Full Registration

Notice of full registration today, so stoked!!! 

Ngaruawahia Day, 2017

I'm really looking forward to this day next week. I've been talking to students about the activities they can participate in. Some are excited about a day to chill with friends before school ends and some are out right not coming to Ngaruawahia or school! It's a real shame. As a staff we are expected to sign up to help out at two activities. I've signed up to help out first at the Flying Fox and then the Kayaks/Paddle Boats. 

Update 10/12/2017
Ngaruawahia day was loads of fun. We had to be signed off by Camp Staff to be able to safely operate the Flying Fox. Students had to wear a harness and have a couple of carabiners attached. Once they'd swooped from one side of the lake to the other, we had to unhook the carabiners and lift the flying fox off the line. Students would then take this all back up and around to the start. A number of students enjoyed a brief dip in the water at the end of the flying fox! 
Kayaks/Paddle Boats were brilliant. I bet those kids had a great sleep that night!

Staff Meeting - 2018 Reviewing and Planning

AKU/RCR

Key dates for Term one, 2018 

What is Learning Advisory going to be called?

Themes will be chosen for each term.

Attendance is an issue - LA time is to build relationships and mentor students to encourage attendance.

Note:

1. Time has been extended to 30 mins

2. A curriculum will be developed as a guideline.

Connectiveness will more than likely be the Term one theme.

Curriculum innovations will be reviewed in Term two. What do we as a staff value?

SAT

Tool kits developed for all themes. These can be implemented in a range of different ways, depending on the teaching team and their strengths etc. 

Capabilities = key concepts

TED Talk: There's more to life than being happy:

- The idea that it's success, money, material things that make people happy.

- That chasing happiness can make people unhappy.

- More people feel helpless, depressed and alone in this day and age.

- A lack of having meaning in life.

- Is there more to life than being happy - (feeling good in the moment).

- Seeking meaning.

Four pillars of a meaningful life:

- Belonging - being in relationships where you are valued for who you are. Certain acts devalue others.

- Purpose - finding your purpose; using your strength to serve others; less about what you want and not what you give.

- Transcendence - connectedness to a higher being/experience.

- Storytelling - the story you tell yourself about yourself; we are the author's of our stories. Find the good that sustains you.

2018 Learning Advisory

- Should it be first thing in the morning rather than between first and second period?

- Having it first can help set the scene for the day.

- Are LA teacher's the first point of contact home, as opposed to Dean's, when following up pastoral needs?

- What will it be called?

- How will this affect attendance?

- Will the shift in content be applicable to students?

- Will the review need to take place earlier - in term one in order to address staff/student requirements?
-Timing of reviews - should be done at the end of each term.

Report Writing, Term 4

Report  writing for term four, has been exhausting! I had to complete report for four Junior classes: 9TET; 10TET; 9FOT; 9ENG - with a total of 72 students. I started on the Textile's reports, chipping away at them from about the second of November.

Textile's and Food Tech were completed and handed to AFI for editing on November, 24th. 

By Friday, I had four English reports to complete and they were done by the end of the school day on the following Monday. I found these ones the most challenging to write. There are a huge range of levels in this class and low attendance - which means tasks are often incomplete. Thank goodness KMAR is available through remote connection!

Co-construction Meeting - Term 4, November

This was our last co-construction meeting for the year. I was really impressed to see more of what the other Technology teachers at FFC teach/make in their classes. Sharing ideas, discussing learners, challenges, highlights and future ideas.

BCH – China trip was the highlight. Challenges were home sickness and tricky connections with home-stay families. The group were worried about the performances they had prepared because some students weren’t taking it seriously – this did resolve itself when they were in China and students were proud of themselves. BCH made a school banner to take with them to the various schools and places they visited. Students had the best opportunities to be immersed in the Chinese culture at the schools.
BCH uses songs to teach the junior students rather than having to repeat phrases over and over.

GSN – Year 9’s have been working on small cars, learning to use the lathe and other machinery. Year 10’s have been making metal garden tools and used torches to weld and anvils to flatten. In graphics they have been doing concept development of ways to present their names as a 3D model. These are then printed out by a 3D printer.

MSA – Basic electronic circuits etc. to be able to program a robot. The robot has a task it has to complete. They are given codes and sensors to modify. The students really like this task because they enjoy the final product.

SSC – Building websites using a range of apps. The difficult part is getting them to write in their blogs using complete sentences and detail. Some have created very basic blogs with images. Geoguessr – a great game to entertain students and educate them without them realising.

