28/02: Goals for 2019

Goals for 2019

28th February 2019

Before returning to school I took the time to sit down and think about what I want to get out of the year ahead.

Below are the goals I created for myself in 2019:

1. Work/Life Balance
   1. Use 3 tips on the way home
   2. Ensure work is completed prior to deadlines e.g. reports started and completed before deadline
2. Student Support & Contact with Home
1. Continue with termly emails home
2. Notify parents earlier if student is struggling – copy parents into email reminders to students, call home for help and support
3. Help parents to support students by sending out term planners with due dates and notify parents when internal assessments are starting
4. Continue to keep academic coordinators, teacher mentors and housemasters in loop
5. Also remember to write home if a student is doing well – email, postcards, EPAs
3. Leadership Development
   1. How can I support my HOD more?
   2. What new initiatives can I bring to the department? Or how can I help to strengthen existing initiatives?
4. Differentiation (possible inquiry topic)
   1. How can I personalize teaching and learning experiences for my learners?
   2. How can I support the needs of my priority learners more?
   3. How can I show students that I know what they do and don’t know?

With it only being Week 5 I find it interesting reflecting back on these goals. I believe I have been focussing and working towards student support & contact with home and differentiation of lessons:

• I have been in contact with all parents and guardians of my students to introduce myself and inform them about the course
• I have been wrapping support around students who are already struggling in certain courses
• I have been using different teaching styles to meet the needs of different students and to match what students identified as their preferred learning styles
• Students have had options in class to have more guided help and instruction vs more independence and extension

However, I feel like I have been neglecting my work/life balance and leadership development. Although my work/life balance isn't bad at the moment I have no set structure or rules in place which I will probably need later in the year as we start to reach crunch points. As for leadership development I have been asking my HOD if there is anything I can do to help but nothing more.


It will be interesting to reflect on these goals towards the end of Term 1 to see how they progress.

18/10 - PD: The Future of Education + Mind Lab Pop-up

PD: The Future of Education + Mind Lab Pop-up

18th October 2018

Name of Course/Programme/Seminar: Future of Education

Provider/Presenter: Frances Valintine

Last night I attended a talk about the future of education by Frances Valintine followed by a Mind Lab pop-up. Frances is the Founder and Chair of Mind Lab. I first heard about Frances through her TED talk about the courage to connect and the challenge she was laying down to educators.

A lot of her ideas come from 'The Policy of our Nation'. Key points include:

• We don't want to be just a consumer of new technology (social media etc), we need to utilize it
• NZ is experiencing a growing demand for digital citizens - this can easily be seen in the work force and job advertisements
• We currently have a lot of obstacles - is the traditional view on education one of them?
• This is about understanding the power of the tools we have available

Her push is to empower educators to take the leap and embrace change, to push the boundaries and challenge the traditional stereotypes e.g. do we need a classroom or do we need somewhere to learn? We don't need to get rid of classrooms but need to expand and allow students to realize they can learn everywhere. However, when change is involved people can panic as they lose their comfort zone. She expresses that what you know and the experiences you have had are really important as these help us build in the future ahead.

Frances also pushes the importance of the change in skills needed. Most schools focus on getting students through with a school qualification to move onto higher education. Unfortunately just getting a degree isn't enough anymore. 70% of employers in NZ are recognising that soft skills are more valued and highly sought after. An example of this that the ability to retain knowledge matters less but the ability to go and find knowledge is more powerful.

So what is your burning platform to embrace change?

*The book 'The 100 Year Life' was brought up in conversation and could be a good read

If I was to summarise the key things I took away from this Professional Development what would they be and why?

It helps to reinforce that we need to move away from what is seen as traditional teaching and teaching of and for assessments as this is creating a disservice for our students. This PD of both the talk and the Pop-up Mind Lab session have really encouraged and inspired me to take the Mind Lab Postgraduate Certificate in Digital & Collaborative Learning.

What aspects of my practice would I consider changing as a result of this professional development and why?

I feel like this time of the year was a great time to hear a strong message like this. As senior classes are coming to an end I am already picking apart my courses as to how I can improve on them and make them more interactive and interesting for the following year. This has inspired me to continue reflecting on my IG course in particular to see how I can make the course more interactive and memorable for students. I want to make learning more hands on through practicals, online games, learning activities etc. As I have now taught the course for a year, got my head around it and learnt through trial and error I feel like I will easily be able to reflect and adapt the course for 2019.

22/7: PENZ Conference 2018

PD: PENZ Conference 2018

22nd July 2018

July 9th to 11th 2018 marked the 60th National PENZ conference; Together, Towards Tomorrow. Across the three days I was able to grow my professional network and continue professionally developing myself. Below are some of my highlights and takeaways from the conference.


