Professional Portal for Donna Rudduck

What? One of the areas to work on at Southwell is the use of Te Reo in the classroom and the teaching of this to our students. Elliot Tiffany has created resources for teachers to follow throughout each term for the teaching of Te Reo Maori and Tikanga and has made himself available to help staff if needed. We always greet each other using a different Maori greeting which has worked really well. but I need to continue to develop the use of the language so that it becomes natural for my students. Resources for us to follow in class: Term 2 Lev 2 So What? I have started writing the day and date in Moari on the board for the students.  I will also introduce Education Perfect (online site where the students can learn Maori online) Maori Language For my top spellers this would be a great opportunity to do extra work on their Maori. Now What?

What? Continuing with our spelling inquiry - how are we implementing this into our classrooms and what are our challenges So What? Carla McNeil from Learning Matters brought in a team to share some ideas with us and show us some simple resources for lessons.  Now What? Year 8 had a discussion after our meeting about how we can have more time in the classroom with our students so we can do explicit spelling teaching. We have decided that Maths on a Monday will now become a 40 min session with the other 20 mins dedicated to Spelling and we will only have Syndicate Assembly every second week with that 40 min slot also dedicated to Spelling. I taught long and short vowel sounds then focused on separating long and short e words. Morphology Notes

What? The SLT have decided to review our current Big Ideas for Inquiry Learning and there was much discussion and debate about this at staff meeting. Using the PLD days for this was fantastic and I really valued the opportunity to discuss our teaching and learning with my colleagues. We have some incredibly talented staff and I can learn a lot from them. Having the opportunity to listen and discuss with them was invaluable. So What? After much discussion as a staff we need to collate this information and make some decisions moving forward. I have joined the team who will create a few different models to be presented to the staff. Our initial discussion was about PYP which Rachel and Barb gave an overview of. PRIMARY YEAR PROGRAMME   To recap Duration decided-One Big Idea Term 1 & 2. One Big Idea Term 3 & 4. No limit to starting in Term 1 or finishing in Term 4 (other than the end of the year!!) PYP  is a trans-disciplinary system. During the last te...

What? Due to the issues with spelling in the school our Professional development is on creating a new spelling programme using Learning Matters. My Teaching as Inquiry question is: How can I implement the spelling programme into my classroom and build up resources for teaching the rules.? So What? I have analysed the testing I have done on my class so I know what I need to teach. I have begun teaching some of the simple concepts such as CVC and adding -ing, -ed to words. At this stage I have found resources online to support my programme/teaching. Our syndicate is making up boxes for each concept and we will share them between the classes. Now What? Monday 30th July Staff Meeting:Takeaways: Spelling Tips/Ideas Use the planning template to create effective lessons. Carla observed me teaching the Silent 'e' concept. Her suggestion was to now challenge myself and try and link several concepts together. the lesson went well and after staff meeting in my next ...

What? Jo asked if I would like to be the Year 5 Technology representative and I decided that this would be great professional development for me. This means that if anyone has a technology question they can come to me and I can try and help them before they need to go to the ICT Dept. I can also share any ICT learning that I am involved in. So What? Because I accepted this role I was offered the opportunity to attend the EdTech Summit 2018 in Auckland in the holidays. I was nervous about this as I didn't think my ICT knowledge was sufficient going into the summit.  However this was a wonderful learning opportunity that presented our group with many professional questions/concerns/development. Many of the group discussions and new learnings created conflict within myself. It made me challenge my pedagogical beliefs and ask questions about the direction our school is heading. These professional conversations within our own team were invaluable and it was great to share ide...

What? After camp we did some PLD on writing within Southwell school. Thinking critically about our practice in the classroom and the effect this has on our students. So What? Key messages on pages 8 and 9 of Effective Literacy Practice 1-4 Teachers matter - and what they do matters Teaching practice can be described as truly effective only when it has a positive and measurable impact on student achievement Students may take many different pathways on their literacy learning we as teachers should have appropriate tools for different students. The quality of our teaching is imperative to achieve results in the classroom. Your teaching practice matters Evidence based teaching practice can make a major difference.   What happens in classrooms through quality teaching and through the quality of the learning environment generated by the teacher and students is key Goal directed literacy instruction. Evidence based. Progra...

What? Term 1 has been challenging. I enjoyed camp again, this is such a great opportunity to get to know your students outside the classroom and they love to see you in another environment as well. They realise you are a real person.  We used our learning at camp to create our Year 5 production. This was quite different this year having new staff helping to develop this. It was also a really quick turn around with 2 short weeks as well. This meant the students had to work really hard in a short time to get the show to performance level. But once again the kids pulled it together and produced a wonderful reflection of their learning. My class did some ANZAC writing using the School Kit box of artifacts. This was such a great opportunity and the class really enjoyed researching real NZ soldiers and linking that information with videos and other data we gathered to write some wonderful poetry. I was so proud of what they produced, once again in a short space of time. I have shar...

What? Covered genres - Recount / Narrative / Report / Persuasive / Poetry / Script / Speeches / Letters Don’t think we are teaching a lot of new stuff. Children have an idea of what different genres include but not the specifics. We use display of genres (not school given) in modelling book. Children can refer to it and be directed to it when using it during the year. Own choice writing - using different motivations - pictures / videos / dogo news  - sometimes directed with genre / sometimes own choice genre. Using computer for writing - children can feel if haven’t published it on computer then don’t feel it is finished / engagement is higher / using speak onto computer has increased amount of work being output / each piece of writing published start on computer / writing in books first - allows some editing process / children can go onto other pages that they shouldn’t be on. Conferencing - try to do with each time do a piece / easy to do editing / suggestions online...