Conferences are great for catching up with old friends and colleagues. I have had many conversations today with many people but there is one that stuck for me. Someone was saying about the focus the staff have this year for professional development:
“For this year is on Inquiry Learning
The focus this year for Literacy is Efeective Literacy Practise.
The focus this year for Maths is consolidating the NUMP programme.
Also we are working on SMS Etap across the school
And those of you with IWB’s have a series of day in the holidays to assist you in embedding this technology into your classroom practise.”
So what is the focus for this year?
Someone should mention to senior management that focus is the singular even though it ends with an ’s’.
How are staff supposed to fully focus on so many areas at once?
Is it just this school or do others have similiar long lists of focus (sic) ?
Some key questions to review for the ERO visit:
How well can staff articulate the assessment/ literacy/ numeracy process in the school?
Is there evidence of teacher reflection?
Students on task- actively engaged- highly motivated- behaviour?
Is planning linked to the curriculum statementsand schoolwide expectations?
Is planning also linked to national achievement objectives?
Are students able to articulate learning intentions?
Is all work marked and well presented?
Are written comments in books linked to the learning intentions?
Do students set their own success criteria and self assess?
Do students support and respect each others learning?
What is the impact of reading interventions at our school?
How are Maori and Pacific student achievement being analysed and collated?
How does this translate into classroom interventions?
Is achievement information for gifted and tallented students being analysed and how is it used to develop future learning programmes?
Yep, just as I thought, a ‘quick meeting’ at 8.50 am in the staffroom. We all got together for the feedback session with the Senior Management meeting last night. We all knew that it had gone pretty well because the Chair of the Board came into school at about 6 am this morning to put up balloons, she even taped little encouraging notes over the staffroom windows. She too did an amazing job. According to report she spoke very elloquently of the school and encouragingly of our school, its staff and the programmes we run.
Some highlights were: Gifted and Talented provision, Maori and Pacific Islander provision, Our development of Discovery time, and our childrens response and openess.
A large part of the week has been focused on ‘formative practise’ specifically in writing books. They found a good system engaged throughout the school, students really did know about their ‘next stap’ learning… they even noted that the approach was beginning to be used in other curriculum areas like maths and reading even though that is our focus for next year.
So overall a very positive report. I will be including a link to the actual report when it appears online, more to be clever than expecting you to download it.
On a personal note, I really appreciated the flexibility of the inspector who visited my room yesterday. My head was not all on ERO having found out that my mum was involoved in a car accident back in England… when I had to talk to the inspectors I had not had a chance to talk fully with my mum and did not know the full story of the accident. But all is well, and I am relieved, 12000 miles away is a very long way away when stuff like that happens.
My brain is fudge. I was pulled out of my class today to be interviewed by one of the inspectors. I had to take all my planning folders for her to look through (though I forgot to take my weekly maths planning folder-doh!)
We talked about formative practise and how the students know where they are going. I mentioned my focused writing groups and she asked after the data side of things. I was very candid and may get pulled up by management for ‘talking my mouth off’, but our Y3 are spread across levels 1(i) to level 2 for those of you in the know. We have quite a number at level 1(iii) and I talked about whether we have decided that 1(iii) was an appropriate level for our kids or whether we were expecting the majority to have attained level 2. We as a school have decided that the target of level 2 is appropriate which means that we have some serious work to do to achieve that over the remainder of the term. Sure some are already there but not nearly enough to say we have reached that particular benchmark.
We discussed the use of the IWB in the classroom and she was particularly interested in its impact on formative practise….erk! Should have thought about it a little more deeply beforehand….hmmm maybe it wouldn’t have helped because I’m sat here this evening racking my brain and still somewhat clueless.
My two kids that got interviewed did an amazing job. They were asked all about the technology use in the classroom and how it helps them learn… both were involved in the Alligator Alley thing I blogged about as well has having experience using Skype TalkandWrite. I hope there is some mention of the infusing of ICT in the curriculum and it not just being an addition, I feel our school is really beginning to move in that direction.
Maths- Nothing to report, were they focused yes, did they learn yes, did I teach yes, were we observed….well…no.
Oh my goodness! Is it rutting season or do they just do this as an ERO treat. We had a bunch of senior boys playing touch on one half of the field, Intermediates on the other, then the Intermedates decide the best place to play s where the Seniors are so the Seniors move and play somewhere else. THEN the Intermediates decide to move again and again, tempers flared and lines draw in the sand…. much hand gesturing (some of which I didn’t know… that sheltered upbringing again!) Fortunately my Principal was not far away… 30 Intermediates and 20 seniors can be somewhat troubling in a confrontational situation.
Senior Management had meeting after school, who knows how it went? I guess we’ll all get some feedback tomorrow- watch this space.
I find it odd that I finish typing this around 10pm, every night this week I think!
Awoke in a bit of a panic today, just the thought of people coming in to see the skype talkand write in action. My previous experience shows that whenever people come in at a particular time to see Web2.0 in action I am plagued with technical problems.
Today was no exception. All went well this morning except I had ‘LOW CONNECTIVITY’ showing on the wireless. ERK! Our technical support came in first thing this morning, my Principal was keen to have them see it run smoothly so he called the guy last night to get him in. Thumbs up for that. What he found was that some kid had bent and loosened one of the aerials for the wirelesss which accounted for it limited connectivity- He went and got a new one and it was all humming in time for the session beginning at 9.30 am. Sweet.
The trial version of talkand write had expired too and neither end of the call could write on the whiteboard. They improvised and produced notes in the sidebar ‘chat’. Better get the PRO version sorted pretty quick!!
Needn’t have worried myself so much…. they did not show for that lesson anyway. My kids (and I) were very disappointed. They were humming with it and others were collaborting on the IWB too. I was feeling a little mixed feelings about the session because those kids of mine who were not engaged in the technology but doing their writing in their books were not at their best.
Maths- My kids were great, groups productive, IWB work singing, Lots of on task and no growling. We were discussing our learning together. Did anyone come in to see this model of brilliance? No. Stink!
Getting a straight answer
After school I happened to walk into the staffroom while an ERO person was using the last of the green top milk. She turns to a colleague of mine and asks “Do you recycle milk bottles?” Now if it were anyone else the answer would be “Nope, just stick it in the bin.” but not on an ERO visit; the answer goes something like…. “ Well, we do have a recyclying policy, the All Brite truck comes once a week to collect the paper waste from the school. Currently though our recycling does not extend to…….it is something that we are in the process of….. in the near future our health promoting team……” and so it goes on. There must be times when they are not inspecting something and just want know where to put the flippin’ milk bottle….
