Collaboration

One of the biggest factors that contribute to the success of any business is whether or not its employees are able to perform together a team. 

What is Collaboration?

Collaboration is said to take place when two individuals or a group of people work together towards achieving a common goal by sharing their ideas and skills. Now thinking about that definition. Do you and your team(s) collaborate?
Benefits of collaboration

Collaborative Teaming gives opportunity for better instruction 
When class ends, the two of us quickly and briefly reflect about how the day went, particularly focussing on whether, or which, students understood the material ( particularly our Target students) . This brief reflection enables us to make decisions about the next lesson  and which teacher will do what during the next lesson.  Our teaming involves a continuous cycle of decision making, reflection, and feedback—bouncing ideas off each other in order to come to the best possible solution.

Come up with ideas we may not have had individually
Two minds are better than one. That saying exists for a reason. Brainstorming works better the more minds you have contributing on any project. By working together, it allows for us to plan more effectively and see things from a perspective that otherwise wouldn't have occurred to the other person and more importantly, I've found that working collaboratively has helped to inspire me to think outside of the box and explore the possibilities

"Unsuccessful attempts within the journey to a goal is actually essential to progression"

Are we always successful?... Nope. We realise that making sure all students are adequately supported yet appropriately challenged is an area in which we still need and continue to work on. There are success stories, however, we’re reaching students who not only seek help and guidance but also participate and show a true interest in the class. We both truly believe that our students are successful because of the co-taught/collaborative environment.

Another benefit to collaboration is being able to high five those on your team when success takes place!

#ittakesavillage

What does your school do to facilitate teacher collaboration? What, in your experience, is the biggest barrier/benefits to teachers working together and sharing ideas? Add your thoughts/comments  below!

Celebrate the shifts

Celebrate the shifts that your students make.

 Some make bigger shifts than others.  Still celebrate the shifts. Some may not shift, however they haven't regressed either. Celebrate the fact that they have managed to maintain where they're at. 

I'm not saying to be complacent and not strive for students to be better and do better.
What I AM saying is more often than not, shifts are being made that a standardised test won't recognise.

 As a student,  I remember feeling I was only valued by my test scores. It didn't matter how much my confidence had grown...how I improved with how much I was participating in group discussions or that I worked really hard to do my best. That test at the end of the term was all that mattered. If I didn't pass the test with flying colours then I couldn't have done my best...*sigh*
 It can leave one wondering if the sum of all their efforts is just reduced to only a number.

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a person is problematic. Is it any wonder why later on in life we tend to define ourselves by how we look, the occupation we hold, how much we make... etc.?

We have to look a certain way or others will think.... 

If we don't look the part then we must be... 

We must have this type of job or else people will think...

 If we don't hold a certain job then we must be.... 

Because we make (or don't make) ____________ per year then we must be ..... 

Success looks different to everyone. 

There are a lot of people who have degrees who are currently working for the owner of the company who dropped out of school.  Let that sink in. 

Celebrate the students who raise their hand to answer questions in class who didn't before.
Celebrate the students who come to school everyday this month who were absent for most of last month.
Celebrate the students who now work as active members in a group during those DMIC lessons. Celebrate the students who you noticed showing Manaakitanga to someone when it would've been so easy to turn a blind eye.


I am still learning how I choose to measure the constructive shifts is my life is ever changing.

Problem Solving...

How are you students with problem solving? 

Are your students able to think critically about how to solve a problem if an adult isn't there to talk them through each step? 

There are students who will wait for others to jump in and answer questions for them...some look to others to tell them the answer... or they will sit there saying nothing ( not even 'I don't know'  hoping that someone will lose patience and answer for them.

I've had conversations with students about HELPING vs DOING IT FOR THEM.  I've worked on explaining what that looks like and the importance of knowing the difference.

This quote comes to mind:

 "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

When *insert students name here*  is dependant on having others do things for them, they never strengthen the practice of learning that particular skill. What does strengthen is their ability to wait for others to do things for them or smile and ask nicely "Can you do this for me .....pleeeeeease?"
"If you do this for me, I can nominate you for a token as you were showing me Manaakitanga"...nudge... nudge..wink...wink.

