Mentoring New Teachers

I have just been listening to a radio talk (November 2018) with a neuroscientist Mary Anne Wolfe on the difference between skim reading on screen vs deep reading in print. The screen develops faster processing of information and so can cover larger areas of a topic while print develops slower processing and deeper reading which is good for comprehension and critical analysis. This may mean less time on checking facts and alternative viewpoints but she noted that teachers can teach deep reading on screen. The teacher must ask "What is the purpose of the learning" and match purpose to mode as students need to have skills in both skimming and deep reading. When I started working in a paperless school with Beginning teachers, I noticed the difficulties they were having in keeping students on task and not being distracted by the digital media. I suggested that perhaps in the afternoon periods when the students are usually less alert that they use textbooks and paper. It w...

Hattie (2012) “teachers need to change to far less talk and much more listening”  Visible Learning for Teachers (p. 80).  “Teachers talk between 70 and 80 percent of class time (p. 80) Student engagement is higher when teachers talk less, this is especially true for at-risk students  Only “5-10 per cent of teacher talk triggers more conversation or dialogue engaging the student” (p. 81)  Research shows that “when highly effective and other teachers were compared, the former had more general class talk and less directive talk” (p. 81) How do we light the fire within students to express their thinking? Dr Aaron Wilson and Jacinta Oldehaver in their research in Talking about Text (TaT) worked to change traditional patterns of teacher dominated talk in the classroom and found that achievement rates in TaT classes were higher than in previous years and also higher than students in non TaT classes because of the changes in teacher talk. They found that ...

What is collaborative sense-making? I've come to that part of my appraisal where I need to show evidence of my collaborative sense-making this year. It does sound like more of education jargon but at the same time needs to be investigated in order to get it right. It is one of the 6 components of the appraisal cycle put out by the Education Council. Luckily I went to their workshop this year and this was explained as: How you collaborate with others who have different perspectives from yours eg experts, colleagues, mentors etc through conversation to look at different perspectives on a situation. From these conversations you share findings, learning and implications for changes in practice. An example given was to use another person eg have a conversation with the Te Reo teacher to give you feedback on your work with Standard 1 (Treaty) Questions from ERO include: What do we already know about this? What do we need to find out? How might we do this? Catalysts that lead ...

I have just been re-reading the notes I took at the Education Council (EC) workshop on the new standards at the beginning of this year. Provisionally certificated teachers (PCTs) are always worried about having enough evidence and what to record. I currently mentor 7 PCTs, 3 of whom are coming up for certification this year. What the EC has said is that they do not want voluminous portfolios of stuff and that they want to shift the emphasis from the showing of evidence to improvement of practice done through discussion and documentation. Teachers engaging in “learning talk” analyse, critique and challenge their current teaching practices to find and/or create more effective ways of teaching. ( Annan, Lai & Robinson 2003) The current situation is that ERO will audit the documentation for certification of teachers recently certificated. They are looking to see that the school has a robust system well founded in evidence. They will be looking at the level of support and inducti...

Mahi = work kotahitanga = working together ERO: " Mahi tahi (or mahi ngātahi) describes the unity of a group of people working towards a specific goal or on a specific task, often in a hands-on fashion.   In the school context, mahi tahi describes the business of working together collaboratively in the pursuit of learner-centred education goals. ....." At Tamaki College, staff are working together to raise student achievement in NCEA. I am on the Change Committee which meets every few weeks. We are a group of innovative educators who try to find different ways of approaching the challenge. We discuss and work on this sitting around the table eating brain food and then take it back to our respective PLuG groups for the group to share strategies and ways of working that have helped reach the achievement goals for priority students. It seems to be working because the list of priority students has become shorter as students go from no credits (red) to some credits (gree...

Digital Intensive I learned some basic things that will make my life easier this week. Gmail - Put Gmail on compact settings and then I  seem to have half as many emails to attend to! Put a pink flower theme into my Gmail and I feel a lot calmer when writing and answering emails I don't like the way Gmail nests conversations because I sometimes miss new emails so I can use "conversation view off" and "new mail notifications" on. The problem is we get into the habit of just doing what has already been set up rather than looking at other possibilities. One Tab I now have the OneTab icon on my computer " Whenever you find yourself with too many tabs, click the OneTab icon to convert all of your tabs into a list. When you need to access the tabs again, you can either restore them individually or all at once. When your tabs are in the OneTab list, you will save up to 95% of memory because you will have reduced the number of tabs open in Google Chr...

This week we focussed on our pepeha . I do have Māori heritage and know my ancestral line but have not been brought up as Māori. I have developed my pepeha using screencastify (see read more)

Digital Intensive 2 I can't believe that a week has passed since the last digital intensive. Today we were looking at Google Forms, Google Sheets and Google maps. We began this session with the history of Manaiakalani around Learning and the pedagogy of "Learn, Create, Share". Research underpinning this came from John Hattie's constructivist and metacognitive approach, Russell Bishop's culturally responsive pedagogy, the global study for the Ministry of Education that showed acceleration can be achieved through inquiry driven exploration and the use of the Google platform. We learned how to set up a Google form with many available options that would give us data that we can analyse either as baseline data, feedback data or exit data. I created a Google form with questions around the new Education Council standards and sent it out to 10 teachers - have had 3 responses so will send again. I had recently attended a workshop on these and will be using th...

What is appraisal exactly? The Education Review Office is very clear on its purpose of appraisal in schools . Teacher appraisal has two purposes: improvement - appraisal supports personal development and school capability to meet student outcome goals professional accountability - appraisal provides assurances to the wider community that teaching standards are rigorously applied. The Education Council sees it as: The appraisal process exists to affirm and develop a high standard of teaching in New Zealand. Effective appraisal systems using the  Standards for the Teaching Profession  help teachers learn, grow and achieve the best outcomes for our learners. PPTA describes appraisal as : Performance appraisal has two purposes – development and accountability, or to put it another way, formative and summative assessment. It should be about helping teachers to develop their practice and do their personal best Appraisal is a good way of reflecting on your...

Today and for the next 8 Fridays I am on a Manaiakalani digital intensive. I am reasonably confident with digital technologies but, as we all know, there is always more to learn. Firstly we were given an introduction to the Manaiakalanai kaupapa and pedagogy. It was interesting hearing about the history of Manaiakalani and its early beginnings . Then we were into Google Docs. I work sometimes in Google Docs & sometimes in Word (which is apparently a no-no). Another no-no is NO underlining because that means a link and capitals mean you are shouting. But I did discover things like Find and Replace, Table of Contents and voice typing in which I just have to speak the words (and punctuation) and it writes for me! This will be a good thing to pass on to the PCTs I work with. As for my personal life, I don't think I really want my computer to be writing down everything I say. So we may have to negotiate on that one. The only time I use my home computer i...

On the 27th February I was fortunate to be able to attend a workshop run by the Education Council on the "new" standards that have been put out for teachers in schools. Unfortunately, some teachers have brushed this off with "Oh they have just put 12 criteria into 6 standards but really nothing has changed". When you read the standards carefully you notice that there has been a sea change which has already been reflected in the more progressive schools especially those who engaged with assessment for learning , Kia Eke Panuku , and to a lesser extent PB4L . So what has changed? Std1   Waitangi partnership - Practise and develop the use of te reo and tikanga Māori Std2 Professional learning - Critically examine how my own assumptions and beliefs, including cultural beliefs, impact on practice and the achievement of learners. Std3 Professional Relationships - Communicate clear and accurate assessment for learning and achievement for learning Std4 Learning-fo...