Innovative learning activities at a busy time of year

Students and Staff have been involved in a number of EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) and school events over the past couple of weeks and there will be more exciting learning opportunities coming up, before the end of the term. Each one of these gives children experiences that they may not have had before, which increases the prior knowledge  they bring to their learning.
It does though bring with it a few issues, or perceived issues. A small group of students find change and transitions difficult at the best of time and at the end of the year their anxiety tends to increase and behaviours can start to slip. As teachers, and schools, we need to be flexible while trying to keep routines up as much as possible. It's about having a large number of management tools in your toolbox to draw from, including the support from parents, other staff members, management and outside agencies when necessary.
  

     

   

Great trip up Titiraupenga maunga last Thursday, with the students, teachers and parents of Rooms 1 and 3.
I was impressed with the 'Growth Mindset' attitude of so many of the children as we did the walk. For some children this was a walk that stretched their physical fitness and mental strength.
Myself, I felt a real pull back to my office - needing to have my head down in the paperwork tray, but the bush was calling and so was the need to be out of the office and spending time with the children, staff and parents. I'm glad the  bush won, even though it meant more work to do in the weekend.

Day One of the Term 4  2015- this will be a busy one as usual. Each term I think.... it will be a little quieter this term but this never eventuates. It's about finding the right balance I believe - carrying on with the curriculum as per normal but being smart about integrating Essential Learning Areas (ELA's) as much as possible to enable us to have coverage of all the necessary learning areas. This needs to be balanced out with the extra curricular activities and school events, which make schooling exciting. This is an area we are looking to review and revamp for 2016 so we can stay as energised as possible.

The Army Came to Town

                                                   

Last week the children and staff at Whakamaru School were part of a fun, learning event. The NZ Army were taking part in training exercises in the Mangakino area and offered to come to the school to set up a boot-camp style activity programme for the morning. All the children from Y1 - 8 were able to take part in some or all of the activities. These ranged from boot camp physical training, riding in the trucks, running up and down hill with the very heavy flack-jackets on, tasting some of the MRE 'Meal- Ready to Eat"dehydrated food and a session on the equipment they carry in their packs. Many children went home a different colour that day - army camouflaged faces.
I was very impressed  with the way the soldiers organised the sessions, their manner with our students  and the informative talk they gave to the older students, who were very interested in the army life.
Great to hear the animated talk in the playground  and oral language discussion in the classrooms, over the following days.
EOTC is such an important part of our education programmes - particularly for those students who do not get the opportunity to be involved in experiences such as these.

Term 3 week 3, according to a child councilor I have worked with in the past, is a 'tricky week' for some students. This can be the time that negative behaviours start to rear their heads, even in students who have not had issues earlier in the year. This is the time of the 'equinox' - the change of seasons and this particular  councilor believe this has a negative affect on some students. Whether you believe this or not, I have found that this certainly a tricky time of year. It would be interesting to see if anyone has data around this 'phenomena'. We need to consider what we do to keep children on track and getting through to the end of the term in an appropriate manner. One strategy I have found useful is the child who is heading off track behaviorally goes to a buddy class as the teacher's helper. This is not seen as a punishment but more as 'distraction therapy'. Most children thrive on being given responsibility. Let's see if this will work this week.

We have a great positive behaviour programme at our school which involves students getting vouchers for positive behaviour and work habits. When the children get 20 vouchers we have a Pizza Party, 40 equals a Pool Party, 60 means off to the movies etc... Today I got to take a group of great kids and a couple of supportive Mums to the AC Baths for the Pool Party. What a great day! The children were awesome - polite, sensible, enthusiastic and playful. I was very proud of them and we had some lovely comments from the AC Baths staff about our students.

   It is so important to balance consequences and positive reinforcement    when encouraging positive behaviour in children.

Great show today at Whakamaru School. The Edgewater College Band, from Auckland, presented a wonderful musical show to our students this morning. What a talented group of young people and dedicated staff members who directed the choirs and  bands. They had our students enthralled and engaged for nearly an hour. It was wonderful to hear the children talking about the show for the rest of the day.
No matter how important it is to have literacy and numeracy curriculum covered every day, it also hits home to me about the importance of introducing our students to, and the  teaching  of the Arts curriculum. With the crowded curriculum we need to be 'creative' and integrate these areas into the Inquiry/Topic sessions in our week.

 “I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.”

― Plato

A really interesting read "Learning Links:Strategic teaching for the learner-centered classroom" by Murdoch and Wilson (2004). Lent to me by one of my staff. I read it at the FTP conference and then have gone over the first couple of chapters again today. Fits nicely with the key teachings of the Incredible Years Course I facilitated for teachers when I was an RTLB, also to the Inquiry Cycle of learning/Action Learning approach. My staff and I will be working through this book as part of our professional reading - looking at how it relates to classroom practice, pedagogy and school vision. I'm sure it will evoke some interesting discussion.

Halfway through the FTP Principal Conference in Auckland! Inspiring and tiring at the same time! I have a bit of brain-overload, but I am looking forward to taking some time next week to reflect on the 'big ideas' and starting an action plan for change.
Though the speakers have been great, I always find the networking sessions some of the most valuable time spent at conferences. I really appreciate the MOE putting in place the First Time Principal  course - workshops, mentoring and conference.

Photo day - Smile

Today was school photo day. Everything went reasonably smoothly including the weather gods giving us a lovely autumn day with a colourful backdrop for the photos. It was lovely to see the preschoolers arriving to have the family photos done. The children arrived at school this morning dressed up for the event, with cool hairstyles and big smiles The staff even behaved for theirs - sitting up straight, smiling and not running away to get out of the annual photo.

First post

Today is the day I started my blog as  the Principal at Whakamaru School, Mangakino, NZ. As a staff we are learning how to set up and write blogs. Some of us are further ahead than others, but as we are life-long learners everyone is really willing to learn. It will great to see each classroom having it's own blog.