Category: Kuranui Teacher Inquiry

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Kuranui Update Term 3 Week 9

In this fortnights update:

  • Kaitiaki Academy – Te Ataahia, from Reo Rua Ltd will be running a lesson every Tuesday at Kuranui for our Kaitiaki Academy students. Here is invite.
  • Kaiako Academy – Wednesdays PLD sessions running Te Reo lessons over 10 weeks in term 4. These will be run by Te Ataahia, from Reo Rua Ltd. Sign up sheet is here.
  • Treaty Training – This is running on Thursday 22nd October. Email micaela@gladstone1.school.nz to sign up.
  • Poutama Poutama – booking session sheet with Claire is here.
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Kuranui Update Term 3 Week 3

Coming up this week

    • We are beginning our next Inquiry Cycle starting with Poutama Pounamu Observations to help us discover what is going on for the learners in our classes, and to help identify an area to focus on. To form the observation groups please complete the survey here is the diagram that we looked at last year which describes our process:
    • Don’t forget, the Kahui Ako is running a range of PLD sessions that you can sign up for.

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Kuranui Update Term 2 Week 9

Coming up:

  •  27th June | Matariki Workshops (sign up sheet here) and  Matariki Community Celebrations
  • 8th-11th July | Te Tiriti o Waitangi training – It’s great to see so many have signed up already. Here is the poster and signup link if you want to check it out. 
  • Wednesday 3 July (3.15 – 4) | Inquiry session to finalise Inquiry question and to get into groups. 
  • Learning Group Sessions  | Please indicate your preference here. The options are Tuesdays 8.10 – 8.40 or Wednesdays 3.15 – 3.45. 

Inquiry Session 1

Wednesday 19th June was the first of our Inquiry sessions. You can read about it here. All in all it was a successful session with some really good ideas being discussed. 

Student Led Inquiry

One group are well into inquiring about “community perception” and how do we improve this as having a better image will build pride in our school. You should have received a questionnaire in your inbox to complete.  

Waka Metaphor 

We are now at the stage of putting together the videos that will contribute to the web experience that will be completed next term.

Panui from Alison Kathryn and Micaela … 

South Wairarapa Matariki Celebration  

We are very excited about our Matariki celebration next week.  We have a wide variety of age ranges and schools from across South Wairarapa signed up for the expert sessions at 9.00m and 11.00am.  Sign up is now closed but if you are still keen to pop along, you are welcome to come and view the artwork that will be exhibited in the wharekai.  The whole day will be hosted at Hau Ariki marae.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi PD – Facilitator Opportunity

Our strategic vision for the Kāhui Ako involves a culturally responsive environment for all of our tamariki.  In order to address this vision we have worked hard to secure funding from the Ministry of Education that will allow a wide group of people in our community to engage in some of the most powerful treaty training available.  Please promote this among your schools.

Please be aware that you are welcome to sign up to be a facilitator so that you can continue to work with others around the South Wairarapa and spread this mahi.  The only requirement is that you attend the Monday or Tuesday session. The facilitator training is on the Wednesday of this week.

Click here to sign yourself up on the day which is most convenient for you:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GnX3s7rFhReSb1vNqhWs29qczQ9ZF5UZO6iSrz33Bq4/edit?ts=5cf4610c

Writing Rubric

To finalise the writing rubric, we will add some hyperlinked exemplars to the document by the start of Term 3.  If you have any exemplars for any level, please share them to homesk@kuranui-college.school.nz before the end of term.

Ngā mihi, Alison Woollard, Micaela Westrupp and Kathryn Homes

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Inquiry Seminar Digital Technologies 22 May Meet Up

On Wednesday 22nd May, teachers focussing on Digital Technologies met up at Featherston school to hear about and contribute to ideas around this inquiry topic. We started the session off with a sharing of ideas:

  • Andrew from Featherston School shared how he was using Khan Academy for engaging boys. Khan Academy has some great resources for the classroom teacher, it integrates with google classroom and best of all is open source.
  • Andrew then shared some ideas using epic, google classroom, chromebooks and music maker.
  • General discussion continues and Storyline online was discussed and successes with reluctant learners was shared along with Reading Eggs.
  • Sheri from Greytown School then shared more about Epic which is free at school, but at home there is a fee (ebooks and audio). One of the great features is the ability to set up reading groups.
  • Rachel from Kuranui College shared Education Perfect, but it is expensive. you don’t set them tasks, interesting to see how they are doing
  • Rachel then went on to share what she is doing in her Movie Maker course. Her inquiry this year is on integrating elements of the Digital Technologies curriculum into the course. Editing is a concern and she is looking for affordable tools for students to edit with. The aim is for every student to edit.
  • Liz from Kuranui College shared how she is supporting student agency with the use of Google Classroom. It was interesting to see how she has laid out her courses. 
  • A general discussion followed on with the sharing of Trello as a tool for supporting planning.  Students can use this tool to help them organise their projects
  • Gem – epic reading and mathletics (free for a month) 5 and 6 onwards (pay a fee) looking at how much students are doing what is the value of using this. How does mathletics assist the learning of maths. Taking ownership of learning.
  • Alice from Kuranui College shared what she was doing in her Social Science junior Money Matters class of 30 students. With her senior History class the challenge is  “how to communicate ideas in depth that are not writing essays” and not slideshows. Their are a range of ideas for presentation, how do they publish their podcasts for example.  What digital media outcomes could be utilised. How can ipads be used with  juniors.
  • Tracy then talked about gamification in the classroom to engage buys. Coding with juniors using beebots to teach algorithmic thinking. 

The session ended at 4.48.

Wero for next session – This will be a short 5 minute video of your practice. 

Email List

Elizabeth Turley
turleye@kuranui-college.school.nz
Doug Juggins
juggins@kuranui-college.school.nz
Saali Marks
markss@kuranui-college.school.nz
Ryan McCroskery
mccroskeryr@kuranui-college.school.nz
Alice Wards
wardsa@kuranui-college.school.nz
Rachel Butler-Peck
butler-peckr@kuranui-college.school.nz
Sheri Wales
swales@greytown.school.nz
Andrew Watson
andrew@featherston.school.nz
Dallas Powell
dallas@featherston.school.nz

 

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Kuranui Teacher Inquiry

Last Wednesday we met as a staff to co-construct our 2019 learning groups. The key message for this year is that your Inquiry does not have to be a long drawn out affair. It can be short.

Here is the wordle generated from our group discussions …

Learning Groups

Based on our group discussions these are the four learning groups:

  • Student Agency
  • Hauora
  • Digital Technologies
  • Cultural Responsiveness 

To support collaboration Learning Groups will meet twice a term. Staff have the option of two Learning Group Slots, Tuesday 8.10 – 8.40 or Wednesday 3.15 – 3.45. Please indicate on the google sheet what your preference is, I am happy to run a morning session for those who wish to keep Wednesday afternoon free. 

Staff Inquiry Ideas

Images from the staff discussions last Wednesday.