Target Learners 2019

I'm still getting to know my children, but my initial impression is that they are not quite as enthusiastic as last years class. I hope to change that very quickly. 
My one child identified as NZ Maori, Nikau, is shy and quiet. I know he made great progress last year, gaining confidence and self efficacy. I've been thinking of ways to help him continue to grow for this year. As my own knowledge increases, especially with all of the social/emotional reading I've been doing, I'm certain I shall come up with some super ideas!

Target Learners

Taylor Age 8:11
Reading Age 7.5
Writing Level 1A

Hayden Age 10:1  APD
Reading Age 9-9.5
Writing 3B

Nikau Age 9:11 NZ Maori
Reading Age 9.5
Maths Stage 5

Ben Age 9:8
Maths Stage E5

Micah Age 10:2
Maths Stage 5

Gema Age 10  ADHD
Reading Age 7
Writing Level 1A
Maths Stage E5

Tia Age 8.9 Emotional Issues
Writing 2B
Maths Stage E5

I'm so not liking those little labels next to their names, but I think they are necessary in this case, so that when I record certain behaviours or write about the progress they make throughout the year, it is clearly understood.
One thing that I have noticed is that they all seem quite relaxed and appear happy, which is nice. This impression was confirmed after Whanau Evening last Thursday night, when all of the parents who came in to chat mentioned how happy their children were in my class, and that they loved all of the art we do. We've only actually done one piece of art, so that was interesting! Perhaps they thought the maths we did was art?
I've got both Gema and Tia constantly trying to share my desk with me. I don't want to push them away as they are working and happy, but it's my space. I don't spend a large amount of time at my desk, but I don't like clutter and they have all of their things (books, felts, pencils etc) strewn across my desk. I'm going to have to bite my tongue for now, and maybe slowly ease them into working in their own spaces later. Maybe attachment issues? They want to be close? I don't know. But at least they are completing tasks, and willingly!
Hayden is another extremely quiet student, but I went WOW last week watching him solve a maths problem. He was meant to be working with a group, but he kind of went off on his own and solved the problem all by himself. The following day I asked if he would mind sharing his strategy with the class, and he did! He was like a different child, confident with his explanation and answering questions that the other children had. I was so impressed!
Of the seven Target Students, four go to Shelley for regular literacy sessions, and Tia has out of school tutoring and counselling. They are getting extra support.
My aspirations for not only these 7 target learners, but the entire class, is to get them excited about learning. I want to see at least the same level of enthusiasm from this class as my previous class! That is my first Term 1 goal 😉

 

 

My First Senior Leader Release Day

I know, cheesy title! But I want to share and that heading seems as good as any.
I originally had my release day set for next week, but Jill wasn't available so I had to change it to today. It is too early in the term / year, to begin observations. I mentioned this to Tanya and she said I was welcome to visit her room, so I did! I was only looking at the relationships, whether or not children were engaged in what they were doing, how they were responding etc, not what they were learning. But it was the first time I'd actually observed Play Based Learning in a junior classroom properly. I gained some new knowledge and understandings myself, and I can see why the teachers and children love it! Anyway, observation notes are superb, written up and shared on google drive. That sounds wrong. My notes aren't superb. Tanya's relationship with her class is!
I met with our wonderful RTLB after morning tea. We talked about emotion coaching and he presented me with a book which I had to speed read (I usually take a while and read every. single. word) but have to have the book back tomorrow because of Jury Duty on Monday. This stresses me out to the point of ridiculousness. I dread getting Jury summons letters, they make my heart beat out of order just thinking about them. I hope I'm not selected. Seriously, it causes me extreme anxiety.
So anyway, I read the book like really fast. And it is definitely something we could implement in our school. RTLB said if I was keen we could organise a staff meeting and get all of the staff on board. It fits beautifully with our whole school focus on respect, it also fits with restorative practice, and appears to be a valuable tool for emotion coaching. So I'm going to say YES! I think we should all do it. It is straightforward, designed as a sequence of 18 lessons that help children identify self regulation zones, teaches the language needed to express emotions, discover triggers, understand different perspectives and find tools, techniques and strategies to help them get back into a happy/calm place. (the green zone!) That, along with a whole lot of other important things, but I'm not going to go into it too much right now. I just know that it fits with our school and what we do and I can see how it would be a valuable tool.

