Have you got a fantastic elastic brain....

THE book you need to teach growth mindset

Did you know you can stretch and grow your own brain? Or that making mistakes is one of the best ways your brain learns?

Just like how lifting weights helps your muscles get stronger, trying new things without giving up strengthens your brain.
Written by an educator and psychologist, this fun and engaging introduction to the anatomy and functions of the brain will empower each young reader to S-T-R-E-T-C-H and grow their fantastic, elastic brain!

Praise for Your Fantastic Elastic Brain:
"Dr. Deak has done a masterful job of creating a book for children, parents, and teachers to learn about the human brain together. The information is accessible and understandable, with illustrations that are engaging, fun, and alive! This is great reading material for everyone and will elicit many expressions of 'Now I get it!' from the adults!" ―Fretta Reitzes, Director, Goldman Center, 92nd Street Y
"Your Fantastic Elastic Brain is a wonderful, engaging book for parents and teachers to read with young children. It presents accurate information about the brain and how it relates to our lives...fostering motivation to learn and grow, consistent with our programs and research led by Carol Dweck, PhD." ―Eduardo Briceño, Co-Founder & CEO, Mindset Works
"Dr. Deak writes in a clear and interesting way about the complexity of the human brain, enhancing the knowledge of teachers and students. This book is a real contribution to the field of education in the twenty-first century." ―Joyce S. Pickering, Hum.D., Executive Director Emerita, Shelton School & Evaluation Center

Children from low socioeconomic families are exposed to prolonged stress. Thompson writes, “the biological effects of stress undermine the ability of children to focus on their own thinking” (p. 44). When they are faced with challenges in their learning, they become disengaged, as they are unable to identify the strategies needed to continue learning. This adaptive response serves them poorly in school, where they much concentrate and cooperate to do well. However, the plasticity of child’s developing brain is an opportunity for these ways of thinking to be buffered or reversed when intervention happens early in a child’s development. Therein lies the core belief of Carol Dweck’s growth mindset, that a person who holds a growth mindset sees intelligence as changeable, that through hard work, dedication and time, new talents can be learnt and intellect can be expanded. Seagal Education shares that through play children are better able to understand abstract concepts, like growth mindset. The teacher plays a vital role in facilitating play that instills a growth mindset.    RK Blog

Talking Trouble Workshop

Notes from "Talking Trouble"...

1. Keep your communication glasses on - look through your communication lenses at the situation.
2. What is this about? How long will it take? What was that all about? - how will they let you know if it is not making sense, did you check at the end that they knew, do they know what is going to happen next.
3. Break it down - look aout for jargaon; explain it.
4. Doodle with purpose - provide something for eyes to focus on.
5. Easy read - consider space, layout, colour, amount of information, pictures, charts and diagrams.
6. Effective understanding - review and write it down.
7. Behaviour communication - culture, language, additional needs & emotion.

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Communication themes;

• Whanau matters most - think about active support to stay connected.
• Negative experiences - clarify everyones viewpoint.
• Rapport and trust - priorties, time, knowledge and skills.
• Transaction - interest, impact and interaction.
• Safety - safe spaces to be honest.
• Listening - be creative in hearing a voice.
• Removing barriers - rid the blah, blah, blah.
• Triggers - tone, inotation and sarcasm.

Culture culture culture - the 5th skill in language

BIG C / little c

Pacific parents (in fact ALL parents) want their children to have a good education that involves them as their children’s first teachers. They see the home as providing their child with a strong foundation that included maintaining their first language. Therefore, Pacific parents want schools to help their children learn English. They expect schools to give their child homework, and that through homework parents would support and learn with their child. They expect communication to be regular and timely and they expect to be consulted on a range of matters.  For Pacific parents face-to-face communication is an important part of personalising engagement, having newsletters translated into their first language and posted to them is a good way of informing them about what is happening in the school. For some parents, having Pacific representation on the board of trustees is beneficial because it gives them a voice in the wider functioning of the school. Their involvement in cultural groups and festivals in the school and the wider community helps to build confidence and a sense of belonging.  Opportunities to be involved in celebrations, particularly those acknowledging a range of achievements for their children and not just academic success, strengthens relationships with their children and with teachers.  Parent support group meetings offer a forum to discuss common interests, issues and ways to help their children with learning at home. Some parents found the experience of being involved in formal home-school partnership programmes, especially those focused on literacy and numeracy, very positive. Engagement works best when their child’s culture was acknowledged and respected.  Language and communication are challenges to effective engagement for Pacific parents.   Some Pacific parents are reluctant to go to meetings at their child’s school

