Monday - 3 classes and 3 teachers

On Monday we had Room 10, 11 & 12 in Room 4 altogether.  We started the day together for the roll and went through the plan for the day ahead.
For Maths we had 2 problems to solve, and children were allowed to work on their own or with a buddy or in a small group.
For Literacy Mrs Jack, Mr Bootten and Mrs Jones all explained the shared book and activity that they were going to do, and the children chose which teacher they wanted to work with.
We organised ourselves the same way for the afternoon when each teacher did a different Christmas craft activity.
Here are a few photos of us working on our problem solving at Maths time.

Sandpit time with the Green Screen

On Friday we had some time to try the green screen out.  We used an iPad app called Green Screen by Ink.
We took some photos and made some videos. (Although the sound didn't work for some reason on one of the videos, but you get the idea of the possibilities of using the Green Screen.)
We can put a photo of anything in the background and add our photo on the front.

Or we can put a photo in the background and add our video in the front.
Videos to come - trouble uploading them.

Room 11 & 12 - Day 5 - PMI

Today in our groups we made a list of our Positives/Negatives/Interesting from our time in Room 4.

POSITIVES

• Working with new people
• Getting my work done faster
• Working with Room 11 and 12
• Having maths groups with birds names
• Working in the tent
• Having Mr B
• Working with another class
• More children helping me
• Working in the pigeon holes
• Mr B and Mrs Jones not growling
• Working with different people
• Reading with Room 11 children in my group
• Making friends with Room 12 kids
• Working with new friends
• Having a wider working space
• Working with Mrs Jones or Mr B
• Working in a different maths group
• Working with Chelsea
• Working with a mix of Room 11 and 12 kids together
• Writing a recount about being in Room 4
• I enjoyed working with Mrs Jones and Room 12 (Mr B)

NEGATIVES

• Having more work
• Not using the Green Screen
• Some children not being able to co-operate
• Having no desk to put our stuff
• Having Mr B and Mrs Jones checking up on me all the time
• Co-operating with Room 12 boys
• Not being in Room 12
• Having small groups going out to the cloakroom to get our lunch and morning tea
• Having to be careful of the Juniors in the cloakroom
• Having free time
• Room 12 missed using the chrome books
• It was difficult to find a space to work
• Having to walk all the way to Room 2’s cloakroom
• I didn’t have any negatives (Mr B)

INTERESTING

• Using Must Do’s and Can Do’s
• Having a tent in the room
• Knowing that Mr B was nice
• Matua hugging Mr B
• Working with Room 11
• Having Mr B as a teacher
• Working in different groups
• Having the Nissan Skyline seats in the class
• Having Mrs Jones as a teacher
• Having a change of classrooms
• Having extra helpers in the room
• Having 2 different teachers

Room 4

This week we have been in room 4 with room 12 and with Mr B. Mrs Jones and Chelsea. Room 4 is made out of the old library and the computer room and is a big working space .  Kade and Kaiden also had  Mrs Jones ,Chelsea chasing them for work instead of just Mr B.  I enjoyed being in the room .By Robbie.


I have enjoyed being in room 4 because i have been able to work with room 12 in my reading group.I have made new friends from room 12.The team work has been good.  Sahana                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I have  enjoyed being in room 4  because  we got to work as  a team . I have enjoyed working with room 12 because I got to meet new people that I did not know except when I saw them outside.      .By Josiah

Room 11 & 12 - Day 2 - Reflection

It was a much busier day today, as we had swimming to fit in our programme.  We continued with our morning programme after lunch but we still had time to fit in a jig-saw activity about "Learn, Create, Share".
Here are our highs and lows of Day 2.

Highs:

• I got used to working with Room 12 children.
• I enjoyed working in the individual spaces.
• I enjoyed working with Room 11 children.
• I made some new friends since yesterday.
• I enjoyed seeing my brother getting told off.
• I enjoyed following the literacy taskboard.

Lows:

• I haven't been allowed to play with any toys.
• It was difficult to co-operate in my group.
• I don't like my brother watching everything I do.

More highs than lows!!  Wahoo!

As teachers, today we noticed that children mixed well, and differently than Day 1.  Some children found it difficult to have 2 teachers checking up on them, as they couldn't "fly under the radar" as they usually do.  We are also appreciating the extra help when we have Teacher Aides in Room 4 to rove around or work with small groups, and Chelsea has been a great help this week too.

Room 11 & 12 - Day 1 - Reflection

Wow!  What a busy day!
Today, at the end of the day, we reflected on our first day in Room 4.  In our groups we talked about our high-lights and low-lights of our first day.
Here's what the children came up with...

Highs:

• I enjoyed working with my friends.
• Having a bigger learning space.
• Sharing with Room 11.
• Meeting new people.
• Working in different places.
• No teachers growling.
• Collaborative learning.
• Communicating with others.
• I enjoyed every activity.
• I liked doing Inquiry.

Lows:

• There were some naughty people.
• Having to eat inside.
• Lots of people.
• I couldn't hear the story.
• Having to walk around Room 2 and 3.
• People not finishing work that still needs to be done.

Room 11 & 12 - Day 1 - morning

This morning Room 11 and Room 12 have been enjoying working in a variety of different places.
There are places for individuals to work, places for groups to work, places to work with the Teacher and places a different levels and heights.  We have a tent to work in, and even Nissan Skyline seats!!
Here are a few photos of us busy working.

Getting Prepared

At the end of last week Room 12 did some thinking about our turn in Room 4.  What were the things we were most excited about? What were we looking forward to the most?  What was worrying us about going into Room 4?

Here are a few of our thoughts...

Excited about/Looking forward to....

• being in the tent
• working together
• using the green screen
• getting new groups with Room 11 children
• working with my Room 11 friends
• having 2 teachers
• doing team work together
• working in unusual places
• working on the steps
• the whiteboard paint

Worried about...

• getting growled at
• working with the girls from Room 11 because some of them are annoying
• it might be hard to do my work with a noisier class
• people might disturb me when I am working
• having my big brother in the same class
• I am going to be stuck with my sister
• working with 2 teachers
• the noise

Our time in Room 4 has come to an end. BUT we got a chance to use the green screen today!! Here is the first finished report!

By Emily, Dom and Makayla

Day Two

Today we worked collaboratively to create a PMI reflection to share our initial thoughts and feelings about our shared space.

Plus

Lots of working space

We have two teachers

More IPads

We can communicate with different children

Mr. Moriarty visits this room

Working in the tent

Maths stations

Minus

Limited drink bottle space

Not having our own desks

I am with my brother who annoys me

There are too many kids with only one door

Interesting

We can work outside

Working with two teachers

Working with other classes

There is a lot of space

Check out these photos of collaboration during maths, reading and reflection time!

Day One...

Wow! What a great first day we had in Room 4!
At first there was a lot of excitement about the new learning space and organisation of all our resources. 
We worked collaboratively all day, and it was great to see the wonderful choices made by our learners. The learners in Room 4 really enjoyed being allowed to choose their working space. They could work independently, with a teacher, outside, or in groups. All the learners made good choices about their learning.

Roll on Day Two...

Notice Home explaining our Room 4 experience

Friday 21 November

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Middle Syndicate Room 4 experience

From next week the Middle Syndicate have the opportunity to experiment with collaborative teaching and learning in the new space created from the old Library and IT Room - called Room 4.

This means that we have the chance to be involved in collaborative teaching and collaborative learning. 

Collaborative teaching is teachers working together to achieve a common goal, more thoughtful, careful utilisation of teaching assets.  Collaborative learning is children collaborating with their peers and their teachers, learning in a way that they learn best, getting a chance to show initiative and self management.

Why are we doing this?  In 2 years time when we move to our brand new purpose built school we will have shared teaching spaces, and teachers (and students) need time to experiment with the modern learning pedagogy.  We are the last syndicate to have time in Room 4.

What does this mean for your child/ren?  In the morning children will still put their bag away in their Middle Syndicate cloakroom and then they will walk over to Room 4.  We will return to our bags at morning tea, lunchtime and at the end of the day.

The format for our next 3 weeks will be:

• ·       Room 9 & 10 – will be in Room 4 during Week 7
• ·       Room 11 & 12 – will be in Room 4 during Week 8
• ·       Week 9 will have different combinations each day (see below)

Monday - Rooms 12, 11, 10

Tuesday – No one in Room 4 (Syndicate trip to Inflatable World & Selwyn Aquatic Centre)

Wednesday – Rooms 9, 10, 12

Thursday – Rooms 11, 9, 10

Friday - Rooms 9, 11, 12

The children are very excited about being in Room 4, and working with different children and teachers within our syndicate. 

Please feel free to come in to Room 4 in the morning before school (8.30-9.00am) and see the learning that is happening, and talk to the children about their time in Room 4.

We have also created a reflective blog for our syndicate time in Room 4, which we hope to add to each day.  http://middlesyndicateshs.blogspot.co.nz

Please visit the blog and comment on our posts.  We value your feedback on this learning journey.

If you have any questions or queries, please ask.

Many thanks

Angela Jones, Martin Bootten, Annameika Jack & Charlotte Spencer