Mentoring New Teachers

There has been much discussion around dropping NCEA Level 1 or reducing it to 40 credits in order to focus on bringing students up to the required levels of Literacy and Numeracy in order to be able to succeed in NCEA Level 2. Hobsonville Point secondary school had already dropped NCEA Level 1 before the Ministry review took place. They saw the focus on credits and constant assessment as limiting deeper learning as there was less time to explore topics of interest and less time for learning.   " International studies have confirmed that a credit-focused educational model promotes superficial learning, not the quality stuff that sticks with us" (Stuff June 2018). Fairfield College and  Rototuna Senior High School have also dropped NCEA Level 1 but Rototuna gives the students some experience of sitting an external assessment ie not everything needs to be assessed. Students at all 3 schools will still do Level 1 courses but not assessed for NCEA leaving more time for lear...

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...

In conversation with a beginning teacher recently, the question of pedagogy came up. What is pedagogy? The Oxford dictionary defines pedagogy as"  The method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept." Teaching as inquiry is an important aspect of effective pedagogy The NZ Curriculum defines pedagogy as: " Teacher actions promoting student learning " There is also  culturally responsive pedagogy. Ako  underpins the Practising Teacher Criteria and is an important component of culturally responsive teaching and learning.  A good way to check if you are including effective pedagogy in your lesson plans & units of work is to use these sentence starters. I create a supportive learning environment by........... I encourage reflective thought and action by............. I enhance the relevance of new learning by.............. I facilitate shared learning by.................. I make connections to prior learn...

For our PCT professional learning yesterday we looked at the reading "Learners in the Driving Seat" by Chris Watkins . Watkins begins the reading with asking the students to point their index finger to the ceiling then to point to who is responsible for their learning. Most will point to the teacher. This is certainly the case with the 11 beginning teachers that I am currently working with ie that they take responsibility for the students' learning but as Watkins points out " research demonstrates that when students are driving the learning it leads to: greater engagement & intrinsic motivation students setting higher challenges students evaluating their own work (self & peer assessment) better problem-solving" He then provides some very good questions to ask (rather than tell) for Before Starting, On the Road, and Journey's end. These equate well to John Hattie's feedback questions "Where am I going?" (Learning Intention/g...

Steve Rowe from Team Solutions ran a workshop on Teacher Only Day ( Image from thesmartteacher.com) Culturally Responsive Pedagogy – Steve Rowe Please click on the links highlighted for more information Whakawhanaungatanga – relations & connections – how do we build on the layers of relationhips & connections Look at 4 docs:- ·       Well being for success  ·       NZ Curriculum       Te Marautanga ·       Tataiako ·       Kia Eke Panuku – Te Kotahitanga Treaty ofWaitangi ·       Partnership ·       Curriculum – all students have opportunity to acquire Te Reo & tikanga ·       Relationship & engagement with Maori learners inclusing whanau & background ·       Listening to learners & no deficit theorising Maoripot...