Exciting times in our Staff Meeting!

Here we are sitting in our staff meeting, sharing good ideas. Thanks to Shiralee Sands and Steve Ross for showing me how to use Thinglink. My challenge to myself is to use this with the students on Friday in R8. I know that the students will be fabulous...let's hope I can rise to the challenge!

What a day at Waikowhai Intermediate!

Today I had the privilege of taking our Y6s to see the Waikowhai Intermediate's Production of 'World Wai Web'. It was fantastic to see the young people enthusing over the Performing Arts. The dialogue was amusing, the dancing was spectacular, the musical performances were outstanding...and then there was the singing - just WOW!
A big shout out to those talented students and their teachers for all the hard work that has obviously gone into making such a successful show. It was particularly special to see those past pupils continuing to grow and excel. I will never listen to Purple Rain without thinking of the talent that was on show today.

Way to go Waikowhai Intermediate!

A great day in Room 8!

It's been a lovely day in Room 8. Whilst everyone was working busily on their novel responses, statistics interpretation and descriptive writing, different teams worked with me to play some new social skills board games.

These games promoted detailed discussions about: how we convey emotions, how we demonstrate good friendship skills, and whether good manners were conveyed in different scenarios. All of these games have supported our school code of conduct, 'RESPECT'.

Oh, and we had some fun at the same time! :-)

The day concluded with a fabulous collaboration of musical representation of a tradition fairy tale. The students created a unique graphic score for Goldilocks and The Three Bears. This wonderful learning has been shared on Room 8's blog.

When you visit Room 8's blog, you will also see the sharing of our student representatives for the Ako Hiko Student Led Toolkits - Way to go Waikowhai Students! We are proud of you.

Term Three Update!

The term is well under way and I've had the pleasure of working with R7 on Wednesdays! This has been great fun, but also a learning curve for me as R7 is a digital classroom and I have needed to develop my IT skills to keep up with the students! Thank goodness that they have been willing to help me by sharing their own learning, and have been patient with me along the way.

Statistics is our Strand focus for this term, so we've been looking at gathering and presenting data, before making statements based upon Probability. It's always interesting to see whether companies put more red lollies in a bag than blue ones! :-)

Additionally, it's fabulous to see the co-operation R7 displays when working in groups. They apply good listening skills and solve problems collectively.

During our time together, we have also been developing our musical skills. Look at us creating musical scores to accompany the story of Maui and the Sun.

We've also been  developing our understanding of SOLO this term. Check out R7's blog later this week to see how they have used HOT thinking maps to organise their thinking. To see further examples of SOLO in action, check out Pam Hook's website on HOT Maps and SOLO Taxonomy.

Happy Reflections

It's been so busy lately, that it has made me stop, think and come to the realisation that it is important to reflect upon all the positive events that have happened so far this term. I have also been checking in with our classroom blogs from across the school, and it has prompted me to make the commitment to check in each week to see the fabulous learning happening in every class.

On Friday 13th May, we experienced a 'Wild and Wacky Wheels Day' at school. It was a great deal of fun seeing everyone dressed up and whizzing around the playground upon different sets of wheels. The Student Leadership Team organised an entertaining day, under the guidance of Ms Sands. The entire school enjoyed time outside, undertaking many different activities. The wackiness of how everyone dressed for school that day provided much amusement. I have to admit, I finally succumbed ...and I am pleased to announce that my friesian cow onesie was a hit!

The staff enjoyed a dress up day for an entirely different reason, when we came together to enjoy a Pink Ribbon Breakfast. This was done to raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer research. Here we are looking pretty in pink! Thanks to Julie for organising our participation in this event.

Last week, the rain came down by the bucketload - but did we let that dampen our spirits? No way! Our enthusiastic Y5/6 students, accompanied by an equally enthusiastic staff and parent team, set off for 'Camp Muriwai' on Monday afternoon. Based at Houghton's Bush Camp, we had four fabulous days learning to challenge ourselves beyond our normal boundaries. 

Throughout the week we accomplished the following:

• Walking the Goldie Bush Walkway, between Bethells and Murwai, which included crossing a swing-bridge, marvelling at a beautiful waterfall and having a great deal of fun balancing down the muddy pathway (some more successfully than others!) before trekking up the steep steps to find the bus waiting for us.
• Spending a wild day at the beach, playing in the dunes and on the sand, whilst it rained and hailed. We came to realise that this did not matter in the slightest, we were well equipped with raincoats! Rain is just another element - it doesn't stop Waikowhai having fun!
• Completing bivouac building activities - there were some good life lessons learnt here. We now know how to shelter from the rain effectively!
• Confidence Course. Something that, despite the encouragement, I couldn't quite manage because I couldn't overcome my fear. Not of the height, but the possible fall from it! I am in awe of all those adults and students who tackled this challenge readily, and those that completed it regardless of their fear - this showed real determination and courage. Ka pai.
• Orienteering through the bush at Houghton's was fun, reading the maps to locate the hidden markers and reveal the hidden message.
• A night-time Burma Trail (a big shout out to Ofa for guiding me through and rescuing me everytime I lost the rope, and to Hilary who inspired me with her brave attitude to conquering something that was completely new to her!) 
• Camp Concert - an interesting evening, showcasing different talents of students.

