The decision to leave teaching....A year in review

My year in review this year, takes me a little away from the classroom but surprisingly has not taken me far from education.

After a rather emotional and rollercoaster start to 2016 in the classroom I made the difficult decision to leave the safety of teaching and jump out into the world boots first, to try something else.

I always was someone who liked to try new things, staying in teaching into my 12th year was something of a milestone for myself and it was time to move on, I knew it in my heart.

So I wrote to my board and was approved to stop teaching at the end of term 1. The feelings were very mixed. I had no job...no idea what work I would do...I had no idea of what was next for me....

It wasn't long after my teaching door began to close, that a new door opened for me. Before I had packed up and left the classroom I was fortunate to come into contact with a little company called Bridging the Gap. Bridging the Gap provide IT Pd to ...wouldn't you know it... Schools!

This seemed like a perfect fit for me, and as 2016 rolled on, I found myself really enjoying this new roll, and seeing schools from a different point of view.

My learning in education did not stop with me leaving the classroom but has continued to grow through the professional discussions held day in and day out, around the assessment and analysis of data schools are collecting, Around what to collect, when and why. I enjoy having the ability to help people negotiate the implementation of digital tools in their schools, and help design systems than work for different individuals.

My adventure outside the classroom has only just begun, I wonder what 2017 holds in store.

Te Rangihakahaka

Let the storytelling begin...
Last term we participated in Te Rangihakahaka, a professional development program to help Rotorua teachers become more familiar with and connected to the stories of Rotorua. During our Marae stay at Ohinemutu we learned and reheard the stories of Tamatekapua, Ngatiroirangi, Ihenga, Rangitihi and more.
I understood the value in these stories as a way to connect to this place I grew up in - Rotorua, and decided that the best way to confirm my own learning was to pass it on as soon as possible.


This week I became a storyteller - not a
story reader - but a storyteller. I had had a go at telling Tamatekapuas story a week earlier, but had needed to keep checking the sequence of events and charaters names, but this time the story flowed. I was able to tell it freely with the best storytelling vocabulary that I could muster.
The reaction was great. The kids were transfixed.


My goal for the children was to introduce some of the major characters in Te Arawa history, and for them to take ownership of the stories so that they are, in turn, able to retell them. For this we have begun a few steps.
1. The kids drew or wrote as they listened to the story (backwards planning).
2. We retold the story orally in a group as a chain - each person telling the next part.
3. We wrote the story for ourselves so we could refer back to it if we forgot.

I hope to take it a step further later in the year and have the children retell these stories through multimedia for future generations.
The children really have enjoyed this first story and are engaged in their writing. I have yet to read the quality of this retell but I have seen an increased engagement in particular in a few of the Maori boys (J-R and S-R), writing screeds and screeds, and showing a strength in recalling what happened.

I hope the next story gets a similar audience.

What is knowledge?

Epistemology, ontology, axiology, rationalism and empiricism...
Boy, have I been obtaining knowledge this week, including practising all my reading skills to infer meaning of new words from the sentences around them. It has been a while since I last read academic articles.
Mindlab Rotorua has begun with the small topic of

What is Knowledge? 

and

What is the purpose of education?

Not such easy questions to answer but great questions to discuss with the open-minded forward thinking participants of Mindlab.

So what did we discover?  

Video by Neil, Kath, Bevan, Anne and Kirsty.
  Our flowing river is representative of how knowledge is created and evolves over time. Our knowledge is always expanding, it can head in certain directions, change direction, bend and curve. Knowledge can become unused and drift into the small  distributaries that break off the river. Along the rivers journey are the things that influence our knowledge and that our knowledge influences. Our knowledge is influenced by our time and place, by our beliefs and values, by our environment (our place in the world). Our knowledge collects facts, ideas and skills, as it flows. Some are caught up in the flow, others swept to the sides of the river. As our river of knowledge grows it can be used and applied to create more in the world, just as the river helps create the forests growing along its sides.

Knowledge flows and grows!

 

 

So what is the purpose of education then, if not to impart knowledge? Knowledge is so much more than school. Education happens regardless of time or place, but (we discussed) that its purpose is influenced by time and place. The purpose of formal education in western society, many years past, was elitist, it was only for 'certain' people, to keep them in power. Then it was to produce mass workers who knew enough to follow instructions and do as they were told to man the many factories. Now we want to create active members of society, contributers, innovators, citizens. And whats more - we are unsure what the society that they will be members of is even going to be like...

 

 How do I see this 'new' purpose of education in my class...

