Inquiry

My inquiry was to help my students understand that completing work can be satisfying.

I chose 5 students.

Some ideas I used to were to shorten tasks, make the tasks repetitive so the students know what to do and can be independent and feel a sense of accomplishment.

I also had class koreros which mostly revolve around completing learning.

We finish what we start

I concentrate on my mahi to finish on time.

Writing tasks had a time set on them. If they didn't finish, they finished at lunch time. I found this worked for a while. Students who attended regularly have finished, however, the revolving door of the same students away still have unfinished work.

My students I chose were often away bar one who went to the class next door for literacy. The other four need high teacher input to succeed. I was conscious I needed to give all the students a fair portion of my time as many needed the same help as 4/5 of the students. Many of my whole class as with most of my chosen students did not attend learning on line in the last 2 years either.

Part of me feels that I could have done better with the whole year rather than 3 terms. I know it is what it is. Overall, I feel the class as a whole is succeeding and making progress with work completion as their ability to focus has improved somewhat. I notice that as they complete on "finish it off properly" times, and they get 2 done a day they feel satisfaction.

Tohatoha Share Staff Meeting

 I learnt that we all have the same problems and concerns around the country and that covid has had a big affect on our learners with gaps, and emotional problems. Here are some suggestions from this discussions. I thought some of the ideas dovetailed nicely into Mitey.

Maniakalani Create PD

 First I went to a workshop called Animated Literacy with Google Slides with Naomi Toland.

Naomi encouraged out to use animations for storytelling and writing. I thought she had some really great ideas to take away. Unfortunately, I have not been able to put any of this into practise. 

The next workshop was Hannah and taking photos. This linked with her work with my students in Term One. I thought it would be good to borrow the cameras another time to extend their artwork in this area especially with looking at closing in on an object. I had a play with the chairs in the classroom.

More Cybersmart

 I would often do the same task as my students so that I knew what to do in the future.

With favourite places in Glen Innes, I changed it to favourite places in my hometown.

Cybersmart with Matt Goodwin

 This year I have been very fortunate to have Matt run the Cybersmart learning in my class and for me to learn what I need to teach my students. 

I have learnt much about using lines and shapes to draw.

This below was about using google draw and to insert pictures. I am much more aware of arranging and grouping. 

 

This was animating in google slides.

I now use google draw quite a bit in my create tasks. 

More recently the class has been learning about making comments. It was good for me to see this as I didn't realise there was a process. I now need to begin commenting on my students blog as I grow more confident with planning and creating tasks for students in line with Pt England policy.

Mitey Cont:

Continuing the pd, we have had revision of the 4 pillars, and covering more of the role playing. I have struggled with the role play and hope in Term 4 to do more.

Some important things to remember :

Teachers can expect = draw on skills of children, what they known, strategies they employ, role models - who  - what they bring matters, can be quite resilient, can do lots of watching, 

All can be enhanced

Mitey is about mana - develop it naturally and bestow purposefully

As we were learning to use the Mitey Curriculum and we started with level one, my team started to adapt the activities to suit the age level of our year 3 and 4s.

This is an activity I made:

Mitey

 At the end of Term One, we began our Mitey PD. Mitey is the mental health curriculum aligned with NZC run by the Sir John Kirwen Foundation. It takes 3 years to embed in a school. The purpose is to teach mental health for students and staff.

This day grounded us in the 4 pillars, and how mental health needs to be sustainable in people so we can cope in all situations. This is very important for us all.

For me the most important take away is We are mentally healthy when ......

Some good phrases from the day were:

Building the mightiest kids in the world.

People don’t remember what you say, they remember how you feel

Mana is situational

Mental health is Hauora