Talented Young Writers' Workshop

What a privilege it is to be part of the Canterbury Literacy Association and the amazing opportunities they provide for education in Canterbury.

As a committee member, I got to spend the day at the Talented Young Illustrators' Workshop at Ferrymead. This day is designed as an opportunity for schools to put forward students with special skills and a special interest in illustrating. The two students that attended from my school were very excited about the day - and it exceeded their expectations.

I felt the same way!

The day started with Gavin Bishop who taught us all about understanding just what goes into a picture book. It's like an iceburg - most of the work is behind the scenes. Picture books have restrictions that novels don't and it takes a lot of thought to overcome those.

It turns out that a picture book has 32 pages all because of money! 32 pages fit on piece of paper. End papers do not count as the 32 pages but are part of the binding of a hard cover book. Page 1 and 32 are the only 'single' pages in a book, and the rest are 'double-page spreads'.

Illustrations begin with a story board, where double pages are designed together to compliment each other. The storyboard plans everything - including covers and titles. Consideration has to be given most importantly to the words - you don't want them crowded out by the illustrations. The illustrations for Gavin's Book 'Rat's' took six months. A book can take over a year from go to whoa - sometimes several years.

Pictures are so important to these stories. They fill out the story and sometimes introduce a new sub-story that you may not even notice the first time you read it. Take for example the page of rats that reads, "They invaded her bath." How many words would you need to describe that picture? 

Not only do you need to read the words - but also read the pictures. 

The students finished this workshop with the challenge to create an opening image for the nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence.'


I also really enjoyed listening to David Elliot - especially about his time working as a Zoo gatekeeper and living at the zoo - using that as inspiration for his art. He started making plasticine animals and began drawing them the way he made them - start with blobs then pinch, squeeze, pinch - add bits on and take bits off until you have a finished product.

David talked about using quiet lines to start the basic shape of your drawing and getting louder as you add the detail on each layer.

Most importantly her talked about not being afraid to make mistakes. Just make mistakes and think 'how can I make my mistake better?' A drawing is about half what you want it to be and half what it tells you it wants to be.

He also talked that he also uses this technique for writing. Start with an outline and re-write and mould it.



Our last workshop was with Stuart Hale, who talked us through taking amazing photos with an iPad. Rule one - turn your grid-lines on. Rule two - follow the rule of thirds rule. We had great fun taking photos and hunting for the Alphabet in nature!

Modern Learning Spaces v Flexible Learning Spaces

I love that moment when you realise your thinking has been challenged and, at the time - you didn't even recognise it. All of a sudden the penny drops and the fog clears.

A new colleague and leader said to me "So you have an interest in Modern Learning Environments." "Yeeeeeeah............ yip...........yip," I nodded and the conversation continued forming many question marks on my own philosophy. As I reflect on that now, I realise that my interest is not necessarily just on MLE but more about Flexible Learning Space.

I should note, that I tend to have the impression that the current view of a MLE to be an Open Learning Space. Whereas, a FLS is more about using or adapting a space you have to suit different situations.


Chris Bradbeer: Learning spaces from EDtalks on Vimeo.


I currently work in an 'old fashioned' single cell classroom with poor ventilation, poor acoustics and it's not all that attractive. I'm not complaining - it's workable, and we can't all have bright, shiny and new. I have some experience working in very collaborative and a not-so-collaborative school environment, and at my first school we used to do a class interchange for maths.

Within my single cell classroom, I use some Modern Learning strategies. E.g. Must-dos, Can-dos; no named desks; a variety of work surfaces such as standing desks, collaborative tables, cushions, partitioned areas etc.; opt-in workshops and many others. Some have worked better than others depending on the students in the class.

I actually really like working in my own class. I like that I know all my children personally and academically in all areas. I like that my timetable can be flexible enough to take advantage of teachable moments, without having to worry about any other teachers timetable. I like that the design accommodates a smaller number of people so it feels homely and the children have some ownership. I like that I know all of my students can achieve using the strategies WE (it's not all about me!) have put into place.