Add to this the everyday skills that we acquired/refined...

• Preparing food and the dining room (including washing up!)
• Keeping our rooms tidy so that we could find everything we needed
• Being responsible for our own gear

It was an amazing week. Our students showed us what it means to have; courage, resilience, respect and integrity. New friendships were made, old friendships were developed and memories were created that will last a lifetime. As I have already posted on classrooms blogs, it was both a privilege and a pleasure to participate in this camp - thanks to all those who attended. Parents/Volunteers we couldn't have done this without you - thank you so much for all of your support throughout the week. Here's a few photos to enjoy...please check out Rooms 7, 8 and 9 blogs to see more.

All in all, it's been a busy few weeks and once again I realise how lucky I am to be in such a wonderful place of work. Thanks Waikowhai :-)

Lead Maths Teacher Day

Yesterday morning I was fortunate enough to visit St Mary's School in Ellerslie, for a cluster meeting of Lead Maths Teachers. We shared some thinking about what is crucial in the role of a Lead Teacher. I loved the negotiation game - silent consideration within a small group, taking turns to record ideas that could stand alone, or others could expand upon. When we were allowed to converse once more, it generated lots of discussion, based upon different angles that we were coming from - it's so interesting when professionals come together, that we can have a shared goal and yet have different strategies of how to achieve it. Some ideas were agreed upon immediately, whereas others were hotly contested - it's always exciting to be a part of a discussion like this, it can really make us question ourselves!

I found myself coming back to the theme of a Waikowhai staff meeting we experienced a few weeks ago, whereby we were challenged to consider our 'Why' of teaching. By taking this approach I considered 'why' we are the Lead Teachers of Maths in our schools, before considering the 'whats' of how we undertake the role.

Using Kahoot, supported by professional readings by Boaler and Dweck, we continued to debate provocative statements such as:

• Boys are better at Maths than girls.
• Not everyone can be good at Maths.
• You must know basic facts to be able to solve problems.
• Teachers should openly acknowledge individuals when they make mistakes.

Not for the first time, I found myself in the position of realising how my opinions have altered over the course of my career. I feel the guilt of having placed students into a 'box' in my early days of teaching, I wonder what impact that had on them? My hope is that they were able to overcome the mental wall I placed in front of them and went onto have success in Maths. My fear is that they may not have. Thank goodness I have remained open to learning myself and that my opinions changed relatively early on. 

So now for my next steps - how to take the skills into school to support the Waikowhai Staff with our PLC meetings (geared at Maths development in our school) and how to move forward with my maths groups, enthusing and encouraging them to the point that they come to view maths as something that they enjoy and are successful at.

Also, on a completely different goal for myself, to continue this blog - I promise to reflect upon my maths groups and post about them next time.

Any thoughts/ideas/opinions on all the above is welcomed - who knows, maybe a rousing debate may arise!

Another fun day...

Well, for my first time blogging I find myself wondering what to reflect upon after such a busy start to an exciting year ahead. So I am going to content myself with thinking about today alone. It's been a day of sunshine, community, fun, laughter, relationships, preparation and learning.

With our Annual Community Barbecue happening tomorrow, our morning was spent with a fabulous team of adults from our community, who were guiding and assisting the students with food preparation for the Umu. Here's just a few photos of the team wielding their potato peelers..

Sunday lunch will be a breeze after this!

96 portions? Hand me the knife...

We're now experts at peeling potatoes!

Picking up some expert peeling tips.

The music is playing, the sun is shining and the smiles are out

While we were outside enjoying ourselves, some other people in school were undertaking different learning. Miss Lane, Louise and Amy were working together on developing language plans and resources. It was kind of them to help us put up the gazebos before they started!

Lunchtime was full of many different activities:

• Petanque training - thanks to Ruby, one of our wonderful parents, we are participating in an upcoming tournament! We're training hard.
• Travelwise activities - The Wheels Zone was open today for skateboards and scooters.
• Leadership opportunities - Room 5 were lucky to be selected as the class to work with the leaders from Y6, who led them in games.
• Optional swimming for Y3 - a great way to keep cool at lunchtime.
• The Sandpit is always a hit with the Junior students.

 

 

After lunchtime, it was time to go to the office for meetings. New people were met and new resources were looked at for Reading. Then it was off to the Ako Hiko toolkits where the amazing students and staff of Hay Park taught us all about blogging - thanks guys! So I've been able to visit the Class Blogs of Rooms 8 and 9, make comments and be inspired to create my own. Have a look yourselves at the amazing things happening in school: http://wpsriceman.blogspot.co.nz/ and http://wpssands.blogspot.co.nz/

All in all a fabulous day! Roll on tomorrow...

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