Winning Hone Haka

The Science Department won the weekly "Hone Haka" award for being best at incorporating the Te Reo Maori Kupu o te Wiki.

Start to 2017

Beginning 2017 has been a rush in that there has been so much full staff PD and admin and not nearly enough time in departments for us to plan together, and alone, to get ourselves fully ready for the teaching year before the students were sitting in front of us. This is in spite of the fact I came in a few days before the full staff was called back.

Ongoing Inquiry into the Geology assessment for Year 10's

The last couple of days I have been watching and marking presentations from my year 10 class on a Natural Disaster. 

The quality of presentation is much higher than last year. This is a combination effect from having a more literate and engaged class than I had last year, but also having provided greater scaffolding for the students. From the scaffolding they have a better understanding of what is expected of them, and the detail to which they need to go.

Some students are, as expected, only doing enough for the minimum. Others have really been focussed on the higher levels, and been motivated by the clear outlines. The hardest part for many has been presenting to the class, however as scary as it may be, presenting is a valuable skill for them to practise.

In addition I think I will give them a modified re-submission opportunity, modelled on how they will be assessed at Year 11 in NCEA Level 1. Modified, in that I will be showing each student what on the rubric that they missed, and perhaps helping them to research their way to a better grade. In this way they will hopefully develop a better understanding of how they may use rubric's to check their assessments for sufficiency.
The aim would be to have them better craft their assessments to meet the criteria at every level .

Creating Assessment- Year 9 Astronomy

This morning I was putting together the assessment for the Year 9 Astronomy unit. The unit needed to be redone in order to ensure that we were effectively assessing at curriculum levels.

The new test has been compiled from the Assessment Resource Bank's resources of properly aligned assessment tasks. I started with a standard from Level 3,  many from Level 4, some from Level 5, then I adapted a NCEA Level 1 task for the Level 6 component. This will really make it straightforward to assess the level of thinking that our students are doing.

The Test

The Marking Rubric

Jenna and I have spent some time putting together questions on behalf of the Science department for the Whanau Feud. We made sure to balance the questions for each year level

https://docs.google.com/a/kamohigh.school.nz/document/d/1ub4QQQ9Mq3jMHcDcVHVlBaknEXxXCL2TJDU8rnfAmo0/edit?usp=sharing

Students choosing me to talk to.

I have had a number of students come to my class when they should be elsewhere. Yesterday one came when she was meant to be at the SSC because she felt more comfortable talking to me than the people at the SSC as we have built a relationship. I let Lynda at the SSC know and she was happy with me to talk to the student in question.

I think the relationship I have is due to my trying for a mix between getting them to do their work, and learn Science, but at the same time I try not to be judgemental about what they tell me. I point out that what they are doing may not lead them to where they need to be, but I don't try and force the issue with them. It's very much an approach where I try and steer them in the direction that I think they need to go, but without being pushy.

Wanting the best for my students

I have been taking a special interest in "I" in my Whanau class. He is a very capable student, and very good-natured and willing to give back. He can, with thought and planning, be successful in both the Maori and Pakeha worlds, and I am trying to help him navigate that.

Today we had a chat in Whanau about what he wants, in the short term and the long term, and we are starting to talk about his options. He would like to go into Carpentry. I have been talking to people that I know in the business and that may not be advisable as the industry in Whangarei appears to be controlled by a cartel keeping wages and movement between firms down. We are looking at Engineering courses, that allow him to fulfill family commitments, while earning, learning, and being a stepping to a full engineering degree.

We also talked about how we need students to go out and be successes in both worlds, then to come back and show others that it can be done. I later heard that he went to his friend in the next class and told him about our conversation, and he was all chuffed that I had called him one of the students we want as a role model.

Year 10 Geology Assessment

I have been reevaluating the assessment for the Year 10 Geology Unit. Although the assessment task itself is a good one, it needed more scaffolding to help the students to understand what is required.

I have spent some time putting together scaffolding resources to support students in this process.

I decided to give the students an exemplar of what was required to get to excellence standard, and along the way I also made a resource showing how I thought through the requirements, and another on how I recorded my information prior to putting my final document together.

When introducing the assessment task I showed the students all of these things, and talked through them with the students, before giving them access to them on Google Classroom.

The exemplar was also highlighted to identify which parts satisfied Level 4, and which Level 5. The student were informed that the expectation is that at Year 10, they need to be working at Level 5 or "Merit", but many students are aiming for the Level 6 assessment grade.

This is a continuation of the revised assessment task I created in 2016 in response to the absence of a reliable assessment task.