Nate Sextus's Portfolio

On April 27-28 the Huntley teaching staff set out at 5am to embark on a once in a year journey.  This journey was the Edtech Google for Education summit.  This conference cover many of the application Google has developed and are not embedding itself into the education environment. Sessions I attended included up-skilling on: Google Classroom My Maps Flubaroo Google Expeditions Google Cardboard Google Arts and Culture and much more.  One of the key learning tools that I picked up was how to use Google forums and how you can create test and mark them through them.  But with any of these technologies, time and patience is needed to out work these.  Staff at school have jumped on board using these apps, and especially Google Classrooms. It makes assessment and management of assessments very seamless.  Possible future action: One thing that could be worth actioning is using Google Classroom for staff communication and P...

Te aroha Te whakapono Me te rangimarie Tatou tatou e  Over the first full school holidays the creative juices were flowing. New class this year, completely new bunch of students.  How could I start this week off? I know!  A song!  From the above lyrics we sung a simple Maori sing. This was to help build unity among our class. Also so get rid of all the nerves. It wasn't just to push the kids and do something different but also show the kids more of me and who I am as a teacher.  Relationship is important in teaching, so making a inclusive step through song to start out the year has been very positive!                            Love Faith And peace Be amongst us all

In the picture shown, this is about my third attempt this year to arrange the class in a away that would help students work well together and also when when assigned with individual activities. Discerning students who are likely to jell together and work cooperatively is a skill that is in the process of development. However, the physical classroom is like a working canvas. Quite often I roam other classes to see how other teachers like to arrange their rooms. What I have seen work well through class observations, is having space for small group work, and desk group space. Providing and area for small group work is extremely important as both teacher and student can be in a comfortable space without the feeling of being crammed in like tuna inside a can. This then can set the scene for engaging learning!

On the below link is my Attestation for meeting the Professional Standards completed in Term 1 2017. This was completed by my mentor and syndicate leader Shaun Lewis, and we had a collaborative debrief.  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7cFXLxWsWH-VEhwTDNYVXFrTnM Adding more Curriculum links in planning was my main 'work on' and I have implemented this!  Adding things such as Key Competencies and school values have been useful, as it helps identifying those soft skills I am trying to develop in the students. 

I am writing this reflection on my first year of being a teacher in review. So for me the most significant learning experiences for the year was learning to relax, being ready for the unknown, being respected rather than liked (by students), and being prepared. The learning that arose from learning to relax was that the world wasn’t going to fall down around me if I did something that didn’t work. Previously, I thought that you needed to have everything under control and if you made a mistake, it would be seared into a child's mind. In fact, kids are more interested doing creative things and at times it doesn’t matter if they don’t run particularly smooth. I found that all teachers find aspects of their job challenging and that it’s fine not to be good at everything. Cause no one is.   This might be due to past experiences where as a student we think that our teachers are somewhat inhuman and have super powers. The learning that arose from learning being ready...

2016 PCT Course Notes The link above is evidence of attending my PCT course through the year. We meet termly, discussing many pressing and relevant issues that first years encounters. Strategies, resources, staff relationships, and meeting the Registered Teacher's Standards. 

18/08/2016 (i) - Professional aims set through reflection of an observation by Corral Lynch Observation Reflection Summarised learning - Setting classroom tone and management through language.