2022 Teacher as Inquirer End

Room 2 

TAI - Reading Focus Post 1

This term it has been noticed that all though my learners are beginner readers they are challenged in retelling a story or talking about a simple picture.  My data tells me that they give very little information about a text even a simple explanation about a picture.    My goal is to extend their oral language by giving opportunities to talk about a picture in depth using talk moves, ideas from the speech language therapist and using a five finger retell. 

Example of a 5 finger retell that could be used.

My goal will be to trial a few different retell schemas and scaffold the learning,  implement a core board and implement talk moves. 

 

TAI - Student Engagement

This term our Teacher as Inquirer (TAI) focus has been student engagement and what strategies we are using.

This term I have had two thirds of my class coming to school with a lack of understanding of what is school and basic school readiness skills.   My soul focus of student engagement has been to establish what skills the children have all ready for formal learning.  After the first day at school it was evident this particular co-hort of learners have many challenges around school readiness particularly with following instructions and doing as the teacher asks.  

In order to establish formal learning programmes I have had to implement strategies on what is school and what is expected at school.  This has been done mainly through class and individual learning stories.  These learning stories are read everyday at school and some of the children have their own individual copies to go home. 

Another strategy I have implemented is the over use of stickers to shape the behaviour for formal learning to get the children to sit and listen and focus at mat time.  Once a child has received 10 stickers they get to choose a prize out of the teachers prize bag.  The whole class has visuals around the teachers whiteboard at mat time so they can clearly see the teachers expectations.  I also point to one if I think it is needing more attention from a particular child. 

   

We have been focusing on our class whaakatauki Maanaki Te Katoa  - (be kind to all) and the concept of Manaakitanga (respect). We visit these conversations around what this looks like and what we can say to each other to show Manaakitanga.  The students are now able to recite the whaakatauki and are more aware of showing respect towards each other and the classroom.   Good Manaakitanga is a strategy I have been using in order for the children to have developmental play in the afternoon as I found that the children lacked the tidying up skills to have free play initially and the concept of coming to school to learn and do work.

With Student engagement I have also implemented an environment that captures all learners learning and engaged at school.  I have saturated the classroom environment with photographs of the students engaged in learning to embed that this is their classroom and to take ownership for their learning. 

 

Pause - Breath - Smile

In 2021 we had some professional developmental around mindfulness.   We were introduced to pause, breath smile to have all teachers upskilled in mindfulness in the classroom.  The techniques taught were based on science and had been proven to have a calming effect on students.  Lots of the workshop lesson were based around an approach called straight backs soft bellies to calm students by using breathing techniques from the bottom of the belly.   The ideas is for students to become more self aware of how they are breathing and what their bodies are doing in that exact moment.  It helped us to become more aware of being present in that exact moment in time.  It taught me alot about "name the feeling, tame the feeling" and srategies around moving from the red zone (anxiety, anger, rage, frustration) into the green zone (calm, content, restful) by using a dong to settle the class and to talk in a softer voice than normal.  Most likely we will all have children in the classroom that are heavily in the red zone on a daily bases so equipping them with positive strategies and mindfulness can help them over come some emotional barriers.  

IPADS - Ako Ano

Last year I was introduced to Ako Ano for my teaching practice.  Initially I was a bit unsure about how this would work in my teaching practice as with anything new you always have alot of uncertainties running through your mind my biggest fear was how can I fit this into an already busy day.   I first started to implement this in one curriculum area once this curriculum area was established I introduced it into another curriculum area and gradually I was able to have established Ako Ano in all 3 curriculum areas.  The idea of doing a Ako Ano everyday is not always possible in a Junior classroom as you often have repeated learning Intentions.  To make it achieveable and realistic I would do one Ako Ano a week for each group.  Before they came to the teacher they could then view this on their own ipads.  As a teacher we like to be perfectionist but the idea of Ako Ano is not to have the perfect recording as you do not have the time to have lots of takes.  So the raw authentic recordings is what you see with real voices.  Over time my recordings did get sharper and the children got more use to you just having the ipad ready to record as part of their lesson structure. 

IPADS - Digital Capability

 

Last year and this year I am teaching in a 1-1 single cell N.E/Year 1 class with every child having their own ipad.  There is alot to unpack for me as a teacher in this learning enivoronment.   Although at times very challenging and time consuming I can see the benefits in the childrens engagement with learning and the sense of pride when viewing their work on their blog.  Our initial first Smart literacy focus has been around the care of their ipads and what this looks like in the classroom.  Strongly embedding hug holds and how to handle the Ipad when on flat surfaces are always the intial focus at the start of the year.  Also teaching the students how to put their device carefully away along with making sure they have their device on charge every night.