Session 1: Together, Towards Tomorrow Keynote - Wayne Smith, Margot Bowes & James McIntyre
I found this a refreshing keynote to start the conference. The key theme of the keynote was the development of the theory behind skill acquisition. Wayne Smith discussed the theory, Margot Bowes discussed how it can be implemented (where King's College was used as an example) and James McIntyre focussed on a primary lens. Overall the keynote challenged the old school technique approach found that can still be found within Physical Education. Two of my key points from this keynote session can be summarised in my two tweets pictured below:

Session 2: Presenting Our Scholarship Journey - Mallory Bish, Rob Paterson & Alex Smith
The first round of breakout sessions involved the three of us presenting about our Scholarship Programme and our journey over the past three years. The aim of the session was to share what had been working for us in the hopes that others may be able to takeaway aspects to trial with their own students. We shared info about our school, the outline of our programme, exemplars of student work, example of the process a student goes through, student feedback, criticality within our PE programme from Y9-13 before moving onto the Dragon's Den. The link to our presentation can be found here.

Feedback from teachers after the session was overwhelmingly positive. Some of this feedback came through the form of a Facebook post and tweet from Carl Condliffe (NZ PE Teacher). The feedback received allowed us to believe that we had met the aims of our session.

Session 9: ‘A Good Akina Man’ - Hastings Boys' High
Hastings Boys' High identified a need to help develop and change the character and feelings students related to school and their high school experience. They used to have an identity unit for four weeks in health at the start of Y9. This idea was also sparked from seeing the success of Gisborne Boys' High. The HODs and SLT came together to create a list of values that they wanted to instill in their Y9 students to create a year long integrated underlying theme.

Term One's unit was about respect; what is respect, why do students respect certain people, how do they show respect etc. They then instilled respect for the school through the idea that they are now apart of the school and the school is now apart of them. Students looked into history of all the houses, school song, school haka, colours etc. This linked nicely to the Health & PE curriculum by connecting to what was their old Hauora unit that got students to learn about their own personal identity.

I really liked this idea of an integrated identity unit and building respect for the school and its culture and traditions, while also acknowledging the individuality of each student. We could easily incorporate this into our Y9 program, especially with the linking of PE & Health for 2019. Students could look at why they are attending King's and the history of King's to develop a sense of identity and belonging.


Session 13: How do you know what learning is happening in HPE? - Chris Hurston
In this session Chris shared how he was using technology and apps such as Plickers, Google Forms & Seesaw to build reflective practise in his juniors. This reflective practise came in forms of students recapping their learning from prior lessons, getting students to assess their level of understanding against rubrics for self assessment and peer assessment. Chris also shared the importance of having a visible programme for parents and students alike to check in and see outlines of term topics, discussion points, assessment tasks, showcase routines/videos, short video clips of lessons, reflections and next steps. He used the app Seesaw to share this information with parents and students. This was the part of the session that stood out the most to me as I have been focussing on visible learning for both my students and parents/guardians. I wonder whether we could try incorporating this app or could use Schoolbox more affectively?

The takeaway key question form this session was 'what are you doing in your practice to enhance reflective practice?' When reflecting on this question myself I know that I have been focussing on challenging my juniors to reflect on what we are learning, why and how these skills can be transferable. I have also been focussing on creating more self directed learners in my IGCSE class.



Overall I think this is a range of takeaways from this years annual conference. It will be interesting to take these key ideas forward, particularly with the development of our new connected Health & PE programme for 2019 and how we can ensure this learning is visible to both students and parents/guardians alike.

21/5: PD - Mindfulness Course - Pause, Breathe, Smile by Grant Rix

PD: Mindfulness Course - Pause, Breathe, Smile by Grant Rix

21st May 2018

Name of Course/Programme/Seminar: Pause, Breathe, Smile

Provider/Presenter: Grant Rix
This course looked into what is mindfulness, why we might need mindfulness before breaking down the Pause, Breath, Smile course. Collaborative notes from this Mindfulness PD Day can be found here.

Although I can see the benefits behind mindfulness I wonder where it will fit. Does it belong with Health in which our Seniors will not benefit from it? Does is belong in mentor periods so all students can benefit from it? Should it just be an optional course to staff and students? I am looking forward to hearing what was discussed at the Positive Education Meeting and to see what further actions are made to bring mindfulness into the College.

3/5: 2018 Inquiry Plan - How can I create self-directed learners in my 11 IGCSE Physical Education class?

