Drawing Challenge- Yoda

So this week I set the challenge for my students to draw. They could draw anything that they wanted to, but they were not allowed to sketch. I set this challenge as drawing is something that I want to get better at doing. The children in my class openly laugh with me as I share my embarrassing images!
I have a puppy called Yoda and so I decided to give drawing Yoda (the Star Wars character not puppy) a go.

What do you think..... next step colour?

I can not wait to see what my students darw! And to see their faces once they see my drawing!

All in a Day's Work

The Teachers at Belfast School wanted to brighten up your days.
For your enjoyment........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxgB4NV7xVo&feature=youtu.be

Did you want to create a lock down dance with you and your family? The challenge is set!

Principal's Wananga

After returning from the Principals Wananga, this is what I found on my whiteboard. I am so blessed to have super tamariki who knew I was nervous and that wanted to celebrate my success with me.

Here is a link to a recording of my presentation (which I recorded after the Wananga). It is a snapshot of my problem, my proposal and of course what I came up with in regards to my tool.

It is not, nor will it ever be a completed tool. It has the capacity to grow and that is my plan heading into 2020. I am looking forward to incorporating more EOTC experiences, alongside the new stories and activities. I am moving towards continually shaping and developing my tool so that it can be used wider than just the four walls of my classroom. 

For other teachers to contribute and add to what I have started, would be a real humbling experience and would allow for true collaboration to take place. Collaboration between kaiako, kura and clusters throughout NZ, for the benefit of our tamariki.

I have to thank this incredible bunch of teachers who have supported, challenged and worked with me along this process of inquiry. Their support has been integral throughout this year. Thank you to my fellow MIT's for 2019! 

And to our wonderful leaders and supporters, who have enabled us to be on this journey of Learn, Create, Share. Dorothy Burt, Anne Sinclair, Jenny Oxley and Justine Todd- your wisdom and passion for Manaiakalani and all that it encompasses is awe inspiring. I have grown both personally and professionally because of this process. It has also emphasised for me, something that I have always believed.

He aha te mea nui o te ao. He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata
What is the most important thing in the world? 

It is people, it is people, it is people.

Here is a link to my Storytelling Site. Please do contact me if you would like to discuss anything related to this site. My email is: amber.wing@belfast.school.nz

Nga mihi nui,

Amber

Pecha Kucha

I have looked over some of the previous years Pecha Kucha and there certainly has been some learning going into putting this together. I have put something together that I think explains my journey and have my speaker notes ready to go. I have had a couple of runs through to practice..... as well as some impromptu ones in my desire to get to sleep for the night! Getting the timings right are my focus this week and it is proving to be a bit of a challenge. But nothing worth doing ever comes easy....so I will keep on keeping on. This is really important to me for a number of reasons. I want to be able to give justice to the number of hours and thought that has been put into this project. But most of all I want to show just how much I value the input of Manaiakalani and that without their support and encouragement along the way, I would not have had the opportunity to produce this tool. Here is my Pecha Kucha for Thursday's Wanganga. I will be presenting to Principals and DP's from throughout the Manaiakalani Clusters in New Zealand. What an amazing opportunity and one that I hope give justice to! Roll on Auckland!
 

Achievement

When listening to
Dr Aaron Wilson - Using data and evidence
to improve your practice

I think about VLO’s and identifying what the valued learning outcomes are for me as a teacher,
my students and my school community in regards to my MIT project. What is it that I want the
students to achieve and are these things actually valued by students and myself alike?

Achievement is obviously at the heart of what I want the students to achieve from my project,
but what about things such as their attitude to writing, the key competencies that they develop
through this project and enabling Maori to have success as Maori? Is the student’s participation
in this project accelerated and are they more engaged? What progress have they made?

What also resonated with me was around teacher observations and the problems with ‘observing.’
When observing we can tend to ‘see what we want to see’ and that we can make judgments based
on these. We can also focus our observations on one thing and make these observations fit with
what we want to see. So when I think of the observations that I have made in my classroom, how
valid are these observations? Do I add my own bias to these observations when what I am wanting
to see is progress in my students writing?

I have got student voice, anecdotal comments, and writing samples on their drive and in their books.
But ultimately, the shift I am wanting to make is in their achievement.

Have I enabled Maori to have success as Maori and incorporated a Ngai Tahu story into the
curriculum? Yes. Tuakana / Teina relationships are evident in my classroom to help those who
are less confident in writing to get the support that they need. Maori Kupu are being discussed
and used in class. Discussions have been rich around the mighty Pouakai.

Are the students developing their Key Competencies through this digital Storytelling process?
Yes. The students are communicating and collaborating, supporting one another through this
process. Sharing their learning tasks on their blogs and with others within the classroom environment.
They are developing their use of language, being exposed to rich discussions and a different
‘older style’ of written English. 

Engagement and interest has sparked richer vocabulary and this is clearly evident when you ask
the children about the Pouakai and read their writing. But has this made the shift required in their
achievement?

How are we going? MIT2019

I think it's important to document the process and journey that I am on as then I can look back at what worked, what didn't work and then look at the next possible steps. It can be tricky at times to document your whole journey and all the little moments of thinking and changes / adaptions you go through along the way. I think that as a profession we are always being reflective and looking at other ways that we can do things more effectively. I do however think that sometimes we have our own 'intended curriculum' and the things that we want our students to learn and don't check in with the students to get their voice and feedback. Are the students getting what we are intending them to get?

Up until this point I have shared my intervention with the Staff at my school and have had informal feedback from the Deputy Principal, commenting on a sample of writing from my students. I have also done a midway survey with my students to gain student voice in regards to what they are enjoying / not enjoying about the Digital Storytelling Resource, what they have learnt and where some next possible steps could be for this resource. 

Here is the feedback here:




I have highlighted some of the key themes from the feedback so that I can take some of this on-board as I put together the next story. It has been an interesting process as the use of this resource essentially takes a term to use, so the final feedback (for this story) will come later in the Term and of course the data (E-asTTle Writing Sample) will come early next term.
Informally, I have the writing samples, digital learning objects/ activities that the children have created which show the learning that the students are making. I have the discussions that I have had with my students and anecdotal notes in my planning too. Formally, I have not done an E-asTTle Writing sample as I we have these coming up early Term 4. 

My next steps however will be: 
To get formative data so that I can show the shift in their writing level

KPMG Day 3, into the Dragon's Den

I returned last night from another thought provoking and inspiring trip to Auckland. I am inspired by my fellow MIT teachers, Dorothy, Jenny, Anne and Manaiakalani as a whole.
I came into this trip quite hesitant as I knew that part of the process of sharing our tools, was so we could 'know our tool', 'articulate what our tool could do' and have clarity heading into October.
I knew that my tool was nowhere near finished, and knew that there were many gaps that needed to be filled.

Listening to my MIT colleagues share their tools was great as it highlighted many things that I knew needed to be worked on, but also some other avenues that needed exploring further.

I do that I need to have my tool at a level that I can be proud of and that will give mana and credit to Manaiakalani and those who I have been given the blessing of working with this year.

Things going forward that I need to work on are:

• Shared space for teachers to submit stories to Storytelling site- add spreadsheet
• Note on site, thanking Manaiakalani and that I can send a copy of site to others
• Teaching practice ultimately is the ‘guts’ of a teaching experience
• Add in WALT’S to site
• Storytellers- Kaiapoi High (Remi), Mairehau High (Student), Eugene
• Film stepping out process
• Step- draw visual to represent this part of the process. Film how this could be stepped out.
• Prepare for Principals Wananga- October!