Merryl

= [ invalid media tag ] > [ invalid media tag ] > media type="custom" key="9478310" > width="140" height="140" align="left" = = media type="youtube" key="INoTyNCFpXg" height="349" width="560" = This is the photo we used = media type="custom" key="9424704" width="120" height="120" align="left" = oto we did the green hat thinking task around Another photo we could use - Another photo we could use - =6.05.11= This slide is my first go at using slide. To further develop my classes understanding of the green thinking hat we looked at a photo Jackie took for us, of a sign advertising firewood on the side of a street, We talked about things people sell, and listened to stories from the children about what they had sold before like this. Then we drew a little green hat in our learning journeys and brainstormed all the things we thought of that we could sell outside our houses. This was a tuning in activity for our Inquiry = = [|KWHLchart] ﻿[|Blooms Wheels.doc] [|.SWOTanalysis]
 * * media type="custom" key="9640234"[[image:DIVIDER1.jpg width="772" height="32"]]media type="custom" key="9613382"Thought I should put this in - thanks to Lyn for all her hard work with us today and yesterday. 31.05.11

media type="custom" key="9227328" media type="custom" key="9239884" || =I really enjoyed our professional learning with Lyn. It has been important to me that as a staff we explore teacher inquiry and now we are started!!! Great! I am excited about us having a thinking tool box with agreed progressions through the school that still allows for flexibility. I would also like to see this with Elearning. = =I t was good to hear Lyn recap the important points within Inquiry Learning, and her discussion around what do we need to ensure students learn and that 21st century learning is about new skills not content. That knowledge is a verb now, not a noun. All fits firmly with my thoughts - what do others think about this? = =W hen I asked my class what thinking was they didn't really know what to say. With the thinking tools and scaffolding we have been exploring perhaps different answers will now be available. I feel better equipped to plan my next inquiry with thinking activities included to develop the thinking competency further with my children. = ||  ||
 * media type="custom" key="8833400" || = 26.03.11 =
 * Te Apiti ||  ||   ||
 * media type="custom" key="9513596" ||  ||   ||

‘How can my students and I successfully develop our understandings and practice of the ‘Thinking Competency’? ||
 * **Teaching as Inquiry** **Teacher planning and reflections** ||
 * **My name: Merryl** || **Class Level: Year 5/6** ||
 * **Achievement Target:** What outcomes am I aiming to achieve? What outcomes do I want my students to achieve?
 * **Timeframe: Terms 2/3** ||

Baseline: Find out what students can already do and what more they need to learn. Refer to National Curriculum and other resources || **Reflective questions** || Post reflections here || Dates || - need to have PL around graphic organisers and how best to use them - I need to practise using them - I need to improve my undertsanding of all or well some of theses - || 28.004 27.05 || I really don't think our kids know much about thinking tools or organisers, Actually need some help here to collect initial evidence, although have started. After todays work around ideas for business or services I can see how using a swot will help them to see which idea may be better than others and give them a next step. On Friday 3 my class completed a thinking type testy thing to see what they could say about different graphic organisers and tools ( Naming and describing their use) They did this with the reliever, this was after a discussion with Lyn and seeing what Kim had done with her class - I guess we will do it again at the end of this Inquiry. it was disappointing to see some had not been able to say what a PMI was even though we have used this this year several times ( I have only looked at a few || 12.04 06.06 || 28.04 ||
 * **Discovery** || **Focusing** |||||| //Initial plan. What am I going to do? Develop? Strengthen? Why?// ||
 * ^  || Potential – what might be? Prioritise outcomes.
 * ^  ||^   || Why am I focusing on this? || ==To improve my competence in the understandings and the practice of the thinking competency. This will then improve outcomes for students by lifting their understandings and giving them skills and tools to help develop the key competency of thinking.==
 * ^  ||^   || What level are my students presently at? How do I know? || - some have some understanding of the thinking hats but not all- we have used Y charts within our Inquiry this term - mainly in groups- need to introduce more graphic organisers and thinking tools, and thinking strategies- 27.05Have asked kids who knows what the yhinking hats are - maybe 4 kids could say something but not a lot
 * ^  ||^   || What barriers to learning need to be overcome? What resources will I need? || = =  barriers - there doesn't seem to be any time to search, find, plan and get ready!! I need to take the time to investigate graphic organisers to determine those that will suit the year 5/6 students. I need to find out the tools at the year1 4 level within our tool box so I can use these with my class too.I would like to enlarge and laminate copies of these or /and save on the activboard to use as models for the class. ( I need to practise this!!)  || 12.04
 * ^  ||^   || Other observations, reflections or ideas to try || =Some release time for all teachers sooner than later to do the things they want to do to help them get going might be useful? Will discuss this with Damon?= ||   ||