SKE – Year 10’s have finished composition – writing lyrics and composing the music themselves. Some will be performing at the junior prize giving. Lyrics are written first because that’s the hardest task. Some students collaborate. Two assessments are done, a song and a performance. Loads of challenges but the end result is always amazing.

JWA – Uses Code Combat to introduce students to coding – always looking for tools to teach coding. Gamification – adding elements of games into learning. Lots of choices to make in terms of characters and solving puzzles, codes are used to solve the puzzles. Differentiates with learning – students can go back and finish previous tasks or develop them. A graphics tablet has been brought to

KRO – Has previous students presenting at an exhibition for their art degrees. Students work through portfolios learning about colours and perspective. Juniors are scaffolded to be able to develop the knowledge and skills to do NCEA art.

RTE – Creating a large wooden box with a sliding lid. Carbon paper to decorate, etched designs and then sanded and varnished.

JWR – Food Tech has a healthy eating focus for Year 10’s – hauora and food groups. Students create posters to display their knowledge of the four food groups. Students move on to design a weekly eating plan that meets the needs of daily requirements. 

Staff Meeting - Professional Learning - Learning Advisory 2018

1:15 - 2:15

SAT began with an introduction about the group process we are about to engage in. 'Crafting the Paddles'.

We are going into groups to plan for Learning Advisories for 2018. Each group is focusing on a particular aspect of the school culture (swimming sports/athletics/sing off/mountains etc. Each one will have a theme and concepts that are important to the school.

Group: Visit our Mountain

Members: RCR, DSU, BTU, S

Brainstorm Activities (connectedness)

Visit the mountain - Year 9 (by the end of week 3/4)

Prep for mountain visit - link to other group tool kit

Outdoor experiences - 

Appreciation and connection with the Maunga

Links to literacy; science: biodiversity/sustainability; math. 

Kahoot quiz 

Whaanau banner comp incorporating what ākonga have learnt

Challenges

Cost of travel

Possibly incorporate into Stars instead of camp - camp objectives retained?

Leadership opportunities for the senior students who are not involved with Stars

Boundaries in Place

Boundaries are now in place for the remainder of the year. This is to minimise the space that the juniors are allowed to be in since the seniors are on study leave. The hall is a complete no go zone as this is where the majority of exams take place. We have been asked to go over these boundaries, and the fact that there will be no bells to signify the end of lunch 1 and 2, with our Whaanau groups.
We were told this morning to encourage/support students that are organising games on the field :-)

I have printed off copies of the boundary 'zones' and highlighted the area bordered by red. These are now taped to the windows on wither side of C4 with the message - If you are reading this during lunch 1 & 2 you are out of bounds. Hopefully these will help somewhat.

Staff Meeting Week 3

3:30 - 4:15

Lynn, Roger, and Vic (Chairperson) discussing the Fairfield Project.

Known as the Bankwood gully, this project started with the idea that the people of the community wanted to save/restore the area to use for environmental education and community. The trust have six guiding principles. Educational/contemplation spaces will be set up. Concepts of the educational center have been drawn. Significant funding has been given by the Bryant trust and the Hamilton City Council as well as the Waikato River Cleanup.

Community Garden Aims

- connections to the curriculum

- connections to the community

- community connections to the land

Gully restoration has begun with 1000 trees already planted by the year 9's; kumara, potato and other vegetables have been planted by the community; Waikato Dio have also started planting in their part. The Tongan community have planted kumara.

Kukutaruhe is the Gully guardian; giant Kukuhu live and breed down there. 

Benefits for the school include a significant point of difference to other schools; student learning opportunities; new pathways to tertiary education and employment; access to significant to new funding; community engagement; restore and preserve the College environment; provide a legacy for future generations.

Think-Pair-Share

Staff were asked to think/pair/share ideas about the use of the FFP for staff/students and the community.

In terms of Textiles - I would like to see flax and lavender planted to use for sustainability projects

4:15 - 4:30

Learning Advisory - SAT

PD3 will be aimed at informing staff of what LA 2018 will entail. 

Reading from The Little Prince - pp (the long winded approach!)

"It is my responsibility to fill my kete with things that will help me, and to share the things in my kete that  will help others. Together we can make the world a better place."

Virtues and what they may be in 2018 - Goodness; kindness; 

Designing booklets for senior and junior students to use. Will they be differentiated? projects: murals; paintings; sculptures; flags; books; fables; vamping up the library.

Reflection on learning and moral development.

Break into small groups to discuss and design the booklet to use as a resource for Learning Advisory. Trying to build relationships through responsibility and consideration to the individual.

