Weekly Log: Term 3 2016

DATE	DESCRIPTION/DURATION	ACTION
14/7	Exibition planning: Year 7s;  (9:00 – 1:00)	Contribute to collaborative planning; collect resources for students to experiment with.
18/7	Non-contact 10-4: Organising classroom resources/wall displays; began math/literacy planning	Threw away loads of ‘junk’ and orientated myelf with students books/classroom layout etc
19/7	Non-contact 11-4: Shared in on term overview and how to organise planning on google docs (shown by Rach VH); introduced to using Sites to create a class ‘blog’; using e-asTTle to create formative tests; Will be teaching Spanish during Teaming, found Spanish resources in LC (thanks Rach!)	Continue planning checking on Rachel’s planning and working collaboratively to complete. Begin planning for Spanish.
25/7	Team Meeting: Term 3 Curriculum overview and collaborative planning/teaching; UOI4 HWOO discussion (resources); duty expectations;	Continue planning & building connections with Room 9 and the Te Aroha Team
26/7	Staff Meeting 3:30: Waiata (E noho Tuheitia) practice; e-portfolio discussion (are students up to date/do they know how to add information?); Information evening (organisation/expectations); Prospectus 2017 (read through; specific focus on STEAM Y9 programme)	Discuss with Amelia what she would like me to do. Meghana’s name put forward to be a speaker; push forward the idea of students remaining as Y9s.
2/8	Staff Meeting Exhibition: Exhibition SUP Planner details; Y7 expectations and organisation of lessons/management; collaboration	Meet Monday Week 3; Contribute to Y7 planning
3/8	Lighthouse Meeting: Opportunities for Lighthouse Learners within school; LHL to reflect on their year so far; How are we meeting their needs in the classroom?; Gifted And Talented evening: learning about teaching GAT students	Continue to talk with Regan about LHL and learn strategies for deeper learning; give students opportunityt o reflect. Think about registering for  GAT evening
8/8	Information Evening catch up with Amelia: discussed how the room will look and what my role is, as well as costume ideas. Y7: Exhibition meeting with Ed, Sarah, & Duncan: collaboration of SUP planner and organisation of resources. Meet The Teacher, 3:20 with C Roach: Discussed the plans for the term, my expectations, & establishing a positive rapport with Adam. Tutor Teacher meeting: Information on Google Doc. Discussed release plan; students of concern; Room 9 homework	Amelia is on top of organisation, I just have to show up! Contributed minimally to plannig but, will step up my involvement by adding to planning and searching for more teachable resources. Feeling positive about connection with Adam and his mum. Plans on GD
9/8	Meet the Teacher: 7:20am with C. Pentecost Meet the Teacher, 11:30am with W Dong Exhibition meeting, 3:15	Refer C to ELC for help with reading comp. W Dong happy with her daughter’s achievement just asks that I challenge her as much as possible. Exhibition planning explained. Still need to add to SUP planner
10/8	Staff meeting: Information evening, Drama support:
12/8	Tutor teacher (Rachel van Hueven):: Students of concern; plan for release	TB on daily report; observation of analysing persuasive advertising during first half of release
15/8	Meet the Teacher: 3:30pm with R Wilson	Discussion about J’s needs and how she is currently going. Happy with teacher change-over
16/8	Staff Meeting e-portfolio: Student’s needs and how we can best teach understanding of e-portfolio.  Meeting with Justine (TB’s mum): Concerned about daily report and the reasons behind it.	Continue to collaborate
17/8	PCT with Wendy:  Gail Day; preparation; expectations; reading chapter 1-2 of ‘The Language of Influence in Teaching’ and providing feedback	Meet with Rach and plan for Gail Day
17/8	Tutor Teacher (Rachel van Hueven): Planning for Gail observations; discuss students of concern and how class is going;	Planning up to 3 lessons, for Gail day, aboout persuasive writing including an informal debate. Still concerned with some students behaviour that is negatively impacting the class
19/8	Market Day: Setting up stalls durng third block; handing out gloves for food safety; discussing table layout; cutting onions!/	Counting up each students cash box at the end of the day and entering amounts into a google spreadsheet. Using formulas to work out profit/loss
23/8	Staff Meeting: Gail Loane: Analysing writing samples; quick write (factual) with autumnal leaves as a prompt; shared writing with group and talked about how hard it was not to be emotive when writing factually, but can be descriptive;	Incorporating creative writing through quick writes into the classroom
