Learnings of a Teacher

As part of Maori language week I have really made myself use as much Te Reo as I can/know around our akonga. Each morning we have talked about Te Reo and the fact it is Maori language week. We have tried to introduce a new phase or word. This has built on form our phase of the week we started up earlier in the year. A goal now is to continue momentum and continue to use Te Reo within the kete. I still seem to have burst of it, but have not yet got to the point where it is total in grained in our programme. Have looked at using the Kupu app, which is very useful for identifying different nouns.

Have had a few sessions now with Liz looking at the code, she has also come into the class to observe a lesson. I find the sessions with her very interesting, as this has been an area I have alway struggled to teach up in the senior school. I always feel that there is such a gap between the top kids and bottom kids. With the bottom kids there also seem to be so many gaps and I have always found it hard to know were to start. After her observation (which I thought my lesson was a nightmare) and discussion afterwards, I got really thinking about how I teach the Code and how explicitly I was teaching it. It raised a number of questions for me. About the teaching of the code in the Kete and had we looked hard enough at what the gaps of our learners were, or were we just covering the different areas in the The Code without really taking in account the specific learning needs of our learners. Through discussions within our kete we have started to track and monitor our students a lot clos...

Lead a science staff meeting tonight. It was good having teachers' sharing some of their successes and hearing about what people are doing in their Kete. Teachers seem to have a developing understanding of the science capabilities and everyone is having a go at bring science into their programme. Have outline to staff that I will be doing an impact report on where we are at the moment with science at our school. I feel their is still a lot to do to make sure it is an ingrained part of what we do at Hokowhitu school. I think everyone was ok about the teacher experiences that I introduced them to. I am hoping that people want see this as just another thing to do, but something useful that they use to develop and improve their teaching of science.

To help develop our teacher confidence and integration of Te Reo into our programme we have a word or phrase of the week that we try to use throughout the week. Th is supports the criterial of Understand and recognise the unique status of tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand. It also links to Tataiako competence of Tangata Whenuatanga - Place-based, socio-cultural awareness and knowledge. I have also challenged myself to use Te Reo in my everyday writing of letters, emails and feed back. My main words at the moment are Akonga - student / Kaiako - teacher .... My aim is build my te reo vocab. By doing this I am hoping these words and phrase will come second nature to me. He kupu o te wiki- Word of the week 2018 Term 1 Word/Phrase Term 2 Word/Phrase Term 3 Word/Phrase Term 4 Word/Phrase Week 5 Kia ora- Hello Week 1 Ka mau te wehi!- Awesome! Week 1 Kōrero-speak/chat Week 1 Tamariki- Children Week 6 Morena- Morning Week 2 Kai- ...

Resilience. People who are resilience are optimism, flexibility, overcome set backs and have support systems and have skills to cope with situations. These are mindsets and as teachers we need develop these mind sets in students. People who have more resilience have these core beliefs,  - I have people to support me                                                                                                - I am able to value my self.                                                                                       ...

In Te kete Tangaroa we have used our school vision Torongia ki te tihi o te maunga / Striving to get to the top of the mountain. We have created four Mountains for our akonga to climb. To reach the top of these mountains our akonga have to complete: academic, sporting, cultural and citizenship roles personalised to our akonga. As they prove themselves in each of those domains they move up the mountain.  The aim of this is to develop a culture that is focused on learning, and is characterised by respect, inclusion, empathy, collaboration and safety. As akonga climb the mountain they will have to work with and help each other. They will need to involve themselves within the wider school. We want our akonga to challenge themselves, to strive and be the best they can be.

As part of our Science Development Plan there is a direct goal around cultural responsiveness. This goal is about connecting with local iwi and gaining a cultural perspective on science. This is a vital link to make if we want to encourage place based learning. When making this goal we discussed how it is important to make connections with the past and how cultures have gone about explaining things. Maori culture has plenty to offer science. Maori over time discovered useful plants that help fight against infection and heal cuts. Kawa Kawa and Koromiko were commonly used in Maori medicine. Maori would of over time gone through a form of scientific investigation, observing, testing and gather evidence, evaluating evidence and critiquing it. Allowing them to recognise plants that could help them. As teacher we need to recognise these efforts form the pass and other cultures including it into our own science curriculum.

Science self review

Hokowhitu School Development Plan As part of the STLP I lead the development of a school development plan to guide the development of science education in our school. The plan is a direct result of the self review I completed on our school's science education.

Te Kete Tangaroa beginning of the year Newsletter To start the year the kete has sent out a letter introducing the kete teachers and outlining how the kete works. Also informing whanau of what is coming up in the term and opening up the door for communication. 

Teacher Only Day Today I did some PD around science. I shared our school development plan and got the teachers involved in some science. Teachers seemed to be keen to develop their teaching and understanding of science teaching.  I see the capabilities a great place to start, as it is not about the amount of knowledge you have, but more about how scientist develop and build on there knowledge.  This was a good start to  teaching colleagues and supporting staff in their development of science teaching.

Lesson study - Teach a small group on developing capability 1 gathering and interrupting, video the teaching. After teaching watch lesson again and fill in reflection sheet. Focus on different aspects of talk moves.

Personal Lens: I always enjoy planning and teaching with people feeding off each other and adapting as you go . See peoples different mannerisms and how they react, builds my confidence as I learn from them and get reassurance that what I am doing is not to bad. Need to spend more time looking at talk moves and ambitious science web site. Constructive feedback, it can be so hard. I always feel uncomfortable in these situations. I am a feeling person and hate hurting people's feelings. At the some time people need to know and want to know what they need to work on.  If is a fine balance, at times I think I deal with this by joking. The feedback needs up being useless. Biggest point is,  make sure every party involved  knows what you are giving feedback on and that you have agreed. Purpose of feedback… What you would like to cover and why is it important.  Critiquing evidence - I see this all the time at my host scientists talking to each other, aski...

Shared at staff meeting about my STLP journey so far.

Some thoughts for consideration ·           You are clearly seeing the relationship between the Nature of Science and what scientists do.  I’m impressed with the range of activities you have been involved in and think that your mini project will give you some real experience of what it feels like, not just what it looks like.  The fact that this can be an authentic context for your students during phase 2 is an even bigger benefit!  I agree with your comment about the challenge to create a NoS focussed classroom during phase 2.  This has implications for taking your time when you return to try out stuff with your class  to try and put your thinking into action.  I always used to use a question based framework when I tried to operationalise your ideas – what will the students be doing, what will they be saying, what will the adults be doing and saying? What will the environment look like?  How will...

It has been the first time I have been introduced and looked at the capabilities in any detail. This has raised lots of questions for me around what the focus should be in science and how do we integrate everything into our programme. Planning shared lessons School visits / secondary teachers speaking about science Check lens links for more reflections. Reflections from workshop 1 through different lens

Plan a 25 minute session developing capability one Gathering and Interpreting data.