My Professional Coaching Sessions/Goals

Reflection on current goals - Term 3

24th August 2016

Reflection on my current goals

Goal: To develop a more empathetic class culture. To build on the acceptance side and continue practicing this goal.

I have continued to work on developing empathy with my class. For most students I can see them being more empathetic with each other and hear them using the language we are practicing during our circles.
Our first few sessions this term we looked at the difference between accepting and thanking of an apology. These sessions were really good, and the class enjoyed the role play sessions we had to model the two different ways we could respond after the apology has been given.
It was great to see the kids were so engaged that they were then also critiquing the responses I give students when supporting them to give apology, and reminding me that I would need to change the sentence 'Do you accept their apology?' as they didn't need to accept the apologies now if they don't want to.
It was then great to see what we discussed put into practice the next day. Some of the boys in my class had a disagreement in the playground, and a duty teacher was supporting then to sort out the situation. She came and see me afterwards and said how impressed she was at how articulate the boys we with their apology. So much so that she grabbed these students to model their apology to her class and she did some lessons on how to give sincere apologies.

The last couple of circles we have had have had to focus on issues that have involved our classmates both within the class and the playground. Once we have talked through the problems and discussed the issues, the class have been really articulate in describing how empathy could have and should have been shown in these situations if we had been achieving the class goal.

It's also been interesting as one of the students who is struggling to show great relationships with their classmates has begun to notice that their classmates having only been thanking them for their apologies and made a comment about it last week. We discussed why this might be and they have come to realise that it has to do with the fact that they have had to apologise to the same classmates quite a few times in the last week and perhaps they were getting sick of her behaviour. Perhaps this may have a positive impact! Fingers crossed

Planned activities/focus within the next few weeks:
Friendship award creation
Each student has had a 'friend' chosen at random that they have had to watch over the last couple of weeks to spy them doing something good (hopefully showing empathy). They are then creating an original and special award from craft items. They will then present this award to their classmate at a special afternoon in the next few weeks.

Personal portraits
Students are creating a personal portrait of themselves with an art focus on pastels and blending/shading. These portraits will go up around the room. Students will then be encouraged to write a nice message to each of their classmates and attach these to the portrait of the person so when finished they will have 23 special messages from their classmates.

A students reflection of the happiest day of her life and the reasons why it was so happy for her.  Also student was required to think about whether this day would of been as happy if the people she shared it with weren't there.  (Lesson was on how they might help others, and how their actions impact on others.)

Students plan of their certificate

Making our certificates

Making our certificates

Making our certificates

Making our certificates

Blank version of the certificate that students will decorate

Presenting our certificates

Personal Portraits

Creating our artwork:

Goal: To allow choice for writers to choose their own genre. (top group only)

This has been going really well. Although I haven't got to the stage where I am completely happy with the amount of choice available to the top writers I am a lot happier with the way my writing sessions are going now. Firstly because we are getting a lot more writing practice in, so students are having more opportunities to achieve their personal and class goals. Also because we are spending more time talking and sharing our personal knowledge and experiences when looking at different topics. The motivators and experiences that we do/have before writing have lead to students being more motivated to write from the lowest group through to the top writers. I am slowly moving towards the top group having more freedom of choice over their writing genre. Currently this group will be part of the motivator and discussion and will then head off to start their writing. Due to the focus we currently have in class (exposition) these students have been consistently selecting this structure for their writing. My next step would be to encourage this group to choose a different way/focus/genre for them to record their writing in.

Checklist I hope to implement next with my top group to encourage them to use a wider variety of genres 

Students Self and Peer Assessment on their exposition writing assessment

Students Self and Peer Assessment on their exposition writing assessment

Goal: To implement a differentiated learning programme in spelling
This has also been going really well. My biggest focus around this was providing support for my lowest spellers to be able to spell the beginning and end sounds(blends) in words so they are making more accurate attempts at unknown words so that others can read their writing and work out the message they were trying to record. Also so they are able to use resources to help them spell these unknown words correctly. I was struggling with this as I was trying to cram in a lesson with the whole class and then trying to meet with them and it was just not working. This term I have changed how I teach the lessons with the lower group by including two sessions for my lower group to work on sounds during reading time. As a result, I have found I am feeling a lot less stressed about this goal and feel I am doing a much better job at teaching these lessons as I am not so rushed. What I would like to see now is the learning we are doing with sounds now coming through into their writing as I have seen much improvement yet. Students are still reverting back to learnt errors when writing their stories in their writing books.

