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'The inclusion of student voice in the curriculum is critical as it is enshrined in The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) where students have the “right to participate in decision-making processes that may be relevant in their lives and to influence decisions taken in their regard”....' There are so many benefits to listening and acting on student voice in your classroom. It not only encourages engagement but collaboration with your students. It creates and maintains a positive culture. Asking your students who they want to hear from and guiding them so they can create their own questions to ask are essential to the process. Helping your students to find experts and bringing them into the classroom is essential.  Guest Speaker: Mike Norman Friends of Marmion/Sorrento  Coast Care leader/volunteer/sustainability advocate Chris Dodd: Narc Dive Resources of the Week: Great for Provocations https://thekidshouldseethis.com/ Article: Teachers...
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 TUNING IN AND MAKING CONNECTIONS. The hardest aspect of the process for me so far is trying to have my students think differently and start to make connections. They seem to get stuck in just giving me the obvious answers, with little detail and one to two word statements. This week we are going to make our focus on elaboration. I want them to start thinking of multiple viewpoints and to start challenging their previous ideas. I have really enjoyed being part of the Ron Ritchhart Making Thinking Visible PL over the last three weekends. Even though it was a really early start!!! I have started to make connections in the way I'm thinking and my approaches to inquiry. I only have my Year 4 Enrichment students for 60 minutes this week but want to challenge myself to get through a new routine and to engage them in a new Tech Tool. I've chosen the CONNECT, EXTEND, CHALLENGE routine. (Ron Ritchhart: The Power of Making Thinking Visible pg 221 and Kath Murdoch: Thinking Routines (The ...
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  Creating Routines My plan this week is to try out a few of the routines discussed in the PL: ‘Making Thinking Visible’ Series with Ron Ritchhart from the weekend. I have a few students that were struggling to find their voice, so I chose the Chalk Talk (Page 76-82 The Power of Making Thinking Visible Practices to Engage and Empower Learners)  The focus was on engagement, building understanding of the topics they were starting to investigate and creating a forum for independence and responsibility to the task for each of the group members.  What is ...........? Explore a provocative question (beginning of a unit of inquiry) I began with a short explanation of the routine Chalk Talk we would be using.  We discussed the rules of the routine. RULES *             Silent task *             Creating a written conversation .    ...
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I have been a bit slow getting on to the blogging side of things so I am going back now and looking over where I am and where I'm going. Apologises if my blogs are all out of order. Introduction to my project. History: As the Global Citizenship coordinator I have spent the last few years working with our staff to embed the SDGs into what we are teaching. Our school displays them around the school and refers to the them often.  My Year 4 Enrichment class came with a prior knowledge of the SDGs but I wanted to not just focus on the ones I felt they were familiar with but to really get them to show their understanding of the goals and to start making links. I had spent a bit of time last year researching an age appropriate set of SDG books that could be used in the classroom. I have attached this list of books on one my other posts on the UNAAWA. I thought this would be a good introduction to my project. It also gave them an opportunity to do some research into what a global citizen i...
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Critique  This is not part of my current Year 4 project on Global Competencies but it linked well with the work I am doing with my Year 3s who are currently finalising their first drafts for the Design an Ad competition. I liked the way Chris Harte put a strong importance on not just critiquing others but also yourself. I explicitly spent time building in structured critique: ● Be kind (but realistic)  ● Be specific (focus on the parts to make the whole better)  ● Be Helpful (feedforward)  I started with a template for them to follow but next time I would ask the students to create their own questions to what they would want feedback on. Next I want to start looking at developing some growth ladders. These I feel will be wonderful tools for goal setting with my Enrichment students.

UNAAWA

I have spent the last few years working closely to embed the SDGs into our Yr 2-5 programs with the help of the UNAAWA. Below are links to some great resources that I have used in my role as a HOY Yr 4, Enrichment teacher and Learning Service and Global Citizenship Coordinator. An interesting podcast to give some background. https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/podcast/fizzicsed/podcast-un-sdgs-in-the-classroom-with-helena-nicholson/ THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL Western Australian division of the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAAWA). We are dedicated to informing, inspiring and engaging the West Australian community and leaders regarding the work, goals and values of the United Nations to create a safer, fairer and more sustainable world. Schools membership $70 year UNAAWA Programs Dear All   We would like to invite you to attend the 1st meeting of the Education Committee in 2021. As a previous email indicated we have lost several key members due to retirements...

ALL ABOUT ME!

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Tracey Toovey St Mark's Anglican Community School Learning Diversity and Inclusion Teacher (Primary School Y2-Y5) - Enrichment Coordinator Learning Service and Global Citizenship (Primary School Y2 – Y5) PERSONAL BACKGROUND I have a husband Andrew who is a scientist working at CSIRO. I have a son Jaidyn who is 21yrs old and is at UWA studying International Relations/Political Science/Law degree. A daughter Madison, 18years old, finishing Yr 12 at St Mark's this year who is an elite triathlete. I have two dogs Ruby and Archie. PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND I have been teaching for 27 years both in the government and private sectors. I have been at St Mark's 23 years. Working in Middle Primary.  I have coordinated the schools' Sustainability program, Learning Service program and have been Head of Year 4. COMMITTEES: United Nations Association of Australia Western Australia  Education Committee 2021 AWARDS: UNAAWA World Teacher's Day Award in 2019. United Nations Associati...