learning. They will be given projects to complete in five weeks and they will have self guided learning time to work on their projects during the week and also collaboration time with the teacher. At the moment, I am questioning how my role as the teacher will change too because the projects and the curriculum are already written. I am thinking of how my autonomy as the teacher will be affected in the classroom learning for my students. There is a primary school implementing the Project Based Curriculum in their school. I have asked to visit this school to see how project based learning is happening in a primary school setting. 

My inquiry question is yet to be finalised but this is where I am at with my inquiry focus for this year. I would welcome any questions and suggestions regarding this blog post. It will help with giving me ideas and more direction regarding my teaching as inquiry for 2021.

Leading discussions about our school data and planning for next actions

Today I presented my analysis of our school data to our staff. After going through the 77 page Glenbrae School Student Achievement Data Analysis Report, I was able to summarise where we are with the achievement of our students compared to the national norm and also other schools in our cluster. 

I emphasised during my presentation that numbers/data tell a story. In my years of conducting teaching as inquiries, I have grown to have a passion for collecting and analysing data. Our school data has really given me a bigger insight into the learning journeys of our students and where we as a school need to focus on to raise the achievement of our tamariki. 

I created a google document where I collated information I gathered form the tables and graphs on our school report. I also used voice recordings to discuss my questions and wonderings about what the data showed. (MOTE is the extension I used to record my voice recordings). At the end of the document I put down my wonderings and shared these with my colleagues.

During our staff discussion, a lot of great ideas and questions were discussed. As a staff we collaborated about our next learning steps. Each of us sharing our expertise. Collaboration is a wonderful tool especially when we all have the same vision. HE WAKA EKE NOA.

I also presented how to conduct a teaching as inquiry. We have a number of beginning teachers on staff this year and this presentation was of great importance to them in making the start on their own teaching as inquiry. 

At the end of my presentation, I asked our staff to write a reflection of what they were able to gain from what I presented. I feel it is vital that I gather their feedback and comments as this will enable me to help in my role to support our staff. 

Here are some of the feedback I received. 

I am very happy that I have analysed our data, I have presented to our staff and we as a staff are aware of what we need to do now. We have agreed to focus on raising the achievement of our students in Reading. We are also looking at utilising PD we have received in Oral Literacy for our Teaching as Inquiry. 

Across School CoL Teacher

Talofa lava, my name is Amy Tofa. I am year 7/8 classroom teacher at Glenbrae School. I have been teaching for 12 years in the Manaiakalani Cluster. I am very grateful to be an Across School CoL teacher this year as I know it will contribute immensely to my professional growth, my career path and also enable me to be more effective in my teaching practice in accelerating the progress of my students. 

In the past two years, I have been a Within School CoL teacher. My inquiry for these years were focussed in Reading. In my 2019 inquiry I focussed on deep diving into multimodal texts and teaching my students to have rich conversations/talanoa relating to the texts they were reading and emphasise their ability to carry meaning from texts into their social conversations. 

In 2020, I focussed on integrating my literacy programme by having my students in one literacy group where they were in the same reading and writing groups. Through this integration, we (the students and I) were able to use the reading materials to gather information and analyse features of different writing genres in preparation for writing. My 2020 inquiry also emphasised our use of the Manaiakalani Kaupapa of Learn, Create, Share. We started to be more critical in how we were blogging through the types of blog posts we were posting, how we were responding to each others' blogs and also sharing our learning with our wider audiences. 

Please feel free to visit my class blog and my class site.

Nga mihi 

Amy

Engaging my learners and whanau from home

What would lockdown teaching look like without digital technology? 

Tonnes of worksheets sent home

A book sent home for students to read

Phone calls to student homes to check if students are doing their work

Can't give feedback to student work because I can't see their work

Limited interactions with my students

NO THANKS!

What lockdown teaching and learning looks like for my class

We are on hangouts using Google Meet everyday. I am still doing group teaching with my students through our meets. My students enjoy working in their learning groups. I have observed they like the smaller group discussions and the time I spend with them in discussing learning. I have seen some students really engaged through our meets and learning online. 

Engaging whanau my students' learning 

While my students are learning from home, I thought this is great opportunity to have their whanau participate in their learning activities. Therefore, I launched our Whanau Challenge for this week while we are on lockdown. Also sourced a very kind sponsor Mr Tofa to sponsor the prizes for the Whanau Challenge. Am blessed with a very supportive husband who supports you in your effort to engage your learners in their learning. 

