Character Strengths

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How can focussing on our character strengths help us to improve learning?

Self esteem?

Those who are not traditionally good at learning will have some great character strengths

Positive self talk - I am curious

Focussing on what I am good at rather then deficit model thinking

How can I introduce into NE classroom - active noticing when characteristics are shown - I really like the way you were kind

Digital Technology Integration PD

Not a new curriculum - just a change in where things sit

Going forward - how can we integrate more digital learning into what we are doing?

- Digital options for follow up activities

- Children sharing with Seesaw

- Independence with Ipads

Wai Ako Teacher only day

1.7b Whakarongo mai Listen to me

Really fun activity for the class with great actions to go with the commands. A great way to gain confidence using Reo in the classroom with commands - maybe 1 per week

1.7b Whakarongo mai Listen to me

Lyrics Translation

Whakarongo mai, kōtiro mā, whakarongo mai

Titiro mai, kōtiro mā, titiro mai

E tū, kōtiro mā, e tū

Haere mai, kōtiro mā, haere mai

E noho, e tama mā, e noho

Kia tau, e tama mā, kia tau

Hoihoi, e tama mā, hoihoi

Whakarongo mai, tamariki mā, whakarongo

mai

Titiro mai, tamariki mā, titiro mai

E tū, tamariki mā, e tū

Haere mai, tamariki mā, haere mai

E noho, tamariki mā, e noho

Kia tau, tamariki mā, kia tau

Hoihoi, tamariki mā, hoihoi

Listen to me, girls, listen to me

Look this way, girls, look this way

Stand up, girls, stand up

Come here, girls, come here

Sit down, boys, sit down

Settle down, boys, settle down

Be quiet, boys, be quiet

Listen to me, children, listen to me

Look this way, children, look this way

Stand up, children, stand up

Come here, children, come here

Sit down, children, sit down

Settle down, children, settle down

Be quiet, children, be quiet

Restraint Training

Not Restraint training - more how to defuse a situation so that it doesn't become a restraint situation

Adrenaline and Dopamine inhibit the child's ability to think clearly, or make good decisions

Important to intervene before behaviour happens

Keep yourself safe - don't get yourself into a situation where someone could get hurt from being restrained. Or don't intervene and compromise your personal safety

Incredible Years Teacher Course - working doccument

My Goal - Using positive calming strategies to encourage positive behaviour.

The six sections of the pyramid are broken down into:

-      - Building Positive Relationships

-       - Being a Proactive Teacher

-       - Giving Attention – Encouragement       and Praise

-       - Motivating through incentives

-       - Decreasing inappropriate behaviour

-       -  Negative consequences

         Session 1 - Building Relationships - the start of the Behaviour Plan:

 Building strong relationships is the most important thing “a nurturing teacher-student relationship built on trust, understanding, and caring will foster students’ cooperation and motivation, and promote their learning, social and emotional development, and academic achievement at school” 

Student:	Strengths:	Behaviour:	Positive Relationship Strategies:
Nate	Articulate Social Good leader Loves to help Passionate	Impulsive Hits others Impatient	Descriptive commenting, commenting without making judgement. “I can see your blue bricks…” “you have blue bricks on the top” Takes the pressure off less verbal students to respond Morning greetings Getting to know family
Rocky	Social Good academically	Impulsive Leads others into trouble Doesn’t share
Campbell	Good sense of humor Articulate Enjoys others	Impulsive Hits others
Sean	Social Good sense of humor Quick witted	Sneaky Unkind words to others
Jack	Social Physically active	Too physical Doesn’t share Drawn to other difficult behaviour

Session 2: Giving Attention, Encouragement and Praise

There are many skills that can be coached by a teacher: social, emotional, academic and persistence skills. Coaching academic skills can be done by simply naming the things that the students are doing while they work. Giving them the language (can be very beneficial for ESOL students) and is not demanding anything from the student, as questions would. Through social coaching you can label the skills they a showing and praise them at the same time e.g. I can see that (child) is sharing with (child), great job this way you both get a turn. Coaching persistence can give the child the encouragement they need to keep going e.g. I can see you are really focusing so well, even though it's getting tricking you are still working on those maths questions and now you're halfway

Session 3: Motivating through incentives

Incentives can be a really powerful tool for a class, for a group, or an individual. Working with a student and their family to come up with an individual incentive system and goals when necessary is so much more powerful than me just thinking about what they need to work on and what I could give. This gave more ownership to my students, who had already come up with the positive things they needed to do instead of the undesirable behaviour

Gifted and Talented PD

Gifted children present themselves in different ways

Look at the world through a different lense

Looking at concepts rather then topics - need to know the connections between things

Often socially awkward - struggle relating to peers their own age

not always the top of the class

Seemed like a very Inquiry based approach

Need to change our focus questions to be more concept based - can I take this idea and change something in my life

Yolanda Soryl - Phonics

Primary Phonics
Fundamental for early reading 

and writing

'Phonemic awareness is fundamental to early success in reading and writing … An understanding of phonics also underpins children's literacy learning. Children need to learn, through deliberate, focused instruction, which letters represent which sounds.' — Effective Literacy Practice in Years 1–4, (2003, p.32), Ministry of Education, Wellington.

Understanding Phonics

It is at word level that many children fail to grasp the skills necessary to recognise or sound out unknown words for reading and spelling. This is where the explicit teaching of the word level skills of phonic and graphic knowledge can quickly empower children to read and write.

Of course, learning to read and write is not just about getting the words. Children need to learn how to use meaning and structure too so that everything they read and write looks right, sounds right and makes sense. They need to have a range of strategies and be able to work at word, sentence and text levels. Working at word level using phonics is just one part of literacy development, but it is particularly vital for beginning readers and writers.

It is important that teachers not only understand the necessity of explicitly teaching at word level by including phonics in their balanced literacy programmes, but also how to teach it effectively. Having trained thousands of teachers both nationally and internationally since 2000, Yolanda Soryl is New Zealand’s foremost phonics training provider.

Start at stage 2 - go through each letter

Break into 2 groups:

Lower - go through stage 2 again

higher - go onto stage 3 - end sounds

Lesson flow for Stage 2

Hear - flashcards of sound - I say you say

Read - word story with the initial sound

Write - practise writing the grapheme on your whiteboard