Proportional Reasoning Professional Development

Attended a Proportional Reasoning PD session at Mokoia Intermediate on Tuesday. Ratios and proportions is probably the maths area I am least confident in teaching so i was looking forward to it. Unfortunately I was a bit underwhelmed. I was hoping for a systematic approach to teaching with lots of practical ideas. What we got was really just a range of problems to solve and a brief talk about each. It didn't help that the internet wasn't working but still disappointing.

Science Staff Meeting

On Wednesday I ran a staff meeting looking at the House of Science kits mentioned in an earlier post. I wanted to take the staff through a kit, looking and the types of activities it contained and the resources that came with it. The kit supplied for that week was 'Puzzle Box 2' which was good because it focussed on the Nature of Science strand. This is the least understood of the science strands so along with explaining the kit I took the opportunity to unpack the Nature of Science strand and offer a possible framework for investigation based around the science capabilities. The following is a quick presentation highlighting some of my points.




The meeting went really well. The staff were very interested and positive about the kits and we will look to see how we can incorporate them into next years programme. They also found my talk about the nature of Science strand enlightening and I received several positive comments.

Co-Constructing Success Criteria

Staff meeting on Wednesday about co-constructing success criteria. This is something I need to be doing more often. We analysed an article by Anne Davis - 'Using Samples to Co Constructing Criteria for Writing'. I really liked how she set out a framework for doing so. It was clear and structured which made it easy to understand and make sense. I will follow it when applicable.

First Aid Refresher

This week we had a St Johns medic speak to the staff about first aid in a school environment. It was the best session we have had of its type. He was great at focussing on the issues we are most likely to face in our playground. He was also able to impart his advice in a way which made it understandable and not beyond our capabilities. I think this means that the advice will be more easily remembered.

NZEI Award Ratification Meeting

As the NZEI rep for Otonga it was important for me to attend the meeting to vote on ratifying the new award. Despite my 'encouragement' I was disappointed that only one other staff member from school attended. I don't consider myself a strong union person but I think attending one or two meetings a year isn't too much to ask. Talking to colleagues at school and listening to people speak at the meeting, there seems to be quite a bit of disillusionment with the union and the award they have negotiated.  

Student/Parent/Teacher 3-Way Interviews

Student/Parent/Teacher 3-Way Interviews

Conducted 3-way interviews during the week with children and parents. I really like the format as it is  the best of both worlds. Parents get to hear about their child's learning and progress along with the child. It also gives the opportunity to discuss any classroom concerns with both the parent and child.

We also have to report in terms of National Standards. As far as I am concerned this is information for the parents and for those children below standard to hear this is unnecessary. Despite this  had some really positive interviews. 

House of Science P.D.

Have been trialling science kits from 'House of Science'. These fully contained kits have lesson plans and all the equipment for a small scientific investigation. Attended a P.D. session tonight run by the creator of the kits. We first talked about the Nature of Science and the capabilities. Then proceeded to have a look at the magnetism kit.
Really excellent kits and P.D. As the teacher in charge of science I will probably run  a staff meeting along the same lines.

SpellWrite Online Professional Development

Attended a PD. course after school concerning the use of the new online SpellWrite site to improve childrens' spelling. I have battled with spelling in the classroom over the years, and this year in particular I have a band of 'high-needs' spellers in the class. Because of this I was looking forward to the course and what it could offer me.

First, the positives. It did look like a site I could use in some form in the classroom. Being a 'Spell Write' programme it very much linked spelling with writing, arguing that words cannot be taught in isolation. Lists need to be formed from a student's writing, with some topic work relative to what is being studied in the class at any given time. Within my Work Work reading rotation the children could input their spelling words into the  Spellwrite program and use the program to learn them at home. It had a really nice Look cover write function that would be useful.

I was however quite disappointed because I was hoping for more of a how to get your children to spell lesson. I felt that it was a sales pitch without too much substance. This was the general consensus of the other attendees to the PD session. There is a $50 per class charge for the program at this stage I will probably purchase it out of my classroom budget and give it a trial run for a term or so.

Spell-Write Online