What happens on the day the helpful mate is away from school?
Uh-oh... that student is stuck. "Now they have to figure this stuff out on their own" OR (and this is more likely) they will find someone else to fill in their mate's place.

I find myself asking:

"How am I setting these kids up so that they have the confidence to problem solve if an adult isn't right there to tell them what to do?"

Yes I know for most, everything is done for them at home. Trust me, after Camp in Term 2, I am well aware of the students who have everything done for them vs. the students who are given chores or some kind of responsibility. Based on a recent staff meeting we had on raising expectations, I need to do better in terms of 'teaching them how to fish rather than just handing them a fish each day.'

At first it may be frustrating to observe them carry out tasks or wait for them to answer questions, however, if we truly are in the business of helping others then we need to redefine what help looks like.
One definition sees you as a facilitator working along students, using that zone of proximal development until they become more confident, gradually backing away as the support needed becomes less and less. The other, sees you as an enabler, one who is essentially crippling the student to always rely on others in order to go through life.  I have to admit that I have been the second definition with some students and I have excused it for different reasons. Our Raising Expectations PD has allowed me to think about things a little differently.

This is important not just because most of the students I teach will be off to college next year, but learning how to do things for yourself is a life skill that often times we don't view as important...until it is and by the time we realise how self reliant they are, we are trying to undo years of learned helplessness. I am determined to wear the growth mindset coat and help strengthen students problem solving skillls! All those in favour of helping me say AYE!

What strategies do you put in place for your students to promote independence or the ability to problem solve?

What are we doing with what we now know?🤔

How do you use your data?
When you have done all of your testing and your child is: 'AT LEVEL 2' or  'BEGINNING LEVEL 4', what does that actually mean?  Do you know?
The next question is:

What are we doing with what we now know? 

Are we asking ourselves: What is impeding their success? What can I do to extend their learning?What support am I receiving to maximise the opportunity for success?  Support not necessarily in the form of a teacher aide but more along the lines of teacher support...management support...whanau support. We all play a part in student achievement. Are we all being active members? (Those of you who participate in the DMIC program know what I am talking about)😊 #groupnorms 

What am I doing as an educator to bring them to where they need to be? 

Someone wise once said:

 "Before pointing the finger at others/outside factors, we must first be willing to point the finger at ourselves"

  How many different ways do we try to accelerate students learning before deciding... I need help!🤔

Things to think about 🤔:

Those of us who have students where attendance is a factor with their achievement, what are we doing to motivate them to come to school each day?

How much of their attendance is within our control?

How do our students learn? Are they visual learners, instructional learners, kinaesthetic learners (learn-by-doing). Do you vary your teaching to address each of those learners?


Reflecting like this is so important. It informs us of our next steps for our learners AND for our practice.  I've learned that sometimes the 'gaps' isn't just with our students learning, it can also be evident in our practice. When we regularly evaluate, analyse and reflect on how things are going for our students, as well as ourselves, we can make informed decisions of where to go next.

What are you doing with what you now know?

Creativity Empowers Learning

Learn to create and create to learn

Use your blog to help build who you want to be

What Is Creativity?
Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery. In children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished product. Creativity is not to be confused with talent, skill, or intelligence. Creativity is not about doing something better than others, it is about thinking, exploring, discovering, and imagining.

How Can Teachers Encourage Creativity?

Encouraging creativity in young children is a process where teachers must be willing to allow, accept, and turn over some control to the children themselves. 

• Emphasise process rather than product.
• Provide a classroom environment that allows children to explore.
• Adapt to children's ideas rather than trying to structure the children's ideas to fit the adult's.
• Accept unusual ideas from children by suspending judgement of children's divergent problem solving.
• Use creative problem solving in all parts of the curriculum. Use the problems that naturally occur in everyday life.
• Allow time for children to explore all possibilities, moving from popular to more original ideas.

One thing I would like to encourage with my students is to create things by hand first, then  using their blog as the tool to share what they have created. 

