8/12: 2017 Inquiry Overview

2017 Inquiry Overview

8th December 2017

As the year draws to an end it is time for me to share the findings of my 2017 inquiry. This year's inquiry was based around creating independent learners within my Level 2 class. I noticed early on that as a whole the group was quite dependent.  More information explaining the start to my inquiry process can be found here. A further post outlining the progress I had made can be found here.

What progress did I make?
I really struggled to find my way and start my inquiry. I was unsure where to start. Soon after I realised I was struggling to start was because I was unsure what an independent learner looks, sounds and feels like, therefore unsure what I needed to change in my practise. After starting to look into techniques I realised a lot of things I had been already doing in class were forms of strategy, for example the use of rewards and punishment for motivation. However, these weren't proving very successful.

From here I ensured to use student voice more. This was done through collating student voice via Google Forms on my teaching style and the learning activities I was using. This was to let them show preference of how they like to learn, what they like and what they want to change. From here when we were completing activities I was able to link these back to the feedback and why I was doing something in a certain way. This proved to be slightly effective but it also helped students to realise they didn't actually know how they like to learn. I started to reiterate why we were doing certain tasks. Students said they found more purpose in the activities when they understood why we were doing it. However, I soon learnt that this also meant that only if it related to the assessment that they would find it important.

Example of student results from Google Form

 I also introduced the use of Google Classroom. This allowed students to find all resources and notifications in the one place and receive email notifications about them as well. This meant students were able to spend more time completing their work rather than creating copies etc. Upon reflecting on this yes it made it easier for both myself and the students - yet it did not help create independent learners.

Another strategy I trailed was the Release of Learning. I completed this process when preparing students for their 2.7 assessment. This was completed as follows:
Part 1 - break down of assessment with teacher, what certain words mean, what are the questions asking us to do, what sentence starters could we use, example answers. Students can use this information to answer questions and complete PMIs
Part 2 - Students working with a partner to brainstorm answers to questions & PMIs
Part 3 - Students completing the questions and PMIs individually
Part 4 - Students are able to complete the assessment
I found this strategy one of the most effective. By starting with breaking down what questions are asking and what answers look like and slowly building independence students were able to see more clearly what was expected of them. I believe that this strategy and the authentic learning environment of snow camp helped to create the high grades achieved by the students.

The checklist strategy was starting to become effective but too late in the year. Only got the the point where I was creating checklists for them to ensure they had completed with assessments and learning tasks, not co-constructing or them creating their own.

Certain strategies I trialled I felt weren't successful as I brought them in too late in the year, such as  as ask 3 before me and checklists. I was trying to get students into these habits in Term Three. I feel like if I had brought them in earlier on in the year and set them up as a part of the classroom culture and expectations that they would have been more successful.


So what did I learn throughout my inquiry?

As my inquiry tracked along I found that I was already using a lot of strategies in the class that I was unaware of. In short some worked and others didn't. I learnt that by instilling these strategies as expectations and making sure they were very clear and consistent helped to create greater success. This is something I know I personally need to work on.
I believe overall it would have been more effective using these strategies from the start of the year and building them into the culture of the class as a expectations. I believe that it was harder trying to start half way through the year when students already had set ideas of these expectations.

Where to from here?

I really enjoyed this inquiry and felt a sense of achievement seeing it start to pay off in the classroom. Because of that I am going to ensure that I continue this inquiry next year with my IGCSE class. By learning from past mistakes and starting right from the first class I am hoping that the results will be more effective.

30/11: PD - Flipped Learning

PD: Flipped Learning

30th November 2017

This morning I attended another optional PD course as apart of the schools end of year initiative. This session was about flipped learning and was run by Lauren Lethbridge, a Classics & Languages teacher. She started off the session by explaining what flipped learning was and how she does it with her classes. Below are some notes and key points that I took away from today's session:


How to give content?

Lauren explained that her flipped learning journey started partially because she didn't like standing up and talking in front of her class as a teaching style and also because Classics is very content heavy. She created iBooks and Keynotes for her classes and then proceeded to turn these keynotes into videos. When flipping her classroom Lauren focusses on the students learning the content at home before completing the higher thinking of that content in class. This content is accessible in two different forms via the class iTunes U course - written notes or a video. This helps to provide students an opportunity to work with their preferred learning style. Each task is accompanied by questions to help guide students with their note taking.


