11Science in 2013 were a very loud class and as a result bit was difficult for the students to focus. The SCT at the time completed some student voice in their core subjects of english, science and mathematics.
As a result we came up with 4 expectations;
1. Always have a do now ready at the beginnjng of the lesson.
2. At 10 mins of silence every lesson.
3. Silence during critical learning time.
4. No distractions, electonic or other.
Takawai and Chris provided us with knowledge and increased our understanding on the history of Maori. It enabled us to construct our own informed view of our role as an educator. They unravelled a numbernof myths and mistruths. Our group came up with a number of different things we could put into place back at school. It is important to make links between school and our students heritage.
At the time this was a very challenging situation. The path that I went down to try and get help with 10Ruru ruffled a few feathers. I gained advice from my department but in hindsight I should have had more direct conversations with their dean and the deputy principal.
Through this experience I grew. I formed stronger relationships with senior management, through some tough discussions, as I got to understand where they were coming from. I had to articulate my thoughts and identify what the underlying issues were.
I was also able to be able involved in a class discussion with all of their teachers. It was a great session and I would have loved to continue with the process. Unfortunately, there was no follow up.
During my first year at Paeroa College my HOD completed a couple of formal observations. He felt the content was appropriate and I clearly expressed my expectations buy he felt that I needed to have work on getting silence during key teaching moments.
At the beginning of our second topic of term 3 I identified 5 student's who consistently achieved above the rest of the student's in the classm I decided to out them together in a group and give them slightly different work.
There first task was to create a game that would helo others to learn the chemical symbols for the elements on the periodic table. I gave them suggestions such as snap and memory. Their designs blew me away.
The boys designed a game of monopoly and the girls created a game based a around snakes and ladders with some great question cards. The class have trialed the games. The next step is to write up instructions and get each other to critique the games.
On Tuesday (9/9/14), SCT observed a full lesson. My year 9 Science class was researching chemistry in everyday situations. I began the lesson talking about everyday items an dlinking them to physical and chemical change. They then git in groups of 2-3 and armed with an ipad they researched their chosen topic whether be bombs, baking or glass.
During our mentor session later in the week, we wrote down 6 things that were positive in the lesson and 3 things that could be worked on over the coming weeks. From this we identified 2 things we both noticed that I could work on and they are going to form the basis of my teaching practice over the next few weeks.
My goals:
1. To define rolls within a group to encourage more team work.
2. To identify different ways that student's can share what they have learnt.
