Playing the BOOST Game with the Whole Staff

 During our last whole staff PLD session, the 5 CoL teachers presented where we are up to - blog post here

At the end of that session, we got the whole staff to play my BOOST game, which is based on inquiry teaching and planning. Blog post here about the BOOST game and where it is on the planning site is here.

After this PLD session, I sent a Google form around to staff to get some feedback about the game.

Were the instructions clear enough?

Yes

From what I could hear, yes. I also read the instructions on the screen. We also had them on a Laptop in front of us as well.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Only when there is tie was not explained .

How did you feel about reading a scenario out in front of your group and then having to come up with a solution?

It was good having to think on the spot as most scenarios in the classroom happen on the spot as well.

Initially I felt nervous but once it was my turn, I was okay.

Interesting as we had some different and some similar ideas of how we would solve the problems.

I liked that the scenarios we could relate to.

Fine, it's very similar to the conversations that we have during the day

I was happy and the scenarios were true to class situations. The feedback encouraged collaboration.

Ok.

very useful

It challenged me to really think what I would do and some I as a teacher should do rather than giving excuses.

How did it feel to get feedback about your answer / idea from the rest of the group?

We didn't really give feedback this time as everyone had a clear strategy on how to handle the scenario.

It felt good getting feedback because what you do, someone else would do differently and you could use it for next time if the time arose.

Good

Felt great & encouraging

Yeah, fine - we were a pretty affirming bunch

Absolutely wonderful and uplifting. Much more, it showed that they were standing with me and saying, "we hear you, we are with you".

It was really good

very useful

It helped me to reflect and how I can improve . Helpful

Did you like giving feedback to others about their ideas on the scenarios?

We didn't really give feedback this time as everyone had a clear strategy on how to handle the scenario.

Yes, it reassures them that their solution is good and also the feedback was constructive

yes

Only sometimes

Yeah, it was fine.

Yes indeed , I did.

Yes

Yes

Yes definitely and a good way to exchange ideas to grow in this profession

How do you think the game could be improved?

Possibly give some scenarios that aren't as common, so we can learn how to handle them if needed (although we didn't get through too many cards, so maybe there were some in there).

More time given to verbally give instructions. Have the cards ready for players, as it what hard to figure out who needed what card from the pack. The scenarios could be a different colour from the rest, to stand out more.

Nothing at the moment

Great as is

Go cards-against-humanity style, where people have a certain number of cards to play, and the person who read the card has to match answers up with players.

Have written instruction explaining how to play the game and even add some point system to it.

?

good enough

I find it very interesting. I don’t think it needs improvement.

What was the best part about playing the game?

Hearing how other teachers would handle the different scenarios, as it gave me some ideas on how to approach similar interactions with students.

The support you give and get within the group about your scenario and solution. It gets those who usually don't speak, a chance to speak.

Listening to others solutions

sharing with other teachers and hearing what they do in the same situation.

Laughing with new people

Answering the question and giving feedback.

Sharing of ideas and listening to what others have to say

Learning about different opinions

Collaboration between the members .

Here are some of the staff playing the game

Staff PLD - CoL Presentation 3

 In today's morning PLD session, the CoL teachers presented where we are up to at the moment.

Presentation 1

Presentation 2

Here is my section from today

Here is the whole presentation with everyone's sections together.

Reading by Stealth

 My inquiry this year is about reading. I have been working with the school literacy specialist with designing resources and ways for my senior students to get more out of the reading and research they have to do in DVC. Blog posts about this are on this label. 

I have involved my junior Food Technology classes in this inquiry work as they have to read the recipes and analyse how things went. I hve tried out the techniques and planning on my junior classes first and then tweaked them before using them with my seniors.

Part of what I have been doing with my juniors is what I have nicknamed "stealth reading". I started making videos for the students last year and putting them onto social media (YouTube, Instagram and TikTok) - Link to blog posts about this. I have continued this for my junior and intermediate food classes (Y7, Y8 and Y9). The videos I have been making for them have to fit in the 3 minute deadline for TikTok and I make them with a music background and no talking. I then put all the instructions for the recipes on the screen so they have to read as they are watching.