25/8	Gail Observation: Block one (9-9:30); Finishing second lesson lesson of persuasive article/text. Recapped previous lesson, (which was interrupted by an opportunity to listen to a Food Technologist) and continued with moving students towards a debate in order to develop use of cause and effect statements and persuasive language.	Although extremely nervous I was quite happy with how the lessonwent. I have some really fabulous students
25/8	School Dance 6:30 – 9:40: Supported Rongo (canteen), to sell food and drinks to students from the musci room entrance. Support also from T Ahie, C Hogg, and C Donnelly. Took turns serving and popped into Whanau Hui (20mins) in the staffroom to show support. Spent the last 20mins dancing with students and then making sure students were picked up, and then helping to clean	Collaborated with other staff, connected with a range of students and started getting a sore throat!!
30/8	Staff Meeting:  Missed due to illness	Follow up with team members
31/8	Lighthouse Learners Meeting: Missed due to illness	Catch up with Beth Germaine
31/8	Tutor Teacher Meeting: Missed due to illness	Catch up with Rach vH
1/9	Staff Meeting: Began with Waiata E Noho To Hei Tia Te Reo Maaori; iPPit plan; Oral Choral; IRDPX	Will be adding more rich tasks when teaching Spanish and Te Reo Maaori, such as ping ponging and looping.
	Team meeting: Beth UOI discussion. How the UOI is taught in our classrooms (team); What summative tasks look like; how we as teachers give feedback/feedforward to students; managing the tasks in the time given	Provide explicit teacher feedback as often as possible; May be provided with a Stamp to manage feedback more effectively
6/9	Staff Meeting: PYP. Began with waiaita: E Noho To Hei Tia The inquiry cycle’s connections to the PYP; how we use the inquiry cycle at Berkley; the inquiry cycle is cross-curricular; expert group/home group strategy used; Misconceptions about inquiry cycles; form of inquiry cycles	Student led links to the inquiry cycle; including connectins to the inquiry cycle across the curriculum;
7/9	Tream Meeting: Pallet lesson reflection (verbal), uploading photos to shared folder. Arranging timetable and resources for UOI5 Pulley lesson & lessons for Week 8.
7/9	Tutor Teacher (Rachel van Hueven):  Filling in google doc: Areas to discuss; students to discuss; looking forward…
8/9	Report Writing Meeting: Expectations and requirements still the same as last year. Slight change in access to report blanks.	Begin in Holidays. Collect assessment marks from Etap, NZCER and e-asTTle
8/9	Communication with parent: Called CP’s dad to discuss repetative non-compliance in and outside of the classroom. Dad was happy with strategies that have been put in place. CP has been removed from class and supported in the ELC. Working towards making his way back into room 9	Ongoing communication with Judy in the Elc to see how CP is going. Open communication with dad. Will be in touch about progress by 16/9
13/9	Team Meeting: PLR (Priorty Learning Registar), filling in math WALTs for target students and their progress with knowledge development. Target students identified and records of progress up to date	Continue to monitor and support identified PLR students.
13/9	Staff Meeting PYP: Continued review of inquiry cycle; initial group discussions revisiting misconceptions; small group work looking at a range of other inquiry cycles and choosing elements that may suit a change to the current BNMS interpretation.	Continue to deliver learning through the use of inquiry cycle, but iencourage student owenership through discussion and choices of connections. Doesn’t have to be so prescribed (linear)
15/9	Team Meeting, e-asTTle moderation: Two examples of students work from Room 9 was moderated alongside Pip. Annotating and deliberating their level. Chosen levels had to be justified using the exemplars and e-asTTle marking rubric.	Have marked 6. Need to continue marking and have faith that I am on the right track. Quite enjoying marking this persuasive piece!
22/9	Parent Meeting:  Regan support. Meeting JH’s Father to discuss behaviour and self-management. Father was very open and reciprocal. Discussed strategies to work towards better self-management, and attitudes/responses towards learning/peers	JH to do any form of writing on laptop and create Agenda doc each week to share with parents and myself. Discussed safe space to use when feeling frustrated/angry; Father fully supportive, Mother no-show.

