Tie Dye T-Shirts with Room 23

 In  room 23 this term we have been focusing on colour in our Art Alive inquiry and how colour makes us feel. We have created lots of artwork using colour and have been inspired by famous artists such as Kandinsky, Monet, Andy Warhol and his pop art. Experimenting with pastels, paint, and dye we even tie-dyed our own t-shirts. 

Inquiry Writing

It is that time where we give the students a writing experience to write a recount on for E-asTTle test. We came up with an idea that was so much fun. The students were excited, we gave no clues away until the very moment they were about to start. This experience tied in well with our whole school inquiry of Art Alive. We colour, skills, teamwork and patients. The outcome was a piece of art to display in the classroom and a cool experience to write a recount.

Inquiring into Reading

Tongan Language Week in Room 23

Exercise at Level 3

 What do you do when it's pouring with rain outside and it's windy and cold? Well, here at Bubble School we exercise dance style with Mr Samuels and Mr Nua. A big shout out to these guys for just being here and helping support our Tamariki during this time.

                               

Back to School at Level 3

 So here we are again in Alert Level 3.  Bubble School has started with a safe learning environment for our students of essential workers. 

Today I decided to, with the 3 students I had today, to get Cody Rockey out and learn more about how these Robots work through coding. Thanks to Eve who taught us a few essential basic codes to get Cody Rocky moving.

                                

Manaiakalani Create Workshops

 Manaiakalani Schools in the Tamaki cluster got the opportunity to learn about things that you might have been wondering about. My first workshop was coding, this was difficult and a lot to take in for an afternoon. For someone that knows very little about coding, a step by step break down of how to make a code instead of trying to work out what the code was, would have been helpful to me. My second workshop was more coding but with robots. We used the program scratch to enter a code to make our robot talk and move. It was an interesting afternoon.

I need to find time to practise what we learned this afternoon. Thanks to all who planned and shared with us this afternoon.

 

Professional Inquiry

Our schoolwide inquiry focus is on Reading. How do we lift the achievement of reading in students well below and below? This is not a new problem but one that has become the norm or common in our schools. Through our inquiry, I hope to learn more about student behaviours, what do they do when they are stuck on words, do they really know what is happening in the illustrations, why don't students like reading? are we as teachers reading enough? Below is a plan that I will be working towards. 

Matariki 2020

Maths Inquiry

Back at school at level 2. There are not a lot of students at this stage, the students that have returned are very excited to be back and I am too. A decision made and agreed by all staff and teachers was that we keep our own home classes this term to help the students back into the new routine and changes in school and the expectations. 

I have a small group of students start back who have struggled to come to grips with friend to 10. It's been so good working with these students everyday during maths and just working with materials to solve problems to 10, then slowly take the materials away. Two student have been very successful in being able to count on in their heads. We have been playing Kahoot an online game which you can make up your own and the students are doing really well to get most questions right. 

A slideshow of our time during Level 3

Level 3 Blue Bubble

 When the country moved from Level 4 of Lockdown to Level 3. Essential work and workers prepared to return to work, and schools opened and prepared to have their children return to school under the strict rules and guidelines set by the Government. Here at Pt England, we were ready with 4 Bubble areas which could comfortably and safely have 10 students a teacher and a support staff member. Turns out we only needed 3 Bubble areas. Each Bubble had staggered times to start school, about 15 minutes between the Bubbles as we could not have all students arrive at the same time. This was the same at the end of the day. Morning tea and lunch are short breaks because we had concerns about how the students wound cope with not being allowed to play like there used to. Break times were staggers and each Bubble had their own play area. Pt England has bikes and helmets, so we sprayed, sanitized and wiped helmets and bike handles so each student could have their own helmet and bike to ride during the breaks. This made it easier to keep the students at a safe distance from each other and enjoy their breaks at the same time.
 The Blue Bubble has 2 teachers, 9 students and a support staff member. We run a structured morning routine, journal entries, handwriting, reading, and maths. Some of the learning is 1-1 or online activities planned by their class teachers. We also understood the students needed to have some fun too,  having been in Lockdown with whanau and are now having to return to not so normal school life we wanted to make sure the students enjoyed their day. We decided using The Kitchen Science Cookbook by Dr Michelle Dickinson. The activities in this book are very quick and use many of the same ingredients. The Blue Bubble has done a few experiences from the book, this is a video of our first kitchen science experience.

Term 2 Week 4

So what do we do ?

The students in the Blue Bubble have a helmet and Bike each to ride during morning tea and lunch. They also have a skipping rope each, which came in handy on our first day of Bubble school. We are all doing well and enjoying spending some 1-1 time working with individual students in particular learning areas. 

Bubble School

Morning Greeting Video Bloopers

Oh my goodness!!!
As I start to clean up my drive of the many videos and images I have taken for teaching online, I thought I would share some on my bloopers. I know there are a few teachers in the same situation. 

 Instead of the students seeing the wall in my dining room all the time, I walked and filmed me in different locations. We talked about autumn, so I went out to find autumn leaves and trees changing colour. We talked about Volcanoes, so I walked to Maungarei Mountain (Mt Wellington) and filmed the writing lesson for the day.

It's been a huge learning experience, I am not one for photos let alone having to video myself creating a learning lesson for students online. I  think, am I making sense? have I made myself clear? have I said enough? have I said too much? the list went on. I begin deleting the many images and videos and reflect on the situation and how I've done during this time. I think I've done alright (no complaints from the kids at this stage) given that this part of the learning was not planned and we all relied heavily on communicating online. 

