Visualiser

Jayden in the NE class was out with his petrie dish looking for bugs. He got down low and searched under the fallen autumn leaves until he found an ant. We returned to the class and viewed his ant under the visualiser on our science trolley. It sure looked big.

The class also observed worms wriggling, spiders crawling and ladybirds scurrying.

Te Whaiti

This boy (Te Whaiti ) is my learning boy today. I always have a soft spot for him because my Dad used to live at Te Whaiti. He is pracitising his ball skills so he can be a good team player. He is actually in the school's rugby team but Te Whaiti has great ball skills overall.

To be honest he is one of the reasons I love teaching at Owhata. I loved it that one of Te Whaiti's big sisters was working in town last week and she came out of her way to come up and give me a big hug.

We did some science experiments today - it was so cool to see the kids awesome responses.

Day 5 Learning

Destiny is in Junior Bilingual class and her learning is about leadership. She has 2 younger tamariki to help to learn. She had to give clear instructions, let her group have a go and help them if they needed to be helped.

I also heard her praising her little ones. She had to make sure that she was doing the task well herself - and she was -so leading by example.

As a teacher it has been great to focus on the learning that is happening in my classroom. Sometimes we get hung up on the activity and we need to keep the actual learning that we are expecting (so Learning Intentions ) and what learning we see happening. This has been a worthwhile activity (Daily Learning) so I am going to continue next week (and beyond??).

Day 4 Learning

Shaniah is learning to read better by practising.
R19 loved exploring the science trolley with me yesterday. Lots of good oral language and questions. I am still waiting to hear from The Royal Society to find out who my host is going to be for my Fellowship next term. I like it that I have the opportunity to 'play' with science thinking while doing my classroom release.

Day 3 Photo of Learning

Sonny is using the IWB to help him learn his blends and this will help him with his reading too.

Room 4 (Y5/6) and I had a explore of the science trolley yesterday. You would have thought it was a chest full of treasure ,the excitement it caused. (I suppose in a way it was that?). The kids knew some of the names for some of the equipment and it was great to hear and watch Sonny explaining what a funnel was used for. For me another oral language/science link. For phase 3 of my release classes next week we are going to DO some science. I can't wait. Kids are saying that when you go to Whaea Tricia's class you do science.

Day 2 photo

OOPS I just posted something on the wrong blog -another step backwards!!!!

James is showing learning by using the magnifying glass to do some careful observation.

Bob said I can have the Sitech science trolley in my room for a while so I am looking forward to exploring that. Apparently the kids are saying that when they go to Whaea Tricia's class they do science - so I had better do some hands on.

Rellco/Best

I had a great 2 days of learning and returned to school today with new things to try out. I liked the idea about taking a photo each day that shows learning, thes Share this with the class and get their thoughts about the leaning they see taking place.

Day 1's photo was of Herepo and the learning that was happening was - Herepo is learning to sing solo in front of an audience, and she is using a microphone.

We also did some work on asking questions and started on Habits of Mind. We persisted with our tasks today. Having a different class each day is going to be difficult to do things in depth, but I am going to enjoy trying out things.