Teaching Portfolio

We were looking at different collaborative models around the school to gain inspiration of how to adapt our own collaborative practice. We saw teams of two or three teachers working in two classrooms and a shared space teaching around 50 children. One classroom we went into had the two teachers teaching small groups in their 'own' rooms while the children roamed between the two rooms working on independent activities. One thing I noticed was the reading independent activities were all very generic so a range of children could work on each activity rather than having group based activities. I wondered how we could integrate this approach in the middle school to make groupings more flexible? Could we somehow incorporate this into the SMARTs activities we already do? Are the SMART contracts we have already doing this in a different way? I was also interested in how the teachers used the physical space in different ways. Something we have found challenging is conflicting teache...

I am feeling very inspired to shake things up after listing to Louise Dempsey this afternoon. Having spent some time reflecting on my writing programme I have realised that although the children are producing great quality recounts the writing has become very stale. I think it is easy when you get to the middle of the term and busy to stick with the same old same old routine and neglect to include those ‘fun’ aspects of writing. Something I feel I do well in my writing programme is trying to make writing tasks authentic whenever possible. Louise emphasised this as particularly important for lower achievers as if they don’t see the point in writing they will be even more reluctant to write. Things I want to change soon about my writing programme is to reduce the amount of ‘planning’ the children do as Louise really reinforced this in order to up the fun factor of writing. Another immediate change I am going to make is to introduce a quick write style activity once a week into my writing...

Professional Capital By Michael Fullan Types of learning Metanoia  - moving above and beyond what we are thinking. Shifting thinking to a higher level. Transformational learning - Light bulb moments. Can be challenging. New mindset. Orthodox  - learning ‘stuff’, becoming better at doing things. Informational learning, useful but not overly exciting. What is teaching practice? pedagogy strategies everything that happens during the day in and out of school reflecting interacting with parents, staff, kids relationships mindset not just in the classroom mistakes/changes the what, the how and the why e.g. we all teach recount writing but the how varies teaching practice vs professional practice teaching practice professional practice positive behaviour management curriculum knowledge instructional practices formative assessment in the classroom mainly Ministry of Ed directed outside of school/community image outside of th...

Through reading the first chapter of Clarity in the Classroom (Michael Absolum) several things have been confirmed for me. First is the absolute importance of relationships within the classroom. I knew that relationships were important to make students feel comfortable and successful but I also now realise that in order for students to gain real ownership of their learning they need to feel safe enough to take risks. Something I have noticed with my current class is their desire to please and be told how to please. I hope through continuing to build relationships and scaffold ways to take risks the class will feel confident directing their own learning rather than relying on me to lead the learning. Absolum talks about how children and teachers need to develop six key capabilities to become effective learners. I am going to reflect on these six capabilities and brainstorm ways I can begin to build them in the children. I also want to do the ‘try this’ activity and create a class brains...

As I approach the middle of term one I have been reflecting a lot on what collaboration means to me. Last year we did research, readings and held discussions on what we wanted our collaborative classroom to look like and now I have been working in this setting for a few weeks I have reflected again. I felt I needed to go back to the research and re-read Co-Teaching in a Nutshell to clarify how I view collaboration. So far this term we have started meeting in the morning for a Waiata, combining classes for PE and Library and cross-grouping students for core instructional subjects. Although all of these changes have been successful I don’t feel they are true collaboration as I feel my teaching day is still very single-cell based practice. By re-reading Co-Teaching in a Nutshell I refreshed my knowledge of what collaboration should look like and certainly gave myself a lot to think about! From the book I gained that collaboration is about two teachers working in the same space to provide...