Christi Yoshinago PD

Some Notes from the two day course: 

• This identity crisis is a good example of what we need to be aware of as RTDs - as they need to be aware they're Deaf (even with CIs etc) - as see a lot of students leave school and realise they're Deaf when they meet Deaf community for the first time - need to ensure they realise this earlier than later - as sometimes later is too late..... but the issue is how do we expose this / introduce this as part of Deaf Education...  (comment from Deaf RTD present)
• Language: The sounds/phonemes are acquired at different ages depending on the nationality/ethnicity (ie port vs eng)
• Language milestones need to be provided in the families native language. 

RESOURCES FOR PROFESSIONALS ABOUT MANDARIN https://www.asha.org/practice/multicultural/Phono/ · Mandarin Phonemic Inventory [PDF] · Portland State University: Mandarin Profile · The Chinese Language Manual [PDF] http://languagemanuals.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/5/3/4853169/chinesemanual.pdf · CIRRE Chinese Culture and Disability: Information for U.S. Service Providers
RESOURCES FOR PROFESSIONALS ABOUT CULTURE & DISABILITY: http://cirrie-sphhp.webapps.buffalo.edu/culture/monographs/china.php

• The Three truths:
• Early talk is key.
• Parents and caregivers are the secret sauce. 
• You can't improve what you don't measure. 

Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA)

LENA is based on the belief that parents, caregivers, and teachers have the ability to unlock every child’s social, emotional, and cognitive potential. We focus on increasing interactive talk because it has been proven to be a key factor in early brain development – and we focus on the earliest years because research points to those as the most critical. The feedback we provide helps parents and teachers measurably increase talk and conversations with children. The results are stronger families, improved classroom quality, and children more prepared to succeed in school.

What is LENA? 
LENA technology is the industry standard for measuring talk with children birth to three, a critical factor in early brain development. (LENA stands for Language ENvironment Analysis.) Used all over the world, LENA's programs for parents and teachers will support your initiative to build early language and literacy, to close gaps in cognitive, emotional, and social development, and to improve school readiness.

Deaf Modules Testing

I have been struggling to 'complete' the online modules as part of my testing process as an early-tester. After playing around with the website I was able to re-set the page and finally 'complete' the course. This will be useful feedback to the course /website designers. The certificate is wonderful for mainstream teachers to add to their evidence portfolios. 

The Yeti and the Flower

A short film by one of my students. We spent some time looking at animation when I worked with him in year six. Now in year ten he has taken his initial flame of inspiration and begun to masters the skills involved in making an animated film.

Mainstream course

It was great to be able to present a large chunk of the mainstream teacher course. I am pleased that I did not choose areas where I felt comfortable to present from, rather that challenging myself to work with subject matter that need me to upskill. I found the Language sections to be most beneficial, consolidating my own understanding of the process of language acquisition. 

Pragmatics Focus

After a presentation of pragmatics at our beginning of the year PD it is now my intention to make a focus of pragmatics assessment on my youngest caseload student and feed the results directly into my planning. 

Straying from the plan...

Email feedback from student X, who requested at the last minute that we change our last planned session to cover a spontaneous assignment they had a great deal of difficulty with...

"...Hey I checked with the teacher about the maths. She says it is correct what we did and the extra 290 rent is needed, but it wouldn't matter if we went without because the answer would still remain the same. Thanks heap with helping, now I know what to do for next time... "

Its good to know that sometimes it's perfectly acceptable (or even essential) to step away from planned work and embrace teaching opportunities when they arise. It has in this case clearly made a difference with student outcomes.

Feedback from our Mainstream Teacher course

I had some feedback from a peer regarding my efforts on the recent mainstream teacher course presentation....

"I want to thank you for your leadership  in organising and preparing for the course yesterday.  It was excellent and you went beyond what was required.   You actually went out of your way in setting up everything in the venue over the weekend which was amazing.

I also want to acknowledge  how good you were at introducing the course and then presenting during it. You were highly knowledgeable and very explicit.  I observed the intent focus from the professionals attending as they absorbed your clear explanations.  Speaking to them afterward, I could see how well informed they had become.  I loved the way you welcomed the rest of us to 'jump in' and contribute, and also did the same when it was our turns to present.

I personally appreciated your leadership, contribution, and fairness in delegating the presentation parts.  Working collaboratively is the best way to go and I felt comfortable and at ease working in the team."

Trying to put together an "evidence blog" presentation

I have been asked to present a session on how to use blogs as part of the evidence collection process of our appraisal.

