Cath's 2015 Teacher Inquiry

As Reading was our PD focus for 2015, my Inquiry involved three target children in Reading.  To see what I have done click on the link below:
Cath's Inquiry 2015 

Team One 2015 Inquiry
As a team we went over our inquiries for 2015.  We discussed what we did and what impact it had on the children.  We put it on a google docs.  Click on the link below to see a summary of our inquiries.

Team One Inquiry Information

Visit to Longworth Forest School

Longworth Forest is situated on a 1.6 hectare lifestyle block boasting a forest of 250 trees. It is run by Linda Cheer, a teacher with 30 years teaching experience, who believes in play based learning. Three days a week, a group of keen learners, clad in gumboots, discover, explore and play in The Forest. Assisted Discovery Learning is part of daily life. The school is limited to 6 children who are 5 or 6 years old.  You can read about her school at Longworth Forest Weekly blog and her personal journey at Linda's Journey

See also the article in the latest gazette  Education Through Play 

For me I can see benefits in play based learning although the Longworth School is not practical for us as there are only 6 children.  We can however make more use of our "forest" up on top field.  I definitely think that children coming from ECE need to have more play in their day.  At South we are now running discovery days  fortnightly which is more often than in the past.  We have changed the format of these so they are not as organised as they used to be, allowing the children to be self managing. These mornings certainly focus on the key competencies.   

Demonstration Reading Lesson

As part of our reading PD with Janine Remnant we were asked for a volunteer to do a lesson in front of the other four teachers in our team.  I volunteered to take the lesson for the others to observe and then discuss. Click on the link to see the lesson plan and feedback from Janine Remnant, Professional Learning Facilitator |Supporting a Shift in Learning, Massey University

Cath's Lesson Plan and Feedback

Maths PD and Planning

At our staff meeting today we had PD on what we will do for our below children.  First of all we brainstormed all the activities that we could incorporate into our classroom programmes to help these children. We looked at effective pedagogy and chose three possible areas of focus.  As a team we decided on one to focus on - this was to be specific with our goals and relate these to everyday life. Here is our plan.

Incredible Years For Teachers

This year the New entrant teacher and myself are attending the Incredible Years for Teachers Programme which aims to support teachers to confidently manage the challenging behaviours some children exhibit in the classroom environment and to increase children’s social, emotional and academic skills. Mary Chudleigh is my group leader for the duration of the course and has visited me regularly.  

Teacher Inquiry

My Teacher Inquiry started as Maths for two boys but in Early March I found  that  a group of my boys were really struggling in Literacy and Maths so my focus changed  while still incorporating what I had learnt/instigated through Maths. During term 2 I saw the need to focus on the children’s behaviour as I felt it was necessary to focus on this so learning could occur so behaviour became another real focus.  This year I have been reflecting more than ever because of the nature of my class which has 15 boys and only 4 girls( 3 now).  Hence I decided to rename my inquiry as Motivating Students To Learn so as to encompass all  of the above areas .
To see my full Teacher Inquiry go to Cath's Teacher Inquiry 2014