Genius Hour Presentations

Our term of 'Genius Hour' is coming to a close. We have had varied results. Some student's were very successful in their endeavours while others chose to waste their time and didn't achieve the results they had hoped for. They spent Monday presenting their final projects to the class. They explained what their genius hour was, why the chose it and the process they took to get to their final result.

Student's were easily able to identify those who had had success and who had chosen an interesting topic. Student's that had wasted their time communicated that they would like to do 'Genius Hour' again because now they have seen a successful end result.

The whole topic was facilitated through reflection sheets, conferencing and planning sheets. I can see the areas that need improvement if I was to attempt to do this again.

It was a great way to start the year to see what they were passionate about, I was able to see their inquiry skills and where we need to go next. I was able to see who could work independently and manage their time. I was also able to see who works well in a group and who works better on their own. Although the final projects were not all amazing the process the students took was very successful. Most students identified 'Genius Hour' as their favourite subject and were always asking for it as a reward for finishing their work early.


Genius Hour Projects:

Bradley & Ash - Research about characters in 'Assassins Creed IV'
Tanner, Kyle, Michael, Bryce & Hunter - Create a working theme park in Minecraft
Ronan & Cameron - Design & create an electric rubber (initially - create a storage compartment for a jeep)
Casey & Marnie - Invent two new chocolate flavours
Maya - Design a Harry Potter app
Rawinia - Deisgn and create a jewellry box
Senna & Cassidy - Create a blog about harp seals
Tegan - Create a fitness board game
Devon - Create a blog about caring for rabbits
Daniel & Thomas - Reupholster classroom chairs/redesign classroom furniture
Anthony, Cole & Matthew - Create working fast food restaurants on Minecraft
Shaurye - Showing the class how to create a book on Toondoo
Tanner, Sacha, Alexa & Estelle - Creating a P.E. game based on the Hunger Games, designing costumes for the arrival and a reaping ceremony.

If I was to do Genius Hour again I would have a stricter focus and facilitate certain students more, e.g. - you need to fill a need by creating a product, or you need to design a prototype, test it, reflect and then present a final product. 

P3 have been discussing the idea of Genius Hour being all to do with our class YouTube channel. They want to make episodes and videos that are educational and entertaining (e.g. Kid President) on things they are passionate about. 

Depending on the time table for next term will determine whether or not this is a feasible activity. 

Netball Noho

Last Friday night Whaea Liana, Whaea Te Aorha and myself spent the night at school...with 36 girls!
We decided what better way to build tikanga and whakawhanaungatanga than have a noho.

We began the night by having the girls set up their beds (in the staffroom) and sort out their kai for our pot luck dinner. Then we set up the hall and began the night with two guest speakers, 1 spoke about commitment and all the qualities needed to be a netballer and the other spoke about respect on the court from the perspective of an umpire.

Next we played team building games, did some jump jam and the girls in their teams presented a little skit. We all sat down together and had a lovely dinner with dessert dropped off by a very lovely mama. To the end the night we did our clean up and watched 'The Gabby Douglas Story', this is an amazing movie about an African American gymnasts character, determination and how she overcame all the obstacles that could have stopped her from becoming an Olympian.

The next day we woke up around 7am and the girls went for an hour run. We sat down together and had breakfast before commencing our big clean up. We went through the sporting code of conduct and had a round of sheriff - each girls gets a chocolate bar, the teachers have an opportunity to fine anyone for anything they did while at the noho, e.g. - snoring. Then the student's without a chocolate have an opportunity to fine and finally everyone who is fined goes around and defends their case. This was a very cool way to end our noho.

Overall it was a huge success. There was a very relaxed vibe and the girls definitely bonded with each other and us as their coaches.

