Appointment Schedules for 2024.

Malo e lelei Teachers,

I think the adrenaline and excitement is still floating around in my system. I find that in the beginning of the year, everything seems possible. Nothing is too big to achieve and you just want to get the ball rolling.

 Anyhow, exciting news - Fiona has informed us of this new feature on calendar called 'Appointment Schedule'. We've set up our schedule and if you need any support from me, you can simply click this link and it will take you to the booking page.

I am happy to meet in person or online. We can even arrange a time for meet and chat about what sort of support you're after and what I can do to help. I also want to ensure I come prepared so that the support offered is effective and we utilise the time wisely.

Strengths: Culturally Responsive Pedagogies & Literacy - BUT I am happy to offer my help in all areas of learning.

Look forward to meeting some of you soon.

MALO.

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: