Week Seven Planning Document

FYI Planning

Here is the weekly staff planning document for week seven.

2016 term one week seven itinerary from WaihiCollege

2016 ART Mentoring

ART - Achievement Retention and Transition.

The following PowerPoint was presented at staff meeting to highlight the students at year 12 we need to target getting through NCEA Level Two.


This initiative is about best supporting the students through a pivotal year of schooling.  NCEA Level Two is the minimal qualification for students seeking an apprenticeship, entry into a polytechnic course, or into the armed forces or police.

ART Mentoring march 2016 from WaihiCollege

This post is related to RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga." And RTC #7. "Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment part ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga."

Mentoring Year 12 Art Students

The Three N's
Firstly a big thank you to those staff who have put their name next to a student (or two) that we've identified as being on the margin for getting their NCEA level one qualification.  My intention/hope here is that you as the teacher will be able to facilitate some open conversations with the student about their progress in their learning.  Ideally this is about having a chance for students to identify what factors are 'blocking' their learning (if any).   

With the start of term two it is an ideal time for mentor teachers to meet with the year 12 student mentee's.  There will be a strong indication of where they're progressing in their learning from the first term (there will be grades and students will be aware of how they're going).  

The ART initiative (Achievement - Retention - Transition) is very specific about targeting the individual student rather than the cohort.  The acronym that they use is NNN - "names, numbers, needs".  So far we have worked through the 'names' we have identified a subset of the cohort (28 students in year 12).  We have access to the 'numbers' - #'s of credits available, #'s of credits needed - these can be found on the students kamar page (see below).  I can see that this student has six classes and is enrolled in only one end of year exam (in media studies).  He has numeracy and literacy and currently has 38 credits towards his Level Two qualification.  

So now I need to have a conversation with him about his 'needs'.  That is what are the specifics of his academic year.  

• Is he on the right pathway (is his year taking to the places he wants/needs to go)?  
• Are there classes/standards that are an issue for him (I want to find out if he's drowning in any particular areas)?  
• Are there issues around attitude/energy levels/home/work/sport (anything that is getting in the way of his progress)?
• Are there things that we as a school can do to help his progress?

The intent here is that you as the mentor will be able to engender a positive trusting relationship so that important learning issues can be processed through.  The next steps...

1. Ideally the student is on track and finding good levels of success that indicate that he/she are progressing towards NCEA Level Two.  
2. Possible communication with SLT (JHA) if there are issues - then interventions can be put in place (these could be as easy as sorting new stationery or as far as moving class).  
3. One of the common things that I'm expecting is students that have missed standards and not looking at resit opportunities (or not contemplating what things went wrong).  
4. Possible communication with teachers - there may be a case for you as mentor to approach the students teachers directly and raise an issue (student can follow teaching or needs extra help etc). 
5. Possible communication with home - all the parents want their children to do well and would appreciate the contact.  
6. Planning another contact time.  Please don't let the relationship go cold - If you can meet regularly (say monthly) that would be ideal.  By the time this term is over the majority of internal assessment would have happened.  

At this stage I have set up an interview questionaire on kamar for all 28 students on the ART initative.  But I'm of two minds in this regard - the ideal thing here is not a set list to check off but a genuine open dialogue for progressing these guys through to a practical high school qualifications.

Here are some instructions on how to find that questionnaire on kamar.  

Final Thoughts...

• Do keep the exit strategy for students in mind.  For a lot of our senior students that struggle with the academic nature of NCEA they experience great anxiety and even depression.  They can see that their peers are progressing academically.  Many of our students that don't get level two just drift off out of school.  There are better ways to manage this.
• You are a teacher and ultimately students that struggle with school may have a negative association with teachers.  Thank them for their time and their honesty in their conversations with you.

Thanks again for your contribution to these students.

This post is related to RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga." And RTC #7. "Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment part ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga."

  

ART Year 12's

ART Program The Next Steps

We have a new ART (Achievement, Retention and Transition) and Vocational Pathways coordinating supervisor assigned to us from MOE.  Her name is Dr Christine Pritchard and her role is to guide the programs we have in place for achieving 85% of our students getting Level Two.

Here is a timeline that I've created to try and illustrate the events that we'll put in around our students (those that we identify).  The mantra for the ART programme is the idea of working with the three N's (names/numbers/needs).

The intent at this stage of the year is to narrow down our year 12 cohort into those 25-35 students that we will assign individually to teachers (hoping for teachers to have a one to one relationship).  These teachers will mentor these year 12's through this year of schooling.  This is a too big of a job just for a dean or for the learning advisors - although they are key stakeholders too.  

This week we will be looking at our cohort and which students are in greatest need (remember that we're looking at the amber students (those on the margins of passing).  What I am hoping for is that for these students we will have one staff member each who will be able to engage with these students about their progress.

Green - Those students who will pass.
Amber - Those students that are on the margin.
Red - Those students that won't pass.


This post is related to RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga." And RTC #7. "Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment part ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga."

ART - Achievement Retention Transition - June Audit

How To Use Kamar Interview

I've set up on Kamar a place where staff (ideally the Learning Advisor) can sit down with a year 12 student and go through some questions about how their year is progressing towards NCEA level two. 

This is a pretty big job (about 5-10 minutes per student).  So ideally we want the Learning Advisor to pick out those students that they feel, probably indicated by their reports, may be in trouble with NCEA level two. 

I've set up a slide show that will show the teacher how to get to the right place on Kamar...



I'm available during morning Learning Advisory times to come an assist any year 12 Learning Advisors with these interviews.  The better the quality of these discussions the better our interventions can be for these students. 

Achievement - Retention - Transition

One of the things that I really wanted to learn about recently is the use of web based learning.  I've had a go at www.myportfolio.co.nz website and also moodle.  Both of these systems had some benefits but I found that they were quite 'clunky'. 

With the change in my role I felt that this would be a good time in my career to try out an educational blog.   I'm in no way a techno pro - and I've been learning as I go. 

All of the pd sessions that I'll be doing (plus a few other little things) are recorded electronically.  I thought however that I'd try an open source idea.  

The presentation that I'm going to do today is saved on the s drive under admin - pd - staff presentations.  But I've also included it here online by using a slide generator (free web site "slideshare.net"). 

All done in a matter of between five and ten mins.