Team Two's collaborative planning has become multi-tiered.

Team Two began 2018 collaboratively planning overviews such as LT and weekly planning. From this we worked in teams of two for ongoing weekly planning, ensuring equal distribution of work load. e.g. alternating big book with oral/written langauge.  Sophie and John, Mel and Sally.

Over the first two terms our weekly planning evolved. First still as teams of two but we had combined planning meetings. We now have one team weekly plan with continued focus on equal distribution of work load.

At the start of term 2 we again planned our overviews for the term together. Specific responsibilities were allocated, e.g. I was responsible for Inquiry/report writing resources.

Wherever possible we collaboratively planned across our Teams of two, e.g. those planning writing worked together and depending on resource availability likewise for big book and poem. e.g. Mel and Sophie writing and John and Sally big book/poem. This ensures consistency of progamme and curriculum coverage.

For other curriculum areas such as The Arts and P.E. we utilised teacher strengths and interests. Although we may not have collaboratvely planned lessons we made a joint decision about who had the responsibility for planning. For P.E. John planned hockey lessons and Mel and John work collaboratively teaching  these. Sophie and Sally take dance and I had the responsibility for the planning. Mel and Sophie have both planned Visual Art lessons. Mel Term 1 and Sophie Term 2.

Consistent behaviour expectations.

At the start of the year we made the decision to have a weekly values focus that runs across our whole team. Each Friday we award 2 children each that have met that goal. The goals are really specific such as "greeting others politely" Mannakitanga, "starting work quickly and quietly" Ako. We only do Principal awards now at the end of each term and these are presented by Simon. We are finding that this is helping our team unite and work together. It also makes certificates more meaningful.

This week the teachers are choosing children that are not in their home class to get a certificate. This helps foster the notion that the children have 4 teachers not just 1. It helps build the collaborative atmosphere that we are trying to achieve.

Reflections: We have rewarded Poutama rima students at the end of term 1 - should Poutama wha children also be included in a team reward?
What about the children that have made big improvements but will never get to poutama wha or Rima? How can we acknowledge them?

Teaching to our Strengths!

When we plan collaboratively we utilise people's strengths.

At the beginning of the year we decide to share the planning across the team so we could utilise people's strengths and interests.

John supports our programme with his sports skills and knowledge. He has planned a hockey skills based unit for Term 2. Mel has acted as support person out at hockey lessons.

Mel planned the first art unit for the Team based on the life and works of Picasso. We created a folder and shared the unit plan with lots of links to help us teach this unit.

Sophie planned the second art unit around printmaking as she has taught this before. She has taught us some processes that the rest of us had not done before.

John and Sally will take responsibility for the art units in the second half of the year.

Our arts programme is comprehensive and we are covering all the Strands in the curriculum. We do an interchange programme on Wednesday afternoon. Mel assists Nicola with choir, John teaches drama and Sally and Sophie both teach music.

Where to Next?

Next Term we want to improve the standard of writing across the team. Last year we grouped the children into ability groups. We are thinking of doing this again from Term 3 to meet the children's needs and abilities. We will continue to share the planning and learn from each other.

We have been discussing taking an integrated inquiry approach to our teaching and learning to engage the children more and increase their desire to learn, create and share their learning. We are not sure how to do this yet with our current timetable. We will be discussing this further in the holidays when we plan for Term 3.

Collaboration.....where are we at now?

We're finding being a team of four rather than six is much more manageable. Our goal at the start of the year was to collaborate across more areas. We feel like we're offering a wide programme...e.g. all of the arts are covered.

The physical spaces are working well because we're all closer to each other.

Where to next? Writing groups. To be covered/planned in next holidays week 2.
                          Science hasn't been covered.
                          Timetable is tight......we would like to do a more integrated approach.