Keeping Our Vision In Focus And Responsive Goal Setting

Term 4 always seems to fly by so fast. Sometimes we forget to step back and think about how we are going and to reflect on our progress.

Last week we spent time discussing many of our successes this year as a class. Our units of inquiry were mentioned, and many of us thought that overall we have a very positive learning environment (which was part of the vision we created for 2015 back in Term 1, to "Contribute to a positive learning environment").

In fact, we spent several weeks at the beginning of the year outlining what kind of learning environment we wanted, along with what we expected of ourselves and others. The question we have been asking this week is - 'How can we keep our vision in focus?'

We really want to end the year on a high. Last week was about identifying those goals that keep popping up in our individual planners, which we have not yet mastered. This is responsive goal setting. Two aspects of our vision are that we "Strive for excellence" and we "Own our learning". Along with identifying key skills and attitudes as goals for this term, we have been taking ownership of them, asking what mastery will look like and knowing the point at which they will be achieved.

We can't wait to achieve these ones.

Mindfulness In Room 14

This term we have begun looking into what being more mindful in Room 14 might mean.

A quick Google search will tell you that mindfulness is about attention, awareness, focus, presence or vigilance. It is about being in the moment. The opposite of these things being mindlessness, inattention, distractedness and lack of judgement - All of which can negatively affect learning opportunities.

Here we are doing a 5 minute guided relaxation session after lunch one day this week:

Mindful students in Room 14 will…

• Take the time to stop and reflect at various times throughout the school day, asking themselves "How am I doing?"
• Display a personal awareness during guided group sessions with Mr K, showing a focused and attentive approach to our discussions.
• Actively listen to others sharing their books for Readers' Café and ask thoughtful questions, while being conscientious and well-prepared to share their own books.
• Enter our classroom after break times in peace, clearing their thoughts of negative distractions and getting themselves ready for the next learning session.
• Manage their daily planner well, choosing appropriate times to update it and evaluating each week with honesty and a mindset that they can improve.

And the list goes on. These were a few of the statements we have already come up with about Room 14.

Also, now with our 1:1 system in place, we have begun to discuss the importance of balancing digital devices with other areas of our lives. Most adults will certainly be able to relate to this, as the world of social media and 'anytime, any-place' connectedness has become more and more a part of many of our daily routines, sometimes to the detriment of our physical and emotional well-being if we allow ourselves to become too engulfed in it.

A focus on being mindful this term will hopefully give us more of an insight into our own learning and personal interactions, as well as an even happier classroom. Here is a news report on how mindfulness practices are being used in one school.

Although like the school in the video above, we will only be spending 5-10mins a couple of times a week on the guided relaxation aspect of mindfulness practice, it will be interesting to see where we go and what benefits we see in both our learning and our sense of well-being.

Exploring Learning Environments

This morning we have been exploring great learning environments, leading into the vision we are creating this week for our own classroom.

We have been sharing stories about positive and negative learning experiences we have had in the past. This year we have at least one child from each of the senior syndicate classes last year, so we can listen to lots of experiences.

We imagined a classroom where lots of great learning is taking place. What would we see? What would we hear? What would the teacher be doing?

With these questions in mind, we worked in groups to come up with ideas. Many ideas were later shared with the whole group, some of which were peacefully debated. The noise level was one of these. Should a classroom be a very quiet place, or does discussion help us in our learning?

A great session sharing opinions and experiences…

Steps To Success - Term Three

This week we have revisited our steps to success. Like last term, we have each identified one skill and one attitude to work on this term. Both of these are things that we really think would help us take huge steps forward in becoming better learners.

We used our brainstorm from here to help us identify what our strengths and challenges are.

There are some great new steps on display. Sometimes the simplest ones can be the most powerful...

"I want to be a leader"
"Don't doubt myself"
"Be creative with my ideas"
"Look for new inquiry challenges"

It's great to see on display that we are moving forward together, we are all individuals with different strengths and that we know ourselves as learners.

Round Table Discussions

We have been thinking about how we interact with others when working in a group. This includes how we communicate our ideas and give others the opportunity to share theirs.

One way of thinking about this was to have 'round table discussions', which provide a good reflection point for evaluating our behaviours when working with others.



But does this tell us whether our ideas were helpful, thoughtful or sensible?

What makes a great learner?

As we are approaching the end of term two, we are setting aside time each day this week to reflect upon our year so far and create our own 'visions' for the rest of 2013.

Today each of our literacy groups put their heads together to identify what characteristics a great learner would have. We then collaborated ideas from all of our groups. 

This was the result:

This shows that together we have a strong understanding of what it takes to be a great learner. 

Many of these characteristics we already possess, but this display also provided a nice opportunity for some of us to think about skills and attitudes we really want to develop.

Our Weekly Planners

Ellee and Sarai talk a little about our weekly planners...

Steps to Success - Term 2

Last term we talked about how we can become better learners. We identified steps we could each take to make this happen.

We have just created a new display to show the steps we are taking this term. All of us wrote one skill and one attitude we are working on. Some of the girls also created a 'learning tree', which illustrates how positive attitudes (the roots) will shape what sort of learners we become (the branches and leaves).