Sally Avern's Professional Journey

Focus Inquiry: I have chosen 3 disengaged boys in my class to focus my inquiry on. My evidence says: These gentlemen choose to do the bare minimum in most projects and do not see the need to learn lots of things we do in school. We are focusing our Inquiries on Science currently and I think this will be a great place for me to start to make change that can filter into my other subjects. All three of these boys really dislike working on things they think are not useful. They all hate talking in videos that are put online. I have asked them how they would like to present their work and they chose powtoon.  I wanted to see if they could make a decent powtoon in a short amount of time so, asked them to begin by just showing me they could do that. They completed a powtoon quite quickly and were eager to show it to me. They have all expressed interest in being able to choose some things we look into. They are all very adept at technology have have given me very detailed and ...

'When we notice things we automatically connect with out prior knowledge'  Susan Heeps, 2017 Observing our environment 1: Lay under tree and look/listen 2: write down anything we saw-no talking- just what is in your head 3: share what you wrote 4: draw a leaf 5: find one that is different in 2/3 ways 6: why is it different? Describe with your group. 7: why do you think it looks like that? what is the purpose of.. leaf shape, structure etc. Follow on:  -leaf rubbings -laminate different leaves and look over time, what is the patter? -leaf detective, (teacher take photos and students find the place where the leaves are, higher grades, 'why do you think that leaf grows there? shape? colour etc) -cut leaf sideways, look at the structure -pummel in mortar and pestle, get colour out with metho. Ice +3 activity  Blue ice cube, yellow ice cube and oil, water, or air. When recording we make a big deal about date because we are collecting data. Exp...

To be culturally responsive is to really get to know Tataiako and Ka Hikitia. I want to know how I can meet the Cultural Competenices and so, in order to meet them, I need to really be able to think about them in the classroom and on my feet. To do this, I need to get stuck into them. I had a quick revision today, brought on by trying to work out which ones applied to my PD that I am doing. The link to Tataiako was very helful, although it will be good when it is updated to align with the new STP. Here is my shortened version of what Tataiako means that I am going to refer to when I am writing my reflections.  I will keep referring to the other doc to as I go to make sure I am getting familiar with it. 

As part of our teaching as Inquiry, Michelle has put together some great questions and pieces of information. I found lots of this very useful, so will be using a lot of it here now and in the future. This blog will form the basis of many of my Inquiries to come I believe- until these questions and focuses become more natural. Adaptive expertise is all about taking responsibility for further learning in order to better meet the needs of your learners.  It makes sense that these are your most difficult to move in order to better reach all learners.   It must be the way we are.  I would argue I am reflective, but need to be more metacognitive and base my hunches on focused evidence. Thinking more about why I am doing things and how they are helping.  Another idea that really stood out for me was the professional conversation. The next video on professional conversations looks into the structure of these and the resources that are brought to these...