RPI - Day 1: Reading is Core to Learning

 Mind Blown!

I'm impressed with how Kiri, Naomi and Sharon can pull everything together to fit our 8:45-3pm time frame. 

I have really enjoyed Day 1. Unlike the rest of the cohort - I went backwards with this ordeal. I was a mentor teacher last year to 2 RPI teachers from GTS. I personally felt that I was missing the 'Learn' part of the process. So I took my 'mentor' hat off and became a 'mentee'. We're learners too :)

I love the 'un-packing' of everything. In all the sessions covered today, I really appreciate the time our facilitators take to thoroughly explain everything. Emphasis on the fact that 'Detrimental Effects of Poor Reading Ability' was an eye-opener. I also liked the analogy that was used to illustrate Effective Teacher Accelerated Learning - the idea of the airport travelator and how it takes us to the destination faster.

What I learnt that could improve my capability and confidence in teaching reading was the importance of knowing 7 attributes of a readers profile. I also enjoyed looking at examples of task-boards and what reading across the curriculum looked like, great learning about the ground rules of talk and the pillars of practice (I have a 8 page google doc from my 'uh-huh' moments today) Christine's 'uh-huh' moments

I can definitely use the task-board idea with my learners, especially the reading challenge (created by Robyn Anderson) and some of her other intervention outcome ideas and I am excited to share these ideas with my school community.

2024 - Let the new journey begin!

 Malo e lelei 2024 :)

Back and excited to be in a new role this year, working as an Across Kahui Ako Teacher. My focus this year will be on the transition of Year 8 students into High School.

This role would draw on my experience working with GTS colleagues and Y7&8 students, to assist students' transfer from primary to secondary learning by boosting their readiness, engagement, agency and confidence.

Throughout my years of experience in Education, I have witnessed the critical importance of a seamless transition for students from Intermediate to High School. This is pivotal in a student's education journey, influencing their future academic trajectory and personal growth. I am motivated to ensure this transition is as smooth and empowering as possible for each student.

In conjunction with this, I want to enquire about collaborative teaching and how it's deemed to be the "new successful approach" to teaching and learning, through all learning areas. 

I also look forward to further implementing the resources and knowledge I'll be gaining from RPI. Last year, I was a mentor teacher, this year, I decided I too wanted to further up-skill myself and actually take part in the Reading Practice Intensive, to better my own practice and to ensure I am doing the intervention justice. 

I look forward to working alongside my fellow Kahui Ako Teachers and our learners for 2024.

**Final thoughts for 2023...

Goals/Targets

• I aspire to use the opportunity of gaining AS CoL to mentor the teaching and learning of teachers and students in our cluster - with a specific focus on Culturally Responsive Pedagogies and the transition of Year 8 students into High School.

How can I measure that?

• Considerable experience working with GTS colleagues and Y7&8 students - also have worked with colleagues from a couple schools in our cluster (GI, Glen Brae & Ruapotaka School), to assist students’ transfer from primary to secondary learning by boosting their readiness, engagement, agency and confidence.

• My experience has helped me understand that most of the content as well as the methods of our formal education systems continue to be based on western rather than indigenous methodologies. This is what drives me to believe that teachers of Pasifika learners should continue to implement the Culturally Responsive Competencies into their practice, if they - and their students - are to succeed.

So what? 

• I believe I have the experience and the ideas for making a success of this role in 2024. It will allow me to contribute and innovate in a way that could be a game changer in our cluster and ultimately contribute to helping bridge the gap between Primary (Year 8) and High School (Year 9 and 10) learning for Manaiakalani learners.

Blog post #15 - Monitoring - Checkpoint #2

We've entered the term of Assessments.

Right now, is where I share some Quantitative Data on shifts that were made in my team of students and teachers.

Before sharing the data, I just want to highlight the shifts/changes in practice we've made so far this year. 

1. Reading Programme - Collaborative Approach in teaching and grouping of learners. We cross-grouped our students.
2. Implementation of RPI resources/Ideas
3. Task boards instead of Tumbles
4. Mahi Tracker - for students to link their work
5. Teacher Workbook - includes assessment data for students throughout the year, teacher reflections & observations from lessons

Everything listed above played a part in the intervention this year. What I am looking for now are shifts from BOY data and EOY (in all areas).

Below are the results from my classes BOY assessments. We are hoping to make a shift of a norm diff gain of 1.3+ in Maths and 2 in Reading.

Reading Comprehension & Vocabulary:

Writing:

Maths:

Bursts & Bubbles 2023

My Inquiry focus for 2023 is: 

WOULD A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING AND LEARNING INCREASE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND READING DATA?

What was happening for my learners?

• My learners were both teachers and students. Our current reading programme at the time was ok but we needed a change.

What evidence do I have to support this?

• In Term 1, my team and I worked in our school hall due to class renovations. Obviously, this meant my teacher practice had to change. MLE wasn’t new to us, we’d heard about it and we’d visited some MLE schools, but to teach in an MLE environment, that was new to us. We were in one big space with 75 kids and 3 teaching.

• We thought we could continue with the usual timetabling schedule we had in our single cell classes…one week later? It flopped…groups were too big, kids weren’t engaged, teachers were exhausted.

What changes did I make?

• We sat and re-grouped our students - where we teach students from all 3 classes.

• Our students are learning through a collaborative approach.

• We included RPI resources into our Reading programme 

•  Our Teacher Practice was constantly evaluated, driven by this new approach to learning.

• We referred to the pillars of practice document guidance of our reading programme, we created interactive taskboards, a digital teacher work-book, a tracking sheet for students to link their work into etc

• We sat termly e-asttle tests to monitor and track learning progress with the RPI intervention.

Some literature that helped me along the way were:. 

• Literature I used can be found on my blog.

The hardest things for me to change was:

• My practice…Being part of the RPI programme, you are constantly reflecting on a daily to ensure that you’re applying what you’ve learnt the Reading Practice Intensive in the classroom.

• Ensuring the students a reading for enjoyment, that they’re aware of the ground rules for talk, that my teams groupings are flexible, that we read like writers and write like readers and we provide our students with effective feedback and feed forward and we provide opportunities for Higher order thinking learning.

My wonderings?

• Much of what drives me as an Educational leader is a commitment to the well-being of students and positively engaging with them in a culturally responsive way.  Students value those who 'hear them out' and make an effort to understand them. Could this relational pedagogy help when they transition from Y8 to Highschool?

• How can I ensure that the knowledge and understanding my Y8 learners leave GTS with, is maintained and cared for in Y9?

• Why is there a drop-off in Y9?

• Could a collaborative approach to teaching and learning be effective in Y9?

For my EOY results - check out my blog :)