Reflections.....

Wow. Again ages since ive been on here. Frustrating because I have this, interlead, my own written diary, facebook, twitter and youtube. I tend to just write pd in my journal and on my pretty new phone now..  and reserve interlead for reflections. I should be using this too tho! Online presence and all and not clogging up others newsfeeds with my teaching comments!!

So... what I wanted to talk about tonight was thw fact that during, before and definitely after my talk with Phil, my mentor at my new school, I feel a definite shift in my thinking about how Im reaching. Particularly with my Y11 class.

This is partly due to the fact that ive now taught this same year and assessments twice so Im not too worried about it from an assessment level, but have been rethjnking how I'm teaching V for Vendetta. Now alot of this is to do with the fact that I am trying to stick with the year planner and failing miserably... and also because Im trying to revamp my resources. The ones I had from my first real year of teaching just have not been cutting it. And like I said to Phil,I feel like instead of giving everything they should learn, am giving them the things that they actually *need*! So... for example, deeper analysis of V and Evey and minor analysis of the minor characters.

Plus... doing my big spiels about the historical relevance and the thematic awareness of the film, I hope has begun to deepen their thinking. Next well be doing themes/symbols and then key events coinciding with character development. And doing techniques so that when we watch bits and pieces, we'll be able to write full paragraphs with the required info and answered both parts of the question.

What Im finding difficult is not having as many non-contacts. Plus... taking on so many other things.. tho Phil says its a good thing because its character building and its good to be passionate.

Showed him a few tricks on the phone too. Just wish we had an enabling devices policy so that I wouldnt get told off for what were doing in class. Maries advice was good too.

Am absolutely adoring teaching my y10 class. They get spoken word poetry easy as and can do mapit. Loving being in my own class at the moment too. Feel like I ca  be me properly. Alot of how I teach in my class cant be done in someone elses I reckon.

Letting my y9s loose on the windows today was an experiment in itself but they did really well! And even wrote their work down quietly in their books. Will do mapit with them again tomorrow to fully cement what weve done.

Gothic genre needs a rethink... short story wise...

Y13 is going well. Just need to get onto the themes and symbols. And then teach formal lang again.

Loving taking the breakfast club in the mornings! Its so refreshing seeing kids turn up and have a breakfast, or a milo at the very least.

PI dancing is going well as well. Tokelauan song is beèeeautiful!!

Rotaract is chugging along. Interact is getting there.

Miss doing reo maori!!

Kowhai assembly is good too. Happy today.
Keeping on track of students is hard. Fivd classes now not so many non contacts.

Police fine. And need to pay teaching reg.

Tired!

Registration Time!!

Wow. Two full years of teaching - plus about a term and a bit... do I feel like a real teacher? Sometimes.

Does the evidence box say I am? I suppose so. But despite it being full to the brim of evidence filling the 12 Criteria - I know that this reflection should continue to be ongoing.

I have all the papers signed off - now to just pay for the registration itself. Good luck me!

Interlead Reflections

Link: https://appraisals.interlead.co.nz/journalreflections/allReflections

Interlead Reflections - 9/12/13

 A few things:

My Inquiry on How to Involve Quiet Students in Class Discussions

I suppose this year I've tried to do whole class, and then broke it up into small groups, and then one on one. That seems to have helped. Though I know the kids that are quiet seem to be the ones that are generally more reflective and intuitive. Their writing is often deep and show another level of perspective that might not come through even when speaking one on one. Some people just don't like speaking. And that's okay!!

So perhaps re-introducing the question box?

Still stoked with heights.

Happy with the end of the year and a bit frustrated with a few niggly problems with the reports... some people not finishing their reports properly so that there were blanks and no comments. Mostly okay now but yup.

Would really like Heights to be more e-copy rather than paper copy. More email rather than putting multiple copies of things in my pigeonhole... that I ultimately lose because I suck at paper organising... but am amazing at e-organising. 

My goals at Heights:

1) Incorporate Epic Voices Singing Group in more depth and make it more accessible - do away with auditions?

2) Introduce Rock and Water

3) Join Interact and become more involved with charity work and community work in school (Being in Rotaract will help this)

4) Help more people become aware of Interact and Duke of Ed and how amazing these groups are (so that it's not only a certain group of kids - or a particular perception of it?)

