Zoe's Teaching Standards Site

 Today we spent the day at school with Jo Barr. We spent the morning looking at Deep Learning and how to strengthen our Matariki unit for this term. It was very beneficial to put the Deep Learning lens over our unit plan. In the second session we looked at Structured Literacy and sounds. This was great because we learned to say sounds properly and learned about the stages of reading and how oral language helps with reading and writing. The afternoon session was a chance to navigate our way through the Deep Learning NZ and Global websites.  A very worthwhile day with lots of positive conversations. 

 On Tuesday morning we had an online meeting via Zoom with our Kahui Ako and Core providers - Anne and Gemma. This meeting was all about engagement and how we can better engage our students into tasks. The main idea I got from the meeting was about Roger Hart's Ladder - each rung on the ladder invovled student voice more from the bottom of the ladder, where students are told exactly what to do and how to do it., working to the top of the ladder where students and teachers work together to to lead activities with teachers working as equal partners. 

Yesterday we had a TOD which was going to be in Cromwell with all the other Area Schools in our Kahui Ako, however, for obvious reasons this was not going to happen. The day was based around Deep Learning and we had a keynote speaker - Joanne Quinn - who showed some deep learning examples from around the world. She focused on the four quadrants of Deep Learning and showed how this was done within the examples she showed.  Throughout the day we also had cohort group meetings and a school meeting with Joanne Barr who is our Core Facilitator this year. 

 In term 2 I started an ALiM group with 4 students, 3 year 6 and 1 year 5 student. There was a major focus on Multiplicative Thinking for my group because that was the whole class focus for most of term 2.  I used the Learning Progressions Framework to gauge some ideas of activities and where to base the learning at. I also took their 2020 GloSS data, as well as my overall teacher judgement on where they were at.  Once we had finished the Mult/Div unit in class we moved on to algebra which I also focused on in the ALiM group.  There was some great progress within the mult/div aspect of mathematics which was very pleasing. 3 of the 4 students made acceleration in the 10 weeks.  In term 3 I have started the second ALiM group which is a group of 5 year 5 students. This group is focusing on fractions.

This year we have had two teacher only days both with a focus on Local Curriculum. The first day was 11/5/21. We planned 2 inquiry units - the first was a Gold Rush, Lawrence History plan and the second was a Matariki inquiry/art unit.   The second day was the 16/8/21. We had another focus on the local curriculum and how we can include this on our unit planning. We also spent time on whanaungatanga. 

This week on Monday and Tuesday we had our mid-year parent teacher interviews. I had 18 of my 23 students represented in theses interviews which was fantastic. I also have 2 more that I need to have, 1 an IEP and one an interview that probably will take a bit longer. It is a great opportunity to talk to parents face-to-face and see if they have any questions about the mid-year report. 

This was the second of these days and it was really nice to be able to go with Gillian this time so both of us could take on more learning about Deep Learning.  Similar to the last day in Twizel, extending on a bit from Local Curriculum and Deep Learning. I think between Gillian and I we will be able to introduce the Deep Learning ideas to the school in a staff meeting.

 This term we had the rippa rugby and hockey sports tournaments. We had to organise these tournaments ourselves. For the rippa tournament we took the whole class. For the hockey tournament it was an optional event. 

 As a school we attended the annual Jumbo Day in Cromwell. There were only staff from Maniototo and Roxburgh because of the weather. It was still a very worthwhile day. Watching others share what they have been doing with Local Curriculum was very beneficial for all staff to see, as well as being able to share our own Matariki activities we had made as a Junior School.

This year Carla and I wrote the PE/Health report for the board. This involved gathering data and commenting on the athletics and swimming events. Setting goals and recommendations about the PE/Health curriculum alongside Carla too. 

 I attended a NPDL course with some of the WST and staff from the Kahui Ako. This was a very intense course with a lot of information. The day was aimed at schools who have been in the Deep Learning realms for a year or so. I learnt a lot on this day and look forward to learning more about Deep Learning and Local Curriculum.

This term I have attended and helped out at a few sporting events involving LAS students. Apart from our own athletics and swimming events, I have gone to the South Otago Athletics and South Otago Swimming Championships.  This is a great chance to watch and help our LAS students compete against students from other schools. 