Evidence of how a student now makes more accurate attempts at spelling beginning sounds

Students beginning blend test - Pretest score was 2 out of 10

Evidence of other students independent work and spelling unknown words

Students attempt at spelling 'pattern'.  Has 5 of the letters correct and the beginning sound is much more accurate than attempts a term ago would have been.

Coaching Session with Myra (Coach)

Sessions 2

7th July 2016

1 Reality

7/07/2016

To develop a more empathetic class culture.

Building on the knowledge in the circles has been awesome. Working really well for majority of the children that you were targeting. In class learning has been evidenced by children showing a lot more.

Consider looking into the response to an apology - facial expressions , tone of voice - difference between accepting and thanking for an apology…

Question cards were a really useful resource gleaned from Inyahead website.

Frustrations that creep in for me as teacher around the social skills we have practiced and then when something goes wrong these need to be revisited.

I do model empathy and have to rein myself  I make sure I do the apology if I have responded incorrectly.

To implement a differentiated learning programme in spelling.

Had a lot of success for the majority of the class - seeing what we do in spelling coming through in independent writing pieces -learners experimenting with the learning and noticing this while they are reading a text.

2X half hour sessions - high levels of engagement for learners in context with games and fun activities as well as using the modeling.

The evidence of what is being taught shows a high level of teaching skills.

Writing Goal:

Motivators has been a collaborative planning method across the syndicate - discussions arose after attending the writing session at the workshop led by Lyndon meant we were all motivated together. - building the culture of collaboration as a team.

We are also going to the Sheena Cameron Oral language - or language experience but can be an experience that can be shared.

Time wise - this has worked well and I have trusted that they have the time plan - the work on being a writing buddy that was scaffolded in term 1 has grown their ability to get on  with writing and then the teacher comes along to do the shoulder talk - which has shown success as children are able to prove that they are ready and working on their current learning goals - which was clear for their summary of learning as it had been discussed often in class- children were able to articulate this with their parents.

2 Goal

To develop a more empathetic class culture.

To implement a differentiated learning programme in spelling.

To Investigate greater choice for writers so that they have the motivation and they are able to progress the/ir writing with structures that suit their particular writing task.

7/07/2016

Keep working on the goal

To develop a more empathetic class culture. To build on the acceptance side and continue practicing this goal

To allow choice for writers to choose their own genre. (top group only)

3 Options

Goal 1:

Revisit the Stop think do manual

Revisit Restorative practices pocket book

Research community circles -

What else is out there for empathy…?

Keep using the question cards and the empathy resource with the structure for the lessons.

Goal 2:

7/7/2016

Look at the evidence of the blends test to see what the students have actually learnt.

Possibly use word power to time sound use over 10 minutes and graph success each week.

I’ve been investigating how others cater for diverse spelling levels… met with Lyn jones to cater for lower spellers.

Investigated other colleagues through quadblogging…

Investigate Spelling under scrutiny early stages for low spellers.

Use Pseudo word test could be a good starting point

I’d like to have a clear structure and routine set up so children know what to do.

7/07/2016

Trial finding time to incorporate specific for the low ones

Maybe add in whole class spelling games - orally or similar

Goal 3:

7/7/16

Start offering choice in genre selection after the motivator - start with the top group to see how that works.

Scaffold them… with models around them using the checklist of all genre styles and the writing matrices to support their choice making and the skill development and maintenance.

Reflection on Coaching Session Number 2

June 2016

I recently had the opportunity to meet with the three teachers who I am supporting through the coaching process to have our 2nd catch up session.

