Welcome to my blog! I'm Karen Belt, a Deputy Principal, working at Lynmore Primary School in Rotorua, New Zealand. In the past I have taught Years 0 - 4 and used 1:1 iPads to engage and motivate learners and improve student achievement. This blog documents my teaching and leadership journey and my learning processes with iPads in the classroom. I am a Google Certified Educator #SYD17 and I'm proud of having been a member of the inaugural Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy(MDTA) program and a Spark Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher (MIT) and an inaugural Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir teacher.

Monday 3 August 2015

My Inquiry ... where to next ?

At our first inquiry meeting this term we discussed with our new group where we were at with our inquiry and what plans we had for the direction of our inquiry.  We've received a significant amount of professional development over the last term, and this will continue this term.  The challenge is to integrate all this new learning into my inquiry to ensure acceleration in reading and activities that encourage higher order thinking.


As detailed in my post yesterday, I'm currently implementing activities in my reading rotation which ask the learner to re-engage with the text from a previous day, as I'm no longer able to see each learner every day (I still try to see my lower groups each day).  The initial activities I have created are more word work, recall and comprehension type activities but it is my intention to extend these as the term progresses to include activities which require aspects of higher order thinking.   The challenge with this is to have them generic enough that they work across a range of texts whilst still being engaging and challenging across a range of reading levels (Red - Blue).  This seems to be my next step.

I have found that as learners move up the reading rocket in the classroom, they are able to independently complete activities at a more complex level and spend more engaged on these.  This continues to motivate me in trying new things, while ensuring the learning is personalised and engaging for all.  



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