What a fantastic day. He is a very interesting and motivating character to listen to. He makes you THINK! What is the thinking classroom and how can it be achieved?
He believes that if you teach thinking you are doing the Key Competencies.
His model is Caring thinking, Critical thinking and Creative thinking. He acknowledges that this is not the only model but one he believes in and has used.
His ideas around keeping your thinking curriculum simple made sense to us. Teaching particular thinking tools at particular levels is essential. Teach something and do it well. Make it (Desirable Manageable and Achievable).
Monday, September 22, 2008
Term 3 Where to next???
After several staff meetings with staff reflecting and sharing about where they are at, what they found difficult, confusions etc. We as lead teachers decided that we needed a third party to observe, feedback and give teachers an opportunity to have professional dialogue with.
From this Jan and the lead teachers revised our model and broke down each part of the process to gain further understanding of the Inquiry Process. This also helped us identify what we needed to do with the staff as our next step.
From this we have:
Revised the model, changed the planning format, re assess our prior planning. Develop better understanding of the process, and now are able to better communicate our understanding. Which has lead to better staff meetings with a clear focus.
Also as lead teachers we are now one step ahead and are able to guide the staff on a purposeful journey.
From this Jan and the lead teachers revised our model and broke down each part of the process to gain further understanding of the Inquiry Process. This also helped us identify what we needed to do with the staff as our next step.
From this we have:
Revised the model, changed the planning format, re assess our prior planning. Develop better understanding of the process, and now are able to better communicate our understanding. Which has lead to better staff meetings with a clear focus.
Also as lead teachers we are now one step ahead and are able to guide the staff on a purposeful journey.
Inquiry Learning Term 3
Using our professional learning from a variety of schools and PD days, we began looking at and developing an inquiry model for our school. As we are a SHINE school, we decided to use the acronym S H I N E to devise the key words of the process of Inquiry at our school.
Lots of debate about how to go about it. With major consultation with Jan we decided the best step forward for Taitoko was to give the teachers the model and work with their findings and reflections to develop understanding and ownership.
S park
H ave a go
I nvestigate
N avigate
E xpress
As a staff we did some professional reading around Inquiry Learning especially directed and guided at this stage. We talked through the model and discussed what the expectations would be in our classes. Lots of talk and sharing about their understandings. When teachers talk you gain a lot about what their thinking is or isn't.
As a staff we decided that we would have a whole school context for learning. This came about by brainstorming all the possibilities under the umbrella "What makes NZ NZ?. We then asked the teachers to have informal dialogue with their own students to see what makes them tick.
All classes had various ideas and it was neat to see the students have a voice and teacher not be to afraid to take the risk to learn about something unfamiliar.
Some examples: What is special about our town?
Justice past or present
Pictures that tell a story
Lots of debate about how to go about it. With major consultation with Jan we decided the best step forward for Taitoko was to give the teachers the model and work with their findings and reflections to develop understanding and ownership.
S park
H ave a go
I nvestigate
N avigate
E xpress
As a staff we did some professional reading around Inquiry Learning especially directed and guided at this stage. We talked through the model and discussed what the expectations would be in our classes. Lots of talk and sharing about their understandings. When teachers talk you gain a lot about what their thinking is or isn't.
As a staff we decided that we would have a whole school context for learning. This came about by brainstorming all the possibilities under the umbrella "What makes NZ NZ?. We then asked the teachers to have informal dialogue with their own students to see what makes them tick.
All classes had various ideas and it was neat to see the students have a voice and teacher not be to afraid to take the risk to learn about something unfamiliar.
Some examples: What is special about our town?
Justice past or present
Pictures that tell a story
We are finally Blogging!!!
Here at Taitoko we are finally able to begin blogging our journey. We are well into Inquiry Learning and now we are ready to document and share. Yippee!
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