Congratulations Staff!!

Just a wee note to all members of the teaching staff at our fantastic little school.

1. Congratulations for challenging your skills, you are constantly aiming to increase your own understanding and therefore will ultimately create great thinkers in our students. I hope we continue to aim high and to be on the look out for ways to improve teaching and learning at ODS. You all impress me with your dedication and willingness to try new things!You ROCK!!!
2. We think way beyond our years! We have taken on a very challenging topic this term, it is a very hard concept for the children to grasp and really we are talking about high school art history!! Thanks for not being afraid to give things a go and for learning alongside the children - a credit to you all.

Keep on rockin people and enjoy the wearable art!!!

Zee

Room 4's Goal for Inquiry Term 4

THIS TERM WE ARE STUDYING aN aRTISTS wORLD. oUR cLASS HAS TO DESIGN AND CREATE A PIECE OF WEARABLE ART THAT SHOWS THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF pOINTALLISM. mY GOAL IS TO INTRODUCE AND USE A HIGHER ORDER THINKING KEY: BAR. THIS WILL ENCOURAGE THE STUDENTS TO USE CREATIVE THINKING AND TO ADD, REMOVE AND MAKE AN ASPECT BIGGER ON ANY PARTICULAR ITEM. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS AS I HAVEN'T TRIED IT BEFORE WITH MY STUDENTS AND I THINK THE STUDENTS WILL ENJOY THE CHALLENGE.

Goal for Inquiry: Using the Higher Order Thinkers key-The Bar Key

Our goal for this Inquiry, which has involved studying different Artists and their varied forms of art, is for the students to design and create a piece of Wearable Art reflecting Picasso's work. As part of this task/goal I am going to use the higher order thinking 'Bar Key' with the students, which will give them opportunities to think about the ways they can alter their creation. eg. making a part bigger, adding an extra part or object to the present design, and then, taking something away and replacing it with something else. We will practice this 'thinking key' using a variety of scenarios before we start 'making,' so that everyone is familiar with the strategies of B-bigger A-add R- replace.

Barbara Noaro
Year 2,3 and 4 class

Goals for our Inquiry

After reflection, and then some questioning of students, my goal for this inquiry will be to emphasise the Stages of Inquiry. I will endevour to use specific language and reinforce what happens in each stage (expectations). I've noticed that the students are still waiting for 'the next step' to be directed from me but are confident, independent inquirers who just need the confidence to move forward independently. I want them to 'know' the expectations of each stage and to be able to confidently 'move' through them.
Tanya H in Rocking Rua

Zee - Inquiry Goal

My goal for this unit is to ensure that the language of inquiry is visible and used in learning conversations.
Children know that we are doing inquiry but often find it difficult to verbalise the process, to specfically state what happens at each stage and why it happens.
I will aim to achieve this goal by displaying contextual language, displaying student voice, record ideas on charts and display, promote the use of thinking tools to develop understanding of inquiry and blog progress (whic is something that has fallen down this year.)
I will ask children why they are doing something, so they are able to explain the purpose and also their next learning steps in inquiry learning.
If all goes according to plan - like I said - that is the aim. :-)

A New Year!!!!

The year is nearly over but inquiry is continuing at ODS. Lead Teachers has been on maternity leave so she is back and whip is being cracked.
For the final unit of the year the staff have decided to have an arts focus. An Aritists World - students are to inquire about various art movements and for their action, design and create a wearable art costume that shows their understanding of their classes art movement.

As a continuing learning development for the staff, I have asked each staff member to set themselves a goal for developing understanding of inquiry learning. This is a target for their teaching as well as refining understanding of inquiry for students. We have only just developed our inquiry model, and need time to practise to ensure this style of teaching and learning can be sustained in our school. Our assessment rubric has been revised earlier in the year and classroom displays have been updated.

This unit is a challenging one as it is new learning for not onlythe students buy also some of the staff - an exciting term is ahead of us.

Reflections of how the model is working in Rocking Rua

How is the model working?
It has been working really well but my main concern is the amount of time spent
on Immersion/Organise. We spend two weeks on Immersion and then move to Organise but there seems to be a large overlap and organising our learning takes over half our time. Am I spending too long on this?
I don’t think this reflects the need for change but I need to have colleague discussions on this to see if others are finding the same.

Within each stage, are there any issues arising?
Each stage is easy to follow and we have clear guidelines on the expectations of each stage. It is more of the time factor that is an issue for me.

Do we need to make any changes to our Assessment rubric?
In the Communication of Results: The jump from stage 2 to 3 is large and on stage 2 the child can share the answer to one question but on stage 3 they are clearly and confidently reporting and providing supporting evidence. Could this be broken down further? It seems that students are confidently answering their questions but need a lot more guidance to go further and provide supporting evidence.

Can you suggest any ways to further our understanding of Inquiry?
I think that PD into other schools may help our understanding but I wonder if collegial discussions might provide further understanding. We seem to go off and complete the tasks but bring very little back to each other. Our facilitator checks in with all of us and we can ask questions etc but we don’t seem to have these discussions with each other. An understanding of how Inquiry is working in younger/older classes could be beneficial for us.

Discuss the use of ICT in Inquiry?
Where would Rocking Rua be without it!!!
The integration of ICT tools in Inquiry seems natural and provides further stimulating learning. The students are keen to use the tools for research and enjoy adding photographic evidence if able. They are becoming more confident users and the tools are used daily during our Inquiry.

How is supporting documentation going?
I think that the documentation is enough. It provides clear links on what is going to happen and how it is going to happen. I find our documentation thorough and easy to use.

What PD would you find useful for 2010?
I was thinking that visiting other schools could be useful but only if they are following a similar path of Inquiry.
Could PD on a particular stage be more useful? Do we use the same tools as others to get to the next stage?