Term 2 - Week 10 - EVEN

He iti kahurangi

A little treasure

Week 10 3  Hūrae - 7  Hūrae (EVEN) Year 11 Science Brainbee - Mon 3 - Tues 4 13DRA major Production - Tues 4 - Wed 5 Year 12 Leaders Conference - Tues 4 Lifesaving (9-12) - Wed 5 Extended form time (Careers) - Thurs 6 Just a reminder that there is no briefing - please be ready to go in formtime at 8.40. Swimming - South Island - Fri 7 - Sat 8 12 & 13 ECO UC Economics Day - Fri 7 Cycling - SISS Road Champs - Sat 8 - Sunday 9 Last Day Term 2 - Fri 7 Staff Farewells @ interval - Fri 7	School Holidays 8 Hūrae - 23 Hūrae Enjoy your break - a reminder that the main block is not available over the 2 weeks as contractors are starting work on the main building.
Assembly NIL	Assembly NIL
Meeting  Tues 4: Student Support	Meeting  NIL

Heads up for next term + other info:

1. New Education Council has released the 'Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the teaching Profession"

All teachers will be working from the new code from 1st January 2018. This will mean a change to some of our documentation around appraisal, as the 12 previous standards have changed to only 6. These are;

• Te tiriti o Waitangi partnership
• Professional Learning
• Professional Relationships
• Learning-focused culture
• Design for learning
• Teaching

The Code of Professional Responsibility - Examples in Practice has also been put together of examples of behavior demonstrating good and not good practice. Please have a read of these documents and and there will be more to come with regards to implementation. 

2. We have visiting groups of students in the first 4 weeks of Term 3. There is a full school assembly Period 4 on Monday 24th July. A reminder that other assembly slots can be found in the shared google doc.

3. PLD - Mindlab: It is that time again when information is being sent through about the post graduate course they offer for Teachers.  $2000 of course costs is covered by a scholarship. If you are thinking that it might be time to take the next step in your own learning journey then see BLS and we can discuss this further. 

4. Something you may wish to investigate....

https://www.choosito.com/

There is a search engine called Choosito! which includes a reading level index alongside the search results. So when you conduct a search, you are able to filter according to four different categories; Early readers, Emerging Readers, Fluent Readers or Advanced Readers. Users are also able to sort results by subject area.

This is a free resource, but as a teacher you need to create a Choosito! account to be able to access the filtering options. Once you have registered you can search using the reading level filter. One downside is that it does seem to like Wikipedia but helpful if looking for differentiated reading material.

5. FYI - A selection of the wonderfully decorated doors

It was great to see so many fantastic doors around the mid winter Xmas theme. The student council under Peter's guidance have done a fantastic job bringing a bit of fun to the school this week.

Term 2 - Week 9 - ODD

Puraho māku, kei ngaure o mahi.

To catch fish you must place your basket in the water. (No work, no reward) 

Week 9 26 Hūne - 30 Hūne (ODD) 12DRA Major Production - Tue 27 - Thurs 29 Gymnastics Canterbury Champs - Tues 27 LEFs due to be completed by Fri 30 by 10.50am 13DIT Orion Health Trip (p5) Squash- South Island Champs - Sat 1 and Sun 2	Week 10 3  Hūrae - 7  Hūrae (EVEN) Year 11 Science Brainbee - Mon 3 - Tues 4 13DRA major Production - Tues 4 - Wed 5 Year 12 Leaders Conference - Tues 4 Lifesaving (9-12) - Wed 5 Extended form time (Careers) - Thurs 6 Swimming - South Island - Fri 7 - Sat 8 12 & 13 ECO UC Economics Day - Fri 7 Cycling - SISS Road Champs - Sat 8 - Sunday 9 Last Day Term 2 - Fri 7 Staff Farewells @ interval - Fri 7
Assembly NIL	Assembly Year 9 in Gym during Extended Form time - Thurs 6
Meeting  Tues 27: Department	Meeting  Tues 4: Student Support

Information for Staff and Professional Learning Opportunities

1. PD opportunity: Thriving in Complexity - Core Ed

A CORE breakfast seminar that will introduce a model for thinking about complexity around issues and change within schools. See BLS if interested. 

2. Digital Technologies for Learning - NZCER survey summary is now available. There are a number of interesting graphics that summarise the feedback from teachers around their views of how digital technologies have impacted on student learning and outcomes.

