Janeen - Effective Teaching Practise

Taking ideas from the 'Learning in the fast lane' I decided to do more in depth teaching and learning within our 'Speech Unit.'   Firstly by taking my small target writing/reading group, I knew it was important to expose them to our 'Class Topic Headings' and splash ideas with sticky notes of what were some good speech topics.  Eg: 'Community and Social Issues' we looked at certain things in our community of Waitara that pose as problems for us - straight away they were able to share lots of ideas such as 'Unemployment is it a problem?' 'Facebook, is it dangerous and what should we do to protect ourselves?' 'How can we look after our beach environment?'   The next day I exposed the eight topic headings to the class.  I divided the class evenly int eight groups - 3/4  per group and they went around to share their ideas under each heading.  As I observed my group, it was great to see them all taking part and being more aware of e

According to Pepper Rollins (2014) Acceleration provides a fresh academic start for students every week and creates opportunities for struggling students to learn alongside their more successful peers.  I strongly agree as the maths activity I did with my stage 5 early additive group gave them more confidence to share their thinking and discuss their ideas with their peers when solving problems related to multiplication and division.       There was a need of my Stage 5 students to understand what the actual symbols of multiplication and division meant.  I decided to do an acceleration 'Sorting' activity exposing the students to maths language that also mean the same as the words 'multiplication and division.' This created a lot of engagement as not only was it a fun hands on activity, the students had lots of opportunity to discuss and share their thinking of where to place the 'words' given.  They also provided examples to support thei

Today we learned about how to put on blog posts via email

After our professional development staff trip to Rotorua, my main aim was to take something from this and to try within my own classroom.  I was enthused to add rich learning and problem solving into my classroom by using a familiar context 'cake stalls.'    Our class have been raising funds for our end of the year camp and one of the fundraiser's has been a cake stall.  Already we've had two very successful stalls, however I noticed only just under half of my students were actually taking part. The students who never took part definitely realised how much money they could potentially raise as several of our students raised between $120-$150 in one cake stall. Here's the challenge I set for the  students and they had to work on their own (to increase independence, risk taking and ownership of their learning). Instantly the students showed engagement as the tool they used to support their learning was a laptop or ipad to research and compare different

Jack's group showing lots of engagement in the 'Illustrator' role My year 8 students were already equipped with the tools needed to achieve a literacy circle.   Zoey and I thought it would be a wonderful idea for my year 8 students to model this to her class.  Eva's group using the dictionaries and thesauruses in the 'Word Master' role  Room 13 students knew what the expectations were while another student lead a group and we unpacked the WALT in student language to understand how they will benefit from this. Room 13 students engaged in the learning  All students showed brilliant respect to my year 8's as they were very nervous to start off with.  But after the first group, my year 8's showed confidence and Room 13 students were engaged in each 'role' rotation. Sam's group (back corner) immersed in the 'Discussion Director' roled

Literacy Circles WALT: ·         Read and share our own interpretations and personal responses with our group members. Students are able to: ·         Deepen their comprehension skills. ·         Construct meaning together as a group. ·         Debate and challenge each other. ·         Connect with an article/story on a deeper level As follows are Room 8 students leading the learning with the different roles they need to fulfill.  The articles they read are from our science topic fair - 'Biological threats to NZ.'   Take the time to visit the link below to find out more about how our learners benefit from 'Literacy Circles' http://www.slideshare.net/sheenacameron/literature-circles-trial

Tuesday, 31 May 2016 Literacy : comparing level 3 and 4 of NZC (Listening Reading Viewing) Today in our team meetings we had a discussion about the differences between Level 3 and Level 4 of the NZC (Listening Reading Viewing strand) Our thoughts .. Level 3 - From purposes/audiences to Structure: show developing….developing understanding...Level 4 shows an increasing. Understanding… ·                      Importance of being able to see the difference of developing and increasing. ·                      Examples:  When reading a student at level 3 may refer to images/diagrams to support their reading. Whereas a student level 4  would be referring back to these images/diagrams to increase their understanding of the text eg. Water Bottle Rockets, students would be looking at diagrams or videos together with text to help them understand what they are reading. ·                      When reading a text/viewing images at level 3 uses their prior knowledge (text to

Whaowhia toku kete matauranga (Fill my basket of knowledge) Students enjoyed putting together their kete As a class we brainstormed several things that we special us and what represented us as a school.  We came up with family first and foremost, and also Manukorihi Intermediate - the grey heron.  The students were told a little bit of history behind the bird of why it represents our unique school.   We also looked at what a kete means and why is it important for us as an individual to have one - 'Fill my basket of knowledge' what does this means?

Students displayed a collaborative environment within our classroom space, showing how working as a TEAM can support their learning.  All students had a voice and showed respect when their peers were sharing ideas.  It was great to see the students were engaged in their learning and valued each other as a TEAM member.

Today Zoey and I met to moderate our e-asTTle writing.  By using the e-asTTle writing marking rubric and e-asTTle writing exemplars, these supported our moderation in making OTJ's together. Collaborating with Zoey. Samples of e-asTTle writing.