More than just ordering books per term.
Can order books more than once a term.
Can find online resources on "Resources for Learning" - always useful to go to High Interest Topics.
AnyQuestions - website. Like a chat room. Librarians won't give them answers, but will help them find the information they want. Will teach them about how to research. Suggested to do this as a class demonstration.
EPIC - website. has links to educational websites for research. Most useful website: Britannica School Primary, has lots of info, can be printed, listened to, favourited, definitions can be given (without going onto another page). Images and video are available.
Digital NZ - can search for images that represent them
Papers Past - Whole range of papers that have not been publish. 1800's to 1940's
The above can all be found on the Services to Schools page on the National Library webpage.
Creating Readers tab is very useful as well. Not there to teach children to read, but give them opportunities to read.
Read Aloud brochures - available in many different languages - when talking to parents get them to help promote reading for fun with the children.
Also can use NRL magazines to get the reading culture across the school
There is a whole range of maths stories that are actual stories.
Can do meetings at the National Library and then get tour afterwards
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
Kids Power PD
3 Powers kids have all the time:
Brain Power
Body Power
Voice Power
Powers to teach:
Stay Aware - are children aware of what is going on? How can we make them more aware?
Stop Power - Legs balanced (one behind other), hands out, but arms bent "Please stop" and if not effective: "I said stop!" a bit louder/firmer
Move Away Power - move to safe place/person - Calmness helps adults to help you. "Excuse me, I need help."
Get Help Power (see above)
Rubbish Bin Power - For all the bad words we don't like having said to us.
Bullying is a constant, repetitive behaviour. Children at our ages (year 0-2) don't have a concept of what that is.
Non-verbal checkins - two thumbs up/down/ one up/down. Good way to check chd and see if there are major changes (e.g. two up to two down).
Incident charts - allowing teachers to share/see what has been going on. Some chd come back and behave poorly because of something that happened in the playground.
Brain Power
Body Power
Voice Power
Powers to teach:
Stay Aware - are children aware of what is going on? How can we make them more aware?
Stop Power - Legs balanced (one behind other), hands out, but arms bent "Please stop" and if not effective: "I said stop!" a bit louder/firmer
Move Away Power - move to safe place/person - Calmness helps adults to help you. "Excuse me, I need help."
Get Help Power (see above)
Rubbish Bin Power - For all the bad words we don't like having said to us.
Bullying is a constant, repetitive behaviour. Children at our ages (year 0-2) don't have a concept of what that is.
Non-verbal checkins - two thumbs up/down/ one up/down. Good way to check chd and see if there are major changes (e.g. two up to two down).
Incident charts - allowing teachers to share/see what has been going on. Some chd come back and behave poorly because of something that happened in the playground.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Using the iPads to Teach and Learn
In our Busy Bee meeting today we talked about using the iPads to teach. Here is an activity I made for children to use. You could also use this as an activity I with the teacher. Here it is:
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Karen Boyes PD Day 2
Strategies that could be used from Classroom observations
- giving chd opportunity to do it by themselves and in their own way
- think pair share - can often miss out on the think part by rushing - make sure to give time for this
- giving an example and then challenging chd to do their own that's different
- keep one, pass the rest on
5 Dimensions to HOM
1) Explore meanings
2) Expanding Capacities
3) Increasing Alertness
4) Extending Values
5) Building Commitment
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Karen Boyes PD Session 1
What has changed in the last 5-10 years that has been major?
Smartphones, tablets, Internet (speed) etc
What is thinking?
Lots of different ideas - Defn from Dennis the Menace: when your mouth stays shut and your head keeps talking to itself.
Think Pair Share
What is it about your students that makes you think they need to learn how to think?
What do you see them doing?
What do you hear them saying?
How are they feeling?
How would you like them to be because of your teaching and learning?
Documenting progress in the classroom
- very connected to Reggio
Mindfulness
Does not mean: being on auto pilot
Does mean: becoming aware
Mindfulness of HOM
labelling the HOM
Transferring use from previous situation
enjoying the benefits
sequencing their use
evaluate their effectiveness
applying it elsewhere
consciously committing to improving
Smartphones, tablets, Internet (speed) etc
What is thinking?
Lots of different ideas - Defn from Dennis the Menace: when your mouth stays shut and your head keeps talking to itself.
Think Pair Share
What is it about your students that makes you think they need to learn how to think?
What do you see them doing?
What do you hear them saying?
How are they feeling?
How would you like them to be because of your teaching and learning?
Documenting progress in the classroom
- very connected to Reggio
Mindfulness
Does not mean: being on auto pilot
Does mean: becoming aware
Mindfulness of HOM
labelling the HOM
Transferring use from previous situation
enjoying the benefits
sequencing their use
evaluate their effectiveness
applying it elsewhere
consciously committing to improving
Karen Boyes Observation
Started with a poem about what a habit is.
Talked about what the habits are.
Look inside your head - before you move. Chd had to move to sit in a circle on the mat. Took some coaxing but they were able to sort the problem out.
Talked about sign language - how would you make a sign language for magic? For brain? Taught chd how to sign "I have a magic brain."
Had chd fold an A4 paper like a hot dog bun. Made a magic booklet. Looks like an "m."
Had partners choose to be an apple and an orange.
Chd drew a squiggle on their booklet. Swapped with partners and had to turn squiggle into something else. Many drew ice cream (Karen had used that as an example), but some variation. Repeated this with different shape. More variation the second time.
Afterwards, asked chd to partner up and come up with five things that help learning and five things that aren't good for learning.
Talked about what the habits are.
Look inside your head - before you move. Chd had to move to sit in a circle on the mat. Took some coaxing but they were able to sort the problem out.
Talked about sign language - how would you make a sign language for magic? For brain? Taught chd how to sign "I have a magic brain."
Had chd fold an A4 paper like a hot dog bun. Made a magic booklet. Looks like an "m."
Had partners choose to be an apple and an orange.
Chd drew a squiggle on their booklet. Swapped with partners and had to turn squiggle into something else. Many drew ice cream (Karen had used that as an example), but some variation. Repeated this with different shape. More variation the second time.
Afterwards, asked chd to partner up and come up with five things that help learning and five things that aren't good for learning.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Activboard Training
There are pre-made activities in the resource browser. These are good warmups.
Same goes for templates.
Cloze activity. To make a cloze activity fast, right click on a word (after cutting and pasting) and click extract text. Which will pull the word out. Then you can use the paint bucket tool to colour the word the same as the background. Make the words bigger or smaller to stop the smart kids from matching the size of the box to the word.
Colour reveal - can be used for many things. Two backgrounds, text matches one, so when it's moved you can see what it is. Eg. Fox in blue, es in red on red background reveals foxes on yellow background.
There are four layers in a flipchart. Annotations on top, objects in the middle, empty bottom and background, which is always fixed at the very bottom. The object browser can help show what is on the page and where it is (the level).
You can take pictures of a video as it is playing so you can order pictures afterwards (sequence the story).
To embed Youtube video, go to insert-link-embed HTML (and put code from YouTube in).
Active Expression
To Register a hub: Go to voting browser, Click on clipboard and then device registration. Instructions go on the screen.
Can paste word answers into flipchart AND check who did it and how long it took.
Can assign devices by name, need an excel spreadsheet with names.
Can find results in voting browsers from the whole flipchart/page.
ActiView
Can use this to show chd things (e.g. something on the ground/desk) so they don't have to crawl around. Demonstrating art. Everyone can see all at once. Fiddle around with it to see what it can do.
Same goes for templates.
Cloze activity. To make a cloze activity fast, right click on a word (after cutting and pasting) and click extract text. Which will pull the word out. Then you can use the paint bucket tool to colour the word the same as the background. Make the words bigger or smaller to stop the smart kids from matching the size of the box to the word.
Colour reveal - can be used for many things. Two backgrounds, text matches one, so when it's moved you can see what it is. Eg. Fox in blue, es in red on red background reveals foxes on yellow background.
There are four layers in a flipchart. Annotations on top, objects in the middle, empty bottom and background, which is always fixed at the very bottom. The object browser can help show what is on the page and where it is (the level).
You can take pictures of a video as it is playing so you can order pictures afterwards (sequence the story).
To embed Youtube video, go to insert-link-embed HTML (and put code from YouTube in).
Active Expression
To Register a hub: Go to voting browser, Click on clipboard and then device registration. Instructions go on the screen.
