Restorative Practices

Today we watched a Ted Talk by Kay Hutcheson on Restorative Practices. 

Kay's husband was tragically killed and she talked through how she dealt with this. She could either react like the community expected her to or she could model to her own children how to react in a restorative way.
Here is the link: http://youtu.be/wcLuVeHlrSs

To relate back into the classroom... do we want to give children 'time out" or "time in?" Do we want to teach them to be "human beings" or" human doings?"

My goal from this video is to really make sure I give all children time to talk through what went wrong and to highlight the importance of talking through problems instead of reacting and handing out consequences.

Another point that was highlighted for me was that even those children who are not buying in to having a restorative chat will eventually 'click" 1 or 2 years on. 

Using google docs in the classroom

My trial with goal setting on google docs. Children could add to during the term and share?

PD at Te Kowhai School

My very first QR code! Yes, I made it all by myself! ;) Have you a device handy to scan and see where it leads?

Today at Te Kowhai I joined a QR codes discussion which Elysia led. It was great to hear how she has implemented QR codes into her classroom so far.

I have many ideas .. book reviews, math app or any app reviews, art work with a QR code pasted in he corner which leads to a review/reflection of their art work, and more!

Here is the QR code website. You need to copy and paste the link to this website and it generates a QR code.
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Ted Glynn's Workshop

I really enjoyed our overnight stay and two days of PD in Kawhia at Maketu Marae.

Ted Glynn's Workshop
I really enjoyed Ted Glynn's workshop. His messages were powerful and also affirming because at school we try hard at crossing the boundaries with our community. One idea for student led conferences that we are trialling is children inviting their parents into the classroom to share their learning so the ownership in on the child. I can see the conversations being more powerful as the child and the paretns are doing most of the talking/ask questions etc.

I found the quote from James Nottingham about ability grouping having a negative effect on children interesting. It has has me think about my groupings in class and how I can tweak them. We already cross group or buddy up when researching during 'topic' so now I need to think how I can cross-ability group during other areas of the day.

One thing that has had an impact on my teaching practice is the "Communities of Practice".
We have discussed this in class and I would love children to recognise that in order to be a true member of our class community they need to ask questions/change something/teach others.

"If you truly belong to a group, or are a competent group member, you have power to change/influence a group by your actions (e.g suggest something)" Ted Glynn

Different communities can be brought into conversations through boundary objects, people and practices. (Wenger 1998)
An example of this is our home learning books, to some extent. Currently children are gluing on their weekly HL sheet with the compulsory tasks; reading, spelling and maths, and the optional tasks which encourage children to discuss and interact with their family. A suggestion Ted made was to encourage children to share what they want to share via the HL book e.g glue photos, share special treasures, get parent sharing and writing in the book instead of home learning/work. Parents can currently make comments etc in our HL books so to extend this we could get them sharing and working WITH children on what they WANT to share.

With our big idea this term on cultures/identity I am excited to see my class grow into effective members of our class community and identifying more with their culture and the groups they belong to.

Webinar

Link to a recording of the webinar Teaching not Tools: Using online tools to accelerate student learning.

http://connect.vln.school.nz/p91987157/

Using Creative Commons Images

A great post on using images from the Internet; from Kathleen Morris in Australia.
I think it's important to remember that you cannot copy any image from the Internet without permission from the person who took the photo.
This is something I need to go through with my class and also the Techsperx Club and therefore filter through the school.

Using Creative Commons Images From FlickrCC and Wikimedia Commons in Blog Posts

First Master class

We held our first master class today on using twitter.

The two sessions we held worked well. The morning session's focus was explaining the purpose of using twitter as a teacher and how we can develop an online PD community.  It  was great to see so many teachers interested and motivated to join and use twitter! We now have a few more teachers signed up to twitter!

The afternoon's session focus on on using hashtags. We have begun (thanks to @Myravardon) a #Vardonchat and #VardonPD hashtag.

Let's get tweeting everyone!

My week in class

As I am thinking of how to start this post I cannot believe it but it's nothing ICT related! Anyway...

My team talked awhile ago about our maths programmes and making math overall more relevant and meaningful.We thought about our maths warmups and ensuring they weren't always number knowledge focused. We have found in the past that this does not cater for the vast range of knowledge ability in the class and wanted to do something differently.

So, this week for my maths warmups I have taught fractions. Each day I taught the same objective but in a different, motivating and 'real' way. I even differentiated it for my high-flyers by adding in some decimals and percentage work.

I found great ideas on Pinterest. If you are not signed up to pinterest then you really must!

Here are some posts we wrote on our class blog about our week of maths.

Cubes Fraction work

Pebbles Fraction work

Name Fraction work

Fraction Portraits

I even had one boy say "This is a good way to learn fractions" Imagine my excitement to hear that!

iPads and iPods

It's been great to see teachers now asking to borrow iPads and iPods to use with their own classes. I have enjoyed teaching the Techsperx some apps and then hearing stories of them teaching others in class. This is promoting great leaderships among our students.

My students are now beginning to link the use of these devices to their learning and how they can demonstrate their learning or create new learning. I need to use more content apps with my lower learners as this will reinforce skills they learn in their instructional groups. I know using creating apps is better for my students rather than using content apps although I wonder if my lower ability learners will benefit more from these apps.

Check out my iPad inquiry tab at the top of my blog for apps, resources and ideas!

Comments are Powerful!

I already knew the importance of how commenting on blogs was extremely important to children's engagement and motivation to post/write on their own blogs. They feel like their work is valued and being viewed instantly from anywhere, not just  in the classroom.

This is also true for adults! Thank you to Myra for making me smile! :)

This is exactly what I have instilled into my own class - the love of sharing your learning/thoughts/reflections etc with others and the importance of commenting to make others feel valued.

Myra's comment.

Now... my challenge to each of you... go and make someones day by making comment and letting them know you care! ;)

ICOT

At the end of the summer holidays seven of us attended the ICOT (International Conference on Thinking) in Wellington. Wow! What a week of full on sessions, "ah-ah" moments, reflective thinking upon my own teaching practice and wonderful conversations between colleagues!

The seven of us have already had a de-brief session, with coffee and cake, and have begun planning the next three teacher meetings of term 1. We had great conversations about how the brain works, personality types and Ewan McIntosh's main points from his keynote (and that was only Day 1 of the conference). We are looking forward to meeting regularly to reflect on our learning from the conference and how we are going to filter through the rest of the staff back at school all our 'wonderings' and new ideas.

2013... will be another great year!

2013 has begun and I'm already excited to begin my journey into exploring the use of iPads/iPods in the classroom. One of our quadblogging classes is well underway with the use of iPads so they will be a great resource to use, view, ask questions and trial some new learning using iPads - Davyhulme Primary