Mountain spirit: Must used connectedness to maunga to make the advisory count.

Administrative 'things' need to be covered - could be in the booklet so it's like a manual.
Week 5 on Tuesday school will finish early for the next PD session.

4:30 - 4:45
Timetable - RCR
School will start at 9am for students - it is believed that this will be better for students.
Staff briefing will be 8:35-8:50 - 10 mins time will be given for lesson prep. 
Learning Advisory will be counted as contact. Because of the rotating assembly times we may be asked to step into other roles.

End of Term Preparation

Preparing our classrooms for the end of term - in  reference to Ross's specifications! There isn't much on the list that we don't already do in the Textiles room. The only difference is that I will need to organise students to help me with the rubbish bins.

I generally open C4 on Thursday/Friday lunch 1 & 2 for Textiles students to come and work on tasks or familiar/trustworthy students to come and hang out in a safe place. Lunch two on Friday will come with the condition that they help to tidy the room :-)

I'm sure this won't be a problem as the students that usually come in are reliable and cooperative.

Senior Report Comments

Senior report comments are due again this Wednesday. Thank goodness I only have one senior class!

We have a great collaborative system in our office. Julie printed off her completed report comments for me to look over/edit, as well as to inspire me to complete mine. This editing needs to be done before it gets sent to AFI for final submission.

Below are JWR's report comments that I had the pleasure of editing this afternoon (double-sided).

I've completed all of mine and will be printing these off tomorrow for JWR or SHA to edit.

Attendance

Attendance is recorded through KMAR, which is the app the school also uses for reporting, pastoral records, weekly events, student's birthdays and to book rooms.

At the end of term we are asked to check rolls that we may not have submitted - they show up pink.

I had to resubmit a couple of rolls for 9ENG from the end of August. This is an easy task if you have already filled in the roll and only need to click the finish tab. However, it isn't so easy if you haven't marked anyone present/away etc. I've had to go back through records from term 1 and two when this has happened. Thank goodness for Julie asking that I keep a record of 10FOT on paper for her. This was easy enough to resubmit correctly. 

Below are some examples from term 1, 2 and 3. The pink ones are rolls I have not submitted correctly - however, because I can no longer access these records to rectify. I have spoken to CBE about this.

Textile's at Lunch Time

Quite often I open the Textile's room at lunch one and two on Thursday's and Fridays for students to continue working on tasks. This week I have had both year 9 and 10 students working through their lunch times - screen printing and sewing.

I enjoy this time with students, as I can often have really great chats about their tasks and what they are finding challenging. I encourage a growth mindset in the Textiles room. Sometimes tasks are really challenging, but a positive attitude will see you through. I encourage students to learn from their mistakes and to persevere. The tua-kana-teina approach works really well in this class. I believe it is not only beneficial for the students to share their knowledge and skills with one another, but to also be able to rely on their peers/classmates to guide them - often I am busy helping out and can't get to everyone in a timely manner. 

I have found as each term progresses, the more positive relationships I have built with students, and the more I learn about myself as a teacher, I love this job even more!!

Teacher's Only Day - Faculty Meeting

Working on year 11 assessment standards for 2018. Remembering that there is a 10 credit/2 standards limit.

Discussed with Aimee the benefit of including an AS that contains Literacy credits and the potential for all Y11 students to be successful. Aimee suggested I offer another assessment standard that allows the lower level learners to also achieve success.

By the end of this work day I will have set the level one assessment standards for 2018 and have a basic outline of a yearly planner. 

This was discussed with AFI and has been sent through email to then be shown at the next HOF meeting

Professional Learning - Teacher's Only Day

 Began at 7:04 with RCR's email - A form for us to fill in about NCEA Level One. We now have to choose a total of 10 credits to offer or two assessment standards. I'm not the biggest fan of this change as I feel that this is not really preparing the students for level two and three. But, I guess that's where my classroom programme comes into it - I will have to come up with a range of tasks that prepare them to complete the assessment standards as independently as possible.

Staff Briefing: RCR                           8:30am

Reminder about COL meeting -4pm at Rototuna High
Reminder last period Friday – plan for it to be finished around 2:45. CATCUS could potentially be pulling a fire truck from Bankwood Primary to FFC and staff and students go out to support.
An unveiling of the grove of trees and a memorial rock at the Marae – foundation students will be present.
NCEA Level 1, planning for 2018 – HOFs will report back to RCR using the word doc he sent this morning. Two standards or no more than ten credits will be provided
High Wire Trust: National Certificate in Services will be offering different credits.
End of term morning tea in the staff room lunch 2 alongside foundation students.

