Solo Taxonomy

This year, our school is using SOLO Taxonomy. SOLO taxonomy is a model of learning.  It is a theory about teaching and learning. SOLO stands for the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome.

The model represents the different levels of learning outcomes as learning progresses through the many levels of understanding. 

There are 5 levels of learning.

• Pre-structural
• Uni-structural
• Multistructural
• Relational
• Extended Abstract

Using this model, for Reading, I put together a SOLO taxonomy presentation for the students to use in order to critically summarise an article/text.

SOLO makes learning visable in any situation where there is a focus on learning. I am consistently using it in order to give feedback and feed-forward on students learning.

Using the SOLO model helps students to see the growth in their learning. Going from 'knowing nothing' to 'need help to get started' to 'this is what I now know'.

I have been using the SOLO taxonomy language across the curriculum so that the students are familiar with the terms and they are aware that it is not just used for one subject but across all learning areas. 

The unpacking of each level was the most challenging part as I needed to make sure the students understood what each level meant and what their work needed to reflect in order to reach each intended level. 

One of my future goals for this year is to reach the stage where the students are able use this model effectively to assess their own learning and the learning of their peers. 

Year 2 PCT course at Kohia

Went on a provisionally certified teacher course. Our mentor was Sarah Valentine. This is part of what I experienced.





One of the points mentioned yesterday was that all of the pressures of the job can make you forget what inspired you to become a teacher. So with that, we were asked:

"Why did you decide to become a teacher?"

I became a teacher because I like working with and helping people, both adults and children.  I also like to build on my knowledge. Being a teacher seemed to involve all of those things.


Here are some of the things that we wanted our students to learn from us.

• Values
• Build esteem, self , community citizenship
• Build relationships, respect
• Learning from mistakes
• Confidence self efficacy
• Creative positive generation
• Initiative and common sense
• Thinking about thinking
• Self awareness

I enjoyed this. I didn't realise how much I forgot why I became a teacher. Being around other teachers sharing their philosophies and goals for their students ( beyond reaching level 4) helped to put me in  a positive/growth mindset.

We were then asked to answer these questions.

1. What's going well.
2. What has been tricky.
3. Is my teaching philosophy evident in my classroom practice.

It's funny how I immediately jumped out at me. Managing my workload effectively has be challenging and has taken away from remembering why I chose to become a teacher. 

Today I chose to write more about What was going well and whether my teaching philososphy was evident in my classroom practice.

What's going well

I am learning a lot from my students. Yes, I am learning about where they are in academic wise but I was thinking more about who they are as people. What their interests are and their personalities. At times I want to learn more about them but I get caught up in being all about the academics not stopping to realise that although it is important, building positive relationships with my students can help me, help them to progress in their learning. 

Is my teaching philosophy evident in my classroom practise?

It is a little bit. I am working towards creating an environment where all of the students feel safe to make mistakes because they understand that it is a part of the process in order to improve on their learning.  I am also working on teaching  my students that everything we do has a purpose. Right now I believe they see Reading, Maths, Inquiry, Writing as isolated subjects. They don't understand that I would like to learn how to teach the subjects in a way that ames them passionate towards learning and understand WHY we are at school and 

We are all on a learning journey

• Expect to make a few mistakes along the way.
• Be open to advice and support.
• You don't have to have all the answers.

It can be hard to remember the above statements when you are in the heat of it all. 

Some helpful tip for managing your workload.

I found these helpful. 

This is important. I found myself reflecting on environments I have been in and measuring these statements against them.

Who are the people to build strong professional relationships with?

Thinking before speaking...
(give it a day  or two before you send that email.)

Maintain your professional integrity...
(be careful how you talk about colleagues. If a colleague has shared confidential information with you,keep their confidence.)

Keep your professional challenges with people you trust...
(TT,DP School friend, friend outside, family member) Don't offload on everyone.


I really enjoyed this session. It allowed me to take a step back and look at how I am doing things and what I could be doing differently in order to make the most of my time and practice. Not just for myself but for my students as well.