 

I attempt to create a community of learning. A place where we all can make decisions about  where we work and who we work with. Where everyone can be considered a holder of knowledge, and I promote children to seek knowledge from each other. Where we celebrate together, have opportunities to collaborate together, and time to share our strengths and passions with the group. I challenge children to take responsibility, to debate, to agree and disagree, and to feel they each have an important part to play in our learning journeys. School is no longer about sitting in one spot, producing the same work as the person next to you, listening without responding, accepting without questioning, doing without thinking ... Transformation is required.

Day 15- Name 5 strengths you have as an educator

Obviously keeping to this blogging challenge is NOT one of my strengths, after a stall at day 6. But I will try to get back on the horse and try to catch up a few of the missed posts over the next few days.

Today topic is to talk about my own teaching strengths. I'm thinking this question might be a little challenging but here goes...

1. I am a quick learner which means as an educator I am able to quickly pick up new learning, whether it be an assessment tool, a new curriculum, a new programme. I feel I am able to learn about these new things quickly and  independently and then work out the best way to implement this in my class.

2. I am able to make links to prior learning for the children. I find during topics I am always seeing ways that new learning is connecting to the old, and helping children to see how learning is connected.

3. I am adaptable. I am able to judge the moment and make changes to better suit the children's readiness at any given time. I am also adaptable to changes in school wide timetables, they don't throw our class programme, we will carry on with something else we planned to do.

4. I am a risk taker. I am not afraid to try something new. I like to explore ideas with the children in my class, to get them involved in what we are doing between 9am and 3pm. I have brought e-portfolios into my school, explored my own version of Daily 5 and wrote a picture book with 6 yr olds.

5. I am a learner. It is almost an obsession with me, but I love learning. I am always researching things I can do with my home, with my class, management ideas, reading programmes, new technologies, passion projects... Anything that peeks my interest.

Wow...I did it. I found 5 things I think help me to be a good educator.

Day 3 - one thing to improve on

One thing that I would really like to improve on in my teaching practice is my talking. I talk fast, I talk a lot, if I'm passionate about something it's worse. But this isn't the talking I'm talking about. I'm talking about the amount of talking a teacher does in a classroom and at their students. I feel that I can talk to much, explain to much, so I would love to keep working on managing the amount of talk that I do and instead listen to more talk from the children. Wait for them to ask questions before explaining every last step, wait for them to answer each other's queries and challenge each other. I think we are leading our learners down a path to self directed learning and to truely own that teachers need to hand over the talking roll too.

A year in Review

2013 came and went - in the blink of an eye - as can often happen when you are teaching. It was a big year of learning for me, and ended in a ton of new developments.

It was my 3rd year teaching year 5/6 class, my 2nd year trying daily 5 for my reading program, the second year having no desks, my 3rd year trying e-portfolios, my 1st year defining what an e-learning class meant to my school, my 1st year of planning online, and my 9th year of teaching, and was full of moments to remember...

Best moment - Camp
Having the opportunity to go on school camp for the second time was great. We had a neat bunch of kids, and seeing some of the children, I taught as 6 year olds who are now as 10 yr olds, in this context was great. It was almost like camping with family.

Saddest moment - Year 6 leavers
Watching one of my year 6 students - that I'd just given an award for class spirit - walking out of the achievement assembly, through the guard of honour, with tears streaming down her face.... says it all.

Happiest moments - Seeing kids succeed
When you can sit back in your class and look around at happy, hard working children. The ones with dyslexia who just keep striving, the poor spellers who love to write, the intelligent kid working at their passion, the figiter settling to a task, the shy kid reading a book to 180 people. Great moments.

Funniest moment - R and the pole
Kids do do and say the darnedest things. I have never laughed as much as when a poor lad in my class literally walked into a pole as we walked down the road to a show at the nearby high school. While I know it isn't polite to laugh at hurt children... he thought it was so funny that he recreated it for a special comedy episode on our school TV show.

Greatest success - The girls
I had a group of 5 Maori girls in my class. Each had come from a different class, each had no other friends in this class, but they found each other and became great friends. The success came around them maintaining this friendship and learning how to deal effectively with disputes, keeping everyone feeling a sense of belonging. We had many lunchtime meetings, initiated  by one of the girls, so they could talk problems through. By the end of the year, they could do this almost independently, and learned to let things go, to forgive and to smile.

