My Learning Environment ... one term on!

As one of my beginning teacher goals, at the beginning of Term 2 I changed the look of my classroom.  As the term draws to a close its time to reflect on how it has worked and how my learners responded to the changes.

• visibility of the whole classroom from my teaching station - this has enabled me to be much more responsive to behaviours (both positive and negative) and avoid them getting out of control
• a range of working spaces available (rugs, chairs, couches) which allows learners to choose where they are most comfortable.  I've worked hard with my learners so they understand that its a privilege (rather than a right) for them to choose where they can work and that their behaviour has to be appropriate for their choice.   I've found learners are more engaged when they are comfortable and learners than struggle to sit at desks for prolonged periods of time are also more productive when choosing their own working space.
• noise levels - by spreading out around the classroom I find noise levels are manageable, despite learners having individual devices which require them to listen to things (eg books, verbal instructions) - even in this cold month, where going outside is not possible, learners are able to listen to books without it being too disruptive for others
• learning spaces - the new layout has created different distinct learning spaces which has made keeping equipment together easier and rotation transitions more fluid.  My learners know which spaces are available and what can be done in each space.  I've also noticed that tidying up is much more streamlined as a result of this.

I'm really happy with how the new environment has worked this term and actually struggle to find any negatives or anything I'm particularly wanting to change as we finish this term and head into the next - more of the same in Term 3.

It worked last year ...

..... why not try it again this year :)

Often I struggle for "new" ideas and ways to help my learners with their needs.  Last week I was browsing back through my blog, specifically around writing and I remembered that we'd used Explain Everything for learners to record their story prior to writing it.  This enabled them to take the time to locate words around the classroom, write them down, and have a way to refer back and remember what comes next in their story.   Many of the learners in my class are beginning independent writing, so I decided I'd try this again this year to see if I can achieve the same success.

Similar to what Michelle and I did last year, I've scaffolded this again in small groups of learners and found its again been a great help.  While the sentences being created are still quite short, it does help learners craft their sentence, particularly those learners who have English as a second language.  They are able to continually record until they are happy with the sentence and then play back their recording as they locate the words to write.

As I've scaffolded this with the learners, I've encouraged them to take a photo of what they are writing about first (if possible).  This helps them locate the project in Explain Everything, rather than them just saving a white screen.   

As my learners start to craft more complex sentences, or multiple sentences, I'm hoping the use of Explain Everything will help with their writing and enable them to build on a simple sentence, turning it into a multi sentence story.

Pretty special being "featured"

As I mentioned in this blog post, learners in Room 19 are really enjoying the learning games I've created using Tiny Tap!  And yes, I admit it - I'm enjoying the new challenge of getting to grips with a new app and creating for my learners!  So it was great to get a surprise email last week telling me that one of my games had been "featured"!  At first I didn't quite realise what that meant - popped onto the website and .... my game on the front page!  That's pretty exciting!

While all my games are created based on the individual needs of learners in my classroom, I'm delighted to hear that others are downloading and using my games to help out their learners or children!  In fact, it did get me thinking - because the app is free to download (on both iOS and Android) and games are able to be played from any web browser on a computer, could I take advantage of this and encourage "home learning" with my 5 year olds?

One of the hallmarks of  Manaiakalani is ubiquity: anywhere, anytime, any pace, any people learning!  While the iPads that the learners in my class use must stay at school, many learners have access to devices outside of school hours, which opens up possibilities for them to access the Tiny Tap games away from school if desired.  With this in mind, I've created a page on my Class Google Site which I've labelled "Learning Links" (same terminology that is used at Pt England) and provided links to the games that I've created for my learners - I'll promote this via my class blog and make parents, whanau and my learners aware of it.  Even if its only used be a small percentage of my learners, it will be valuable repetition and I hope, assist in embedding needed knowledge for their learning.

Great to have Trusted Teacher status with Tiny Tap too!