What a journey it's been. 

Our Google Hangout.

Our Google Hangouts are a lot more structured, which is great. Now that the students understand the expectations of being in a Hangout with their teachers and friends. The schoolwide Korero is GM4GM, which means Good Manners for Google meets. Most students are showing GM4GM some still need reminding to stay on the screen and no moving around, kind of like reminding them how to sit on the mat. Taking turns to talk by muting/unmuting the microphone when we (teachers) say when it's their turn. Reminding them to be on time for the meetings, appropriately dressed, washed and smiling. Our number of students joining the Hangouts is climbing, which is great. 

As we go into Level 3, two of our teachers have volunteered to return to school as we have a small number of families who need to return to school as their whanau prepare to return to work. Another colleague and I from this team will be amongst the many staff who will prepare for the students first day back.

The Korero from our Prefects.

Our prefects and Ranagtahi put this video together. This video helps students understand the expectations while they are in a google hangout with their teachers and classmates.

I'm happy to say that most of our students who have managed to Hangout with us are doing really well. Remembering to mute and unmute whenever they are asked.  Some are using the chat icon to say good morning to their friends. We have had up to 14 students join us in our hangout which is great and so awesome to see their happy faces all looking very well.

What does online learning look like?

So what does online learning look like on our site?

We each chose a part of the curriculum to focus learning on. I chose writing, with a focus of Narrative writing. I thought that given our situation, it might be good to find out how creative they would be writing about, what life is like in their bubble. 

       

We video ourselves explaining what we would like students to do today for writing. We also remind the students about setting up their books with the date and title of their story. We also encourage them to try their best. We write the learning intension as evidence of what the learning is for the day. Making videos of myself does not come naturally to me and I was very anxious and worried that I was talking too much or the students and parents wouldn't understand the learning focus as I'm sure a lot of teachers all over New Zealand were feeling the same way.
This is just a snapshot of Wednesdays Focus. Click the link below to check out our site.
https://sites.google.com/ptengland.school.nz/theblockyear342020/home
Here are 2 writing examples of the days' activity. A clear indication of how 2 students processed the information from the video. Teaching from home has had its challenges. In class, I would have taken the bottom student and any other students with a similar idea, to the side and worked with them. This can't happen for obvious reasons and so reading some of the student's blogs have been both, hair pulling and teeth clenching as I can't physically be with them. So, I will use this to reflect on my teaching, and use evidence from the student's blogs as the next steps in my teaching, when we all get back to normal school life and routines. I'm sure many teachers across New Zealand will be feeling the same way, remember, we are all in this together.

  

hi today i'm writing a narrative this narrative is going to be about living in the bubble. It look normal, beautiful, giant, different. It feels strong, hard, like stone. It also sounds loud and noisy

First Google Hangout with the Students.

Our first Hangout with the students. This was really exciting it was great to see them online. I'm proud of how versatile the students have become given the situation we are in at the moment. I'd like to give a special shout out to Mrs Currathers who has worked extremely hard to prepare our site for online learning.  Thank you Clarelle. 

This is the edited version of our first hangout with the kids.

Learning Online.

Online learning, Wow who would have thought we would be teaching from the comfort of our own homes. The first week brought home the reality that this had actually happened and we were going to be in lockdown for 4 weeks. After a few days of getting myself and family prepared for the weeks ahead, that first week was suddenly over. The second week my colleagues and I discussed how we wanted online learning to look like for our students. I work in an ILE with 3 other teachers who are absolutely amazing and in times such as this, it has been most comforting knowing that we have all come together to support each other to create an online learning site that was easy for our students to navigate. We have videos of the teachers giving instructions, explaining maths strategies, writing genre, and of course a little help from online activities. 

 Check it out

https://sites.google.com/ptengland.school.nz/theblockyear342020/online-class
Our second week became the first week of our school holidays. This meant finding ways the students could still be learning, but just in a fun, relaxed, no-pressure way, that would help keep the students interested in learning online. So our wonderful teachers came up with this Holiday Learning Journey

This allowed the students to choose a variety of learning challenges and an opportunity to earn points for prizes and certificates, while still learning online.

Home Learning Packs

Finally, a moment to sit down and reflect on the last couple of days.  I am so happy to be working with the most dedicated compassionate amazing people  The PES Whanau. Thank you. Thanks to all our support workers who helped with learning packs for our Tamariki. Senior management, Office staff including our principal who works tirelessly behind the scenes and magically makes things happen. Thank you, maintenance crew, who packed down our school in a couple of days. Thanks to all the people who have supported us with Chromebooks, stationary, we never get to say thank you personally we appreciate your generosity and kindness and wish you and your families well during this time. Teachers, absolutely love working with you all. Be safe, be kind and I'll see you in our Hangout.

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                                                      Delivered the last of our home learning packs.  

Inquiry Term 1 2020

On the Move again.

I get to teach in another open learning space this year. I'm a teacher in "The Block" we are a group of year 3/4 teachers. Two teachers work in a 2 room space with year 4 students and I get to work with 2 lovely teachers with lots of energy and dedication, I look forward to working with both teachers this year.
It's fortunate, I know most of the students from when I was teaching them in Team 2. They are a really lovely team of students. We have lovely new bright furniture which the students like. I really like our learning site page. This term is very busy with Kiwi sports, Rippa Rugby, Te reo Maori and soon we will begin practising for Fia Fia. I'm looking forward to the year.