I need to put together a small list of students to try out some art therapy with. I've not looked into it properly yet. I was checking things out online between midnight and 1am after husband's phone went off in the middle of the night. We woke up and since it was St Valentines Day we decided to exchange gifts, have a cup of fruit tea, then I was wide awake so thought I'd look into art therapy for children. So much info online, but I reckon it would be quite nice to do the occasional small group art session, where we could just talk while we expressed ourselves through visual art. I do need to look into this further before I get all carried away. Two post in two days, gosh I'm good sometimes!

Where to Start?

I am really excited about my new role as Senior Leader 2!
I've spent quite some time researching and reading information about restorative practice and emotion coaching, I even have interesting pieces saved on pinterest to refer back to. But I'm not really sure what to do with it all yet!
I just finished reading notes from the last Joseph Driessen seminar which was in June last year. I didn't go but I really wish I had! At least I'll get to hear him in April when he comes, I'm looking forward to it.
I guess once I have processed all of the info I have read, and maybe applied some of the ideas within my class (I'm already trying some things out) then I will be able to put together notes that I can share with the rest of the staff. Much of what I've read makes perfect sense, and I really love the idea of restorative practice. Sorry just doesn't cut it sometimes! Often. Actually, usually.

I am organised with Good Citizens though, I hope. I bought 4 picture books to use in the classrooms to help children understand what it means to be a good citizen. My class loved them. Eldest grandson loved "The Bad Seed" which I had to read to him many times when he came to stay during the holidays. Such a beautiful book. Youngest grandson just wanted "Crack in the Bum," his name for "I Need a New Bum" every night. Pam lent me "The Invisible Boy" to read to my class as well, an absolutely beautiful story that promoted much discussion.
So back to Good Citizens, I presented my ideas during our planning day end of last year. I hope everyone thought they were OK. It is quite different to what we were doing, and I really hope that the children will see just how much a privilege it is to be selected as a Good Citizen. Rather that prattle on, I'll post a copy of my ideas...

I know it's hard to read, it wouldn't let me put it on as a PDF so I just screen captured it.
Anyway, Tanya's mum is making the sashes, I am so grateful to her for this.
Tomorrow is my first Senior Leader release day, I've got a few things planned, I don't want to waste the time I've been given! I also need to do a second coat on the painting that I've done on a big slab of wood. Last year I designed an image to match our school whakatauki. Actually, my husband came up with the initial idea, which I modified and made into what I wanted... he's pretty talented I must say! So now I've painted the image into this big slab of wood, I keep looking at it thinking I should have made it bigger, but too late now. I'm not sanding it all off to start again! Took me long enough to sand it smooth in the first place.
I'll post a photo when I'm finished. Hopefully tomorrow!

Teachable Moments

This is a very quick post, I have to do it now while I'm thinking about it because next time I write something I might have forgotten about it.
Our commission was delivered successfully, and the "team" are keen to make paper for the students of Chimerical School on Little Island.
What I never anticipated was the word chimerical being of such interest! They argued over what it actually said to start with (it didn't help that I'd printed it off so tiny) with my highest level reader insisting that the word was "commercial," but Jaxon, my most inquisitive student, checked the word online and was super excited about it. He went on to research the word chimera and was able to deliver almost a speech to the class after finding out more information. And there I was, thinking he might stumble across the metal band, Chimera! I must admit, that's what inspired the name of the fictitious school, but oh well.
The second unexpected learning that happened was the map coordinates I'd given, so that the paper could be sent. I'd picked a random spot just off the East Coast of the North Isand, in the ocean, not too far away but enough that it wasn't going to be considered part of NZ. This caused huge discussion, problem solving, the atlases were all taken from the shelf and every student was engaged in trying to figure out exactly where this island was located. Harper's reasoning, that it was in the Pacific Ocean, (like it was a special clue) enabled him to have a vague idea of where it might be. On the map, there is actually nothing there, and this caused quite some confusion until they remembered we were operating in the What If world!
In the end, we spent about an hour using a worksheet (I know, not my usual teaching practise, but it was all I could think of at that particular moment, thank goodness for Google!) that explained and allowed children to use latitude and longitude coordinates on a world map. It also explained North, South, East & West, degrees, and how it all worked. I was really pleased that they had the opportunity to learn about this, even though we have digital technology that just tells us everything these days, it's still worthwhile knowing how these things work, and map skills fit so nicely with Geometry!