Pacific parents would like to be contacted more often about their child’s positive achievements. Pacific parents said they would like to be informed about celebrations of their child’s achievement, especially when their child was receiving an award or certificate at assembly.  Pacific parents expected honest reporting about their child’s progress and achievement. They also wanted to be contacted sooner rather than later when concerns or issues arose regarding their children’s education or well-being.  Some parents commented that having a homework centre at their child’s school built their own confidence in helping with their child with learning. Having a senior manager responsible for improving educational outcomes for Pacific students helped them feel that their children’s learning was seen as a priority.  Pacific parents believe that it is important that school staff, particularly teachers, had some understanding about working with Pacific families. Where this was lacking, they thought teachers could be supported by some relevant training from Pacific organisations. Where teachers had an understanding of the different Pacific ethnicities and values it was easier for Pacific parents to develop relationships with the school.  Some schools organised meetings for groups of parents based on their ethnicity. When these meetings were well managed, parents found them a good way of getting to know other parents in the community, and as a forum for discussing school-related matters and sharing ideas of common interest.

“It is like a bird needing two strong wings to fly.”

Col T4 #1

Language in Abundance

Dr. Jannie Van Hees

Complex language needs complex understanding,
which requires analytical depth,
which NEEDS unpacking...

Meaning-Making demands...

• Prior knowledge
• Connections
• Extended vocab
• Context understanding rather than fluency

Manaiakalani Inquiries

1. Summarise the challenge of student learning you focused on in this inquiry

2. Describe how and why you first selected this challenge of student learning at the beginning of your inquiry

3. Describe the tools/measures/approaches you used to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.

4. Summarise your key findings about the nature and extent of the student challenge i.e. using your baseline student data and evidence.

5. Describe the main hypotheses you developed about factors that might contribute to this problem of student learning (e.g. particular features of teaching or out of school practices that were not as effective as they might be).

6. Explain why you hypothesised that these factors would contribute to the student learning problem. Give reasons and refer to professional readings, colleagues and experts you consulted etc.

7. Explain how you tested your hypotheses about factors that might contribute to the problem of student learning e.g. observations of teaching, student voice about out of school practices

8. Summarise your key findings about possible causes of the problem of student learning identified in the profiling phase i.e. present your baseline data and evidence about teaching and other factors that affect student learning

9. Describe in detail the intervention you designed to address the student learning problem i.e. exactly what did you plan to change? Be specific about actions, timelines etc.

10. Explain in detail your theories about why that intervention would positively impact on the problem of student learning (i.e. explain the causal chain you theorised).

11. Describe in detail the sources of information you drew on to design your intervention (e.g. readings, courses, people).

12. Give specific examples of how you monitored the effectiveness of your intervention and made adaptations as you went along

13. Summarise evidence about key changes in teaching and other factors that influence student learning.

14. Summarise evidence about key shifts in the problem of student learning

15. Write an overall evaluation of your intervention in terms of the causal chain you had theorised. i.e. To what extent was the intervention successful in changing factors such as teaching? To what extent were those changes in teaching effective in changing patterns of student learning?

16. Write a reflection on your own professional learning through this inquiry cycle

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As my 2year T.I rapidly comes to a conclusion at GIS I am left in awe and wonder at the direction it has taken, the gains it has made and the impact it has had on the community, the students and myself. There have, and are, personal and professional disappointments at the lack of depth in understanding, inequity, appreciation and buy-in from my colleagues but these "pits" become insignificant in comparison to the 'mountain tops' of promise...

From...

READING TOGETHER >

STORY SACKS >

READING TOGETHER (ii) >

M.O.E PELP >

KETE TALANOA'S

...resulting in ACCELERATED PROGRESS (for my x6 target students) I could not have written this ending as I began my journey into the unknown by not knowing.

By believing and trusting, by having faith and hope, by looking and searching, by listening and hearing, by working and striving, by patience and perseverance, by doing all of this and so much more of this with love and compassion I have facilitated success - #itsneveraboutme!

!!WATCH THIS SPACE!!

HC GIS T.I 2017/2018 EVALUATIVE RESULTS COMING WK 5