Sarah Aiono
Wednesday 29 December 2017
9am-11am
Good morning Stacey
Thanks once again for having me in your room yesterday morning. I thoroughly enjoyed being in there and observing your children's learning. You have created such an exciting and productive learning space, and the sense of discovery and purpose displayed by the students are a credit to your teaching practice!
The tool that I am piloting at the moment provides three key areas of observation data. The learning environment, teacher behaviour and overall teach practice. In all of these areas I scored you as 'exemplary' with very little areas being marked lower than this in the individual indicators. I could find no 'counter-indicators' to practices associated with play-based learning pedagogy (as I had expected!)
Learning Environment:
You have created a variety of learning spaces for the students, both inside and outside the classroom. The learning space is well-organised, with students being able to access and put away resources available to them. You shared with me the processes you have in place for promoting learning to your school community, including your parent hui, use of See Saw, as well as your informal interactions. You have a variety of small loose parts available to students to use in their play, both indoors and out, at their own choosing. There were only two areas in this section that I marked 'down' slightly on. The first was the large loose part play outside. For an observer using this tool to rank you as a '5' in this area, the students need to have access to running water and sand/mud play. I realise you have physical environment restrictions here, and this is beyond your control! If I were coming in to use this data in a 'coach' capacity next year - it would be a conversation I would be supporting you to have further with management. (I'm not sure how far along you are with your outdoor area development?) I think the resources you have got for the children in general are absolutely great - really open ended and lead to some highly imaginative and creative play. I would be pursuing the use of flowing water and sand/mud where the children can explore the digging urge, as this will continue to encourage a lot of science experimentation.
The second area I marked 'down' on slightly was the use of a system where children, when their play needed to be interrupted, were supported to leave their play where it was, or the resources they were using. This may be that at this time of the year, this system isn't needed quite so much. Some system, such as 'Work in Progress', or a photo of the children to place where they have been working, so that they are more comfortable leaving their play to join you, or to take a break, so they can return to their play afterwards, without having others interfere. I really liked the support you offered Beau with regards to his plane at morning tea time, including having Paul make the announcement. This is the sort of support on a large scale that is required - I'm wondering how that might look on a smaller management scale for those kids needing to leave their play to come to do their reading with you, or writing etc. You may have a system, that I simply didn't observe yesterday.
As you can see - two fairly minor points for this section!
Teacher Behavior:
This was your strongest area in the scoring and clearly demonstrated your refined practice here! At the beginning of the play, you provided an invitation with specific resources, introducing these in an engaging way, drawing the students' attention to new resources with a 'suggestion' for their use. You encouraged imagination and creative thought by inviting students to engage with these resources in a pretend way. You promoted problem-solving between individuals, and as a class, using your provocation to attempt to generate some problem-solving thought. You were constantly using phrases such as 'I wonder', 'maybe', 'you might like to', 'have you thought about'. You were intentionally teaching the key competencies and learning areas of the curriculum as you engaged with students in their play and you supported specific skill and knowledge development in the context of play. (Who would have a conversation about WW2 Spitfires in a more traditional New Entrant room???) There were times when you promoted flexible thought and risk-taking with ideas, and you supported students when they made mistakes, or when ideas didn't work - encouraging them to consider another way around the problem. This contributes to a culture of resilience within the learning environment.
While not engaged in the above practices, you provided focused teacher-directed literacy instruction (writing) and engaged in reciprocal conversation with students, scaffolding new vocabulary during play and small group instruction. You explained to me the way in which you explicitly teach social skills in conjunction with the use of provocation.
A particular area of strength you have is the way in which you recognise and intentionally teach students emotions and emotional language during play - supporting students to self-regulate and manage their emotions as needed. This is a unique strength, as very few teachers are able to score highly in this area of their practice.
Finally, you consistently manage the exuberance of your learners effectively, providing rule reminders when required, and the use of whole-class redirection if the learning environment becomes unsettled during play. Logical consequences for students not following classroom rules are well established.
A pure pleasure to watch your craft Stacey!
Overall Areas: Teacher Practice
This area observes overall practices across the course of the observation period. It includes indicators such as noise level in the room, transitions, resource management, timetabling, planning and assessment. Again, another area where you have scored particularly highly in. I just have one suggestion for a focus for you to move forward in this area.
One of the indicators I look for in this area is specific links between play provocations and the learning areas of the Curriculum. This can be provocations in terms of specific resourcing, static displays or books, right through to introducing a provocation as you did so yesterday with your pirate problem. When I asked you about this, you suggested you do more planning around the urges and student interest, rather than specific curriculum areas. This may be something you wish to develop into 2018. It is my suggestion that you continue your focus on urges and interest, but identify one or two lesser-explored learning areas that you may look to 'provoke' through resource provision, or your own promotion, once a week or fortnight. This does help ensure curriculum coverage over the school year as well. An example might be your intention to cover Planet Earth and Beyond. You may set up a display in the room with 'moon rocks', a 'telescope', a photo of the stars or a star chart and maybe a dress up that looks somewhat like an astronaut outfit. This might be enough to provoke some exploration and discussion about Space. Or, you may bring in a book and introduce it in an exciting way, resourcing the students in their play to build a rocket ship etc. You are doing this at the moment in response to student interest - my suggestion is to just step it up slightly to be more intentional in your planning around this. The best place to start is in the areas of the curriculum that aren't naturally being covered in the children's play already.
You are an excellent practitioner Stacey, and you are providing a quality learning program in your classroom for your students, both in play and through explicit acts of teaching and learning. Your students obviously enjoy being in your room and are so excited to be learning with you. You are able to 'read' your students well and know how to support them individually to develop the skills and knowledge they require at the right time in their learning journey. I thoroughly enjoyed being in your room yesterday and am excited for your students and the wonderful start they are experiencing of school.
Ahakoa he iti he pounamu! Kei reira katoa!
If it is ok with you I would love to share this feedback with Paul and Tim - just so they know what a gem they have in their NE team. Let me know if you're ok with this and I will forward on.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Sarah :)