Can paste word answers into flipchart AND check who did it and how long it took.
Can assign devices by name, need an excel spreadsheet with names.
Can find results in voting browsers from the whole flipchart/page.
ActiView
Can use this to show chd things (e.g. something on the ground/desk) so they don't have to crawl around. Demonstrating art. Everyone can see all at once. Fiddle around with it to see what it can do.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Teacher Only Week 2014 - Day 4
Presentations from Teachers Matter Conference
Starters I could use:
- "Just like me" - say statement, children who agree stand up and say "Just like me"
- Clock - make a clock, write your own name at 12, then go around and ask others: are you free at....? Can say at times of the day: Buddy up with your 3 o'clock buddy.
Perceptions:
What we see, how we see ourselves
- need to respect children of the 21st century - they grew up differently than us.
Thinking maps
- powerful graphic structure
- circle maps - colour code different types of information
- bubble map - similar to circle maps, but info but into bubbles, don't give template, could be double bubble
- tree map - topic on top, different branches for sub categories below, can also use colour coding
Philosphy for Children
- community of learning where people support each other and discuss issues that are relevant to the classroom.
- Inquiry develops the four Cs: collaborative, critical, caring and creative
- sit in circle, use talking stick (etc) and give questions chd need to discuss
Starters I could use:
- "Just like me" - say statement, children who agree stand up and say "Just like me"
- Clock - make a clock, write your own name at 12, then go around and ask others: are you free at....? Can say at times of the day: Buddy up with your 3 o'clock buddy.
Perceptions:
What we see, how we see ourselves
- need to respect children of the 21st century - they grew up differently than us.
Thinking maps
- powerful graphic structure
- circle maps - colour code different types of information
- bubble map - similar to circle maps, but info but into bubbles, don't give template, could be double bubble
- tree map - topic on top, different branches for sub categories below, can also use colour coding
Philosphy for Children
- community of learning where people support each other and discuss issues that are relevant to the classroom.
- Inquiry develops the four Cs: collaborative, critical, caring and creative
- sit in circle, use talking stick (etc) and give questions chd need to discuss
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Teacher Only Week 2014 - Day 2
Reggio Emilia @ Rowandale
TED Talk - Gever Tully (Tinkering School)
"The lack of unstructured play for youngsters is associated with less enthusiasm for learning, diminished creativity, and poorer social skills." Madelie Levine, Teacher Your Children Well
Children don't have spatial awareness because they are so safe today.
Get stuff out and let kids have a go. (Suggestion: overhead projector and screen).
Amiable School - everyone is happy, everyone is engaged
Teachers role is to explore, not to have the answer - get in beside them and be excited, ask the questions that extend their learning
Use blogs to document the journey, not the product. Show the process.
"Go Play" - powerful words - make play an important part of the day, not the reward.
(Suggestion: wood with screws, screwdrivers, etc).
It's not inquiry if: 1) Students know what result they're "supposed" to get. 2) The questions and steps are predetermined for them. 3) The teachers is working harder than the students.
Don't for forget the power of "yet.." E.g. "I'm not good at math.... yet"
Using HOM in the Classroom
Why use the HOMs in the class - Make language everyday and automatic, encourage children to think about why they are doing something, Allow children to practise using the language, children and you become familiar with HOM language, Annotated displays links learning with HOMs.
Can incorporate HOM into WALTS
e.g. WALT make it right be using sticks to show tens and ones in two-digits numbers
WALT work together to follow a recipe
WALT create and innovate an environment where a dinosaur could live
WALT make it right by editing our work for capital letters and full stops.
WALT use our past knowledge to solve subtraction problems with a number line.
WALT work with others to make a vehicle.
WALT to create and innovate to design a house.
WALT use our past knowledge to predict what will happen next.
Ideas to incorporate HOM areas in the classroom:
e.g. parking lot area with post-it notes for children to write questions on to revisit later.
- Past knowledge with object/picture with questions to help language and relationships (e.g. picture of the day/week).
- we assume they know how to listen, could actively teach chd how to listen (w/ empathy)
- C3B4 Me (poster)
Challenge: have a specific area of the room related to HOM (perhaps HOM of the week).
Maths @ Rowandale
Headwork: Video/song, counting by 2s
W/U: look at strategy that will benefit the whole class
I-Can sheets need to be in front of the books - updated when assessments are done
Environment: - interactive displays, activity boxes, child made charts/posters, numbers, symbols, words, number formation posters
Diagnostic Questions - see Google Drive for copious amounts of examples of these.
Treasure
What is treasure? (used activ expressions - answered questions on them - went to excel sheet)
Writing @ Rowandale
We changed writing 5 times last year - we don't stick with things that aren't working.
The way we do it is the best way Mark's seen taught.
I-Can sheet at the front of the book - keep it up to date, WALTs can come off of these (possibly need to split them up).
RAS Alert
- Reticular Activating System
- flight or fight mechanism
- focus our attention
- context-based and filters out unnecessary stimuli to focus on the job at hand
Assignment for Thursday Trip
- 5 min presentation, 5 mins questions
- Explore the five best ideas and how they will work in the classroom.
- One idea each that will be tried in your own room and explored further.
TED Talk - Gever Tully (Tinkering School)
"The lack of unstructured play for youngsters is associated with less enthusiasm for learning, diminished creativity, and poorer social skills." Madelie Levine, Teacher Your Children Well
Children don't have spatial awareness because they are so safe today.
Get stuff out and let kids have a go. (Suggestion: overhead projector and screen).
Amiable School - everyone is happy, everyone is engaged
Teachers role is to explore, not to have the answer - get in beside them and be excited, ask the questions that extend their learning
Use blogs to document the journey, not the product. Show the process.
"Go Play" - powerful words - make play an important part of the day, not the reward.
(Suggestion: wood with screws, screwdrivers, etc).
It's not inquiry if: 1) Students know what result they're "supposed" to get. 2) The questions and steps are predetermined for them. 3) The teachers is working harder than the students.
Don't for forget the power of "yet.." E.g. "I'm not good at math.... yet"
Using HOM in the Classroom
Why use the HOMs in the class - Make language everyday and automatic, encourage children to think about why they are doing something, Allow children to practise using the language, children and you become familiar with HOM language, Annotated displays links learning with HOMs.
Can incorporate HOM into WALTS
e.g. WALT make it right be using sticks to show tens and ones in two-digits numbers
WALT work together to follow a recipe
WALT create and innovate an environment where a dinosaur could live
WALT make it right by editing our work for capital letters and full stops.
WALT use our past knowledge to solve subtraction problems with a number line.
WALT work with others to make a vehicle.
WALT to create and innovate to design a house.
WALT use our past knowledge to predict what will happen next.
Ideas to incorporate HOM areas in the classroom:
e.g. parking lot area with post-it notes for children to write questions on to revisit later.
- Past knowledge with object/picture with questions to help language and relationships (e.g. picture of the day/week).
- we assume they know how to listen, could actively teach chd how to listen (w/ empathy)
- C3B4 Me (poster)
Challenge: have a specific area of the room related to HOM (perhaps HOM of the week).
Maths @ Rowandale
Headwork: Video/song, counting by 2s
W/U: look at strategy that will benefit the whole class
I-Can sheets need to be in front of the books - updated when assessments are done
Environment: - interactive displays, activity boxes, child made charts/posters, numbers, symbols, words, number formation posters
Diagnostic Questions - see Google Drive for copious amounts of examples of these.
Treasure
What is treasure? (used activ expressions - answered questions on them - went to excel sheet)
Writing @ Rowandale
We changed writing 5 times last year - we don't stick with things that aren't working.
The way we do it is the best way Mark's seen taught.
I-Can sheet at the front of the book - keep it up to date, WALTs can come off of these (possibly need to split them up).
RAS Alert
- Reticular Activating System
- flight or fight mechanism
- focus our attention
- context-based and filters out unnecessary stimuli to focus on the job at hand
Assignment for Thursday Trip
- 5 min presentation, 5 mins questions
- Explore the five best ideas and how they will work in the classroom.
- One idea each that will be tried in your own room and explored further.
Teacher Only Week 2014 - Day 1
Branding etc Talk
First task to do this year is to name your class - WITH the children. They need to own it. Suggestion: Put children into groups to come up with ideas and then share as a class - so there aren't too many ideas on the board. Blind vote - :)
Make sure to have: Name (aspirational, age appropriate, positive, etc), secret handshake, motto,
Base the whole room on successful thinking, use the Think Aloud strategy copiously and make it visible.