Magnifying glass out! I could read it fine, but they got the magnifying glass off the science shelf without any prompting from me!

We shall now argue over what that word actually says!

See, you can read it ok! The bottle is only about 5cm tall.

Those tricky coordinates!

It was interesting listening to what the children had to say about how they thought it worked.

Prior to the worksheet and information being provided, the children would not give up trying to figure it out. They are a persistent bunch of kids!

All this learning that I never intended as part of our Mantle. That's what I love about it, you can go off in other directions, take time to learn other things, and go back to where you need to after. The plan is so flexible, you're not stuck to a particular exact plan or path, and you go where it takes you, the journey is the fun part!

End of Term 3 Reflection

I know I've left this until the last minute, literally. Back to school tomorrow after 2 weeks holiday. I have been meaning to do this, but I had my grandsons come to stay and didn't want to waste a moment with them!

We did heaps of art activities, went to various parks & playgrounds, Logan learnt to tie a bow and we did some baking, all vegan of course. They had so much fun just running around the yard blowing bubbles and playing with cheap copy nerf guns or creating sculptures with hedgehog blocks. I miss them so much already, sometimes I wish we still lived in Auckland.

Anyway, reflecting on Term 3...
Our fictional company, Woodpeckers, is up and running. Coby's mum made stamps with a laser cutter for us to use (with ink) so we can stamp all of our paper products. The stamps show our logo which was designed and voted for, by the children. They have all made beautiful sheets of recycled paper, all know the process and can make their own paper independently (which is great, I don't have to hover while they are producing new paper from the scraps in the paper bin) and are keen for the commission to present itself. I'm going to begin the next part of our Mantle tomorrow. The commission will arrive in a miniature (and I mean absolutely tiny) glass bottle with a message inside. They will need a magnifying glass to read it.
I'm actually pretty excited about this part, and I've got villains again, because it worked so well last time and I think the children are kind of expecting baddies to be a part of it!
I felt that by the end of last term we hadn't had the opportunity to really get into Mantle, although the company has been established and some drama happened during this time, there were so many other things going on, so I kept putting off the commission. I really wanted everyone present for that part. We did experiment with creating paper that can be planted, with seeds in the pulp. We started growing some in a tray to see if it would work, and it did! So we are thinking of making "plant this paper" gift tags to sell at the craft fair that's coming up.
Speaking of which, I got all inspired with some of the things that can be made with paracord, initially making keyrings with Logan and Dean. Well, Logan anyway. We made angel keyrings for everyone and I tried out some other ideas that I think I'll have to incorporate into Mantle somehow. Maybe they could be like little tasks that have to be completed (like when we did the escape room stuff) and then we could sell all that we create at the fair too.
In maths, I still keep going back to geometry, even though we have covered all other strands throughout the year, but geometry is just so much fun! I love that we are given autonomy with what we do and when we do it... I can't imagine going back to how I used to plan, a strand a term, and focus on one of the four operations each term in numeracy. How boring! This is way more fun!
I did have a big focus on fractions and decimals Term 3 though, and the children picked it up so much faster than in previous years, perhaps because it was always presented as part of something else we were learning about. Proof... when Lilli-Jade and Tayla both got the duck and swan question right in the Gloss test, neither child had to even really think about it, they understood the question and worked out the answer easily, YAY!
I've not done running records on all of the class yet, but the ones I have done show progress. ALL of them, so I'm very pleased about that too. I hope to complete those and the Gloss testing within the first week. Hope!
And now some more photos just because photos are nice!