Reference: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/4-A3-dig-tech-info_0.pdf

The full summary document 'Is digital technology good for students learning?' can be accessed at: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/4-A3-dig-tech-info_0.pdf

3. Sylvia (DXS) sent this link through 'a short interview from Radio NZ' with a Waitara High principal talking about student voice. Great to hear how different schools are approaching the use of student voice in school change initiatives.

"Warburton's philosophy is to encourage "belonging and belief".

"If we have a place where students belong, where they feel like they have some ownership and some agency in it, they have some say in what's being taught in the classrooms - then attendance lifts, engagement lifts."

Sending a student out with self-belief is more important "than a grade in maths", he says."

Checking your Absence Rolls in Kamar

As we are getting near the end of Term 2, now is a good time to check that all class attendance rolls have been completed in Kamar. This is needed to ensure that student absence percentages are up to date, as well as for our ministry attendance audits.

To complete the check click on:

1. Teachers

2. Find your name - by typing in your code.

3. Across the top there are a series of options - click on Attendance. You will then see a screen like the picture below. If there are any red squares - this will mean that the attendance is not completed for that lesson. 

4. Click on the red squares which will take you to the roll for that day and update the attendance for the students for that lesson.

Term 2 - Week 8 - EVEN

E kore te patiki e hoki ki tona puehu

The flounder (fish) does not return to his dust

Do not make the same mistake twice

Week 8 19 Hūne - 23 Hūne (Even) Big Sing - Mon 19 - Tues 20 11DRA Major Production - Tues 20 - Thurs 22 Jane Austen Essay Competition - Wed 21 12MAT Assessment (Expt) from 12.20pm (p4) - 4pm - Thurs 22 Yr13 Business Studies YES company product launch. - Thurs 22 PD - Late Start - Fri 23 (In Staffroom) Please be ready to go at 8.30am Apologies to BLS Rockfest Finals - Fri 23 Chamber Music Comp - Regional Final Sat 24 Badminton - Sun 25	Week 9 26 Hūne - 30 Hūne (ODD) 12DRA Major Production - Tue 27 - Thurs 29 Gymnastics Canterbury Champs - Tues 27 LEFs due to be completed by Fri 30 by 10.50am 13DIT Orion Health Trip (p5) Squash- South Island Champs - Sat 1 and Sun 2
Assembly Tues 20: Year 13: Testimonials & Elections - form time in the Gymnasium	Assembly Nil
Meeting  Tues 20: Learning and Teaching	Meeting  Tues 27: Department

Information for Staff and Professional Learning Opportunities

1. Most Likely to Succeed:
Most Likely to Succeed was screened here at CGHS in November for any interested staff

and the screening was made possible through a scholarship. If you missed this opportunity, look here for more details on what the documentary is about. 

From September 5th - 12th, MLTS will screen worldwide: audiences can watch via free online broadcast, schools and community hosts can screen the film at no charge, and anyone can pre-order a copy of MLTS for their class, library, school system, or community. 

They will host virtual panels and Q&As with experts from the movie and other thought leaders in 21st century education. Throughout the week, they will also feature stories of the film’s impact in classrooms across the U.S., and will share new, easy ways to experiment with innovation in schools

2. Grow Waitaha: Second Community of Practice

Enrollments are now open for the second hui around emerging innovative educational practice. This time, staff are able to visit Haeata Community campus on Thursday 31st August from 1.30 - 4.30pm.

The staff who attended the first hui out at Rolleston found the session thought provoking. If you are interested in attending please let either BLS or MWL know by Fri 30 June so we can secure you a place. Further information can be found  at Grow Waitaha.

3. Tuahiwi Education Trust: Registrations are open for the next workshops around:

• Ngāi Tahu Migration (Who are Ngāi Tahu and Ngāi Tūāhuriri)
• Mihimihi
• Culturally significant sites to Ngāi Tūāhuriri
• Tikanga and Kawa
• Pōwhiri Process

Workshops are to be held on July 10 and 21 at Haeata campus. See BLS if interested.

4. Useful Website: https://www.webpagefx.com/tools/read-able/

If you want a quick way to see if the website that you require students to read is set at the right age level this website allows you to find out. Just copy and paste in the website url and you will be given the reading age level.