===Research to see what has worked for other teachers and contexts. Formulate a plan. media type="custom" key="9513598" === || **Reflective Questions** || Post reflections here || Dates || SWOT, PMI, alphabet key, seven servants, levels of questioning =I still want you keep my reading groups as such - I think I need to get more courageous and do things like the task sheets afterwards with all the different thinking tasks around the topic or journey or a picture 30.05 - I might try this tomorrow= ==media type="custom" key="9641158"Today after Caleb showed us photo's his dad' new boat we had a lessom around asking closed and open questions( Skinny or fat) I also asked the children who new what I was talking about, who had used these terms in previous years. I think 6 children put their haands up. Anyhow we did a little bit of practising. Then we got into twos and a few threes. Each group had an a3 piece of paper. There task was to come up with skinny and fat questions around the boat. Some realised questions were on the wrong side and drew arrows. I heard some children discussing a question and how to add to it to make it fatter. We even had some chubby questions! They were engaged. After we sat in a donut circle, children from the pair moved one way, the other from the pair shared their questions with the new partner and discussed whether it was a closed or open question etc.== || 28.04 || =**19.05 Today I had planned to do a KWHL media type="custom" key="9513690" as a prior knowledge sort of activity with my children - we never got to it AGAIN!!! So at the end of the day when I was talking about tomorrow and doing this activity - i asked who knew what it was - no one did!! That got me thinking about doing a survey to get some evidence on hats, venn diagrams, pmi, etc, then to do a similar survey later to see the growth in their abilty to name the graphic organisers and to say when might be a time you would use them. there is a slight barrier - I feel too busy to make the time to plan the survey. TIME TIME TIME**= =I've been thinking more about this and tomorrow I will just ask who knows what a good way to prganise ot thoughtson our topic, then ask who knows what a KWHL is, who has used one before etc= = = =Oh well at least slide.com is working at school Now that's nice. Well one day it will and another day it won't!!= = = =**Today I used green hat thinking to see how my children coped with this - wonderfully!!!! I have spent a little bit of time playing with slide and after a few failed attempts tonight I have had success. My next step will be to use green hat thinking again with a different task, I will give my class a different activity tomorrow, take photos of these and put into slide and present on this wiki. I guess this is some of my initial evidence - I'm hoping by the end of the inquiry the class will be able to choose the hats and the correct hat because of the need of a task - perhaps without me suggesting the hats or the right hat for the job.**= || 28.04 6.05.11 19.05 22,05 ||
 * **Designing** || **Teaching** |||||| //What is my plan for doing this? What strategies will I try? How will I change my practice?// ||
 * ^  || ===What craft knowledge do I already have? Search your own and colleagues' past practice for strategies that may be more effective. ===
 * ^  ||^   || What new teaching strategies & tools will I use? || =Within my Inquiry planning I have now made specific mention of thinking tools, graphic organisers and levels of questioning that I will use at specific times.=
 * ^  ||^   || What are the key steps for implementing my inquiry in the classroom? || Planning tasks and reflecting on the effectiveness of theses 6.06 ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What methods & ICTs will I use to track & record student change/achievement and how often? || =**I will do some activities early into the term using some graphic organisers that will become focus for us to get first examples of use. I will scaffold the students further with these tools and take samples through the inquiry to evidence the growth in thinking using these tools looking for more fluency in ideas, student voice, a wider range of perspectives etc . I will scan the first examples and learn how to use slideshare and put the first, later and maybe later examples onto my blog and maybe onto here to show hopefully a growth in the ability of students using the organisers and the growth in their thinking through using tools or organisers**=
 * ^  ||^   || Other observations, reflections or ideas to try || ==Our team need to confirm the tools in our thinking tool box.Also need to make examples of these and have them readily availavble for studentsmedia type="custom" key="9676510" align="left"==

==Today I have planned a reading response sheet with follow up activities using lyns question ideas and activity starter with Blooms - attached 10.06 - kids really happy to be working on this, 3 have tos and the a choice of one initially from three creative activities==

Today we used superclubsplus to go on the hot seat(live) on superclubsplus.
==Have a look.media type="custom" key="9716864"We had fogotten it was on, so only had a short amount of time to immerse ourselves in the topic, then chn worked to wrire questions to ask of Kate Leeming. Some said do we need to do open questions - I said think of the purpose of your question. So we had all sorts ' cause they were actually just so excited when it came to the online hot seat time. What we might do now is take some of the closed questions and rewrwite them to make a much more open question. I waws plaeased that they even stopped to consider whether closed or open questions would be needed.==