How do you get students on board?

• Started the year by explaining what they are doing in regards to the flipped classroom and why they are doing it e.g. why it is worth while, receiving student feedback
• Used a Blooms Taxonomy task in regards to skills and levels of thinking and related it to A, M & E
• Students are given all info upfront so they can organise themselves e.g. if they are busy they can complete prep earlier etc. 10-15 min chunks of prep per lesson (80% of lessons). This can be completed can do it on one large chunk or small bits e.g. nightly prep
• What you do in the lesson needs to be thought out carefully and needs to be worth them doing the prep - higher level thinking rather than content, answering questions that arose from the prep and create your own questions. These were discussed this at the start of each lesson
• Up to the teacher if they want to police the work done at home. Whether you want students to answer questions in a Google Form or a worksheet that is handed in through iTunes U, a quiz at the start of the lesson focussing on the prep the night before or check notes. Lauren said that those who didn't complete there prep were excluded from the class activity until they had completed it and caught up

How to create a video?

There are a few different options of how to create a video. There are some apps and sites that allow you to create flipped videos such as - Screencastify or Edpuzzle. Lauren has even made a video to explain how she creates her videos in Keynote here (similar function is also available on PowerPoint.
Another list of apps can be found here & sites here.


How might I do this next year?

I am aware that the IGCSE Physical Education course is a very content heavy course, as are all IG courses. I like this idea that students will be able to be introduced to new content by learning about it home and bring their questions with them to class. This also gives me more of an opportunity to differentiate learning (one of my goals for next year) and also apply it practically in class.

17/11: PD - Quizlet

PD: Quizlet

Friday 17th November

As the year is coming to an end, we start to prepare for 2018. School has brought in the initiative of optional PD courses that are run over numerous periods in weeks 5-7. The courses are mainly e-learning themed and focus on a variety of different apps. These include; Quizlet, iBooks, Turnitin & Notes. Each staff member needs to attend a minimum of two courses, but as per usual I find more than two fascinating and have the time so I have signed up for five. 

This morning I went to my first session on Quizlet. I was interested to find out more about Quizlet as I am a lover of Kahoot and have heard they are similar. In short Quizlet is used to learn terms and definitions and has just brought out a new function of being able to label diagrams. As a teacher you can find, adapt or create 'sets' of flashcards. These are just sets of terms and definitions that can then be played in multiple ways for students to learn. These can include the following:

• Live - work collaboratively with your team to gain points, the trick is that the term that matches the answer might be on a team mates iPad
• Gravity – more game like, need to write the definition or term to try and blast the meteors as they fall towards earth (individual)
• Write – type the answer, term or definition (individual)
• Test – written, multi choice, matching etc
• Flashcards – creates flashcard sets
• Match – mix n match (individual for time)

Steph who was running the session, suggested that live may be the best form to introduce Quizlet to the students. It brings a collaborative and competitive approach to learning simple terms. The main differences between Quizlet and Kahoot is that Quizlet's live form is collaborative and unlike Kahoot if you get a question wrong all of your team's points are lost. This brings less of an influence on time and more towards getting the right answer. Sometimes with Kahoot students focus more on answering the questions quickly, rather than getting the question right. 

All of these functions could be used as a great form of introducing new terms to students, revising and also collating informal feedback on the learning area. As the free version of Quizlet does not allow you to collect data, this could be used for informal feedback or copies of the tests could be printed and collected for evidence.

So what are my thoughts on Quizlet? Overall I like that the more formal feel of Quizlet. It still has the fun competitive side like Kahoot but can be more collaborative and information can be reused in different forms. It can also be accessible for students when revising for exams. This app could prove really useful with the IG PE course next year and I am planning to use this throughout my course next year.

9/11: Reflection on 2017 - Level 2

Reflection on 2017 - Level 2

9th November 2017

Now that the seniors have gone it's time to reflect back on the year that has been, in particular what went well and what needs to be improved. Teachers of Level 2 have already sat down to analyse our results and data from 2017 by standard. This is more of a personal reflection of 2017 with my Level 2 students. I will start by doing my own personal review of each standard before adding any other comments.

2.4 - Perform a physical activity in an applied setting

What went well? Why?

