Little Bits of Positive Feedback

It's not been that fun for me lately.  Things haven't been going as well as I would have liked them to, and life has turned pretty negative.

That's why I think I need to just stop and think, and reflect on some positive feedback that came this week.

In no particular order,  I had the following things said about me:

From a parent of one of my students: "You're doing a great job."

From another teacher who was in my classroom: "Your classroom is really organized."

From Management, regarding my class' production: "300% better from Monday."

From a former team leader via email (she sent me the reference form she sent to my teaching agency): “Michael has demonstrated the ability to build strong relationships with children, parents and colleagues in every aspect of his work and he created a culture of mutual trust and respect.”
 

I think all of that falls under the I Really Needed This Boost category.  I have to always remember that even if things are going not so greatly, I can do this and I can do it well. That in itself is an important lesson, as well as finding the positives in every day.  Teaching is a tough job and can be really hard on people (I am definitely not an exception to that) and if I don't find little rays of sunshine, I don't know how I'll survive it.

Relationships...

I've been meaning to write for a few weeks now, but every time I was going to something came up.  Not a good excuse, really, but just what happened.

Relationships (with students, with other teachers and with friends, etc.) have not been my strong point lately.  A lot of this boils down to who I am, what I've gone through and the situation I'm in (or more accurately, the situations).  This is not me making excuses, this is me trying to figure out what's going wrong and moving forward to get better at these things.

Unfortunately, I've never been able to easily get along with people.  Well, at least my peers.  When I started teaching, I found myself more comfortable working with children and relating to them and their needs.  Somewhere in between Korea, and Tanzania and England and here, I've lost some of that.  Not all of it, but some of it.

I guess I should start with my relationships with my students, since that is the most relevant (well, ok, that's definitely up for debate at the moment) to my actual teaching performance.  I've been having some tough times with a couple of the boys in my class.  Many of these boys have some pretty rough home lives (the full details of which I only just found out recently, though I did have a good idea of what was going on with them).  I think I just got to a point where I didn't really know what kind of relationship I needed to have with my students.  In the past, I've thought I understood my children really well.  But that wasn't South Auckland. Those kids I used to teach didn't need as close a bond to succeed.  When relationships were stressed, I saw one idea of relationships, but others had a different idea in their mind.  No one figured out the disconnect until recently.  That being said, I think I get it now.  I've talked to a few teachers and in these last few weeks have really tried to make a push to build better relationships with my students.  I still find it hard, as I don't really know when to push them and when to pull back.  How does one know what their limits are unless you test them? And with kids like these, is it wise to test them? At what point do you have to take the "I hate you"s for not letting them have extra privileges? I guess the way forward is to look at these things, but also to start the new school year by getting to know the children and letting them know that I'm human as well, and that I make mistakes, but at the end of the day, I do care about them.

Relationships with staff is also something I really want to get good at.  My biggest issue goes way back.  Probably all the way to grade 3 or even 2.  That's a long way.  I just have had problems with peers, though not really these days.  It's more the years of being alone that have made me shy to breaking into already established groups.  I'm not one (at least at the moment - there was a brief period about 10 years ago when I was full of confidence) to immediately start talking to a group of strangers.  I like talking to people one on one.  That's just how I am.  I've let that fear isolate me a bit at my school.  Which has not been good, because I really actually get along with all of my coworkers, and they have a lot they can offer me in terms of help (and even with my shyness, I have still managed to get lots of ideas).  Next year, I've already spoken with some of my team members about planning together.  I really enjoyed doing that in the past, and found that if you put a few people with different strengths into the same room, you'll get amazing things (and I'm not talking about sharing planning - I do that a good amount).  I've already made some efforts lately to work on this and I'm finding it's not as scary as I thought.

Relationships outside of work.  Wow.  This goes up and down a lot.  I've just not got that support network that most people have.  That's going to be one of the things that keeps me afloat, and it's not as good as I would like.  I've actually made a few friends here, but who knows if they'll last (the best one moved away overseas four weeks after I met her... that has been difficult - though I'll see her again in a few weeks when I go visit).  I need to keep trying that because it can be an awfully sad and lonely place to be alone. I think this has possibly affected my ability to form other relationships in school and I really do need to just sort those things out.

So that's something to work on I think. In all aspects of my life. I think the best thing I can keep doing is asking people how they make it work and trying new things.

Reflections on My First Term (Which was actually Term 3)

I've been putting this off for several personal reasons (see more below) but now that I've got some time, I figure I'd better get some thoughts down before I forget them.  I guess the best way I can go at this is by looking at how I've seen myself grow and learn in all the different aspects of teaching that I can think of.  I'll start with the basic things (curriculum) and move on to the more abstract qualities that will make me a good teacher).

Math
This is an area where I feel that I have a strong knowledge base and that I have a good idea of what it takes to improve.  I've always felt this way, but at the same time I realize (I'm going to state outright here that I'm spelling things the way I grew up with, since this is MY reflection for MY purposes) that being good at something doesn't mean you can teach it well.  In fact, it might mean the opposite.

I've definitely wrapped my head around the math curriculum a bit more in my first 11 weeks.  My major focus this term was getting basic facts and place value ingrained with the students.  I think, to a degree, I have been successful in that regard.  The improvement shown by most of my students on the basic facts tests have been nothing short of phenomenal.  Several of them have plateaued and others have had slow improvements, but on the whole there have been massive gains.  Place value has been hit or miss.  I certainly focused on a few concepts, but there is room for some improvement (i.e. stressing what each number in a bigger number really means - 527 has 5 hundreds, 2 tens and 7 ones, etc). Having moved most of the children up to stage 5 has been a huge source of pride for me so I'll take that as it comes.