Greatest challenge - Leading e-learning classes
Leading this great group of teachers that offered to try e-portfolios with their classes, was a great challenge. I wasn't sure where I stood for this. I was their equal, I didn't have all the answers, I wasn't convinced of how e-portfolios fit, how even I was going to make the best use of the e-learning tools we had been given. But I tried my best to guide them with what I did know, to challenge their thinking occasionally, and to help us all understand the power in e-learning.

Greatest failure - ABTV
Our school TV show. While I know its not great to talk about things as failure, this was definitely a flop this year. With no assemblies to air it, then no core group to run it...it became a nit of a shambles and just didn't happen. Something to work on next year.

Scariest moment - Meeting my class for 2014
This was the day I actually had to face the 5 yr olds (or near 5 year olds) that I would be teaching in New entrants next year... ARGH... nothing like a bit of fear to make you feel alive...

But that's another post.

Great idea 2

Buddy e-books - A great idea but time consuming.


We had our book unveiling today. 56 6-11 year olds huddled in our classroom. Smaller children perched on the knees of their bigger buddies, staring at the big screen, reading aloud the stories they had written. What a great whanau they have become over the year.

We read, we write, we draw, and we talk  - together.

Over 2 terms my year 5/6 students collaborated with a 6 year old buddy to write, illustrate and produce an e-book. From a small idea rose much learning. My senior students learned what true leadership meant, what collaboration, whanuangatanga, accountability, responsibility, and perseverance meant. They had to be helpful, graceful, and tolerant. It was not an easy task. There were a few moans of "Not buddy time..." but once the little buddies were present the big kids were all business.
The little buddies learned about writing a narrative, breaking the parts of the story into pages, taking photos with the ipad, creating illustrations that matched, and how to use powerpoint to publish. Some little buddies also learned that sometimes they have to be a responsible one and keep their team on track.

The Tuakana- teina relationships we developed over the year are valuable to both young and slightly older students . They take care of each others buddies when someone is away. Every year I try to foster this relationship over learning and it always has pleasing results.

Writing -daily 5 styles

We began a new way of spending writing time this term. I wanted to be able to target some specific groups and I also wanted to be able to bring in an aspect of writing for fun - writing for the sake of writing. My favorite part of our version of Daily 5 reading is that children are required to read, and only read. They have different ways to do this - read websites, read e books, read books, buddy read, listen to reading etc. now with writing I have tried to replicate the same, with some surprises.

Suddenly, I have children who can't wait for writing time (just like those who can't wait for reading), and that's fantastic. One reluctant boy in particular is chomping at the bit to write. He's working on a series of PowerPoint books on various topics from jet liners to submarines. He is a reluctant writer, with poor handwriting, poor spelling, poor punctuation....the list goes on. But now he loves writing. He is working on his writing goals (currently simple punctuation, and good sentences) but he is doing it through his own writing choices.

An observing teacher commented the other day on 2 groups of girls who were pair writing animal facts on posters. Do they even know what a good poster is? Do they have criteria for this, you don't just want a heap of rubbish.... My reply was- they were writing, they were remembering their capitals and full stops, as that is their current goal, and they were enjoying writing for its own sake. So to me those children were succeeding at the lesson. The face value of their finished piece of work may have been simple, but the fact that they enjoyed the writing process and talked to others about what to write, how to write it, etc was extremely valuable part of writing.

My daily 5 styles writing is working a bit like my daily 5 styles reading. Children's perspectives on the subject are changing. Children are more motivated to start and finish something. I get to work with groups on targeted lessons. The children are remaining focused on personal goals, and can discuss them reflectively. These are all the great things- along with the time to just do.... No hidden teacher agenda, no deadline, no topic chosen for you. It is children in charge of their own writing learning.

Great so far.

Assessment for Learning

It is mid year - the time when teachers across the country gather information on students to report mid year results to all interested parties. This can take many forms, from parent-teacher interviews, reports, portfolios, 3-way interviews, student led conferences and more. Each school has ownership of how and when they feel it necessary to report, within the Ministry of Education guidelines.

Picture thanks to Hedrick on Flickr

In our school the reporting schedule is varied. We predominantly have AFL folders (assessment for learning folders/portfolios) along with  3way interviews term 2, and student led conferences term 4. We like to promote the child as being at the centre of their own learning, so they have a large part to play in reporting their progress, but this is not always easy.

With the introduction of e-portfolios in recent years I have found it more difficult to achieve a portfolio for learning instead of a portfolio of learning.