• Nice way to start the year – great way to build class relationships

• Video from Sport Waitakere with explanation of rules was a nice, simple way to allow students to learn the rules – could have put the link to this on Schoolbox so students had access to this

• Broke down assessment criteria of what A, M & E looks like

• By completing this standard first students also got the idea that their year of Physical Education would be more practical

• Although I broke down criteria with the students I didn’t go in enough depth for Ki-O-Rahi specifically – could have done this and got students to self-assess themselves against this criteria before starting to help increase knowledge of game play. Students may then be able to create links to other invasion games they have played before and identify how they can transfer their skills

• Could have gone into more depth around the traditions of the game to help increase understanding

• Students were either on par with their self assessment marking or marking generously. I could have got students to assess themselves more often and had more detailed checkpoints in which I could have provided students with feedback and where I currently see them to help with the disparity and help to improve grades

• Anatomy displayed the greatest depth of knowledge across all students and this reflected through to the assessment – students think creating videos around each joint helped with this

• Identified priority learners, sought support from Housemasters, mentors & parents/guardians. However this quite close to the due date of the assessment as I was struggling to differentiate who was being lazy and leaving it to the last minute and who was struggling with content and needed extra support

• Plenty of teaching time available - planning and time management of lessons = great

• Used a variety of teaching methods e.g. group work, collaboration, expert groups, practicals, worksheets, note taking, practise paragraphs, breaking down of paragraph structure. This was to see what students responded to best and to try and suit the needs of my learners and their individual learning styles in which they identified at the start of the year

• Assessment needs to be changed – quite repetitive even though it just serves as a reminder

• Could have actually introduced a mini performance improvement practical section to help create an authentic learning environment and allow deeper understanding of skill acquisition

• Some students really struggled with this being the first written assessment. It also has the most content knowledge – especially if new to PE. This could be changed by possibly moving it later on in the year. Also hoping to see a difference in 2018's L2s as they will be the first to have completed the new Junior PE programme which prepares them for success at senior level

• Had already identified priority learners and those who need extra motivation in first written assessment so knew who I had to keep an eye on

• The use of checkpoints and due dates throughout the assessment worked well. It was easy to identify those struggling or behind and put strategies in place to ensure they met these e.g. missed deadline could result in no practical lesson when planned, spending time doing their work during lunch or after school, DTs etc.

• The use of checkpoints and having already identified priority learners meant that I was easily able to create a network of support around students earlier by involving parents & Housemasters

• Used results from student voice at the end of 2.2, especially in regards to learning activities and teaching styles and ensured to use the preferred learning styles across this assessment

• Although I had a set plan of how the unit may look I was able to be flexible and adapt so the programme could best suit the needs of my students e.g. more teacher led training sessions with group evaluations compared to student training sessions or moving practicals out of period 5 since there wasn't enough time to complete an adequate training session

• In regards to the training programme I ensured to complete a teacher led training programme as an example. We then broke this down and evaluated it as a class. Students could then also draw links and relevance to assessment task evaluation. I also used the teacher led training programmes to help create variety and complete different forms of training that I would not expect students to choose for themselves

• My planning in regards to session layout could have been completed better e.g. not having student training sessions in period 5 where it is a short period. However, realised this throughout the programme and was able to adapt this as I went

• Some students struggled with definitions of certain principles. I wonder if I could have created a more interesting & effective way of getting this information across. Also independent students made note of these as we went through these in class and others did not

• Students loved the authentic learning environment of snow camp. This reflected through to the specific examples students were able to provide throughout their assessment, resulting in our best results out of all the written standards

• A lot of the lessons allowed students to learn practically resulting in higher levels of understanding of content

• I could tell I had a great understanding of the content along with the students. I felt like my questioning had improved greatly and I was able to get students thinking about different aspects and guide them to certain points through the use of my questioning. This was also particular and relevant when one of the students was injured and unable to attend camp and instead wrote about a previous experience. She still gained an Excellence as she sought the extra help to ensure her level of understanding was correct

• In some ways the amount of time allocated for the learning based around 2.7 was too long. Some students were feeling bored especially in regards to content and terminology. When reflecting on my own lessons some started to get repetitive as I tried to use different contexts to get the same points across. I could have sought help in how I could have created more variation

• There was talk of doing a mini run through of the assessment by doing a practical activity off site such as rock climbing. This was unable to happen but sounds like a cool idea

