Start With The End In Mind

Jan 31st

Being back at school over the last two days has brought about a bag of mixed emotions of excitement, disappointment, wonder and nerves as we head into another academic year. Of course after hearing the NCEA results from last year you always sit back and reflect and look at what you did well, what were the disasters, and what are the new things you want to try to an engage, grab and get the attention of the students that sit in front of you daily. I have set myself some work ons this year. These work ons are things that I want to try, experiment, challenge and take risks with to see if they get better academic success.

Firstly I had to change my mind set about how I was going to approach this year. I have certainly felt over the years that I am often stressing myself trying to get students to achieve so that they pass and get the credits. Therefore I have put the following quote up in my room, in eye line with where I can see it everyday so that it's there to remind me if required. To me this quote stands for two things: 1) Students need to take more ownership of their learning, they can not expect a teacher to stand in front of them daily and shovel in (filling the vessel) the information hoping that they retain it and remember it for when its next required, 2) This means that I can not just stand up in front of a class and expect my ways I have been doing things to continue to work, i need to make changes so that number one comes naturally (light the fire) hopefully, fingers crossed.

Previously i mentioned the word 'success' these days how we measure success can be so widely measured. Of course there is the obvious, GRADES, however are they the end denominator? These days our schools have so many different factors that can affect the learning of our students, and some of these can not always within our control. Therefore i am also redefining how i see success, grades are good but they are not the be all and end all of it all. Students engagement, application of work and being able to show understanding will be just as important to me.

I have also set my form class a statement in which i would like them to think of during this year "Start with the end in mind". With my crew being Year 13 i really want them to think from the beginning, why am i here???? is it cause i'm trying to get UE, is it cause i need to get the last of my L2 credits for my course or apprenticeship, am i wanting to travel or work. Every action needs to have a purpose.

A focus for each year group are as follows
Yr9 try out my Tellagarmi app to assist with reflection and getting them talk about their final dishes more using are high level of terminology
Year 10's i'm trying Learning through Inquiry for the first time which i'm a little nervous about
Year 11's using my TAI approach of writing templates to see if i gain a higher level of work from students as the year progresses.
Hospo i want to get them ready in the first term to tackle some catering of events within the school, TOD, Board Meetings, Arts Evenings as well as the traditional Camps.