Thursday, 28 September 2017

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.

Monday, 25 September 2017

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.








Thursday, 21 September 2017

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!!


Wednesday, 20 September 2017

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.



Monday, 18 September 2017

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.

Wednesday, 13 September 2017

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.

Friday, 8 September 2017

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. 


Thursday, 7 September 2017

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 15th 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 6th 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. 








Tuesday, 5 September 2017

Cyber Bullying Workshop

Constable Pete came to discuss cyber bullying with year 10's a couple weeks ago. The school felt it was incredibly worthwhile and arranged to have Constable Pete return to do the same workshop with the Year 9's. This occurred during period two when I have 9G for English.

Actual paedophilia case here.This case was used as an example of accepting random requests.

Ways to check out random friend requests:
- Google search their name
- Google image search their pics
- Check how many posts/images they have on their profile (limited and they are probably fake).
- Check if they have other social media accounts.

Examples of Cyberbullying
- calling people names online
- posting pics/information without your consent.
- Making mean comments on other's posts/pics.
- Threats or harrassment.
- Rumours spread online
- Catfishing
- Telling someone to harm themselves online

The definition: Online bullying (also known as cyber bullying) uses technology to transfer,

Students were shown a video of an English teenager experiencing bullying at school, in and out of class time. He was made fun of by his peers and then they started to harass him through text. He didn't talk to his parents about it and the bullying continued. He received verbal threats through phone calls and texts, as well as bullying on social media chat groups. A page was then set up by his peers to bully him through nasty messages and pictures. Had 'loser' chanted at him on the school bus. He was clearly distressed and made a video about his experiences - his mum saw this video and action was taken. Police visited the school, he received counselling. 

Questions they were then asked:
- Why do you think Joe was bullied to begin with?
- Should Joe have deleted the texts he received? 
- After Joe blocked *** what should he have done? 
- Who can you go to to talk about bullying issues?
- What effects did the bullying have on Joe?
- What is a bystander? Can they make things better?
- What could Rob have done to stop the bullying once it begun?
- What eventually stops the bullying?
- Why did the police turn up at the school?

Generated some really good discussion about the reasons why people are bullied, why you should keep evidence of bullying, feelings of suicide, 

Everything you do online leaves a digital footprint - police can get a 'production order' to retrieve any evidence they may need. 

Constable Pete discussed the times he has attended suicides - the reality of bullying.

"Your next message that you send someone could tip them over the edge."

A bystander is someone who is witness to bullying and does nothing about it. 

Harmful Digital Communications Act - It is illegal to send messages to post material on line that deliberately or intentionally cause harm or serious emotional distress to any person. The penalty can be up to 2 years jail.

netsafe.org.nz is a place you can go to if you are concerned about cyber bullying.

"Think twice before you post because it can affect your future."

If you notice nasty comments on someone's posts/pics ask one question - "Are you O.K?"

Facebook sharing settings:
- The world symbol means it is accessible by the world - i.e. public
- friend settings - which friends can see the post/pics