Day 9 - Sharing Reading

 Our final day! This professional development has been such a huge part of 2023, PD that I personally have gained so much from.

Today was all about sharing. Dorothy talking about the importance of blogging inspired me to make sure my blogs for 2024 are ready to go from the get-go. We have had a bit of a mare this year with blogs not working correctly, which in turn meant we lost our mo-jo with them. The major takeaway for me today: Get the blogs and blogging sorted for 2024!

Georgie's session on effective descriptive feedback was very useful. The prompts provided allowed for a simple, easy-to-use structure. 

Sharing and engaging with whanau around literacy was thought-provoking. We find by the time students are at Year 7/8 many parents have 'checked out' in some ways, certainly compared to parents in the junior/middle school. I think this will be another of my goals that I will get the ball rolling with, which lends itself to being a part of the participation in reading communities required in the new curriculum.

Thanks, ladies. This professional development would be one of the most effective that I have been involved in, in a very long time. 

Over and out.

Day 8 - Creating in Reading

I don't think of myself as a particularly creative person as a rule, so today's session put me in the role of the student who might feel a bit awkward being presented with these tasks. I actually really enjoyed all the create tasks,  though I seem to take a while to complete tasks :) 

What I appreciated most about today was the wealth of resources ie websites, AI, teacher-created
resources with which we were shared. I can spend so long searching for these types of things and these are a godsend.

At the start of the day, when looking at the why,  this really hit home. I think my create tasks need some work, particularly for those boys who struggle to read, and engage. Point taken.

I really like that participating in reading communities is in the curriculum refresh. While this happens haphazardly, to have it in print makes me accountable. The mention of this sent my mind into overdrive...now to find the time to fit it all in!

Creating the Te Marama poem with visual effects was the first task of the day and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I have no doubt I will be using this in class in the near future. 

Learning about 'tight' and 'loose' creative options was excellent, along with short creative responses to text. Mine is pictured below, in response to Iris and Dog Star (School Journal Level 3, May 2019)

Hard to believe we only have one session to go! See you in 2 weeks.

RPI - Day 7: Thinking

I am blogging very late for Day 7, as I was sick on the day, and quite a while after. Yes, I attended, however, it has meant rereading the slides, rechecking resources, and completing tasks at a later date that could have been done on the day. 

 Never mind, c'est la vie.

I learned a lot from Day 7 on thinking. I appreciate how our learning in this course is all coming together now, and I am able to understand the bigger picture. The resources shared throughout this course have been invaluable, and Day 7 was no different. I have had another look at the Cybersmart Challenges that Dorothy shared, as well as all the links provided by Naomi and Georgie on Critical Analysis, and the Analysing Texts links that Georgie shared. 

 

The Levels of Thinking laid out bare like that was beneficial. While I would like to think I include all three levels of thinking, to have them listed and explained in the way they were definitely makes me think more consciously about them, and the coverage of them.

The critical thinking work I had planned for this week (Last week was production week, and the week prior my class was all way on camps) has had to change. The theme I had planned on doing this week was based on racism. With the addition of 2 new students in my class, I made the call that this week wasn't the right time to work through the planned work. Back to the drawing board on that one.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's session. Having read the agenda notes in advance it looks like lots of fun!