Tiny Tap magic

I've discovered a new app which allows me to create purposeful activities for my learners and tells them they are correct!  While I love using Explain Everything in the classroom, one of the things that somewhat frustrates me, are projects where learners can practice things but I need to provide feedback as to whether they are "right" - after all there is no point in them continually practicing ordering of numbers from 1 - 10 if they are not getting it right.  In the past I often use collaboration - other learners in the class who are secure on a concept or skill, providing peer feedback to others.

The Tiny Tap app allows me to create projects which provide learners with feedback if they get something right, and prompts them to try again if they are not correct.  The receive instant feedback that they have got the answer right and can continually practice to improve their accuracy and embed the learning.  I've created several projects so far, specifically looking at the needs of my learners on things that 'repetition' will help with - counting to 10, high frequency words, ordering numbers, number identification!

When I introduced the activity to my learners last week they were immediately engaged - there is a "gaming aspect" to it - it has bells, whistles and sounds which my 5 year olds really enjoy! Importantly however, they are engaged at doing the same game/activity again and again and their accuracy improves the more they play.

So - how am I managing this in the classroom in order to make the learning personalised, whilst also being manageable with 18 learners?  I've created my own Tiny Tap account and have labelled all my games as "PES Rm 19" for easy identification!  So far I've created eight games, but intend to create many more after the successes of the last week - all the games are public and available for anyone to play or download through the app (or a browser on a computer).  As I found with creating Explain Everything projects, I get quicker at creating the games, the more I do.


My next step was to find a way for my five year olds to be playing the game that best matched their learning needs - without asking 5 year olds to perform complication searches!  Drawing on my experiences from last year once again, I've decided to implement the use of QR codes - and it works!  I've created a QR code for each game that I've made (with a picture of the game next to it so that its easy for me to identify which QR code is which).  The very first time a learner plays a game they are prompted to "get" the game after scanning the QR code (I've done this for the learners so the games at each learners' level are already downloaded to their device).   My learners now scan the QR code, press the green "play" button and the Tiny Tap app opens with the game ready to play.


I'm looking forward to seeing if this engaged, personalised repetition helps learners to remember things such as high frequency words and number identification.  It's also great to get ideas from other teachers in the Tiny Tap community which may help my learners.  As I get faster at creating projects I look forward to being even more personalised to the needs of my learners and to further supporting their learning acceleration.

More Reading PD

I love reading and its definitely my favourite curriculum area to teach.  It's no surprise therefore, that when we were given some choice in our inquiry topic this year that I would choose something to do with reading!

Today the junior teachers participated in our second session around the Gwenneth Phillips style of teaching reading, which forms the backbone of how we teach reading at Pt England School.  For me, hearing and seeing other teachers who have been teaching using this style for some time, demonstrate their practice was extremely purposeful.  I can also see the huge benefits of using the same prompts throughout the school so that learners become accustomed to them and progress can be built on in subsequent years.

While today's session focussed mostly on levels above where my learners are currently reading (Blue - Gold) there were plenty of take away messages embedded throughout the session and it reinforced again the importance of the micro teaching groups.

• fluency - the importance of this was emphasised by teachers that are reading recovery trained - something I need to remember to practice during my guided reading lessons with learners at red level and above
• focus on one prompt for a week or two - this allows the learners to really understand this prompt as well as embedding it as a habit in my teaching
• Explain Everything is a terrific way of reinforcing the word work that occurs during a guided reading session - I'm constantly reminded how this makes the follow up activity more personalised to the needs of the individual or small group - I could see links between many of the activities I've created and the word work demonstrations today

Where to from here?

Again I can see areas where I'm not quite using the prompts correctly and need to be more precise with the language in order to ensure it lines up with the school wide reading pedagogy.  Definitely focusing on a prompt for a number of days/weeks will assist in getting the precise language correct and embedded in my pedagogy.  We have prompt cards as well as a rich powerpoint resource which will shortly be supported by teacher exemplars which will help to improve my practice.

