'Where R U @?' Doc

As our first term wraps up I thought i was a good time to have students reflect on their term. I wanted them to think about what they had set out to achieved and what they had actually achieved. I want them to have the power to make these realisations about where they are at rather than me telling them. So at the start of our final day they will reflect on the term and then readjust any plans for the next teem in accordance with what they have accomplished.

 

Booking Room Schedule

The other thing we have set up in the last few weeks is a booking schedule for practice rooms and the studio. As students have finished group performance and all students are busy on different assessments it became apparent we needed to have a system for booking spaces for everyone was getting a chance to practice in a room and could organise their day rather than leaving the use of rooms to chance. We have labeled all of the rooms and then they can be booked on the whiteboard at the start of the day. There have been times when we have to be creative and use our outside space like last week when we moved our drum kit outside so a student could practice.

Individual Education Plans

So far this year I have been really happy with how my multileveled senior academies are going. There are times that I have felt a bit 'stretched thin' but I think that was more a teething period where students were still learning how to set assessments up or where gear was stored and the protocols in our classroom.  I have introduced a couple of things so far to help my students become self-managing machines!

Firstly a year planner:

In our first full day academy I had students sit down and look at all of the assessments they could potentially do this year and look on our website to see what each assessment entails. Then they had to decide when they were going to do each assessment and add mile stones for each specific assessment.



This was a really effective thing to do, every morning of our music hub days we sit down and look at our planners. Students are reminded what they want to achieve and by when and then they plan their day. So before they start work for the day they let me know what they are planning to achieve and what they are working on each block. Then I spend the day making them accountable for what they have said they are going to be doing! Having all of our assessments set up on the website give students the opportunity to create their own IEP without even realising they are doing it. The best part is they are taking control of their learning. They are steering the waka.

I think the best example of this is one of the year 11 boys in my class, Richard. His attendance is not great and he does music on Thursdays and Fridays. Last week was the first time I saw him fully engaged for the entire day. He work for two and a half blocks (out of three) on his composition 'beat' that he is going to rap over. He came inside half way through block three and said "I'm bored of that I need to do something else now, I am going to work on my solo performance on the piano" and he did right up until the bell at the end of the day. To see Rich take control of his learning like that and have the choice to direct his work so he continued to be productive for the whole block was awesome.