Reflection from term one

I sit here on the last day of the school holidays thinking. There has been a lot going on around me this term. 

The challenge of a new school that is challenging me to think different. The challenge of a curriculum area that I am being questioned about at a local level, but also a national level. The challenge of developing innovate courses, which engage and challenge students thinking in a way that is challenging me to come up with new ways to report their progressions but also to get them to understand where they are at and what steps forward they can look at. Developing learners.

It has been a difficult term in the way of mindsets. Almost the whole staff went on a growth mindset professional development day, and I went to a ncea workload reference group meeting. In some ways this is summing up things at present. With the vision of our school, we are looking at the wellbeing of students through the framework of ncea. In which case is challenging me as president of a subject association. With ncea not being taken out of the picture, but having the focus on learning, rather than high states assessment. There have been a number of requests to drop some of the computer science areas to level one. this would mean that the data representation area would be replaced by possibly the programming components. I have always wondered sometime where things are, but I am starting to develop a better understand of what future focussed possibly means. Was it the intention that was thought about in 2010 when these standards were written that there could be the possibility of ncea level one not being taught in secondary schools in New Zealand. When I look at these standards now and what we are teaching them is it possible that this could be the intention of a junior curriculum, to develop this knowledge and skills?

Though I did gain some new understanding from the ncea workload reference group. We were asked to look at the fact sheets that were put out in 2011.

From 2014 there will be no unit standards based on the New Zealand Curriculum. http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/qualifications/ncea/understanding-ncea/the-facts/factsheet-2/

The NCEA workload reference group was an interesting meeting, though as all good things, it will take time to be able to make some difference.

The introduction of SOLO has been a bit hit and miss with me at present. But as I go through this year it is something that I am finding important. Something that possibly didn't hit me until Thursday when I went through the objective, description of each of my SPINS and then explained to the students what the SOLO levels were for each of them. The students probably understand this more than me at present as it is language that they are getting in every single block, and not just from one teacher.

I am lucky enough to be sitting on a reference group for the positioning of digital technologies. The first part of the meeting was looking at a vision. The vision of the New Zealand Curriculum and what this could mean for a learning area. It is interesting what education could look like in 2025. We were given a A3 paper in which it had what this could look like. It is interesting when I look at it I can see our school, not in the images that are used in it, but in what we are trying to achieve. Where students, teachers, and the community fit in. One area that I have been thinking about for a while is the one of peer to peer learners. Students learn a lot from each other and I saw that when I was going through school. I struggle to see how separating desks in a classroom helps with the learning, something I have never been able to do. 

Being aware of other teachers teaching, this is something that I am enjoying, no longer being in a room, locked away from others, instead I have teachers teaching around me. Seeing how they work with students, have the mini chat, working with students one on one or in some cases one to many different groups. It sparks ideas.

The challenge of the open plan office. This is something I am working on. It is interesting that both my brother and my father work in open plan offices and in talking to them I am now becoming aware of the positives and negatives. 

What have I managed to cover this term,

Manufacturing

Technological systems

Outcome development

The need for a onesie. An essential for International Onesie day, which we celebrate at school.

It was great catching up today with a number of staff from my old school, one comment was "How happy you look".

Now I am working through my planning for next term, working through python exercises, 3d modelling in sketchup and trying to work out ideas for mytime. Thank goodness for POND and the ability to add resources in that I can look at later. Some of the resources that I am finding and putting together will make interesting lessons.