Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

Session One  Mindfulness Meditation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfWK6hvUjEg  There are four processes involved in mindfulness: 1. NOTICE and attend to the experience  Recognise the symptoms...e.g. the tiger of anxiety may feel like fast breath, not being able to sleep, an unsettled stomach... 2. Make space for it ....be ok with experiencing it! 3. Respond skillfully (rather than REACT habitually) 4. Over time, grow a greater understanding of what makes wellbeing Likewise, mindfulness is a strategy for not being caught up by the 'monkey mind' (brain chatter!). WHY?  Emotions (negative and positive!) pass in 90 seconds BUT our internal dialogue stops them. Our self-talk keeps an emotion inside our heads and our 'now' experience. STOP the self-talk; BE AWARE of the feeling and LET IT PASS. ANXIETY: triggers the same fight, flight or fantasy that real physical danger does! THE DAILY PROCESS:  1. Set a time 2. Find a relaxed, alert position 3. ...

January 2016 Key Take-Aways ( and what I will do  this  term ) * One size does not fit all * Learning goals underpin but shouldn't drive learning ( i.e. leave the learning intention until after writing...START with the stimulus!) * Enthusiasm for learning & for writing * Fill up the room with  GREAT  writing, and fill their ears with the sounds of great writing. These include exemplars of expected/quality writing at students' level * Effective teachers  read, write  and  know: How words are formed;  the processes and strategies writers use;  structure  and  features  of major genres *  Hold high expectations for students * Min  20 minutes per day   independent writing   -  this could include speed writing, e.g., 1 min to plan; 5 mins to write where pencil isn't allowed to leave paper *  3 types of words:   Looking  (find on word card, dicti...

February 2016 Murray's Planning for N.E. - Year 2 1. Devise / decide a topic with the children - have a STIMULUS OR MOTIVATION prepared e.g. picture book then ask students 'what else could we write about this' ;  open ended sentence e.g. 'My dog did something terrible!...';  language experience; 'the funniest thing that ever happened to me...' 2. TELL the story (with passion!) - EXCITE KIDS! 3.  Show student planner. Prompt for language  With NE students, do lots of oral language, e.g. 'ni-ni-nibbled'  Discuss and write up some of the CONTENT words - e.g. nibbled, shoe etc modelling 'have a go' writing/spelling 4. Develop a success criteria with the students, using picture codes e.g.   = say my story before I start 5. Writing time! Send independent writers off to start. Keep focus group with you, and construct shared writing with explicit focus, based on students' needs (i.e. for my focus students at...

28 January 2015 What is Restorative Practice? Useful Prompts: I really enjoyed the frequent 'stop and share' time provided in this session.  I learnt a lot about and from my colleagues as a result e.g. Nicky's suggestion on how to encourage children to accept and own their behaviours. * Histori cal examples: Aboriginal and  Māori groups in traditional society * Can only occur where there is an existing relationship * Dissolves the 'bad' label - promotes that mistakes can be overcome * Consequence matches/suits the challenge/problem * Restorative practise is a conference between child, person effected and teacher. * Children should be given the option of having a support person * Record (write) the whole incident and use this to encourage acceptance/ownership  e.g. 'Yes she took your pencil and that is not ok. Then you hit her. That isn't ok either.'   or 'Was that the best choice?  4 Responses to Behaviour:...

I have been undertaking this course by part time study this year, and have loved the learning involved!  Talking with teachers and leaders from other schools has been refreshing and reassuring...many of us have gone through the highs and challenges of working collaboratively. The  collaboration strategies  others have shared have been really helpful, along with my learning e.g. * Identify your partner's strengths and values (e.g. using the Hermann brain model) * Identify and clear on your own values, strengths and challenges * Identify shared goals, e.g., for my colleague and I this year, that has been wellbeing and behaviour * Use humour  * Don't sweat the small stuff - choose what matters most and discuss that first * Establish and stick to tight meeting times e.g. 15min daily catchups * Establish clear and agreed strategies for behaviour management, including special measures / strategies for those with additional needs * Keep a dot point journal of...

December 2015 2015 Appraisal...reflections from myself and my team leader Appraisal Documentation It is wonderful to stand back and re-assess my teaching at this time of year. The key highlights from my own thinking and my team leader: Strengths (keep making time and finding opportunity for these!) * Dedication and persistence e.g. when working with significant behaviours * Learning - continually seeking new insight (via online resources, University and colleagues) has helped me extensively this year. Not only have I learnt new strategies, programmes and found support to face challenges, I have found that the learning itself has been incredibly energising.  * Listening to the students - I have made more time to focus on the students' ideas this year. Open ended questions, conversations and observations has helped me to see and build on their expertise and questions, e.g. by starting a compost group * Seeking advice from colleagues more, and being open and...

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...