Thursday 10 October 2024
PLD August 2024 - POSITIVE EDUCATION - 3 Weeks
PLD- Week 1 we looked at some techniques for shifting states. Week 2 The Triggers Toolkit.......which is all part of our Pos Psych- Learn it....Live it before the Pos Ed teach it......
1. Take a deeper dive into that word that's bandied about- Resilience- by listening to a clip with one of the Resilience experts- Dr Karen Reivich.......I think it's a good idea to be really clear about what we mean as time has moved on and thinking around resilience has changed. It's also a word we use with whānau alot- so let's get on the same page!
Kura Ahurea - Language Planning - Tohutohu - Term 2
Classrooms Commands and Instructions using Rerehangu - Whiore
Kura Ahurea and Language Resources - Parakuihi and Rumaki Reo
Part of our Te Reo Māori has been to increase the Te Reo Māori being heard and spoken in a bid to improve our normalisation of Te Reo Māori..
Friday 16 August 2024
Writing PLD: applying a reflective lens to our literacy practice
Guided by recent PLD, we have been working on sharpening our conferencing with students and using Active Demonstration. Many of us have TAIs or other projects underway in the Literacy space.
Meanwhile, the Kāhui Ako WSLs are involved in a collaborative model where WSLs bring and share their data, TAIs, leadership inquiries with the aim to be challenged, stretched and supported in their projects. The emphasis on rigorous exploration, rather than jumping quickly to findings.With all this in mind, we are using the current pair of Writing PLD sessions to apply a reflective lens to the work we've all been doing. The aim is to sharpen our focus, discover new perspectives or resources, and discover avenues for collaboration between individual inquiries.
Session 1
Beth's project is exploring best practice for early identification of students who may experience challenges in literacy learning and effective ways to uplifting the achievement of our 'students of concern'.
Thinking specifically about the 'students of concern' that we've all identified, we shared actions that have taken this school year. We then located these actions on an effort vs. impact matrix.
Choosing where to place our actions and why, according to efficacy of outcomes and time/teacher resources demands, opened up some rich lines of inquiry.
When is an intervention not an intervention?
- When is an intervention not an intervention? In many instances, we are tweaking and shaping our teaching practice to adapt to the needs and interests of the students in front of us. This is being a responsive teacher - but it's not necessarily an intervention.
- How do we define an intervention? E.g. it's not 'business as usual'. It is time-bound. It comes after a number of other 'business as usual' actions have been taken. This outline may be helpful.
Cognitive load
- Interventions are often related to specific components of writing, for example letter formation.
- Cognitive Load: the conversation referenced 'The not so simple view of writing'. Are we making sure that we're scaffolding the learning so enable students to focus on specific aspects of their writing, rather than everything all at once?
A question of design
- What is best practice for particular learning needs and how do we know? (Evidence.)
- Who are we targeting and why? We can only design effective actions if we are clear who they are designed for and what the desired outcome is.
- Does the action we're taking truly match the outcome we are aiming for? And how will we know?
We will return to these questions as the will inform our thinking about lesson design and specific interventions to support our students.
Session 2
In our second session, we looked at a set of reflective questions that were designed to help us go deeper into our inquiries. We aimed to:
1. Nutshell our projects.
2. Experiment with using the reflective question cards to delve a little deeper.
3. End by identifying which questions are most productive for each of us at this point and where possible collaborations may exist.
The reflective questions were arranged into sub-groups to help users to zero in on what stage of the inquiry cycle they are currently working within.
Outcomes so far
- We have identified that we have a tendency to work on our TAIs in isolation. Sharing what we're working on enables us to find productive connections with the projects others are engaged with. Explaining our thinking to colleagues opens the door to lines of questioning or new information that enriches our projects. We are resolved to do more of this!
- Some people are working on TAIs related to our PLD and some are not. This raises a couple of questions: how do we track through the success of our PLD? Should we try to choose TAIs that relate to our school business plan?
- Experimenting with the reflective questions was an interesting challenge. It is noticeable that we quickly get 'into the weeds', with lots of detailed discussion about individual children or dynamics that are happening in class. How do we get into the habit of elevating the conversation beyond the nitty gritty?
- Finally, are we getting the most out of our TAIs as a tool for improving our practice in lasting and sticky ways?
No doubt there are more questions and reflections to add. In term 4, we will begin planning for our 2025 TAIs. It will be an interesting challenge for us to burrow into these questions and see if we can design inquires and that go deeper, are more connected, and yield stickier results.
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