Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

Resource:  Incredible Teachers  by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, PH D Chapter 11,12,13 & IYT Workshop 3.8.17 A child needs to have conflict management skills and social problem solving skills to help them regulate their emotions. Children who have difficulty emotionally regulating may also have trouble reading social situations and cues (p. 406 of text). When a child acts out/yells/hits frequently etc (cannot emotionally regulate), this will often result in negative social experiences and possible alienation/loneliness. This child then does not have the peers to practise positive social skills with, and they may become 'labelled' as difficult, defiant etc. Teachers can try to stop this by sharing praise publicly and personally with the child, being explicit with praise, social coaching, connecting with parents and maintaining positive self-talk//thought about that child.  Emotional regulation includes: * Nervous system * Cognitive (reasoning) and language systems ...

Resource: Incredible Teachers by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, PH D Chapter 5 & IYT Workshop Since this workshop, I have been trying hard to: Focus on positive behaviours more than negative behaviours across the whole class. What you focus on will grow!  Circulating around the room to give 1:1 praise and encouragement Making my praise specific, and related to academic (e.g. thinking), social (e.g. managing your body; helping others)  Using proximity praise (i.e. noticing another child demonstrating the desired behaviour, and praising...thereby encouraging others to do the same). Doubling the impact e.g. having children who have persisted, shown kindness etc go and share their work with another teacher. We have discussed this at a team level and each of us has stickers and smiles at the ready for children send by other teachers to share their work Coaching children for academic behaviours e.g. persistence; focusing. I am now aware that children will develop these c...

Over the last fortnight, I have looked at how I can increase Te Reo in my practise.  I have done this by: * Making more use of Te Reo for instructions e.g. "Kia tere!";  "Homai te...(pene etc)"; "E noho."  * Using Te Reo more for greetings with students' whaanau and students themselves * Ensuring there are more Te Reo books in our class library shelf * Observing and utilising Sherilee's (weekly Te Reo teacher) examples, and checking my pronunciation with her  * Including more waiata in class e.g. Matariki waiata, Ka Kite waiata * Allowing for more output  opportunities e.g. practising our greeting during roll call * Ensuring we say the karakia every day I found information on providing students with ooportunities for input  and output informed my practice: http://hereoora.tki.org.nz/Teachers-notes/Teaching-te-reo-Maori-effectively and great resources for Te Reo Week 2-10 July here:  http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/what-we-do/events-a...

Copy of presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AuTXexiFH1_q6qkJidK75kRsXE5OSzbpP-5CjGMT7zM/edit#slide=id.g834f60235_0_422 This workshop looked at responses that people have to problems, or doing something 'wrong'. The thing they see as 'wrong' may only be wrong in their eyes...eg self-blame for accidentally breaking something.  I learnt about to focus on helping students realise they are not the problem. The behaviour  (if purposeful e.g. saying mean things to another person) is the problem.  General reactions to making a mistake / doing something 'wrong': * Attack self * Attack others * Withdrawal * Avoidance Use language, restorative chats and facial gestures (i.e. interest versus judgement or dislike) to help students move past shame (seeing self as problem) to guilt (seeing the behaviour as the problem),        Carol Dwek     

I found some excellent ideas for improving my use of Circle Time, which we use weekly as part of our Wellbeing focus at Beckenham School...through Jenny Mosley's text: Quality Circle Time in the Primary Classroom: Your Essential Guide to Enhancing Self-esteem, Self-discipline and Positive Relationships (1996) My hub colleague and I have been focusing on kindness and resolving conflict lately, given the needs of our students. Fun Circle Time starters from this text: * All change - call out descriptives, w.g. stand up and move if you have a brother; have visited another country; speak another language etc * Show an emotion - peers guess what it is; peers copy * Word association - e.g. say a word related to friendship, fun, calm etc * Eek and zoom - go around the circle, each child saying 'eek,'. Swap directions when one child says 'zoom' Resolving Conflict * Split class into small groups. Give each group a puzzle, missing 1-2 pieces. How will...

I visited Rowan Lockton at Somerfield School to learn what wellbeing strategies they have in place.  Like Beckenham School, they have a leadership system for older students. They also have school values (SMART - see http://www.somerfield.school.nz/)  Key Differences (that we might consider using beyond 2015): Pastoral Care Team * Meets once a fortnight * Comprised of public health nurse, school mental health team rep, teacher reps, leadership * Each team identifies students with pastoral needs (e.g. safety, welfare, attendance, nutrition etc) * These students are listed on a register. The team reviews and decides the next step: either teacher to work with family or the child is referred for, or connected to further support (e.g. a welfare agency etc) * There is an ongoing loop of communication: each level/team feeds back to the Pastoral Care Team, to share whether issues are resolved or continuing. Further support is then allocated, or further referrals made....

The last three weeks have been great learning for me.  Parent conferences These were really positive and valuable for learning more about my students and celebrate success.  Several social issues came up, which we will address in wellbeing and general class time: * Including others at playtime * Using kind hands * Reporting any problems to a teacher at the time these occur How can I connect with parents more regularly? I have set up a googledoc with student names, and aim to more regularly contact parents to share progress, photos of student success etc Collaboration Our collaboration model has changed since my last blog. We now have two teachers (Amanda and I) working in one hub for reading. A small number of children read with our third NE teacher in another room. Amanda and I have shared our children. We have parent helpers in, working with target students from both classes, for 15min sessions.  We have also discussed collaborating in maths... I read Jen...

