What's going on? Testing and Reports are all done!

The ball is rolling..  I took the 'Writing Hut' idea from Chris Marks' Blog  I spoke with my students about the idea and they were all on board and we designed this...

We then realised that the cardboard fell over and it wasn't working as you could still look out of it and got just as distracted.. 

So we went back to the drawing board, I then talked to a colleague and he had a heap of old election voting boxes that were being unused so the kids and I went and picked them up.  I gave the kids freedom of how they would like them to be designed.  They came up with this, and this is still working!

            

          

These 'Writing Huts' are amazing in our class and once the kids are in the Huts, no one is allowed to distract them, not even the teacher (rule they made)!  They love sitting there and getting stuck into their work.  They normally wear headphones to block out any noise around them as well.

The problem I've found is that the cardboard is slowly starting to wear out, so next term we will go back to the drawing board and have a go at creating something similar.

The Movie Making is happening!  

After a lot of teaching around how to film, what angles to use, how to hold the camera, how to use iMovie effectively.  My learners have started to understand how to make movies, they are taking baby steps but they're loving it.  It's made me understand how much the little things really matter.

                

             

The editing is what I've found the trickiest, everyone wants to have a turn and everyone needs to learn how to edit properly.  We are all having turns at learning how to edit on the iMacs and everyone is starting to get a lot better.  Some of my learners are now able to help other learners in our class.

           

How to Movies:

• How to hold the iPad/Camera.
• Different angles you can use.
• How to use the basics of iMovie

These are a few movies my learners and I will be making for my site for everyone to be able to use.

MIT - KPMG

We were very lucky to spend a day at KPMG in Auckland and break down, un pack and really look closely into our moonshot proposals.  We were given the opportunity to share our ideas with not only our own colleagues but KPMG employees as well, it was awesome to get ideas from someone that doesn't work in education as well.

A really inspiring idea that I got from one of my colleagues was talking about a year 7&8 teacher at Tamaki primary and what she did one year for her inquiry.  From my understanding she got her students teaching their little siblings at home by taking home word blends, books, and basic word games.  Not only did this help for their younger siblings but it also consolidated their own understanding.

We had a chance to sit down and share where we are all at, being able to reconnect with people that have similar moonshot ideas.  This was really awesome and inspiring.  We then split into small groups and shared our ideas and talked to each other about what we want to do and were able to give each other feedback.  I did a very rough (as you'll see) design on the whiteboard and was helped by both Dorothy and Hinerau of my Google Site that I'll be designing and creating.

I then went to my computer and thought I would have a play and see what it would look like.. very roughly.  I now will take the template below away and design the colour scheme and the rest of the site.  Learners and teachers will be able to use this site for resources of making movies and learning how to teach effectively via movie making.

If you have any ideas or feedback please leave me a comment or send me an email.

Inquiry 2017

“How can I accelerate maths achievement by focusing on Maths knowledge with groups working below national standard?”

The Manaiakalani Community of Learning is working together on this task using the expertise existing in of our community of learning.

In 2017 for my inquiry I have selected the following CoL achievement challenge 

#4. Increase the achievement of Years 1-10 learners, with a focus on Years 7-10,  in reading, writing and maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets.

The teaching as inquiry framework I will be using in 2017 has been specifically co-constructed for Manaiakalani schools using our familiar Learn Create Share structure.
The elements in this framework share close similarities with other models New Zealand teachers use.

I will be labelling my posts as I update my inquiry throughout the year to make the content easy to access.

Label Key:

LEvidence	Learn - Gather Evidence	CPlan	Create - Make a plan	SPublish	Share - Publish
LScan	Learn - Scan	CTry	Create - Try new things	SCoteach	Share - Co-teach
LTrend	Learn - Identify Trends	CInnovate	Create - Innovate	SModel	Share - Model
LHypothesise	Learn - Hypothesise	CImplement	Create - Implement	SGuide	Share - Guide
LResearch	Learn - Research	CReflect	Create - Reflect	SFback	Share - Feedback
LReflect	Learn - Reflect			SReflect	Share - Reflect