#eduigniterotovegas

6pm - 8pm

Mokoia Intermediate

Mokoia Attendees - Kassey, Rachel, Anna, Annemarie

Order of presentations

- Justine (@cossie29) 'I don't give homework any more'
- Sonya (@vanschaijik) 'Teach Meet NZ'
- Monika (BeLchick1) 'Building you own PLN'
- Annemarie (mrs_hyde) 'Page 36 - A very good page to start'
- Anna (AnnaGerrit) - Learning Spaces

I don't give homework any more

- Think about all the excuses you get each week for why homework wasn't complete

- Why do we give homework?
        - Parents and caregivers want it
        - Reinforces what we do in the classroom
        - It's good practise and practice

- Homework types
      - Single sheet with lots of different activities
      - Projects
      - Homework that makes an attempt at the individualized learning programme

- Why was it important to change?
    - Students were completing it out of compliance
    - It wasn't individualized or challenging enough
    - Hard to provide effective feedback
    - Challenge student's thinking
    - Mismatch in beliefs and practice

- I do give prep for learning
    - Connections
    - Interactions
    - Questioning
    - Creating and sharing knowledge
    - Passion for learning
    - Critical thinking


Teach Meet NZ 

- Hyperconnectivity 'create, connect, collaborate'
- After sessions discussion will carry on on twitter with the #teachmeetnz


Building your own PLN

- Professional relationships, not personal
- VLN is the biggest staffroom in the country
- Pinterest
- Twitter - mirco blogging and easily accessible
- Bling for your blog

Page 36 - A very good page to start

- Annemarie's favourite page of the NZC
- Environments we should be in
- Shared Learning
- Supportive learning environments
- Ako, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, tuakana teina
- Opportunities to learn
- SAMR Model
- Game based learning
- Maker culture
- Coding
- Approach every new experience with wonderment and awe
- Think like a child
- Don't worry that you don't know
- Try new things
- Look for the positives
- Keep asking questions
- Collaboration, teamwork, power of the group, participating and contributing
- Confident, connected, actively involved, life-long learners


Learning Spaces

- Bean bags do not make a modern environment, however they do add extra comfort. They are easy to move
- Mosquito nets create privacy but as a teacher you can say what is going on
- Outdoor bean bags have a tougher fabric
- Standing table (Anna's fav piece of furniture) - student's excited to work here
- Built in benches
- Student's may not use furniture how you think they would
- Where they want to learn may not be where you want to learn, but who cares if they are focused and safe?
- Pop up tent
- Learning space is always changing - encouraging children to explore the space and use it in different ways - this will give them ownership!
- How does your space impact your learning?
- Fun fast paced presentations using flickr images, you choose the topic and it will randomize various internet images - Pechaflickr 

Minecraft PB4L City Update

Latest additions to our city:

- Farm

- McDonalds

- Burger King

- Theme Park

- Athletics Stadium

- Tram/Monorail

- New Homes

- Restaurant

- Waterslide

- Carpark

- Park

TPT: Drama Circles

Fluency boot camp and developing confidence in P3 has begun!

P3 are using these amazing drama circles for oral language and active listening.

They are set out in the same format as the maths game loopy. 'I have...who has...?'

Student's need to actively listen for the action that comes before their card, however if they do get lost all the cards are numbered and I keep track of where we are up to and prompt when necessary.

 We begin each drama circle by reading our card to a buddy and discussing how we could act out our set card.

We then do a run through, some student's have more than one card and it is by their choice that they take another card.

We then do a second run through where the student's pick one thing they could improve on.

I encourage my students to commit to the acting with their actions and expression. 

Each set has roughly 40 cards in it and can be purchased from TPT for around $3.

So far they have been a huge success and I have purchased most of Runde's Room Drama Circles. My Class beg for drama and fluency boot camp now and I have noticed an improvement in their oral language. 

Try out this free one below.

Free Drama Circle - Fairy Tales

P3 Book Club

P3 are avid readers!
They love to read and are always on the lookout for new and exciting books.
Children's literature is one of my biggest passions. I love getting my students excited about reading.
That is exactly what book club has done for my class. I carefully selected 5 books at varied levels and on varied topics to get their interest. I made sure to choose mostly books that are in a series to encourage student's to continue to read after book club is complete. The bonus was also that two of the books are going to be coming out at theatres this year!

We do book club twice a week. Our reading programme consists of  2 sessions of our novel study, 2 sessions of book club and 2 sessions of guided reading based on their ability (grouped). This way I am covering independent, guided and intensive comprehension in my reading programme.