Aside from thinking noise and distraction would become a big factor not only for me personally, but also for the students, what would concern me in a shared teaching space is that when one teacher is ready to move from reading to writing, then that is when a lesson has to stop. It would concern me that although a student may be in my 'home-group' I may only see them during writing on a particular day. It would concern me that a student may get lost in a space and not feel that they have any one place that they feel truly comfortable in. It would concern me that some students would not handle the transitions and the lack of structure and possibly accountability.

I say that because of a student I know who demonstrates strong traits of autism. They came to my single-cell classroom (where at the beginning of the year, I was running a more rigid structure and slowly broke it down) from a MLE. This student was expected to cause some disruption within the classroom, which they did for a little while. With some support, high expectation and encouragement this student soon settled and I believe it largely had something to do with a tighter community-feel within the smaller space. In this case, ML Strategies within a single-cell classroom was the best learning experience for this student.

In a large, shared MLE I can see huge learning and development potential for myself, as all teachers that you work with have strengths and strategies. But, on the other hand, if you didn't share a philosophy it's going to make things difficult. It would work in the favour of the children, because as long as the school was big enough, and the children continued to move through, then they would have more exposure to a wider range of skills and strengths. There are also say 2-3 teachers who are putting their heads together for planning, delivery and assessment (In particular OTJs) of curriculum.

As happy as I am in my current classroom, I would like my students to have more opportunity to engage in more interactive learning activities with others. I would like our single-cell classrooms to have a joined breakout space/s and bi-fold doors so that the two classrooms can come together as one.


Anne Kenneally: Creating learning spaces from EDtalks on Vimeo.

A successful classroom is one where ALL students are engaged and ALL students are learning.

What experience do you have? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Integrating new students

Integrating new students during the year is always an interesting experience.

Being in a smaller school, the children we have in each year group are usually 'stuck' with each other from class to class. They develop firm relationships with each other, know each others gifts and quirks, and are accepting of each other.

The students and their new teacher at the beginning of each year develops routines, expectations and values - with the teacher reinforcing and rewarding target behaviours. There is an essential understanding that is developed in the relationship of the student and a teacher.

Then a new student arrives. It's a good opportunity to observe your 'old' students - their interactions and ability to share knowledge, guidance and themselves.

Usually it goes well. The old students are keen to form new friendships (sometimes to the point where the new feels over whelmed for a little while) and the new one is happy to accept. After all it's scary to start a new school and developing friendships helps them to feel good about themselves and comfortable in their new environment. Sometimes there's a little settling period as they get used to new routines and expectations but usually they find their way pretty quickly.

However, what happens when that new one isn't happy to accept new friendships, routines and expectations? They are headstrong and push the boundaries, not only of the class, but the school wide expectations. You want to be positive - you ARE positive as much as possible, but you feel that you have to constantly be on top of them to get any productivity out of them, that they are disrespectful and disruptive to other students. The rest of children feel frustrated, 'gob-smacked', and a little threatened.

The journey only begins there. Rapport, and really knowing that child is going to be key. What else has worked for you?

Winter clean-out

The staffroom discussion on Thursday was about the amount of stuff that a teacher collects.The teachers were describing their various storage 'spaces' and other staff members, who are no longer full time classroom teachers, and teacher aides both said they had dedicated space to resources at their homes - one even had a whole side of their garage. 

Four years into teaching and I would say I've collected a fair amount of 'stuff'. The first two years of teaching was the time that MOST gathering happened. I was just starting my career as my next door neighbor was heading in a slightly different course. Fortunately, following that, I moved cities, giving me a chance for a haul out. I did get rid of a lot. I stored a little bit at my parents house and told them it would be temporary (it's still there - they remind me of that often and would like it gone!). They helped me move and we took two car loads - one full of house stuff, one full of school stuff. Now, two years on, I've collected a bit more.

I do not keep anything at home because of my living situation, so it's all at school. After our staffroom discussion, I thought about some of the boxes I've never opened and I've decided to have a clean out. Of EVERYTHING. I'm an extremely organised person so everything is already in 'uses' with subject areas. My aim is to 'digitise' as much as possible and get rid of the paper!

Wish me luck!

A busy year! Time to get back into blogging....

