school+Aspendale+Gardens+PS

Hi, I have really enjoyed the 3 days so far.

Aspendale Gardens has 700 students. I am not in a classroom this year and my roles are coaching and leading literacy. So far I am working with several enthusiastic graduates and a few other teachers that have asked to be coached. I am still learning but hope I am helping them.

I am looking forward to leaning more about coaching and also updating my literacy skills.

My Coaching Journey
==//WikiSpace documentation of your personal journey into establishing literacy coaching that includes: ////a) reflections on each day of the workshop program and coaching visits - making sense of your experiences, clarifying your personal learning needs ////b) actions taken locally ////c) reflections, questions and insights - what you learned as a result of your actions and what this means for next steps. //== -How will I be able to coach people when I don't know enough? -What will I actually do when I am coaching? -I loved The Night Tiger as a way of teaching literacy. I also loved the thinking of What I see- literal comprehension, What I think about what I see and what makes you say that (inferential) and what I wonder (evaluative comprehension)
 * Day 1:** I realise that I need to learn heaps more about literacy!

What to do? Start reading- I started by rereading the notes from day 1. It's amazing how much more it makes sense the second time. Buy: what books? I settled on a mixture of coaching and literacy leading books. I started reading parts of Fountas and Pinell's: Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency, the Education Department's site- Reading and Writing continuum and othe information on this website. I also read Developing Literacy Coaching.


 * Day 2:** I feel much clearer about where I am going now. I will start by working with 2 graduate teachers on what they feel they need help with initially. Then with other teachers that ask me to assist.

I enjoyed the vision cards. I know from teachers I work with that they all have different stances and using the Vision cards can help that to be articulated. The KEY words for me after today are - where or what is the evidence? Don't just accept gut feelings, find out more. I am going to start by using eveidence to inform the teaching.

New learning for me after today is the need to use a variety of approaches or mixture of ideas and using multiliteracies. One aspect that resonated with me was the importance of a well- integrated program that includes explicit teaching to meet student's needs. The importance of working out what student's need to learn. I still wonder about multiliteracies, what practises are effective in literacy teaching and how to integrate technology.

I am starting by assisting the teachers I am working with in developing their repertoire of teaching skills. eg guided reading, shared reading etc.


 * Day 3**: I really liked the coaching skills part of today. This is an area I have wanted to know more about. I have decided to start by coaching some of the graduates and others that have approached me. I really liked the GROW model and will use this to guide my coaching sessions. I need to remember to pause, paraphrase and probe.I am going to continue my conversations with teachers across the school about their literacy program. I will start with the positive: what they see as being successful and then move to if they needed to improve something, what might it be? This might then help me decide who needs some coaching.

I also enjoyed Heather's session: it gave me further ideas on other ways to improve literacy skills. I will use this to model Guided Reading to some of the level 2 teachers at their meeting. Reading: I plan to read Cathy Toll's 'The Literacy Coach's Survival Guide' before the next PDs.


 * Day 4**: I came away from this day thinking that I need to also ensure teachers are using the other areas of VELS such as Personal learning, thinking etc if it fits in with what is happening. I also realised the importance of using evidence to plan teaching activities and involving the students in assessing their learning.


 * Day 5**: Cathy Toll: how inspiring!!! I really found her book easy to read and it gave me more insights into coaching. However, I was amazed at how easily she made the conversations seem. I wrote heaps of ideas for questions. I realised that many of the staff at school see me as a Technical Coach and so I now want to change this perception. The coaching role has become even more clearer for me after today!

Tim Rylands was amazing. I could see teacher's using kahootz to develop vocabulary using a similar format to this. (if they don't have access to Myst).
 * Day 6:** Multiliteracies: I enjoyed all of these.

Prezi is much more interesting than Power Point and I can see students really engaging with this. I will try and use it next time I need to present something.

Digital stories: would be great for students. This made me think about using the 4 Resources model in other subject areas. One of our students is great at drawing but dyslexic. I could see him writing narratives using digital stories or cartooning.

These multiliteracies made me think of other ways of presenting work. I can really see many boys engaging with these ideas more than just writing their work on paper. Aims after today: show the level 4 team Tim Rylands clip and the digital story. Why: They are working on narratives and perhaps students could present their work in different ways.

The Key Characteristics document: I had briefly looked at this and then filed it away. Differentiation is a key goal for my school. It was great to see how I can use this document to promote this. I plan to refer to this more often.
 * Day 7**: I realised that I missed the music that we had at the start of the program. Keep playing th music.

Ramesh's sharing: I really liked his feedback to students and then they use this to improve their work. One of the teacher's I coach wants to plan her writing program so that it meets individual student's needs. This is one idea I will share with her when we discuss how it might look.

Plan: Make and use a Mapping chart for some of the teachers I am working with. I plan to make one for a teacher working on writing and one for a teacher working on reading.

My Journey this year:

I am coaching many teachers at my school. I regularly use the GROW to Sun model to keep track of what we discuss. I have a folder of these on my laptop and another one of paper notes. I have also set up a folder of ideas (things teachers use or have developed during my year) This was Julie Kerr's suggestion at her first in-school visit. Two of the most powerful things I learnt during this course and value highly is the power of using probing questions and working from student's evidence.

Teachers at my school were initially reluctant to be 'coached' as they were worried that they would be seen as having a deficit. This has now been overcome and teachers are requesting me to visit so they can have a conversation with them or help them work out where they might go next. (I realise that not all teachers are at this stage but the initial perception has definitely changed)

Literacy leadership: the other part of my role: I have lots of ideas and know I can do a much better job next year. Why? Because of all the literacy knowledge I have gained during this coaching and also from ideas teachers in my school discussed.

Next: I have really enjoyed the course, expecially as there was so much to consider and reading back through my notes I keep finding more ideas. I will miss these PD sessions next year. I really enjoyed sharing information sessions as I heard what others are doing. Thanks also to Julie for assisting me with ideas, her probing questions and support.