BSLA Trial

 This term, I have been working through Taumata 10 of the new Year 4-6 Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) program. While it seemed like a lot before I started, I really feel that over the past 5-6 weeks, my students have learnt so much.

It was a bit of a learning curve for them to go from more direct small group literacy teaching to more of a whole class approach. However, they are now able to sit through the whole lesson (most of the time) without needing too much of a disruptive brain break (run/activity). Now, once I notice that we are getting a little squirmy, we just stand up stretch to the sky, touch our toes and then we're back to business for the last few minutes of the lesson. 

I took the BSLA suppled QAR poster and modified it into my own version for the students to interactig with when completing their independent learning tasks. 

I have really taking some time to determine how to turn some of their suggested pen/paper learning into more interactive digital tasks. 

Click to see student's blog. 

Welcome to 2025!

 So hard to believe that the 2025 school year is upon us! I graduated from university in 2000, which makes this my 25th year as a teacher! I have been teaching in New Zealand for 14 years, after teaching in the USA for the first 11. 

I am very much looking forward to this year once again working with Year 4 students as they begin their Chromebook journey. We will also be using PRIME Maths for the frist time this year and I am excited to see what this will actually look like for my Year 4 students. The process to determine which book level they will each use is underway with a placement test and then we will use those results to determine their learning level. 

This term, I will also be spending 4-5 weeks trialing the new Year 4-6 BSLA (Better Start Literacy Approach) with my literacy students. We will be spending a week or so looking into some "previoius knowledge" they would generally have after completing the first 3 years of BSLA and then we will move into 4 weeks of actual lessons. 

The hope is that later this year, I will be part of the group of Year 4-6 teachers being trained to teach the full BSLA program and continue the BSLA learning that our students are receiving in the junior school.