Sally Avern's Professional Journey

Current Understanding or Dialogic Teaching: -giving students opportunities to use structured talk -ensuring students have the skills to discuss their own ideas -helping them to understand each others ideas and build on them -use talk moves -eliminate the hands up/ teacher-response-teacher scenario (IRE) --> -helps students engage with the content fully, engage with each other, engage with their own ideas, be more metacognitive -if it is not taught, they will be in a sea of useless discussion perhaps? -helps the teacher draw out misunderstandings, and students build schema, engage with prior knowledge "The person doing the talking, does the learning" Video on productive talk... clarififction of understanding of ideas, (I don't understand- please explain...)  referring to the data, using accountable talk starters, Teacher didn't rephrase, why do they agree?, not just I have the same idea- add to it. "Can I add to that, isn't a new idea, it...

My current improvement goal as a professional has been to assist students better determine their own goals. So far this year we have discussed goals and a few things I had seen as a fail. We made some goal cards, one for reading/writing and maths. Setting our goals at the start of the year and aligning them with things from the Ao's and progressions.   With 3 different types of goals and using the LLI's, then translating to the Asttle marks. It was all a little bit complicated.  I have been thinking about how to better integrate the whole process and make it simpler. Turns out I was already on the right track. As the students are aware that they need to have goals now and we are always discussing next steps- when I asked them (without any prompting or warning that this would be a question) whether they had a literacy or a maths goal. 13 out of 15 could articulate both a literacy and a maths goal that they thought was appropriate for them. The maths goal for all was tim...

Capabilitties of successful learners and science thinking. You need capabilitites to be critical, informed and reflective. science thinking with evidence --> The thinking scale is a key element of this program. questions are placed on the scale so that they align with the students level and not age. students a full curriculum level below they can do the yr 4 text instead. Use the scale to measure with progress also. Looking for trends in data. What are the kids improving in? Is it linked to the work the teachers are doing? What are we doing to shift kids? How can we take this into Pd further. Good for comparing the individual report compared to the sort of capabilities etc, by looking at the item report. Why are we doing this? What are our hunches? What is our specific intended outcome. What are our assumptions before we go into the data. Are we looking at this with confirmation bias? Good Links: https://scienceonline.tki.org.nz/

What is happening? Using quick writes and fluency for my writing target students is great, but what can I do that will see more accelerated progress in all of my target students across the 3 subjects. If I look critically at what I am currently doing. It is nothing. I am trying some things. But it is not targeted and not enough.  I am seeing shift in my students based on data but I need to push them.  So: what can I do? Writing: Making sure I am sticking to my plan from my TAI. Ensure I am using the quick writes that work for the needs of my students. The quick sentence practice to get fluency at the stage is where they are at. (See TAI for this). Maths: To meet the needs of my target maths learners I am going to do 15 mins of SPRING into Maths for them at the start of every lesson.  While the other students are doing their warm up. I can do SPRING. It is a wonderful resource that is proven to boost learning in the area needed. So why am I not using it?  Th...

I have gone back to the beginning of the Inquiry cycle. The oral language activities have been working to help the students to understand the content at a deeper level and contribute to the lessons in a more interactive way. Now I need to work out what is next. I looked at their work and found my next 'Big Bang'. Soldier Brooklyn Stephone Maile Wiremu     Bronson What is happening? The students are now planning with many details and using those plans to organise sentences into paragraphs most of the time. By using quick writes and simple structured activities, I tested this out. They found the use of structure and vocabulary very easy, as well as articulating their ideas within a group and coming up with ideas. These students are able to generate ideas and build up a plan that will help them write. They are learning the different structures of things. Something that they all lack to varying degrees is the ability to consistently create sen...

Rumaki = Immersion The plan for Park Estate School: TEACHERS Beginning in a week, have rumaki for the fist 5 mins of morning tea everyday.  (starting with baby steps).  For those 5 mins we will have to try and ONLY use te reo. That means if we can't say it- we need to try and work out how. GOAL: To have everyone using some te reo in conversation during kai te wa at P.E.S.  Giving it a go being the focus. Not fluent or perfect, but to remove the fear of trying. REWARDS: There will be biscuits available during rumaki time in the staffroom. Once rumaki is over, the biscuits disappear- hopefully this will entice some attendance- f we need to extend it to 10 mins, great. RESOURCES :  I have already made some labels/ sentences I know we will be needing to start with, then soon we can add/change them as we get better.  I will also bring in the phrase book. BUY IN: Hopefully the staff at P.E.S value the identity and language of our Maori tamariki enoug...