Staff Meeting - PYP/Exhibition - 18/10

Staff Meeting - PYP/Exhibition - 3:30 - 4:30

           

Berkley Exhibition 2016 Logistics

Date and Times	Thursday 20 October 2:00pm to 2:30pm  School viewing (ref. notes below) 5:30 to 6:30pm Community viewing
Locations	Aranui + Art Exhibition = Rec Centre (Teaming to be outside or in the CC that day). Mahi Tahi = ELC + Learning Centre (Please check with Penny and Judy regarding access to these spaces on the day). Te Aroha = Room 7, 8, 9 + 8A
Questions/Prompts	Prompts for teachers Tell me about the problem you chose. Tell me about your lines of inquiry. What was the process that you went through? What is the most important idea that you have learnt from your inquiry? How do you know that? Has your thinking changed? If so, how? Is there more than one viewpoint about your issue? What did you learn from other students in your team? What do you think might happen with your issue in the future? What would you like to see changed? How have you recorded or sorted your information? How does this learning connect with other subjects, topics or issues? Can you suggest a solution? Prompts for the community Tell me about the problem you chose. What have you enjoyed the most about the exhibition process? What have you found the most challenging? What skills have you had to demonstrate to be successful? What type of ‘action’ has come from your inquiry? What would you like us to do/know?
Tokens	What would be the purpose of this? What are the benefits?  What are the possible constraints?   Do we want to go ahead with this idea? Decision was no.
Year 7 hosts + Pamphlet	Year 7 hosts = Sarah A Exhibition Pamphlet = Beth
After school Facilities activities (Alli Fairey/Jamie)	Afterschool Music – Music room/media/Cultural Centre Rec Centre - Taekwondo moved to the Cultural Centre
BBQ/Sausage Sizzle	Edwin + Caro + Alison C $2 per sausage (funds going towards Year 9 trip to Wellington)
Afternoon Buses	Students to meet outside on front of office. Pete has made a plan b for if wet.
Timetable                       Teaming (O	Thursday 20 October Day 2 Tech Arts      Block 1         Tainui                                  Block 2         Rangahau                          Block 3         Kia Kaha                             Block 4         Exhibition Support (No Academies or ELC programme)   Teaming Block 1         Mahi Tahi                                  Block 2         Aranui                          Block 3         Te Aroha                          Block 4         Exhibition Support (No Academies)
School Viewing	Classes are welcome to view the presentations between 2:00pm - 2:30pm on Thursday. Teachers - please prepare your students visiting the exhibition to be informed, active and supportive visitors to the teams and their exhibits. Classes are expected to move through the exhibition spaces as a group supervised by their teacher. Possible prompts for the learners to be shared with classroom teachers. Teachers consider what you need to find out during this time.
Thank you drinks	7:00pm Everyone who supported exhibition welcome. Location TBC

Have been doing my utmost to arrange a donation of sausages (at least 200), from Pak N Save, Clarence Street. Before, after school, and during break times I have phoned and emailed Geanna from Management. As of 4:20pm on the 18/10 I am yet to receive confirmation/or not.
I will be supporting Ed on the BBQ sausage sizzle, helping to make year seven's are in the correct place, and supporting student's as the community learn about their Exhibition journey/understanding.

Room 9 Class Blog

I am really proud of the class blog I have created for Room 9. It can be found here

From the beginning of term three I have worked studiously to set up and maintain a class blog for Room 9. This blog allows learners, parents/caregivers, and the wider community to view the learning that Room 9 undertakes in and outside the classroom.
The blog also enables me to maintain a connection with the learners, parents/caregivers, and the wider community through a digital source.
As a parent myself I see many positives in having a classroom blog. Enabling parents/caregiversWhanau to peruse a wide range of learning engagements that they otherwise wouldn't see.