Need to speak "Learnish" - instead of think, pair, share, -> analyze, pair, share OR Compare, pair, share.
Relationships - essential. Need to spend time building and maintaining these will all children. Good challenge with difficult children: say 3 positive things to the child by the end of the day.
Music is great way to get children to do things.
Ted Talk
Rita Peirson (sp?)
The value and importance of human connections - relationships
"You were chosen to be in my class, because you were the best students and I was the best teacher ..." we need to show the rest how to be the best.
Habits of Minds
Remember to give chd reason why they are doing something
16 Habits
"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn" - John Cotton Dana
Knowledge is not enough - it's about teaching children what to do when the answer is not apparent.
Classroom Talk
Bright, colourful, welcoming, things out on tables
- children's work/voice
- language(s)
- colour, bright
- nature
- clutter free
- designated areas
- interactive displays
- branding
- age appropriate
- up-to-date learning/relevant
Professional
Be a role model - your children will become you, so be mindful of how you act.
Doing all aspects of your job in a timely manner with a positive attitude and by asking for help if you require it. Showing initiative.
Behaviour System
4 Levels - Rainbow, Sun, Cloud, Storm Cloud
Procedures - Be very clear and practice (7x is what Ange does) e.g. Stand up, walk quietly to the mat, sit down where you're not touching anyone.
First task to do this year is to name your class - WITH the children. They need to own it. Suggestion: Put children into groups to come up with ideas and then share as a class - so there aren't too many ideas on the board. Blind vote - :)
Make sure to have: Name (aspirational, age appropriate, positive, etc), secret handshake, motto,
Base the whole room on successful thinking, use the Think Aloud strategy copiously and make it visible.
Need to speak "Learnish" - instead of think, pair, share, -> analyze, pair, share OR Compare, pair, share.
Relationships - essential. Need to spend time building and maintaining these will all children. Good challenge with difficult children: say 3 positive things to the child by the end of the day.
Music is great way to get children to do things.
Ted Talk
Rita Peirson (sp?)
The value and importance of human connections - relationships
"You were chosen to be in my class, because you were the best students and I was the best teacher ..." we need to show the rest how to be the best.
Habits of Minds
Remember to give chd reason why they are doing something
16 Habits
"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn" - John Cotton Dana
Knowledge is not enough - it's about teaching children what to do when the answer is not apparent.
Classroom Talk
Bright, colourful, welcoming, things out on tables
- children's work/voice
- language(s)
- colour, bright
- nature
- clutter free
- designated areas
- interactive displays
- branding
- age appropriate
- up-to-date learning/relevant
Professional
Be a role model - your children will become you, so be mindful of how you act.
Doing all aspects of your job in a timely manner with a positive attitude and by asking for help if you require it. Showing initiative.
Behaviour System
4 Levels - Rainbow, Sun, Cloud, Storm Cloud
Procedures - Be very clear and practice (7x is what Ange does) e.g. Stand up, walk quietly to the mat, sit down where you're not touching anyone.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Activboard Training
Recently we've had some activboard training.
The first was a brief seminar at a nearby school. We saw lots of things that can be quite useful, including websites and flipcharts available for free. One thing that I really liked about it was using an arrow in the way of a clock hand. It took me a while to figure it out, but it turned out to be quite easy.
The second day we had an in-house session on the activexpression devices. With those, the children can each have a device and add their input to the things on the screen. Had I still been with the older classes, I would have really enjoyed using these for basic facts practice. Perhaps as my students get a bit more confident with their adding I will be able to use those for that. I think I would like a time to use them so children can just start getting used to them - even if it means just writing their name.
The first was a brief seminar at a nearby school. We saw lots of things that can be quite useful, including websites and flipcharts available for free. One thing that I really liked about it was using an arrow in the way of a clock hand. It took me a while to figure it out, but it turned out to be quite easy.
The second day we had an in-house session on the activexpression devices. With those, the children can each have a device and add their input to the things on the screen. Had I still been with the older classes, I would have really enjoyed using these for basic facts practice. Perhaps as my students get a bit more confident with their adding I will be able to use those for that. I think I would like a time to use them so children can just start getting used to them - even if it means just writing their name.
Building Comprehension Strategies Chapter 4: Predicting
It seems as if I've missed a couple of chapters of this.
For our meeting this week, we've been asked to read chapter 4, all about predicting.
For the most part, this is all stuff that I've seen before, though, like much of this book, it talks about explicitly teaching predicting. Up until this point, I've discussed what a prediction is with my children, and to some extent, some of them have remembered what it means - though after having blitzed it for 3-4 weeks last term, I'm finding most have forgotten it now. The chapter talked about discussing why we predict, but also and more importantly, how to predict. It talked about discussing which clues lead children to believe what they think will happen. I.e. ask: "Why do you think that?" This may be a bit advanced for some of my students, but it can't hurt to plant the seeds in their heads.
One activity that I liked was giving the children 6 statements about what happens in the book. 3 each are true and false and the children have to discuss and decide which ones are true.
The book also discussed taking some time for children to reflect on how they are predicting, at the end. I've occasionally made some time to revisit predictions, but I think I need to make a bigger effort to do so.
For our meeting this week, we've been asked to read chapter 4, all about predicting.
For the most part, this is all stuff that I've seen before, though, like much of this book, it talks about explicitly teaching predicting. Up until this point, I've discussed what a prediction is with my children, and to some extent, some of them have remembered what it means - though after having blitzed it for 3-4 weeks last term, I'm finding most have forgotten it now. The chapter talked about discussing why we predict, but also and more importantly, how to predict. It talked about discussing which clues lead children to believe what they think will happen. I.e. ask: "Why do you think that?" This may be a bit advanced for some of my students, but it can't hurt to plant the seeds in their heads.
One activity that I liked was giving the children 6 statements about what happens in the book. 3 each are true and false and the children have to discuss and decide which ones are true.
The book also discussed taking some time for children to reflect on how they are predicting, at the end. I've occasionally made some time to revisit predictions, but I think I need to make a bigger effort to do so.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Building Comprehension Strategies Chapter 1
I just finished reading this chapter and here are some ideas I took from it.
1) Metacognition is important to reading. Children need to know what strategies they are learning. My students do use a range of strategies, but I rarely talk about them. I think this is something I need to develop. The book gave many examples of questioning I can do for this.
2) Further to the first point, children need to be more aware of what they are learning and why. I keep on thinking back to Tom's presentation last year about always discussing with his children: "What are we learning?" and "Why are we learning it?" Perhaps this is a good time to start doing the same thing. This also falls back to success criteria and making good judgements on things like thumb stickers. I've started focusing on judging against the actual WALT (handwriting has been helpful for this) lately and I have noticed some children are being honest about their learning, so this is a step in the right direction.
3) Children need to learn explicitly about text structure. I have focused a lot of time on actual decoding that perhaps this has fallen by the wayside. I need to start doing this with at least my top two groups as they are getting to levels where we frequently get a few different text structures.
Generally, I think the message is that we need to be talking more about how we read and what we're reading. Children need the skills to analyze their own work and know what they need to know next. These are all thinking skills and the more skills they have, the better learners they will be.
1) Metacognition is important to reading. Children need to know what strategies they are learning. My students do use a range of strategies, but I rarely talk about them. I think this is something I need to develop. The book gave many examples of questioning I can do for this.
2) Further to the first point, children need to be more aware of what they are learning and why. I keep on thinking back to Tom's presentation last year about always discussing with his children: "What are we learning?" and "Why are we learning it?" Perhaps this is a good time to start doing the same thing. This also falls back to success criteria and making good judgements on things like thumb stickers. I've started focusing on judging against the actual WALT (handwriting has been helpful for this) lately and I have noticed some children are being honest about their learning, so this is a step in the right direction.
3) Children need to learn explicitly about text structure. I have focused a lot of time on actual decoding that perhaps this has fallen by the wayside. I need to start doing this with at least my top two groups as they are getting to levels where we frequently get a few different text structures.
Generally, I think the message is that we need to be talking more about how we read and what we're reading. Children need the skills to analyze their own work and know what they need to know next. These are all thinking skills and the more skills they have, the better learners they will be.
Observation of Phonics
A while ago I did a short observation of phonics to see how stage 3 is taught - or how to robot words I guess. It was fairly straightforward.
