Regional Meeting

Today I went over to Putaruru for my first regional meeting - didn't know what to expect... Lovely bunch of people all RT-Lits working around the upper North Island. Knowledgeable, hard working and passionate about their work. I'm one of them now :)
Feelings: Good to see ICT on the agenda with some innovative ideas being shared. Check out sidebar for my favourites plus have added to this with some ideas from today.
collaboration is what 21st century learning is all about - check out Sir Ken Robinson clip.
Action: Going to look up Sheena Cameron -(comprehension guru) her work, books, workshops were mentioned several times today as being very useful for our job. Looks like a workshop happening in May in Tauranga which would be useful
http://sheenacameron.co.nz/

Decoding

Funny thing happened the other day in one of my lessons. This young boy about 10 yr -not too sophisticated - was reading a book aloud to me and had got stuck on a word and was trying to decode it using phonemes, chunks segmenting and blending... he was doing really well and came up with  "org - org -  orgasm!" - he obviously didn't know the meaning of what he had said and fortunately I didn't crack up laughing I just jumped in and said" organise" and he moved on with his reading.
Priceless experience

Inspirational

A little boy was overheard talking to himself as he strode through his
backyard, baseball cap in place and toting ball and bat. “I’m the greatest
baseball player in the world,” he said proudly. Then he tossed the ball in the
air, swung and missed. Undaunted, he picked up the ball, threw it into the
air and said to himself, “I’m the greatest player ever!” He swung at the ball
again and again he missed. He paused a moment to examine the bat and ball
carefully. Then once again he threw the ball into the air and said, “I’m the
greatest baseball player who ever lived.” He swung the bat hard and again
missed the ball.
“Wow!” he exclaimed. “What a pitcher!”
Doesn't this remind you of teaching literacy?  setting  expectations, being persistent and having faith in your students.  I had an ah ha moment the other day teaching one of my slow progress learners - she was actually making progress: a) because she believed in herself , and b) because she believed in me and my instruction.
She really is a slow learner and yet just for an instant in our lesson I got a glimpse of her world as a struggling reader and she taught me all over again... always have faith , hope and trust  that these kids can lift their learning and make improvements - it just might be slower, longer and more repetitive than normal.
Since entering this entry I have experienced the struggles of being a learner again in a specific situation. Everything is expressed in terms of being new but I am feeling quite crushed because I like to get things exact and correct but  basically 'I don't know what I don't know' .
I have to keep in mind I am delivering sound literacy lessons and this other matter will be resolved. Have faith and trust my own abilities.  

Mobile Office

A very corney problem arose in the second week - how was I going to carry all my stuff from school to school without doing my back or shoulders in.   I wanted something easy to handle for getting in and out of the car and with compartments. Tried a few things which all had defects!
Have now settled on using my travel bag that I took all around Europe and it works a treat. I get the odd look now and then when I park and pull it out of the boot - but wheels, extending handle and compartments - it's a little beauty.
The Glenholme office is very well resourced - we use our own resources when working with the children. I also have teacher resource books available some of them are useful for my 700A. Have taken home SET resource journals for research into first assignment  - have never looked in these journals before and have found some interesting articles.

Do schools kill creativity?

This is such a relevant  debate being discussed in many educational settings at present. Well worth listening to this clip- very  informative and easy to listen to talk.

Bring on the learning revolution

First Week at Work

My first day / week was quite a transition:    -  In  the Past                                                                  

•  knowing exactly what classroom
•  about 24 kids 
•  room set up
•  planning completed
•  first day activities
•  big open space of classroom
•  moving around the room
•  room full of parents on first day
• staying on site
• I knew all the systems - expectations, colleagues ...

Present                                    Quite Different

• small office
• no kids for first week - no parents either (yet)
• setting up testing kit
• reviewing systems
• getting to know resources, recording systems ... and the new photocopier of course
• getting out and about means travelling to other schools
• meeting three sets of staff -teachers - staffroom - sorting out office space in each school
• finding fastest way around Rotorua  (easy now)
• trialling best way to carry all my stuff from one school to next  - mobile office of sorts

Feelings: Quite a few changes but everything manageable at this stage and after the first week under my belt I felt much better.  Have been liaising with key people in the three schools where I will be working, met classroom teachers and some of the students.