Use inquiry, collaborative problem-solving and professional
learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and
achievement of all learners.
- Inquire into and reflect on the effectiveness of practice in an ongoing way, using evidence from a range of sources.
- Critically examine how my own assumptions and beliefs, including cultural beliefs, impact on practice and the achievement of learners with different abilities and needs, backgrounds, genders, identities, languages and cultures.
- Engage in professional learning and adaptively apply this learning in practice.
- Be informed by research and innovations related to: content disciplines; pedagogy; teaching for diverse learners including learners with disabilities and learning support needs; and wider education matters.
- Seek and respond to feedback from learners, colleagues and other education professionals, and engage in collaborative problem-solving and learning-focused collegial discussions.
I have been exploring ways to approach visual art in a different way. This year, I plan to use the work of 'real' artists to inspire work we do in class. We can study the different styles and techniques used by these artists to produce original art. I'm excited about this! We're going to start off with self portraits, inspired by James Rizzi.
7 February 2018
In the week leading up to our trip to Kai Iwi Beach, I collaborated with the other staff to come up with a RAMs for our trip. We had all visited the site prior to filling in this form, so were all able to contribute to identifying the hazards. It was great to be able to share ideas with the other staff.
17 March 2018
I read an article from the New Zealand Science Teacher Magazine – ‘Unlocking
The Idea Of Capabilities In Science’. I have made notes about the key points about the capabilities:
- The capabilities are a way to ‘join the dots’ between the science strands, key competencies and the NZC.
- The capabilities support the concept of developing responsible citizens in society.
- The article gave an example (climate change), and how the capabilities might be used to make sense of a topic like this.
- All capabilities ‘begin’ at Level 1-2 and build from there. These capabilities can make a powerful impression on students over time.
- The 5 capabilities sum up the many capabilities that students need.
- Some students will naturally develop the capabilities, while others will depend on us.
17 March 2018
I read an article by Rosemary Hipkins, 'Weaving A Coherent Curriculum-How The Idea Of Capabilities Can Help. I have made notes about the key points:
- This article outlines the four main capabilities as outlined in the NZC.
- The article is not science specific.
- Making Meaning In Discipline Specific Ways - requires students to take the perspective of scientists, to think like a scientists. A teacher might say, "You're thinking like a scientist", or, "You're investigating like a scientist".
- Perspective Taking - this is when you see an idea from the perspective of someone else. Supports students to be more actively engaged.
- Critical Inquiry - when students are active participants in knowledge building, they build their own awareness of new knowledge. Students act like 'junior' scientists.
- Taking Action - this is about knowing when and how to take specific action. Participatory experiences are fundamental to the NZC.
29 March 2018
Today
we had our next PD session with Sabina.
We each shared how things have been going with our science units, and
discuss all sorts of science related stuff!
My reflections:
16
April 2018
- It was great to be able to have the time to discuss these things. 90 minutes was the perfect amount of time.
- I am enjoying having Sabina as our facilitator. She clearly knows her stuff, and I love the way she is able to give ideas about pretty much everything we discuss. All her ideas are relevant and I can clearly see how they would be implemented in the classroom.
- Sabina gave some really good ideas around how I might approach the next phase of our weather unit, which is to (attempt) to answer some of the students’ questions. I have a good idea about how I am going to do this in Week 11.
- I felt pleased that Sabina thought my wind measuring device was pretty cool.
- I really enjoyed our discussion about what our next unit might look like. I am quite inspired by the idea of ‘How can we solve the plastic problem’ - this would be a science based inquiry.
Today
I attended a science course at Freyberg High School. The focus was on learning more about the
science capabilities. My reflections:
- I found the day to be really worthwhile.
- I can see myself ‘copying’ some of the activities we did – they were practical and easy for me to make the link to how it might work in R6.
- I enjoyed the opportunity to meet and collaborate with some other teachers, especially several from Ross Intermediate. I liked several of their ideas about how they are approaching science.
- It was awesome to be given a digital copy of all the notes and resources from our sessions. I love the fact that Sabina is 100% happy for us to have everything!
- I feel a lot more confident with my understandings of the capabilities. Am definitely starting to get my head around each of them.
- It was definitely a benefit to have (nearly) all our staff there. We took the opportunity to discuss lots of difference sciency things!
Today I attended a
course facilitated by Stephen Williams.
The first 1½ was a waste of time, as we spent too much time introducing
ourselves and mucking about. It got
better after that!
- It was really good that Stephen shared his PP presentation with us. That will be useful when I want to look back at the resources etc.
- I was a little apprehensive about the fact that the two practical activities were physics based - I know hardly anything about that stuff.
- I enjoyed the car crushing activity and can see how this might be adapted to fit my class. It would make a cool little practical science investigation, possibly as a one-off lesson. There are strong links to Technology with this lesson too. It was interesting to see the roles we all filled, and how some people ‘hogged’ the good jobs. Really need to be mindful of this with the kids.
- I also enjoyed the parachute activity, even though the physics concepts were quite hard for me to get my head around. The WOW factor of Felix would make this a cool activity to do with the class too. I would need to spend some time preparing the kids for the lesson, especially to define the different types of energy. I would also need to upskill myself on some of the concepts involved.
- I need to sit down with the resources for both activities and think about how they might work with my class. I am keen to get stuck into both of them this term.
- It was interesting to hear our secondary colleagues talk about high school science. Man, it is technical! It makes we worry that our kids must have no idea when they hit Y9 science! Having said that however, many of the complex things they were talking about were related to NCEA.
- Meeting and working with a wide range of teachers was awesome, and it’s always great to share ideas.
26 June 2018
I have recently been involved in peer observations in science. Kylie came to observe me, and I observed her. We both took notes and met up to discuss what we'd seen the next day. Here are the notes we took:
During a staff meeting, we also created this PMI Chart, based on the observation process:
28 August 2018
As part of our PD in science, we were asked to reflect on a lesson we had taught. We then shared this in a staff meeting. Here are my notes:
12 September 2018
Today Sabina (science adviser - Kaha Education) spent some time observing me teach a science lesson. I was pleased with how the lesson went, and Sabina gave me some interesting ideas to consider for next time. To prepare for the observation, we had to provide Sabina with some information:
1 March 2019
1 March 2019
Today I took part in a 'mega maths day' - a day of maths PD with our staff. Some of the key things we discussed were:
15 May 2019
Today I attended a STEAM course run by Office Max. The facilitators introduced us to a range of new products and we had a chance to play! While the 'toys' were fun, I found it hard to imagine how they might be integrated into my class programme, rather than being taught as an extra. There is a lot more thinking for me to do around the new digital technologies curriculum.
- the importance of teaching, not testing basic facts.
- how to analyse our PAT and Number Knowledge tests.
- the importance and benefit of using a scale score to track progress.
We also shared a number of resources, including modelling books and maths equipment, and learnt how to play some cool new maths games.
15 May 2019
Today I attended a STEAM course run by Office Max. The facilitators introduced us to a range of new products and we had a chance to play! While the 'toys' were fun, I found it hard to imagine how they might be integrated into my class programme, rather than being taught as an extra. There is a lot more thinking for me to do around the new digital technologies curriculum.