The Whanau Challenge is a hit with my students. A lot of them are participating and getting their families involved. This highlights the value of whanau involvement and support as well as being resilient regardless of the situations we are in. Auckland is in its forth lockdown and it is very important for me to keep my students' learning engaging and meaningful. 

Some challenges by my students 

 

I am really excited everyday to continue working with my students. I know it is the same for them too. How do I know? Attendance 21/24 attending the Google Meets. The amount of work I have emailed to me. The communication from my students asking for feedback on their tasks before they blog. The amount of blog posts coming through. All these would not be possible without digital technology and also the kaupapa of Manaiakalani underpinning our digital learning. 

Teaching in Covid Times

Once again we have received the update Auckland is going into Alert Level 3. I remember last year when the first lockdown was announced. We had a day to prepare ourselves for the lockdown. I felt unsettled anxious of what learning was going to look like for my students. 

Fast forward to 2021. Saturday night I was in my kitchen cooking dinner for my parents when my bishop called me to put an announcement out to the female group I lead at church. "For what bishop?" was my reply. "The Prime Minister has just announced we are going back to Alert Level 3 at 6 am tomorrow". After I hung up, I put out an announcement to the group that there will be no church service. 

Then I got another call from our DP that our staff are going to school on Sunday morning to give out devices for students with no devices at home. I promptly replied I will be there and made a few more calls to inform my church group of having no service. 

Did I feel anxious? Not really. I am confident my students will continue their learning. I know exactly how many students I need to give devices to and what to do in setting up my class hangouts. If more than anything, Covid and the changes in Alert Levels are teaching me about the ability we have in being flexible and adaptable. I have also seen this with my students. Where last year, my students spent some time to get used to being on lockdown and getting back into school routine when they returned, this time I see the students get right back into school routines when they return on the first day. 

How we as teachers react to situations influences how students cope with the changes. In my classroom practice, I ensure the students know our classroom is a safe space physically and emotionally. This is achieved by ensuring the students understand that life can change unexpectedly but we have to cope with changes. We also have to look out for one another. The saying 'The show must go on' is often how I view our return to school after lockdowns. 

My observations of my students is that they appreciate returning to school and classroom routines. Being able to greet your teacher as you walk in and answering some questions she has for you to start a conversation, sharing your latest game hack with your friends, learning in small groups, sharing your ideas and strategies with your friend next to you, having a laugh with your mates in the class over something you find amusing, playing outside...MAKING MEMORIES AS A KID. If you are a teacher reading this post 'Does this just highlight how valuable your role is in the lives of your tamariki?'. 

Back to Hangouts

My Home Learning page has been set up. I have put a screencast of myself talking to the students about what is happening this week starting off with hangouts tomorrow morning at 9 am. The screencast serves a few purposes:

1. My students can see me visually and hear me (hopes of bringing back the security of being in the classroom with their classroom teacher). I am still here.

2. I have been pushing SISOMO with my students. Instead of sending them a long email explaining what is happening, at a click, they can see and hear me explaining.

3. The screencasts are a great memoir for my teaching career. I often look back to the screencasts I made last year and reflect on how far I have come with the teaching from home, also good to see myself a year ago and now as I have been on a healthy living lifestyle change. 

Some tips for Hangouts

Test out your Hangout link ahead of time. Have someone try the hangout with you. Today I tested with a colleague who needed some assistance in setting up her hangout space. Good for mic check and camera check. Can you imagine your students looking at you while you're talking and they can't hear a thing? DISASTER! 

Ensure you have on your Home Learning page the times you will be on hangouts. Make it visible. Help the students by ensuring information are visible and its not in a maze where they have to scroll up and down to find what they need. 

Look presentable. Important because you will have to record your hangouts with the students. Very important you record your hangouts for your safety as well as the safety of your students online. You know how every teacher has a student who acts as their secretary? That student who thrives on reminding you about things or telling you about what everyone else in the class is up to? I usually assign this student to remind me to record in case I forget. 

Teaching from home doesn't mean you are doing half your job. With myself, I find teaching from home requires so much more effort from me in ensuring all my students are on hangouts and doing their work from home. It does take up a lot of energy. Therefore, ensure you look after yourself. Get a break during your day, go outside for some fresh air, exercise, be happy and be positive. Remember how you react to situations will influence how your students feel. You set the vibe :).