Reflections Day 4 - Abbie

When considering your own class teaching/organisation, what might be three approaches you have observed that could be adopted?

·       *  Flexible working spaces: (More obvious within upper grades) students can choose to sit where they want and this changes regularly so they are working in different structures with different people all the time. The furniture allowed for this as it was modular/moveable. There were really no “tradition style” tables/chairs etc set up in the “traditional” ways ie: rows etc.

Even their groupings were different: not 6 x groups of 6 desks etc. Some groups had 8 children sitting it in, some had 2. Some had taller style bench seats. Storage was different within the different rooms. Some had furniture where there were trays built in under the lounge style seats where students could sit as well. Obviously within our school, we are limited with our furniture, but there were some ideas which could be implemented such: as a little more freedom/flexibility during the day and different ways the tables could be arranged etc.

                                  

·        * A big focus on visible learning: Many teachers had a clear learning intention on their wall/board for each lesson and then the success criteria written as well. This was clearly defined by these teachers at the beginning and during the lessons, referring to this for the students to “check in” on their learning. This has been an area which has been discussed within our school in the notion of…  “What we teach is not a secret” but it was much more visible within this school. There was the discussion about older students even writing their intention down. It was not as obvious in a visible way in the lower grades but the language was used.

  

·        * The last approach was the way some of their early years classes displaying goals on the wall ie: Maths or English. There are many different ways to do this but the way we saw one prep class doing this was by having simple goals written as dot points on separate pieces of laminated paper with Velcro stickers attached where names are moved according to the goals being achieved. It was very simple which was what I liked best for the early years. 

     In one of the classes in grade 5, the teacher explained that the students set their own homework activities according to their classroom goal. This was another good idea which may work well in the older grades. It promotes students taking responsibility of their learning at home.

 

 Give your readers an idea of the application range of ICT/digital devices in the learning spaces.

This afternoon we were part of the E-Learning team meeting. During this time, Jess explained where the school has come from, where they are now and where to next. 

This is an area which has developed considerably since 2011. It has been a process with focus areas and goals each year. They have an excellent teacher and student portal set up which allows for ease of communication and access to necessary resources by staff and students. They are in the process of developing a parent portal. They were interested in learning about our school app and the information on this. 

The biggest areas that I believe have impacted the school is the 1-1 notebook program, Bluetooth/wireless connectivity between student and teacher laptops and the board/TV’s  and the set up where everything is cloud based as they don’t have a server.

                                      

The focus area for the future is now more about how technology impacts teaching and learning. Some staff members have already started this process but they recognise that it needs to be more established throughout the school. They discussed ways that this can be improved ie: peer coaching etc.

I have been exposed to a number of websites and applications which assists with the teaching and learning. There are so many fantastic resources available which can assist teachers with their teaching pedagogy. They can assist with differentiation and engages students in a variety of ways. We had the discussion about using the ‘teacher experts’ within our schools and trying to tap into this resource so that more teachers can become exposed and confident to use technology within the classroom.   

I consider myself quietly confident in many areas of IT but I learnt so much more this week about different ways technology can be used to improve teaching and learning.

When considering your home school what might be three approaches/systems/practices that could be put to your staff for consideration?

* Thoughts into establishing a school based club for environmental issues within the school such as St Rita's Rangers. There are a variety of initiatives which could be implemented within the area looking at sustainability and looking after our environment.

 St Rita's Rangers meeting at lunch to build a scarecrow for their gardens: a                                                   suggestion made  by the group, after to losing produce due to birds.

* Exposing teachers to some of the websites and resources which I have discovered during the experience to help with teaching and learning.

* To work with Chris (LOP), giving suggestions about how learning goals/intentions can be incorporated within our school to help with having the students gain a clear understanding about "what will I be learning, why and how do I know that I understand."

* Offering suggestions about how to display student learning goals and how to encourage students to take a level of responsibility for their learning,

- These last 2 points are related to areas of focus for the remainder of the year so it fits nicely.

         

Canvas art used throughout the school to show images and words specific to their beliefs.

SIR acronym displayed in every room - E- Learning focus

St Rita's Pedagogy which is very clear, concise and simple. Students are aware of the statements, they continually review this throughout the year by having a focus statement each week.

Prep classroom: A great activity where a student creates a sentence each day using pictures and high frequency words along with verbs and nouns. A great activity which can be modified in a variety of ways.

Prep - Part of a display wall where letters are sorted according to the sound it makes ie: quiet letters, noisy letters, vowels, humming etc. (Just a different way to sort the letters)

Prep class: end of week 'Prayer and Share' which is usually held on Friday mornings but this week was held on Thursday.

Parents are welcome to come in on a Friday morning and be part of a "Prayer and Share' session where the students share what they have learnt during the week. It was an excellent reflection process. After this the 'Student of the Week' is celebrated where each student in the circle, passes on the friendship stone and says one thing is special about the student of the week. It was a great oral language activity for this age group which also builds positive relationships within the class family. It ended with the teacher, teacher assistant also giving a positive affirmation to the child.

The last reflection for tonight is regarding the Teacher Assistance (TA's). In most cases it has been hard to distinguish between the Teachers and TA's within the school. Some of them are active members of the teams. Particularly within the early years, I am very impressed with the way they are such an integral part of the class. This is obvious through the activities they are involved in and the interactions which take place. They go with the class to the release from face to face lessons and are actively involved in these as well. 

It is great to see them extremely active and valued within the school. 

I am looking forward to my last day. It has been a very busy but rewarding week where we have not only seen many new and innovative ideas but it also gave us the confidence in knowing that we all are doing wonderful things within our schools as well.

Abbie