==Today we explored stationery and staionary for some reason. then I got them in pairs to come up with a sentence using one of the stauonerys, their partner had to say hwich one it was - then I started who can ask a question where the answer is either statuonery or statonary - that was good fun and stretched their thinking. Harry was great - his was something like, What product does Smiggle produce?==

==13.06Today I decided to try an idea from Lyn - we started the day off with doing a PMI on our weekends - it took ages and some are better then others - I like the concept - BUT we ran put of time and forgot to share - we wll have to do this tomorrow - i think i will do the same thing for the next few week to get them better at using the PMI.==

24.06
== Worked a little more today on SWOT, watched a You tube clip on SWOT - real business, just a little and this helped with future discussion around selling key words, and the need to then weigh up all the points to help with the final decision. ==

Also spent tme at writing looking at the PMI's we did on events, children had to weigh up PMI's and make concluding statements and recommendations - some coped, some had trouble with this.
1.07 - still working on SWOTs - chn had to come to a conclusion weighing up the two options of producst for their business which would be the better option - some found this very challeneging - some came to a conclusion but then still reallly want to make the other product!! 22.08 Last night I made two tasks for my reading groups - I used Blooms to guide me to ensure I stretched the thinking within the activities. ||  ||

Use this new information to decide what to do next to ensure continued improvement in student achievement and in your own practice. ||||||^  ||   ||   || = = =Need to start introducing blooms perhaps with pictures as Lyn did with us, into reading tasks etc, get chn to pose questions tasks/thoughts using blooms for other students= || 28.04 23.05 ||  || I think a specific graphic organiser or two really pools more thoughts from the children - what has really been beneficial/justifications is getting them to fiull in the conclusion bit in the bottom of the PMI sheet - recommendations ., concluding statements - this pulls some challenges for some children || 24.05 || 1.07 || === Today we had a go at using different hats - I had shrunk our hats t all fit n a4 sheet. First we talked about this different hats and discussed what sort of thinking they would be asking for. We then shared how we could share one holiday activity and use the hats to describe aspects of it. First I share my car buying and used the white hat and the green hat. Then the kids got into small groups and shared a holiday event using white, red, yellow, green or red hat thinking. ===
 * **Delivering** || **Learning** |||||| //Put my plan into action. Monitor; collect evidence; write regular dated reflections; interpret data. Plan next steps// ||  ||
 * ^  || Monitor students' progress towards identified outcomes and reflect on what this tells you.
 * ^  ||^   || **Reflective Questions** || Post reflections here || Dates ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || How am I infusing my ideas into classroom practice? || =Firstly I need to use the graphic organisers identified earlier within general knowledge, interesting clips/picture time ( Need to find these)Bring into reading, across different learning areas=
 * ^  ||^   || What am I learning from monitoring student outcomes? || =When the students have a graphic organiser they are definitely on task - I think the organiser gives them scaffolding and makes the task more achievable for them. =
 * ^  ||^   || What are the next steps I need to take? (Research, resources, activities) || 8 .07? - Well it hasn't been a good couple of weeks for thinking - I have been out of the room two days each week and we had a Hangi on Tuesday - all good but has made the time I have with my class precious - we have done some questioning - simply to put the category of the info they wanted and then to come up with a good question to get the answer/info they were looking for - i am definitely thinking more now about how to get good questions form my students. I need to get into Blooms more and get the chn using the different levels . ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || Other observations, reflections or ideas to try || === 1.08 TERM 3 Begins ===

=== We glued or drew a white hat and wrote all the facts about an event, then the children chose a different hat and used that hat for the event - they could use any of the hats after white apart from blue. _ we discussed blue and black. ===

=== One thing i found - after discussion two of the students did not know what facts meant - I think too often we assume students will know these words - we need to ask them - let them know t os k to say they are not sure. ===

I would like to build on this activity - perhaps I can fit it into a reading focus/
12.08 - thought I'd put something in here - it has been such a busy week we haven't really done specific thinking - but we are using movie maker and umajin - next week is all busy wit AWE water safety - i am planning to write up reading activities for my two more independent groups using blooms - more structured with the other two - more recall, white hat thinking. 22.08 - Reading activities using Blooms - never got onto them today - three is not enough time media type="custom" key="10250593"media type="custom" key="10250605" ==Today WE did an activity around asking an question to get an answer. We have practised this before, just briefly. I had two groups - the first group we put cash, advertisement up n the board. We had a little go at a group trying to come up with a question to give only that answer. It was hard - we looked at how you have to be very specific or you can get several answers. Then i put them into pairs to go and come up with questions, ask each other, rework until they had the best question they could make. It was a challenge, they then record the best question into their draft writing book. I think we will publish some. ==

==I have few photos and a video clip of Jordyn reading her question - it wasn't specific enough, so she went off to work on it agian - I want t0 record her second go again tomorrow. ==