On the class site, I have all the information that they need and I also put links to the videos on there. These are then emailed out to the students the weekend before the week of the lesson. 

• Example Y7 and Y8 site page - Sweet and Sour chicken
• Example Y9 site page - Chocolate Brownies

I have been keeping track of the videos that I have made on this spreadsheet so that I can find things easily and quickly when I want to shre them to the students. I also have a tab on there keeping track of the views.

I have had some feedback from the students this week.

• Y9 Student 1 - comes into the kitchen and gleefully tells me "I never watch any of the videos you send Miss!!"
• Y9 Student 2 - comes into the kitchen, gets totally ready while the rest of the class are coming in and says to me "Miss, can I start? I have watched your video and know what to do."
• Y8 Students - I always ask if they have watched the videos when they come in. I asked this week if they read the instructions on the screen as they were watching. Mostly yes. A couple of no's.

As far as advertising the Social Media option, as relying on students reading their emails is a little shaky to say the least - I have the links on all the site pages that I have content on. I have links on the front of my class website. I also hav this poster up in my class window.

Inquiry 2023 - Where are we up to?

 As part of the Manaiakalani CoL, we are asked every year to think about a "Causal Chain". Previous year's causal chains can be seen on this link

I have decided to keep revisiting this year's causal chain and use it to check in where we are up to and also use it to log the evidence as we go. I have been including links to specific blog posts along with each step of the chain so I can see how it went this year when I am analysing it. 

Link to original document

Materials Research - Reading 3

My Year 11 inquiry group are currently in the middle of researching different materials that could be used for their design ideas of chairs.

So far we have read about different types of wood - blog post here - I took the information from the original source, chunked it and presented it to the students in a different way. We looked at some of the words from the text so they had some definitions to start them off and then they did information transfer and answered specific questions. They then related what they had read to their own design work. This exercise was done in the class but by themselves, in their own time. 

We next looked at types of metal - blog post here - We read directly from the source material on the internet this time and I read it out to them while they read along at the same time. They had to write down words that they did not know and we looked these up together. 

I asked them for feedback about the two sessions and they liked a mix of the two. So for this session I have tried to combine what we have been doing over the past two weeks. 

• I took words out from the reading to start with so they could have some definitions to start them off.
• I have taken the information form the original source and chunked it.
• Each piece of reading on the presentation has a yellow box on the outside of the slide so they can note down any words they are unsure of.
• The text was read to the class again, but this time it was done by our guest reader.
• We then talked about what words they had noted down.
• The class then had to answer the information transfer questions.
• They then had to relate what we had been reading about to their own designs.

Our guest reader was Ms George. I had been telling her about last week when it was me reading the information about types of metal and trying my hardest to make it sound interesting. She is an extremely experienced teacher of English and has lots of experience reading to classes. She agreed to come and read about plastics to put emphasis and interest into how it was read out.

When Miss George left after the reading, the students gave me feedback that they preferred her reading to mine. I need practice!!

Here are some examples of student work form today. They have had copies made so student names do not appear.

Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Student 4

Materials Research - Reading 2

 

As part of my inquiry this year I am looking at how I can read in DVC so the students get more meaning out of the research they have to do.

Last week, we started our materials research where I broke the information down for them and presented it on a Google slide. Blog post here.

This week, I sent the students the link to the website - Metals and Alloys. I made sure they all had a piece of paper and a pencil and then I read to them from the website while they read it in front of them. If they came across a word that they did not know, they had to write it on the paper. At the end of the reading, I collected in the papers and scanned them to see where the main problems were in understanding and we Googled meanings and answers together while I wrote the answers on the white board.

I have not read out loud to students for a LONG time. I have been in the classrooms of English teachers when they have been reading to their class. They are able to put emphasis in the reading and use different tones of voice. After this lesson, I was laughing with an English teacher colleague, explaining how I was trying to make information about stainless steel and aluminium sound interesting as I was reading it. 

My Year 11 class already know that I am doing my inquiry with them this year and that I will be trying different things with them that I have not done before. We went over what we did last week and how it was different to what we did this week in regards to their research. I then asked them to write down what they thought about each approach.

