RPI Day 9 - Time to Share and Celebrate!

 Today’s focus was on SHARE: making learning visible and giving feedback.

Sharing only happens if it’s planned, and it needs both visibility and reflection. Kids learn so much from each other and with blogging we can create really meaningful opportunities for them to post their responses to texts, reflections, and thoughts, and also connect to their peers’ learning by reading and commenting on their blogs.

We also dug into the power of feedback when it’s specific, timely and focused on the task. Research shows that descriptive plus generative feedback is much more effective than evaluative. Naomi shared some great practical ways to embed this into daily practice. AI tools like Brisk can also help with targeted feedback. Kiri reminded us that it’s important to always review and simplify AI comments, keep only a couple of multiple AI comments, so they stay clear and encouraging to our learners.

A positive learning environment is huge for both learning and collaboration. J. Hattie measured the impact at 0.72, which is really effective! One thing I’d love to build into class sites is a kete of reusable resources: graphic organisers, rewindable resources and other tools that give learners choice and independence in how they respond to text. I'm actually thinking about what should be included in such a KETE for a maths class site...

Final thoughts on the programme. I’m probably cheating, but I copied and pasted my responses from the last evaluation survey:)

1. How did the opportunity to attend the Reading Practice Intensive impact you positively?

I wish I had attended RPI back when I was teaching and leading a team. It would have been so helpful and practical. Such a great programme with amazing resources - from the WHY to WHAT and HOW. Thank you!

2. Which aspects of the RPI have particularly impacted your classroom practice, planning and workflow?
I really appreciated everything across all 9 days. Some ideas I’ve already used in practice, but others would definitely enhance it, especially digging deeper into vocab and connecting with Te Mātaiaho, which is still new to me.

3. What aspects of the in-school mentoring and coaching have impacted you positively?
N/A for me, but Naomi, Georgie, Dorothy and Kiri are always such great role models in their facilitation! I feel very fortunate to learn from the best in this space!

4. How do you think we could improve the RPI or better support the next cohort?
Honestly, I think the programme is fantastic just as it is.

5. Is there anything else you would like to say or let us know?

A HUGE thank you to the RPI team - you’re amazing!

Manaiakalani TOD

Today, we had great opportunities to connect with many Manaiakalani educators and engage in numerous discussions about effective practices for teaching literacy. With the support of my team, I led a CREATE workshop where our group explored toys from both the past and present. We had a blast learning about different types of toys and then had the opportunity to unleash our creativity by making our very own toys. We had a lot of fun learning, creating and playing this afternoon! 

Please feel free to visit my presentation below, which includes a multimodal site "Toys and Games Then and Now".

Create Staff Meeting - Silhouette Art workshop

Each term the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako hosts staff meetings as an opportunity for Manaiakalani teachers to connect with our COL Kaupapa and Pedagogy.

This time, my school hosted the Create Staff Meeting and I enjoyed the opportunity to share my practice with other wonderful and creative Manaiakalanai teachers. I was privileged to be supported by my team as this was the first workshop that we presented together. Well done Team Kea!

TAI - cognitive engagement and critical thinking during online learning - #21

It's been a rocky year with a lot of changes in practice due to the lockdown and adapting to prolonged online learning. 

During these times, I tried to continue to run a balanced programme for reading, writing and maths using high leverage practices and the Learn-Create-Share pedagogy. I was pleased with how students responded and participated during online learning.

I designed a number of integrated units using multimodal sites. I believe that this approach helped to differentiate during online learning but also raise students' confidence to participate and contribute. 

I continued with the main part of my TAI 2021 throughout the distance learning times - How will I change my practice to ensure my learners are cognitively engaged and develop their critical thinking skills across the curriculum - and can definitely say that my online learners deepened their critical thinking and stayed cognitively engaged during online learning. I recorded some Class onAir episodes and shared my resources to support these units.

TAI during Lockdown - Supporting other Teachers - #18

I was impressed with how our teachers took on board the latest PLDs and conversations about Maths in our classes and continued to improve their practice during the lockdown.

To support other teachers, I compiled and shared a number of digital resources. I keep getting positive feedback about this collection as it's easy to use for online learning at all levels. I hope you might find it useful too. 

Below is a number of great resources and online tools for teaching Maths in-class and especially online. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need support.

Steve Wyborney's Blog - Numerous pptx like Splat, Subitising, Estimations, Cube conversations, Hundred Board etc

Learning at Home - weekly plans 

Place Value 3 digit number representation - interactive

Problem Solving - all levels and strands

Problems and solutions for students

Picture books with mathematical content - all NZC levels with activities. Most of the picture books can be found on youtube.

Manaiakalani Teacher Only Day Presentation

At the end of Term 1, Ko te Kāhui Ako o Manaiakalani had a Teacher Only Day with a focus on effective pedagogy in Reading. We had a fantastic presentation by Dr Rae Si'ilata who briefly reminded us about the High-leverage practices.  Then she talked about culturally responsive pedagogy, her own experiences as a learner, and focused on effective bilingual/biliteracy practice for Pasifika learners in our schools.

During the day, teachers attended three other workshops to learn from our Manaiakalani colleagues - educators that know our tamariki, know our community, know our successes and challenges.  

I was privileged to present and share some aspects of my practice around Shared Reading and Integrated Learning. The feedback that I got from my colleagues and their enthusiasm during the workshop was very rewarding; Some of my colleagues said that I gave them ideas and strategies that they would like to implement into their practice in Term 2. 

The two workshops that I attended were full of practical ideas and resources. I look forward to using my new learning in Term 2. 

I think it was a great day to learn from each other, give and receive feedback and reflect on my own practice! 

Manaiakalani TOD website