==Now .. so what... I need to include this activity all the time, in reading groups , perhaps within our shared book - not that we have read much lately- it is definitely an area that stretches most children and an area many of us can improve on - try it - it made me stret my thinking. I'll put in photos and clips in when I am at a computer that can ALLOW M TO DO IT - I WISH SOMEONE COULD HELP ME FIX THIS COMPUTERS PROBLEM!! I just have to work out how to put video clips on here - may have to upload to youtube??(Done) ==

media type="youtube" key="ndCvzeqvcAo?hl=en" height="349" width="425"media type="youtube" key="gYi3vvTn_HA?version=3" height="345" width="420"
media type="youtube" key="r2SK2Av0a24?hl=en" height="349" width="425" Arron's question was quite specific and the answer fitted the criteria, Jordyn has found this more difficult - she went away to work on it - I will try to record her second attempt. If you listen to Harry's his question is well written - he really enjoyed this activity - found it challenging but was quite successful.

Another thing we did was to get the kids to put their hand anywhere from on the shoulder(for easy) up in the air (for hard) to rate how challenging the activity was - many put their hands write up. Very hard - I must say it was challenging for me too

media type="custom" key="10330822"


 * 31.08 - **
 * Today we shared a newspaper report from stuff.co.nz where an Okato teenager has joined the Fire Brigade as a volunteer. We got into groups of three and four and each group was given a hat - they had a piece of paper to record heir thinking - then they shared with the class. It went ok - next time I wil put them in groups before hand, sometimes I might give ll the same hat as we are stil coming to grips with the thinking they are asking for. **


 * <span style="color: #530d53; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">16.09 **
 * <span style="color: #530d53; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">We have done a few things - I have had Janelle my student teacher for the last three weeks - she has been doing thinking using the hats around the Rugby world cup - we used the white hat to find out whta students knew and what they waned to find out. **

==**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Using a mix of video clips, newspaper photos and newspaper articles we looked at yellow, red and black and green hat thinking. The black hat was good because it really got the students to understand it is a hat where you look at what could go wrong - what could be done to stop things going wrong - we can see how this hat could be used in our market - looking at potential things that could go wrong and making plans to stop this. **==


 * A few photos**





||  ||   || .doc End data - can the children now use the thinking tools and strategies with even more independence? Can they choose or have some say in the right tool for the right job? Are they able to be more creative and deeper in their questioning from the work we do with blooms? Can they use the Blooms levels within curriculum areas with some Independence - I guess some children will be more advanced than others || 15.05 ||  || their thinking with pretyy much little teaher reminders - they have grasped the hats quite well. ||  ||   ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 12pt; margin: 0cm 5.65pt 10pt; text-align: center;">**Evaluating** || **Summarising** |||||| //Analyse data and observations and draw conclusions. Prepare and present findings to colleagues.// ||  ||
 * ^  || Reflect on progress, observations: current versus initial data. How did it go? What strategies have made a difference to my students' learning? How do I know? ||||||^   ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || **Reflective Questions** || Post reflections here || Dates ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What methods will I use to collect ‘end’ data? || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">I will set some independent tasks within our everyday learning where children might be expected to choose the right tool from those introduced over the next month most suited to help with the learning task.
 * ^  ||^   || What conclusions can I draw from data analysis? ||   ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || What are my main points? || 18.09 - I definetly have noticed my class can now use the hats to switch
 * ^  ||^   || Specifically how will I share my Inquiry with my colleagues? ||   ||   ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   || Notes ||   ||   ||   ||

//Talking in groups about their product, what it is, why it will appeal to customers// || **Key Competency:** //Use a picture of an umbrella for a practice first// || //Children introduced to thinkers keys, we have used the alphabet key before// || **Why was this activity successful?** || || || 12.08 .11
 * <embed src="http://blip.tv/play/hOI0go7ZOgI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="299" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"> ||
 * |||| **Thinking Activity or Idea** ||
 * **Class Level:** Year 5/6 || **Date: 11.07.11** ||
 * **Learning Context:** //Oral Language/Starter//
 * **Class Level:** Year 5/6 || **Date: 11.07.11** ||
 * **Learning Context:** //Oral Language/Starter//
 * Using language, symbols and text** ||
 * **Thinking Strategy or Tool:** //Thinker’s key// <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms'; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**//The BAR Key//** || **Specific:** <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms'; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">Make an item BIGGER, ADD something to it and/or REPLACE something on it.  E.g. A mouse trap, an umbrella, a freezer, a tent.  ||
 * **Who was involved?** Class || **What resources did I use?**
 * **What did the activity involve?**
 * **How could I use this in other ways?** || **Next time I would …** ||