Next week, we will be looking at different plastics, so I think a combination of approaches will be tried. I have also had a volunteer to be "guest reader".

Materials Research - Reading Template 1

 My inquiry group Year 11's are up to the point where we need to do research about lots of different materials so they can decide which ones will be best for their designs that they have been busy doing. 

For this template, I decided to take the information away from its source on the internet and present it on a document of my own. I could then control how much information is given at a time to read and I could take it away from all of the distractions that are on a website.

The Tamaki College literacy specialist, Marc Milford, has been working with us for a while about information transfer. I have tried some of this work with my Year 9 Food Tech class, with their recipe planning.

Staff PLD - Reading Skills with Marc

Reading for Planning

Today was the first time trying reading and information transfer with my Year 11 inquiry class.

Here is the template that I made for them.

Link to document

Here are some of the documents from the students today. I have included students who completed the most work today. We had a double period to do this work this afternoon and there was a wide range of completion, from done and completed really well to hardly started. My next step with them is to ask what they thought of this, how easy they found it and if this links to how incomplete some of them are.Student 1Student 2Student 3

Staff PLD - Understanding ADHD

 https://inclusive.tki.org.nz/guides/adhd-and-learning/

Staff PD - Executive Functioning - The Administrative Team

 

Inquiry 2023 - Causal Chain 2023

 "A causal chain is when a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect

A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D.
Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action."

Link to original drawing

Staff PD - Understanding Executive Functioning

 

Planning Support - Card Game

 I have blogged about my planning support work with my 4 teacher trainee mentees before

Planning Support

Planning Support - Help Videos

Since then, I have started talking to them about Teaching as Inquiry and about how it should be an ongoing thing. I spoke about this to the whole staff during our last CoL presentation.

Staff PLD - CoL Presentation 2

Since then, my 4 mentees have been working extremely hard as they have a pile of deadlines coming up for university. This got me thinking about doing something fun when the deadline is over so I have tried to design a card game based on thinking about your planning.

I have put all of the resources for the game and the instructions on the planning site that I have made for them - link here

I am hoping that we get something out of this activity, being honest with what we think about planning and have a bit of fun while doing this.

The Game Cards

This presentation is set up to print 4 cards on A4 paper, back to back, so you have the card info on one side and the game logo and coloured background on the other side.

The Instructions

Reading for Planning

 I have been working with Marc to produce some reading strategy support. My inquiry group is my Year 11 class this year but I have been trying things out on my Year 9 class. This post is from one of the sessions with Marc

In that document, we were reading the method for the food we were going to cook later in the week.

This term, one of the Technology COs we are assessing on in the junior school is planning, so I thought I could combine what I had already done with Marc with planning. I have used the same SOLO colours to show where it fits in - yellow for identifying the items, green for listing from the method and blue for relating the jobs to how long each one will take.

On the gantt chart page, I have put the method in a scrambled order, so they have to read carefully to work out the order. If they like, they can also compare to the method that is listed on the page before - this still requires them to read it to compare.

Link to document

Staff PLD - CoL Presentation 2

  In today's staff PLD session the CoL teachers presented the progress so far of our inquiries.

Here is my section - which includes what I went over in the last presentation - blog post here

I then spoke on how to think about in a day to day way

Here is the whole presentation from everyone today

Using the Cricut Machine

 Subsequent to our Manaiakalani Teacher Only day where I presented on how to use the Cricut machine, most of my group have met twice this last week to continue learning.  We will continue over the next couple of weeks.

PLD - Manaiakalani Teacher Only Day

 

Inquiry 2023 - Baseline Testing

 My Inquiry group this year are my Year 11 Design and Visual Communication class. The focus of my inquiry is reading. 

Today, I did a baseline piece of reading and writing with them. I explained what we were doing and why

• A teacher has to inquire into something to improve over the year
• The thing that I had chosen was reading
• The reason I chose that is the work that is required to move from achieved to merit and excellence involves a lot of research, reading and writing and their design work.
• A baseline piece of work is required so we can see if any improvement is made over the year due to what the teacher is doing differently
• No help is given during this baseline piece of work so it shows what the students can do now, by themselves.

