Gafe Summit

I had the pleasure of attending the Gafe Summit in Christchurch over the holidays. This was a great opportunity for me to extend my IT skills and learn some new things that I could incorporate into my classroom programme.
Some of the speakers were inspiring and I liked how some of them were still teaching and that they ju had a passion for extending the children's computer skills and other things. I think when you go to events like this you can get overwhelmed by all the ideas however it is important to walk away with a couple good ideas that you can use in the class straight away. It definitely happened at this Summit as I wish to get the children to do more on the Chrome books by accessing their google accounts. I know how tricky it is to teach them everything so Screencastying seems like a good idea so that I don't have to be everywhere at once so I plan to use this. I have been taught about google forms before but to see it a bit more in action in an example in maths was great and I have already used it in maths for my top group. The bonus to this was I was able to read the results of the test very quickly and easily.

Some of the things which may not seem big but make my life easier were important. Things like learning about finding the rights to use pictures, taking screen shots and adding to this and mercury reader were just a few of the ways to help my classroom programme.

It was a great experience but it does me think about how quickly technology is moving. In just my time I have gone from hand writing my lessons to now writing them collaboratively on the computer. The google suite sure makes it easier to work in the environment I am now working in I couldn't imagine doing it with written plans.

Self-regulated Haven

After reading a blog on self-regulated haven it made me think how things are going at my new school. I have this year being enjoying the challenge of starting a new school and all that that entitles. The feel of a school is very important and sometimes it is not till you leave or go to other schools that you really notice it in your own school. It can be the little things that can make a place seem like a self-regulated haven such as a calm environment which is not the same as a quiet environment as it is one in which the children are interacting but in a respectful way. The children I work with have the skills to work alongside others in an environment which in my current situation is a very open one with many children moving and working together.
I think sometimes we just have to look at where we have come with this way of teaching and environment as I find the children do really well in this situation. I enjoy just taking a moment to look at the focused children who know where they need to be and what is expected and who are making good choices in their learning.  I think that if we put a whole of lot adults in a shared space and said okay work together in this area there would be many issues. So to see children do this is great.
I believe that the children do feel safe in our environment and I think one of the reasons is because it is a calm environment. With having different teachers in the environment the children have different teachers they can go to which is great as this means that they can make a connection with at least one teacher.  However the flip side of that is that teachers need to work hard to form relationships with more children. For me this is a good challenge to get to know different children in the hub.

The other aspect is that the interactions the adults have within in these environment is important and needs to be one of professionalism and one where good interactions between the adults happens. We are role models and the children see us interacting and if done well then this will hopefully rub off on them which will help to create a calm and self-regulated haven.

Maths Mindfulness

I was looking into finding some more open ended maths questions for mainly my top maths group, when I came across this lady Jo Boaler. She talks about maths mindsets and what this means in the class for the children. She talks about the studies she has done and others where taking a different approach to  maths and getting the children to do more inquiry type maths can make changes to their mindset and results.
 She also talks about maths being more creative and visual. It made me think I often don't think of Maths as being a creative activity. When I am doing maths problems I do like being visual and after listening to her it makes me think I should encourage it more. I would like to encourage more creativity in maths.
I like how she talks about changing children's mindset to maths as I know there are children in my hub who think they can't do maths. Another thing I have an issue with at times are the parents who say that I was not good at maths so my daughter or son is not.  I sometimes feel that this attitude to maths rubs off from the parents on to the children. So my question is how can I change this? I guess I can only change the child's mindfulness not the parents.
 So listening to her makes me think I still need to think carefully about the mindsets the children have in maths and would like to change this for some children.  She talks about how speed is not important and that how they get the answer and also how they interact with others to get the answer is important.
Watching her videos has made me think a bit about what I can do to improve my maths programme and so I look forward to checking out her website and to try some of the ideas.

Math mindfulness

Leadership

Leadership

Okay so leadership is not something that I would of ever thought I would be interested in. In fact I guess for many years I wouldn't consider myself to be a leader even though I am a teacher I was not one who ever had a desire to be in any management position. These people were the leaders as they held the authority. 

Over the years though,  after reading this article it really made me think more about leadership and if I am a leader and what kind.  I have taken on what I consider to be small leadership roles e.g, sport co-ordinator and Jump Jam coach etc. I did not necessarily put my hand up for these positions I usually got asked and being the person I am I did not say no.  But maybe I needed that as I had throughout my childhood always been the quiet one who did as I was told. I always thought the loud  confident and bossy people were the leaders. During my childhood I had a group of friends and I never got to be the girl smurf when we were playing this was again me showing how I preferred just to follow and do what I was told. I have learnt a lot more about leadership since then.

After reading this article Reflecting on Yourself as a Leader I saw myself as more of a leader. Of course I am a leader when in front of the class, however I see that as different to what I originally thought a leader was. It says in the reading does it excite you to be a leader?. The answer to that is probably not really it scares me a bit because of all the responsibility, however maybe that is okay to be a little scared. I mean this can make you really think about what you are doing and how you lead. Of course in my teaching team we are all leaders in that we are all teachers however we must all work together. We have a leader of the team which is a different level. I think a leader has to be one who truly listens to what others wants and takes this into consideration when making decisions. I think how you deal with people is extremenly important and I hope that although not a leader of a team I do this when in more of leadership role. The other things that the article mentions like a persons background and the system in which a leader works in can make a difference. 

Collaboration v's Co-operation

Co-operation v's Collaboration

As my first post I wanted to talk a bit about collaboration versus co-operation. I found the following  article interesting as it helped to clarify the difference between the two. I think that many people are not clear on this and the benefits of collaboration. I was lucky enough to visit some schools over in Melbourne and most of these were new schools built in the modern learning environment type style. This however did not change how some of the teachers taught they tended to still teach the same way and just shared the space especially because most of them had a common area in the middle. This was not working collaborating but was working by co-operating with each other and sharing the space. Co-operating is easy to do and I have done this for many years with planning and sharing space etc. I thought this was okay until I read more on collaboration and the schools started being built in the new way with large open spaces. In education collaborating is important and will help us to gain more knowledge in many areas, broaden our horizons and I think be thinking more on a higher level. By working in a collaboration way it helps get the best out of everyone that is working in this environment, which is a good thing.  Cartoon video I like this video as it sets it out clearly how collaboration can work. I believe we are on this earth to learn from others and to build on what we know and share ideas. This helps us to come up with new ideas which is definitely what we want to achieve. We know that in the 21st century we need to move forward with our thinking so doing it by collaboration has surely got to mean that we can move forward in education.  I will continue to develop my thinking in this area with the help of gaining more knowledge and experiences both in the class and from outside of the classroom. As I have where to now questions I will answer hopefully in the future.
Questions I have that plan to discuss more on here. 

What is the best environment for collaboration to happen?
What kind of personality works best in this environment? 
How do we past on this collaboration to the children?