Staff Meeting - Staff Personal Review BNMS 2016 - 13/10/2016

Reflection
As this meeting was about BNMS in 2017 I found it was not applicable to me. However, I did my best to complete the Review questions in a positive manner. Support from, and verbal reflections with, colleagues was very helpful.

Room 9 Literacy - Quick Write

Image of Room 9 students participating in a Quick Write session

The sentence prompt above, contains a slight variation of words: catch could be changed to caught so students could write in the past tense; and corner could be used to change the image built in the reader's mind. Both of these were changes students' suggestions, which I was happy to take on board because I believe the students would have a greater sense of ownership by having a say.
Six students decided to share their Quick Writes with the whole class, after everyone had shared their writing with the person on their left/right, (students who sat at the end of tables were encouraged to share with someone in front or behind). 

Quick Writes are incredibly valuable in a busy classroom where writing often occurs in inquiry learning, reading group tasks, and in digital form.

"This a great tool to get students writing." - Gail Loane, September, 2016

Spanish Commands

During Spanish lessons, in Teaming, I tend to find myself responding or thinking in Te Reo Maaori. On reflection I realise that I need to become familiar with the expressions/commands I would like to use during these sessions, such as: stand up; sit down...

I all ready use, because I have prior knowledge of:
- Listen - Escucha
- Please - Por favor
- Repeat - Repetid
- Silence - Silencio

I have found these translations here 

stand up

: 

levantarse, ponerse de pie 

Stand up please: por favor de pie

Sit down please: Siéntate por favor

sit down: 

sentarse

And these translations here

sit down: siéntate
Sit: sentar
Stand up: Levántate
Stand up please: ponerse de pie por favor

I will be checking with a Spanish-speaking friend from Venezuela about these translations!!

Literacy Observation: Mrs Allen

Today I had the privilege of observing Room 28 teacher Mrs Allen.

I observed as Mrs Allen co-constructed with the learners, of Room 28, how they can edit/re-craft their biographies. Prior to this session they had reviewed a Tiger Woods biography, researched their chosen person, located 10 facts, and began planning/drafting. Mrs Allen provided two examples of introductions, from the learners themselves, to work on collaboratively.
Mrs Allen asked specific questions to direct learners and provided succinct feedback/feed-forward: Mrs Allen's KQs are in blue...

- Today we are going to look at two sample introductions and think about how we can edit/recraft to hook in the reader.
Learners were on the mat and were chosen at random to read aloud, reading an introduction about Richie McCaw

- What would you do now?
- What do we notice?
- How many sentences are in a paragraph (at least 4-6, written on board)

- What do we need to do in the very first sentence?
Learners put forward a range of ideas: Hook them in; make it interesting...
- How?
Short, sharp, powerful sentences; start with a quote; direct speech...

Learners came up with:
"What a try form Richie McCaw as he wins the game once again for the All Blacks."

- Lets re-craft our crafting!
- What other ways can we introduce?
Set a scene; relate to the reader; imagine they were there; use a rhetorical question: have you ever wondered...

Richie Hugh McCaw is often known as a legend as the greatest loose forward. Although he retired he is still one of the greatest rugby players in the world and would dominate in rugby if he still played.

This was then crafted with learner input:
To be more specific about his position: One of the world's greatest Open Side Flankers
Take out "often" because it is not very powerful.
Change "in the world" for "of all time" because he is one of the best players the world has ever seen. 

Mrs Allen moved on to 'ending' an introduction
- How do we end the introduction?
- What's something we could do?
Learners responded with:
- State a personal opinion: I believe he is the greatest
- Use a fact
- Use humour
Mrs Allen stated: Not one person is right, not one person is wrong; independent writers continually recraft throughout writing.

Together the learners co-constructed the success criteria
- Hook (Quote; Rhetorical Q; setting the scene; relating to the reader/make it personal; state a fact)
- Introduce the person
Effective language/descriptive
- Economical language: short/sharp
- 4-6 Sentences

Mrs Allen then gave the learners explicit instructions, reminders about staying on task, and answered learners questions.