The books I chose were:

- Divergent
- The Maze Runner
- The Recruit
- Holes
- Gone

I also had audio books for Divergent, Maze Runner, The Recruit and Holes. This was a huge hook in for most students, who were begging to listen to their books while they completed other work.
To counter this I made sure that students were also reading along to the books on their computer at the same time. We use an app called 'Readium', student's are able to load the books into their readium library and read at their own pace.

I created a clear sleeve for students with set tasks in each sleeve.
Students worked through these tasks in order:

1. Create a title page for your book
2. Answer the 'At Beginning' reading questions for your novel
3. Visualizing concept poster
4. Asking questions concept poster
5. Predicting concept poster
6. Main character poster - specific physical and personality traits
7. Tagxedo on their blogs about the books
8. Participate in a literacy circle with your book club peers

* Divergent book club - google maps activity to map out locations from the book.

These are the activities we have done so far, I am constantly trying to spice things up and adding new activities to their folders.

Students have already started recommending books for next term. I am so pleased with the results of our book club. Please recommend any other amazing books in the comments below!

Recommended book club books for term 2:

-      Harry Potter

-      Tomorrow When the War Began

-      The Seekers

-      The Hunger Games

-      The Host

-      The Rangers Apprentice

-      Enders Game

-      Inheritance Cycle (Eragon)

-      Roald Dahl Month (All Books)

-      The Book Thief

-      The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

-      It’s kind of a funny story

-      I am number four

-      The city of ember

Reaching the end of 'Wonder'

We are reaching the end of our novel study 'Wonder'. We have created character description posters, tagxedo's, had literacy circles and made predictions throughout the book. 

We are listening to the audio book and really enjoy that it is broken into different perspectives voiced by different people. 

We only have two parts of the book left - Miranda and August.

Some of our predictions and comments about 'Wonder':

Tanner - 'Wonder is a awesome book. I think that the school year will finish and the war will be over and it will be all ok. If you have not read this book I think you should because it is so cool'

Sacha - 'We have been reading the book ‘Wonder’ and it has been sad, awesome and funny. My prediction for the end of the book is everyone will treat August like a normal person and not look at him like he is an alien from space! I would recommend this book to the people who are willing to shed a tear and have a good laugh!'

Maya -'We have been reading Wonder for the last term and we are nearly at the end! Our teacher has assigned us to make a prediction. I think August will become very popular and not be the "weird, creepy dude" anymore and Julian will get caught and be in huge trouble!'

'

Minecraft PB4L City

Another year and another battle setting up and facilitating how I want/need Minecraft to run in our classroom. This year I am lucky enough that my team (myself + 3 other teachers) are on the MC bandwagon.


We began our Minecraft set up the same as we did last year.
I told all the students to go on and show me a creation. I asked them to build something to share with the class that showed their Minecraft skills. I do this for two reasons. Firstly I see the levels of skill and expertise in the room and secondly I am able to see the students' digital etiquette for one another. After this we used post it notes to reflect on our session. We reflected on what was good, what was bad, what our goals were for future projects and began creating our Minecraft treaty.

Student Positives:

- Teamwork
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Learning a new form of ICT
- Gaming in the classroom
- Maths (co-ordinates, volume, spatial awareness)
- Digital citizenship
- Our school values (respect, honesty, relationships and learning)

Student Negatives:

- Griefing
- People all trying to build on top of each other
- Some people not knowing how to play and needing constant help
- Issues for some getting on - having to go down to library and grab another laptop


Students used all of these to create a treaty that they all signed. They have agreed to abide by their treaty and have set consequences that they decided on for when they break it.

We then decided to build a PB4L (positive behaviour for learning) city.

We used another white sheet of paper to map out what our city required:
- Housing
- Roads
- Footpaths
- Workplaces - based on dream jobs
- Parks, forests, farms - nature related things


P3 began building all of the above. They were working very well with one another to achieve a successful result. We then bought in P2 and P3 became the tuakana teina to teach them how to use Minecraft. P2 then joined us in our area and began developing their own homes and workplaces alongside us. The students were commenting positively on newly formed relationships, successful teamwork and the ability to collaborate with a large group of students.

The main goal of this activity was to develop a digital etiquette and ensure our school values are also represented online.