Google Educator

I'm very excited to announce that I am now officially a Google Certified Educator.

And here's the certificate to prove it!

The course required some self study, making sure I was comfortable with the different apps available from google and had a strong understanding of how to implement the different features to benefit my teaching practice.

Now I can't wait to get an opportunity to use these skills in the classroom to support students' learning and help connect them further with the wider world.

Narrative PBL

 

In literacy in Room 10, the students have been undertaking a project to write narratives to give to the students in Room 1. Mrs Waaka in Room 1 wrote a letter to us requesting the class to write some stories to boost their class library. We used this letter as a starting point to learn about narratives and their structure.

 

The students have been reading narratives, breaking them down into character, setting, problem and solution. We have also practiced writing narratives using this same structure. The students have developed a good understanding the structure through being immersed within this.

 

This week we visited room 1 to talk to the class about what kind of narratives they like to read. We used their answers to our questions to help us to plan our own narratives. I was impressed with the students and how they have used the answers from the questionnaires to influence the stories they are writing.  

 

Room 10 spent the rest of the week writing their narratives and we are on track to complete them on Monday. Then the students will publish their stories and on Thursday we are sharing them with Room 1.

Counting on

In maths we have been learning how to add numbers together through counting on.

At the end of the unit my class showed their newly developed skills using the app Explain Everything. This was a double focus lesson looking at their maths skills and also learning about using this app in a new way.

Collaborative Problem Solving

 

We are beginning to rethink how we implement our maths programmes at Pahiatua School. We are undertaking PD with Dinah Harvey later in the year and have begun some of the ground work in preparation for her arrival. At our last staff meeting we were shown a video about 'doing maths' a more collaborative, problem solving maths approach.

I thought that this seemed like a great way to get the students discussing their maths, learning and thinking so have attempted to implement some of the points from the video into my own practice. During week 6, I started each class with a 10 minute real life problem solving question which the students had to complete in groups.

I emphasised that they needed to talk with each other about their thinking and explain how they got the answer. The students have used these opportunities to deepen their maths understanding and to share their knowledge with each other. The groups are mixed abilities and provides an environment where students can learn from each other.

 

Abel Tasman Beach

Last week Room 10 were discussing the fundraising that was happening around the Abel Tasman Beach in the South Island.
There is a private beach which was being sold, but the New Zealand government were not willing to buy it. As a result a givealittle campaign was started with people across the country donating money to raise the required funds to make an offer on the beach.

In Room 10 we decided that we wanted to take part in the fundraising and donated $20. The following day we were contacted by the New Zealand Herald, as we were one of the last people to donate to the campaign and they wanted to find out more about our decision.

We were surprised to be contacted, and the following day were contacted by the Manawatu Standard and then the local Bush Telegraph.

Click on the links below to read the full articles.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11591699

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/77046713/pahiatua-school-helps-push-abel-tasman-beach-bid-campaign-over-the-line

Place Value Maths

In maths we have been learning about place values - specifically tens and ones.

This week we read the story of the Three Little Pigs and used this as a basis for building houses out of our place value materials. This idea came from a post I had seen on Pinterest.

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The children were given strips of tens and ones to use to design their own house. Once they had completed their houses they had to count up the numbers of ones and tens they had used to work out the value of their house. I designed a label to go on their sheets and provide this information.