As the term went on, I did become more comfortable with certain concepts and became more focused with how I teach them.  Since the groups are all at different levels, this has paid off hugely at the moment as my lower groups are at the point my upper groups were a few months ago.  So taking the same lessons and adapting them has helped a lot.

I'm also learning a lot about what to do with the children when they're not with me.  To be a great teacher, I know that that is where I need to be more productive. I've been developing a few new activities this term.  I recently started Buddy Work - where I get someone from a higher group paired up with someone from a lower group, working on the lower student's level.  I'm hoping this consolidates the knowledge of one student and helps the other become confident with it.  I'm continuing to develop the Reading Books About Math activity.  Time permitting, I'd like to make activities to go with each book so that the students can gain more from that.  Some areas of further development might be to make the Basic Facts Practice an activity that the children can run themselves and to create a huge bank of activboard activities to reinforce each of the concepts on stages 4 and 5 (and most likely 3 and possibly 6 next year). I just want to be able to incorporate more resources and materials into math lessons and will be working towards that.

One final note is that I've been trying to add a few more math-related activities to the morning message.  We've done some work on multiplication and on fractions.  The brain teasers had mild success and weren't really accomplishing much, so I think I'll use those few minutes to give a math problem that will help them with their knowledge.

Reading and Writing
There are several areas within reading, so I'll break things down within the Daily 5 and then a few other aspects.

Read to Self: For the most part, I've accomplished what I wanted to with this. I wanted to have a class library that was full of great books.  Slowly but surely, I've built up a great collection.  There are definitely some gaps (not enough non-fiction) and there are several books I'd like to get, but the progress has been great and I think I have a lot of books that are exciting for the children to read.  I think this is important because the more they read (and the more they enjoy it), the better their reading and their writing will be.  One strategy that I've not found the time to implement (but is super important) is to stress to children

One thing that I've started to do has been to make activity sheets (general ones) that work on each of the strategies I've been teaching during the guided group lessons.  These sheets have a lot of room for improvement (and the way I use them can also be greatly improved - it was only a day or two ago someone suggested they be glued into the literacy book, and I've noticed the lack of a WALT as well), but I'm on the path to making things work.  One thing at a time I guess.

Read to Someone: Managing behaviour and getting students to be on task as much as possible (this falls into Read to Self as well) has been a difficulty at times.  Certain students have major difficulties focusing during both of these times and I need to be adopting new strategies to deal with them.  My problem seems to be the need for a balance between how much time is spent on organization (i.e. setting them off, pairing them up) and actual learning time.  Time pressures have been difficult in several areas (as I'll write below when I talk about behaviour).  However, I feel that at times, Read to Someone works well, and I need to increase the proportion of time that this happens.

Spelling/Word Work: This has been in a bit of flux.  To start the term the two were completely unrelated, and I was having the children do actual activities during spelling.  Then I had a lesson and the activity was the word work.  That seemed to be a bit all over the place as I was often teaching concepts more related to writing.  One activity that I've been doing, which may or may not have any value for their learning, is reading and spelling from high frequency word lists.  At the moment I've been doing three days of this per week: one day of reading, one day of spelling and one day of making sentences with the words.  This has all been done as a group at the activeboard.  I'll be the first to admit that this is a bit of a lazy way around things, but the truth is, to make several flipcharts per week is extremely time consuming and (as I'll write below) this is not a realistic expectation at the moment if I want to keep my sanity (or stay in this job to be quite honest). That being said, I need to find a mixture of activities to work on the HFW lists and on other aspects of spelling.  There is definitely HUGE room for improvement in this area and that is near the top of my list on things to do.

Listening to Reading: This has often been cut due to lack of time.  I've had some issues with time management (though I feel the children are not completely losing out - see Shared Book below) but when I've had the chance, I've been able to read a lot of the books from the class library to the children.  The other side to this is that I have been reading a chapter book to the children, almost daily.  We finished Charlotte's Web in the first term and now we're tackling The Hobbit.  It may actually be an ambitious choice (both for length and the language and sentence length of the text) but I think it will be a worthwhile attempt and we might even be able to finish it by the end of the year.  I will be using this as my listening to reading book for a while, but also as Story Time in the afternoon.

Writing: Writing was apparently one of my strong points when I first started.  I was pretty excited about trying to get the kids to do a lot of new things.  The only problem was the amount of time I was putting into a) making flipcharts and b) marking books.  It was just not possible to do it all and have some sort of balance in my life.  I did have a lot of success with some students.  However, I've noticed some students still have not made any progress.  I feel particularly bad about those lower students who I haven't yet been able to move up to level 2. I need to be working with them in more of a one-on-one setting to help build up their confidence and their ideas.  I find the biggest problem is that those low students don't actually read all that much.  Without reading they won't have the ideas or the exposure to good writing and won't be able to do it themselves.  So part of my failure I guess is that I need to find ways to encourage those children to read more (probably by finding books that are at their level and that they enjoy).

Shared Book: I think this has been a strength of mine, even if it takes up a  lot of time.  I've been doing new books from my class library each week and have been focusing on the strategies from the reading CAFE (or FACE of a reader for the class displays). I've tried to mix up the strategies each week.  I'll usually have one day of Expanding Vocabulary (usually the first day) where we look at new words, a couple days to look at a strategy (introduction the first day, some consolidation the second) and a third day to practice fluency, expression or reading the punctuation. On Fridays I would usually have a set of six questions to correspond to the six levels of questions of Bloom's Taxonomy.  I found the children were learning a lot from each of the parts of these shared books.  I have yet to prepare one for this term, but I've working on one for next week and hopefully will be able to continue with this.  The only problem is that this cannot be done in 10 minutes.  Often I would have to not only cut out Listen to Reading, but would also have to cut the other reading rounds short.  Not doing this the past two weeks has opened up a lot more time to make sure I get the reading rounds in. Again, with most of my comments, balance is what I need to be focusing on, and finding ways to do this more efficiently.