This PD indirectly relates to my inquiry for the year and as I continue with that, I'll be building on the successes of the micro group guided reading sessions.  Already, in the month since our previous PD on the Gwenneth Phillips  methods I can see the phrases and language becoming more of my "teacher speak" and I look forward to continuing to work on this in the coming weeks and months.  Anything that makes me a better teacher of reading I will embrace wholeheartedly, as I'm passionate about reading and believe that it is so essential to learning in other areas

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Explain Everything .. same title, different work: personalisation

At many times the learners drive what my projects will look like or how I'm going to create things to make them manageable in the classroom.  This is the case with our maths projects.  I've found often that the learners use photographs to create digital learning objects to document their understanding.  This can create many projects in a week, many of which go unsaved.

This week I'm trialling using one project a week - I create and send to all learners the project title page and learners are able to add on to this with blank pages to create their DLOs.  The plan is to save it back to their Google Drive at the end of each week.

I'm also able to merge existing Explain Everything projects into each weeks work for different learners to work through.  This enables me to direct learners to "this weeks maths project file" and have them continue on from where ever they left off, addressing whatever needs the learner has  -  personalised learning!

Today I introduced the project title page to the learners - and had them each find it on their own device.  I explained to them that their work would look different to their peers - it was interesting that even though I covered this, I still had many learners come up to me and say theirs "looked different" to their friends!  That aside, we had an extremely successful session and each learner was able to save their project on their device at the end of the lesson, enabling them to pick up where they left off tomorrow!  I'm looking forward to seeing if this new way of working enables me to capture more of each learners individual progress by making it easier for my 5 year olds to save their work each day - the project is already labelled and is therefore a much easier process for them to follow.

As an aside, I find myself creating more and more "project title pages" as these make the projects in Explain Everything easier for my learners to find!

Linking Explain Everything projects directly from your site

At our Manaiakalani PLG session this afternoon some teachers expressed an interest in learning how to make Explain Everything projects downloadable from their planning site.  This would mean that instead of copying the projects using Hapara Teacher Dashboard, learners would download the projects themselves onto their device, using a link provided on the class site.

I'm facilitating a Manaiakalani Toolkit tomorrow and have already been asked to show how this could be done.  In preparation for the toolkit I have created a couple of screen recordings to both support the toolkit and provide a reference for the future.

This is how to add the link to your Explain Everything project to your Google Site.  (Note - you need to create the Explain Everything project first, and save it to your Google Drive).

This screen recording shows how the learner would access the project that you have linked.  Note - you need to use the Safari App to have this successfully link to Explain Everything (you can create a webclip so that learners can click on this link and it will go straight to your Google Site).  

Chromecast @ Reading Time = Awesome

I was inspired by an observation I did in Helen King's classroom late last year when I observed what she did with a Chromecast!  Having put a few months thought into what I wanted to do and the needs of my learners, I've created a reading rotation and incorporated the use of photographs of my learners to assist in them identifying which activity they need to move onto.  This visual chart also assists in providing structure for my special needs learners.

We've been using the Chromecast for nearly two weeks now and its working really well.  I've gradually introduced more and more activities into the rotations and after trialling a few systems have found that a timer on my iPad set to 15 minutes is the best fit for the activities I have planned.

There are two significant points with my rotation chart:

• Time with the teacher for guided reading is not scheduled on the rotation chart - I call each group as I'm ready for them and they stop whichever rotation they are on and come up for guided reading at that time.  I find this allows me to be more flexible with my guided reading group - if a group needs additional time I have that flexibility (without the rest of the class being bored with their rotation) and if learners are away and the session takes less time I can move on quicker to the next group.
• Learners working on a guided reading follow-up activity complete this before moving onto the next rotation.

