Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

I enjoyed our team discussion about communication styles. We discussed how certain behaviours may shut down or support a conversation. Shut downs:  * Eye rolling * Turning away / walking away from speaker * Using a device  * Talking over top of someone * Beginning to respond to someone, but talking about something else entirely * Putting down an idea, even in a humorous way  * Having an insincere tone Supports:  * Eye contact * Nodding, smiling, showing interest * Asking probing questions to understand the person's message * Facing the person talking  * Stopping what you are doing to focus on the discussion  Why might we use 'shut down' behaviours?  Lack of time. I am in the middle of something and I need to finish / I am focused on something else Inappropriate time. This is not the right physical place. There is too much else going on; e.g parents, environment, exhaustion. Having a slower processing speed/needing m...

Wow - I am learning so much about my team, quality teaching and learning and systems over recent weeks. It has been very challenging but fun at the same time. Working with my team I value the different backgrounds and strengths of my team members, and their senses of humour as well as their individual strengths. I am learning to not take things as personally as I once would have, and to focus on the content of what people say rather than the tone or facial gesture. I loved the simplicity of the suggestions put forward in the Seven Norms of Collaboration (Annotated Poster) , and am endeavoring to increase my use of  presuming positive intentions  as well as posing questions. I am also working on improving my own confidence in meetings. Key phrases that are helping me are: What unique characteristics/views/skills do I bring to this situation? and How can I build on/add to what has been said?  Visiting Waitakiri I loved and would like to explore: * The different col...

It is lovely to have holidays to enjoy some professional learning! My sources: Using Running Records: A Resource for New Zealand Classroom Teachers (Ministry of Education) Building Comprehension  Guided Reading: Years 1–4 (Ministry of Education) Effective Literacy Practice in Years 1–4 When taking a running record:  AVOID telling student the correct word (record as an error by writing child's attempt/correct word) If child refuses to read or gets overly confused, use TTA (Try That Again) A= Appeal for help R = Repetition.  Other language words and proper nouns count as an error only once  in the entire text (e.g. child says Susanna instead of Susan;  tomato instead of taro etc) Invented text = write 'invented' on running record How can I provide effective guided reading sessions?  Have a learning intention, such as:  * Prediction * Making connections (self to text; text to text; text to world) * Asking questions * Visualising * Id...

As part of my current University study around Curriculum Leadership, I have conducted an action research project on my mentoring strategies. The research involved a literature review of writing strategies for NE children, and two conversations with a colleague. The colleague and I collaborate on planning and teaching our classes. I was particularly interested in finding out her thoughts on what helps our students: * Engage in writing * Develop independence in writing Our conversations and the literature review helped me to realise that our N.E. students most need: * Writing experience activities to build fine motor strength and letter formation * Purposeful tasks, to give them both the motivation to write, and to help them realise the varied uses of writing in their lives. Examples that we discussed and have set up included letter writing, labelling, writing / copying environmental print, scaffolded sentences and mini-books * Engaging tasks, relating to their interests * Qu...

Appraisal/TAI Observation Record This is an observation that is primarily for the benefit of the teacher being observed – who sets up the observation with a particular area of interest and development of their own in mind. It is important that the person doing the observation knows what specific area of their practice the teacher is wanting feedback on. The teacher completes the parts in green prior to the observation , the observer collects the data,  notes any questions they have, Then at a feedback discussion, the observer and teacher discuss and complete the final sections.   Appraiser Observing Sandy Hastings Observation Date 27.7.16 Teacher Charlotte Verity Observation Time 11;00 - 11:40am Topic being taught Writing (Teacher to complete): The specific area of my practice / a specific strategy I am trying to implement, that I would like data about or feedback in from the observation (in relation to an ‘on top’ issue or to an appraisal/...

W1  What is helping students engage? What should I keep doing? *Talk partners (Sheena Cameron workshop) *Think time *Asking all children to be ready with an answer, allowing think time/pair share and then calling on children (reducing the hands up; more children are participating) *Asking children to repeat what the last person said = improved listening across both hubs *Idea sharing and planning with hub colleague = agreed trial of flipped timetable; writing motivations and record system for self-directed reading activities W2 My next steps * Using growth mindset statements - i.e. stating behaviour rather than using well done, fantastic, great etc....I am noticing more when I do this, and getting better at stating behaviour *Challenge of noise - talking table signs; noise monitor actively used; bells to signal that I need students' attention *Reading - Feeding back / sharing great work at the end of reading - children to lead this. I am interested to see if this will inc...

Focus: To open up communication across the whole school in regards to collaboration between staff members and establishing goals for moving forward. What is going well and what do we need to move away from? Time Agenda Item Minutes Actions 10 mins Activity: What does an effective meeting look like? Question will be written up on the door as staff enter along with instructions on how to answer it. Staff will write their answers on post-it-notes and organise them in categories on a piece paper placed on the wall. We will then select the majority and make this our focus for our meeting. There were three main trends identified: Time management and keeping to the agenda Everyone having a voice Having a system in place to work through important conversations Time management was our focus for this meeting. 5 mins Explain the Grid to Understanding Communication and Behaviour (give examples) are our two foci in regards to staff relationships, rather th...