Hey there, 
Welcome to the Empathetic Educators blog. Let's get started!!

​So I have given myself the challenge to read a book a week for the next 20 weeks and you can see the order of books that I am reading in the picture below: 

One of my biggest next steps is how I record the process and the journey - over the past few weeks I have felt a bit uncertain and feel like my project has been put on the back burner but when I look back at what I have done even within the first couple of weeks of school, I have actually achieved a lot. 

When talking with my Google Innovator Mentor I was able to sound board possible reasons for this. It came down to 'wanting to get to the final product' ​and this is kind of what I felt at the beginning of the journey last year as well.  Sometimes I think as teachers we have so much to get through and so much to look at that it can get a bit overwhelming and I think that is how I have felt the past few weeks 'I'm not doing this, I said I would get this done and I haven't etc.'

This is where I find the balance of final product vs understanding the journey can get a bit challenging because even though I might not have completed what I had set out to do so far I have actually completed so much but in a different direction. So part of my next steps is to record my CoL and Google Innovator journey by recording a personal reflection of the week to add to my blog and youtube channel. And this in turn will bring my passions back into my timeline as I am creating my content alongside the journey.

I have had a few meetings over the past few weeks, creating and looking at what my role could look like as I have been facing a few difficulties with logistics and I feel quiet lucky to had a leadership team who I can speak with to plan for the needs of the learners and teachers alongside my passions. 

So after a few meetings it is great to see where my project aligns with the Strategic goals of the school as well as the cluster. As part of my role I will be creating banks of resources to support dose and density within the school. This very much supports my inquiry as they can be added to the banks of independent resources in the game. So this has been very helpful in planning what my timetable looks like for the week. Let's see how the next few weeks go! 

''Wow, I can not believe we are already in March!! I feel like I have done so much but at the same time done so little!!! With Camp, swimming, a new job role, working alongside teachers, working with new learners as well as every other element of day to day life I am actually looking forward to sitting down to reflect on the journey so far. 

As part of this  blog post I want to record what I want to learn this year and how it links to last year's inquiry. 

How can we teach Reading Strategies and 21st Century Skills through the vehicle of Role Play Gaming? ​

As part of the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher programme I spent 2019 inquiring into: 
 
     ​'A number of learners do not make expected National Shift.' 

By the end of the year I had developed a bank of resources that I had trialed in my lessons and had gathered an amazing group of teachers who had trialled them successfully in their lessons too. 

I had also got to the point of how the lessons could be used to engage the learners, through gaming. I had set up a website which I wanted to use as a platform for the learners to use as part of their independent activities to grow their ownerships of their learning when they are not with the teacher. 

Sooooo that bring us to this year, what have I been doing? What are my next steps?

Since the beginning of the year I have been making sure to take action on what I learnt from last year: 
- I have gathered some baseline data from my learners before starting to implement 
- I have gathered teacher voice before steamrolling ahead with what I think is needed 
- I have created my 'tribe' of adults who are interested in my project as well as have passions that align with what I am trying to achieve

I feel like I have a lot to say about my next steps and wanted to give it it's own post. Find out next!! 

Slides from the Wananga:

Taking a step back and empathising with the problem has been my favourite part of the journey. I started the journey always ‘fixing’ a problem but my biggest growth has been around stopping, talking, collaborating and truly understanding what is possible broadens the outcome. Being a learner - taking risks, challenging ourselves, growing in confidence. Has allowed me to empathise with my own learners and understand how they might respond to challenges. ​

It has been so amazing to be part of this journey and see the impact that my interventions have been having on my learners outcomes. 

As I mentioned in my previous posts, a big shift I have seen is in my learners being able to access Easttle tests. I believe this has been a great insight into the learners ability to drive their own learning and independently  answer questions. These photos showcase this, as and example of a learner who has found it challenging to interact with the test, we did a test for their end of year OTJ and it is the first time they have recorded as 'AT' on an online test. 

As a teacher there are moments that stand out and this is one of them. Another golden nugget has been a learner who has been working on using the reciprocal teaching resources to extend their vocabulary and comprehension which has transferred into their writing. They have been 'Well Below' for the past 5 years and he has now moved to 'Below' with 'At' features in their most recent independent assessment. This showcases amazing shift that has not happened in recent years. 

Join us for the first N.E.R.D.Y Neuro Networking session where we have fun activities set up to engage people from all walks of life to share your stories, learn from others and grow your understanding of your brain to empower yourself and empower others.
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Book tickets on our Eventbrite site here.