I have just learned that the session has proved quite popular so I will be seeing a large group. Although I named the session "Introduction to..." I was uncertain as to how many were at a zero-knowledge level and how many had already created a blog or something similar. Therefore I needed to plan a session that would cater to all levels yet still be accessible and informative. No mean feat :)

Appraisal Observation

Performance appraisal observation record

Appraisee:   Paul Taylor. Appraiser:  Colleen Figgins. Date:    3rd September.                       

Agreed focus for the observation

Session observation.

Observation

Comments

Checked HA, Ling - building independence as student  had to check battery status as well as how to correctly insert battery and hearing aids. Audition - HearBuilder activity Language - Bridge to Vocabulary activity. Paul had pre-prepared a vocabulary activity by printing off a zoo scene and had various labels previously used for the student to label features. Linked into describing features of animals - again  adding labels to images of 2 animals in his book and referring to previous words. Articulation/Reading: vowel song/ Ipad - recognition of how to say each vowel - recognising each vowel. Scaffolded with visual sign to support certain vowel - u - umbrella. High frequency word recognition - word bingo on the Ipad as well as 3 flashcards for focus words - come, see, and.  For second reading of text these words were used as a prompt for recognition words in print. Reading - retell using Wh prompts - Who, where, what. Reinforced with Book creator where Paul had pre-copied a picture form the text which the student had to give a sentence to retell  - orally and then record in written form.

Student withdrawn for 1-1 teaching. Digital personalised timetable on Ipad - evidence of how our students benefit from structure, visual reference and spoken information. Illustrates the importance of effectively maintaining and using assistive devices. Also about building self management.   Great audition resource - self motivating and student was totally engaged. This vocabulary activity obviously followed on form previous work as K was familiar with the scene and understood how to proceed. I liked how you extended the activity to include preposition use and how you used a variety of ways to introduce/check new vocabulary - bear. You gave him an association clue related to Goldilocks allowing the student an opportunity to process the clue in order to locate the word. You also gave initial consonant cues to see if he locate the word and when he couldn’t you referred him to a local reference which he could relate to and then he was able to visualise the word - bridge. Great to see repetition in a variety of ways - manual vowel song  supported by picture of hand with visual prompts for each sound,m use of actual hand to prompt song and then use of ipad listening activity to recognise which vowel sound was being produced. Very interesting that K often reverts to visual support to reinforce his sounds - /U/ ( up umbrella),/l/ finger in front of lips Great to see written form of words to reinforce his 3 new focus words. Good to see these used whilst he was reading the text as he often referred back to them to match and check.  I also liked how you were able to assess his word knowledge informally by observing him play word bingo - also good to see that the words are in his workbook to reference. This was his second reading of the text after initially looking at the pictures so after reading today he was able to do a simple retell when you gave him the Wh prompts which allowed him to focus his ideas. Doing this orally also ensured success when he came to write a sentence in his e book.

Discussion:

Student in a Maori immersion class point of interest 1:6 of these students have some type of hearing loss.

Paul had to continually refocus the student and he did this effectively using a range of ways - saying students name, touching students shoulder, pointing to the actvity.

Using iBooks to illicit discussion and retell

 Xavier used the iBooks program to record his voice today. We looked at four pictures of Xavier at the various events he has attended (sport's day, Chipmunks trip) and we talked about what we could see happening in each picture. Xavier then pushed the plus (+) button and selected add Audio. He was able to record his voice for each picture. He finds this helpful to recall what his idea was when needing to share or write about it. We started a book on his home ipad too.

NZSL Maths Lexicon.

A session on teaching Maths in NZSL quickly pointed out the need for both solid strategies and a good command of the signs involved. We were pointed in the direction of an amazing looking resource in the NZSL Maths Lexicon.

It will be a goal to have a copy of this at the Anton centre for reference by all RTDs.

NZSL intensive day

It was exciting to get to class after my refresher the night before. I had for some reason though there were two teams coming along but it was just the Franklin team of 6 RTDs plus the three tutors. The ration of teachers to students was 1:2 which was fantastic.

We started off with a signed 'catch up' with our peers. Within a short time I discovered that I need access to a whole range nouns and topical vocabulary. This was something I commented on in my feedback to the presenters: "Could we have some short and snappy topic based vocab sessions (3-5 minutes) dotted throughout future sessions.

Visual Timetable in practice

I Have found a new app that will replace my velcro dot timetable/schedule of session activities. I find such a timetable allows my younger student to remain focussed during a 1.5 hour session by providing a clear expectation of what will be achieved as well as setting down an incentive (chosen activity/reward) at the end. This allows a student to 'work towards' the reward. It also allows the student to take ownership of the learning outcomes as these can be written and vocally recorded so as to play back when touched. 