Some things that came out of this observation (some of which I do already, but reinforcement is always good).
First off, there was lots of listening first and talking to begin. The lesson began with a review of the sounds (which will help the ones who are still not 100% confident with them) and then they went through the new words (all of which ended in 'at'). They spent some time robotting the words and then writing the words.
At the end, the teacher gave them a silly sentence to write.
Since I've watched this lesson, I've started giving silly sentences to write with the words. One other thing that I'm looking to do a bit more is to have the children read the sounds during phonics.
I've also noticed some of my students doing really well with robotting so I'm going to keep on moving them by starting stage 5 very soon. To reinforce the CVC words, I'm going to make (more) flipcharts to practice the skill.
Some things that came out of this observation (some of which I do already, but reinforcement is always good).
First off, there was lots of listening first and talking to begin. The lesson began with a review of the sounds (which will help the ones who are still not 100% confident with them) and then they went through the new words (all of which ended in 'at'). They spent some time robotting the words and then writing the words.
At the end, the teacher gave them a silly sentence to write.
Since I've watched this lesson, I've started giving silly sentences to write with the words. One other thing that I'm looking to do a bit more is to have the children read the sounds during phonics.
I've also noticed some of my students doing really well with robotting so I'm going to keep on moving them by starting stage 5 very soon. To reinforce the CVC words, I'm going to make (more) flipcharts to practice the skill.
Observation of Art
I recently did two observations of the same class for art, with two different teachers. Art has never been my strong suit (making it, I mean) and I wanted to get some ideas from some other teachers.
Both observations helped me in various ways, and not just with art ideas. The first started off with the children very interested. The teacher used a lot of expression in her voice and even though children were calling out (things that were relevant) she accepted their ideas. She had a nice balance between managing behaviour and managing interest.
The lesson was actually part two of an earlier lesson, so she had to review what the class had done earlier. She did a lot of leading questions, such as: "Mrs x said you had to....?" and they finished the sentence. After they had reviewed the techniques that they were to use, they looked at a few of the pieces and went through them, seeing if they had used the techniques. This was a really good strategy as it made the children a) evaluate the work in a meaningful way and b) ensure that the children actually know what they are meant to do. When children were working, she also continued to ask them if questions such as: "Are you drawing a beak on your bird? Are you colouring in the middle?" to focus their work. She didn't tell them what to do, she made them think about it. During work, she stopped the class to hold up an example of a child who was doing the right thing. She fully explained what the child was doing and how that fit her criteria.
Afterwards I spoke with the teacher about where she gets her ideas. She gave me a few suggestions (pinterest was a big one). She also talked about a project (or curriculum, I guess) that had to do with Picasso and teaching different techniques (as opposed to making something). I'm hoping to find activities in the future where I can focus on the process instead of the final product.
The second observation was similarly helpful. I saw several teaching techniques as well as things that helped with art. One thing I saw that I really liked was that the teacher talked through her teaching. She was having difficulty writing from one side of the board so she moved. But she explained it to her students. It was very quick but it was good modelling for how to solve problems.
She had a really good technique of getting children to do what she wanted without telling them. They were making rain scenes and she was asking children: "Could you use.... to make a puddle?" until she got the answers she wanted. But the children had ownership of it because they actually made the decision.
When children showed her their work, she asked a lot of questions, such as: "Does yours look amazing or could it look better?" and "What can you do to make it look better?" She was constantly moving around the classroom giving praise and listening to children. Often the children would come up with an idea and ask and she would say yes - and even suggest it to others. Children's voices were definitely being heard. Even when she wanted to say no, she'd phrase it in a positive way so that it didn't seem like she was saying no.
All in all, these two observations were rather helpful in making me feel confident with teaching art to my class. I look forward to using these techniques and ideas.
Both observations helped me in various ways, and not just with art ideas. The first started off with the children very interested. The teacher used a lot of expression in her voice and even though children were calling out (things that were relevant) she accepted their ideas. She had a nice balance between managing behaviour and managing interest.
The lesson was actually part two of an earlier lesson, so she had to review what the class had done earlier. She did a lot of leading questions, such as: "Mrs x said you had to....?" and they finished the sentence. After they had reviewed the techniques that they were to use, they looked at a few of the pieces and went through them, seeing if they had used the techniques. This was a really good strategy as it made the children a) evaluate the work in a meaningful way and b) ensure that the children actually know what they are meant to do. When children were working, she also continued to ask them if questions such as: "Are you drawing a beak on your bird? Are you colouring in the middle?" to focus their work. She didn't tell them what to do, she made them think about it. During work, she stopped the class to hold up an example of a child who was doing the right thing. She fully explained what the child was doing and how that fit her criteria.
Afterwards I spoke with the teacher about where she gets her ideas. She gave me a few suggestions (pinterest was a big one). She also talked about a project (or curriculum, I guess) that had to do with Picasso and teaching different techniques (as opposed to making something). I'm hoping to find activities in the future where I can focus on the process instead of the final product.
The second observation was similarly helpful. I saw several teaching techniques as well as things that helped with art. One thing I saw that I really liked was that the teacher talked through her teaching. She was having difficulty writing from one side of the board so she moved. But she explained it to her students. It was very quick but it was good modelling for how to solve problems.
She had a really good technique of getting children to do what she wanted without telling them. They were making rain scenes and she was asking children: "Could you use.... to make a puddle?" until she got the answers she wanted. But the children had ownership of it because they actually made the decision.
When children showed her their work, she asked a lot of questions, such as: "Does yours look amazing or could it look better?" and "What can you do to make it look better?" She was constantly moving around the classroom giving praise and listening to children. Often the children would come up with an idea and ask and she would say yes - and even suggest it to others. Children's voices were definitely being heard. Even when she wanted to say no, she'd phrase it in a positive way so that it didn't seem like she was saying no.
All in all, these two observations were rather helpful in making me feel confident with teaching art to my class. I look forward to using these techniques and ideas.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Nicky Knight PD
Examples of Warmup Activity
- Number boxes - give a number have children do a variety of operations on it (could be laminated papers that are used over and the number changed)
- Number pyramids - each number is the sum of the two numbers below it. Can you make a pyramid that has 100 at the top?
- Matchstick problems - how can you remove four sticks to give exactly 4 equilateral triangles?
- Gameshow question (Monty Hall)
We talked extensively about responses to problems. We discussed which stage each answer suggested. Most of the answers were easy to interpret. Some trouble arose (for me at least) in distinguishing the higher stages. The lower stages were easy, except for the ones where I didn't notice a "6" was missing.
Then we talked (in groups) about the ALIM resources we were given a few months ago. It was an interesting discussion and I got some good ideas of things that worked from other teachers. One example was making number bonds using the double sided counters and a bag/container. Shaking them up and then seeing how many of each.
The last thing we did was to discuss different ways to get children to use imaging on stage three. Some of the ideas we came up with were: using the abacus to count by twos (don't let the kids see, they need to count in their heads based on the sound). You could also roll a dice and say: I have 5. How many more dots do I need to make 10?
As usual, this was a pretty helpful session and hopefully in the future I'll be able to write about the things I've tried in the classroom.
- Number boxes - give a number have children do a variety of operations on it (could be laminated papers that are used over and the number changed)
- Number pyramids - each number is the sum of the two numbers below it. Can you make a pyramid that has 100 at the top?
- Matchstick problems - how can you remove four sticks to give exactly 4 equilateral triangles?
- Gameshow question (Monty Hall)
We talked extensively about responses to problems. We discussed which stage each answer suggested. Most of the answers were easy to interpret. Some trouble arose (for me at least) in distinguishing the higher stages. The lower stages were easy, except for the ones where I didn't notice a "6" was missing.
Then we talked (in groups) about the ALIM resources we were given a few months ago. It was an interesting discussion and I got some good ideas of things that worked from other teachers. One example was making number bonds using the double sided counters and a bag/container. Shaking them up and then seeing how many of each.
The last thing we did was to discuss different ways to get children to use imaging on stage three. Some of the ideas we came up with were: using the abacus to count by twos (don't let the kids see, they need to count in their heads based on the sound). You could also roll a dice and say: I have 5. How many more dots do I need to make 10?
