Library - recommendations from students and teachers

I have taken photos of students and teachers holding up books that they love and can recommend to others. These pictures are now on the wall in the library along with the authors name and linking it to where the students can find the book. Eg You can find Mo Willems books in the W's in the picture books. This display is to build our school's reading culture, but also to teach students how to locate books in the library. 

Te Ara Reo Maori Course - First night

I have just started a course through Te Wananga O Aotearoa called Te Ara Reo Maori. It is a 38 week course covering reo and tikanga and a whole lot of fun!

Notes from last night

Tena koe, tena korua, tena kotou.

Vowel practise - a, e, i, o, u. Short vowels on left (maui) hand (wahine side) and long vowels on right (matou)  side (tane).
Practised the vowels as individuals, then as pairs and how the sounds went together, then in 3's.
Game: Played a game with hands moving the vowel on in the circle. Again left hand - short vowel a, e, then next person in the circle changes the direction with i long sound in the next direction.

Game:  Kohatu (stone), ika, manu, kauri. Walk around with music. Find a buddy when music stops. Pepa, kutikuti, kohatu. Whoever wins graduates to next character. Kauri go to the side to sing.

He patai taku - I have a question
He patai - Any questions?

Hakina - Breathe in, Haputa - breathe out.

Lots of great kupu and phrases for the classroom!

Nathan Wallis - The Developing Brain from 3 - 7

Last night I went to hear Nathan Wallis talk about neuroscience and brain development in children aged 3 - 6 years old. He had so many amazing things to say and was hilariously funny too!

Some things to note:

• The first 1000 years of a persons life are the most important for brain development. Face to face contact, smiling at your baby, and lots of talking help your baby to collect all the data they need for life.
• Through the years of 3 - 6 the most impt thing for children is to play, play, play.
• Chn don't need to spend time at kindy getting ready for school. That's what school is for!
• Us first born females rule the world haha! We get a lot of face to face time with our parents as there are no other children yet. Birth order importance doesn't matter if you're not the first born in terms of success.
• Male frontal lobes not really fully developed until 26 - 32. Females between 18 - 24. Average is 26. Of course, it sways either way too in terms of averages.
• We mostly measure success in children on language, not motor skills for example. One lady asked "How do you get a 5-6 year old boy to focus?" and Nathan answered that his focus was probably motor skills. If you asked him to be a transformer with his body for half an hour, he could probably focus. In reading or writing however, he might struggle with those tasks. Developmentally they might just not be ready.
• Stop expecting 5 year old boys (especially) to act like 7 year olds etc. And don't compare their development to girls, as it's not a fair comparison.
• Having children saying sorry - Often it might be a chuck away 'sorry' and doesn't really change anything. Instead asking the child "How are you going to repair this relationship?" makes them take more ownership. He also said that for a 2 year old, you'll have to do about 90% of helping them with the apology. When they're 5, you might help 70% of the time etc. Students need your help in these situations.
• Be kind to children and don't push them too hard too fast. Children will learn to walk and crawl when they are ready. By us standing them up before they are ready doesn't help them. It's the same with reading/learning etc. 

Thoughts on my future practice:

• It's really interesting seeing boys in my class who I can identify as just needing to play still, even though they are 7 and 8. I'm wondering how I could possibly incorporate more play time in for them during the day. I do let them have developmental around once a week, but am wondering where else I could fit it in. Lots of the boys in my class still love the blocks and equipment.
• It's a really hard balance in our current education system to fit in play,  as parents and the community want to see us 'teaching' and that is measured in language mostly. The National Standards should apply before Year 3, in my opinion as it is just not fair, espcecially as then students who are below hear that they are below for 2 years, which is not going to help their learning either. 

Professional Converstaions: Tutor teacher meeting with Kate

Topics discussed today:

Calendar art

• It's a fundraiser
• Having the child's picture on makes an impression
• Pinterest and other teachers for ideas

Maths appraisal 

• Discussion around doing Fraction Friday or continuing with same programme.
• What does Senior Teacher want to see?
• Conversation flowed on to maths discussion in general, with sharing ideas from each others classes. Kate has been doing awesome directions and maps with her class including blindfolded obstacles course. For end of term my class will make a paper mache island following on from Dragon Brothers novel being read in class. Will use grids and scales to make and design mystery island.

Parents 

• How best to deal with one parent who insists on texting and being emotionally manipulative.
• Taken conversation back to email, as opposed to texting, and setting firm boundaries with communication. Kate talked with Jenna too. 

Election boxes

• Cool discussion about how best to teach and discuss NZ's election. Talked about having the 4 major parties and what they stand for - Greens environment, Red - social amenities, Blue - money and finances and exports etc, Black - culture and heritage. Have chn bus stop ideas on what those parties policies would be. Doing lessons from the box. Voting at the end of the week.

The beauty of the cardboard arcade

Once a year at the end of term I like to show my class the Youtube clip Caine's Arcade. It shows a 9 year old boy who's arcade went viral after being discovered by a videographer in the States. Caine's creativity and positivity is inspiring, and it feels like some good old fashioned 80's childhood inventing. For the second year in a row my class have absolutely loved the creating, and then the hosting of other classes when they came in to play the games. Two other classes were also inspired to make their own arcade games following the success of ours.

I believe it develops:

• Creativity where children only have cardboard and sellotape to make any type of game they can imagine.
• Collaboration and compromising skills as many of them worked in teams.
• Problem solving and innovation - what to do when something doesn't work they way they imagined

A cure for boredom at home in the holidays!

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Library Walk Through Reflection

Developing library services: school libraries supporting learning- primary

Week 3: Developing services that support your school’s priorities

Activity: School library walk-through checklist

Take paper and pen with you to jot down a few points as you go. You might also want to take a camera.

Starting at the main entrance gate of the school, look for signposting for the different parts of the school: ·     Is the library included? ·     How easy is it to find?	No signs for the library. It is in the heart of the school though.
Is the library signposted: ·      From the entrance used by students (either externally or in the main building, depending on your school's layout)? ·      From the main entrance used by staff and visitors?	No sign posts at all.
Stop outside the library main entrance: ·      What messages does its appearance suggest? ·      How welcoming and enticing does it look to students? ·      How well does the library visually reflect the different cultures and ethnicities in your school?	Not very well at all. You can’t even really tell it is a library from outside it. We must get a sign made. Including some more culture in the library would be a good idea.
As you walk inside the library are there any visual clues that show you: ·      The library provides a variety of leisure reading options (e.g. magazines, graphic novels, series fiction, browsing books, eBooks)? ·      Help is available?	We have boxes of certain popular books – Geronimo Stilton, Choose your own Adventure, Daisy Meadows, Graphic Novels, Roald Dahl, Horrible Histories. We have a listening station that could be better promoted. We don’t have any magazines. Could look into, but not sure how many are appropriate for school age chn. We have a big library desk and librarians who wear leis if help is needed.
How much face-out display is there around your library? Not just in the actual 'displays', but around the shelves?	Top shelves for both fiction and picture books. We don’t have displays for non-fiction. We have sophisticated picture books on display, new books, and just general books. Also a listening station for books with CD’s.
Is there somewhere comfortable to relax and enjoy reading?	We have 2 couches and 2 window seats which children enjoy. Julie has made lots of big cushions. There are 4 tables for working at, and 6 high desks. I would love to add some bean bags and a few more cushions.
Does the library promote and share online what students are reading; e.g. social media and book sharing sites like Goodreads	No we don’t.
Any other comments that have come up in conversations within your group?	We could spice up our walls a bit more. One wall is blank and there is still art up from last year that needs to be replaced.