What's in store for 2021??

2021 is going to be a different year for me at Pt England School. I have taken over as the Creative Space and Extension Teacher. In this role, I will be producing the school news, PENN, every Monday to Thursday, taking children from year 1 to 6 for lessons in the creative space and teaching the year 5-8 extension children. With this change in role will come a change in inquiry focus. 

So far this year I have had a clear out and made sense of what gear I have to utilise around the school. I have created three episodes so far for the school news (PENN) and taught three days of classes.

Creative space lessons this year are going to be broken up into Sight, sound and motion. 

- Term 1: Focus on Sight

- Term 2: Focus on Sound

- Term 3&4: Focus on Motion

This term, the creative medium we are using is photography. For years 2 and 3, photos will be taken using the camera on their iPads and will include a focus on digital fluency. For years 4-6, photos will be taken using digital cameras. Part of the planning for these sessions has included me figuring out the progressions between year levels, which has come about from the progressions in the digital curriculum and my knowledge of children in year 5 & 6 and what they would be capable of achieving.

With having had three days with the children in front of me, and with the term well under way, I am now in a position to think about what my inquiry focus should be this year. To make this decision, I need to consider what is going to benefit me in this new role, what is going to benefit the children and what other teachers can learn from and implement themselves.

Here are some of the ideas I have had so far:

- Do I focus on the Extension children OR children participating in the Creative space programme OR children in the PENN (news) crew?

- Do I focus or compare engagement (or key competencies) between creative space and in class?

- Do I focus on progression of learning through the years using various creative elements?

- Do I focus on how participating in the school news supports reading level?
- Do I focus on how participation and engagement in the creative space impacts class engagement?
- Do I continue to focus on critical thinking with the extension children?

There are many questions I have regarding what my inquiry should be this year. I now need to have conversations with a number of people to decide what is most important to focus on.