Use inquiry, collaborative problemsolving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.
Elaboration of the Standard
- Inquire into and reflect on the effectiveness of practice in an ongoing way, using evidence from a range of sources.
- Critically examine how my own assumptions and beliefs, including cultural beliefs, impact on practice and the achievement of learners with different abilities and needs, backgrounds, genders, identities, languages and cultures.
- Engage in professional learning and adaptively apply this learning in practice.
- Be informed by research and innovations related to: content disciplines; pedagogy; teaching for diverse learners, including learners with disabilities and learning support needs; and wider education matters.
- Seek and respond to feedback from learners, colleagues and other education professionals, and engage in collaborative problem solving and learning-focused collegial discussions.
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20th June 2017
The first aid course run by Darren from St John was AMAZING! I felt that it was very real, hands on, and really encouraged me to put myself in a lot of situations of what I would do. I learnt a lot, understood the new DRSABCD, and learnt what to do in many different situations. I feel like the way Darren challenged our initial thoughts, gave feedback, then told us what the correct action would be. I got to use a defibrillator -massive confidence booster and its much easier to use than I thought -simply follow the verbal instructions of the machine. Excellent course that really allowed my confidence in dealing with both everyday and freak accidents to grow.
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6th July 2017
Kath Murdoch –The Power of Inquiry
Attended a
wonderful, inspiring, and very useful course by Kath Murdoch in Wellington. It
taught me many things and encouraged me to reflect on my ‘inquiry’ practice and
also to look forward and think ‘what can I change?’ and ‘what can I do better?’
This course
made me think more about inquiry as a way of learning rather than a subject. It
highlighted for me not only the process of a student inquiry but what an
inquiry classroom or learner looks like. It was interesting in the way that
Kath spoke about an inquiry learner and the way teachers can foster creativity,
curiosity and thinking. For me, I thought I can do many things better –really
fostering curiosity and being more verbal while being curious with my students.
This is something that I will certainly be working on.
Other things
I really liked and took from Kath’s course were:
·
Trading
the word ‘work’ for learning. So simple but actually when commenting and
speaking to my students, it is important that we are reflecting and discussing
their learning as learning, not just as ‘work’ they have done.
·
Many
different ideas for activities –brainstorming, goal setting and reflecting,
ways to encourage and curiosity and questioning, different ways to collaborate
effectively.
·
I
really liked unpacking the 9 pedagogical practices for inquiry –I found this
extremely useful looking at the ideas behind inquiry and what they mean, and
how different approaches (questions, keeping it real, making connections,
cultivating curiosity) foster inquiry and enhance inquiry learning for
students.
·
Unpacking
what inquiry students are was really interesting –This made me think that if a
student is a good inquirer, all their skills transfer no matter what the topic
or subject etc. This reinforced the idea of inquiry is an approach to learning.
Looking
ahead:
·
Foster
and encourage curiosity within my students –wonder wall, curiosity picture of
the week, asking questions, photography (looking at textures, extreme close ups
of things), daily discussions about how, why things are the way they are.
·
Look
into passion projects –allowing students to inquire into things that they are
genuinely interested and curious about.
·
Use
a number of different activity/tools from Kath’s course (brainstorming, sharing
of ideas, reflecting on goals as learners, thinking bridges.
·
Look
into how I can use more of an inquiry approach to my practice.
·
Teach
kids how to do things for themselves.
·
Try
to make inquiry learning more real to allow students to see a real purpose in
their learning.
Professional
reading: Read Kath Murdoch’s latest book ‘The Power of Inquiry’ that we
purchased at the course. This book is excellent. It is full of ways to
encourage curiosity, how you can encourage an inquiry approach within your
classroom, looking at students as inquiry learners and reflecting on this, and
the questioning section is very useful. The ‘inquiry within disciplines’ pages
are amazing! I will be using these pages to help encourage, provide examples
and support students into inquiring. This book has given me many ideas for
change in my classroom and in my practice.
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6th July 2017
This year with our professional development focus being 'Inquiry Learning' I have made many changes and introduced many new programmes and initiatives into my classroom practice. Following this, I have collect 2 different parts of student voice to gain insight into the students thoughts and also take note of any possible improvements or changes.
