Term 3 Week 5 UDL Stunt Man

This week I was updating my Curriculum Vitae as there was a position at Whangaparaoa Primary I would like to apply for. My luck with getting a position at this school has not been good in the past - I have applied 3 times, met the principal once but have not actually been interviewed for any position. It is the closest school to where I live - less than 5 minutes walk away and this would change the work / home balance quite considerably if I wasnt spending 4 hours a day travelling.

Makes me question the teacher shortgage in Auckland? When I was applying in 2016 for postions closer to home, I had one interview from 10 applications - the rest were no thanks, without even an interview. I am an experienced teacher with considerable professional development behind me and a successful classroom background. All of this is outlined in my Cv, my referees are supportive and I balance my experience with relevant theory.  Teacher shortgage .... I dont think so.

In the process of doing my CV, I developed further my thinking around UDL. Universal Design for Learning.  This has been the basis of the SENCO projects I have een undertaking and the direction I have looked at for successful achievements for the students identified as below and well below in learning who have made it onto the SENCO register.

In Term 1/2 I designed the Stunt Man project. This was from an idea given by James from Boys in Schools that he had run at Coatesville a number of years ago. It was based with one group of Year 5 boys and a group of Year 6 boys. They worked once a week with James on making and then launching on a rocket a wooden peg stunt man.  The follow up was then with Pauline, a learning assistant for an hour. Follow up activities tried to keep away from writing so was more oral and picture based.

During this project there was considerable collaboration and communication that was needed between all parties - James, David and pauline, as well as the students. It was quite difficult to keep this up as not being released meant I was managing all from a distance.

Stunt Man Blog

The students were from my room and from Room 12, David Wood who I am also working on the Te Whare Rama with.

The project was successful for the boys in my room. The focus was on Key Competencies -  Participaring and Contributing / Managing Self. The boys completed a checklist at the beginning of the project and again at the end of the project and all boys rated themselves higher at the end of Term 2 than they had when the project started. I noticed a consdierable difference in the boys on the classroom in their ability to persevere, to cope with change and to manage when meeting challenges.

My project has been shared with the staff - the professional learning community and is part of the work I do with in my role as SENCO.

There was communication with parents as they had access to the blog and were welcomed in to watch what the boys were doing.

The project has moved in a different direction this term.  I am looking at addressing a different group of students with a learning need, and addressing different key competencies. These are students who are very quiet in the classroom and who would grow from the experience of small group teaching.

The Stuntman was a successful project.  However these are what i would change next time.

• The follow up needs to be done by me, rather than the learning assistant.
• The learning assistant needs to have complete buy in for this to work as sucessfully as it could.
• There needs to be more of a direct focus on the key competencies and for all parties involved to have an understanding of what the key competencies are and how we are looking to measure progress.