Conservation Week

My TED viewing for Conservation Week- Christine Medici (conservationist - Brazil) The Coolest Animal You Know Nothing About- and How we can save it
Tapirs are known as Gardeners of the Forest

So glad I watched this- I knew so little about this gorgeous, harmless creature that is a very important part of biodiversity and critical for maintaining the natural balance in the places it lives.

http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_medici_the_coolest_animal_you_know_nothing_about_and_how_we_can_save_it?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=image__2015-11-04#t-678252

E Learning Starter Kete

Discovered the Starter Kete helping educators like myself to learn and collaborate online. This will take some time to work through and I will pick parts that interest me. Definitely a holiday project. Always wanted to know more about webinars, VLN ( Virtual Learning Network) I do need to seriously consider Facbook/Twitter because I'm pretty sure I'm missing some good things.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aveLbLMka4sbunplqfFCuq_je04XgBxnrgDnFD_GMv4/edit#heading=h.haapch

Could it Get Worse?

This year seems to have been littered with a series of mishaps- all that I've learned from- but in the midst of them it feels very uncomfortable. I'm stressed, worried and feeling very inadequate. What an incredibly lonely job this can be when you don't want to share the downers...

End of Year Term 4 assessments and forward thinking

Time to be very focussed and organised about what to do and when so that everything is done on time. Don't want anybody to be feeling stressed or overloaded but that is a really a reality. It all happens at once. There's so much assessment/data gathering that you don't want to be doing early. As well as getting all this done I'm forward thinking as to how to make things simpler and more streamlined next week.

Numeracy Anne Baker You Tube clip

This particular video resonated with me and I understood very clearly how Anne worked to develop success in her maths class- Problem Solving lesson- Some notes Maths class rules- you can talk to each other, you don't have to sit there in silence- no riubbing out, if you make a mistake you put a line through it and keep working out- all your thinking goes on your page- pictures, numbers etc Give think time, expectations, confidence to tackle a problem As moving around students ask questions, prompting questions, but no telling or showing Start talking with a child as soon as they have enough info on their page Tell me what you've done, why you have done it, is there another way you could have done it, how did you work it out, can you prove it to me- it's an intensive interview to see what the child is bringing to the task, then starts to prompt to see if they can go a little bit further, watching and listening very carefully, Always asks permission to write the story of what they told her on their work sample. If no permission she uses a stick it She records the documentary evidence, what the child did without assistance, with a prompt, what scaffolding was given and what child did as a result of the scaffold, now has documentary diagnostic evidence needed She selects 2 or 3 work samples to share with class- might choose one with an error in it, uses one from a less able student as well as a more sophisticated one, On the mat she involves students in explaining what their thinking was, what their strategy was. The class might be involved in summarising, in asking questions. This is a community of learners learning from each others, expecting to share ideas. This is a time for teacher input- comparing methods, might show another way of thinking about this, The lesson isn't complete until the maths has been deconstructed by the students, their work has been shared and peer learning has taken place If we want students to have a positive disposition to Maths we've got to make sure everybody has success and make even the least able child feel successful- their work though incomplete could be used to share so that they feel highly successful because their work sample has been valued She does not focus on the answer- work on unpacking the problem and find smart ways of parts within the problem. From the problem solving lesson we can pick up the strategy teaching the next day

End of Term 3

2 days to go, a mountain of To Do's but it doesn't feel too overwhelming. Knowing that I can spend time on everything over the hols really helps.
Have lots of data collection from my own class to do and analysing it. Even though there's only the one term left I'm hoping that there will still be lots of learning and progress happening.
Now I'm thinking about reports and that gets the blood pressure rising! That's before even thinking about looking at everyone elses.
Want to spend some time preparing maths for observation next term.
Found the ALiM on NZ Maths interesting especially for our slow learners that struggle to each expected levels. Will share with team in a minute.
Have loved the work on Poetry we've been doing in class and have been pleasantly surprised by the quality and quantity of writing from many children.
Thrilled to have found new website with appropriate poems to share- Miss Marg. She has a nice range of classroom posters to use as well.

Google Docs PD

This continues to be a big learning curve and the dots are starting to join together. So moving from teacherwrite to Google Docs for Middle Team will happen- when I have the time - probably the holidays.

Andrea is giving us the PD we need. It is unrealistic to expect anybody to be using Google docs without having the necessary PD. I'm sure this is another stress on teachers this year.
As much as we need to be working on PD curriculum based, this really an everyday priority for us all.