Term 4 Week 1 - Revision Bites & Maori Achievement

Picture from http://www.cvcweb.net/course/view.php?id=826

Revision Bites for Form Time
These revision bites have been written for junior students but could also be worthwhile covering with your senior students as well.There are 8 revision bites in total which means that you will need to cover four a week with your form class over the next 2 weeks.
This is the link to the wiki page with all the revision bites, a study timetable template and other revision ideas (scroll to the bottom of the page):
http://smc-sct.wikispaces.com/Revision+bites

Maori Achievement
I have set up a page on the SMC-SCT wiki (http://smc-sct.wikispaces.com/Maori+Achievement) which I will update with readings, initiative documents and any other resources relevant to Maori Achievement. Please email me if you have any resources that would be appropriate to upload or link to.
New to this page is the ERO report (May 2010) on how schools are progressing towards raising achievement for Maori students.

Term 3 Week 10 - Student evaluations

It's that time of year when we are marking like crazy, giving back exam papers and trying to engage students in reflecting on their own learning and what they need to do to reach their end of year goals. It is also a time for us to reflect on our teaching practice - what are we doing well and what we can improve on. There are a number of ways that we can do this. I think it's a really good time to ask the students what they think. Gaining insight into how students feel about our teaching and our subjects just before the holidays gives us time to implement some of their suggestions for next term.

Two simple evaluation tools: PMI (Plus Minus Interesting) and Questioning.

Some descriptions of PMI and templates:
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/1825
http://www.wettropics.gov.au/st/rainforest_explorer/Resources/Documents/4to7/TeachingStrategies/PMIStrategy.pdf
Questioning

Can be as simple as the questions that I asked my Year 10 class to comment on:

• What are some things that you have found challenging in English this year? (what are the things that we do in English that make your head hurt or have the potential to make your head hurt?)


• How can I challenge you in English next term?

I got some very valuable and honest responses, especially feedback for next term - they would like lots of timed essays apparently. So we are starting with one on the first day back.

Remember I am available to support you with your teaching practice - observations, help creating resources/ unit plans, look after your class while you visit another teacher's classroom ...

Hope you all have a good break over the holidays

Term 3 Week 8 - bits and pieces

Professional Reading: Hard to reach students
"The long Game"- An article by Paul Dix about a sustained approach to improve the behaviour of students who are difficult to engage in learning. This article discusses the organisation of teaching spaces to create positive behaviour patterns in the classroom.

Professional Reading: using visual tools to focus dialogue
"I Hear What you Say" gives striking insight into the way conversations - particularly those we term "difficult conversations" are actually two monologues happening at the same time. The article gives ideas on how to make the most of conversations with students and colleagues.
It comes from a site called http://www.modellearning.com/ which has a number of resources based on visual graphic tools.

Professional Reading: blog posts about National Standards, John Hattie and Anne Tolley
These blogs are worth a read as a critique of what is going on in education at the moment and serve as a contrast to what is in the mainstream media.
Leading and learning
Networkonnet

e-learning ideas: the PODs are coming
A slideshow about the use of PODs (personally owned devices) as learning tools.

The POD's are Coming

View more presentations from David Truss.

e-learning ideas: tagxedo (thanks to PC for this idea)
Did you like wordle? If so, you'll love tagxedo (tag cloud with styles).
Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text. A video of how to use tagxedo:

Term 3 Week 6 - Stress management

This was sent to me by my mum on Monday. I'm not sure who came up with it but I felt it pertinent to how I am feeling at the moment with trying to balance work and life commitments.



A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience,
raised a glass of water and asked, 'How heavy is this glass of water?'

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it
becomes.'

He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management.

If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,

As the burden becomes increasingly heavy,

We won't be able to carry on. '

' As with the glass of water,

You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.

When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.'

'So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.

Don't carry it home.

You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now,

Let them down for a moment if you can.'

So, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now.

Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, And some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, Just in case you have to eat them.

* Always wear stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colours, but they all have to live in the same box.

* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Have an awesome day...

Term 3 Week 5 - "Ease the Load"

This week's PD Bite is a site with videos aimed at helping teachers manage their work load. There are real-life examples (from the UK) of how to manage your workload efficiently and productively, while improving your work/life balance. There are 27 videos so hopefully everyone will find one that suits their needs. The web page is TeachersTV: Ease the load.

The research I am doing for my university paper highlights that changes in education and other work pressures which overwhelm teachers are an issue in The USA and Great Britain, as well as Australia and New Zealand. So we are not alone...

Term 3 Week 4 - supporting ESOL students, inquiry learning and how to engage students when copying notes

TEACHING STUDENTS TO COPY NOTES MORE EFFECTIVELY

There are many occasions when we need students to copy notes down from the whiteboard/ Powerpoint ... Often this takes forever, with students only copying one word at a time.

To overcome this problem, insist that they try to read 3 or 4 words at a time before they put their heads down. to write. Challenge them to step up and read one full sentence at a time.

Information will be better reinforced if students are copying phrases and sentences rather than one word at a time.

Asking the right questions - Teachers’ questions can build
students’ English language skills

Following on from Bev's presentation at staff meeting about how we can better support our International and NESB students - this article explains and gives examples and ideas about how we can better use questioning to support the learning of our students who come from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Inquiry Learning and Teaching as Inquiry

Here is a link to shortish blog post by Bruce Hammonds (a NZ independent educational adviser who helps schools transform themselves into learning communities and enjoys sharing the ideas of creative teachers) about the importance of Inquiry Learning and Teaching as Inquiry. Worth a read

Term 3 Week 3 - inspiration, technology & student engagement

INSPIRATION:
The pothole gardener










A GREAT WEBSITE:

Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (C4LPT)
This website provides details and links to free resources about new trends, technologies and tools. You can keep up to date with what's new in this area, by reading the Pick of the Day blog as well as the Social Media for Working and Learning blog.

Pages that I find really useful and insightful are: The Emerging List of Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 (as at 03 August 2010) and TOOLS DIRECTORY: Image, Audio and Video tools


PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: READINGS
Being consistent is the key to a well behaved classroom - find out how you can be consistent in the way you treat student behaviour.

Student engagement
Rearrange the Desks: Reposition the Students' Seats to Help Retain their Attention
What They See Is What We Get: A Primer on Light - Ten myths about lighting and color in schools.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: VIDEO

Big Thinkers: Katie Salen on Learning with Games
A professor of design and technology at Parsons The New School for Design talks about the value of games and the empowerment of play.