Inspire Tour 2015

A few weeks ago our entire teaching team (Year 0 - 8) had teacher only days to visit some schools in Auckland.  Our lenses were focussing on aspects of Visible Learning, Maori and Mathematics.  The schools who opened their doors and classes to us were much appreciated, just being in other learning spaces opens up wonderings and challenges our own practice as professionals.  Thank you.

A few key findings/ wonderings for me include:

• the use of visuals for younger students in tracking learning, showing shift and for them to talk about what they can do and what they are learning next 
• the development of a more open planning structure e.g. Project Based Learning (PBL) and what this can look like with younger students and alongside this, younger students planning their day
• wondeirngs about SOLO and if there are suitable applications in junior classes?
• making my planning (aspects of it) public for parents/ whanau to see the learning focus for their students
• the 'Learning Environment' as the 'Third Teacher' is very much a Reggio Emilia philosophy and is commonplace in many ECE settings in New Zealand...for good transitions to school, can I keep some of this in the classroom I work in?

Some confirmations:

• 'Daily Five' - this is something I have been exploring and experimenting with in the last couple of years and have seen students grow in their love of reading - seeing aspects of this programme in some classes/ schools was a confirmation that there is value to this way of teaching reading - where students learn to read by reading - not doing busy work!
• Picture Books are a fantastic tool for developing and growing understandings in younger students e.g. 'The Dot', 'Ish', 'A Beautiful Mess', 'Gerald the Giraffe'.  I will continue to use books as a springboard to encourage student thinking, reflections and to unpack ideas like 'growth mindset' and 'mistakes are learning opportunities'.
• The physical learning environment does effect the type of programme you can have in place e.g. traditional single cell classroom or a MLE.  Being both Primary (Year 0 - 8) and Early Childhood trained and experienced the MLE and more open learning resonates with how I see learning growing - also fits with Hatties research where 'Piagetian programs' are ranked second to self reported grades/ student expectations based on Effect Size calculations.