Wow! Term three due to start already. Time has really flown this year and I've had so many amazing opportunities thrown at me - it's been remarkable.


But before I go into all my reflection (catching up in one big long go), I think it is necessary to reflect upon the goals I set myself at the beginning of the year.


Goals:
1 Get Place Value teaching and assessing under tighter scrutinyAssessment has definitely improved and with that comes more awareness of needs. I have managed to focus more explicit teaching in this area - with noticeable results for some students.

2 Focus more on explicit teaching of reading strategies.Still an area in progress according to the classes end of term reflection. Students could confidently tell me what they had learned in writing and maths but found reading much more difficult. Time to pull out the modelling book more frequently!

3 Maintain and continue developing on-line collaboration and connections
Yes and no - along with blogging, Twitter has taken a back seat as far as contributing goes. I need to keep working on this. I did make it to Educamp Dunners but unfortunately not to my own hometown Educamp! I can only hope the opportunity comes up later in the year again.

4 Improve recording and collation of summative data
Happening! (Yay!) And across all curriculum areas.

5 Be nominated and successful in the position of staff representative on the Board
Done.

6 If possible, get a management unit - or at least run my responsibilities like I deserve it!
Done.

7 Jog 5km (I'm realistic, not Superwoman)
I WAS getting there, and then winter and reports happened and I discovered it's not fun to run in the dark.

8 >10.2.68 (Yes, this is cryptic...)
Needs attention.

9 Take up a new evening course or activityDone - and I'm thoroughly enjoying learning and creating in my acrylic and mixed media class.

10 Chill out and take more time for myself
Getting there. Some times are better than others.



Term three looks to bring better teaching practice within the classroom, especially in the areas of literacy.


Early in the year I identified that many of my students needed help with listening to sounds to aid their spelling and also, for many, their decoding. Having done my degree in linguistics I had a fair idea that it was their phonological awareness that was letting them down and so I needed to put into place a phonics programme. Most of the teachers within the school have attended Yolanda Soryl workshops and so my request to attend one myself was happily received. Yolanda still teaches (now as reading recovery), as well as runs her workshops and produces her fantastic resources. That meant a bit of a wait for one of her extremely popular workshops - so I spent some of my release time observing and reading up on how to implement the lessons. From there, I was able to develop my own basic programme and now that I've had the training I can refine my lessons further. I've also decided to timetable in short periods during the week to focus purely on listening to sounds (phonological awareness).

I felt for many of my students that there needs were very basic and were 'gaps' that needed consolidating. Not having experience myself in the junior area of the school, I had to grapple for a little bit, wondering the most efficient and beneficial way of introducing these. It was great timing that Jill Eggleton was to be presenting 'Lighting the Literacy Fire' - with a focus on Reading. She covered some of what I knew - oral language, keep it simple, embedding comprehension, and focusing on vocabulary - but gave practical and effective ways of delivering all of this each day. For me, it was one simple book. To have a shared book, everyday, without fail and a clear, consistent plan of what gets covered each day. Every week since that workshop I have had a shared book or poem and it's so obvious now the benefits it has had. The children are transferring the learning to their guided reading groups and their writing, AND verbalising what they are doing and how they know to do it!!! 

"Reading is making sense. Not sounds." 

--Jill Eggleton--

I loved that Jill Eggleton was pro banning worksheets, however, I did question where eLearning and future focused learning comes into her model. I was taken back to the iPads in Literacy presentation by Stuart Hale, that was put on by the Canterbury Literacy Society earlier in the year. One of the first things he encouraged was for the teacher to engage with the technology them self. If you become a user, you become a pusher. He believes (as do I) that schools can not be the last place to know the future. He spoke of many apps and ways to use iPads for literature based activities (Wordbook, Piccollage, Stripdesigner, Lifecards, Puppetpals, Book Creator, Tinytap, Amazon). He emphasised though, that devices are designed to be personal - so ultimately schools should be heading towards BYOD. And I know that many are. In line with the e-learning planning framework, my take-a-way was that use of iPads and devices should be moving away from the emerging, engaging stage and towards the extending and empowering. That means allowing students to use higher-order thinking to be creative (use creativity apps) with their devices.

