Week 6, Term 2

We've has a productive week with lots  of children experiencing success and some good challenges with their 'inventive thinking' projects.  There has been a lot of support from parents regarding time and resources - thank you.

Congratulations to Patience for winning her division at a karate competition last weekend.  This is an amazing accomplishment and she's only been training for two years!  Congratulations from all of us.

Patience with her trophy - inspiring others

Inventive Thinking

Here we have a few shots from a group who are transforming the science lab into something really quite exciting...they're planning out the space, thinking about making it usable for a range of ages and training up as tutors in some of the new innovative technology we have just resourced.  Watch the space as their vision is really interesting.  They are excited by the possibilities of using the new

 electronics and innovations pieces.


Some shared highlights:

Woohoo Moments

"We have been sketching and we showed Reid and we learnt how to use a compass - we have found some activities on studyladder to help us."

"Well we started to organise by putting shelves and we are starting to see our project come to life."

"We have a couple of more recipes and it makes us feel happy."

"For our project, we sent a letter to Bunning's and now we are just waiting for a response and so we are just about to plant."

Real-Life Maths

Earlier this week we explored what real-life maths the student could connect to and here is a snapshot of some of the thinking.  This was a great starting point and as part of developing our mathematical thinking.  We had a great conversation about how maths learning looked like in the 'olden days' (this will make you feel old) - in the 90's it was taught from a textbook and everyone did the same chapters and learnt at the same pace.

From a teaching perspective it was planned in, often into a year planner, with no room to deviate into other areas.  Today, the children are learning about statistics as it relates to a lot of their inventive thinking projects.  This week we explored histograms, bar graphs, statistical investigations and frequency tables.  Reid focused on building up number operations and number sense through using reversibility strategies.

The children have explored using MathsBuddy this week and all can access this from home - the real-life skill that is being taught is reading analogue clocks.

Week 5 Term 2

LC4 have had a busy week including lots of discussion around their goals for their learning. Each week we ask the students to write goals for their dispositional, numeracy and literacy learning. They're also supported to identify two ways they may be able to achieve these goals, their goals can then be used to help them plan their week. You can support this learning at home by asking your children to share their goals or their progress towards these goals.

Collaborative Research Project
LC4 had a visitor on Monday and Tuesday as a researcher spent time with us to investigate what collaboration at HPPS looks like. The researcher, Chris Bradbeer is conducting this research as part of his PhD research, he had many positives to share about the learning that was taking place in LC 4 and I know some children enjoyed being able to talk to a him about what he was doing. Chris also spent time with a group of students to talk about their ideas of collaboration. Thank you to all those who returned permission slips for his focus group.

"We talked about how the teachers work together and it made us think about how we work together in our groups. This might help us for our collaborative writing project."

Inventive Thinking Projects
This week some of groups have been making good progress on their projects building objects for our garden, designing systems for our device management and writing recipes, letters and newsletters.

"We watched a YouTube video on how to make a pallet garden, we put the weed mat in and had to be able to see some light underneath. It was easy to make and we think it will work, well we're pretty sure. We wonder why you need to see light underneath. We also wrote a letter to send to Bunnings asking them for soil and plants."

Pink Shirt Day
Pink Shirt Day is a chance for people to stand up to bullying and is a national campaign, you can find out more by visiting Pink Shirt Day Some of our students decided that this was a cause worth supporting and organised posters, notices and a bit of excitement in the school.

"Making our posters we learnt that we need to include important information like what we are promoting, why people should wear a pink shirt and when they need to do it. We also learnt that we have to think about who needs to know, the children in LC1 and 2 won't remember so we had to print off notices for those children really quickly at the end of the day. It was a job we had to do fast but we got it done."

"I learnt about counting money and grouping ten 10 cent pieces to make $1. I had to speak to LC3 and I didn't know when to start, so I just started by introducing myself."

 

New Online Tool Alert

MathsBuddy has been highly recommended to us by the specialist teachers at our secondary school. We are going to use this to help to boost our students understanding of maths knowledge, skills and confidence.  This is less of a games based tool and we feel it will compliment our model of learning through inquiry and also help consolidate skills learnt during our workshops.

The tasks set relate to either what we have noticed during our general maths assessments and the data tells us that there are gaps or may be set from what connections we make to the students passion and collaborative projects.

We are going to trial it for the next couple of weeks then refine how we use it.  You will be able to access it from home and results get sent to Reid and I so we can analyse progress and help the children to set goals, access learning and then apply it.

There is a demo you can watch if you have some time.

StudyLadder

Lots of the children have been utilising this tool.  This one is a little more games based and the children should be accessing the tasks we set in personalised pods to help them to meet goals.  They are able to access other games/tasks on this site - they are still learning however for those who tend to get more distracted than others it may pay to check in and see if they know why they are learning it and how it relates to learning in the common.

Conference Notes

We have been sending home notes via email and thank you for taking the time to read them and comment (if you want to).  

We encourage commenting as strong relationships between home and school strengthens learning for children.  There is a lot of research to support this and this is why one of our core values at the school is developing 'relationships' and conferences are one of the practices we have to support this.

