Sally Avern's Professional Journey

Argumentation  + Bloom's Taxonomy + Teaching as Inquiry + Discussion based learning I'v started this with a reflection. My current TAI goal is to give the students more agency to work towards inquiry based learning.  I know that agency and inquiry is proven to help those students that lack engagement. I know that giving them agency normally means choice of task, choice of topic, freedom to move around the classroom, freedom the choose when they work on what task they are performing. What if agency meant freedom to THINK whatever they want.  Form opinions, make decisions. I feel like I am developing my evaluating mind around the way I give agency to my students. Yes, they need to be guided, but I can be giving them the skills they need in reading and writing to form opinions, use and discuss ideas and agree/disagree with evidence.  I am getting there with baby steps. I am seeing my practice develop. Agree/disagree is used in my class- in a beginners way. Now...

Think about it from the child's point of view.  They are the heart of the matter. Read Disobedient Teaching for real! Don't just skim read. Change is uncomfortable.  You will need to do it and it's not gonna be nice. How are these students reflected in the classroom? How does it work in your classroom? Do they have something to jot down stuff in? Do my kids keep a diary? Do i expect them to make a to do list? They have a must do list... HELPING CIRCLE. CALL IT THIS. BOOKS: Sylivia Ashton Warner: check her out. "Teacher" Joseph Pearce: The magical child  mach 2:    Nathan Mikaere Wallis: Follow the blueprint Elwyn Richardson: In the early world.    ( what we watched in Uni) THE SACRED URGE TO PLAY: Making writing living work (easy to work)  Lucy Caulkins Lessons that change writers: Nancie Atwell Jeff Anderson.   student agency book. What is my philosophy? Why? Go back to this.  Key vocabulary.... Are my beliefs ...

Start with the topic- then add Te Reo, Work out what you are doing, work out the words and then move on from there. You just need the topic and then the level, how do you intergrate into the topics you are doing. topic brainstorm- translate level 3- incorporate the holistic view of everything.  and continue to tranlsate... where is the stroy told by, Maori perspective is important so that the kids know why some scientific ideas match and don't match up. Make it Multi modal for them, just now if Te Reo. Do it with Te Reo. Do a form and quiz them, form it, add a gif. :) We have a pepeha that is gifted from Ta Mahao ho Where is our Haka? Can we keep learning it. We are allowed to add to our Haka and to keep learning it.  They can own it. Know the structure of the whaikorero so that they know where you are from not just by the words, but also by the idiosyncracies. ko Pukeokiwiriki o te awa te manukanuka.

Minecraft Educational Edition Notes: great at integrating the tuakana-teina relationships,  students tuakana, teacher-teina teaches perspective using the blocks, can integrate scratch, Tynker etc into Minecraft. Orientation for maths,  civilisations for social science- research what they need.... roads for infastructure etc... $7 per head. How did your digital medium meet the learning... meets that critical thinking need. So.... Can I use it? On the macs at school if I pay for it. Will the kids be into it? What next? Was this unconference useful? Not particularly. I wish I had of known I couldn't use this on chrome books before hand as that is what we all have at our school.  It did give me more ideas for using gamefroot though. So I guess maybe it was useful. Just not in the same way I wanted it to be.

Today I did a lesson that Susan had already given us to teach. I was going to try and modify it but I decided starting with the basics and working from there was a good idea. My plan was this: Science -WAL about how scientists communicate using diagrams. -Develop our research and note taking skills. Communicating in science 1: New double page Date and underline Me & N, Th, W. 2: Draw an ant, label anything you know. TPS. Did you learn from each other already? What did we notice, think or wonder from these pics? Add to the slideshow. 3: Look at diagrams of ant and add some things to yours. Feel free to do a second drawing if you wish, or add to he one you have already. (Mention Austin’s butterfly- not first try.) What did we notice, think or wonder from these pics? 4: Watch the videos and look for the any answers to your questions on notice, think or wonder page. Collect information to help answer questions. I decided it was rea...

Same teacher that helped me with critical 3 principles: This includes the steps that they take to produce the work. Think about the actions they need to take to get us there. When designing tasks: separate the ideas, give visuals that are relevant. use audio, make it rewindable. Don't retro fit. Don't adapt what you are doing already. .... Design from the edges instead of the middle.  That way it will meet them all.  It's a bit like multi-model.  Let them choose from the options. Use these to connect to the curriculum... How to differentiate the learning for my learners, they don't have the life experience.  think about giving them the life experience and letting the students experience the things we are doing. What preloading experience am I giving my students? What do you need to effectively do UDL? KNOW YOUR STUDENTS!! Check out these learner maps so you can Choose storybird because the art work helps motivate... Use Unsplash to...