• Students had the choice of 5 topics. If they wanted to do another topic out of these 5 they could have indicated their interest and had this approved

• Broke down assessment criteria especially what was needed for A, M & E when introducing them to the standard

• In lessons where students were working independently on there assessment I had a couple of lessons in which I was able to go around the class and talk individually to each and every single student as to how they were progressing in there assessment. This included giving students the chance to ask questions, for mer to read some of their work and give feedback, as well as also asking them questions to help lead them to further points they could include. I found that this was the most effective form of help for the students

• Students struggled with motivation being the end of term 3 - unsure if there is anything extra I could have done to help encourage students/make lessons more interesting

• Felt put off that there wasn’t a big teaching & learning process unlike past assessments so felt like they were thrown in the deep end & was there first socio-cultural assessment asking them to think critically (didn’t help I was out for a week on tournament week)

• First time for me teaching a critical thinking assessment so I think my questioning process could have been better

• I made the decision to start the year with a week of ABL activities. I noticed in the first class that I met them that they were very awkward and there was a large segregation between boys and girls as well as old vs new students.  I made this decision to get the class to work together before them completing their first assessment and feel like it was the right one

• Used student voice multiple times with this class especially in regards to learning activities and my teaching style. I always made sure to respond to this student feedback - whether this was summarising the results to the class, explaining the reason behind activities in relation to results etc. 

• I feel I could have potentially shared some more information about myself with my students to quick start some of the relationship building. I feel like the reason I may not have done this as well is because I had already taught half of the students

• I feel like a lot of my lesson's could have been differentiated more e.g. different forms of the same activity for different levels of understanding. Most of my lessons were aimed towards the mid to low end of the class which could have resulted in some boredom in the class

• I think I should have taught students some more in regards to giving feedback and constructive criticism. Their feedback wasn't always specific or useful when collecting student voice. E.g. they would infer something needed to change but not state what could have been done differently

• I'm not sure that the use of the different google folders for students is the most effective form of note taking, although it is nice easy access to be able to see student work. Could possibly look into this and try an alternative method next year?

• I think I need to be more effective and efficient to regards to standards. Sometimes I set my high standards and students make me feel like they are too high and too hard to be met so I can find myself lowering them

• I didn't always break down the standard with students at the being of the assessment. This sometimes resulted in students being unsure of the importance of certain aspects to then click when they see the standard. However, sometimes the risk in doing this is teaching to the assessment

What could have been improved? Why?

2.2 - Demonstrate understanding of how and why biophysical principles relate to the learning of physical skills

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

2.3 - Demonstrate understanding of the application of biophysical principles to training for physical activity

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

2.7 - Analyse the application of risk management strategies to a challenging outdoor activity

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

2.5 - Examine the significance for self, others and society of a sporting event, a physical activity, or a festival

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

Other comments

What went well? Why?

What could have been improved? Why?

28/8: PD - Student Advisory Panel

PD: Student Advisory Panel

28th August 2017

As a part of today's Staff PD we had a group of students from various year levels who are members of our Student Advisory Panel present to us. After students from Kaipara College came and presented on what student led initiatives they were running throughout their school, staff and students alike were inspired to start here at King's College. As a result a Student Advisory Panel was created and approached one of our Senior Leadership staff to come and talk to staff about Student-Teacher Relationships. Throughout this presentation students covered the importance of; getting to know your students, feeling comfortable enough to ask questions,  getting to know your teacher on a more personal level, rapport in the classroom & staff participation in school or house activities.

Hotene started by giving us some background as to how the Student Advisory Panel was formed, who is represented and their inspiration. After the creation of the Panel they decided to discuss things that they all valued and what messages they wanted to portray. Key points that were highlighted were; students knowing that any mistake is fixable, feeling comfortable to ask for help and knowing teachers will approach you if you are stuck. He then introduced the students who would be speaking in today's session and what topics they will be addressing.