I am still learning....




Click here to view the slide presentation from the workshop

Te Whare Tapa Whā

So True isn't it?!? 

Are we making sure we fill up regularly? 

Are we filling up twice as often to make up for the times we pour out? (or spill) 😜

OR...

 is it the other way around?

My cup runneth over. What comes out of the cup is for everyone else but what is in the cup is mine. It is important to keep my cup full ( or as close to full as possible).

I find my self burning the candle at both ends and still I find myself falling short. The real problem... as if falling short wasn't enough, is that I feel incredibly guilty for taking a break. Things that I LOVE to do, I don't do as much anymore but it is all in the name of being better at my job so it is all worth it ...right??? 

I was reading an article that spoke about opportunity cost. It is an idea often illustrated with the quote:  

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Opportunity cost means that everything we do, no matter what it is, costs something, even if it occurs indirectly. When someone takes you out for a free, hour-long lunch. Despite gaining the value of the lunch during that hour, you are still giving up all of the other activities you could be doing instead. So for me,  I give up that time at the gym, that time watching tv programs that give me joy, that time that I used to spend catching up with friends, spending quality time with my family, those extra hours of needed sleep - because let's face it, we are ALL a little less cranky and a LOT more alert and happy when we have had an adequate amount of rest.

Society regularly praises those who do exceptional things but often the nature of those exceptional things comes at high opportunity costs. Anything that is considered to be truly great requires some sort of sacrifice that may or may not be obvious to us at the time.

There are so many things I would like to do however,  it is becoming more and more difficult to commit all of my time and energy to any one thing without feeling some form of remorse or regret. I can't even tweet without thinking: ' Oh no, what if someone sees that I'm tweeting instead of working tirelessly to show how committed I am to my job?!?... That time I just spent trying to edit my tweet to 140 characters could have been spent on me organising my folders, making a more effective lesson plan, or becoming the 'Penelope Garcia' of the teaching digital world!'

......aaaaaand insert guilt here

Learning to have 'me time' and not feel guilty is what I need. Yep...that's right...need. My students have been learning about te whare tapa whā - the four cornerstones (or sides) of Māori health.

With its strong foundations and four equal sides, the symbol of the wharenui illustrates the four dimensions of Māori well-being.

Should one of the four dimensions be missing or in some way damaged, a person, or a collective may become ‘unbalanced’ and subsequently unwell.

Taha tinana (physical health)

The capacity for physical growth and development.

Good physical health is required for optimal development.

Our physical ‘being’ supports our essence and shelters us from the external environment. For Māori the physical dimension is just one aspect of health and well-being and cannot be separated from the aspect of mind, spirit and family.

Taha wairua (spiritual health)

The capacity for faith and wider communication.

Health is related to unseen and unspoken energies.

The spiritual essence of a person is their life force. This determines us as individuals and as a collective, who and what we are, where we have come from and where we are going.

A traditional Māori analysis of physical manifestations of illness will focus on the wairua or spirit, to determine whether damage here could be a contributing factor.

Taha whānau (family health)

The capacity to belong, to care and to share where individuals are part of wider social systems.

Whānau provides us with the strength to be who we are. This is the link to our ancestors, our ties with the past, the present and the future.

Understanding the importance of whānau and how whānau (family) can contribute to illness and assist in curing illness is fundamental to understanding Māori health issues.

Taha hinengaro (mental health)

The capacity to communicate, to think and to feel mind and body are inseparable.

Thoughts, feelings and emotions are integral components of the body and soul.

This is about how we see ourselves in this universe, our interaction with that which is uniquely Māori and the perception that others have of us.

I cannot give what I do not have. I need to learn to make time for my overall health without feeling guilty. 

This week I started to take some time for myself. Yes, I am getting up at 5am in order to do it but it is something I am doing to help me be better in other areas that are important to me. 

At the moment,  this sums up how my brain feels. If you ever saw my laptop you would see that it is not just my brain with heaps of tabs open. 