As usual, this was a pretty helpful session and hopefully in the future I'll be able to write about the things I've tried in the classroom.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Term 1 Reflection
Term 1 This year has seemed to go by in a flash. We did so much in a short amount of time. It was however, full of a lot of change (or changing back, perhaps) and I feel like I both accomplished and learned a lot. Some thoughts are below, sorted into a few categories to help make my rambling easier to read.
Moving to Year 1
Compared to last year (previously I had worked with this age level, so it wasn't a completely new thing for me) this was perhaps the biggest change. Which is to say that it changed everything about how I work. Sure, some of the things were similar, but all aspects of my job were just different enough for none of it to be the same. Initially when told I would be with a younger class, I was a bit worried about having to learn how things work here at a different year level. But as I thought about it more, I realized that the work required to sort it out was worth it because I do enjoy teaching the younger children more. Or maybe it's not that I enjoy them more, and that I feel more at ease with them. Experiences in my past have not been positive with some of the older children (not so much as a teacher, but as a student) and I think I was unable to get rid of some of that baggage last year. This year did not include any of that and it helped me be more successful. I also sometimes feel like I act a bit childish at times and that plays really well with the younger students, whereas the older students don't like it so much. I feel like I can be myself more with the younger children.
Planning
As a whole, I've got the planning routine down quite well. I hate to say it, but having to hand my planning in has helped free up a lot of my time on weekends. Last year I had felt that I was constantly catching up to things I needed to do. This year, at least I have my planning sorted by the weekend. It was a horrible feeling to have to sit down on Sunday (after spending most of Saturday marking) and sort out my planning, then do flip charts. I'm slowly getting into a really good weekly routine with getting things done during the week (sorting out reading books, making activities) so it's not such a rush near the end. There are still some ways forward (tightening up the routine so that it's not the mad-rush on Thursday afternoons, finding more sources for ideas) but I feel like planning is a lot easier to do and the results are a lot better now than they were before the school year started.
Reading
I don't know if it's more helpful or less helpful that I'm doing this reflection a few weeks into term 2. Reading was something I found, at times, to be very frustrating in term 1. The children didn't seem to be making much progress at all and it just seemed like a hamster running on a wheel. I did keep at it though and kept on trying to find ways to help the children move along. Having done this a few weeks late, several of my students have made some massive gains lately, and it does put a much more positive spin on the whole thing - and adds credence to the idea of "everything clicking" one day. It certainly seems like some of my students have turned a corner. My biggest focus (or at least what I wanted to focus on) was making sure that the activities the children did when they weren't with me were helping their progress - even if it was slow. I put a lot of effort (and am looking to put some more effort) into making useful activboard resources that can be used year after year after year. I go by the acronym KISS (Keep it simple, stupid) that a high school math teacher once told me. I don't need things to be fancy. They just need to be effective. I feel like the other activities we've done have been helpful and when I have time, I'm looking to improve my arsenal of ways to boost the children's achievement (whether it be with phonics sounds, HFW, or even comprehension).
Ways forward include looking at further activities for tumbles (I want to keep them constantly changing), improving activboard resources and finding ways to make the guided groups run more smoothly. The main idea is efficiency. The students should always be busy doing something that is beneficial. I need to find some (more) ways to fill in the dead times and to make them spend less time doing meaningless tasks (or cleaning up the classroom to avoid work).
Writing
Again, writing is an area that I would have been very frustrated with had it been a few weeks earlier. Now, however, I've had one student make the jump to 1P and a few others that look like they are getting closer to doing so. As the term went on, I definitely got into a better groove with how to run the sessions and the groups. I've definitely started to realize that a lot of the problems my students are having are not really to do with the mechanics (when given help, most of them can sound out words and write sentences) but it's more to do with a) ideas and b) confidence. Neither are things that will come quickly, but I have definitely noticed massive progress in the latter with some children and that has led to some progress on the former. I'm looking to spend more time making children accountable as well. Often, children would show me their work and when I asked them what they wrote, they would just shrug their shoulders. Until recently, I wasn't quite sure what to do, but I have decided (with some guidance, though one of these things I came up with it on my own as well) to use a several pronged approach: 1) Tell children they need to figure out what it says and then come back to me, 2) Pick random children (using my popsicle sticks) to read their work (this also helps with a few other things) after writing each day, 3) using highlighters to help children write their own ideas, 4) stress to children that they have to be able to read their work, even if I can't. I'm also open and willing to try other ideas to push the children towards confidence and ideas. This is going to be my focus for term 2, so hopefully I'll get the chance to write a few more entries about how this is going.
Math
In the past, math has been my strongest subject. I actually feel, though, that it's my weakest (of the three core subjects) at the moment. I think this is mostly because of the scope of what I'm having to teach at the moment and how it is very basic and there is not much variation. One thing that I started going back to this term (that I did years ago with younger children) is to using music (not my voice - we wouldn't want to create a class of tone-deaf students) to help children remember. So far, using songs such as "I can count to 100" and "Counting down from 20" have proved helpful to some children. This is obvious, but when you work with older children, it is easily forgotten. One of the biggest challenges in term 1 was to find several ways to teach the same concept (before numbers, for example). Though I guess you can't say I was teaching them several ways, as if I had, I wouldn't need to do it again ;) My initial experiences with Numicon have been positive and I'm hoping to get a lot more comfortable with it as I feel there is a lot of potential there. This week I'm trying out two lessons from it with each group and seeing what happens. There is a wealth of activities there, and though I don't want to rely on them solely, they make sense and teach children in a standard way, using a variety of manipulatives. Being a mathematical thinker (or logical thinker, or whatever you want to call it) I really feel bad about how my maths is going (which isn't so bad, I've moved two, almost three, students to stage three and only have a handful left on stage one) and want to turn that around as well. I'm going to give Numicon a go and see where that takes me.
Topic and all the Afternoon Stuff
Anyone who talks to me at all about my teaching will probably quickly figure out that I'm not as confident doing some of these things, especially since we're covering a topic that I learned absolutely nothing about prior to living in New Zealand. There has been, however, many learning opportunities and I feel that I have both improved in this area and am continuing to do so. Some of the subjects are actually quite a strong point for me. PE is something that I "get" as I spent a year coaching myself at hurdles (which were three feet tall and went up to my belly button). Being able to break down a skill such as that for myself (as well as a few other, non-track related skills) has been valuable in helping me teach children natural progressions for things (such as throwing/catching). The resource we have (FMS) has proven valuable in that it provides lots of activities that are simple, useful and fun for the students.
Drama is something that I have enjoyed and tried to do a bit of last year. Slowly, I'm trying to make sure there is some sort of drama component in class every week. This probably hasn't been happening, and I want to work towards finding ideas for this.
Art has been difficult. I think my biggest hang-up is getting materials ready and learning techniques. My team has been great though, and they've both given me lots of ideas AND they've shown me techniques. I definitely couldn't survive without them in that regard. The upside to that is that I'm becoming more confident and have been trying a few things on my own without having to go ask for ideas. Pinterest and an observation of Laura have been helpful. I have also been reminded of my university course on art. Before that course I had 0 confidence, but the teacher was super helpful (more helpful than any of my art teachers) and broke things down, step by step so that I could be successful. I'm hoping to do the same for the children.
I've also gotten better when it comes to the actual topic things. I'm trying a lot less to get students to listen to lots of ideas and more trying to give them little bits of information and then have them go off and do some sort of activity. It has paid off, though, like today's attempt at making 3D outrigger canoes, I have had some failures (one or two of them look alright, I guess). Still, the fact that I tried that today, is a positive, and I'm hoping to continue that trend this week and beyond.
Behaviour/Relationships
When everything was going south last year I got an email from an old boss. She had filled out a reference form for Oasis for me and had emailed it to me. One of the things she had mentioned as a positive for me was my relationships with children. So clearly, whatever happened last year was the exception and not the rule, as this year I feel like I have great relationships with my students - even moreso now than before the school holidays. Honestly, getting along with younger children comes really easy to me. I can't nail down one thing in what I've done with the children that has been different (though trying to sort all that out would be difficult as there are so many things that make a relationship). I think the problem was not so much that I couldn't handle the kids, but that other things were getting to me and then I didn't have the energy to do what I needed to do. It all became a big chore at one point. That hasn't been the case this year and I've been able to manage things a bit better, which has been magnified in the results. The kids like being here and like me and I like being with them (most of the time ;) ). There is room to improve those things a bit. I want to get to the point where none of them would even think of not listening, and I know I'm not there yet. I think I just have to go with what someone told me once: take care of yourself and then the teaching will come.
