Term 2 Week 10 - how can I meet different learning needs in my classroom?

This Week and Upcoming Events
4 - 10 July - Maori Language Week - “Manaakitanga” as the theme for Māori Language Week 2011. According to the Chief Execuative of The Maori Language Commission, Glenis Philip-Barbara, "Manaakitanga is a very important tenet of Māori custom and identity - how we make people feel welcome when they are in our company, and how we give regard to and care for others when hosting visitors."

8 July - Red Socks Day - Red Socks Day will be held during Leadership Week on Friday 8th July – to encourage schools, organisations and individuals throughout New Zealand to celebrate leadership in action and to remember a great New Zealand leader, Sir Peter Blake.
11 July - World Population Day

Professional Readings

• Dealing with low level disruption in your classroom

Differentiation Readings and Strategies

• Still a long way to go on inclusion of pupils with autism, says report (UK)
• A short article - How can I meet differing learning needs in the classroom?
• Autism NZ website - The estimated population of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders in New Zealand is approxiamately 40 000. This website has information about Autism Spectrum Disorder including videos.
• Tools for Teachers of children with autism - According to recent studies the current prevalence for children on the autism spectrum stands at about 1 in 100 which equates to just under 134,000 children in the UK. This means that if you are not already teaching a child on the autism spectrum you are very likely to do so at some point in your career. As such it is important to have an awareness of autism spectrum disorders and how to implement strategies to enable children on the spectrum to access all aspects of school life and to reach their full potential. This toolkit is also saved on the T Drive (T:\Reflective Practice Group\2011)

General Strategies

Paula (PC) sent me the link to this blog by Jerry Webster, which summarises 49 Techniques from the book Teach Like a Champion: Instructional and Classroom Management Strategies for Academic Success. The strategies are divided into sections:

• Setting High Academic Expectations
• Planning that ensures academic achievement
• Structuring and delivering your lessons
• Engaging students in your lessons
• Creating a strong classroom culture
• Building and maintaining high behavioral expectations
• Building character and trust

Each week I will include a link on this blog to one of the strategies. Teach Like a Champion — Technique Number One: No opting out. Teachers with high expectations don't accept "I don't know," but expect students to be engaged and "give it a shot."

Term 2 Week 9 - Maori Youth Council report and the art of questioning

Professional Reading

In Their Own Words! presents the findings of the Māori Youth Council, prepared in response to the call from the Minister of Māori Affairs “to hear directly from young people what they think about how the Government’s policies and programmes work for them”.

The report contains a review of current policy initiatives including:

·         Kura Kaupapa Māori;

·         He Kākano;

·         Ka Hikitia; and

·         Te Kotahitanga.

There are four common themes present in the recommendations. They are:

·         greater use of whānau- and community-based initiatives;

·         improved access to information;

·         more targeted resources; and

·         greater use of Te Reo Māori to engage youth.

The full report has been saved on the T Drive (T:\Reflective Practice Group\2011) and a copy will be bound and put into the Teacher Resource section of the school library.

Thinking Strategy

Asking Questions - Asking questions is fundamental to helping students acquire knowledge. Ulrike Thomas looks at four key issues to consider when thinking about questioning.

Term 2 Week 8 - Literacy

Upcoming Events

Wednesday 29th  June - Free teacher preview to AQUA, Ak Museum at 4:30-7 pm.
True to the spirit of Cirque du Soleil's thrilling creations, AQUA is a multisensory adventure for the whole family. AQUA uses massive 360° projections, interactive digital screens, music and visual effects to draw visitors into the experience and tell the story of water. Carry your own water drop and interact with the digital screens - with a wave of a hand, you can create a stormy sea! Experience the magic of AQUA.

Free teacher preview to AQUA at Ak Museum at 4:30-7 pm on Wed Jun 29, Jul 7 or 13. Email ksargent@aucklandmusuem.com  to book your place for a preview.

Professional Readings
What characterises good teaching and good teachers? Here are two articles which explore this concept:

• A characterisation of teaching from Graeme Aitken (University of Auckland)
• New York Times article “Building a better teacher”. This article takes an in-depth look at the question, What makes a good teacher?

Literacy Resource/ Strategy:

There is a great website called “Teaching That Makes Sense” which is the brainchild of educator Steve Peha. He provides amazing resources for reading, writing and thinking for teachers to use across the curriculum. I have used some of the ideas myself and this booklet entitled - Learning Across the Curriculum: Reading, Writing and Thinking Skill Strategies for student success – gives teachers many easy to use strategies to improve reading, writing and thinking in their curriculum area. A copy of the contents page is below.