Reading Groups: This has been steadily improving over the course of the term and I'm finding I've  gotten into a better groove.  As I've mentioned above, I've been creating activities to do during Read to Self to reinforce the strategies taught in the reading groups.  This needs to be developed so that the children remember the strategies.  I will look into making a display (as I've seen in a few other classrooms) so that children can know which strategy they are working on. Often I find that when I ask the children which strategy we've been doing, they don't have any clue and don't even try looking in the modeling book which is open right in front of them! However, I think this aspect of the morning block is much better than it was when I first started so I'm happy with how things have turned out.

Handwriting (and presentation in books): I've tried to do this once a week and feel like I've done a decent job of it.  That being said, I think I need to be more vigilant when it comes to standards with class work.  I know some teachers rip out the pages of books if the work is not up to standard.  I'm not sure I want to be that teacher, but perhaps being harsh like that might have a positive effect on the children's learning.  This is something that I hope to discuss with my new tutor teacher.

Topic and Discovery and Other Subjects
 Honestly, I was a bit like a chicken running around with its head cut off last term.  I wasn't really sure what was going on and we had many interruptions.  I think I did a decent job with the guidance I had, but it's definitely an area where I need to make massive improvements.  My biggest problem was that I'd work all weekend sorting out marking, writing and other things and it would be Sunday night and I wouldn't know what to do.   I'd often throw things together and the lessons would not be the best. I've also got some issues with using supplies and getting materials. These are things I need to work on (Art has been pretty much non-existent) but at the moment, the priority has been making sure Reading, Writing and Math have been up to standard.  I need to remember that these things cannot be ignored.  I will be looking to discuss how to improve these curricular areas with my new tutor teacher.

Time and Behaviour Management
One of these (time) has always been an issue for me and the other (behaviour) was once a source of pride for me.  Neither has been as good as I would like them to be at the moment.  And the relationship between the two has never been more apparent.  My problem is that I've not managed time effectively.  I often feel like I need to be doing something or getting my class somewhere.  It's when this stress sneaks in that I start to forget what to do.  I lose the patience that I used to have in abundance and the little things start to get to me.  The children at this school are hard to deal with and I've got three in particular that set the other children off.  The key to my class is managing these three and I don't feel that I've done a particularly good job with any of them - though I have had success with each at times.

A lot of how I manage the children relates back to how I am doing in my life and if I'm not calm and relaxed, I certainly won't be on the top of my game for the children.

There's no point in listing the things that haven't worked, so I'll discuss the things that have:

Positive Reinforcement.  This is a no-brainer, though it is very easy to fall into the trap of forgetting this.  I find myself too often noticing the bad behaviour and not the good.  I'm making huge efforts to get back into my routine of only discussing the good things.  This is not always easy and I need to work at this quite a bit more if I am to be successful with teaching and learning.

Patience and Calm.  One thing that will go a long way towards this is to just step back every now and then and think calmly about the situation.  With the way teaching happens in NZ (small groups while the rest of the class is doing other things) it can be very easy for children to get away with misbehaving.  Clear guidelines must be established with what is allowed and what is not.  Certainly I need to make certain areas off limits and monitor where children are working before I start with my small group.

Clear Punishments. I've been trying my best to follow the behaviour guidelines, though it probably has not been as consistent as it should be.  I'm constantly trying to get to that ideal.  A possible strategy to ensure this is to keep the steps posted on the wall, for all (including me) to see. I've also got to work out what is acceptable when it comes to lining up properly (this is a huge issue with my class and has been all term).  I find my students don't really have the self control and cannot do things properly unless I tell them to - and it has to be at the moment! If I say make sure you line up after morning tea, at the beginning of morning tea, less than half will remember to do it.  Something has to change in this regard as everything I've tried up until now has been unsuccessful.

Rewards/House Points: I'm still a bit unclear as to what I can award house points for.  I was doing it for sitting nicely and then stopped because we were told not to.  However, the children don't really respond without them.  I'm torn because I don't like bribing children to do the right thing, but I've found none of them really do the right thing because it's the right thing (so level D on our behaviour).  I'd rather be giving them something for being good than taking it away if they're bad.

Buddy Class.  Though it isn't to my official buddy class, I've been sending one of my troublesome students to a new entrants class every now and then so that he can help them out.  It really has been a win-win situation for all involved.  It gives the student a huge boost in self esteem and gives him some responsibility.  It gives me and my class a bit of a break from some troubles.  And it gives the other class and her students help which is super valuable.  So everyone wins.  I feel this is a strategy that could be utilized more with some of my students and with other students in this school.  It's not often that some of these children are given the opportunity to feel wanted, needed and important to others.  I wish it could be in my class, but I'm happy to allow him that opportunity somewhere else.

Classroom Environment and Displays
I have actually become quite proud of what I've accomplished here, though I know I need to get on top of a few more things to make the classroom really my own and my students'. I feel that what I first came to my room, I didn't have much to work with and actually that I had to get rid of or to change.  It took a lot of time and effort to get things close to the way they are now.  I did get a bit tired of spending so much time on them, but it's about balance (see below).  I've found success by getting students to do a lot, which also lets them take some ownership in the room.  It's just a challenge to get them helping me a bit more and getting things ready for them so that things can be made and put up in a timely fashion.

I'll also mention about my class blog here.  I've been doing some good things with that as well.  I know some of the students have been checking it at home and others have definitely been looking at it in class.  Further areas of development will be to add more instructional videos on to the math groups as well as getting more pictures of events up.