Behaviour in the classroom has been very good this year. Other than 1 student there have been no major incidents and the children are responding well to the behaviour program. They all know exactly what to do and we have meaningful conversations when I need to talk to them. The one student, however, has caused some trouble in that he's been stealing food and a few other things. It seems to come and go in waves. I've been working on a few ways to counteract this and usually they work for a while. Then when I've thought it was done, he tries it again. I think the lesson here is to be ever vigilant and (at least for the rest of the year) try my best to keep him out of situations where it is possible to steal food. That's not easy, but if he doesn't have the means to do it, he won't and then hopefully he will grow out of the phase. That being said, because the boy and I get along well, we're able to deal with this without it being personal (he doesn't hate me for being upset about it). The key is to continue this bond so that if further incidents creep up, it can be dealt with without more fuss than necessary.
Moving Forward
I feel like most days I do a pretty good job. I feel that my students are learning which, at the end of the day, is all that really matters. There will always be ways to improve and I think I'm pretty good at knowing if something is working or not and I've got a decent sense of possible ways forward to improve learning. I'm also getting better at getting ideas from others and implementing those in my classroom.
One of the biggest things I need to concern myself with, is making sure I have time to myself. That could mean working later some days so I don't have to work others. That could mean making sure I have time to run (or do other activity). That could mean eating right and spending time with the people close to me. It doesn't matter what form that takes, but I need that time to me. Even if it means I'm not 100% ready, I'll be more effective if I feel good and am only 75% ready than if I'm 100% ready and don't feel very good at all. That's not to say I won't plan or do the other things, but I'm not going to stress too much about it. I will look for ways to work more efficiently and make sure I have time for me.
Overall I'm happy with how things are going, even if not every day is good (exhibit A: today). I know that I can bounce back from most things if given the time and the people around me who understand. I look forward to working with my students and continuing to make them super brainy!
Moving to Year 1
Compared to last year (previously I had worked with this age level, so it wasn't a completely new thing for me) this was perhaps the biggest change. Which is to say that it changed everything about how I work. Sure, some of the things were similar, but all aspects of my job were just different enough for none of it to be the same. Initially when told I would be with a younger class, I was a bit worried about having to learn how things work here at a different year level. But as I thought about it more, I realized that the work required to sort it out was worth it because I do enjoy teaching the younger children more. Or maybe it's not that I enjoy them more, and that I feel more at ease with them. Experiences in my past have not been positive with some of the older children (not so much as a teacher, but as a student) and I think I was unable to get rid of some of that baggage last year. This year did not include any of that and it helped me be more successful. I also sometimes feel like I act a bit childish at times and that plays really well with the younger students, whereas the older students don't like it so much. I feel like I can be myself more with the younger children.
Planning
As a whole, I've got the planning routine down quite well. I hate to say it, but having to hand my planning in has helped free up a lot of my time on weekends. Last year I had felt that I was constantly catching up to things I needed to do. This year, at least I have my planning sorted by the weekend. It was a horrible feeling to have to sit down on Sunday (after spending most of Saturday marking) and sort out my planning, then do flip charts. I'm slowly getting into a really good weekly routine with getting things done during the week (sorting out reading books, making activities) so it's not such a rush near the end. There are still some ways forward (tightening up the routine so that it's not the mad-rush on Thursday afternoons, finding more sources for ideas) but I feel like planning is a lot easier to do and the results are a lot better now than they were before the school year started.
Reading
I don't know if it's more helpful or less helpful that I'm doing this reflection a few weeks into term 2. Reading was something I found, at times, to be very frustrating in term 1. The children didn't seem to be making much progress at all and it just seemed like a hamster running on a wheel. I did keep at it though and kept on trying to find ways to help the children move along. Having done this a few weeks late, several of my students have made some massive gains lately, and it does put a much more positive spin on the whole thing - and adds credence to the idea of "everything clicking" one day. It certainly seems like some of my students have turned a corner. My biggest focus (or at least what I wanted to focus on) was making sure that the activities the children did when they weren't with me were helping their progress - even if it was slow. I put a lot of effort (and am looking to put some more effort) into making useful activboard resources that can be used year after year after year. I go by the acronym KISS (Keep it simple, stupid) that a high school math teacher once told me. I don't need things to be fancy. They just need to be effective. I feel like the other activities we've done have been helpful and when I have time, I'm looking to improve my arsenal of ways to boost the children's achievement (whether it be with phonics sounds, HFW, or even comprehension).
Ways forward include looking at further activities for tumbles (I want to keep them constantly changing), improving activboard resources and finding ways to make the guided groups run more smoothly. The main idea is efficiency. The students should always be busy doing something that is beneficial. I need to find some (more) ways to fill in the dead times and to make them spend less time doing meaningless tasks (or cleaning up the classroom to avoid work).
Writing
Again, writing is an area that I would have been very frustrated with had it been a few weeks earlier. Now, however, I've had one student make the jump to 1P and a few others that look like they are getting closer to doing so. As the term went on, I definitely got into a better groove with how to run the sessions and the groups. I've definitely started to realize that a lot of the problems my students are having are not really to do with the mechanics (when given help, most of them can sound out words and write sentences) but it's more to do with a) ideas and b) confidence. Neither are things that will come quickly, but I have definitely noticed massive progress in the latter with some children and that has led to some progress on the former. I'm looking to spend more time making children accountable as well. Often, children would show me their work and when I asked them what they wrote, they would just shrug their shoulders. Until recently, I wasn't quite sure what to do, but I have decided (with some guidance, though one of these things I came up with it on my own as well) to use a several pronged approach: 1) Tell children they need to figure out what it says and then come back to me, 2) Pick random children (using my popsicle sticks) to read their work (this also helps with a few other things) after writing each day, 3) using highlighters to help children write their own ideas, 4) stress to children that they have to be able to read their work, even if I can't. I'm also open and willing to try other ideas to push the children towards confidence and ideas. This is going to be my focus for term 2, so hopefully I'll get the chance to write a few more entries about how this is going.
Math
In the past, math has been my strongest subject. I actually feel, though, that it's my weakest (of the three core subjects) at the moment. I think this is mostly because of the scope of what I'm having to teach at the moment and how it is very basic and there is not much variation. One thing that I started going back to this term (that I did years ago with younger children) is to using music (not my voice - we wouldn't want to create a class of tone-deaf students) to help children remember. So far, using songs such as "I can count to 100" and "Counting down from 20" have proved helpful to some children. This is obvious, but when you work with older children, it is easily forgotten. One of the biggest challenges in term 1 was to find several ways to teach the same concept (before numbers, for example). Though I guess you can't say I was teaching them several ways, as if I had, I wouldn't need to do it again ;) My initial experiences with Numicon have been positive and I'm hoping to get a lot more comfortable with it as I feel there is a lot of potential there. This week I'm trying out two lessons from it with each group and seeing what happens. There is a wealth of activities there, and though I don't want to rely on them solely, they make sense and teach children in a standard way, using a variety of manipulatives. Being a mathematical thinker (or logical thinker, or whatever you want to call it) I really feel bad about how my maths is going (which isn't so bad, I've moved two, almost three, students to stage three and only have a handful left on stage one) and want to turn that around as well. I'm going to give Numicon a go and see where that takes me.
Topic and all the Afternoon Stuff
Anyone who talks to me at all about my teaching will probably quickly figure out that I'm not as confident doing some of these things, especially since we're covering a topic that I learned absolutely nothing about prior to living in New Zealand. There has been, however, many learning opportunities and I feel that I have both improved in this area and am continuing to do so. Some of the subjects are actually quite a strong point for me. PE is something that I "get" as I spent a year coaching myself at hurdles (which were three feet tall and went up to my belly button). Being able to break down a skill such as that for myself (as well as a few other, non-track related skills) has been valuable in helping me teach children natural progressions for things (such as throwing/catching). The resource we have (FMS) has proven valuable in that it provides lots of activities that are simple, useful and fun for the students.
Drama is something that I have enjoyed and tried to do a bit of last year. Slowly, I'm trying to make sure there is some sort of drama component in class every week. This probably hasn't been happening, and I want to work towards finding ideas for this.