Week 4 Term 2

Some of our collaborative projects groups now have the end in sight with their project work coming together.  There has been a huge amount of learning in this process for our children.  Learning from mistakes, reflecting on participation and communication with the view to 'doing it better' next time has been a focus.

In supporting learning, we take a different angle from the traditional micromanagement style.  This is deliberate choice to advise rather than tell as we want our children to be able to think for themselves, have freedoms to be able to risk-take and have ownership over their learning.  We run the learning common like a business model, with regular check-ins and progress meetings to support and challenge.

Our learning wall, in the corridor, has learning stories going up on it over the next week or two.

Here are some snapshots of student voice reflections:

'We lost our planning calendar so we had to make a few vital changes like changing our direction as we couldn't remember what were going to do next.  We played the blame game and we learnt we should all have taken responsibility for looking after the plan.'

'We wanted to do the interviews a lot later in the process but we had to do them earlier and that put us under stress as we had to learn how to email, ask good questions and practise.  We had to talk together and have a few meetings to problem solve how we were going to calm down and focus.  This meant we had to allow time in our daily planners to make time to make it happen.'

'We had to spread out into two groups so we could get things done faster.  Within our group we had some people getting stuff done but others weren't really so we decided to do different parts. Basically, we just have to get it done and now everyone is doing something.'

'We really wanted to get lego but it's been really hard so now we are writing a newsletter to try and get some.  Now I have learnt how to do that and if you do teamwork you can get things done.  Teamwork is working together.'

'It was difficult working with different people but we got through that.  It's taught me that I should work with new people more often as it's a different way of learning.  We are going quite good because we are getting things done a lot quicker than we we first started.'


Responsive Mathematics

We've been exploring fractions in our workshops and also through our independent maths programmes.  Remember to have a look at the online learning sites we have links to off our planning site.

Link here

As part of the learn it - practice it - apply (teach it) model some students have started to run their own workshops for others.  This collaborative teaching model is tapping into all of our resources and strengthens learning.

Fractions Workshop Leaders

Book Track
Braydon and Levi delivered a workshop to some LC3 students on how to use Booktrack to add sound into your writing. The workshop was well received by LC3 and they quickly followed the instructions from the boys. Their presentation was well constructed and challenged the boys with their written and oral language skills.

More words from the children...

Highlights

'Enjoying other peoples ideas and each person has a different meaning to them.  When I first started I was watching a few Ted Talks and some made them funny and interesting and that's what I've enjoyed most so far.'  Danny's Ted Talk is going to be on how the words from inspirational people such as Martin Luther King have impacted on him.

'Thinking of my idea as been the best part because I have a lot of personal highlights and passions that I already do.  The hardest part was choosing one and in the end I came up with on that was a different.  Now I am looking at why people have the inspiration and desire to compete.  My first idea was to look at racing.' Grace.

We are well represented in the Hobsonville Point Fliers Team and lots of children from our learning common will be joining in the 3 and 5km walk/runs this weekend.

Goodluck, run hard and have fun!

Week 3 Term 2

Week 3


Breakers Basketball Student Feedback (Grace)

On Monday, we did basketball with Ben. The first game we did was  Piggy in the middle (Basketball style) the challenge was that we could not move with the ball and you can not throw the ball over the middle person's head that was hard. Next we split up in two groups and played a game sort of like Ball Tiggy but one team had a ball each and the other team didn't. The team with the balls had to tag the other team with no ball. If you got tagged you got the ball. After that we played a game similar but instead of running away from the bball you had to get the ball. The game would end if you did not have a ball then you would have to do 5 push ups.

Star Wars Day - May the 4th be with you ... and Aart's Birthday!

We have a lot of Star wars fans in LC4 and in honouring student voice we are immersing children into some art, writing and reading through this context.  So far, we have run responsive workshops on scale drawings, drawing realistically (learning various sketching techniques) and some knowledge and understanding of the pop art movement and some of the key people involved in it.  We looked at the artist Jim Dine and noticed that his work has lots of expression and isn't 'perfect.'

Writing (New Tool Alert)
BookTrack
Booktrack allows children to add sounds and create a movielike soundtrack to their stories.  We have introduced this into LC4 as a tool to enhance writing.  This means children can publish their stories as an ebook to be read and listened to on various devices, at home and at school etc
The children have reflected that their stories need to have details to be able to build up interesting soundtracks so this is a good provocation for learning about using powerful verbs, adjectives and story structures.
We will have some stories to share next week.

StudyLadder
Reminder:  students all have a school account and there is no need to create new accounts at home. When they use their school account we are able to monitor progress and use the data to help us plan learning.

Why learn statistics?

Basically, it helps us to make a better sense of the world around us!  For example, news articles are filled with statistical data.  The news talks about a 25% change of rain and it links in with science as we delve into questions, analyse and present findings.

Here is a link to an online site that you may like to use at home to help deepen your knowledge and understanding of some aspects of statistics.  There are fun, online games that compliment the workshops the students have been attending this week!

http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/statistics-games.html

Learning Advisory

We have started to explore what accountability, productivity and evidence of learning means to us and how it fits into our world.
We are using our own voice to make connections with these concepts and have come up with solutions for evidencing our learning.