5) Devices Policy

6) Teach Social Studies and History as well as English :)

7) Get involved with PB4L

8) Get Registration and evidence sorted

9) Be organised and teach well!

10) Meet my HGT kids whanau

11) Teach in Ako

12) Save money and pay off bills

13) Become a Heights institution? 

14) Organise the English T Drive

15) Help build up the Media department

16) Get involved with Waka Ama

17) Take the PI kids to Pasifika and Polyfest (and make them sing rather than dance to a cd)

18) Help make the library cooler (book reviews, book club, posters, couches?)

19) Get COWS for English... or a new department built or... a computer suite just for English - OR have the wireless strong enough the kids can use their own devices with the input of our Devices Policy!

20) Create an online database for our English books 

21) Help organise our moderation and coversheet/marking processes so that we're all using the same (esp Junior schedules and senior moderation meetings)

22) Sort out a Whanau/Teacher Meetup Picnic day for Kowhai/my HTG?

23) Find out whether there is a need for a more inclusive ESOL class rather than just for foreign fee-paying students

24) Keep making goals! :)

Personal goals this relates to: To involve quiet students in class discussions, To have work marked in at least a week turnaround, To do more relevant Professional Development and Professional Learning for both English and History

Criteria this relates to: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning, Conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme., Ako - Taking responsibility for their own learning and that of Māori learners.

Catchup

Something to check out later :)

http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/top-ten-practices-for-principles-to-promote-literacy-in-school/


It's been ages since I was on here. Things are going fabulously here at Heights. :) Happy!

Vlogging.... A Whole New World

Wow. How come it's taken me THIS long to do a real Vlog? I've been blogging since... jeez since I was 13? On livejournal. I shared... I overshared and now at 25 I'm beginning to understand my Dad's comment last year about my FB posts and how one comment -  "Jeez Alex, you're 25" changed my entire mindset about how I share stuff.

Despite it not looking like I've stepped back from my online presence... I know I have. The stuff I post now are meant to be interesting, funny, entertaining and also help keep my friends and whanau updated. This online presence of mine is well old. I've been using the internet/computers since I was eight. I began using Encarta and played that Encarta game endlessly. Then came Hotmail and Neopets and online chatting.  I was hooked.

Soon came Youtube with those terrible old videos and the Harry Potter Fanfiction on YahooGroups obsession where I fell madly in love with ALTU stories.

And then Myspace where I could listen to amazing music and like my favourite bands and singers and show off my singing skills. And then came Bebo once I'd grown out of dodgy Myspace. I used Bebo during high school and the first year of uni. And then I left Bebo behind when I realised that Facebook was for cool kids who were all at Uni/College and felt a strong sense of community. Until the rest of the world joined FB and I was angry for a while until I realised how even more amazing this was. I could talk to my Dad and siblings who'd just come back into my life and 'friend' them too.

And then Youtube grew steadily bigger as did Trademe. And Facebook took up sooo much of my time because... not only is it a great study tool (procrastination tool?) it's also the best way to keep in touch with people....or be annoyed and severely affected by people :s

So... after many years and one failed attempt at filming my friends' cat that we hid in our halls of residence rooms at uni.... I have finally started uploading real videos. I don't know how long it will last and whether I'll be bothered to carry on with it when school starts back. After all it is only the second day of Term One holidays... so we all know how much I love starting stuff and then realising I don't have as much energy to keep up with stuff during the term!

If you want to be updated with silly things... sometimes intellectual... check out www.youtube.com/user/ariaporo

New School, New Life, New Excitement!

Five days into being 25 and I already feel a hell of a lot older. I'm at a new school. Moved down to 'Two Lakes" in the new year and am absolutely loving it here! Felt at home almost instantly.

With the new school, came new rules, policies and procedures... One of these being the school internet and computer use policies. Although there are a number of loopholes, it is still quite clear that the level of professionalism needs to be upheld as well as student safety, and mine too. In saying this, I'm beginning to think about moving away from using Facebook in class, mainly because it opens it up to inappropriate behaviour and students trying to add me. So, a new friend/colleague showed me this the other day:

www.edmodo.com

Have a look at it. Super easy to set up and runs as an online classroom space. Still need to test mine out with one of my classes but its so user friendly I cant see why it wouldnt work. Ability to add pics, files, documents etc. Loving it.
Thats all from me for now,
A