What you can do with all those gelli prints that didn't come out so great! Seriously, some of these are amazing up close!

More useful ways to use up those prints. Saw this idea on Pinterest ages ago, figured we could do something similar, though not as big as the ones they had on Pinterest. So much fun!

How cool is this!? For empty classroom day I set this up, but the children in Room 7 were keen to do this again, maybe smaller, and indoors. Science, maths, technology and art, oh almost STEAM! They could build their own tripods and set it up themselves. 

 

So the only thing I'm freaking out about for Term 4 is getting the group of Jump Jammers up to competition level for the competition in November. They think they are great already. I filmed them. They aren't! What's worse, on competition night, coaches are "invited" to get up on stage and lead a routine. Well, I almost feel that I need to get the husband to write me a note to get out of doing such things, I am so not keen on getting up there in front of everyone. Maybe I could say I hurt my ankle, or I could wear a skirt on the night and be like, "oh, no, I'm not appropriately dressed!" but probably I'll have to do it. I'm so uncoordinated I'll probably go the wrong way or fall off the stage or something. Luckily no photos or video allowed during routines so whatever happens, I wont have to worry about it being seen by even more people. I am literally dreading this particular moment.

Term 3 - Te Reo, Tuakana-Teina & Mantle

It is halfway through Term 3 already. I have a whole bunch of photos to put on so rather than write, I'll put captions with the photos.
These show Te Reo is still a regular Wednesday lesson, and as Pam and I are alternating teaching each session, I absolutely have to be organised with a prepared lesson, practising pronunciation beforehand, and gathering or making resources. I'm feeling much more confident in this area, although I do have to keep returning to previous sessions and reminding myself of what I've learnt along with the students. I can't seem to retain all of the language I teach, but I guess unless you use it consistently, it is easy to forget. We each have a scrapbook where we glue in photos, printed resources and info about each lesson to help remember what we've done and to extend in the future. Perhaps next year I'll set a goal to use each new word or phrase at least several times a day. Then it might stick! In my head.

A Matariki activity relating to the stars

String games

Cat's Cradle was a huge hit with the children.

Action songs

Fortune Tellers in Te Reo. I'd spelled seven wrong when I made them, whetu instead of whitu, luckily Pam noticed. Or we could just be Room Star in English!

Tuakana-teina is one Room 7s favourite parts of the week. Although they are working with the juniors in Room 3, and the activities they are "teaching" or learning to do together are junior oriented, my senior students really enjoy this time to work alongside the littlies! And PLAY!

Elephants!

They were a bit cute!

Woven turtles

Matariki inspired lanterns

Finger puppets

Flying owls

Our second Mantle for the year has only really just begun and will continue into Term 4. The first step or "hook" was altered from my original plan after hearing Leslee share what staff had learnt when they went to see Tim Taylor speak. Now I'll definitely have more than one hook leading in to our paper making (which I'm just so excited about starting properly, I've got some super cool things we can do with this!).

This is the image we started with. I asked the children to write a quick paragraph after studying the image, explaining what what happening in the picture.

Groups wrote on sticky notes and put their ideas on the image.

Here are a few ideas!

The discussion surrounding this image was awesome. I sat and listened to each group trying to make sense of what each person depicted in the scene was up to. Some of their ideas: redecorating, looking for gold/oil, bricklaying - it was really funny hearing them explain and justify their ideas to each other. I wonder what I would have come up with if I didn't know they were making paper. That "fish" that's being chopped up... "you can see it's a fish, there's its tail!"