Two of the teachers that I have been working with were really reflective and were really open to share.  One of my colleagues is feeling that she is close to mastering her focus goal, the other has made great progress with her goal.  She has refined and changed things based on things she has tried.  Her ideas even inspired me to try a couple of things in my room.  I struggled with the third of the teachers who I am working with.  She hasn’t quite got her head around the coaching process and isn’t as receptive to reflect on her own practice.  She is still at the stage where she is needing observations and to be told what she is doing well and what her next steps need to be, as in an appraisal process which we have done in previous years.  I found our discussion together quite difficult as I hadn’t pre planned questions to support me if this situation arose.  In the end, I discussed with her the things that I had noticed from my observation and she agreed and decided that these areas needed work and would be her next steps.  In discussion with Myra afterwards she reminded me that questions along the lines of “I noticed . . . . . , can you tell me more about that” and “This was said . . . . . .  what can you tell me about that?”  can be helpful in this situation.  For my next set of coaching sessions I will make sure I have some of these questions pre-planned so that the conversations don’t become stilted and have me have to become in defense mode.  I may speak to Myra about this more - and perhaps this could become a goal of mine for future coaching sessions.

Reflection on my Current Goals:

May 2016

• To develop a more empathetic class culture

I have begun this with earnest this term.  I begun by doing some readings online and research into how other teachers have taught lessons to grow empathy with their classes.

One article that I read and felt a connect to is below:

I enjoyed reading over this as it reaffirmed a lot of the things that I thought, and some of the things that I already do.  It highlighted how important it is to lead by example as the teacher.  I also wholeheartedly agree with her comments about children showing gratitude and saying 'Thank you'.

Creating Empathy in the Classroom Dr Karyn Gordon: Creating Empathy and Gratitude in the Classroom by Martha Beach

• Gordon’s first tip is called Fill Their Emotional Bucket. “When children get the sense that their parent, teacher or coach have more empathy for them, that’s the best form of teaching,” Gordon says.
• Gordon’s second tip is called Seek to Understand. Empathy is about trying to see something from another person’s perspective and trying to feel what they feel. “When I’m coaching, I will try to jump in and see things from their perspective,” Gordon says. “ ‘Can you help me understand how you see this?’
• Although Gordon’s third tip, Ask Don’t Tell, is very important to keep in mind when trying to understand a child’s feelings. Gordon stresses that we never know for sure what the other person feels. “It’s really important that we ask how they feel and don’t tell them how they feel,” she says. “It’s really irritating for children when they’re told how they feel.” Avoiding statements like ‘I know how you feel’ and replacing them with ‘I imagine that you feel this way, am I right?’ can make a world of difference.
• A good exercise in understanding empathy is Gordon’s fourth tip, Switch Roles. “It’s a great teaching method,” Gordon says. Teachers divide their class into two groups and create a conflict situation that must be resolved. Each group plays a different role, and after 10 or 15 minutes of discussion, the groups must switch roles and put themselves in the opposite group’s shoes.
• Gordon’s fifth tip is about gratitude, ‘Make Thank You’ Part of Your Culture.’ Every country has a culture and every classroom has a culture, a common attitude and an understood way of doing things. Gordon points out that it’s very important to recognize and help a positive culture in the classroom. “Gratitude is very connected to empathy,” says Gordon. “Really make sure your class room is a thank-you class room.
• Ultimately, creating empathy comes down to leading children by example. “We have to model what we want them to do,” Gordon says

Another place I looked into for resources and ideas was the 'In ya head' site http://www.inyahead.com/. This website was introduced to use by Marg Thorsborne, and is a place that sells a great deal of worthwhile material to do with circle time and building strong class cultures.

I wanted to have a few different resources to be able to use as a starting point for me to draw from so I purchased a few different to study and look over during the term break to help support me as I got started. These were an empathy poster to help build a display in our room on our team 14 board.

I also purchased the heart masters empathy book, which although is aimed at a year 3/4 level is still applicable to my class who are just starting out. The authors have identified the key elements that help young people to develop emphatic feelings and behaviour. It is written for middle to upper level primary school-aged children and has a set of experiential activities, worksheets and reflective questions that encourage young people to explore different elements of emphatic behaviour.   The book includes sessions about noticing, understanding, acting, respecting, feeling, bonding, helping, sharing and comforting. 

Walking in other shoes - empathy and deep understanding for middle to senior primary students was another resource that I have found in my research of resources to get me started.  This book contains lessons which have an emphasis on building emotional awareness, as well as social confidence and competence. Each session is designed to introduce a critical skill, and the habit building activities are designed to enhance skills beyond the classroom.  This resource will be a perfect follow on to the heart masters book when I feel the class is ready to move onto something more challenging.