2018 Inquiry Plan: How can I create self-directed learners in my 11 IGCSE Physical Education class?

3rd May 2018

Why have I identified this as an important focus for me?
Cambridge is content heavy course. This requires students to work through content at a fast pace - content in which most students have not come across before. I have identified through student achievement data (end of unit tests throughout Term 1 & student voice) and Collegial Feedback (discussions with Alex) that students need to become more self-directed learners.


What initial steps forward am I going to commit to and why have I identified these as my first steps?
After having a hunch that this would be a good inquiry to further my own teaching practise, I collected student voice from my class around the three Teaching & Learning categories. These were relationships, motivation & communication. The results helped to solidify my thinking. Next week I am going to share these results with students and reinforce changes that will be occurring & why.
-After attending the Cambridge PD course at the end of last term and reflecting on my own practise I told students of changes that I am planning on implementing in Term 2. Students had an opportunity to share their thoughts about these changes - would they be positive & why/why not? Students were also able to add any extra changes they would like to see.

I have recognised that students need to be self directed in this course rather than independent (last years inquiry). I am going to compare and contrast independent learners vs self directed learners. By finding out the similarities I can refer back to strategies I used last year and see whether or not I will be able to implement them this year. By finding out the differences I will be able to focus on finding out new strategies I will be able to implement that will better suit the needs of self directed learners.
Once I have found new strategies I will be able to implement them, alongside the other changes I have already recognised. Then my aim is to collect student voice at the end of the term to see whether or not the data has changed.


How, by focusing on this, do I propose to contribute to and influence Student Achievement Outcomes?
By creating an environment that encourages self-directed learners I am expecting to see higher levels of motivation for learning. I am hoping that students will display qualities and behaviours such as; problem solving and seeking their own answers, seek feedback, knowing their strengths & weaknesses within the course and action a way to minimise their weaknesses, higher levels of collaboration - conversations where students are correcting each other and teaching each other etc.
I am hoping that these qualities will be visible. Also if students start to display these behaviours their test results should have a positive impact.


Who may I need support and assistance from and what might that look like as I look ahead to achieving success?
Alex - possibly professional readings, discussions, learning activities etc.
Melissa - possibly professional readings & pointing me in the direction of other colleagues that could help with strategies (ie observations)
Looking out for content on Twitter - posts, Twitter chats, English teachers in the IG curriculum etc.
Chris & other colleagues met at Cambridge PD course - help with IG curriculum?

3/5: PD - T2 Staff PD Day

PD: T2 Staff PD Day

3rd May 2018

Staff Presentation - John Payne (Geoff Smith)
Leadership - Heidi Somerville (Senior OD consultant COKE - talent and reward)
Critical Feedback - Tony Burkin
Leadership Survey Feedback - Melissa Irving & Alan Brookbanks
Department Breakouts

If I was to summarise the key things I took away from this Professional Development what would they be and why?
Leadership isn't about a position - it's a mindset/attitude. Leaders should display key values every day and inspire others to do the same. People who bring inspiration & enthusiasm and are accountable can be considered more of a leader than someone who is in a leadership position or position of power who doesn't.

How has this professional development challenged my thinking?
I suppose this PD Day has given me more confidence in myself. Although I don't necessarily hold a position of leadership I don't need to be able to develop myself as a leader and inspire others.


*The rest of my notes from our Staff PD Day can be found here.

12/4: Reflection - Term 1 Review of Junior Classes

Reflection: Term 1 Review of Junior Classes

12th April 2018

What's going on for my learners?

What does achievement data tell me about my current cohort?
Current achievement data from Junior classes, especially Y9s, show me me I need to focus on making learning more visible within my lessons. Although we start lessons with learning intentions and relate back to these through questioning both throughout activities and with a class discussion at the end of the lesson, some students are still not getting it. I am hoping that students are still adapting to the change from primary school PE but it is something I want to work on next term to see if there is a difference.

What am I going to do about it?
-spend more time reinforcing key terms & continually checking for understanding with individuals
-ensure students understand achievement criteria e.g. get them to break this down - how do they get graded for this unit, what are the differences between each of these levels
-see if there is a difference between work that is produced in class time vs prep time
-give students more written feedback on their work between submissions

Who are my priority learners this year? (Those in danger of not achieving)

I have a wide range of priority learners throughout my Jnr classes. Some have more than others and I have identified these students in their class spreadsheet with help from data from Synergetic in regards to ethnicities and SAP reports. Also after Term 1 I have noted other priority learners who struggle with learning intentions and handing in of assessments to an appropriate level and on time.