Reflections+5+&+6+Teams

**//"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action."// ** **- Peter F. Drucker - ** My professional learning has improved over the term through the 'TPL' focus. I have a greater understanding of multi modal texts and how to effectively teach the different elements - specifically the Semiotic Systems. Through observations I feel much more familiar with the capabilities within Engage of the E5 model. My most valuable experience was having the opportunity to team teach with Sarah when introducing the Semiotic Systems and specific codes. For me, team teaching provides practical professional learning which cannot be achieved through written feedback or discussions. Not only do I feel the experience improved my professional practice but the students learning was heightened due to this experience. Nikki

"This term I have achieved the confidence to develop new skills working with a variety of multi modal medium. I am more aware of the resources that are available, what you can do with them and have been assisted with PL (formal and informal) to develop the language to foster shared norms and develop explicit teaching skills to engage the students and scaffold their development." - Chris Gr 5 It's been fantasic to see the development of our students in reading multimodal literacies this term. They have embraced the use of semiotoc systems within their reading and make great links to other reading strategies. Grade 6 - Kersti 16/08/2010 The TPL project and teacher mentoring sessions have been a very positive and valuable experience for me personally. I have learnt about the semiotic systems and their related codes as they relate to Mutlimodal Literacy. (I must admit I was a bit confused by it all at first and felt a little overwhelmed by the prospect of putting my teaching under the microscope at first.) However my enhanced understandings have enabled me to teach these new aspects to my students with a heightened sense of confidence in my own ability to deliver this aspect of the curriculum. The support and resources provided from the three team Leaders has been instrumental in making this such a successful venture for our school and me personally. I have found my students have been engaged by the content of the multi-modal lessons and by the very structure of the lessons that have allowed for a high level of discussion and collaboration from the students. Focussing on improving Metacognition with my students has made me reflect on my teaching practice more critically and has allowed me to anaylse aspects of my teaching practice that I may have been presenting intuitively and allowed me to refine them. I have become more aware of verbalising my thinking with students and always giving them the opportunity to discover things for themeselves by leading them in the right direction rather than just presenting them with information. I think it was also very valuable for students to see their teacher as a learner and realise that even I am constantly revisiting my knowdege and attempting to refine my skills. eg Demonstrating for them that learning is a life long process and we are always adding to and adjusting the information in our personal knowledge backpacks. 19/8/2010 Chris Grade 6

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I have found the TPL sessions to be a valuable tool, not just for refining my teaching to be succinct and focussed, but to also enable my peers to review my teaching and provide feedback on areas that I would not normally be able to assess and reflect upon. Student engagement and more importantly participation levels continued to grow through the use of the Multimodal program ' Inanimate Alice' and episodes from the Miniscule series. Student learning flourished in an engaging manner and thinking skills and connections in literacy were reinforced in a meaningful way. Thanks Ladies John Grade 6 18/8/2010 ======

"Reminds me of how important it is to regularly ask students to predict and ask the how, why, when etc questions.?" - Garry Gr 5

"Reminder to move from teacher pointing out observations to students independently noticing and sharing their observations" - Chris Gr 5

"This term I have achieved as I have ’launched’ our class wiki titled 5mgtimecapsule.wikispaces.com and taken steps to understand and use multimodal literacies in the classroom. " - Garry Gr 5