Invitations to Play

After my first attempt at an invitation to play, I've been practising. The extra time and money I put in to make it look more "inviting" didn't really pay off. I bought a cheap $2 shop tablecloth, so cheap that when I opened it, it was practically transparent! Along with the tablecloth I bought some little plastic containers for pebbles, they look cheap but I couldn't afford the nice wooden bowls I had imagined on the table, and plastic picture frames because I decided that would provide a nice border for the children to create images inside. I'll start checking out second hand shops for more natural looking things to place on the tables but for now the cheap plastic stuff will have to do.
I think it's working out okay so far. It's only been twice more that I've set up invitations to play, while some of the class are at Sports Academy. The children are loving it. 
I am too, but...
BIG butt, so big it overhangs the chair,
I have to try not stress about the little things! Oh my goodness, I am looking around the room and it's a pigsty, and I'm thinking holy heck, how are we going to get that all cleaned up before the bell?
And the other thing I do is get all upset about "stuff" getting wasted! I try to not say anything, and let them do what they want with what is provided, but where they see just another scrap of paper, or just another vivid marker, or felt tip, or glue gun stick, I'm seeing "useful stuff that well looked after will last" because that's how I was raised. Coming from a background where as children, my sister and I had very little, we treasured everything we did have, and we looked after things. As an adult I really struggle with the whole "disposable society" thing. I save stuff because it either cost money, or took time to collect or gather. To see things being destroyed or wasted does upset me.
Today I put some items out as an invitation to play, and I had two polystyrene trays (which I'd cut into squares) to create prints with. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I was really annoyed when one of my students sat there and proceeded to bend them all in half, so they were no good for printmaking anymore. "It's just a polystyrene tray," I tell myself. But I only had those trays because my husband bought Turkish for dinner for my birthday. We rarely dine out due to his food allergies, and being vegan, we obviously can't collect meat trays.
Speaking of vegan (I'll post photos after so you can see what I'm talking about) I've had this gel printing kit for ages and never been able to bring myself to actually make the gel plate because it's made with gelatine. I decided I'd mix it up last week. Isla, one of my students, is vegetarian, and she helped me. We both sat there, mixing and gagging and carrying on, it truly smelt disgusting and we felt bad for the poor animals who were in there... but again, I didn't want to waste the kit, so we persevered, all the while holding our breath, and the result was actually pretty cool. I'm wondering if we could make one with agar agar.
While walking along the beach, I decided to collect smooth pebbles and driftwood - which ended up taking hours, for another idea I had. At least this cost nothing, and who is going to complain about walking along the beach! I'll post the photos now.

Driftwood & pebbles, a photo of a baby ladybird (ugly little thing) and information about ladybirds. I also had the hot glue gun at the ready, along with paint and frames to create within.

Some students required many pebbles!

Isla decided  this piece looked like a pointing hand

These boys saw... a catamaran!

Shaiyan created a butterfly and painted a background

Ella made ladybirds on a piece of wood

The finished catamaran, but awesome, because they were discussing balance and whether or not it will float. I had to rummage through my "stuff" to find a piece of fabric for the sail. The paint will probably come off in the water, so I told them to wait until I can find the right sealer/varnish for it before testing its flotation capabilities!

This is not an invitation, but you'd think it was! My new punishment! I'm just adding this in because I always wanted to make a sensory jar, and I saw this idea on ....Pinterest of course! I altered the poem a little. Great, now my little cherubs can calm themselves down watching some nice sparkly glitter, which takes 4 minutes 18 seconds to drop to the bottom (the children timed it several times). Unless you give it a little shake up before the last bits land! Everyone loves this, it's not even being used as time out, it's just a nice thing to watch, especially in the sunlight.

The gel plate, made from bits of animals, gross.  Also included were various bits and pieces for print making, and now they all know the rolly thing is called a brayer.

Invitation inspired by artist Chris Piascik. Check out the abandoned design, obviously child did not wish to persevere, but I'm just thinking "wasteful of nice sheet of blue paper"

Before the children got to the table! I did a couple of swirly lines to get them started / inspire / guide their thinking just a little bit!

We moved the chalkboard table that I painted last year and I put out nice new chalk and started drawing a table setting, this was a success, they kept coming up and adding to it, I didn't get a final photo though.

This print looks much more awesome in real life, it was her second one off the same plate.

Prints created so far

I'm thinking black silhouette images printed or painted over these, or maybe zentangle like designs with black vivid, or rip them up and create a collage... limitless possibilities!