SAT                          

Pin board in the staffroom is intended to be interactive

$1000 Budget for Learning Advisory – we need to come up with something iconic to have an impact on the school.

Proposal to have Learning Advisory Budget’ for individual teachers.

Song: An orchestra flash mob – some of the audience (a choir) joined in with the lyrics. The point of showing us this is to inspire!

Based on last PL ideas: Lifelong learners – connected contributors to community.

Leadership for an Age of Wisdom – Branson

We still need to define the meaning of the flower symbols on our logo.

In search of Alignment – todays focus.

RCR – purpose and focus – Learning Advisory Groups 2018   8:55 – 9:30

We will have a clear understanding of what Learning Advisory will look like in 2018. They will remain vertical!

Cyclic Model – Noticing (attendance); investigating; collaborative sense making; prioritising to take action; monitoring impact…

Purpose of Learning Advisory:

-     To provide a caring environment for academic and pastoral mentoring and guidance

-     Each student following a purposeful and meaningful pathway.

-     Changing the framework to make this more achievable.

Difference from current whaanau structure

-     This is included in our teaching time.

-     1200 minutes is the most a non -unit holding teacher can teach.

-     Current whaanau teachers do 4 20min slots that are not counted as teaching.

-     Class sizes of 14-18 (24 is the current average)

-     A focus on coaching, guiding, and mentoring (Thematic curriculum of learning)

-     Requirements to follow as issues arose

-     Further promote the mountain spirit of FFC

-     A formal acknowledgement of your role as a teacher.

“The idea is to make the present situation as Whaanau teacher more achievable and realistic.”

The vertical structure is important to the school culture

Each table group was asked to fill in the ideas for the third column - How Could this Improve our capacity to engage our core – business – performance indicators?

-     including teacher time 90-120 mins

-     class sizes of 14-18

-     focus on coaching and guiding etc

-     thematic curriculum

-     Further promote the mountain spirit.

JHE Connections

Began with a baby photo activity – collaborated with BTU and Bei. 9/10

Mountains are a big part of the inter-connectedness of FFC.

Moving into our Mountain groups – maintain and fostering the mountain spirit

-     Could possible combine 2 learning advisory groups to cater for inter-mountain competitions.

-     Different activities bring in a diverse range of students.

-     Put your own flavour on your programme.

Maungatautari – completing a worksheet/questionnaire about mountain affiliation, learning advisory groups…

SAT                                                  10:00 – 10:45

Themes and tasks organised into groups – collaboration with BTU; SRA; AMC; AHOU; BWA; JHE; MTR. Saved on an excel spreadsheet to be collated by SSC

Sub calendar of the main school calendar with focus themes for Learning Advisory.

Senior Progress Reports

Senior progress reports are due next week. Thank goodness I only have one senior class!! It's another story for my Junior classes though :-/

AKU has sent out out some helpful pointers to complete these reports.

Inter-mountain Netball Week 8

Inter-mountain netball!!! I've been looking forward to this week since I heard they run this, and I haven't been disappointed. Competition between mountains is fierce and so far Maungatautari have done well - beating Pirongia by 1 point and drawing against Karioi 14 all.

I've helped to umpire - and taken it way too easy on them! As the games have progressed (I've tried my hardest to be at every game during breaks), the student umpires have definitely been tougher than Vikki and I.
JHE (main organiser) had to head away to a family emergency and asked me to help support the running of the game in lunch 2. There wasn't that much I had to do as the organisation is great. Sport's coordinators and students are fantastic at getting teams sorted and getting on the court in time. I had the privilege of time keeping.

Looking forward to today's game against Kakepuku. 

Mountain leaders - SMA and CWI - have asked me to step in today because they are away. The students are fantastic at organising themselves, so it won't be a problem.

Relief Cover for JMC

Having to cover another teacher's class pops up on a weekly basis - as I am 1 hour under. This morning I received a msg from a colleague. She was going through a crisis and asked if I could set her relief for period 5. This was not an issue at all because it was her Year 9 Food Tech class and we have been collaborating on planning. I will be talking her FNU100 class period three today. This is a class with some interesting characters. I'm not quite sure what they are working on, but I will be able to discuss this with them and support them with the tasks as best I can.

Quick Writes - 9G English

I introduced the students of 9G to the idea of Quick Writes (this was something I used in previous classes at BNMS). A quick write is designed to get students writing. They are provided with a picture/word/sentence prompt and given 5-8 minutes time to write. The prompt is unpacked/discussed at the very beginning.

