Nathan Mikaere-Wallis Professional Development

Nathan Wallis, is an international speaker, as well an child psychologist, father, and teacher. He was asked to come and speck to our school today and give us some insight to the importance of  one on one relationships in the first 1000 days of a childs life but also the continued importance of  a relationship and the strengths it brings.

Some of the main points that I took away from the day were:

•  Don't rush, be present in every childs life. Take time to make a connection/relationship. Positive, truth is critical to fostering the relationship needed for a child to prosper intellectually and emotionally I think what came through loud and clear was that warm, positive relationships with children is critical.
•  Boys and there later developmental rate than girls of the same chronological age. That children under the age of 5 are not developmentally ready to learn. Play based learning is a essential tool in the early stages of their schooling. As it fosters relationships, real based learning, and structure of peers.
• That the most important thing that makes a brain development healthy and develops intelligence is a strong relationship with one person, schools can help foster this by having children spend two years with a teacher.. This relationship is called a 'dyadic relationship' where a young person develops a mutual trusting relationship with the person as they know they are safe and don't have to protect themselves. 
•  He spoke about how some countries have brought in a programme that allowed a parent to stay at home once having children as a result both youth anxiety, depression and failure in childhood decreased. NZ has one of the highest rates of suicide in youth and that we were opening prisons rather than closing them. By fostering strong relationships with the dyadic these results would decrease.
• I thought his comment about using Te Reo Kori in the classroom was also very valid. Even though we don't have the largest Maori speaking group of children it plays in with the importance of embracing the full NZ culture that we live in. I do try to use it in the classroom but often tend to use only words I know I pronounce properly. I need to move out of my comfort zone and try and incorporate it. I will look to find some professional development around Te Reo to allow my teaching practices to grow.

Further INFO into the first 1000days

Nathan Wallis Power Point

PTC #11. analyse and appropriately use assessment information that has been gathered formally and informally

Today we worked as a whole staff to make sure that we are all marking e-astle writing at the same levels correctly. I found it was much easier to accomplish this with work that wasn't my students, as I marked on what was on the page not what I knew they were able to do. When it comes time to marking these I will not look at the writer, but the content. I have suggested that within our team we swap class writing.
Another meeting that would be good to go over would be running records some results aren't adding up based with the children's placement on the boards.

P.D on correct marking of e-astle workshop

PTC #6 6. conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme

PTC #6. conceptualize, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme
i. articulate clearly the aims of their teaching, give sound professional reasons for adopting these aims, and implement them in their practice
ii. through their planning and teaching, demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of relevant content, disciplines and curriculum documents
Minutes from Team planning

Every fortnight we meet as a middle school team to review practices, planning and share documents so that the whole team is on board and working well.
I really enjoy these meetings, they reassure me that what I am doing it to standard and provides feedback on areas of continued growth. Through the meetings I have realized that if something is making kids fizz at the seams its ok to keep going forward with it and allowing students to have a voice in their learning. If we end up writing all day one day, read the next. I am loving how we are sharing our maths, writing and reading books from the different levels. Feedback through conferencing is the key to making it real with the kids.

PTC #12 Critical Inquiry Sue Winters

12. use critical inquiry and problem solving effectively in their professional practice
i. systematically and critically engage with evidence and professional literature to reflect on and refine practice
 ii. respond professionally to feedback from members of their learning community
iii. critically examine their own beliefs, including cultural beliefs, and how they impact on their professional practice and the achievement of ākonga
 video of my teaching

On Thursday 25th May Susan Nelson and I went with Sue Winters to discuss peer coaching and having professional questioning techniques / questions in order to illicit true reflection and hopefully positive changes in practice (with high trust a must).
We both recorded on paper what was happening during 6 minutes of video of the other teaching. This was then read back to the teacher and questioning began.

Link to Npew folder

What aspect of your teaching practice did your Peer Coach question you about? (No more than 2 sentences)

The sequence of instructions and differentiation for the children in the group.

What is a change/fine tuning that you will make to your practice as a result of Peer Coaching Cycle 1?

I will reflect on giving too many instructions as a general overview and break the instruction down into the component parts of the planned maths lesson. Think about the specific learners in the group and not only take into consideration their maths learning needs but also their specific needs to help clarify their learning as they problem solve.  If I don’t get that right it will be hard to figure out why they may not have answered the question the way I anticipated they would.

What are you mulling over as a result of Peer Coaching Cycle 1?

That taking time to video my lesson should be something I do more often than when someone asks for it.  I also like the idea of having a variety of peer professionals being aware enough to help me become a more reflective teacher.  In this job we can’t do it alone. So as we become more collaborative in our planning that we need to look at how to become more aware of what we do in the classroom.  Perhaps as we work in classes with multiple teachers (ILEs) these teachers already have access to these types of professional relationships.

PTC Collaborative feedback on Anzac Imagery Poems

Today we focused on reworking our writing through the use of student editing feedback. We have been working intensely on creating quality writing and positive feedback from our peers. Students have reworked the poems three times now, Editing with themselves, their mixed ability buddies,students shared their learning then in small groups having someone else read their poem, to see if what they wrote was what they actually wanted to hear, lastly we had a teacher student conference. Our aim was to use language that would provoke the audience to create a clear picture of what was happening on the page. The end result was amazing, although it was a long process over three day. I would diffidently do this form of editing again with the students. The results were amazing, students were proud and quality was there. I would like to try and do this again using creative writing on an open topic so that they can write on what interests them.

 Life of a Soldier
Sorrow blankets the air, like thick fog,
Pain and grief was made.
Hopelessness, strikes the soldiers like lighten.
 Stories and letters fall.
Weeping, by dawn. Hopeless, by midnight.
 She weeps for her son at war.
 A map of torture, awaiting the letters of pain,
Torture comes and never leaves till the next letter comes.
Lest we forget
 Death rushes as quickly as water down a raging river,
Frightened, weak, sad, with despair.
Death come more quickly than expected. Life of a soldier By Olivia Scholte

PTC CRITERIA NO: 7 PROVIDING A COLLABORATIVE

PTC Criteria #7 ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga

Today we had fun in room 3 creating art based on the concept "We Belong to God " Students, teachers and aids all placed a hand on our cross. We then broke into mixed groups and created them for our class. Each group working together created an original quote showing their understanding of we belong to God at school, home, our community, our country or the world. 

Mid Term Appraisal 2017

Over the past two terms I have been working in Room 3 and the senior school doing CRT and Senior teacher release. I have been focusing on using Talk Moves that I had learnt during my time teaching in Room 12 Year 3/4 to help enhance my maths programme. Three days a week I teach Maths to R3 and have been working/collaboratively planning with Sylvia Dunkley. I still need to work on allowing wait time for all kids to see success instead of pushing through due time time restraints.





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