Importance of getting to know your students

• Students who learnt more felt more comfortable in their environment
• 4 main results due to having a student-teacher relationship:
• academic success
• less behaviour management by developing a relationship with disruptive students as no student wants to fail, instead you just need to find out what makes them click 
• development of self worth
• more productive environment
• How to develop:
• knowledge of names & pronunciation, ethnicity/cultural background, day student vs boarder
• Showing interest in students life outside of school - how was your day/weekend?
• Students felt that a stronger relationship with teacher resulted in better classroom environment, homework handed in on time and students felt they listened more in class

The importance of feeling comfortable to ask questions

• This particular Year 11 student felt like since she was new to the College that she wasn't up to speed. She included that she felt behind in regards to relationships with teachers and other students & teaching styles and platforms. This resulted in her feeling left behind and judged for having to ask questions
• She explained that since she was new people were more lenient in regards to certain aspects of school life such as handing in homework was late. This made her feel confused as she liked the extra help but also felt it was unfair that it was not being offered to the whole class and felt uncomfortable about her special treatment
• Another key message of hers was he importance of being open to allow all students to ask questions. E.g. don't single out new students, expect questions from everyone and specify when extra help is available outside of class (can students email, ask for help, have extra time, extra sessions etc.)

The importance of knowing your teacher on a more personal level

• This speaker addressed the importance of his teachers opening up about their personal life as he feels that he is able to develop more respect for his teachers and sees them as more of a mentor in their life
• Although stories may not be relevant to what they are learning they helped develop respect
• Sharing information about themselves on the first day helps to break the ice and show that we are all human
• Using personal experiences to help show practical examples
• Spending one on one time with students - sharing personal information/connection with students to help them through

The importance of rapport in the classroom

• Strengthen general collective respect for the teacher, individual rapport through conversations, have an environment in which
• Finding a common ground, maintaining eye contact throughout conversations

The importance of teacher participation in house/school activities

• Teacher involvement in school activities such as swimming sports & athletics
• Teachers showing interest in student lives outside of class

The idea is not to tell us what to teach, since we already know that but they are showing us how they like to learn

The aim of this session was for students to feel valued and get there points and feelings across on certain points. They stressed the importance that this session was not for them to tell us what to teach them as we know better. Rather, they were hoping to show us how they like to learn and feel in the classroom.

Some points really stood out from this session for me. An example is the idea that the more you give of yourself to your students, the more you are likely to receive back from them. I also liked the reminder that no student likes to be seen as disruptive or naughty and they don't purposely fail. Instead it is our job to try and connect with our students, to build a relationship and find the style of learning that works best for them.

Link to blog post regarding Student Agency from Kaipara College students found here.

18/8: PRT Meeting Focussing on PTC 3 & 10

Reflection: PRT Meeting Focussing on PTC 3 & 10

18th August 2017

During last weeks meeting Melissa & I recognised that as registration looms closer and closer we may want to focus on certain PTC criteria in future meetings. We decided to use our next meeting to target PTC 3 & 10. This is because I feel like I have less evidence on these criteria in comparison to the rest.

Below are some of the conversation points I had with Melissa on PTC 3 & 10. Some of these points are reflecting on what I am already doing in my practice and others are what I want to focus on.

PTC 3: Demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand

·      Cultural determinant of health

o   Year 9 & 10 – learning of the different determinants of health and how they can impact ones life. Looking into how different Cultures can view different topics e.g. Drugs

o   Year 11 - Dark Horse movie. Students are identifying different ways cultural determinants of health impact the main characters in the movie

·      Students own experiences & cultures being allowed and utilized in the classroom

·      Mentions of praise (warm fuzzies) – postcards & emails

·      Correct pronunciation of student names & Māori words

·      Emails & calls to Sanjida & Xela around Term 1 and repots etc, Kapa Haka

·      Cultural Games unit in Year 10 Physical Education

·      Hauora model in Health – emphasis on the Māori names for each dimension rather than just the English & relating back to the Whare Tapa Whā model

·      Traditions & history while teaching Ki-O-Rahi

·      Cultural traditions  - ensuring I know about them and if I’m enforcing them or not e.g. touching of the head, sitting on desks

·      Creation of pepeha – reflection from PENZ with presenters introducing themselves at the start of a presentation. Makes me want to create my own

PTC 10: Work effectively within the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand

·      Use of language

·      Cultural protocols e.g. sitting on desks, shared treats at mentor & shared meals to celebrate

·      Postcards & emails acknowledging positive behaviours

·      Acknowledgement & are aware of wanting to learn pepeha

·      Wally’s help with pronunciation & learning new words

After today’s meeting I feel a bit better about PTC 3 & 10. I felt worried that I wasn’t doing enough in my own teaching practice, hence the reason why I was lacking in evidence. After targeting these criteria and looking into what possible evidence could be I realised that I am already doing a lot in my own practice but may not have reflected on it for evidence.