5. Using Video in the Classroom:

If you are a google user, then you might like to try using Videonot.es. This add-on synchronises with Google Drive, so any work completed on the platform is saved and can be shared the same as any other Google Doc. This is a great tool, as it takes students from being passive viewers of a clip, which can often be non effective, to making sure students are engaging with what they are viewing.

This particular tool enables students to watch YouTube clips and add summary notes as they view the clip. When students go back at a later date to review sections of the clip. They are able to click on the text, and it will take them straight to that particular part of the video.

KAMAR - Tips and Tricks

1. How can you navigate around KAMAR using your keyboard?

Answer:
• When on the menu screen, type the first letter of each button. E.g. While on the Main Menu, type ‘S’ to change to the ‘Students’ menu or 'T' to go straight to the 'Teachers' menu.

• When on a screen with a student filter on the left, type Ctrl F to move to the
‘Filter’ field.

• Use the Ctrl  Left arrow key to go ‘back’ to the previous screen.

• Use the Ctrl  Shift + left arrow key to go to the ‘Main Menu’.

Term 2 - Week 7 - ODD

Kua āta haere, muri tata kino. 

To start early is leisurely, but to race against time is desperate.

Week 7 12 Hūne - 16 Hūne (Even) Waitaki Winter Exchange - Mon 12 - Tues 13 Schools Chamber Music Competition - Wed 14 - Fri 16 Careers Trip: Maori and Pasifika - Wed 14 Year 13 Tourism Trip - Thurs 15 New course Proposals to BLS - Thurs 15 Secret Admirer's Week - Staff Cross Country - NZ Champs - Sat 17 - Sun 18	Week 8 19 Hūne - 23 Hūne (Even) Big Sing - Mon 19 - Tues 20 11DRA Major Production - Tues 20 - Thurs 22 Jane Austen Essay Competition - Wed 21 12MAT Assessment (Expt) from 12.20pm (p4) - 4pm - Thurs 22 PD - Late Start - Fri 23 (In Staffroom) Rockfest Finals - Fri 23 Chamber Music Comp - Regional Final Sat 24 Badminton - Sun 25
Assembly Nil	Assembly Tues 20: Year 13: Testimonials & Elections - form time in the Gymnasium
Meeting  Tues 13: Learning Area - Pedagogical	Meeting  Tues 20: Learning and Teaching

Information for Staff and Professional Learning Opportunities

1. The next late start is on Friday 23. This will be a whole staff meeting and Lucy Hone will coming to speak to staff around well-being and resilience.
Some of you may read her column in the Sunday Star Times magazine

2. PLD: Coaching and Mentoring for Change Leaders. this full day PD is run by Jan Robertson. Course is on Thurs 15th June.

3. Isabella Wallace and Leah Kirkman have this year published a series of books called Best of the Best and one of them is titled Progress. It features a collection of brief and accessible contributions from some of the most internationally eminent names in education. The authors' aim is to provide busy teachers with practical ideas and advice in a helpful (as opposed to overwhelming) way. 
One of the contributors is Sugata Mitra, he won the TED prize in 2013 (and 1 million dollars) for his TED talk in which he expressed his desire to design an online learning lab in India. If you are interested in viewing his talk, click here.

Sugata's piece in the Progress book is about schools in the internet age. His opinion is that schools all over the world seem to pretend the internet does not exist. He provides the fact that in almost all school examinations the internet is not allowed to be used as his evidence because during those examinations is possibly the only time in their life when a learner does not have access to the internet. 
He suggests that 2 things will ultimately happen: learners will increasingly question why they are being asked questions that can be answered in minutes using the internet and compares it to asking some one to tell the time without looking at their watch. Those who can answer questions without having to look them up on the internet will, according to Mitra, not necessarily do better in life than the ones who cannot. Many employers, he says will be unhappy with an employee who does not use the internet properly.
Secondly, that it will not be possible to keep the internet out of exams. Now, learners are asked to put away their tablets and phones, and even their watches. Next it will be jewellery, hearing aids, glasses and possibly clothes! Internet access will become so invisible that it will no longer be possible to tell if someone is using it or not. What will happen to teaching, learning and exams then?
He finishes with stating that governments and teachers need to prepare to include the internet more widely. Assessment systems will need to find out if a learner can provide balanced and sensible answers to difficult questions using the internet. An ability to search for, understand and comprehend is imperative where learning will happen at the point of need. This certainly provides food for thought and is something that is already be considered by NZQA and its Future State programme. 