Art has been difficult. I think my biggest hang-up is getting materials ready and learning techniques. My team has been great though, and they've both given me lots of ideas AND they've shown me techniques. I definitely couldn't survive without them in that regard. The upside to that is that I'm becoming more confident and have been trying a few things on my own without having to go ask for ideas. Pinterest and an observation of Laura have been helpful. I have also been reminded of my university course on art. Before that course I had 0 confidence, but the teacher was super helpful (more helpful than any of my art teachers) and broke things down, step by step so that I could be successful. I'm hoping to do the same for the children.
I've also gotten better when it comes to the actual topic things. I'm trying a lot less to get students to listen to lots of ideas and more trying to give them little bits of information and then have them go off and do some sort of activity. It has paid off, though, like today's attempt at making 3D outrigger canoes, I have had some failures (one or two of them look alright, I guess). Still, the fact that I tried that today, is a positive, and I'm hoping to continue that trend this week and beyond.
Behaviour/Relationships
When everything was going south last year I got an email from an old boss. She had filled out a reference form for Oasis for me and had emailed it to me. One of the things she had mentioned as a positive for me was my relationships with children. So clearly, whatever happened last year was the exception and not the rule, as this year I feel like I have great relationships with my students - even moreso now than before the school holidays. Honestly, getting along with younger children comes really easy to me. I can't nail down one thing in what I've done with the children that has been different (though trying to sort all that out would be difficult as there are so many things that make a relationship). I think the problem was not so much that I couldn't handle the kids, but that other things were getting to me and then I didn't have the energy to do what I needed to do. It all became a big chore at one point. That hasn't been the case this year and I've been able to manage things a bit better, which has been magnified in the results. The kids like being here and like me and I like being with them (most of the time ;) ). There is room to improve those things a bit. I want to get to the point where none of them would even think of not listening, and I know I'm not there yet. I think I just have to go with what someone told me once: take care of yourself and then the teaching will come.
Behaviour in the classroom has been very good this year. Other than 1 student there have been no major incidents and the children are responding well to the behaviour program. They all know exactly what to do and we have meaningful conversations when I need to talk to them. The one student, however, has caused some trouble in that he's been stealing food and a few other things. It seems to come and go in waves. I've been working on a few ways to counteract this and usually they work for a while. Then when I've thought it was done, he tries it again. I think the lesson here is to be ever vigilant and (at least for the rest of the year) try my best to keep him out of situations where it is possible to steal food. That's not easy, but if he doesn't have the means to do it, he won't and then hopefully he will grow out of the phase. That being said, because the boy and I get along well, we're able to deal with this without it being personal (he doesn't hate me for being upset about it). The key is to continue this bond so that if further incidents creep up, it can be dealt with without more fuss than necessary.
Moving Forward
I feel like most days I do a pretty good job. I feel that my students are learning which, at the end of the day, is all that really matters. There will always be ways to improve and I think I'm pretty good at knowing if something is working or not and I've got a decent sense of possible ways forward to improve learning. I'm also getting better at getting ideas from others and implementing those in my classroom.
One of the biggest things I need to concern myself with, is making sure I have time to myself. That could mean working later some days so I don't have to work others. That could mean making sure I have time to run (or do other activity). That could mean eating right and spending time with the people close to me. It doesn't matter what form that takes, but I need that time to me. Even if it means I'm not 100% ready, I'll be more effective if I feel good and am only 75% ready than if I'm 100% ready and don't feel very good at all. That's not to say I won't plan or do the other things, but I'm not going to stress too much about it. I will look for ways to work more efficiently and make sure I have time for me.
Overall I'm happy with how things are going, even if not every day is good (exhibit A: today). I know that I can bounce back from most things if given the time and the people around me who understand. I look forward to working with my students and continuing to make them super brainy!
Monday, May 20, 2013
RTLB Roadshow
Reasource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour
Main job: to support teachers to raise student achievement. Look to change the students' environments to remove barriers to learning. Work with students, teachers and other school personel, whanua.
Work in collaboration with other partners - based on mutual respect, Partnership, Protection and Participation. Responsibility is shared between all parties. There's a mutual agreement of goals and problem solving and decision making are shared. To do this, clear and frequent communication is essential.
Types of Referrals:
Individual
Groups
Department/Syndicate
Whole School
Teachers
Class
Emma is our SENCO so everything needs to go through her.
10 Step Process
1. Referral (to Emma)
2. Initial Meeting (RTLB makes contact with me)
3. Data Gathering (looking at the whole child, what's happening inside the class, family, medical, etc. Could take up to three weeks)
4. Analysis
5. Goal Setting
6. Planning
7. Intervention/Implementation
8. Post data gathering
9. Follow Up
10. Reflection, review and closure
When to refer:
- when students have not responded to effective classroom teaching strategies
- when senior staff have been involved in problem solving.
Ecological Approach
7 Principles guiding RTLB practice
- inclusive teaching
- culturally responsive
- ecological approach
- collaborative and seamless model of service
- strengths based
- reflective
- evidence based
HLN students (High Learning Needs)
-has been restructured to be part of the RTLB services.
"If they don't learn the way you teach, teach the way they learn."
Main job: to support teachers to raise student achievement. Look to change the students' environments to remove barriers to learning. Work with students, teachers and other school personel, whanua.
Work in collaboration with other partners - based on mutual respect, Partnership, Protection and Participation. Responsibility is shared between all parties. There's a mutual agreement of goals and problem solving and decision making are shared. To do this, clear and frequent communication is essential.
Types of Referrals:
Individual
Groups
Department/Syndicate
Whole School
Teachers
Class
Emma is our SENCO so everything needs to go through her.
10 Step Process
1. Referral (to Emma)
2. Initial Meeting (RTLB makes contact with me)
3. Data Gathering (looking at the whole child, what's happening inside the class, family, medical, etc. Could take up to three weeks)
4. Analysis
5. Goal Setting
6. Planning
7. Intervention/Implementation
8. Post data gathering
9. Follow Up
10. Reflection, review and closure
When to refer:
- when students have not responded to effective classroom teaching strategies
- when senior staff have been involved in problem solving.
Ecological Approach
7 Principles guiding RTLB practice
- inclusive teaching
- culturally responsive
- ecological approach
- collaborative and seamless model of service
- strengths based
- reflective
- evidence based
HLN students (High Learning Needs)
-has been restructured to be part of the RTLB services.
"If they don't learn the way you teach, teach the way they learn."
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Activboard Training
Today we had a third activboard training session. This was much more advanced than the previous ones.
Some things I learned that I thought looked pretty neat.
- Transparency. She showed us a lot of things to do with transparency. One was putting several transparent pictures on top of another. E.g. clouds on top of mountains. You take the transparent pictures off one at a time to slowly reveal the bottom picture. She also showed us how to make nice backgrounds useful by putting a transparent white rectangle on top.
- having kids record their ideas on the activboard.
- put several objects in a box for kids to drag out and sort (fly/can't fly). The boxes were neat to make and I can't really go into it here (well, I don't want to, it's a lot of little steps) but I now have made a box to drag things out of.
- colour reveal. We've seen this before, but she gave me a good idea about using a "Magic Number Wall" for teaching before and after numbers.
- Sentence scramble. Again, this is nothing new, but she had words you could unscramble and then a sound recording to let the children hear. They can reveal the answer by magic ink (or more easily by just moving a square/rectangle from it).
- Pull on tabs (making tabs for activities for different groups). The children can pull things onto the page so differen groups can do different activities with the same page.
- Extracting text (use the action browser). Could have some text and then have chd pull out the word "the" etc.
- Labels (if you give an object a label and set it to tool tip, the label only shows when you hover over the object). This could be used for a variety of things, (picture of cheese and hover over it to show "ch", picture of animal then the maori word for that animal appears, etc.). Could also be used to label a diagram. Each part has it's own picture on a bigger picture (she used the example of a volcano with smaller pictures (same as the big pictures, but on top).
- Screen recorder - for children to make a movie. Used a page set up with little red riding hood things (from the resource library). Set up an area in the middle of the screen and move the objects to tell the story. Could also be used to demonstrate a method in maths.
-Videos. While watching videos you can take snapshots WHILE the video is playing. This can be used to sequence the story or talk about vocabulary, etc. Example used was of circuit diagram. Took picture from video. Annotated on top of the picture, moved the picture to show a diagram.
- Containers. If you "contain anything" annotations written on pictures/objects stay where they are as you move. Good for putting notes on a post it note to move around. Could make a post it note template and set it to drag a copy so you can use it a lot.
