Blogging to Accelerate Writing

Here is another strategy I am trialing for the remainder of this term.  This came about as a result of a combination of things.  Firstly we recently had maths week, and as something different we posted each days questions on the blog so students could access them at home (we had a teacher strike day on that week) and email them directly to me.  This worked fantastic and really excited the children in Team Maunga.  On the Friday I had also planned to be our doing more research and work on my MIT inquiry.  Part of this day I spent talking to children in the class.  One of the questions I was particularly interest in finding out about was "What could I (and the other teachers in Team Maunga) do to help YOU WANT to write?"  Interesting some of the children started by just telling us that the things we normally do in class.  But when pushed to think about things we don't already do there were a few stand out ideas that became discussion points for groups of children being questioned.

Some of their ideas included:  Having more time to write, having their own blog that they could write about anything on, and also writing challenges (similar to our maths challenges).  So ... Last week be began our first writing challenge (based on a topic/idea that they already had covered in class).  This was hugely successful with children enjoying being able to work on this both in school and at home.  Team Maunga all I can say ... IS YOU ROCK MY WORLD.

Here is both last weeks challenge and this weeks one.  Feel free to visit our class blog and comment on it with your own response!

Past students inspiring visit

Today our school had a visit from a past student who shifted away from his beloved Kaikohe town to live in Abu Dubai with his family about 5-6 years ago.   He spoke to the whole school about how when he left our school he felt like he was 'the man' and that he could do anything.  When in-fact he still had a lot of learning left to do.

He is now 15 and has done much of that learning, and wanted to give back to a school and community that he and his family hold dear.  While he realises his learning journey is not over he wanted to inspire the children in our school that they to had a lot more learning to do and that it is something to embrace.

He also told stories of many of the teachers who are still there, and how they had inspired him as he undertook this journey and how they have helped him to reach his ultimate goal.  Hearing him talk about the brief period of time I had taught him (while doing a 5 week stint of relieving for another teacher) truly made me feel humble and honoured.  Humbled that he had remembered me and honoured that I could have been apart of such an amazing learning journey.

It also made me remember all the mixed emotions that this brief period of relieving had evoked.  At the time my daughter was only 5 months old and me being me agreed to make this happen.  In hind site this really was crazy, and exhausting.  Between planning, feeding my 3 kids and getting 2 off to a different school, dropping of a baby to my sister in law, Breast feeding and making sure my little one had enough for the rest of the day (which meant extra work during the day and night to make this happen), planning, teaching, doing duties, attending staff meetings and all the other things that go with being both a teacher and a mum.  It really was challenging.

However to have even 1 past student visit who only knew me in that brief instance to remember me (and hug me as soon as he saw me) and be able to reflect on how I had impacted on his life...

It was ...

inspiring.

My six word story for today is ...