Where to from here? Alex has mentioned about a reading that she has on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. She suggested that if I read this I will be able to identify what I am already doing in my own teaching practice and identify areas I would like to work on.

4/9: Reflection - 2017 Inquiry Update

Reflection: 2017 Inquiry Update

4th August 2017

At our Staff Professional Development Day on Monday, part of our day was spent in groups with people completing similar inquiries. I was in a group with inquiries based around student engagement, motivation and relationships. The idea was that by being placed in a group with people completing similar inquiries that we were able to share our progress and gain some new ideas from others. Below are some questions that our discussions were based off and will give more of an insight into my 2017 inquiry and how I am progressing.

2017 Inquiry: How to develop my L2 class into self-motivated learners

Why did you identify this as an area for inquiry?

I identified this an area for inquiry as I had previously identified that this class is very dependent in their learning styles. Some examples include students unsure on how to take notes, asking the teacher straight away rather than trying to problem solve or even check notes etc.

How will the inquiry impact on student outcomes?

I would like to think that throughout this inquiry process students will learn important skills or tips that will allow them to succeed in other subjects and even help with skills moving into year 13 and onto university.

Is the inquiry important and relevant in terms of improving student learning?

By students gaining more confidence in themselves and their own ability they will start to become more independent learners which may allow them to work more efficiently in my class but others as well.

Is the inquiry able to be supported by evidence?

Yes I will be able to collect some qualitative data. This may be in the form of student tracking sheets (are students up to date on work), teacher observations (student on task behaviour), noting who is asking for help & seeing if they have tried to problem solve before asking. 

What evidence have you gathered/utilised for far?

I have used student voice and incorporated it into my planning (more about this in the next question). I have also had a teacher observation at the start of my inquiry in which different strategies I already had in place. These included encouragement and guiding students to find the answer rather than telling them the answer. My reflection on that lesson observation can be found here.

Have you gathered student feedback? What did that tell you?

Student feedback I have gathered was in regards to preferred learning styles and tasks after completing our 2.2 assessment. This not only helped me evaluate the effectiveness of my teaching throughout this unit but I could also see preferred the learning activities. The results told me that students liked learning through notes, practical labs, practice paragraphs, worksheets & class discussions. By seeing these results I was able to ensure most learning tasks were taught through these preferred learning styles.

*Need to do another student voice survey to see if results are still the same

Could it be improved by phrasing it as a question?

I originally phrased my inquiry as 'how can I create a culture of independent learning in my classroom?'

What strategies have you trialled in class so far?

I did a small spiral inquiry to start about what actually is an independent learner. This involved research, readings and talking to and observing other staff members about what they are doing within there own classrooms to develop independent learners.

So far I have tried a few minor strategies to help increase motivation of learners in my class. This has included:

• setting clear deadlines with punishments if they are not met
• guiding students towards the answer rather than telling them
• 'dangling the carrot' - providing motivation through credits & practicals
• ensuring students understand the why
• time allocations to complete tasks vs having a list of tasks that need to be completed within the lesson

After this discussion on Monday I have started using Google Classroom with my Level 2 class. Students are responding positively as all tasks, assessments & announcements are all in the same place. I will write a future blog post updating on this.

So where to from here?

Throughout the discussion and after meeting with Alex I have gained some other strategies to try with my Level 2 students. These include:

• Continue unpacking the why - unpack the assessment right at the start of the unit to help provide more direction & then students can create their own links
• Timetabled tutorial times - this will help to establish expectations and routines. Hopefully students will have learnt their lesson that if they don't turn up and make the most of these opportunities they will not get extra time when they ask via email etc. Can also timetable these for students and parents to see so times are clear
• Ask 3 before me - students need to look through 3 different sources before asking the teacher, these sources could be google, notes or a peer
• Create a checklist that students need to check prior to handing in work whether it is a homework task or assessment. This would start as being constructed by myself before co-constructing and students creating their own.
• Differentiated learning vs independent learners
• Gamification? Can create psychological hooks for students - e.g. level up, key to unlock extra or reward when reaching a certain level, clan working together as a common goal working against another clan, progression bar

19/7: Reflection - National PENZ Conference - Past, Present, Future

Reflection: National PENZ Conference - Past, Present, Future

19th July

From 10th - 12th July I was down at Papamoa College attending the National PENZ conference. The conference is made from a wide range of educators, from Primary to Tertiary, along with other external providers from the 3 key organisations of Physical Education New Zealand, Education Outdoors New Zealand & Health Education Association New Zealand. This year's theme was around celebrating the past, understanding the present and looking forward into the future. 

