The Flipped Classroom

Andrea, Katie and Kristen have been exploring how they can use videos to support learning and teaching. Above are some of the videos they have created to support writing. Check them out!

Weekly Planning

Each week the children plan their week on a weekly planner (some do this digitally and some on paper).  At the start of the week, the teachers share their weekly planner with the children.  This allows the children to record their group sessions with the teacher, workshops, and other requirements. E.g. Writing support, sports coaching, music lessons. The children then plan when they will complete their learning tasks.  

It has been really exciting to see the children using their planners to arrange times when they are all available to work together on shared inquiries or to arrange a book club meeting when everyone can attend. The children are taking responsibility for managing their learning by selecting which learning task to complete, when, with who and where. They are responsible for prioritising their time on a daily basis so they can complete learning tasks before set deadlines.  

Conversations with individual children demonstrate that they have a clear understanding of how this system works and that they enjoy learning in this way because they like having the freedom to choose.  There are different support systems in place for children who need help with planning their day and prioritising their learning tasks.

Maths Learning

In the Senior Syndicate, we teach maths across seven cross-grouped classes from 9.00am - 10.00am each day.  We decided at the start of the year not to make any changes to our Maths programme in 2015 because we knew there would be lots of new learning involved in working in collaborative spaces for the first time.

As the year has progressed, some of the teachers have started to make changes to their maths programmes to reflect the learning and teaching approaches they are using in the areas of literacy and integration.

Andrea, Katie and Kristen give the children priorities they are required to complete throughout the week. These include: Basic facts practice, rich task problem solving, word problems, Mathletics, and strand related tasks. The children can complete the tasks in any order, on any day.

The teachers run different workshops throughout the week. Workshops may be focussed on number knowledge, number strategies, or strand based. The children worked alongside their teacher to develop an understanding of their individual strengths and next steps. This information has been tracked on personal goal cards for each child. The children use these goal cards to help identify which workshops they need to attend.

Andrea, Katie and Kristen have had to develop planning and tracking templates and systems to ensure that the children's learning needs are being met and challenged. They have adapted and developed these systems as the year has progressed.

Some comments from the children...

“I like it because we get to learn the strategies we don’t know very well instead of just learning a new one each week. Sometimes we needed more practise but the whole group had to move onto a new strategy.”

“If you forget how to do something you can go back to another workshop. If you go and then you realise you don’t need to stay because you know it, you can leave. It is wasting time if we already know it. We learn about things we don’t know.”

"Miss Gordon has workshops and we go to them if we need to and if we don’t go but Miss Gordon knows we need to go she comes and shoulder taps us."

Andrea shared the changes she has made to her maths programme with the Senior Syndicate teachers. Her presentation is below.

Integration in Action

The big idea for our integrated unit this term is 'Enterprise'. Our aim was for children to understand that businesses go through a process to become successful and apply that knowledge and their skills by forming a business. The learning throughout the term involved exploring different types of markets by visiting the Saleyards and the Farmers' Market in Feilding, learning how to write a CV and application letter, designing a syndicate currency, developing business plans, producing products, advertising and selling products. To support this learning, Simon Barnett from OBO shared his journey and gave the children valuable advice about being a successful entrepreneur. We have also had several parents join us to share their expertise throughout the term.

All children are now 'working' in a business venture. The children from GRi11 are selling products for real money to fundraise for a trip to Mind Lab in Wellington. Pot of Gold, Fab Five and VALT are earning our Senior Syndicate currency ‘Smackers’. The children applied for a job, developed business plans, conducted market research, completed budgets, designed and produced a wide range of products. The products will all be sold at our Market Day on Wednesday.  

School Visits

During Term Three, Senior Syndicate teachers used their CRT time to visit:

• Whakarongo School
• Amesbury School
• Island Bay School
• Parkland School
• Ashhurst School

These visits were an opportunity to further develop our understanding of innovative learning pedagogy and see other modern learning environments in action.

Thank you to each of the schools who shared their exciting journey with us. We loved listening and talking to passionate educators and children who love learning!

Providing Evidence of Learning

This year the children in GRi11 have a digital version of our integration matrix in their Google Drive. The children record their evidence and provide links to learning examples that support the indicators on our integration matrix.  As a result, the children have a clear understanding of their next learning steps.

Day to Day Learning and Teaching

In the Senior Syndicate, we teach maths across seven cross-grouped classes from 9.00am - 10.00am each day.  We decided at the start of the year not to make any changes to our Maths programme in 2015 because we knew there would be lots of new learning involved in working in collaborative spaces for the first time.

From 10.00am to 3.00pm, the children are taking responsibility for managing their learning by selecting which literacy or integration learning task to complete, when, where and with who. They are responsible for prioritising their time on a daily basis so they can complete learning tasks before required deadlines. For some children this process is significantly guided by the teacher, for most children, they are now independently taking responsibility for managing their learning.

At times throughout the day children are involved in:

• Small group learning with a teacher e.g. Guided reading group sessions, guided writing group sessions, maths problem-solving group sessions, spelling group sessions.
• Optional workshops with a teacher e.g. Learning how to organise ideas into paragraphs, learning how to write an argument, multiplication strategy workshop.
• Individual conferences with a teacher e.g. Touching base in relation to a research task, providing feedback on a piece of writing, getting started with a maths problem-solving challenge.
• Learning co-operatively in peers or small groups e.g. Completing a group research task and communicating learning, attending book club meetings.
• Learning independently e.g. Crafting writing, silent reading, reading follow-up tasks, completing assessments, practising spelling words, practising basic facts. 
• Whole class learning e.g. Writing motivation and modelling, maths rich task introduction.
• Syndicate learning/activities e.g. Sports Rotations, Syndicate Singing, Go For Gold Programme (Term Two only.) 
• School events e.g. School assemblies, cross country.