Planning and Other Duties
This has been definitely an up and down ride over the term.  I guess I can say I'm way better with paperwork than I was when I first started.  I'm getting better and doing my planning more efficiently, though at other times I feel quite a bit overwhelmed with all the extra bits that need doing (I've got a bit of a to-do list at the moment). I guess this is an ongoing battle and I need to be sneaking in work everywhere I can so that I don't feel overwhelmed with things.  Getting things done quickly and on time is always better than leaving it. That's also easier said than done. But I'll discuss that below. I'm definitely getting into routines and habits around certain aspects of this so there has been some positive improvement.  I think that once there are less new things for me to think about I'll be able to relax a bit more and do things automatically.

My Life
This is something I definitely neglected last term. I would often bring work home and work all evening, and most of the weekend.  I occasionally went out to do something, but more often than not it was alone.  In fact, I've been pretty lonely since I came to New Zealand.  About week 7 or 8, this really started to wear me down, and I tried to make some more time for myself.  This worked but apparently not enough because I found myself super lonely during the last holidays. I got quite down on myself (though there are other issues related to that that I'll hint at) and really lost a lot of my motivation to do anything.  The flip side is, something really great happened to me in the two weeks leading up to the holidays and during the holidays (which was also a source of sadness until the last few days). Life has taken an unexpected turn for the better, though at the same time what has made things good has also made them hard.  So as not to be so cryptic, I met a wonderful person who made me extremely happy, but that person moved away.  So now I am in a bit of a holding pattern with my life, waiting to see when I can visit this person and see whether or not our lives will be compatible. In the meantime, I've decided to make something of a plan so that I don't end up spending days and days alone and sad.  Without going into details of this plan, it involves focusing on my body, my mind and my personal connections.  I'm making a concerted effort to make sure I have a balance between those three areas and my working life. Full stop.  I cannot let school get in the way of my happiness - or otherwise, what's the point of having a job? I've decided to make sure I eat healthy and stay fit, that I exercise my mind (which involves trying extremely hard to learn another language - which is also related to the person I met), and making sure I have a good social circle so that I'm not alone when I need to be around people.  For the most part I have seen some progress in that area, but I am not going to stop trying to make some major strides in this term. I know we're busy, but if I don't take care of myself, I wonder if I'll be motivated to return in 2013.

Summary and Goals for Further Development
So I've spent some time thinking about how I can move forward and become the outstanding teacher that I want to be.  I know I'm not quite there, but the last 11 weeks of teaching have been a great learning experience and have revealed what I need to work on.  The number one goal is to actually take care of myself. I worked myself pretty hard to start and I realize now that I'm pretty much useless in the class if I don't have the rest of my life in order.  So that is my major focus at the moment; finding the balance between work and everything else.

When it comes to work though, I do have some goals and things I want to work on. I'm hoping that by finding that balance I'll be able to manage myself a bit better during classes, but that is also something I want to focus on a bit more. Becoming efficient is also a priority.  Again, I think this will come with balance, but I think becoming a bit more organized and getting down to work when I need to get it done will go a long way to improving my in-class practice.

As for in-class things that I want to work on: continue to develop a dynamic classroom environment.  I've had some success here, but I don't think I change things enough and I definitely don't do enough art.  I need to take that weakness and turn it into a strength.  Especially in a school such as this where art/music/drama might be a way to help children deal with their emotions in a healthy manner.

I want to continue to improve my math teaching.  I feel like I've been doing really well here, but developing a better program and improving the activities when children aren't with me is something I want to continually be developing.

Writing has been good, but I want to find ways to pull back the work load without taking away from the learning.  The same goes for all the other activities around reading.  I feel that once certain things are prepared (resources for reading followup activities) it will be very simple to sort things out on a weekly basis.

Overall I'm pleased with the journey so far.  I've learned a lot about myself, my strengths and weaknesses, and - most importantly - how much I need to find that every elusive balance.  But I've been making plans (written down somewhere) to help me with that and so far I have been somewhat successful.

So here's looking forward to building on my term 3 successes and continuing to improve through term 4 and beyond.

Successes and Failures; Making and Breaking Habits

It's been a while since I wrote here, and since it's late and I do want to sleep, I'll make this brief.

I've definitely had a turning point (well, ANOTHER turning point) and a huge improvement in the way I'm fitting in at my school and with my class.  I feel like I've got a feel (however tenuous) for all the major aspects of the daily curriculum.  There are definitely some minor things to keep on working on, but I feel like I've had success in all three of the major areas and I'm slowly coming around in the afternoon.

I've had lots of good ideas, and tried to start some habits, but with so much going on, it's tough for me to keep things going.  I was having my class do a lot of self evaluation, but it has definitely fallen by the wayside.  I need to get back on to that.  They need to be able to think about the quality of the work they've done.  Constantly.

I've had some issues with behaviour lately, though I know exactly what's going on.  And it all falls squarely on me.  If the work makes sense and they are started off well by me, then things go well.  If I get lazy and forget to remind them about how to do something (like lining up) they don't do it properly.  It's beyond frustrating (I've never worked with children who can be so good one day and so rude and off task the next - or, really, 20 minutes later) to know that they need to constantly be reminded.  I guess I'm still struggling with trying to get them to level D behaviour (where they don't need to be told), but to be honest, is anyone ever really on level D?  Does it exist?  I had a conversation with one of my students a few weeks ago.  It was quite instructive.  He had been giving me troubles previously but was lining up perfectly.  I said to the class that he was lining up perfectly and that it was level C because he was told to do so.  His reply was: "I just don't want to have to practice." He was honest with him and really, what more can you ask from from children, but it still stings a bit that these kids wouldn't do the right thing without a negative consequence for not doing it.  Something to have to work on I guess, and probably just accept the reality for what it is.  Perhaps discussing that with the children and reasons behind rules might be a good idea.