AFL folders serve a purpose, they replaced the written report, that would have originally discussed what a student could do and needed to work on in each curriculum area. AFL folders instead include test results, and progress graphs, along with students work samples and self reflections against learning criteria. Each year the AFL folder changes slightly one way or the other, and often discussion centres around what is the best way to balance the accountability of the reporting levels to parents, and the child ownership of learning artefacts.

With the introduction of E-portfolios this hasn't become any clearer, as we struggle to develop authentic ways to share students learning and progress digitally, while maintaining a certain level of consistency between paper afl and online e-portfolio, as well as reporting specific data to parents.

How do we find the happy medium between an assessment portfolio and a showcase portfolio, In both paper or online portfolios?

Teachers are awesome!

Today I was lucky to be able to spend some time in school, but not my own school. Today I travelled and had the opportunity to visit with Tauriko and Tahatai coast schools in the lovely Bay of Plenty. What fantastic welcomes we had. The purpose of our trip today was to look into next steps for our own schools e-learning journey, and these schools didn't fail in providing us with inspiration and ideas to ponder moving forward.

We saw versions of BYOD working at various class levels from year 3 to year 8, we saw paid in digital 1-1 classes, and open BYOD classes, we heard children explain why BYOD helped their learning, and we experienced a variety of e-learning in action. Fabulous.

My takeaways...

- the problem of the haves and have nots is always lessened by more devises in the school, regardless of paid in, or BYOD systems, more devises just means more access for all.

- children take much more pride in their own devices

- children didn't seemed phased over whether they were writing in their books or doing a computer task, and interchanged between these two things easily.

- having a bank of similar creation tools meant children gained higher output rates due to familiarity with the tool.

- digital/ e-learning/ computer classes, they all still use books. Children often choose whether to write digitally or on paper, or this can be balanced by the teacher alternating.

- the focus is always on what we are learning, and will the tool support or extend this learning or not.

- the focus is on students choosing when to use digital tools, blended with some tasks created to increase particular skill sets needed.

- google apps for education has great potential.

- google sites an option for e-portfolios.

My wonderings...

- Am I becoming more convinced of the 1-1 model and its potential?

- Could charging our children be an option at our school? Would it increase the importance of e-learning in the school?

- How is our school insuring staff are all moving own their journeys? See Taurikos teacher e-competences.

- Am I now more convinced that BYOD could be an option for me next year?

Where is your school in its e-learning journey?

 Are you on a BYOD path?

How does you school do it?

Teaching Independence

As I read around all that is being discussed in the cybersphere of education – personalised learning, passion projects, e-learning, e-portfolio, and Daily 5 – the prominent thing they all seem to foster is independence and I think that is great.

It is great in theory and with a lot of hard work, I am beginning to think that it can be great in practise too. I have taught year 5/6 for 3 years now and each year I expect (and if I’m being honest, allow) a little more independence from the children. And I don’t mean independence in tying their shoes, or remembering their meetings, or picking up after themselves, but independence in their learning. 

Being able to equip the students with; the belief that they can lead their own learning, the strategies and systems to help them to lead their own learning, and the time in which to practise has not been easy. Balancing control with trust, accountability with flexibility. But slowly, slowly I am starting to see how powerful this can be, and it makes me want to do more.

photo courtesy of tonyduckles on Flickr

From developing an independent reading programme linked closely to Daily 5, I am now developing a writing equivalent, which is starting off much more positively than I expected. It hasn’t been easy trusting the children to achieve, independent of the teacher, but my class are surprising me in small steps. The key seems to be the planning before each session – either written or oral – of what they hope to accomplish in the session, and then at the end a quick reflection as to how they feel it went. We question anyone who has had problems and discuss solutions together. I was even surprised today when one child asked if he should hand his book in (and note I must confess that I don’t often collect writing books in, unless there is something specific I want to mark in depth). My reply “If you would like my feedback, sure”. And at that, 20 books plopped down into a pile at my feet.

Ultimately what I am seeing happen in my classroom, is children taking control. I can step back and really start to guide them. I don’t have to make all their decisions for them anymore, so I have time to talk to them more about what they are choosing to do, what learning they hope to get out of it, and how they feel they are going. I am enjoying their growing independence.

Reading rocks - (daily 5)

After coming across daily 5 early last year, I became excited. I had been looking for a way to do reading time in the classroom justice. A way to incorporate reading to, silent reading, skills work and teaching sessions. Daily 5, and "the sisters" ideas just made sense to me.