This here is collated results from a survey that students in my class took. It was wonderful to read and hear what the students have enjoyed and things they thought have gone well this year. Positives were really fulfilling and cemented a lot of things we do and I felt that in one way or another I am catering to such a broad range of students and interest bases. I was happy to see so many great positives for the students. Challenges - I was not surprised by any of these, as I sometimes feel the same pressures e.g. times/getting finished on time. I know that some students find NT/NM difficult and I do as much as I can to support the students with this. Sometimes things like working in a group can be difficult for some and a real positive for others so I try and give the students as much choice as possible now.
Furthers suggestions and teacher improvements are interesting. Some great positive ideas of what many students want to do more of -really helpful- although interesting in the fact that sometimes we don't have time or we cannot do art all day everyday etc (the reality/understanding of this is difficult for students to grasp). Letting students choose what they inquire about was a common factor - is something I too would like to do more of so now I need to work out when/how this would best work/fit in the classroom, including managing 32 student inquiries. Further investigating to happen here. I thought based on feedback of giving them more information was interesting -is it too difficult? is it laziness dues to the time it takes? -more teaching around finding info (guided reading perhaps) for lower groups.
This survey was about ICT in the school this year. Was insightful seeing that the students have enjoyed many ICT aspects of our learning programme.
This information has encouraged me to think of these things looking forward:
- Try to expose students to a range of new apps and programmes to allow for variety in their learning experiences.
- Vary/put more learning on our blogs for students to show their parents/caregivers
- Ensure I teach new programmes/apps thoroughly and provide plenty of support or those who struggle
2018 Professional Learning
STRAND 3: Annual Plan -Science Professional Development/Lead Teacher Role:
STRAND 1: Teacher Inquiry/ Appraisal:
STRAND 1: Teacher Inquiry/ Appraisal:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1En_nlYnAEPPl_PRh5TCfdHQFRtzGr3SY
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2018 Collaborative RAMS form_________________________________________________________________________________
On the 7th Feb 2018, together as a teaching staff we worked out our RAMS forms to analyse the risk management and safety of our students for our school trip to Kaiiwi beach. We had all visited the site prior, therefore were able to identify the possible risks. This was a collaborative task conducted by our staff.
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Term 1 2018
Part of my learning as the lead teacher in Science, as well as my own personal learning of science, I sent this email and shared resources that I was given to assist our staff in thoroughly and effectively planning for science. This resource is extremely thorough and includes planning of the science capabilities, that we as a staff are focusing our learning around currently. I thought this planning template was awesome and extremely helpful.
Part of my learning as the lead teacher in Science, as well as my own personal learning of science, I sent this email and shared resources that I was given to assist our staff in thoroughly and effectively planning for science. This resource is extremely thorough and includes planning of the science capabilities, that we as a staff are focusing our learning around currently. I thought this planning template was awesome and extremely helpful.
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Mega Maths Day -Term 1 2019
On March 1st I participated in a Maths PD Day here at school. The following were discussed:
- The importance of HOW to teach basic facts. Teaching strategies that then become knoweldge rather than just testing repeatedly.
- Introducing vertivcal algorithms earlier than we currently do - a deviation from The Numeracy Project
- Fully analysed the data from PATs/Basic Facts Tests/Stage Tests
- Understanding the importance of how the Scale Score can be used to measure progress and attainment across year groups.
- Sharing of useful resources to teach number -both games and teaching resources.
- We also looked at modelling books and how these are best used in the classroom.
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March 13th 2019 -Staff meeting TAI discussion
Today we thought about the direction in which we could all take our TAI. We had a brilliant discussion about how we could better foster our School Values to develop skills such as confidence, risk taking, or initiative in our students. This was a refreshing idea and gave everyone a lot of motivation to come up with a plan moving forward.
It was an interesting discussion about what we have all done in the past and what we could combine in order to complete our TAI this year.
I think this is going to be an exciting time as we will be less constricted by the traditional 'Reading/Writing/Maths' focus that we so often end up doing. Our kids here at Halcombe School are already very capable. We are aware of the students that are our focus across all learning areas and are making moves to support these students in our everyday teaching practice.
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STEAM PD - May 2019
This was an insightful PD session run by Office Max, showing us a range of devices and resources that we may want to purchase for our school.
In particular, I enjoyed the Cubetto and the Flex-O.
Cubetto
This was a little robot that could be programmed to follow direction/orientation instructions. This could be linked to literacy (story-telling) and inquiry (knowledge of an area of study). This resource could be used across a range of class levels and abilities.
Flex-O
This is a Lego add on and adds a more 3D design element. It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes and is joined together by tendons to allow for objects to become flexible. This helps students create without the restraints that a 'brick' shapre may apply to imagination and creativity.
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