Successes & next steps

This year has been about stretching my practice in different ways, and sometimes that has involved me wondering how much I can stretch my sleep needs.  But, quite a few things have come together recently and I thought I would grab a few minutes to share them here.

Te Ahu o Te Reo
The first has been Te Ahu o Te Reo.  This has been a 13 week course delivered at our marae at Greymouth High School (Te Kura Tuarua o Māwhera) and I am really proud of finishing it, and growing in my confidence to use Te Reo in my classes and in my wider interactions as a teacher and person.  I've also learned a lot more about local stories and loved spending time at the marae at Arahura.

Our reading goals as a department
When we were crunching data (I like that phrase, like I'm driving a bulldozer and I can hear the stats move underneath me) last week, we were really thrilled with the reading data.  It certainly shows that what you focus on, you make a difference in.  More on my role in that later, but for now, the news is good.

Team Game Tournament
This is being used beyond my classroom now.  The key effect lies with opportunities to respond and a range of ways of looking at one (or multiple) texts.  My tool will make that really clear.

Collaborating for success
Jo Newton (RTLB) and I worked together on building relationships and accelerating reading with 10QI this year, and last week we sat down and recorded our reflection on the gains we have made, particularly focusing on how our approach has been collaborative, student-centered and 'alongside' rather than hierarchical.  You can listen to our discussion here and here.  We want the practice of collaborating to be something everyone sees as valuable, not the idea that RTLB support is for 'weak' teachers.  By recording our discussion, we want to be able to share that model more widely.

What's next?
My priority now is putting my work on using socrative and collaboration to accelerate reading achievement together online in a format which is user friendly for other teachers. 

Then, my pecha kucha presentation to the principals.  I want people to come away from that wananga with something that they can easily share with their English teachers that will make a difference to achievement.