Tiaki-James Pokere - Reflection, thoughts, inquiry, collaboration and more

Weekly Reflection T2 Week 6 Date: 25th May - 29th May Goal for coming week Continue making  anecdotal  notes Start GLOSS Testing on all students  Re-familiarise self of key knowledge and ideas for measurement   Professional Development Attended Algebra Workshop 2 iPad Traning (Manukorihi Int) As the term slowly approaches the end, it makes me wonder where all this time has gone. I believe a lot of rich and quality learning has taken place in the classroom. I have found that the majority of the students have really engaged in the mathematic learning. I believe this is evident due to the discussions had, solving of problems and the maths lesson going overtime.  The current Narrative writing unit is working really well. All students are showing great interest to write their own narrative and in that are producing quality writing pieces accordingly to their current needs.  The current reading programme is also showing high engagement. T...

Weekly Reflection  Term 2 Week 5 Goals for coming week Ensure PRT blog is up to date.  Organise reading exercise for students assessed as stanine four (Work on inferencing). Organise maths for whole class, using PAT data.  Make comments on where students are at (maths, reading, writing).  Professional Development Attended: Te Wananga o Aotearoa (Te Ara Reo Lvl 2) iPad Training (Manukorihi Int) Algebra Maths Workshop (Te Toi Tupu)  This week was the first week using the PAT comprehension data. Through this data, I identified students who were assessed as being at stanine 4. After identifying these students, I then identified appropriate an appropriate activity, which would challenge them to think critically about a type of text. I first started off by observing my mentor teacher who is also carrying this out. This gave me an insight as to how I can run this learning programme with my 5 children.  Using the PAT data for mathematics is wor...

Algebra Workshop 21st May 2015 Algebra Workshop 1 These workshops see other teaching staff from schools within the Waitara Teaching Region where we all come together to collaborate and learn from one another. This first workshop had all teachers thinking critically about the Algebra Levels within the NZC document and what an algebaric activity may look like at each level. It was quite interesting engaging in a professional development task like this, because some activities shown made some question whether the chosen activity was at the right (appropriate) level, or whether it should be a lower/higher level. Overall, this first workshop was very informative and made me think about what I should be teaching at year 7&8 if the individual is at that level in regards to the NZC.  This image shows what each learner should be learning at the end of each level. This image shows what we as group knew about Algebra.

E-Learning PLD E-Learning PLD Each, Wednesday one of our school staff members guides staff on how to use iPads and the apps currently on there, so that we as educators can implement and use these apps or programmes within the learning environment. This week we were guided step by step, how to use the application NGA (National Gallery of Art). This application allows students to create their own setting. Once the setting has been created, students then save their image, and import this into "explain everything". Students then have the opportunity to record their creative story on the setting they have created.

Weekly Reflection T2 WK 4 Date: 11th - 15th May 2014 Goals for the coming week  Organise learning content for students using PAT Data Update classroom website All running records on well-below students are completed, and it was great to see some students making progress from the testing which took place at the start of term 1.  This week has been short, due to officially graduating as teacher in Palmerston North on Wednesday 13th May 2015. This was a spectacular day and was happy to have my when by my side to celebrate this day.  ETP (Effective Teaching Partners) This week I have observed Janeen to look at how she uses the PAT Maths Data to support her students knowledge and comprehension strategies when reading a text. Last week was the last observation by Janeen using the PAT Maths Data to consolidate students learning and knowledge around a particular strand in Mathematics. I will continue it use the PAT maths data once a week to support where th...

6th May 2015 This week, we used the programme explain everything. This programme can be useful for modelling, especially maths by getting students to model their answers. This can also be effective for the teacher to also model the answers given. There is also the opportunity for the students to record themselves explaining the strategy used.

Maths PLD 4th May (Measurement) This maths workshop looked at measurement. As a staff we explored and analysed the measurement strand of the NZC. The importance of this was to identify activities suited to each level from levels 1 - 4, and where students are expected to be by the end of year 7 and 8. As a realisation, we know that there will be students who are below or well below these year levels. As apart of this workshop we discussed the importance of OTJ's and linking these to "National Standards". The importance of assessing each student in accordance to NS means that the next class/school the student goes to is able to identify the year level the child is at, instead of either being identified as well below, below, at, above, or well above. These two images shows staff engaging in a measurement activity making predictions on which shape is larger. We then used objects, and measurements to decide on which was larger/smaller. This image sho...

4th May 2015 Algebra Workshop 2 This was a great workshop, following on from workshop 1. The key idea of this workshop was identifying what an equation and expression was and meant. We know that an equation is about either side balancing equally.  For example: 36 = 30+6 An expression  is a mathematical phrase that can contain ordinary numbers, variables (like x or y) and operators (like add,subtract,multiply, and divide). An expression does not include the equals sign. Example of algebraic expressions: x+8 (A number plus 8) x-4 (Four less than a number) Throughout this work shop we looked at different activities and aligning these with the New Zealand Curriculum. Below you will see images of the activities that we as professionals have taken part in relating to the different NZC Levels. Notes taken from workshop. Showing what is expected for lvl 2 compared to lvl 3 This is a level 2 activity where students are looking for patterns, how the patterns wor...

Weekly Reflection T2  Wk 2 Date: 27th April - 1st May  Goals for the coming week Continue with running records on well below  Complete Unit plan, group reading (short stories)  Have blogger for PRT organised Organise mathematical activities using PAT data   Professional Development Attended  Te Wananga o Aotearoa  iPad Training with Zoe (Using Google Drive)  I am disappointed that I haven't started my running records on my well below students. I plan to start this on Monday during my CRT time.   I am impressed with the feedback given from some parents in regards to the classroom website, they see this as a great asset to inform them (the parents) about the learning activities and opportunities their child will/have be involved in.  The continuous professional development at Te Wananga o Aotearoa has been a great tool for me. Not only is it growing my knowledge around things Māori, but I am learning new activities ...