So last year I decided to give it a go and began,  the quite long journey, to train the children how to become independent learners. I followed "the Daily Five" book quite closely, using the language of reading that 'the sisters' incorporate. WOW! I was a little skeptical, but the change in my students attitude to reading was great. That was enough for me to decide that I wanted to continue a similar program this year.

Our school goal this year is to increase reading mileage, and what better way than to read. I have adjusted down to just a daily 2 so far - read to self and read to someone. It took a long time to establish the routines in term one, we had camp, my weekly release, Easter and then I was off school for two weeks with my son. So it has been a long journey. 

But finally, this week, despite cross country practises interrupting us, we got in a few good sessions of my newly named Reading Rocks daily 2. As I looked up from the group I was working with I could see the kind of reading classroom I wanted. 6 children were bent over the yellow table with our student teacher deep in conversation about a book, 2 children were tucked in a corner reading on the iPads, 4 children were working on our 'River of words' using the words they are learning through Tune into interesting words and creating a display for everyone to add too, 4 children were quietly reading to someone and the rest had found a spot and were (on the most part) drowning out everything reading a book.

Now we haven't got this perfected by any accounts yet, as we are just developing how we should be working towards our next steps, but I had my first glimpse how daily 5 could work, and work wellwith children   leading their own learning. My only worry now is, thinking about having to restart this journey with new class the next year...

Hopefully the fact that my colleagues are beginning to become interested too, is a good sign.

Does the environment dictate the behaviour?

I have a slightly different classroom to everyone else in my school. I chose to create a less formal environment for my learners, initially to create space within the 4 walls, but also to try and provide for different learning needs, including my Maori learners who make up a third of my class. Reflecting on my own learning, I knew that I do my best learning, sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch, in front of the heater. It is quiet and warm.
But that is not everyone's cup of tea. Others like  fresh breeze, perched on a high stool, legs dangling. Others still will lay across a beanbag, music playing, book resting on the floor in front of them,... and so on.
So I decided that letting children experience learning in their best space couldn't hurt...

So I took away the formality (the assigned desks, in tidy groups splattered around the class) and bought in a home like feel (soft furnishings, open floor and spaces) to see how this would impact on the children's learning. And did this make a difference? To learning? or behaviour? What did I find? What did others think?

There were mixed reactions and a few comments on impolite behaviour (but was that the environment or the cohort) I believe the latter. We did have to learn a lot in the early days. Unlike last years class who had played a part in the transforming of the classroom, this years children simply inherited the room. They had a lot of growing to do, to be able to work effectively in this sort of environment. They had had 4 or 5 years at school being told where to sit, who to sit next to, and that all good work transpired at a table.
But one term into this year, I am beginning to see the rewards of placing these responsibilities back on the children...

My students have had huge learning experiences this term caused by their environment.
Looking through the NZ Key competencies:
Self Management: each day choosing appropriate places to work in, gathering their equipment and putting everything away after use.
Relating to others: making decisions about who to work near, dealing with distractions by simply moving, negotiating use of resources like bean bags, learning to deal with people where you wanted to sit. Self chosen whanau groupings are seen as well. A sense of whanaungatanga is being developed.
Participating and contributing: How we share the spaces in the room, and look after everything for the next person. Keeping tables clean, charging laptops.
Thinking: What do I need? where should I be now? What is best for the learning I am about to do?

I think the environment does help to mould the behaviour. The behaviour I hope my environment is moulding is 'student ownership and control over their own learning behaviours.' I hope as the year moves forward that my students will continue to grow in this area developing their own 'ako'

Learning environments

Here's a little blog I penned a few weeks ago.

I have just returned from re-setting up the furniture in my classroom ready for the second term. It has been 6 months and 2 classes since I ditched half my class desks for a more informal classroom with S  P   A   C   E.
Along with many educators out there I was inspired last year to finally make the change and ditch the desks. Luckily I could completely remove desks into an empty room next door and had the green light from the principal. So the transformation began to take place.

Our new totes

Initially I co-created the space with the children's ideas. The existing class couch (definitely worse for wear, but still enjoyed by all), a group table from a disused junior room, beanbags, cushions and some plush red chairs from Trade me, 2 low forms for the mat area, and a small table on wheels that once held a photocopier, all became part of our class space. Desk tote trays were replaced with portable tote buckets.

The idea was to
1. Create space for 30+ senior school students in a small prefab
2. Create places for different learning styles

My original configuration 2012

Today I took to the task of re-organising these furnishings for the winter terms - opening access to the heaters, avoiding lower sunfall, and accommodating spaces for a student teacher. This took a lot less time than I used to spend moving desks, trying to make groupings of children that wouldn't conflict, moving everyone's totes into their new, teacher chosen spots.... This year my time spent in the classroom during the holidays was for planning the learning - rather than planning the behaviour management. That's another story.