All of this learning was topped off, with an amazing opportunity to attend the New Zealand Literacy Association annual conference (thanks to both the Auckland and Canterbury Literacy Associations for their sponsorship.) The best part of attending a conference such as this is being with like-minded people and, this time, the wealth of knowledge and experience from both the presenters and the attendees in the room. 

The plenary highlight, for me, was Steven Layne. He spoke of sparking a flame for reading - and fanning it. He talked about fires within the classroom.

• The Bonfire - controlled and has to be prepared prior, needing the right tools, materials and place.
• The Flash fire - very sudden and occurs when two combustible materials come together (certain child + certain book).
• The Wild fire - uncontrolled, unexpected and often happens by accident.

He finished by telling us a story about a child he had taught early in his career who had said to him "You guys have made all the decisions before we even show up, you don't care what we're interested in." Steven changed his approach because of this statement, and it made me think about my approach. In general, I think in New Zealand we are pretty flexible and well resourced to be able to do this. My personality tends to usually fit the 'bonfire' profile. I'm a planner and I need to know the direction I'm going. I have to ask myself, do I allow enough room for change within my plans once I get to know my children?

My workshop highlight was Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey introducing their new book - The Writing Book. They spoke about children having a writers tool box - the skills and knowledge. The spoke of the importance of generating ideas and providing support with this, QuickWrites, their burger model, showing children how to plan, QuickStops, responding to writing and improving writing (may only be one or two things). Children should know what they're learning, be able to find examples in their own writing, improve their own writing, talk about their successes and next steps and feel like an author by sharing their writing. From listening to Sheena and Louise and referring to their book, there are a lot of things I do well. My next steps with writing is to provide more opportunities for my students to feel like authors. I also think that sometimes I'm a little too hard on my writers and could do with scaffolding some of them a little more with their structure and editing.

So, it's a continuing literacy journey. I'm also lucky within this first half of the year to have gained my first aid certificate, have a first year student teacher (to return again later in the year), be elected to the BOT and to attend a Sport Start course provided by Sport Canterbury to implement their programme into our school/syndicate. Sport Start is focused around teaching students strategies and generic skills instead of specific games and units such as 'small balls'. 

I hope that the remainder of the year is as enlightening as the first half. I look forward to the term ahead - being only nine weeks, I'm sure it will fly by!

Questioning

Today the class were desperate to share their Easter weekend news with me and the entire class instead of in their buzz groups. I thought it was a great opportunity to take a snapshot of their speaking and also their questioning.

I am desperate to expand childrens thinking and questioning skills and we have begun some work on this - not getting very far up until swimming finished. So far, we have really only just touched the surface, discussing briefly: what questions are, why we need/use them, what question words can we use and we've started gathering some exemplar questions using the 3-2-1 method (What would you ask Maui/Easter Bunny?).

My results have confirmed the need to have a focus in this area. Of the 60 questions asked...

• 20 were yes/no
• 30 were one word/closed questions
• 10 were open questions

The most popular question words were did/do/does (11), how (11), what (10) and was (8).


12 questions were asked by one student and 5 each from another 2 students.


Where to?

• Integrate questioning into everything!!!!
• Discuss questioning types, probing for extra information
• Encourage thinking and give plenty of opportunites for students

My classroom 2013

This year, I have decided to take a small step backward (at least to start with) and give each student their own desk. I have done this for a couple of reasons. In their desk they will keep their pencil case, sunhat and any other personal belongings. Their books, as you will see from the photos, will be kept together. They will still have some freedom to roam at times, however, my intention is to break them slowly into Flexible Spaces after first learning about expectations and routines, and building the skills they need to work effectively as individuals and teams.

I have set my room up quite differently this year - still placing an emphasis on having a shared space for the whole class, an 'empty' table space for group work (desk groups can also be used), and also pockets for purpose - such as an office where the computers are, a maths area, a literacy area and a creative design (art) area. It will be interesting to see how the layout works and how the children respond to it.

Take a look at the pics,

Classroom January 2013 on PhotoPeach