It's bed time now and with my newfound attempts at having some sort of balance (or at minimum, enough sleep) I'm off.  Hopefully it won't be so long until my next entry.

A Trio of Observations

Last Wednesday (yes, it's been a while, a lot has happened in the past week!) I was able to get around to observe three classrooms for various different subjects. It was interesting not only to see the things going on in each classroom, but how two teachers did very similar things (and a thing which I've done in the past but not so much in recent times) which really gets the children engaged.

Year 0 Writing Lesson
The biggest thing I noticed in this classroom was how the time was managed and how the children were engaged.  There was never really any lulls in this classroom.  If something wasn't happening properly it was dealt with extremely swiftly and the lesson continued.  Even though the children were on the mat for a really long time, not once did they really seem to lose focus (they were as focused at 30 minutes as they were at 3). They were constantly being engaged and asked to participate. So much was done in that 30 minutes that there was no time for the children to lose focus: a morning message (including the weather), phonics, and a writing lesson (and you can probably include the roll in that as well).

There were heaps upon heaps of positive praise being given out in class, and most of the time it was directed at specific behaviours (I love the way you're sitting up, That's a really interesting word). It was very clear that the children in the class have been trained up to this.

The writing was well structured and modelled on the board.  When teaching the strategy of sounding out, the teacher kept within her students' abilities by writing the words as they might, and not as we would.  I really liked that strategy as it kept a lot of confusion off of the table for children of that age. I'm not sure I'd do the same, but it was definitely appropriate in that case.

Giving out the books, each child got their book one at a time, to avoid the decongestion of everyone going up and getting their things.  I know it can seem like a big waste of time to do things that way, but it actually does make things go smoothly.  It's something worth trying with my class (which has had some problems lately with lining up quietly and sensibly (and getting to their seats in the same manner).  When the children were writing two thirds of the class had either a teacher or a TA at their table to help them and guide them if needed.  If you count me, they all had an adult. Most of the children were able to complete their writing in the time given and knew what to do when they were finished.

It was interesting to see how smoothly the class moved with so much to fit in.  I guess that's the biggest thing I took out of it.  It was also a good reminder to keep pouring on the positive praise.

Year 3/4 Math Lesson
I got to see a lot of interesting things in this session.  The first I barely noticed, because the teacher did such a good job of handling it.  A boy was playing up and causing all sorts of trouble with the teacher.  He calmly dealt with the problem as it escalated, making sure that it did not disrupt the flow of the class.  I saw it, but I'm not completely sure how he did it. It's something definitely to aspire to.

I've already tried a few of the strategies I saw in this class in mine.  The first is that he went over the IWB activity with the class as a warmup.  Not only did it give everyone a learning experience, it removed the need to have to explain the activity to one of the groups. Another thing he had the children at the IWB do was to sit on chairs, in a row, facing the board.  I've tried both those strategies and it did help alleviate some of the silliness that goes on during my guided group lessons.

The teacher also had a small group going on and did some pretty interesting things.  The children didn't know what to with a problem, so he had them film him solve it.  He verbalised his thought process along the way and the children were able to watch the video again to see what happened. This was an incredible tool that could be used for posting on blogs, etc. so children can review their work at home. I spoke briefly with the teacher afterwards and he also told me it was possible to film the IWB screen and record sound so that a demonstration could be played back on that for students.  Wonderful!

This is where I need to mention the thing I saw both of these first two teachers doing: making mistakes on purpose.  I used to do this a lot (it helps cover up for the times when you actually do make a mistake) and haven't been doing it lately.  It really worked for both of them (and I've had it work for me as well) by getting the children involved (who doesn't love proving their teacher wrong?) and making them feel pretty smart in the process.  I tried it the next day and it did get the children's attention.  I will need to make an effort to continue using that strategy.

Y5/6 Discovery Lesson
Due to the strange schedule of the day, I didn't have much time after the math lesson to see many discovery lessons going on, but I did have time to visit one classroom and speak with the teacher about it.  That short discussion proved valuable in helping me figure out just exactly what discovery time is.  I honestly had very little idea beforehand.  Basically I need to pick a habit of mind and design 5-6 activities around that habit.  They can (and should) be creative so that children get to experience things they wouldn't normally do in school.  I really like the idea and have been able to come up with a few ideas that (I think) are different but still relevant to what we've been learning about. Not much else to really say on this one, except that it is mostly sorted at the moment. I'm looking forward to actually having a proper discovery time this coming week.

Lots of Little Modifications

It feels like every day I'm trying to make little adjustments to make everything go a lot smoother.  This is who I am and it is a huge strength for me in anything I do.  It can be a bit crazy though, and I'm always rushing off to try and fix a little thing, while missing the big picture.  That being said, I've made at least two changes in the last few days that seem to be paying off and I've set a few others in motion.

1) I was getting super frustrated with the end-of-day procedures.  The students weren't all doing what they were supposed to be doing and it ended up turning into a case of a few students working really hard to tidy up while others just walked around, talked and did nothing useful. I had a talk with my flatmate (source of seemingly unlimited wisdom) and she suggested I put on a song for cleanup. Surprisingly I had seen this before in action and had been quite impressed with it at the time (forgetting things like this is also part of who I am, and definitely not a strength), so I definitely was willing to give it a go after a particularly trying end of day mid-week.  We did it on Thursday and Friday and the students were much more enthusiastic (it was a song they learned as a school to sing) and the jobs got done and there was little or no stress on my part.  I'll need to get a proper CD or CD player and keep this going.

