Peer Tutoring

There are 27 teachers in Room 11.

When I returned to full-time teaching this year I decided that to survive and to be effective I was going to have to work smarter. John Hattie’s book ‘Visible Learning for Teachers’ helped me to decide what was worth spending time on. Mark Treadwell provides a succinct summary of this research here: http://www.marktreadwell.com/Hattie_Research
Peer Tutoring came up with an effect size of 0.50 so is something that I have been exploring with my class.
What we do?
 a) Students complete a pre-test and then a ‘Digging into Data’ sheet to explore what they know, what they still need to know and what they could be a tutor or tutee in.
b) The teacher uses this info. to arrange groups and tutors. Groups are usually really small ( 1 tutor and 1-3 students)
c) Tutors are supported by the teacher to plan their lesson. See template.
d) Lessons take place.
e) b-d is repeated.

We also use peer tutoring more informally as needs arise.

The photos below display peer tutoring in measurement. The engagement oozes from the photos! The benefits I have noted so far are not only academic but also social and emotional.

Reading and E-learning

Purposeful e-learning reading activities have supported Rm 11's term 1 reading programme. Two groups of Yr5/6 students have worked on the reading contract below as part of the literacy rotations. The e-learning tasks are highlighted in yellow. Students accessed the required links with one click using our learning cave.
The focus of the contract was developing comprehension skills including: predicting, retelling, making connections,questioning and summarizing.

e-competencies for Tauriko School

Developing a set of e-competencies for staff at Tauriko School was the theme of one of our teacher only day sessions in late January.
Many thanks to the Manaiakalani cluster for their inspiration with this post.

We decided (during the session) that developing our own set of e-competencies was a good idea as it would achieve the following purposes:
● to make a mark ‘in the sand’ of the expected base level of operation for teachers at Tauriko School .
● to support individual teachers and groups to set e-learning goals.
● to inform the contents and structure of a professional learning programme aimed at supporting all teachers to make forward steps in e-learning.

Follow this link to see what we came up with.


What next?
- individual/group goals set and  matched with support from colleagues
-e-learning goals and progress discussed as part of  appraisal
- e-competencies revisited annually?

Broader Views of Literacy

Today I lectured a group of approximately 100, 3rd year teachers’ college students. This lecture was part of a broader view of literacy module. To demonstrate what is happening in NZ schools I utilised many of the snapshots of learning on Software for Learning.
Snapshots of Learning illustrate how software and digital content, from Digistore and/or Software for Learning, have been integrated to support teaching and learning in New Zealand classrooms. They are intended as a taster to the software and digital content – an indication of how one teacher has recognised the potential to support learning. Current Snapshots of learning are posted on the Software for Learning website
Snapshots really are a wonderful resource to support teacher professional learning; those published in the last 18months drip of effective pedagogy and are written using the teaching as inquiry framework.
Some recently published snapshots include:
Using You Tube as an interactive presentation tool - Somerville Intermediate School
Children retell their stories through animation - Onehunga-Cuthbert Kindergarten
Te Reo peer tutoring using movie-maker and skype - Melville Intermediate
Access the full (and growing)collection here.
The Changing Face of Literacy - Powerpoint used during lecture.

The Changing Face of Literacy

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NZRA- Literacy Explosion Conference

I throughly enjoyed mixing with literacy guru's at this highly-engaging event.

A highight for me was Murray Gadd’s plenary, this focused on  supporting writing in Years 5-8.

The workshop notes are beginning to be placed on the NZRA website. 

The Registered Teacher Criteria wiki

This wiki was developed by the two national Digi Advisors. Our role includes promoting the use of digital content in schools including the use of key Ministry of Education sites such as Digistore and Software for Learning. We felt that there was little explicit reference to the use of e-learning in the criteria and that there was a place for a resource that helped teachers from all sectors to make the connections between the twelve criteria and the effective use of e-learning.

Teachers and schools could use this resource in a number of ways including:

• helping individual teachers to identify how their current practice in e-learning relates to the criteria in order to write to this in official appraisal documents;
• providing examples of how other educators are using e-learning in relation to the criteria in order to help teachers develop their own practice and set goals;
• supporting professional learning opportunities within schools that are focusing on the Registered Teacher Criteria and appraisal processes;
• providing a resource for school leaders to support teachers to develop goals related to the criteria which incorporate e-learning.

Registered Teacher Criteria and e-learning

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To view the full resource, click here:  http://registeredteachercriteria.wikispaces.com/

Walking the Talk: from facilitator to classroom teacher.

A local ICTPD cluster conference:  iteam,  gave me an ideal opportunity to share my reflections about the joys and pitfalls of integrating ICT into a Yr5/6 classroom.  Many thanks to Karen Mills, cluster facilitator,  for inviting me to be part of this event.

Facilitator2classroomiteam

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