Term 2 Week 6 - e-Learning

Upcoming Events

• 13th - 19th June - National gifted awareness week. Don't forget to visit the TKI Gifted & Talented community for ideas on how to support our gifted and talented students.
• Wednesday 15th June - National Support Staff Day
• Friday 17th June - World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
• World Refugee Day is on 20th June with events around the country.

Professional Reading

• A relatively old (2004) but nevertheless interesting paper from Rosemary Hipkins (NZCER) about the possibility of changing the way the curriculum is delivered in secondary schools.
• Teaching Secrets: Asking the Right Questions - by Elizabeth Stein. How the right questions can help students learn. Special-education teacher Elizabeth Stein offers suggestions for asking questions to determine whether students understand material or are merely recycling facts. Stein, who co-teaches an inclusion class, suggests educators first create an atmosphere conducive to meaningful learning. Then, she writes, teachers should ask open-ended, diagnostic and other questions that encourage students to analyze and evaluate what they have learned.  

e-Learning Strategy
Do you know anything about "flip-thinking" or the "flipped classroom"? I didn't until today. Read all about it here or get involved in a webinar about the concept. This "flipped classroom" concept is one that we would need to adapt in NZ because we don't tend to encourage lecture style teaching anyway. Similar things are being done here at SMC - the Science Faculty were recording demonstrations for students to watch at home on the Science wikis that they've set up and Tim has been creating help videos for all sorts of e-products that we need to know how to use. Has anyone else been doing anything similar? Last year I videoed myself planning and writing an essay on my laptop for my Y13 class but was too embarrassed to upload it anywhere - anyone else hate the sound of their own voice...??

Term 2 Week 5 - differentiation

Upcoming Events

• Samoan Language Week runs from 1 – 7th June and the Human Rights Commission has details in both Samoan and English, scroll down the page for the English text.
• Matariki is on the 4th June
• World Environment Day and Arbor Day are on 5th June
• World Oceans Day is on 8th June
  

Professional Reading
The Flexible Teacher - Leila Christenbury: Good teaching comes not from following a recipe, but from consistently putting student needs first.

The Overpressured Student - Richard Weissbourd: What school can do to curb destructive forms of academic pressure.


Differentiation Strategies
Objectives That Students Understand - Robert J. Marzano: Even seemingly straightforward classroom strategies like providing students with instructional objectives can be executed more or less effectively.

Giving students choices is a great way to differentiate for student needs and interests. This wiki has choice board templates that you can use or adapt to create resources for the topics that you teach.

Term 2 Week 4 - an engaged classroom

Upcoming Events
21-29 May - Youth Week
31 May - Smoke-free Day


With us all having exam marking and other pressures on our time, this week's post is a link to a discussion on edutopia: An Engaged Classroom . . . Dos and Don'ts. Hopefully the ideas shared by the teachers involved in the discussion might be things we can try or go back to doing when we return to our full teaching loads next week.

Term 2 Week 3: A little bit on understanding, thinking & creativity

Upcoming Events:
22 May - International Day for Biological Diversity - Theme for 2011: Forest Biodiversity

Professional Reading:
Do You Check for Understanding Often Enough with Students?
The learning environment needs to be one in which students feel respected and safe to take risks; kids need to feel that their learning has a purpose and that the curriculum is relevant to their lives; and students need feedback on their progress -- they need to know what they're trying to accomplish, where they are in relation to the goal, and what they need to do in order to get there.
This blog post is also interesting - What is understanding?

Good teachers may not fit the mold
Research suggests that good teachers possess a few simple, quantifiable attributes.

Thinking/ Creative Strategy:

Using nonlinguistic representation
Is a picture really worth a thousand words? According to brain researcher John Medina (Brain Rules, 2008), when we receive information orally, we only remember about 10 percent of the content three days later. However, when that information is paired with a picture, we're likely to remember 65 percent of the content.

In Classroom Instruction that Works, McREL applied this research and found that when used correctly, nonlinguistic representations (e.g., graphic organizers, mindmaps, mental pictures, and manipulatives) can have a powerful, positive effect on student learning. So the next time you introduce a new concept in your classroom, remember to pair it with a "picture" to improve retention. This is where tools such as Hyerle Thinking Maps, picture dictations etc. come in to play.

Thinking on the Spot (from the Auckland SCT wiki)- use this powerpoint to encourage students to think quickly. Adapt it to suit your curriculum area and it could be used as a quick, fun plenary, especially for afternoon classes.