The practical strategies Mitra offers are around equipping students with skills to thrive in the internet age and how they can learn to provide those balanced and sensible answers to difficult questions using the internet. He suggests not scaffolding tasks by providing a selection of specific internet sites to peruse that you have checked beforehand. Instead get them to start in groups of 4 around one device and tell students that they can walk around, talk and look at each others work and change groups if they like, looking out for information that might be misleading. Also getting learners to compare information from several sites considering the validity of each as well as providing students with questions which encourage this, so rather than 'research 2 dictators' consider 'which dictator was more tyrannical?'. If you would like to know more from Sugata Mitra, here is a list of his publications. 

Term 2 - Week 6 - EVEN

Week 6 5 Hūne - 9 Hūne (Even) Queen's Birthday - Mon 5 11/12/13 Music Performance Assessments - Tues 6 - Fri 9 Year 11 Maori Leadership Day at UC - Tues 6 Year 13 Tourism trip - Tues 6 Outdoor Education Year 12 PE trip - Wed 7 - Fri 10 12/13ACC UC Accounting Day - Wed 7 Year 11 Formal - Sat 10	Week 7 12 Hūne - 16 Hūne (Even) Waitaki Winter Exchange - Mon 12 - Tues 13 Aerobics at Villa - Tues 13 School Chamber music - Wed 14 - Fri 16 Careers Trip: Maori and Pasifika - Wed 14 Year 13 Tourism Trip - Thurs 15 Secret Admirer's Week - Staff Cross Country - NZ Champs - Sat 17 - Sun 18
Assembly Nil	Assembly Nil
Meeting  Tues 6: Staff Meeting Thurs 8: PCT	Meeting  Tues 13: Learning Area - Pedagogical

Information for Staff and Professional Learning Opportunities

1. Staff meeting on Tuesday - The agenda is being sent out. This is a chance to further discuss well-being as a staff. There will also be a chance to look at upcoming school initiatives and ideas around implementation of a proposed change to our school's end of year programme.

2. Deep learning Lab - 20-21 July. Registrations are now open. Information can be found here

3. Tuesday 13 June (Week 7) is a Learning Area meeting slot with a pedagogical focus. Several Learning Areas have taken up opportunities to have outside specialists come in and present in this time. Please let me (Liz) know if you would like to have this sort of thing in future slots and I can organise it for you. You may even have particular colleagues in mind, just let me know. 

4. Grow Waitaha, a MOE initiative, is a group that aims to support Canterbury schools through their processes of changing as a result of rebuild and repair programmes. It is through this group that the Community of Practice visits are occurring this year. These are afternoons in which secondary staff can go and look around new builds in Canterbury and ask questions of staff working there to build a better picture of what teaching and learning might look like in new spaces - the first visit was out to Rolleston College and involved 8 of our staff. The next is scheduled for August 31st and will be at Haeata Community Campus. I highly recommend putting your name forward for this next visit. 
The opportunity allows for staff to decide what they like, don't like and what they think might work back in their own schools after seeing different models of teaching and learning and spaces. 
Grow Waitaha also provide support in the form of sharing school stories and, more importantly, secondary school stories are included. This is to help with sharing of expertise and insights across schools. This is also the reason why we had the film crew in at the start of the week, they were here filming a small group of staff who are working together in a collaborative inquiry which involves mentoring by Grow Waitaha and looking at change in pedagogy with a focus on well-being and utilising digital technologies. 
Here is a link to the St Thomas' story which is shared by two teachers there. They discuss leading change in curriculum development and supporting teachers to deliver a more future focused, project-based programme. 

5. Finally, something that seems like it came from a sci-fi movie - the Rocketbook! Imagine a notebook that you write/draw/create in that can - with the use of a smartphone - send your pages into your chosen cloud-based storage spaces, like your Google drive, OneNote, iCloud or your DropBox. 

Then when you have filled all your pages in your notebook, simply pop it in the microwave for half a minute or so, and voila! It's a brand new, empty notebook again! If you would like to look at one or try it out, come and see me (Liz).  So many uses, but one I particularly like is as a solution for people who might not be able to afford a phone and a laptop.  I know of one Christchurch high school which has bought a class set of these books for students to use in classes as an alternative to using laptops. 

Have a great long weekend!