- 20 minutes of silent work, one minute to get settled; read, recraft, edit; 40 seconds, 10 seconds...

Learners asked:
- Can we restart our intro?
Mrs Allen directed her response to the whole class:
- Those who would like to restart their introduction or begin again with a new person can if they want. 

Reflection/Implications for my teaching:
- Be really precise with KQs
- Provide opportunities for learners to think/pair/share
- Use examples of learners work to recraft, they relate to it and have more of a sense of ownership and responsibility.
- Keep the teacher time to a minimum to get the learners writing/re-crafting using the knowledge they have just acquired.
- I teach somewhat differently, but that isn't a bad thing, because I believe I work with a whole different classroom environment and do my best to meet the direct needs of my learners.
- Small group teaching could reach target learners to enable them to be successful, confident writers.

Literacy Observation: Mrs Allen

Today I had the privilege of observing Room 28 teacher Mrs Allen.

I observed as Mrs Allen co-constructed with the learners, of Room 28, how they can edited/re-craft their biographies. Prior to this session they had reviewed a Tiger Woods biography, researched their chosen person, located 10 facts, and began planning/drafting. Mrs Allen provided two examples of introductions, from the learners themselves, to work on collaboratively.
Mrs Allen asked specific questions to direct learners and provided succinct feedback/feed-forward: Mrs Allen's KQs are in blue...

- Today we are going to look at two sample introductions and think about how we can edit/recraft to hook in the reader.
Learners were on the mat and were chosen at random to read aloud, reading an introduction about Richie McCaw

- What would you do now?
- What do we notice?
- How many sentences are in a paragraph (at least 4-6, written on board)

- What do we need to do in the very first sentence?
Learners put forward a range of ideas: Hook them in; make it interesting...
- How?
Short, sharp, powerful sentences; start with a quote; direct speech...

Learners came up with:
"What a try form Richie McCaw as he wins the game once again for the All Blacks."

- Lets re-craft our crafting!
- What other ways can we introduce?
Set a scene; relate to the reader; imagine they were there; use a rhetorical question: have you ever wondered...

Richie Hugh McCaw is often known as a legend as the greatest loose forward. Although he retired he is still one of the greatest rugby players in the world and would dominate in rugby if he still played.

This was then crafted with learner input:
To be more specific about his position: One of the world's greatest Open Side Flankers
Take out "often" because it is not very powerful.
Change "in the world" for "of all time" because he is one of the best players the world has ever seen. 

Mrs Allen moved on to 'ending' an introduction
- How do we end the introduction?
- What's something we could do?
Learners responded with:
- State a personal opinion: I believe he is the greatest
- Use a fact
- Use humour
Mrs Allen stated: Not one person is right, not one person is wrong; independent writers continually recraft throughout writing.

Together the learners co-constructed the success criteria
- Hook (Quote; Rhetorical Q; setting the scene; relating to the reader/make it personal; state a fact)
- Introduce the person
Effective language/descriptive
- Economical language: short/sharp
- 4-6 Sentences

Mrs Allen then gave the learners explicit instructions, reminders about staying on task, and answered learners questions.

- 20 minutes of silent work, one minute to get settled; read, recraft, edit; 40 seconds, 10 seconds...

Learners asked:
- Can we restart our intro?
Mrs Allen directed her response to the whole class:
- Those who would like to restart their introduction or begin again with a new person can if they want. 

Reflection/Implications for my teaching:
- Be really precise with KQs
- Provide opportunities for learners to think/pair/share
- Use examples of learners work to recraft, they relate to it and have more of a sense of ownership and responsibility.
- Keep the teacher time to a minimum to get the learners writing/re-crafting using the knowledge they have just acquired.
- I teach somewhat differently, but that isn't a bad thing because I believe I ma meeting the direct needs of my learners.
- Small group teaching could reach target learners to enable them to be successful and develop confidence about their abilities as writers.