Reflection and Parent Input

Reflection and Parent Input

At the end of term one I had the children complete a simple reflection on what they had enjoyed, what they wanted to do more of, and also checked how they preferred to work. It was great to read the responses that were all positive with the key response being that they were happy both within the class and with the amount of time we spent working on the different areas.

In term 1 we also received information from the parents about where they felt there child was at and any information that they felt we needed to know. It was really great to read all the positive comments and know that the children are supported at home. There were a couple of things I felt necessary to follow up on which the parents were grateful for and were helpful for me to know.

Incredible Years

Incredible Years

Terms 1 and 2 

Programme Overview:

1. Building Relationships with Students and Proactive Teaching

• Goal: develop non verbal cues
• Result: use of door bell, clapping pattern where children are 1 beat behind, music played for different reasons as cues.
• Next Step: I haven't been as consistent I have I would have liked with this so definitely need to revisit.

2. Teacher Attention, Coaching, Encouragement and Praise

• Goal: introduce and use compliment circles
• Result: this worked very well and it was great to hear all the genuine compliments
• Next Step: time table this in more regualry. Introduce 'I am proud...' wall.

3. Motivating Students through Incentives

• Goal: giving quality focused praise
• Result: this goal was harder to remember but definetly was recieved positively when I did remember and I can see the benefits of being more specific
• Next step: be consistent in using this method even if I just focus on one subject area at a time

4. Decreasing Inappropriate Behaviour - Ignoring and Redirecting 

• Goal: increase the use of compliment circles (include I am proud...)
• Result: introduced the 'I am proud...' wall. The children were really keen to share things that htye had done that they were proud of
• Next step: Make sure both compliement circles and time to add to the 'I am proud...' display are timetabled inso not forgotten

5. Decreasing Inappropriate Behaviour - Follow though with consequences

•  Goal:

6. Emotional regulation, social skills and problem solving

• Goal: 

Video Review with Jayne

1 May - Session 1 Highlights: genuine, use of coaching, proactive, reminders/redirect, children enthusiastic and engaged, children taking ownership

10 June - Session 2 Highlights: Calm and children very attentive, clarifying, proactive, encouraging children to take pride in all things no matter how big or small they seem, coaching

Mindfulness Display:

Keep calm box:
This idea came around from both the life education sessions and sessions with Adrienne. The children asked if we could have a box in class and they were really good at thinking of what to add to it. They including breathing techniques from Adrienne as well as positive quotes.

Circle Time

Circle Time

In Week 8 we did our first circle time. This was an activity linked to our Kia Kaha Unit - Anti Bullying. In Room 8 we have looked at encouraging the opposite of bullying by completing a variety of activities that encourage kindness while still learning the impact that bullying can have on a person. 

We had to pass a ball of wool around or across the circle and give a compliment to the person who received the wool. It was encouraged to not pass to a person who we would normally sit or play with. It was wonderful to hear all of the positive and genuine comments that show Room 8's class culture is developing really well. This is something that we will definitely continue to do and do more regularly. 

This circle time activity links well with the Incredible Years training I am doing. On discussion with Adrienne she also encouraged that, as the compliments come easier for all the children, we should include a 'I am proud of myself' statement as well. I realise that expressing pride is difficult for some but it will be a great addition to the circle time and can even start as an optional statement to begin.

Learner Profile - Goal Setting

Putting the Learner Profile to work in our room through goal setting...

As a class we reviewed the four key areas of our Learner Profile to ensure that the way things were written was in a way that we understood. It was important that we all understood what each area was about so that we could choose an area to work on and be able to discuss our goal with others. We needed to also know what we could do to achieve our set goal. Once we had reviewed and glued our own sheet in our books we chose the one we wanted work on and added our names to the display so we could all refer to it. This is something we are going to review regularly and keep working on to ensure we are doing all that we can to achieve our goals.

Term 2 Update:

We updated our goal setting display by adding some positive comments around them. We also added a 'saying' to each of the four areas to help us remember what they meant. For example Confident - Maia was 'Being brave'. We also changed how we chose our goal by having our names as part of the whole area rather than just one specific part as many of the goals within cross over. We choose our goals at the start of the term and revisit and move around if needed throughout the term. We have a copy of the goals in our Inquiry books where we highlight them once we have achieved them.

Culture

Culture

In Room 8 we have spent a lot of time in the first term getting to know each other and learning about the Room 8 families, looking at where we came from and the culture we have within our families. We realise that all families have a culture of their own and that is this something to be celebrated. 

While we were sharing and discussing our own family cultures we discussed how Room 8 could (and does) have it's own culture. As a result of this discussion, we thought about events that happen throughout the year that we might like to celebrate. We chose a few different event and came up with ways to celebrate these within our class.

Extra:

Further to our discussions around families we also looked at our favourite places to visit within New Zealand. We also completed research around where our families came from and displayed both of these in our classroom.

We also made hand prints that we decorated and made into a flower showing us all united and growing together. We put these alongside our class treaty.

Oakura Quality Practice

Oakura Quality Practise

Link to my Oakura Quality Practise Sheet that this Blog documents relevant data to show how I am working on achieving these goals.

Moderating

Team AsTTLe Moderating

Term 1:
This term we completed the schoolwide  AsTTLe writing assessment based on a descriptive piece of writing. We all completed an initial sort of where we felt the children were after reading each child's work. We then came together as a team to compare and reflect on how we had assessed children based on the marking criteria.

This created great discussion and provided clarity around areas we were feeling unsure about. We all felt like we were marking in a similar and fair way and happy to go ahead and mark the rest of the classes.

Self Reflection: I find the exemplars really helpful and while some of the marking criteria can be interpreted differently I feel confident in marking my classes work fairly. Also our team is really positive and helpful and know I can discuss any that come up as tricky with any team member to clarify.