Learning to give back to ourselves as much as we give out to other people or  other things is all a part of the process.

I am still learning...

Music is good for the soul

Get rhythm when you get the blues

Come on, get rhythm when you get the blues

It only cost a dime, just a nickel a shoe

Does a million dollars worth of good for you

Get rhythm, when you get the blues

      

RAD RHYTHM

 Whenever I hear the term Rad Rhythm, the track 'Get Rhythm' by Johnny Cash begins to play in my head hence why I started this post with one of the verses from this classic song. 

Today our music specialist Caleb Strickland explained the basics behind the Rad Rhythm course. 

The Rad Rhythm course is a program that:

1. Enables teachers without musical skills to teach music.
2. Offers schools an affordable and effective music program.
3. Provides an online, relevant and highly interactive learning platform that is in line with what the children of today expect and deserve.
4. Teaches children the fundamentals of music and encourages them to think outside of the box.

I had some experience with the program last year. The kids LOVED it. Yes, it was loud but the kids were engaged. Rad Rhythm has both a theoretical and practical component to it. 

I will do most of the lessons with my students. I will take this on as another way to bond with them as we both learn.

Music has a funny way of bringing people together 😊 🎶

Never stop learning because life never stops teaching

   This is my first time teaching at the beginning of the school year.  One of the requirements for me as a teacher is to increase my digital knowledge so I can be more effective as a teacher which will not only benefit me but it will also benefit the students in my class. 

There is SO much that I need to learn to the point that I feel like this while my brain currently looks like this!  One word for trying to learn how to use all of the tools that are necessary while learning how to plan appropriately and get organised would be:  overwhelming.

"Welcome to teacher life" ... "Things will get better"... "There will always be things to do"... "Don't worry, you will get there"... 

Those are just a few of the things that I have been told that come to mind at the moment.  While I try to take a deep breath...ok... MANY deep breaths, I wonder if the day will ever come when I look back on how I am feeling now and think ' Ahh yes, I remember when I used to feel like this and things did indeed get better' 

Until that day comes, I talk to other teachers. I try to get feedback on what they do to organise themselves and how they go about doing it.  I get frustrated when I know that I am a part of a team where we are to work collaboratively but instead I feel like I am benefitting from others while they aren't benefitting from me seeing as I am overwhelmed and not giving anything back...at least not at the level that I feel I'm supposed to.

So...what do I do?

STEP 1:

I met with my mentor teacher where I discussed the 2 teacher goals I thought I needed to work on in order to improve my practice.

This was my first goal...

Since having my meeting with my mentor teacher I have spent time going to toolkit PD,  watching various youtube tutorials on the different tools that I will need to learn how to use, as well as meeting with other teachers to ask them questions on things I have been trying to learn.

This was my second goal...

How long is 'too long' to be planning? 

I have no idea. What I do know is that I plan for most of my evening, most of my weekends and that absolutely contributes to my frustration.  

A part of that absolutely has to do with the time that it takes to learn my way around the different digital tools while I am planning and another huge part is looking for resources when planning appropriately for my students. 

Just like my learners, there are some that will understand concepts and learn how to do things straight away, while other learners will either need more time or have things scaffolded to a level that they can understand.  I wish I got this straight away. There is the old saying of  'Fake it till you make it'. The only problem will that is no one can help you if you are faking it.

As teachers, we ask our students to let us know when they don't understand something or if they have any questions.  On a deeper level I realise why students may be reluctant to say they are struggling. 

Onwards and upwards.

I am still learning...

The First Step Towards Change Is Awareness

Today I went to a toolkit PD on Google Sites. Everything seems so simple when things are being explained. There is a lot of information and I KNOW that when it comes to me sitting down to my site, I am going to forget how to do everything... argh! It is so frustrating.