Our current reading rotation includes the following activities:

• Listening to books using the Sunshine App on the iPad
• Practising our letters using an Explain Everything project (different levels to suit individual learners)
• Building tower creations with our lego blocks
• Using Explain Everything to create a picture (usually relating to our inquiry topic) and adding information about your picture using the record function
• Practicing high frequency words (at each learners individual reading level) using an Explain Everything template
• Learning our class wide "star" words of the week - three words which we focus on as a whole class - these are decided based on the needs of our learners and practiced using an Explain Everything template
• Using KidPix on the computers to create an image
• Completing an unfinished guided reading follow-up activity from the previous day (Explain Everything)
• Jigsaw puzzles
• Reading a book in the library corner

I'm amazed at how much the learners are enjoying the rotation, and the visibility of what they will be doing during reading on a particular day.  Each new icon is carefully scaffolded over a few days so that even my newest learners are confident with with equipment (eg ipad and stylus) they need and where they need to go to find the work they are moving onto.  

I find the Chromecast amazing to work with as I can continue to use my laptop with other tabs open (eg my reading planning) while the reading rotation remains permanently on display.  I'm also able to make changes immediately if learners need to be moved away from others or need an alternative activity as a result of our guided reading session.  

Already we have used it in other ways to watch several videos or browse other classes blogs.  I have plans to use the Chromecast to display "how to" instructions for learners to learn how to save their work which I can quickly personalise to the particular lesson.

Detouring my Inquiry

Today we have the opportunity to share where we were at with our personal teaching inquiry and what goals and intentions we had for the term.  It was a great opportunity to refocus our objectives and plan where we are heading as well as hear the ideas of others.

I feel the need for a detour in my inquiry.  I still am really happy with the progress I made with regards to scaffolding reading follow up activities and trying to encourage higher order thinking in my learners, particularly with using the Wanted Poster.  However, I now feel I have two distinct groups in my classroom when considering my inquiry:

• learners who had started school and completed several weeks of scaffolding and using the Wanted poster and additional Explain Everything templates
• learners who are new to my classroom or through being absent missed many of the scaffolding and independent sessions using the templates

As I was waiting for my turn to share this afternoon I considered the "where to now" question and how I could make this work with the two distinct groups.  I still think my inquiry focus is applicable to both groups, however, I think that they will need to take two different roads of discovery - divergent roads that may meet again at some time in the future?

So how is this going to look?  I think the pathway for my new learners is obvious - I need to fully scaffold these learners using the same path that my more experienced group has already taken - the road that has already been travelled!  So with this group of travellers, we'll begin the journey of using the Wanted Poster in a highly scaffolded way and work with this for the remainder of the term.

The pathway for the more experienced travellers is still a work in progress.  However, I want to use the learning they have already done using the Wanted Poster so am intending to add this project on to their Explain Everything activities at least twice a week - they will be able to complete this poster independently based on the books they have read during the guided reading session, while still completing word work and comprehension activities.  This also adds a creative element to each follow up activity and allows me to see their progress when compared to their early independent attempts.  

Additionally, I'm currently working on a new template to scaffold with this group of travellers (in much the same way I did with the Wanted Poster) for the remainder of the term to further extend and capture their ideas.

I'm enthusiastic about this slight detour in my inquiry - I believe teaching involves constant changing to meet the needs of learners - and I'm excited to see where these two different travelling paths will end.

 

Using a DLO to capture learning

Sometimes lessons don't go as planned - the reality of teaching!  I had a recent writing lesson where the progress exceeded my expectations but as a result, the learning wasn't easily able to be captured.  The intention had been to create a small group story and have the learners contribute to the story, and locate the high frequency words which formed part of the story.  However, all learners were able to successfully craft their own story and wrote these on their small whiteboards.  I then had some great progress which I wanted to capture - without the learners having to copy it into their writing books - Explain Everything again was the solution.

The learners were able to not only take a photograph of their story as a record of this learning, but then read their story using the record feature so their voice was also captured.

I also was able to post their learning onto their own personal blogs as a record for the future.  While we are not using these blogs in class yet (it is my intention to do this later this year), because I have access to the blogs of all learners in my classroom, I'm able to occasionally add artefacts to their blogs to document their learning journey - I'm looking forward to reviewing the blogs of some of my learners in 8 years time when they are in Year 7 & 8 of the school, and more importantly, they will be able to go back and see how their learning journey at Pt England begun - visible learning!

Links to the learners blogs are available here and here