Elly Warnock

Mel and I had a great session today discussing agency, dispositions, our RSS vision, the key competencies and our school values. We want to be able to see how they all link together.  We want to be able to simplify them, yet not loose the heart of any of them. Our discussion led to this...   Certainly still a work in progress, but a great start to aligning these important factors of what we believe is important at Russell Street School.  I just love that the work that was done in the Innovation Fund is not coming to fruition.  It is aligning beautifully with the PD we have had in maths, and the latest research. Next step - to take to Leadership.

After our conversation, I still had some questions in my mind...so I have had an email conversation with Mel tonight Hi Mel, I'm just thinking a lot about the conversation that we had this morning about the MST kids. A question... Are there specific dispositions that each child is lacking or is it more about an attitude to learning in general? What is your opinion? Thanks! Mel's reply: Good question!  It differs from child to child obviously but there is a theme with both groups - the major difference you will see below is the attitude between the two groups. In no particular order... Not knowing what to do when stuck  - disposition (asking for help, risk taking - in terms of thinking ...what do I already know that I can use?  How can I get started? contributing and participating their ideas - so actually engaging - talking, collaborating vs competing!, over/under participators, not starting (giving up easily), seeing everything as hard - not valuing the

“The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Excerpt From: Spencer, John. “Empower: What Happens When Student Own Their Learning.” IMPress, LP, 2017-06-27T12:00:00+00:00. iBooks.  For me, the journey of my sabbatical about 'Agency in Maths,' is summed up by this quote. For a child to have complete autonomy in their learning in maths, in reading or in writing, is in their ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.  It is not about the content of the knowledge & strategies that they learn along the way, but about their ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.  It is about the dispositions that they hold as LEARNERS.  It is these strategies, as learners, that will hold them in good stead in their lives.  I have had many people say to me that agency is not possible with 5 year olds. Well, I completely disagree. It is at 5, if not before, that the dispositions of learning are sh

"Leaders eat last." Simon Sineck "There is no end to the good I can do if I don't mind who gets the credit." What is the modern view of leadership? (Nick - the leader as the chef?) Coaching is solution forward focused!

We are due to have our final session with Carol for the year tomorrow.  It is amazing that we are at this time of the year already with another year of PD under our belts.  Lots has changed in the past year, lots of growth has been made. Carol has asked us to complete an elevator pitch.  To be honest, I had no idea what it even was, but with the help of Nick's blogpost, I think I have it sorted!  So, here goes... The Coaching Habit My coaching is… I have worked on… I have achieved… My leadership learning relates to… Um....actually....I think I would rather just talk about something that is on top for me... The difference between coaching and mentoring.  I knew about this in theory, but in practise, it has been made really clear to me this year. Mentorship is a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The  mentor  may be older or younger than th

So this week, we pulled together this terms learning in our production "Te Ahu a Turanga." What a huge success it was! Today, I went back to the letter that we sent out to whānau at the beginning of the term. The opening paragraph read... We are very excited to be focussing on The Arts this term as the main curriculum area for our inquiry.  The Arts curriculum includes dance, drama, art and music.  This will be integrated with Social Sciences as we look towards how we can grow sustainability within the Manawatu, especially our river, Te Awa.  This learning will culminate with a whole-school production at The Regent on Tuesday 19th September . When I wrote that letter, we were really unaware of what the production was going to look like. This is what I would call a 'collaborative production' - it was built along the way and although I like to know where we are heading, this was real - it was unique and it was magical! What a phenomenal team to be part of

Kelly and I were privileged to take staff meeting last night with Dinah providing us feedback on our content and delivery. As a Leadership Team in Term 2, we planned out the development necessary in maths. This was critical in ensuring that there has been coherence and consistency in our maths development - especially when we have been 'taking turns' in leading staff meeting throughout the term. This staff meeting was a result of a couple of things - firstly, the SM that Ebony & Mel led, was all about making OTJ's. What we found were that people were very narrow in the data that they were using. No one used a rich task to help inform their judgement. Secondly, we have wanted to do a maths 'moderation' for over a year now. It was in the plan for a TOD last year, but that TOD was cancelled. We had not revisited this.  It was important for us to tell people where this meeting sat with relation to the big picture. Having 2 hours to work with Dinah and Kelly