Our guest speaker this session is Angus Brown from AlphaGen NZ Ltd who make the Arepa nooptropic products. Are you wanting to find natural resources that support you or your child/ learner with focusing and finding Mental Clarity? Well this is the session for you!!
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Find out more by clicking the image below: 

$5 from each ticket will go to Youthline which is a fantastic charity that supports people to be their best by empowering them with tools and strategies to take control of their lives. Join the amazing people who have already donated on our fundraising page bit.ly/YouthlineW2W - Find out more in the video below: 

WOW!! I am so happy with how the tool is working out and coming together. Now that I have added the blog to the website and have been trialling it with the learners it is so great to see it coming together in practise not just in theory. I have added it to the website and I have also played about with the idea of having a multimodal website.

​I want this site to be accessible to all learners and I believe that by having audio along with the words it will grow vocabulary as the learners can hear new words and associate them with the words in front of them as well as removing barriers. 

It has been so great to see the resources enhancing reading through mileage but also they are hearing themselves speak out loud and giving themselves feedback so they can reflect on how they can improve. They can continually think about sharing as they are thinking their audience. We are definitely in the earlier stages of this but just in the first two weeks I have seen a shift in the vocabulary getting transferred from the intentional teacher workshops into their blogs.

1. Intentional teacher workshop learning about the different reading strategies 
2. Working on the activities on the website to practise the reading strategies 
3. Recording your book to upload to the blog 
4. Writing the blog post including reading strategies, feedback and book genres
As I mentioned in a recent post, I intend on using the 4 stages to grow vocabulary and increase the learner's ability to transfer their new vocabulary into their own writing. Making connections between their reading and their writing. After two weeks and putting this system into place I have already seen a shift in the learner's attention and engagement during sessions. 

A big reflection from this process is that the learners are getting a lot out of creating activities for the website. This is not an activity that I have brought into the website but I intend on reflecting on this further during  the school holidays to see how I can bring this feature into the activities at each stage because my hunch is that the learners are enjoying the activities because they have ownership over them and they are partly learner created. However, a part of this I have to think about is how to make all the resources of a high standard as some learners struggled to create a game that the learners will learn from rather than just being fun. 

Let's see how it goes..... 

After my amazing trip to Singapore where I got to revisit the design thinking process from the start of the Innovative Teacher project. I keep coming back to how is my tool different from other elements out there so that I can make sure I am pushing the boundaries. I want to ensure that I am understanding my user and why I believe my tool is needed to increase shift in Literacy as well as allowing learners to drive their own learning.  I feel my tool is doing just that for many reasons: 
- Sites such as Get Epic is a great resource where learners can access different books. However, I have not found any sites that empower learners with scaffolded tips to read and reflect so they can share their reading with others. 
- Reciprocal teaching has been a big part of my journey and I feel there are lots of sites that support teachers in creating activities to intentionally teach but I think my tool takes it a step further by having a bank of preloaded activities that the learners can practise and drive their own learning by choosing from the multimodal options on the website. 

Excited to continue to consolidate these ideas for the rest of the term as well as starting in the new term - partnering up with Miss Clarke and her junior learners. ​

The learners love it!! Wow I was so proud of how engaged the learners were when using the blog. They had the ability to drive their own learning and make choices of the books their were going to read and the biggest noticing I had while the learners were recording their stories was that it was working towards the "threefer" that I have mentioned in previous posts. The learners had to focus on elements of reading as well as elements of writing while uploading this blog post. 

One of my next big steps that I will be bringing in will be genres of stories. This I feel is a very easy transition to the task. The learners were also able to reflect on the story as well as their own role as the reader. How could they make it more engaging for their listeners? Was the text visible and clear for the audience to read along with them? 

The learner's feedback said they really enjoyed it but there was a lot to do in this blog post so instead of it being a reflection part at the end of the session it is almost two separate sessions. This feedback from the learners has got me thinking about sequential elements to my tool that make up a whole week of learning. For example: 
1. Intentional teacher workshop learning about the different reading strategies 
2. Working on the activities on the website to practise the reading strategies 
3. Recording your book to upload to the blog 
4. Writing the blog post including reading strategies, feedback and book genres

I really do feel like this year has been a bit of a whirlwind and like Anne always tells me - try to funnel my vision (which I find very tricky). Term 3 has been a great term where I feel like I have got a lot of traction with my tool as well as feedback from learners and teachers. I really do see it all coming together now.