Somewhere along the way, we become so busy looking at the ideas created by others that we forget we can create our own. 

How are you using creativity to hook your learners? 

Writing Moderation

We had a staff meeting around writing moderation today. We were looking at one piece of writing and deciding how to grade each area before giving our feedback in order to see how similar/different our marks were.
  It is good to hear the opinion of others who think different from you as it challenges your own thinking.

Do others offer a perspective that you didn't think of before which could possibly lead you to change your answer?

OR

 Do you have enough evidence to support your stance which others find difficult to challenge?

One of the challenges I notice sometimes is understanding what it means when the e-asTTle rubric says: 'May attempt to use words with two syllables' or 'paragraphs may have minimal development e.g. one sentence'.

Words such as 'may' 'some' 'a few'  'minimal' etc. also leave room for interpretation which is where some of our dialogue came from.  Does a few mean at least 3 times? Does 'may' mean that it doesn't necessarily need to be in the text?  When you are looking for precise detail,  how many precise details are sufficient to feel confident enough to move that student to an R5 rather than a R4?  If you know your student, do you use your OTJ's  to influence the mark you give them? or do you only go on what they presented in that particular piece of writing?


Why is writing moderation important?

• Brings together collective wisdom, resulting in greater consistency of judgment, and focused teaching.

• Provides greater confidence in teacher judgments, and assurance that judgments are consistent with those of other professionals.

• Leads to shared expectations of learning, and understandings of standards and progression of learning.

• Develops deeper understandings about content and progressions of learning.

• Improves quality of assessment.

• Aligns expectations and judgments with standards or progressions, and hence improved teaching and learning.

• Assures parents and others that interpretations of students' achievements are in line with those of other professionals

One of the areas that I sometimes find challenging is staying focused and not letting other perceived errors influence my thinking. For example, if you are marking a student on sentence structure, it can be challenging to not let the lack (or incorrect use) of punctuation affect your ability to grade only  their sentence structure.

It is important to understand what each area means i.e. what are you specifically looking for within the text and within each area what criteria qualifies an R1- R6? 

The dialogue that took place during our staff meeting helped me to think critically and learn when to try stay firm in my position and when to take on others perspectives that my differ from my own which can lead me to change my original decision. This wasn't a time to take things personally if others thought differently than me. This exercise helped me to look at the evidence and use that to guide my decision. This is helping me to reflect as a learner, and it is shaping my future professional needs as a teacher.

I am still learning...

Goal Setting - Teaching a lesson effectively within the time frame given.

Why have I identified this as an important focus for me?

I usually find that more time could be spent for students to work on follow up activities from the lesson taught and lack of this impacts the students outcome and stretches a lesson to carry over more days than expected. This area of focus is relevant because there is a lot going on in my syndicate with a small window for teaching times. It is crucial to make the most of the learning times provided each day. In order to know that I am on track I would want to see at least 2 lessons in each learning area being taught each week.

What initial steps forward am I going to commit to and why have I identified these as my first steps?

Setting time markers in my planning to help me to stay on track. This is to increase my awareness of how much time I am spending on certain parts of my lesson. It will also help me to reflect by asking " Did I spend enough time in this area? Did I spend too long? etc. There will be times where feedback from students will inform me if I need to spend more time in a particular area. For the most part, setting time frames will help me to stay on track. Collecting student voice after lessons will help to inform me about how to plan future lessons.

How, by focusing on this, do I propose to contribute to and influence Student Achievement Outcomes?

By focusing on this I will maximise the opportunity to learn for the students. I will learn how to identify what will make the most impact and how to make the most out of the time I have to work with. Student efficacy will inform me if I am on the right track and results of both formative and summative assessments.

Who may I need support and assistance from and what might that look like as I look ahead to achieving success?

Student Voice will to help inform me if I am on the right track. Observations from my colleagues will help guide the direction that I take next in helping me to achieve this goal. Consistent reflection of my teaching practice will also assist in the success of reaching my goal.

What are your thoughts? What strategies do you use to make the most out of the time frame given for your lessons?