This is the piece of reading that I gave the students. I asked ChatGPT to give me information about stainless steel. They had to read it then give two summaries - one about how stainless steel would be good for their chair design and one where stainless steel would not be good for their chair design.

Here is the writing that the students did today based on the reading from this document. We wrote it by hand so they would not be able to use the internet for anything. They had about 20 minutes to do this.

3D Printed Cookie Cutters

My Year 7 class this tech rotation are having a go with Tinkercad to design and make some cookie cutters that we can use to make some sugar cookies in the kitchen.

They are not my class at the college, they come from a local intermediate for their Technology lessons. Luckily on Tinkercad, you can make classes so it is easy for them them to get into the class and start work. 

It also makes it easy for me as the teacher to see the work they have been doing as I have access to it on the dashboard.

I had set the work up onto my class site so I could include examples, information and videos.

Link to class site

I have made some example cookie cutters for the students to see the process and we worked through the first one as a class.

We worked through the first, basic design together last Friday so I thought I would print out those ones for them before they come back this Friday to try the more complex ones. We will then make the cookies with them on Friday next week.

Staff PLD - Reading Skills with Marc

 Following on from the department PLD with the school literacy specialist, Marc, we have had a whole school PLD session. Blog post from the department session here.

Today, Marc wanted us to choose a piece of writing that a junior class would have to read. I chose the method for making Teriyaki Chicken as that is what my Year 9 class are going to be doing this week.

Marc has spoken about using images and stimulus to understanding and jumpstarting any prior knowledge. 

Link to my document - I have given the words to link to the images, started the information transfer with a couple of examples and colour coded the work to link to all of the templates I have made for writing that use the SOLO structure. (the yellow and green sections where they are identifying and listing)

PLD - Understanding the PAT Results with Marc

Non Fiction Reading Skills

Link to document

Example - worked through with Marc using data transfer and summary techniques.

TOD - Planning for DVC NCEA Level 1 2024

 Today we were given time on Teacher only Day to plan for next year when the new NCEA Level 1 standards start.

Prior to the day, I had found some useful links and saved them onto Google Keep

Design and Visual Communication
https://ncea.education.govt.nz/technology/design-and-visual-communication?view=assessment

Materials and Processing Technologies
https://ncea.education.govt.nz/technology/materials-and-processing-technology?view=assessment

Electronics - Level 2 Unit Standards
https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/framework/explore/domain-full.do?frameworkId=278802

Understanding NCEA Changes
https://ncea.education.govt.nz/understanding-how-ncea-requirements-are-changing#:~:text=guidance%20as%20well.-,In%202024%3A,a%20new%2060%2Dcredit%20qualification

I has also prepared the standards into breakdown sheets similar to how I have them on my class site at the moment.

Year 11 2023 example - AS91067 - where it is on the class site

I always find making these sheets extremely useful as it makes sure that I am preparing work up to excellence level. As this is the case, I thought this would be a good thing to do with the new standards.

Here are the prepared documents.

DVC Level 1.1 9000 (internal)

DVC Level 1.2 9001 (internal)

DVC Level 1.3 9002 (external)

DVC Level 1.4 9003 (external)

Before I could start these, I looked at the 3 suggested course outlines that are on the website. I printed these off so that I could read them properly and decided to look in depth at two of them. 

Link to Annotated Course Outline 1

Link to Annotated Course Outline 2

My next steps are to choose one of the course outlines, make sure it is adapted and suited to me and my students and then fill in the standard breakdown sheets with the types of activities that we could do next year.

The course will consist of the two internal standards and one of the external standards for a total of 15 credits for the year. 

The students do 5 Level 1 courses over the year so this will give them a potential of 75 credits, where they will only need 60 to pass NCEA Level 1.

Inquiry 2023 - Question 3 - Tools, Measures and Approaches

Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.

Link to Google Drawing

Planning Support - Help Videos

 I have written earlier in the year about being a mentor to 4 trainee teachers this year. Link to blog post here As part of that, I have been making some help videos to support them in the use of Google Sites and Hapara Workspaces. These are both requirements for teachers to use in their planning and presentation of work to students.