As I look around, I feel as though everyone is aware of what to do except for me. There are lots of short cuts on how to do things but I am not even familiar on the proper way of how to do things. Now there are short cuts and I feel quite overwhelmed with needing to learn how to do this in order for the students to have a site up and running so they can get the most out of their learning while I plan and meet the various other deadlines required of me.

As I sit here, I begin to to wonder how many other people in this toolkit feel as I do?
Who feels as lost as I am?

It makes me think about the learners in my class who are trying their best to listen to what I am saying but end up feeling lost. Those who seem disinterested might not have anything to do with them not wanting to learn but more about the way that things are being taught isn't in a way that they can relate to.  Even the speed that something is being taught might be at a pace where they haven't fully processed what was just said and already the teacher has moved on to the next thought.
This has made me more aware of how I need to be with my learners.

It is so important to remember that everyone doesn't learn at the same rate. Yes it can be frustrating at times if someone learns something in 2 minutes vs someone else who has yet to learn that same concept. In a perfect world, we would all learn things the moment we are exposed to them and it would stick. That isn't always the case.

I am still learning...

Positive Behaviour for Learning Meeting. - Active Supervision

 On Friday 27th of January we had another Teacher only day. We had Linda Ahokava who is the school wide practitioner. She came to speak to us about active supervision particularly when we are on duty during break times. These are some of the points that were discussed.

I have also joined the PB4l team this year as I believe it is very important to help parents, whanāu, teachers, and school address problem behaviour, improve children's well-being, and increase educational achievement.

What is important to write on etap about a behaviour:
Where did the incident happen?
What happened?
Who was involved?
Why did this happen?

Get into the habit of:

Encouraging appropriate behaviour

Discouraging inappropriate behaviour

Pre-correction
Focussing on the positive
Front loading the students on what behaviours are to be expected
Identifying replacement behaviours.


Focus on what you DO want to see rather on focussing on what you DON'T want to see.


Make sure you unpack what certain behaviours mean. e.g. What does being kind look like?
                                                                                                     How will we show that?

Active Supervision

 - Moving, Scanning, Interacting
 - Look the part

Movement
Movement should be :

 - Needs to be constant
 - Unpredictable
 - Planned purposeful
 - Targeted
 - Designed to increase contact opportunities

Purposeful Movement
 - Moving around towards the areas where you know tend to be the most problematic in order to prevent occurrences.

Scanning
Effective scanning techniques:

 - appropriate and not appropriate
   target problem areas
 - using both visual and aural cues
 - extends ability to supervise large areas
    increase opportunities for positive contact

Interacting

 - Friendly
 - Positive
 - limited engagement ( It's not about having a conversation. Keep it minimal)

Postive Reinforcement

 - Give reinforcer for demonstrating behaviours attached to the specific expectations.
 - State the specific behaviours (Let them know exactly why reinforcer is being given)
 - Smile, deliver the reinforcer and move on.



Corrective Consequence

 - Take student aside
 - Name the problem behaviour you saw and or heard.
 - Ask student to demonstrate the correct behaviour.
 - When the student demonstrated the correct respond say "thank you for....(being respectful)"
 - Move on.
 - Apply the consequence immediately.
 - Remind the students what the school prescribed consequence for the particulate behaviour is.
 - Use the least aversive consequence.

PB4L FLOW CHART

Active Supervision Tips

- Do not spend too long with individual students or groups.
 - Interact with as many students as possible during the duty.
 - Remind staff of active supervision behaviours regularly.
           - In each staff meeting.
           - Post behaviours next to the staffroom door.
           - Enter active supervision behaviours into staff handbook.


The staff discussed various behaviours that occur and then sorted the behaviours into 3 groups. Minor, Major and Crises. Minor behaviours are behaviours that the teacher is able to deal with in the classroom. Major behaviours are behaviours that teachers will have to deal with for a considerable amount of time or may need to involve someone from the senior management team. Crises behaviours are ones where outside agencies would need to be involved. We will be displaying the minor and major behaviours in the classroom for the students to be able to refer to.

One of my goals for this term is to consistently demonstrate the goals I wish to see in my students😊