Inquiry Reflection 2021

 This has been a very unusual year for everyone. It's been a relief to finally get back to school. This is the final week that learning opportunities will be made available online for our students in Team 4. We had our final Google Meet for the benefit of our students at home, last week on Friday. Reports have been completed, which was also an interesting task as we did not get to see quite a few of our students during the lockdown.

Inquiry: It was hard to assess students as most of my literacy class did not attend the meets or return to school. It was interesting to note that during the lockdown, the students in the higher ability literacy groups attended the meets more regularly and more often than those who were in the lower reading ability group. I did wonder if this was due to more parental support at home, or whether they were more independent and able to access their learning. Many students from the lower ability group also had behavioural and/or self management issues as well, so were probably less inclined to join the online learning meetings. A few were also ESOL students. 

On Thursday we look forward to our end of year Awards day for the Junior and Senior School. I was actually surprised to feel quite relieved when I heard that both events would be held during the day. The Senior Awards are normally held in the evening so that our parents could attend. This year, it will be held outside under Te Kapua (sheltered structure) and will be live-streamed. 

Our teachers have worked incredibly hard this year and I am so proud of our team. 

Term 1 Inquiry Reflection

This is my Inquiry Reflection for Term 1. We met in our Inquiry groups during our staff meeting to share our reflections on our Inquiry journeys so far.

Inquiry Collaborative Meeting

On Tuesday afternoon we met as a staff to talk about our inquiry focus. We split into small discussion groups and had the opportunity to reflect on our inquiries and share some gems.

I shared a few key ideas:

1) Using snippets of interesting footage (e.g. Olympics) was good for engagement and motivation of writing. Keeping it short and to the point is the key.

2) Consider using a short movie with no dialogue. Students have to write a script/story based on the movie alone. Use visual cues to describe/explain/narrate what is happening in the story.

3) Teaching how to use punctuation e.g. speech marks: Peer assessment is always helpful. Create a doc with a couple of paragraphs of writing. Exclude any form of punctuation and allow the students to make a copy of the doc before editing. Peer assess.

I also brought up an issue that I had been thinking about. There was no clear link/connection between my planning and the class planning for writing lessons in Extension class. Basically I was free to plan my own lessons based on the needs of my group. I wondered whether I needed to collaborate more with the teachers in Teams 4 and 5. This issue was put to the group/panel of teachers.

Here's what they came up with:

- Awesome that they can work together as a group (Extension) to do something different.
- Might become too boring if they have to do the same thing in class in extension.
- (Me) Easier to plan to suit my programme and timeframes available for classes.

Inquiry Reflection Term 2

During our last staff inquiry meeting at the end of Term 2 we were asked to reflect on our inquiries so far. I think that I have come a long way with my inquiry since Term 1. More was achieved this term with the use of film/movies to help improve writing skills. I hope that this will gain more momentum in Term 3 as I have a better idea of which direction to head towards in terms of using movies to help improve writing skills.

Final Reflection for 2015

End of Year Inquiry Reflection 2015

Wow this year has flown by so quickly. So much has happened over the year. So what did I manage to achieve with my inquiry?

• Overall quality of work produced by most Extension students (projects, rubrics etc) improved throughout the year. Term 4 projects were more superior in comparison to Term 1 projects.
• Strengths and weaknesses of this year’s Extension programme were identified and will help inform planning for next year.
• Creative Space site was useful for students to access learning intentions, tasks, rubrics and resources.
• High expectations were set and students received opportunities to extend their thinking and experiences e.g. video conferencing with people from Hawaii, Australia and South Africa. Trips to Maritime Museum, Tiritiri Matangi Island, 40 Hour Famine etc.

A full list of Extension highlights and experiences can be located in our annual School Charter Review 2015 under Extension Review (although this might not be available for viewing until early next year).

Or you can take a look at our blog: Creative Space Blog

Next year?

I have been selected to be part of the Spark Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher Programme for 2016. This will be an amazing opportunity to extend our Extension students even further. I look forward to working with the Pt England Extension group again next year.

Reflection about inquiry

It's now the start of Term 3. So where am I at with my inquiry?

I have found that time or lack of time is an ongoing issue. This is the first year in over a decade of teaching where I don't actually have my own class. This means that I don't have the luxury of shuffling or reorganising my teaching programme so that students can complete lessons or tasks throughout the week at a different time. Side projects or other opportunities (e.g trips and video conferencing with other schools) meant that some planned lessons were put on hold, even though they were rich learning experiences. 

I only have the extension students (who are my focus group for my inquiry) for 2-3 hours each week. As a result, there is often a lack of time to cover what I want to teach which has been really frustrating. I often wonder whether what I am doing is making any difference to my students learning. Developing higher order skills takes time to teach and learn. I sometimes feel that I am rushing my students so that the product/rubric is completed on time, but I know that the process of researching, thinking, reflecting, summarising, sharing etc is important in order to develop higher order thinking skills. 

It has become more apparent that time management skills is a key component of student success. During the marking of student projects and presentations, I could clearly see which students had gone the extra mile and put in the extra effort in their own time. This was reflected in the higher quality of work produced and the depth of knowledge and understanding displayed. 

I believe that students need time to complete projects and finish things off properly (one of our school korero). So where necessary, I have given extra time for all students if needed to complete projects. This was worthwhile as I noticed that some students managed to use the extra time to complete projects to an outstanding level. 

Developing an extra inquiry site for my extension students to compliment my 'Creative Space' site was very useful. Students could access this site to find specific resources e.g. definitions, information, Youtube clips etc to help them with their learning. This reduced precious time spent surfing online which is often a time-waster if students don't know what to search for. 

Next steps:

1. Design projects/tasks with shorter timeframes e.g. assess learning and understanding more often during the term.
2. Provide opportunities for students to share their learning and understanding in a way that is less time consuming. 
3. Minimise disruptions to teaching programme e.g. side projects and extra trips outside school
4. Develop a space on Creative Space site or Extension Inquiry site with resources to help students with time management, studying skills etc
5. Send group emails out more frequently to students with reminders about extension projects and tasks etc
6. Email parents with reminders about projects, tasks, resources, and ways that they can help their child etc

Timeframe: Above steps to be completed or underway within the next couple of weeks.