A new reflection tool we are using, to help us recognise when learning is challenging and notice how we get out of the pit is our window model.  We are developing a growing awareness of us as learners and our learning styles and behaviours.

At home you could be having conversations using our shared language.  The question, 'so how are you going to get yourself out of the pit?' may be helpful.

Our Ted Ed Club is building up towards a presentation in a few weeks and a few of our speakers may be presenting at the inaugural GEG New Zealand Student summit.

We have been watching Ted Talks to gain some inspiration and learn about how to effectively communicate an idea we feel is worth spreading.

This Ted talk inspired us, as the man in it was a self taught musician and he was very talented.  We are sharing our favourite talks in a google classroom.  Everyone in the group has a 'Big Ideas' google document to show our learning and we are learning to pitch an idea, give effective feedback and present.

Mother's Day Art
On Friday Jody taught some of the students how to use water colours to paint hydrangeas as part of an effort to celebrate Mother's Day. Some of the painting is shown below:

Responsive Workshops
Here are a few of the workshops students have asked us to run this week:
- sketching (shading) art techniques
- understanding units of time
- using Explain Everything iPad app

Notices:
We have several groups that are working on improving the outside spaces at school for their projects and they are looking for some assistance. If anyone has anything that may be helpful could you please send either Lisa or Reid an email.
The children are looking for:
- Wood for outside art
- Planting pots
- Plants

Week 2, Term1

As one L.A goes on maternity leaves, another returns so with Amy away, Reid is back. (No news on Amy's baby arrival yet...) Lisa is now teaching in LC4 Monday - Wednesday and Jody is teaching in the space on Thursday's and Friday's.  

Our Thursday looks like our specialist staff running workshops so the children experience music, drama and mandarin for part of the day.

Projects

Students are engaged in authentic learning experiences learning through the design process.  It has involved them identifying some potential problems then working through a process to collaboratively come up with ideas, refine their thinking then create their solution to the problem.

Project Meeting

We plan to run some responsive workshops focussing on 'what is effective communication?' helping the children to understand the art of negotiation.  If any parents have any experience in this area, it would be wonderful to hear some real-life examples from work or tools that businesses use.  We would love to hear from you.

We are hoping to have these solutions 'actioned' and term and are thinking of creative ways in which we can share the learning journey with you.  

Through regular project meetings we are teaching the children how to project manage, essentially building up their skills in self managing and directing their own learning.  

Some of the big dispositions addressed are:

- am I managing my tools and resources,

- am I leading and/or following when appropriate,

- and am I creative/courageous in my thinking.

Students are also learning that they can request a workshop from a learning advisor to support them in their learning.  This means they need to be reflective and proactive in their thinking.

Conferencing :  Next step analyse survey, share with others and iterate new ideas

The four main problems that the children have identified are:

- unhealthy eating

- poor management of devices

- uninspiring gardens/outdoor spaces

- lack of lego and construction learning tools within the school.

At the moment we have children collaboratively writing reports on their research questions and sharing via a number of tools such as google docs or slides.  We have children conducting science investigations, documenting evidence and analysing results to make conclusions to inform their projects.  Some have learnt how to use the go pro to video evidence to share as part of presentations they are creating to persuade and inform their peers.

StudyLadder

New learning tool.

Students have accounts to access this learning website.  www.studyladder.com It has a place in the LC in supporting students develop knowledge and thinking strategies across english, maths and other learning areas.  Tasks can be assigned, and students are being encouraged to reflect on their literacy and numeracy goals then ask for tasks to be set by a L.A.

Children can also access this from home and L.As are able to see successes and blocks on learning challenges and offer extra support.  At this point in time, students are exploring the activities that have been set by the L.As to support them in meeting their independent learning goals.  After a short period to familiarise themselves with the tool we will have children reflecting on their needs and working on more specific skills.

Responsive Workshops

These are a snapshot of some of our responsive workshops that we have run to support children in their learning:

Telling the time (analogue)

Data analysis, interpretation and graphing

Using google slides to research and share our thinking

Compass directions
Using google forms

Maths

We have noticed that statistical thinking is required in most of our projects so we have pre tested the children and are identifying with them what their next learning steps are.  We also talked about, 'if it's not challenging then it probably isn't worth learning' and assessments can be helpful in showing us where our challenge point may be.  Over the next few weeks children will be attending target maths workshops to build up their statistical thinking knowledge and understanding.

Writing Process

As a learning common we have reflected that, at times, our writing lacks depth so we will be exploring 'what makes a good writer' and developing good writing habits. Reid and Lisa will be sharing some skill sessions to help us develop some writing process strategies and some children will be inquiring into what makes a skilled, creative writer.

Art

Last friday, with Jody some students created art pieces to remember the soldiers for ANZAC Day. Cohen created this piece and he enjoyed making, 'the silhouette the most because it was fun doing the outline and cutting it out was challenging too.'

Next week, we will have more children's voice in this blog and with time the students will be authoring and sharing their learning stories on here.  We hope you have a relaxing and safe weekend.

Reid and Lisa