I have introduced this to several RTDs as an example of good practice using digital technology in their sessions. 

Team Observations

I just completed the last of my team's teaching observations. As part of the appraisal courses I have been attending, I have started to look at the feedback given to teachers in a completely different light. In past years I have conducted more of an anecdotal style, which in retrospect is not very useful other than a reflection of what happened and what I liked/disliked.

This time around I threw away that style and went for bullet pointed observations listed directly under appropriate evidence criteria categories.  It was surprisingly easy to look at the headers with their 'leading questions' and spot things during the session that directly related to a criteria. Thus the feedback can be used by the appraiser as evidence in their file/folio/journal.

The oral feedback based on these allowed the discussion of the 12 criteria and importantly the criteria that were not covered and this lead to a discussion around how the RTD might achieve those particular goals.

 Written feedback today from the appraise to me suggested that this approach is a positive move...

"Thank you for putting it down to the 12 teacher criteria ...   

helps to see where gaps are in our PD teaching practice etc."

-RTD on Franklin Team. 

Teacher's Council Workshop Two.

After a thought provoking PLG session last week, we had our follow up workshop. We are now at stage four of the process.
Notes / Reflections

• What am I doing vs What evidence I should gather.
• Still need professional choice as to 'how'.
• Evidence : Neccesary and sufficent
• RTC 12 requires me to demonstrate that I am engaged in meaningful learning about how to strengthen my teaching.
• It is not enough to simply state student progress.
• One needs to collect evidence of... changes in learner outcomes, what I have been learning to do differently, how I have modified my planning and teaching to improve outcomes, my analysis of the changed practice and to what extent it improved outcomes.
• The evidence collected will need to be 'compelling' to both appraisee and appraiser.

It dawned on me that I will need to modify my blog entries to include the following:

1. How does this meet the RTCs (I already do this)
2. Reflection: What does this mean for my next steps / teaching (I do this, but with room for improvement)
3. Interpretation: What stands out? What does this mean for me and my students?
4. From everyday practice, what is available as evidence. (This currently takes the form of reflections mostly, but needs to include more 'voices')

An example of 'learner outcomes' might be to look at an IEP goal and the process from assessment/identification, through planning/meeting onto the teaching and achievement of the objective. The IEP can possibly be a great model for the various stages where evidence can be collected.

Further iPad Tutorial Feedback

Always great to have a positive email at the end of a long week. This snippet really made my morning...

"Just wanted to give you some feedback re: the tutorials you’ve put together ….. AWESOME ………. And I’m definitely referring to them more than just the one time when setting the iPad up.  Thanks and Well done"  

Feedback from my Tutorials

I had a quick look through the feedback I received on my iPad tutorials that I made as part of my iPad goal to see if any of it might prove useful evidence to show my achieving the RTC standards.

"Thanks so much for your tutorials Paul and the time you have take to create them.  I am finding them really helpful as I can learn at my own pace.  I got lost during the odd session that we had and always ended up feeling slightly frustrated.  Haven’t had time to watch the last few yet but will do!It’s great to be able to refer back to them when I forget things, especially if I am not doing some things on a regular basis."

"The staff here are really enjoying the ipads and loving the tutorials ………. Well done J  I know it’s been a lot of work for you but it really is much appreciated."

"Your videos are awesome, especially for a newbie to this like me – thank you so much!!"

First Aid training

The first day of the July holidays was an opportunity to refresh ourselves with first aid. I cannot recall the last time I looked at upskiling myself in this area, something that had been concerning me given the amount of times I am with students outside the classroom on KIT days etc. I suppose I have (like many others) assumed that "someone else would know what to do", but that is not the sort of attitude appropriate for a professional who works with children.

Being the co-ordinator of the course, I turned up early to set up, armed with a ton of questions and very little prior knowledge. The course was very full on; almost to rushed, but some of the key aspects I got out of the day will stick with me in the years ahead...

• compression to breath ratios
• a set of emergency contact numbers to be carried on me/first aid kit
• What is needed in our first aid kits at the anton centre
• "Stop and Think" - really had this drilled in. 

Overall, I would have liked this day to have been broken into two parts so as to concentrate a little more of specific areas, but it was a great grounding and an invaluable skill boost for one in my line of work. 

Mala'ia and Maka

After a discussion about famous people from history (who are now dead), my student was keen to discuss the topic of cemetery's. At first this was a challenge to decipher as he only knew a few Togan words to describe the setting.

It was a great oppertunity to share the vocabulary he knew and compare it / alongside English. The student really took pride in sharing his language with me. 

Mala'ai - street near the cemetery 

Maka - tombstone