2) During an afterschool chat with a colleague, I was asked how I was using my success-o-meter.  That was something that I occasionally referred to in the first couple of weeks of school, but have been trying to encorporate it into my teaching a bit more.  Last week for the flipcharts I had used the pictures and labels to talk about our work and to help the children make value-judgements on work.  I had also cut out their names and had them beside the success-o-meter when he came in, not really thinking exactly how I would use it.  He asked me if I used it after every lesson.  That had not been my intention, but a good idea is a good idea.  I've used several ways of self-evaluation, so I gave this one a try when we wrote similes on Friday.  The children were pretty good with them and it was integrated into the lesson since I did give examples and reinforce what level each type of simile would go on.  Some students put themselves on the top level when they should have been on the second, but still, they were pretty bang on with their self assessments.  It's definitely something worth getting into the habit of.

3) I'm also trying to get children into the habit of bringing and changing their bookbags every day. I've made up a laminated sheet to keep track of which days in a week they bring them in and I'm offering housepoints for bringing them in.  Hopefully that adds a bit of incentive, though I guess I can't force them to read at home.

4) One thing I've done once but not again (and it was successful) was build  sentence (thank you Read, Write, Inc.).  It is just super hard to find the time to fit it all in.  I've got to find a slot for that during the day.  Perhaps I could do that one afternoon between Reading to the Students and Project (Tuesday or Friday would be good, I think). It's hugely helpful in building their vocabulary, memory and their ability to write interesting sentences.

I'm sure I've forgotten a few things, but there's no way I could write about every little change I'm trying to make just to make things go a bit more smoothly.  It's all about the process and not so much the details at this point.

Karen Boyes Sample Lesson Observation (and Staff Meetings)

Yesterday I had the privilege of watching Karen Boyes, a Habits of Mind guru, teach a class at our school.  I also had two staff meetings run by her, devoted to teaching the habits of mind.

It was an interesting experience to see a lot of new strategies at work. A few things I saw from her that I'd really like to use (coming from both the staff meetings and the observations):

1) Saying thank you instead of good, great, fantastic, etc.  This I'm still a bit torn on (it's one of those things you don't want to be true, after all those years of people telling you to heap on the praise to children) but I completely agree with the theory behind it so I think it's definitely worthwhile to have a go at it. I still will find a way to use a variety of praise (I think behaviour is one area, though I do like the "thank you for doing the right thing" that I use quite a bit).

2) Lots of talk time, giving children the chance to be prepared to answer so that speaking is less of a risk.  I've actually made some adjustments over the years so that participating is less of a risk and children are prepared, but she did give some good suggestions as to how to bring that aspect to a whole new level.  She was very insistent on getting the children "knee to knee."  I've already tried this, and though they did at first confuse it with "elbow to elbow, knee to knee," I did find that it has worked fairly well.  I've also increased the amount of time I've having them talk to their partners.  Not only does that get them more confident with speaking, but it also forces them to participate.  I also use popsicle sticks so that all the children know they could be called upon for any question so they need to have some sort of an answer (usually after talking to partner so they're not put on the spot).

3) It's a small thing, but I really liked her use of "Hold your words in, put your hand up." I liked how she showed us a picture of this with a younger student, but I wasn't sure it would work with my class.  I talked to them about it and when I saw one student doing it, I commented on it and picked her to speak.  Funnily enough, the about 5 or 6 of them were doing it the next time I asked.  Though, the student who did it first, didn't really need to do it (she waits her turn all the time normally) but maybe it will catch on.

4) Her description of the Line of Life with Blame, Excuse and Deny below and Ownership, Accountable, Responsible on top was something I immediately started using today.  I actually saw many children who were doing the things below the line.  In fact, I had a wonderful inadvertent example of excuse, when I was asking the children to explain what it meant. One child gave his answer and it must have been the same answer another boy wanted to give so the other boy put his hand down and said "d@33it" (imagine the two 3s are 2 ms).  So I said "excuse me, do you think that language is appropriate at school?" and he said "But I didn't know." Absolutely brilliant.  I of course pointed out the irony of the whole situation to him by saying that was making an excuse.  He was tearful for a bit, but within a few minutes he was back.  The children really did seem to understand that and now I have a diagram to put in the classroom to remind me and them.  It should also help me remember to refer to it in those situations.

5) In her lesson, it was interesting also, to see what she did when things didn't go as planned.  She tried an activity with the children that they obviously didn't get.  Instead of getting frustrated or ending the lesson then and there, she kept going.  First she let the kids keep trying and offered small reminders of what was needed.  When it was clear there were some problems, she stopped the whole class and asked them a question to focus their thinking.  Eventually they were able to be successful.  No voices needed to be raised

6) Over the last week with Karen and with our certification, I've learned a great deal about the Habits of Mind and have tried to incorporate them more into my teaching.  I'd never heard of them before coming to Rowandale, but they are things I've done throughout my life and I definitely see them as the habits that have made me successful.  So helping children learn these habits is obviously a good idea.  Karen was able to give me a lot of good ideas as to how to start embedding these into the children's lives.  I hope I'm up to the task (if not, I'll persist).

Assessments and Other Recent Things

I've probably mentioned on here my recent foray into reading testing.  That has been going well, if not slowly.  I've been pleasantly surprised by several students who read extremely well and answered most, if not all, of the comprehension questions right (and thus get to move up a level).  Other students have me at a bit of a loss.  They are definitely struggling with the reading - it's super slow, and they're making a lot of mistakes - and it's tough to know whether to keep them where they are or move them down.  I feel a bit bad moving children down as they have been given a big confidence boost by being moved up.  I have a feeling this will be a constant inner battle for my whole career though, so I'm not going to let myself lose too much sleep over it for the time being.  I've also had some students read really well but have no clue what they just read. So I'll be trying to sort that all out in the next little bit.

