Leaping in to the reading challenge

At the end of 2018, we started work on our 2019 reading challenge at Grey High.  We knew that our efforts hadn't yielded sufficient results in 2018, and that doing the same thing but expecting different outcomes wasn't a viable approach.

You can see here where we pulled apart the PAT test.

Towards the end of 2018, I was awarded a place on the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers programme.  Initially, I put in a proposal to develop online resources to engage students and whanau in our Mawhera Services Academy.  However, as our end of 2018 reading data emerged showing that we had not made the gains in reading that we really needed, I moved my proposal to accelerating reading.

Earlier this month, the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers group of 2019 met in person.  We had been communicating online, working in pairs on our proposals and it was fabulous to finally meet in person.  I think I wasn't the only one who was nervous, but also ready to turn the proposals and online chat into something more tangible and more strongly developed.

Our first hui was on the beautiful Coromandel coast, which for a South Islander used to cold and rough West Coast seas, was swimming heaven. 

We used the Design Thinking process to critique our projects and get ideas rolling for responding to each of our now quite carefully identified problems.  The energy in the room every session was really positive and I got a lot out of the process. 

I came back to Greymouth ready to make a powerful difference in my classroom and my school.