 Last night we held our School Expo evening. This was an awesome opportunity to showcase what we are doing at LAS and get feedback from parents on strategic planning. I held a Digi Tech session in my class and was great to have some students to help out. I had 13/23 students present at the evening.  I had some great conversations with parents and it was awesome for them to see what equipment we have at school and how we are using DT.  The night also started with a hangi and welcome by the kapahaka. 

 Taking my class on camp is always the big highlight of the year. It is a great chance to see children in a different environment and see how they cope with new experiences and being challenges.  This year's camp was to Berwick Camp last week. It was a fantastic week, with great weather. Camp is always a great chance to interact with parents on a different scale too.  I had a great group of parents who were all very helpful. The kids were fantastic and all came out of their comfort zones and tried something new. 

 Yesterday we held our annual classroom information evenings. This was a great opportunity to discuss some housekeeping for the year and get everybody on the same page. I also held my camp meeting at this time too which was a good draw card for my parents. I ended up getting 11 parents that came along.

 On Monday 10th August I travelled to Alex for a Digital Technologies meeting with the other lead teachers of DT from Maniototo and Roxburgh Area Schools. Anne Keneally was facilitating the meeting from CORE Education.  The day was a great chance to get together with Anne, Katrina and Adelle in person after having our weekly Zoom meetings. Throughout the day we went over the Progress Outcomes for Computational Thinking (CT) and Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes (DDDO). This was useful to give me some ideas about where to start with the LAS staff. It was also good for us to break down the language in the progress outcomes too.  After this we had a lot of playing time with different devices to see how we could use these in our classrooms in an authentic context. I really enjoyed the Bee-Bots and found that using the maps gave a more authentic context for the classroom. 

Recently I have taken on the lead teacher role of Digital Technology here at LAS where I will guide the staff through the new progress outcomes and how we can use digital technology in our classrooms.  Meetings have been an hour long and we have been having one meeting a week. Anne has led these meetings. In the first meeting I felt very out of my depth and had no real idea what I was supposed to be doing. Each zoom meeting we have had since I have learned more and felt far more comfortable and aware of what I need to be doing.  Since our day in Alex I have implemented a lot of my learning into my classroom practice and have also led a staff meeting on DT.  Zoom meetings we have had this term have been on:  22nd July, 28th July, 6th August, 3rd September, 9th September, 23rd September.

                                On the 5th March Pauline and I travelled to Dunedin to attend the first ALL Workshop for the year. This was a great chance to refresh our minds about the ALL programme and also meet with other teachers and schools near us that are also running ALL.  Since then I have attended several Zoom meetings with Lauren Latimer who is our mentor teacher for ALL. The first one was with Pauline and Gillian as well and just a catch up really about what ALL was going to look like now after Covid.  I have also attended three online workshops that were also run by Lauren. The first one was about motivation and engagement, the second was an online forum to catch up and the third one was about learner pathways. All of these workshops were beneficial and I will be able to use some of the new learning in my ALL sessions next term. 

           From the 15th April - 18th May we were teaching online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a huge learning opportunity for teachers, parents and students.  In the beginning it was hard to know how much work to set the children. I really didn't want to add anymore stress to students and their families. Each week I added a little bit more to the activities to ease them back into work.  Having a weekly zoom meeting with the class was good to be able to catch up with those who could make it onto the call and see what they'd been up to. I liked having something to do on the zoom call so we did things like a scavenger hunt, kahoots, scattergories and something special to me which the class said they enjoyed.  Each week I tried to have a creative activity to do so that it wasn't all online. This was the weekly project. These were based around things that were happening in the world, ANZAC, Mother's Day and Solar System.  Answering...

On Monday and Tuesday this week we held our Parent/Teacher conferences. These were earlier than usual as we wanted to get some feedback from parents (and students) about how things went over the lock-down period. These conferences were replaced by the mid year report that we would usually be writing at this time. I had 19 out of 25 parent meetings which was pretty good in most of them the students were also there. All of the conferences went well and it was great to hear what parents had discovered from their time helping kids with their distance learning.