Anita's Teaching as Inquiry Blog

Through our coaching sessions we are looking at the design of our teaching and asking ourselves...  What is ultimately best for our learners?  What is going to hit their needs?  This week, using School Talk I have deliberately actioned my time in the timetable to ensure target learners are given the extra dose and density and learners who need to be stretched are being stretched.   My wonderings are about space and how what deliberate acts of teaching am I doing to support learners with where they should learn and why they are learning what they are learning?  Thinking along the lines of .... How can I empower learners, with a particular focus on Māori learners to make informed decisions through their language capabilit y about why and where they are learning?

Trying to formulate my Inquiry, Some thinking and questions about how learners are agentic in their learning. How are they making informed decisions? Are we and learners using space deliberately to target the needs of our learners? I have started to use this with my learners to take action of what they are learning, why and where is the best place to learn. 

This challenge has been selected because I have had a hunch, a wondering....and some questions....                             Do learners really know why they are learning the content, how do they learn best and where is the best place for them to learn. We have this amazing space at Stonefields School for our Y2/3 learners. We have a high functioning team amongst the teachers. Using results from the Combi tool we can see that participation in discourse and willingness to participate in conversation work hand in hand. Ultimately our aim is for our learners to do this more naturally and more often. Results show this is an area to work on. Therefore my Inquiry has come to life.  When we compare results amongst the Junior School we want to increase the level of communication and which will leverage off the feedback given and received.

Another way for our learners to take agency on where and whom they are learning with. This is an interactive tool for learners to know where their teacher is for learning. 

Hitting the ground running in Term 1 with what it looks like to be self aware with how we learn, where we learn, and whom we learn with. Also giving learners choice of what learning would suit them best. Please watch this space for it coming into action....

Examples of questions... Does your child tell you about what they learnt in school regularly? What tools do you use to inform you about your child's learning? Schooltalk Twitter  Conversations with teachers  School app Emails with teachers Does your child have a passion/interest/strength that they love to talk about?  What way would best support you with supporting your child at home? How often do you talk to your child about their learning?