- Containers (part 2): Containing a specific object. I do this a lot. Good stuff. I did learn (well re-learn, Kedra showed me briefly earlier this week) how to bounce back. You have to put the bounce back "true" on the objects being moved NOT the container. Also, you can select ALL of the objects being moved and select move if not contained altogether.
- Containers (part 3): Keywords. Make the containers first, set it to keyword, set a word (best to do a single letter/number). Each object then needs the same keyword to match the container. Can select all together, don't need to do one at a time.
- Scroll Bars. Kedra showed me this a few days ago, but you can make a bar that goes only up or down to be behind a picture. It allows you to make words. Eg. a bar with s, m, h, r, b and the letters at beside it to make sat, mat, etc.
- Subjects folder->Mathematics->Counting: lots of grouped objects for up to 20 or so. I should use this for a flipchart for maths and my lower groups to help them learn numbers.
- Some random maths ideas: have tabs with each object but off to the side (eg 1 rabbit, 2 penguins), use them to make some easy multiplication problems, eg. 3 groups of 2 (so pull out two strips of rabbits).
- Profiles. You can set the toolbar for different preferences and move between profiles. Eg. for maths, literacy, etc.
- Grids. You can set a grid using the edit menu or the resource browser. Can be use to align objects. Can change the size of the grid by going to edit->grids. Can also be used to make pictograms. Could be used for a morning activity with the children.
This course was really fast and though there were lots and lots of good ideas, it was really hard to get my head around all of them (or even pay attention to them). I just wanted to play around with the things she was teaching us. Hopefully I will remember things and if not hopefully this will remind me. That's all for now folks.
Some things I learned that I thought looked pretty neat.
- Transparency. She showed us a lot of things to do with transparency. One was putting several transparent pictures on top of another. E.g. clouds on top of mountains. You take the transparent pictures off one at a time to slowly reveal the bottom picture. She also showed us how to make nice backgrounds useful by putting a transparent white rectangle on top.
- having kids record their ideas on the activboard.
- put several objects in a box for kids to drag out and sort (fly/can't fly). The boxes were neat to make and I can't really go into it here (well, I don't want to, it's a lot of little steps) but I now have made a box to drag things out of.
- colour reveal. We've seen this before, but she gave me a good idea about using a "Magic Number Wall" for teaching before and after numbers.
- Sentence scramble. Again, this is nothing new, but she had words you could unscramble and then a sound recording to let the children hear. They can reveal the answer by magic ink (or more easily by just moving a square/rectangle from it).
- Pull on tabs (making tabs for activities for different groups). The children can pull things onto the page so differen groups can do different activities with the same page.
- Extracting text (use the action browser). Could have some text and then have chd pull out the word "the" etc.
- Labels (if you give an object a label and set it to tool tip, the label only shows when you hover over the object). This could be used for a variety of things, (picture of cheese and hover over it to show "ch", picture of animal then the maori word for that animal appears, etc.). Could also be used to label a diagram. Each part has it's own picture on a bigger picture (she used the example of a volcano with smaller pictures (same as the big pictures, but on top).
- Screen recorder - for children to make a movie. Used a page set up with little red riding hood things (from the resource library). Set up an area in the middle of the screen and move the objects to tell the story. Could also be used to demonstrate a method in maths.
-Videos. While watching videos you can take snapshots WHILE the video is playing. This can be used to sequence the story or talk about vocabulary, etc. Example used was of circuit diagram. Took picture from video. Annotated on top of the picture, moved the picture to show a diagram.
- Containers. If you "contain anything" annotations written on pictures/objects stay where they are as you move. Good for putting notes on a post it note to move around. Could make a post it note template and set it to drag a copy so you can use it a lot.
- Containers (part 2): Containing a specific object. I do this a lot. Good stuff. I did learn (well re-learn, Kedra showed me briefly earlier this week) how to bounce back. You have to put the bounce back "true" on the objects being moved NOT the container. Also, you can select ALL of the objects being moved and select move if not contained altogether.
- Containers (part 3): Keywords. Make the containers first, set it to keyword, set a word (best to do a single letter/number). Each object then needs the same keyword to match the container. Can select all together, don't need to do one at a time.
- Scroll Bars. Kedra showed me this a few days ago, but you can make a bar that goes only up or down to be behind a picture. It allows you to make words. Eg. a bar with s, m, h, r, b and the letters at beside it to make sat, mat, etc.
- Subjects folder->Mathematics->Counting: lots of grouped objects for up to 20 or so. I should use this for a flipchart for maths and my lower groups to help them learn numbers.
- Some random maths ideas: have tabs with each object but off to the side (eg 1 rabbit, 2 penguins), use them to make some easy multiplication problems, eg. 3 groups of 2 (so pull out two strips of rabbits).
- Profiles. You can set the toolbar for different preferences and move between profiles. Eg. for maths, literacy, etc.
- Grids. You can set a grid using the edit menu or the resource browser. Can be use to align objects. Can change the size of the grid by going to edit->grids. Can also be used to make pictograms. Could be used for a morning activity with the children.
This course was really fast and though there were lots and lots of good ideas, it was really hard to get my head around all of them (or even pay attention to them). I just wanted to play around with the things she was teaching us. Hopefully I will remember things and if not hopefully this will remind me. That's all for now folks.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Nicky Knight and Activboard Training Part 2
Nicky Knight came in for a second session and talked about several things. One of her focuses was on using equipment. We discussed the Slavonic Abacus and how we can use it in a variety of contexts. Originally last year, I had been using the abacus for the older children but it was good to see some ways that we could use it for the younger children. Many of my students are only just learning how to count and the day after the session I already was able to use it to count with the children. I do need to find a way to cover up the beads on one side though and will look to find that.
We also looked at the fly flips. Last year with my year 4s I had them practicing the fly flips as part of their flash card activity for math. With the younger children I will work at using these with the children. I want them to become familiar with the patterns which come up already in stages 1 and 2. I will start using them as a warmup occasionally before lessons.
We were also given a load of resources. For the next meeting we will look at two strategies in the ALIM booklets we received and be ready to talk with them. Hopefully over the long weekend I will have some time to look through those booklets and get things ready for the meeting (which is May 28th).
Today we also had the second part of the activboard training we had two weeks ago. I have already done this but attended so that I could get a bit of a refresher. Most of the stuff that was talked about were things that I regularly do in my flipcharts, though I did come across a few things that I didn't know (or that I just hadn't been using).
- Math and other activities under resources; there are several things (such as 100s charts) made up as pre-set activities for all subjects. Using these (or just being aware of them when I'm making flipchart) could potentially save me a lot of time.
- taking snapshots of children's faces to use in flipcharts. We were shown a quick and easy way to cut out children's faces from pictures to use on flipcharts. This could in personalizing flipcharts for children.
- Video - changing the videos to not autoplay (this will save a lot of headaches when activinspire crashes and I have to reopen flipcharts - I won't have to turn the videos off); taking snapshots during video playback easily (this allows us to create snapshots to sequence stories easily as well as doing it with the class and not having to do it beforehand - which gives the children more ownership of their learning).
We also looked at the fly flips. Last year with my year 4s I had them practicing the fly flips as part of their flash card activity for math. With the younger children I will work at using these with the children. I want them to become familiar with the patterns which come up already in stages 1 and 2. I will start using them as a warmup occasionally before lessons.
We were also given a load of resources. For the next meeting we will look at two strategies in the ALIM booklets we received and be ready to talk with them. Hopefully over the long weekend I will have some time to look through those booklets and get things ready for the meeting (which is May 28th).
Today we also had the second part of the activboard training we had two weeks ago. I have already done this but attended so that I could get a bit of a refresher. Most of the stuff that was talked about were things that I regularly do in my flipcharts, though I did come across a few things that I didn't know (or that I just hadn't been using).
- Math and other activities under resources; there are several things (such as 100s charts) made up as pre-set activities for all subjects. Using these (or just being aware of them when I'm making flipchart) could potentially save me a lot of time.
- taking snapshots of children's faces to use in flipcharts. We were shown a quick and easy way to cut out children's faces from pictures to use on flipcharts. This could in personalizing flipcharts for children.
- Video - changing the videos to not autoplay (this will save a lot of headaches when activinspire crashes and I have to reopen flipcharts - I won't have to turn the videos off); taking snapshots during video playback easily (this allows us to create snapshots to sequence stories easily as well as doing it with the class and not having to do it beforehand - which gives the children more ownership of their learning).
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