Across the 3 days I was able to attend a variety of sessions, present my own session with Georgia & continue creating many new connections. Like last year, I had many great takeways from conference and hope to share some of my highlights.

The conference started off with 3 key note speakers - Professor Ian Culpan to represent the past, Cameron Smith to represent the present & Helen Tuhoro to represent the future. These 3 speakers were a great way of captivating the theme right from the start of conference and are my first highlight. 

Ian is one of the creators of our current New Zealand Curriculum document. He emphasized he would be to trying to address the influences of what is happening in our learning area. This started with the idea of HPE being the hostage of politics, ideologies and cultural concepts through key themes of controlling and discipling the human body and normalisation of behaviour. However, he wanted to remind us that HPE is a learning area based around humanism and the development of people. Throughout his Keynote Ian got us thinking about how we ensure we challenge these 'norms' we are faced with everyday.

Cameron's key theme was putting the emphasis in the value of Physical Education not physical outcomes. He got me to reflect on what the role of a Physical Education teacher is, ensuring that we are putting the learning and sociocultural thought at the forefront of our subject and whether we are doing enough in our junior curriculum to cultivate critical thinking. He also gave fun practical examples of how our students could learn, in, through and about movement rather than through theories in a classroom. One example was how Deb Robertson is trying to get away from formal standardized assessments, so is instead getting her students to reflect throughout the units.

Helen finished off by inspiring us all through Tarawera's journey. Helen spoke about the importance of relationships and giving students hope. To do so at Tarawera three things needed to change; the people, the environment & the curriculum. This involved the creation of the MANA (Manakitanga, Ako, Ngāku-pono & Āwhina) acronym and asking the questions of what are we here for, what do we want from them and how are we going to do it? Key points that I am going to take away is ensuring that my students see the point in every learning activity and where it is taking them in the bigger picture. Key quotes I am also going to take into my practice include:

• "Great teachers engineer great learning that put the students in the driver's seat"
• "The first step to raising achievement is by raising engagement"
• "If it is not tough and doesn't challenge you it won't change you"

Tracey Clelland along with Rachael Dixon & Jenny Robertson's presentations also stood out to me. I decided to go to these as I am currently trying to rewrite the Year 9 Health programme. Tracey's presentation was around building resilience. She gave us some activities that we can take into our classes to get students to truly think about who they are through using 'the power of vulnerability' and how we can put the '5 Ways to Wellbeing' in action not only within our classes but our own communities. Rachael & Jenny's was around teaching and learning activity ideas around the topic of Alcohol & Drugs. This 90 minute session gave us ideas on what we may want in the unit and activities that can allow us to challenge our students thinking. These activities included; continuums, scenarios, identifying influences & PIPS. Look out for a future blog post to see how my unit planning is going and how I have used these ideas. 

Another highlight was Sara Hayward's 'Engaging the disengaged' presentation. This session stood out to me as it closely links through to my inquiry for the year of how to create independent learners.  Sara's improvements were made over 3 years with the same cohort. These findings were inspiring and being able to talk to others in the session helped me to brainstorm new ideas. Not only was I able to pick up on some new ideas, but it also allowed me to acknowledge that I have been on the right track in what I have currently been doing and that maybe all I need is extra time. Keep an eye out for a future blog post on specifics that I took from Sara's presentation and how it has helped my 2017 inquiry. 

Other highlights included Lesley Park & Alison Schofields presentation on troubles with marking and moderation surrounding Level 2, Mike King's closing Keynote and presenting my first ever PENZ presentation with Georgia on our BT Journey and the part Twitter has played (see her post on this here). Georgia and I also won a prize for our costume (pictured below) and of course we were both humbled when we were awarded with the PENZ award of Outstanding New Professionals!

Overall it was another successful conference in which I am walking away with new ideas and inspiration, new connections and having finally met other educators that I have been previously connecting with!