We started looking at empathy as our class goal at the start of the term and it is going well.  We spent a lot of time defining what this word means and what it looks like at school.  We also discussed that empathy isn't just about showing concern when someone has hurt themselves, but also seeing some is angry and knowing how to react to support that person, or celebrating when someone has had success.  We have also talked a lot about the emotions we feel at school, what someone looks like if they feel these emotions and where in the body we feel these emotions.  Have a look below at our people outlines and see where we have put the different emotions we feel at school and the colour we have used to represent these emotions.  Do you agree?

• To implement a differentiated learning programme in spelling.

Spelling has always been something that I have struggled with, and as such am not as confident in teaching it. In previous years i have run whole class sessions following Joy Allcock's Spelling Under Scrutiny programme, and i've tried tic tak toe boards using our weekly spelling words. But i knew for this year this just won't work as I have such a wide range of spelling levels - ranging from below 6 years through to above 13 years spelling age. I had to try something different.

So before the end of the holidays I got the students to complete the blends test, the pseudonym test and the GAP anaylis test. This was so I could group them according to their spelling gap knowledge and also see what areas were lacking and needed teaching.

After I had grouped them and recorded the needs I felt each group had, I spent time looking over what other people do for their spelling programme and also had a chat to Lyn Jones when she was in at the end of term 1 as she had done an inquiry into spelling previously to get ideas on how to create a well run and successful in terms of raised levels spelling programme.

One website that helped me emensly as a starting point for helping my lowest group who are really struggling with blend sounds and how to spell them is this one:

http://www.secondstorywindow.net/home/2013/07/2nd-grade-chunk-spelling.html

I also looked into ideas for my top spellings and activities they could do to extend thier spelling levels indepednantly rather than going over spelling rules they already know and use all the time. I have created some indpendant tasks that this group complete while the rest of the class are working on the spelling focus. This group are self -regualted and check in with each other to ensure they are on track. We then meet together once a week to mark and discuss where they are up to.

My only struggling now is time. With our current timetable - I can only fit two spelling sessions in a week for 30 minutes after maths on a Tuesday and Thursday. By the time we start it is usually 10.05am and with 5 minutes for pack up at the end, we really ony have 20 minutes. With a 10 minute focus for the whole class, that really only gives me 10 minutes with a group afterwards and am finding it a real struggle to do some great teaching with these learners who really need to extra support with their spelling.

• To Investigate greater choice for writers so that they have the motivation and they are able to progress their writing with structures that suit their particular writing task

I have started on this goal, although probably haven't made as much progress as I would of liked at this stage of the term. So far, I am still working as a whole class with me controlling what part of the writing process we are up to while the kids are learning the new routines. I have set up the board with the the writing cycle so kids can self monitor where they are going next once they have complete drafting etc. I try to refer this each writing session so kids can see where they are up to on the cycle so that if they are working independently they can follow where to go next.

Originally I spent time before we started writing doing some class discussions before this, but I have seen how powerful spending a good chunk of time discussing can be for writing particularly spending time asking those "i'm wondering . . . ." questions. I also found the phrase "Do you know that or do you think that" when students are sharing has been a great way to get students reflecting on what they will include in the planning stage.

For our last writing piece we used a clip about the T-Rex dinosaur as motivation, and all the kids wrote a report. This was the first time some students had completed the writing cycle and so were then able to have some 'free choice' with their writing. They used the same theme - dinosaurs. Most of the students wrote a narrative text involving dinosaurs, but one student recounted about a time he saw a dinosaur bone at the Auckland Museum. Choosing a dinosaur them was a good one to hook the boys into writing, but possibly a hard one for a follow up piece of writing.

The things i'm pondering at the moment:
How to get through a piece of writing more quickly. Lynden did a new focus each week - currently this is impossible for my lower ability students - they would never get through the whole cycle in one week - So I may need to contact him and see he manages this.

How Lynden is able to meet with other students when you have such low ability writers. He mentioned that he was able to run workshops with students who were focused on the same goal. I'm finding this difficult to do as my lower ability writers are hard to motivate and will only write independently for 5 minutes before becoming unfocused.