I've also had a second go at marking writing.  I think I definitely changed my approach this time (it helped to come home on a Friday evening and have so much energy that I was able to read through a good two thirds of them) and the experience of having done this already for these children made it easier.  I found that several children had actually gone and done what I'd been teaching them (fancy that) and they really made an effort to work on the things I identified as their targets. I was able to move a few of them up a level (though that might not completely compensate for the few I moved down levels last time - yes, I know what I wrote above, but writing is not the same as reading) which was nice, but others actually wrote a bit worse than their first one and completely ignored both what I was teaching and their targets.  Is this a normal thing to only get a bit of success. I guess the question is now, how do I get to those other children who weren't listening, or to put it a better way, using their habits of mind (specifically: make it right, prior knowledge and taking responsible risks). There has been some success, so I'll start with what I've got and build on it.  I'm not going down without a fight (metaphorically of course!).

I feel like I've turned a corner with my class in recent days as well.  There is a greater closeness I have with many of them and they're starting to figure out my rhythms and idiosyncrasies. We've bonded on some level which has been nice.  Yes, they can still take an foot when I give them an inch (and this from a Canadian), but they are responding much better to things and even today I saw some amazing focus and effort from some students who had previously not tried so hard.  Even in things like the basic facts practice (test) I've noticed some phenomenal improvement from most of the class.  I've not had to send any sheets home (yet, but I will) yet they are taking huge strides every time we do it.

Planning is still a bit of a time killer and I'm having a bit of difficulty getting it done before the weekend.  In fact, I'd say it's near impossible at this point.  I want all of my lessons - at least on paper at this point - to be great lessons.  I'm definitely picking up lots of helpful hints lately, though it does have the effect of making me feel a bit (only a bit, I'm not nearly as stressed as I was two or three weeks ago) overwhelmed with how to structure things.  But the key, at least I think it's the key, is to try and get some things embedded, not just in my practice, but in the children as well, so they can help keep our (yes, our) classroom running like a well oiled machine (teaching similes this week, it helps to try to use them in my writing). I'd say the quality of my planning is probably the best I've done, though I know it will get even better over time.  I'm able to think very analytically and methodically about things and now that I've had time to do some of my own assessments, I've got a much, much clearer impression as to where the children are, where they need to be and how to get there.

Feedback Galore

I really could break this up into two different posts, but seeing as this is my third in a row, I'd like to leave it at this.

After not getting much feedback the first few weeks (other than the planning, which I need to work on after this) I got two pretty big - and positive - bits today.

The first came from a walkthrough done by not one but two members of the management team.  I was a  tad nervous when they first walked in, but the class was under control and there was nothing I had to worry about at the time (glad they didn't come in for math today!).  It did go well and the feedback was really good (both told me so in person, so that was nice).  I do feel they picked out the good things I've been trying to do, so that's a big plus.  There are things I haven't gotten around to and those were not really brought up.  That did put me at ease quite a bit because that is my biggest worry - missing things I'm supposed to have, even though I have pretty much been going non-stop since the second week of the holidays.

The second bit was a bit unexpected.  We had a team meeting where we looked at writing flipcharts.  I had seen some really good ones and was reluctant to go up and share, but I took a responsible risk and just did it.  I was actually quite surprised at the good feedback I got from all around the table.  It did make me feel a bit validated and a lot less worried about the quality of my preparations and teaching.  Now the biggest trick is to find ways to do the same things in less time so that I can be fully rested every day of the week.

Running Record Demo and Practice Run

Yesterday I was given a demonstration of how to do a running record.  It was informative, but a bit overwhelming.  I'm not quite yet confident with what comments to write, and how to use the information, but I'm more confident with some things.  At least I know where to get the books and the records - that's a start right?

I did attempt two today, at the end of the day.  Not an ideal situation.  Nor was it wise to take two of my lower students.  They both struggled a bit and were almost at 90% accuracy - which means they weren't on the right level.  Both of them will likely have to go down a level now, but I've got to get clarification as to a) is that a good idea and b) if I need to test them at that lower level.

Still a bit of a mystery to me at the moment, but I'm slowly wrapping my head around the concept.  I figure if I get through this round of testing, I'll have a better idea of what to expect (from the students) next time, rather than trying to make judgements on the total of 3 running records I've seen done or done myself.

Reflections on Recent Changes

I made a pretty big effort the last couple of days to get my students to have a greater sense of urgency when completing transitions.  So far it's been fairly successful, though it's still a journey and they need to be more consistent.  I also implemented another strategy I didn't mention in the previous post - to get the children to tell each other about the word of the day, problem of the day and the weather.  It keeps them involved, even if it doesn't speed things up.  Well, it does speed things up in that while they are telling each other those things, I can move the laptop from the back mat to the front mat and have it all ready to go for shared book.

The strategies have worked mostly when I've been insistent on them going fast.  They have been getting excited when I tell them - just before the sound to end the Daily 5 round goes - that we need to try to break our record.  They were actually cheering today when they got to the mat in 59 seconds.  However, I wasn't doing it all the time, and those times they were very laxadaisical with their movements.  I wish I spelled that word right.

I've also started recording the times so we can compare, and will be making a chart for the week.  They have definitely turned around the last few days and things are going well in that regard.

I also tried counting down from 10 during cloak bay runs and only having 10 students in there at a time.  I've been less on the ball with this particular change, but when I've been able to supervise it has gone well.  Some tears, but that's kind of the point.  Those kids won't be wasting time again.  I need to continue to be on top of that, even though there are things I need to do while they are getting their snacks and lunches.

Overal, I'm quite pleased with what I've done.  I just need to make them habits now, so it's easier in the future.

Frustrating Day and Some Conversations

Having spent a good deal of time planning and making sure this whole week was sorted out (see previous post), today was a slight letdown in that things didn't go as planned.  That in itself could be a valuable lesson, but that's not what I got out of the experience the most.

