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.