Cindy Wihongi - Professional Blog

  I have found today to be one of the most beneficial days of this programme!  All the other days have been awesome but for some reason, today really resonated with me?  I am wondering if this is due to me not feeling like I am doing a great job of word work in my classroom or not deliberately planning for this, like I do for the other areas we have covered.  This is certainly an area of improvement for me!  Like it has been reiterated today, we can not assume that our learners know words or will simply learn this by osmosis and this teaching needs to be planned and explicit.  The apps and resources we have been supplied with today make this an exciting challenge, one of which I am certain my kids will just love!   Anna was able to share a couple of great apps with us which lead to others in our breakout also sharing.  This collaborative learning is so awesome given that we are so busy, it's great to have someone recommend particular resource...

 Day 5 RPI What an amazing day full of such great resources that although I did know about, didn’t know about the extent of what they could do!   Sometimes I forget about JUST using images to begin discussions, particularly in regards to inferencing.   Great way to use reading for writing and vice versa.   Good reminder to be aware of splitting the timetable to be inclusive and the rationale behind this.  I liked the idea that Georgie spoke about, of swapping times to ensure that those that are withdrawn don’t miss out but am grateful that in my class, withdrawal is the same time each day so I am able to avoid doing this.  This is great for my class learners as they are so much productive when routine is maintained!  I also struggle with the possibility of not offering choice for learners in order for them to take some agency over their learning and think that sometimes timetabling takes this away from our kids.  It was great that t...

Day 4 The day was a little frustrating as my device wouldn’t allow the camera or mic, but it certainly did give me the chance to reflect on how kids must feel (particularly now that I am teaching Year 4’s and 5’s who are just learning how to use chrome books!)   The day went really quickly with lots of learning.  There was lots of reiterating of what I already knew but this was really good as just because I know it, doesn’t actually mean that it is always what I do!!   One thing that I really haven’t done in my practice and really liked and think I need to be inclusive of is the prior knowledge through the use of videos etc.  I really enjoyed seeing the clip about how this was beneficial and although I usually try to select texts that the children have some familiarity with, this is another way to ensure I am exposing them to things that they are not familiar with as well as this allowing me to access a lot more texts.   I don’t always record obse...

I have learnt a lot today in regards to the entire reading programme and some new resources to access reading material for my learners.  It was great to have my teaching practice both affirmed and challenged with some great ideas about how to be inclusive of new resources within a well resourced/well rounded reading programme.   I did feel really frustrated however as when I struggled to find reading material that was appropriate for the group I had hoped to ‘target’ in today’s RPI.  They are readers of approx 7-7.5 years and there didn’t seem to be a lot available.  I found the journal surf offered a huge range for more able readers and I found it difficult to negotiate the TKI website.  I did persevere with this after our day had finished and managed to find some appropriate leveled books.  Although we had hoped to find ‘sets’, I managed to find 3 texts which could ‘loosely’ be grouped based on experiencing emotions and how different experiences make...

 This survey was really insightful in finding out about the habit and attitudes of our Year 4/5 learners in Totara.  In our remote area we do have trouble with accessing public libraries but we do have a small library at school and also a well resourced book shelf in our classroom.  We also are part of the Duffy Book initiative so the students are regularly gifted books of their choice so most definitely have access to a range of texts. It was interesting that they thought that their ability of reading matched their teachers opinions but that they believed their whanau had a higher opinion of their reading ability.  This is an area that I am keen to explore a bit more.   The results re the amount and times that they read was no surprise.  It was hugely variable and it would be amazing to increase these times/amounts.  I believe that the insight into their choice of books and topics enjoyed is one way to increase this.   Feedback from men...

There is so much to learn!!  It has been a little overwhelming today with the collation of data and new places to source this from and then share in!  I can absolutely see the benefit of doing this but think the last couple of weeks with camp and sickness has added to the way I am feeling.   I am excited though about the end result of this as I can see how this allows me to understand my readers so much better and be able to cater for this through the LI’s, WALT’s and S/C that I am able to pitch based on their needs.   I look forward to using the task board but do have apprehensions about how SOME of my learners will be able to manage themselves independently.  For lots of them, this is the first year on chrome books so that in itself is proving challenging.  I just need to introduce this when I have support of TA in class and have the chance to actually ‘teach’ the learners how to use the board.  I am also excited to share with my teaching c...