My Teacher Inquiry this year is around getting to grips with SOLO Taxonomy. I was a bit sceptical about the whole SOLO thing, then I met Pam Hook when she came in to do some PD with us at the beginning of the year. I was won over, such a cool person. Straight forward in her approach, passionate about her subject and a great teller of hilarious stories. I could have quietly explored SOLO but Oh No! Big mouth here decided to announce it as my Teacher Inquiry. And so, here I am in the pit. The photo above is an example of the work done by my colleague Reubina Irshad. It's a great example of SOLO in action. For me this is what awaits me at the top of the pit in the glorious daylight. The trouble for me is that I want to be an expert now. Don't get me wrong, I love learning, but after a while I hate the having to ask questions and look like an idiot part. The Pit idea, I think, is wonderful. To know that being in a pit is part of a process and that it's ok to struggle, is a relief. I read an Edmodo post from a middle school child who talked about their teacher putting them in the pit with a particular maths concept. She commented on how it was hard but that she persevered and was now doing much better with it. I think I would have liked that idea when I was at Primary School. I mean sure we heard a lot about a Pit - it was a Catholic school after all. But our pit had a lot of fire at the bottom and there was a creepy guy leaping around with a pitchfork. Also we were told that once you went in there was no way out. While being in the Pit (that's Learning Pit rather than Hell) is not much fun for me, I think I'm now at the multistructural stage and I've found the ladder. It's a long way up but I can see Virginia Kung waving at me from the top so I better keep going.
Juniors can tell great stories - dramatic, impossible, imaginative, hilarious stories. And it's not just that the stories are a treat, it's brilliant how often the other children never question them. If Fred says that he climbed Mt Everest on the weekend, the other members of the class will not blink an eyelid and some may even venture that they climbed two Mt Everests on the weekend. Here's an example of a conversation that I had with a Year 1 child who is in my Literacy group as I was walking around on duty. Child: My dog is a zombie Me: Really, that must get tricky sometimes. I guess you'd have to watch that he didn't eat your brains. Child: He did. Me: Crikey! Child: Then he ate a lot of me Me: How are you walking around now? Child: Oh, my dad stitched me up A couple of other children from the same group were also walking with us. Not one of them questioned the story but rather spoke of the various ways to deal with zombies. I told them that they should write about it as it would make for very entertaining reading.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
This was a slide used by Lynn Beresford, a teacher and psychologist who spoke at the Learning Difficulties course that I went to with my colleague and friend Eilleen. It could have a million and one captions from "Reports are due when!!!" to "I hate Mondays". The first thing I thought of was - this is how my mornings look before I get to school. A reminder for teachers that getting everyone in the house ready for school and work can be a huge task. So a friendly smile and greeting in the morning can help to make parents and children feel like cool, calm and collected cats again. I remember a teacher friend of mine telling me about a parent that she had an interview with once. The child's teacher was unable to attend the interview but had asked my friend to talk to the family about making more effort to bring the child's bookbag to school. My friend, not knowing the family, gently mentioned the bookbag question and found out that this child had an older brother who was autistic and went to a special needs school. He would go to school in a taxi but it could be a battle at times getting him ready. He was a big boy and quite a handful when upset. For some reason he would often target his younger brother's book bag and it would get routinely thrown into puddles and out windows etc. The mother apologised and said they would try harder. My friend felt mortified and told the mother not to worry, we would keep a supply of bags for him if need be. Knowing the child and the family makes such a difference. Believe me, as the crazy cat would say,"Mornings can be hell!"
While browsing on Twitter came across #action learning and did some exploring. Saw this video of the creator of action learning - Reg Revans. Interesting guy. I like his take on experts and wisdom. I've had to listen to a few 'experts' over the years, particularly to do with my son's Aspergers. My regard for their opinions would always falter as soon as they would profess to know all and recommend that I disregarded everyone else's opinions. Love the bit about Rutherford!
I was relaxing at home while my son was playing some 'battling the creepy aliens' game on PS4. He can get pretty vocal while playing and I heard him call out, "Get away, you mumbling abominations!" Pretty cool language for an 8 year old. Video games and oral language development - might be an interesting research topic.
Friday, March 27, 2015
The children took our healthy eating topic into the direction of "what's the good stuff in apples?" Decided to document our work with Google Slides. I reflected to the class that when I asked children to name a healthy food they often said apples first. So we decided to find out why.
I was fortunate to work on a presentation about Blogging with Waveney Bryant, Anna Spier and Sonya Van Schaijk. Fabulously talented educators at Newmarket Primary. Sadly, bad weather put off a lot of parents but we still managed to have a lively, interactive presentation to staff. Good PD all round. I came away with lots of ideas. My next plan is to move from reading group modelling books to a digital alternative using Google Docs.