Coaching Session Term 1

1 April 2016, Coach: Myra Paton

GROW Coaching

1 Reality

Reflected on the spread of the learners in my class… how much energy we have to put into those lower learners?

Spelling in my class is so low and my own spelling is also really low….

Sound knowledge is really low. I have 4 groups -

Socially adept students in the past has changed there are less children who

I want them to be kinder to each other….

What are the core skills that students need to be taught?

Empathy

Kindness

Initiative

Accepting other people’s ideas

Taking turns

We use warm fuzzy buddies…. How are we connecting it to how we feel through the whole process...

Writing - choice of recording what prior knowledge… start with the

Currently it is really about me letting go - I need to see how it will work before I can let go of the control.

2 Goal

To develop a more empathetic class culture.

To implement a differentiated learning programme in spelling.

To Investigate greater choice for writers so that they have the motivation and they are able to progress their writing with structures that suit their particular writing task.

3 Options

Goal 1:

Revisit the Stop think do manual

Revisit Restorative practices pocket book

Research community circles -

What else is out there for empathy…?

Goal 2:

I’ve been investigating how others cater for diverse spelling levels… met with Lyn jones to cater for lower spellers.

Investigated other colleagues through quad blogging…

Investigate Spelling under scrutiny early stages for low spellers.

Use Pseudo word test could be a good starting point

I’d like to have a clear structure and routine set up so children know what to do.

Goal 3:

Visit Lynden Cook to explore how he develops learner agency and focus on greater student ownership and choice.

How do I structure my (teacher) time…?

How do I structure the learner time?

4 Way Forward

Goal 1:

Find successful strategies for teaching empathy…  

Queries from Marg Thorsborne...

Goal 2:

Setting up a structure (tic tac toe) so that all children know what to do during the spelling time.

Goal 3:

Trial student choice in writing with just the top writing group over the next 2 weeks (3 children)

NZ Teachers Council Workshops

Reflection on the Webinar

https://vimeo.com/65356501

Three parts to the video:

• ·        Culture of self-responsibility
• ·        Evaluative capability
• ·        Performance management – performance growth

Reflective questions – help decide whether the evidence is a good piece of evidence to prove that that criteria

Culture of responsibility:

Joint responsibility of the teacher and the professional leader.

They need to know:

• ·        What effective teaching looks like
• ·        Actively gather and compile evidence
• ·        Actively seek critiques of their evidence to determine if any gaps can be seen in their practice

Effective teaching is co-constructing agreed sources to be used – teachers need to be involved in any changes we need to make to our appraisal system

Evaluative capabilities

What does ‘good’ practice look like?

A possible appraisal timeline:

NZ Teachers Council Workshops

19 May 2015

How can we get a staff to effectively provide evidence for the RTC without it being seen as ‘extra work’ and it being a befit for their teaching practise?

Tataiako – Research into this

What are the key components of an effective appraisal?

·         Shared conversations

·         Evidence of practise long term

·         Ownership of accomplishments (teachers)

·         Honest and evidence based

·         Trust model – relationships

·         Choice of presentation of evidence

·         Future focus goals

·         Linked to PD

·         Helps improve student achievement

·         Manageable

·         Extending current professional knowledge and understand

·         Who is the appraisal for?

·         Inquiry based

My goal:

By the end of this project I will have a clearer understanding of how to link evidence to the RTC so that I can support my team to do the same so they can feel more confident about completing this year’s appraisal.

Dual purposes of appraisal

How can we grow our team?

Professional growth:

Goal setting, inquiry into practise, career pathways

Accountability:

Renewal of practising, certificate, attestation

Underpinned by:

Self and joint responsibility and evaluative capability

Purpose and audience for Evidence:

Me:  My practise and the impact on my learners

My professional leader:  As a part of my appraisal

Teachers Council: Renewal of practicing certificate

Building a platform of trust at Pomaria School

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Media-gallery/School-curriculum/Building-a-platform-of-trust

Coaching and mentoring at Pomaria School

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Media-gallery/School-curriculum/Coaching-and-mentoring

Laying the foundations for coaching and mentoring

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Media-gallery/Effective-pedagogy/Laying-the-foundations-for-coaching-and-mentoring