Sally Avern's Professional Journey

Sam's writing that we have been working on What is happening and why? My students are now producing more quality work. Their planning is improved now that I have worked on what else they need to be including in their writing and looking at it before the lessons in models with them. They are including details that are being selected more carefully and the work is becoming far more relevant. This is happening because the process of pulling apart models and then using that info to increase our writing is helping. What is not happening and why? Some of my students that need extra support are writing their story in a kind of list.  They have gotten the things they need in their intro/ body/conc and have included them but it doesn't really flow and I don't know how to make this better.  They have done what I have asked of them but now I need to know how to make it better. What am I going to do to change that? I am going to continue to use models, although more ...

  Inquiry/Goal: 2017: How can I improve the achievement in for my target students in Reading, Writing, Maths. This is the goal that I had from the beginning of term from writing observations.  My writing is going to be totally rearranged- to be more quick workshops and less long whole class stuff. Every lesson will now be a 15 min spot: 15 min workshop with 2 groups and then a 15 min spot to conference with a whole group. That way I really will get to conference with each child at least once a week. Ensure that we are fitting in to my writing 15 min workshop: A clear LI and SC, as well as: I do, We do, They do. Telling them they have a short amount of time to get it done. By just doing one small thing at a time this will be easy (as this is also what I do it reading and maths). Even when I am finding the ways things happen in an exemplar it should take way less time. But this can be a whole class activity). By doing things in a shorter, more specific way I will be...

As part of the Kootuitui Cluster of schools developing their digital skills for teaching, I am regularly observed to help with data and research for further developing practice.  As part of this I am now in my second year of facilitating a 1:1 classroom where all students have Chromebooks.  From this observing and recording I have been flagged as having effective digital pedagogy and am very excited that I might help shape something in the future. I am hoping that this will not only result in a close inspection of my practice that is going well but also an opportunity to see what else is happening in other classes and an ability to learn from other classrooms that demonstrate effective digital pedagogy.