9G took to this form of writing quite quickly. They mostly enjoy humorous/adventurous picture prompts. The time limit set is usually from 5-8 minutes. I judge whether they are in the right 'head space' as to whether or not they get a longer period of time to write. 

Before 9G had speeches, I brought in the new expectation that they had to read their work aloud to one person in the room. At times they are resistant to this! With VMA or JFE in the room to assist, they eventually follow through. Sometimes, a student is willing to read aloud to the whole class (this option is always presented, but hardly ever taken up), and this is usually the same student time after time. As in the first picture below, he likes to read his story's to me outside of the classroom - I am always happy to oblige students who want to read aloud to me outside the class room. 

This has become a regular task completed in Thursday's period 5 class

Next term, my goal is to introduce them to sentence/word prompts. 

Professional Learning - Subject Choices

Professional Learning Subject Choices

JRA

SSEP (Secondary Schools Employment Programme) programme: 10 different employers that FFC is linked with – Year 9s get to see math in the workplace.  They also have links also with Smart Waikato who links with a wide range of employers across the Waikato.

Defence Force bus will visit school for Y9 and 10 students to check out.

STAR – Secondary Tertiary Alignment Resource - Supporting students to explore their options for further education.

-      Funding is allocated based on student no.s (Year 11 and up)

-      Checking out Wintec courses for a day

-      Hands on practical skills

Gateway – Christine Cosgrove runs

-      Funding from the tertiary commission

-      Designed to strengthen pathways

-      Very few level three credits offered

-      Certain criteria needs to be met in order to be placed in the workplace

-      Gateway work placements are available to any Y12 and up student.

-      Students have to gain 20 credits on a work placement.

Wintec Trades Academy started about 6-7 Years ago. It has grown from 3 students (from FFC) to hundreds of students. Students end up being in a separate programme to the regular

Taratahi students are out one day a week

South Pacific Institute offers a beauty therapy and sports programme.

Vocational Pathways

-      Operates from Level 2

-      Awards are given for achieving a certain amount of credits

Senior Subject Choices Booklet for 2018

Students will be given this booklet tomorrow and given a fortnight to make their choices. Some selections are made for students, in terms of core subjects.

If students are thinking about going to university they need to think about whether their chosen subjects are university approved.

Friday 15^th Subject Choice Day – I will be available in the Library during Period 2 to discuss the senior TET course requirements and content

Year 12s and 13s do not have to take English unless they want to go to University!!!

University entrance does not require anything above level 1 maths!

Any questions – discuss with JRA

 

Professional Learning - 6th September

Professional Learning 6^th September

Intro by RCR, handed over to SAT: “Learning Advisory – apparently this name will not stick as the acronym is not …. “ Could potentially be LCT

DSU then took over and played Sam Cooke – What a Wonderful World as he handed out a task.

The point of this task was to think of something from the past that then gets recreated by personal perspective/experiences.

A song to do with autonomy:  was played whilst we continued with the second part of the task.

One task: un-jumble these two words sreplano mfllefltnui; which became personal growth.

“Setting up something we become comfortable with – when you have your last day of term: I need a holiday because I’m so frazzled to I’m looking forward to a holiday to spend time with my family etc. and recharge.” DSU, as quoted by SAT

LJA: Focusing in on “Our Artefacts” The iconography we use to display our values and school culture. Our task is to design a letterhead that expresses the values of FFC. Incorporate any or all of these phrases: I taku puranga hau; taku tuumanako (while I breathe, I hope); Dum Spiro, Spero.

What were some of the underlining assumptions you would put in a school letterhead: did you incorporate any of the languages? do you have an underlying value that places any of these languages above the other? Did you focus on a letterhead that displays what FFC is – images that represent maunga etc. How did you place these designs? what was the dominant item?

Reflection: I wanted to incorporate both Maaori and Latin quotes as well icons to do with the school – mountains/colours

An interesting Q was asked, if you won power ball tomorrow, what would you do? This relates to personal fulfilment and self-actualisation.

ARO: Focusing on Threads of Culture – consider our students; our classroom; and our school.

Values based system or pattern; relational existing within social interactions; culture is not static, but shaped by interactions and processes of the organisation

WRO: Values and principles or standards of behaviour, one’s judgement of what is important in life. They have major influence on a person’s behaviour and attitude and serves as broad guidelines in all situations.

I enjoyed the collaborative aspects of this professional learning session. I learnt a fair bit about some colleagues, both personal and  professional. Still non the wiser as to the the actual structure of 'Learning Advisory' 2018.