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