Basically the problems in the classroom today stemmed from issues around transitions. What it boils down to is slowness and not doing what they're suposed to be doing. This goes for pretty much all transitions and it's really only a handful of children setting the whole thing off.

I had a long conversation with my flatmate (who is herself a teacher - and a tutor teacher on top) about this and we talked about ways in which to put the onus on the children.  A lot does come down to me and the way I impress upon them the need for urgency.  Most children, as she says (and I agree), don't really see school as a rush, though I do, knowing how much we have to do. Two major things have come out of this particular conversation to work on: 1) getting things out of the cloak bay takes a ridiculous amount of time. A solution could be to send in 10 children, count down from 10 and if they don't have anything, they still need to be lined up. This, I want to try tomorrow. 2) I'm going to set the timer during the daily 5 to a) count up and b) repeat at the end so that the children have a clear indication of how long they are taking and how long I expect.  Perhaps evening keeping a "world record" on the board so that they have motivation to go quicker.  We'll see.

A third thing, which came out of discussions with the children in fact, is that 20 minute sessions for the daily 5 might be too long.  Not so much for their concentration, but for fitting it all in.  We only were able to fit three blocks in (after the shared book and spelling lessons) before 10:50, and that was a good hour and 40 minutes.  Time does need to be made up there - at least until they get the transitions better.

There's more that I could work on at this point, but I'll focus on those things right now and try my best with the rest.  No need to overwhelm myself.

Planning for Week 4

Last Friday (yes, anyone reading this will realize this took me a few days to write) I submitted my first week of planning to be looked at. Overall I found this planning to be fairly straightforward, if at times, a lot to do.  Once I got into the flow, it was easier to figure out the learning outcomes and work from them to create something simple but also that focuses on that specific LO.  Slowly but surely things are making sense.  The feedback was mostly positive on those lessons and the suggestions given were manageable (mostly adding more information to the plans so they are a bit clearer).

Unfortunately, not all of the planning was done beforehand, and I did spend some time this weekend working on flipcharts and sorting a few things out.  It wasn't a massive amount of time, but it was some work.  The goal in the future is to have most, if not all, of that sorted by Thursday night so I can enjoy my weekend and get recharged.  Even the little bit of free time I had this weekend was helpful in making me feel better for Monday (today).

I'm not finding anything that difficult at the moment.  I've learned a great many lessons in the past week (way too many to even just list here, and sadly some I've already learned in the past).  I think the planning aspect though has been the biggest leap this week.  For starters, just having a clear idea of what was expected and where to get the WALTs and how the lessons are structured.  Also though, and probably more important, is the need to have the children constantly doing activities and switching.  Further to that, I've made some attempts to include use of my Bloom's Taxonomy Chart in my planning as well as the success-o-meter in order to get the children not only thinking about their learning, but having them be in tune with what's on the walls around them.  Now, the only thing is to actually execute the plans.

Planning Meeting

I met with my tutor teacher today to discuss my first attempt at planning - for this school at least.  A few things that came out of the discussion:

1) Unpack the WALTs in the first lessons with a small group.  They need to know why they are doing something and this allows me to revisit those ideas in future lessons with the same WALT.

2) Adding detail to tumble activities for Maths, as well as other information such as levels, etc.

3) Adding in materials used and resources that plans come from.

We also discussed spelling lessons and general tidying up of the planning template. Since this week is all over the place, we talked about how Art, PE and Discovery time would fit in in the future.

Classroom Observations

Y4/5 Classroom
Observed a spelling mini-lesson as well as a writing lesson (the latter of which I helped plan). The spelling lesson focused on writing verbs in the past tense after being given a present tense verb. The writing lesson was on editing marked work.  Will work on building similar activities into the spelling lessons, since past tense was a big focus on our recount writing this week. It was also instructive to see a lesson I had made the flipchart for being taught be another teacher.

Returned later to this classroom to view a guided reading group. The teacher had a very well laid-out modelling book, with lots of things ready for the children to do.

Y5/6 Classroom
Observed a guided reading group.  The teacher was teaching how to ask questions before, during and after reading.  It was clear that she had already taught this.  She used the modeling book to refer to previous lessons and remind children of what had been done.  She had children writing on photocopies of the page they were reading, having them write down questions before, during and after. When the children were writing, she briefly walked around the room to check on the progress of the other students.

Returned to this classroom to watch two small maths groups. Both lessons were on using tidy numbers to solve addition problems, however, the size of the numbers used was different.  Before the lesson, I was able to see some headwork (she asked the children addition questions and they used the number fans to show their answers) and a warmup (she discussed a division problem on the board with them, as well as the vocabulary associated with division). Both of the small groups started off their mini-lesson by working on instantaneous recall of number bonds to 10 and 20 using dice.  Then she looked back at previous work and discussed their WALT. She worked with the whole group but was assessing them individually and had all of them doing the problems on their own. A lot of the things I'd saw I'd like to put into practice as soon as possible.  It was the first time I'd seen number fans used in that way and will be getting all of my maths materials out so that are accessible and ready to use.

Y5/6 Classroom
I observed a guided reading group.  This teacher also only spent the time on one or two pages.  She was teaching the children to focus on interesting words.  She discussed success criteria with the children beforehand so that they knew what they needed to do to be successful.

Y3/4 Classroom
I was only briefly in this classroom but saw a lot.  The students were working on using "but" and "because" to join sentences.  Wandering around the room I saw a lot of high-quality work. The teacher then brought the whole class to the mat and had three pieces of work he discussed with the aid of a visualizer. He discussed what he liked about each piece so the children would know what he was looking for.  He also had a nice way of having the other children give praise to those children.  Back in the UK I remember using a variety of things and it's probably time I started using them again.