I have made two pages on the Planning Support website, where I have included links out to other sources of information and help and short help videos that I have made. I have kept the help videos short, so that a specific topic can be watched without looking through lots of other information and they can get that information quickly.

Link to Google Sites Help page

Link to Workspaces Help page

Staff PLD - Polynesian Panthers and Walk the Wall

 Links to Readings provided for the two days

Link to doc

Topics and Links

Racism: A framework Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale. Kamera Jones, American Journal of  Public Health, 2000 Aug;90(8):1212-1215.  Levels of racism: a theoretic framework and a gardener's tale (aphapublications.org) If you want to learn more about this article listen to this podcast - The Gardeners Tale: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=a+gardener%27s+tale+camara+jones&qpvt=a+gardener%27s+tale+camara+jones&FORM=VDRE

Te Tiriti and Pacific peoples The Treaty of Waitangi and the va between Māori and Pacific peoples in Aotearoa, New Zealand. In PMN Opinion piece, Melani Anae, 4 February2021. Listen and read about Dr Melani Anae, Associate Professor Pacific Studies, University of Auckland, who explains why Pacific people in New Zealand should take an interest in the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty of Waitangi and the va between Māori and Pacific peoples in Aotearoa, New Zealand | Pacific Media Network (pmn.co.nz)

Blackbirding in the Pacific Listen to the podcast: https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2018648756/blackbirding-in-the-pacific-and-the-search-for-lost-family Read this: https://www.matauala.org.nz/blackbirding-slavery

Polynesian Panthers and the Dawn Raids  The Panthers telling their history in their own words:  https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2021/06/once-a-panther-activist-history-podcast/  Ministry for Pacific Peoples resources about the Dawn Raids and recent apology can be found here:  https://www.mpp.govt.nz/about-us/dawn-raids-apology/ A Māori TV segment here… Polynesian Panthers reflect on 45 years  and dawn raids stuff here… Dawn Raids Television (Full Length) – 2005

Educate to Liberate ‘I am Who I am: Pacific tertiary students and the centrality of ethnic identity for successful outcomes’. M. Anae in Mai Journal, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2020, pp.38-48. I am who I am – Pacific tertiary students and the centrality of ethnic identity for successful outcomes | MAI Journal

Topics and Links

The NZ Company and the Wakefields including Edward Gibbon Wakefield  Edward Gibbon Wakefield Biography  If you want to learn more about the Wakefields, listen to these podcasts: https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/black-sheep/story/2018755209/colonial-mastermind-the-story-of-edward-gibbon-wakefield-part-1 https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/black-sheep/story/2018755896/colonial-mastermind-the-story-of-edward-gibbon-wakefield-part-2

Māori and the vote (if you’re feeling creative, make voting cards and get people to vote at imaginary polling booths in different era…) Scroll down this page for disparities in the Māori and European electoral systems: https://www.parliament.nz/mi/pb/research-papers/document/00PLLawRP03141/origins-of-the-m%C4%81ori-seats  Watch this 5-minute Spinoff video on The Māori seats

Passive resistance of the prophets Te Whiti and Tohu culminating in Parihaka Day, 5 November 1881 6-minute Spinoff video on The invasion of Parihaka and why it needs to be remembered:  Pages 5-6 and 10-17 of Te Ture Haeata ki Parihaka 2019 (Parihaka Reconciliation Act 2019)

Rua Kēnana's arrest at Maungapohatu Watch this 6-minute video on Rua Kēnana narrated by James Belich:  There’s a PDF at this website, which includes the history and an agreement to provide a statutory pardon for Rua Kēnana

Te Puea Hērangi’s stance on conscription  Read this Māori and the First World War – Māori objection to conscription and this: Māori soldiers' Great War battle for equality

Funnelling of Māori Kids into State Care Try googling the 20 June 1954 ‘Petone Incident’ where you’ll also learn about the Mazengarb Report  Listen to Dr Stanley’s lecture Acknowledging State Abuse in New Zealand – Elizabeth Stanley    Have a look at this 13’ min documentary on Oliver Sutherland

He Taua and ‘the Haka Party Incident’  Mocking the haka: The Haka Party Incident and ‘casual’ racism in New Zealand

My notes from the two days