Number Agents

The current climate in education is an intriguing one. Here in New Zealand, it seems we're on a quest for silver bullets—quick fixes to declare ourselves 'world-leading.' We have received polished maths programmes in the post, yet there's a lack of focus on the 'what' and the 'why' and a total lack of prioritising teacher knowledge.  My wish is for our government to invest in a robust, evidence-based framework for all teachers and give them time to deeply engage with this framework. This would allow programmes or approaches to be delivered in ways that benefit every child, adapting to their needs moment by moment. Origins of This Post This blog post has been swirling in my mind for a while. I'll be honest—I am still learning, and this post might not hit the mark for everyone. Over the past eight years, and particularly the last five, my learning journey has reshaped my teaching practice significantly. The learning curve has been steep. This learning ...

 The Importance of Sentence Level Fluency And Comprehension In Literacy Sentence-level fluency and comprehension are often overlooked components in literacy education. These elements are crucial for helping children not only decode text but also understand and connect with it. In my teaching practice, I have been inspired by the works of Anne Lucas, Tim Rasinski, Hugh Catts, Nell Duke, and Lyn Stone. Their research and insights have significantly influenced how I approach literacy in my classroom. I shared some of these inspirations in a blog post at the beginning of 2023, which can be found here . Developing Class Texts In 2023, I focused on the development of class texts to improve sentence-level fluency and comprehension. This initiative was documented in my post on this blog, "The Unintentional Impact of My Class Decodable Texts." The primary goal of this work was to strengthen the connection between reading and writing. The Role of Ned and Bob Ned and Bob, the original c...

A reflection of my journey   - slideshow shows my progress this term as detailed in this blog post. Introduction to SRSD If you have been following any of my posts, you will know that my journey into evidence-based practice in all areas led me to SRSD (Self-Regulated Strategy Development) last year. I started to explore what I could find online and quickly realised that, even though I was only scratching the surface of what SRSD is, the impacts on my class's writing were obvious. I listened to numerous podcasts and read as much as I could find, discovering that SRSD truly fits the bill for an evidence-based approach to writing. I must preface this by saying that I am not an expert; my qualifications lie in my commitment to using best practices and making this work in a typical New Zealand classroom. Professional Learning Development (PLD) with ThinkSRSD As a staff, we collectively decided to undertake Professional Learning Development (PLD) in ThinkSRSD. Our goal is to develop a sh...