Teacher Inquiry 2022

This year Panmure Bridge's Teacher Inquiry is based around "establishing foundations to go forward with formal learning". Due to covid, education in the past year has been very different and focusing on getting back to routines and formal learning is very important.

In order to engage my students I have been doing a lot more physical activities, shared full class learning and I have been more flexible with my timetable. While being flexible I have also made sure to come up with a daily routine. This enables those student's to slot into the routine easily especially when they are coming back from isolation/absence. 

When doing independent activities I ensure to place the students who need more help in a focus group on the mat with myself. This keeps them on task and allows them to ask more questions. While doing this, I designate "student experts" to help those others doing independent work. This builds their confidence and brings in the Tuakana-Teina model. 

Those who are not at school can follow the slides for the week and continue with the work. I have also added multiple online links via our Room 5 Class Site. These are easy to follow and don't require any previous teaching. 

This year I have had to adapt my program to fit the current circumstances. We have had students coming and going throughout the term and this has meant the program has needed adaptions. Sticking to a constant routine has helped those students when coming back to school as they are aware of what the day has planned. The timetable is also placed on the class site which allows students to follow it and know what to expect each day.

Here is a link to my "Home Learning" page on my class site

Learning Bookmarks

As a way to get my learners families involved. I decided to make a learning bookmark, which I also did last year. This has the important links which I have made into QR codes in order to scan them from any device. These links include their Steps Web account and password, Panmure Bridge School website, student blogs, Room 5 Class Site and their password to get into their laptop and Google Account. I also made sure to include their email on the back of each bookmark so they can access their work from home. All of these were laminated and handed to each child to take home.

I believe these will help involve the learners families by giving them access to the websites needed and becoming transparent with their child's weekly learning. While also providing extra tasks (Steps Web) to do at home.

Link to bookmarks 2022

Reflection for this Year

The first few weeks of this year have been very interesting. With Covid cases on the rise we have been having to adapt our lessons. I started off with 29 learners in my class and we are now having between 10-14 turning up each day from the remaining 26 students.

The Senior Syndicate had a meeting regarding how we feel this year has gone so far. There were very similar situations in each class and we all agreed that after lunch time the learners shut off and find it hard to concentrate. This was an interesting observation for all classes as we didn't experience this prior to lockdown last year.

Below are some of the observations I have made so far this year:

• It felt daunting coming back to school

• Students so much lower academically than I thought they would be 

• Students finding rules harder eg: masks

• Weird vibe - not as many behavioural things as you cant hide so cant get away with it.

• It's very different at the moment compared to two weeks ago - not happy, it's not sad, it's not negative or positive - just flat.

• Students want structure not busy work

• Little parent communication - if they are here the parents must be ok with them being here - and then the parents not engaging.

• Some parents are very cautious in regards to sending students to school

• Lots of visual examples so students can ‘see’ the learning.

• Introducing competition - task, challenge, super challenge to motivate

• Challenges:

• Attendance

• Lack of ability 

• Lack of chrome book

• Lack of digital knowledge and previous students have forgotten.

• After lunch class is flat

• Relationship building is a challenge as friends aren't here and we might not be seeing that