Our Assistant Principal, Michelle Maule, came and ran Circle Time with us today.  We are using Circle Time throughout the school this year, to help our students learn about and reflect on our School Kete Values:  We Care  -  We  Love Learning - We Get There Together -  We Make a Difference Michelle bought a sign with Circle Time protocols, and went through these with children: We then had a circle time discussion, sharing differences about ourselves with the whole group. Children also turned and talked with a buddy, sharing their favourite flavour of ice cream and identifying if this was differerent from their partner's preferred flavour. After Michelle left, we used the Circle Time model and protocols, and shared our highlight from the day. I noticed that more children had something to share (i.e. less 'passed') on the second circle time session.  My next steps: * Utilise  the Circle Time model weekly so children are used to th...

24.08.2015 Paulette observed  a reading session in my Year 3-4 class. The session involved: * Revision of our Reading WALT (Learning Objective) with whole class * Modelling of the Tic Tac Toe spelling activities, which I left on display for students to reference during the session * Teacher guided reading session on questioning (small group) * Independent Daily 5 Reading tasks, set up for student groups (differentiated according to students' current reading skills and next steps) Observations (things to keep doing) Next steps for my practise Use of questioning to encourage student sharing and comprehension Clear modelling on asking questions in reading, e.g. "How can you change that comment into a question?"; "Use our question words - What, Where, When, How..." "Do you know why..."  and "Prove it to me / Find the evidence for..." to allow students to show comprehension Explicit feedback e.g. "You are saying the wo...

Reading articles and attending workshops on change management, community engagement, collective leadership, student self-regulation, 21st Century learning and student agency has kept my eye on the 'big picture' ideas of education, and reflect on what skills our students need for the future. I focused on student self management and agency for this final report and presentation. I  conducted interviews with staff, did extensive professional reading and interviewed students for this. I found that student self management requires two key skill areas:  I then completed a Design Proposal on how my own school might build student agency. I really enjoyed watching others' present and look forward to hearing the outcome of their own design proposals. Several focused on developing student self-regulation, student agency, and developing cultural inclusion.  I was informed by these critical readings: *Kohn, A (2001) Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!" DOI...

3.9.2015 Focus questions How are target writers prompted? What activities/tasks meet their needs? What data is collected and how oftens Observations What I noticed: How can I bring this into my practice? Very positive having a small group and allowing for more teacher-student time Clear WALT discussed with students and written on board. Students could check on the WALT throughout session Having a writing challenge at beginning was positive and engaged children Lots of praise given one to one from teacher Spelling cards – students felt more able with this Use more tuakana teina in learning Review and write up WALT each writing session Ask children to count up and improve no. of words written each day   Use more praise, and encourage students to share and celebrate work  Get spelling cards

I was interested to focus my observation on Te Waka Una on: * How  do teachers collaborate - in terms of space, student groups, planning? * What opportunities are provided for student self-management, agency and voice? * What digital devices are used and how these are managed? I saw a very  calm ,  focused  working environment with all students doing, making, writing, reading together or independently… inspiring ! Teacher collaboration Each term, teams review data and group students, with a focus on target students. Target students receive additional teacher sessions (short, sharp sessions during other whole class work e.g. handwriting) Students are grouped (assessment) and matched to teachers' skills and interests e.g. one teacher may teach multiple art classes, across levels. Students develop relationships with more teachers, and get the best teaching skills available for their needs. Staff teach to their strengths Frequent data review and fle...

Inquiry into the  Māori migration to NZ - 'Getting there Together' Term 2, 2015 During Term 2, students learnt about how the early  Māori worked together on the migration to NZ and in early Pa life. This aligned well with our school value of 'we get there together'. We also explored the flora and fauna of NZ at the time the  Māori arrived, and reflected on how it had changed since. Students then took this learning and practised 'getting there together' by forming small groups and worked collaboratively. Students planned to create an aspect of early  Māori life; planned and collected their resources to do so; and then problem solved situations together. One of the highlights of this learning was having parents in class to work with the students. One father came and taught a small group of boys about carving. He brought cultural knowledge and experience far beyond anything I could offer the students as a teacher, and having a different personality in the roo...

Tilting the Seesaw Workshop 2015 - Autism NZ Notes by Charlotte Verity This workshop was amazingly informative...it helped me build empathy for my ASD students, and provided lots of new strategies for me to try. Sharing ideas and challenges with other teachers of ASD students was highly beneficial...I have used many of their ideas in my own practise with positive outcomes. My relationships with two ASD students have improved dramatically as a result. Key strategies to try with ASD students Allow wait time - 5 words maximum then wait 5 seconds + for a reply IMPERSONAL WORKS - when speaking with child about an issue or upset that has happened, use WE / ALL / US   ...not YOU / ME / I Start a ‘proud of’ book...listing all the things you are proud of each day, for whole class or solely for an ASD child Points or other systems for participation or on task work - e.g. marbles in jar, tokens velcro’ed to a board CLARITY - be clear on expectations (don’t add ex...