Old classrooms can be limiting, and seem so inflexible when compared to the new classrooms and schools that have been built recently, but all it takes is a little kiwi ingenuity and a can-do attitude to make a classroom work for you and your students. Thanks to inspiring teachers like Stephanie for helping me to see the possibilities and take the plunge.

Will upload photo of the new winter configuration soon.

Great Idea #1

Great ideas often come at unexpected times - and often in teaching it is these last minute ideas that show real success with students.

Image thanks to  epSos.de  

In my class this year is an interesting lad (lets refer to as Bob). Bob is 9, and has been at our school just under a year. I am noticing that he seems to have a lot of A
spergers type tendencies - he avoids groups, only likes working alone, doesn't really affiliate with "friends", avoids touch, avoids eye contact, and stresses over small things that don't bother the rest of us. He also has a great sense of humour, is smarter than his academics show and has intense interests. At the moment those intense interests involve drawing and dragons!
He is a neat kid although challenging to get 'school work' done. So the last few weeks of term I had the brainwave (I'm exaggerating a little, it was obvious really, but sometimes we are too tired to think clearly). Anyway I downloaded a few dragon apps onto the class ipad thinking I could use these as a motivator for him to get work done, and casually talked to him about them on a field trip. Over a 20minute walk to a nearby school, he and I had negotiated his written language programme for the next week. He was going to use one of the apps to make an image, and then create a story to go with it (simple stuff really). And he was going to do this even when I was on release....

Yeah right! I thought. I was sure he would be sidetracked by playing with the dragons and never decide on a picture, and never come up with a story unaided...

Boy did he prove me wrong. He reminded me everyday, asking when he could start. He chose a friend to help him take the picture (to promote him working with others), he went outside and was back within 10mins with 4 pictures. He asked me my advice on which suited his story idea the best, we cropped it together. Done! The next day I was on release. The day after he came to me with his finished story about a dragon attacking the school. he went on to publishing this - via computer as he decided that was tidier.

He showed me that with a good idea, some trust, some negotiation and time, children can achieve. Where do I take this next? Now I know he can work like this, now I need to negotiate in the learning focus for his writing, and give him skills to check himself against this.

The spin off - Bob became a role model for another low achieving boy in the class who has high absenteeism. The next day this boy wrote a 3 page dragon story inspired by Bob. He usually only wrote a sentence. I let Bob know this, and now Bob's status in the room has been increased - and he talked about being an inspiration for days.

A great idea - a great outcome!

Setting SMART goals

A new year and goal setting go hand in hand. As teachers we tend to set ourselves a few goals as we move into a new school year. Often this is in the form of promising ourselves that we will do something that we didn't have time for last year, wanting to try a new ICT tool, wanting to up skill in some learning area, wanting to be more organised (that one is permanently on my list).

This year my goals range from SMART to more generalised.
- to keep a personal reflective blog weekly
- to start photo a day site for families
- run with my own version of a daily 5 reading program
- to develop an e-learning class philosophy and system

Already as I looked these goals up in my diary I realise that I already have neglected some, as they have fallen off the radar in the busyness that is term 1.

This gets me to thinking about goal setting with children in class. How valuable is it really? In the past I have tried goal setting, when it was part of our portfolios, and children wrote reading, writing and math goals. Inevitably children would write "I want to get better at..." And we would then work hard to create a SMARTer goal. As the weeks went on into term you would ask children to reflect on what their goal was for maths, and how they are going towards it, only to be greeted with blank stares or "My goal was to join my writing".

So, it is that time of the year again, to set goals or not. I'm all for kids knowing their next steps. Is that not the same as a goal? Or do we have to choose one of those next steps to work on at a time? Teachers then bring WALTs into the equation, they become mini goals for the lessons. Or do we as teachers try to teach to the children's goals? You can see why the unclear use of goals is confusing for children ( and quite honestly me to at times).

This year I want children to be reflecting in their e-portfolio against things they are working on, or trying to achieve. So I suppose that is goals. But I'm not sure if I want them to declare them from the start. To lock them in, since like me, 2 weeks later they may have a totally different focus that they have come across since.

Maybe I need to put it to the children, since it is them that are involved. I will set myself a goal to do this during the week and see what they have to say. Watch this space.