Thursday 29.07.2010

Ah sometimes the week feels like it drag on forever... Had such a great day with the kids today..

Describe: Had an art lesson in last period today, We were creating texture monsters linking in nicely with our senses unit (TOUCH). Now the last lesson of the day is always tricky, its always ends up being cut short and you have to take into account that it takes kindergarten almost 15 minutes just to pack their bags, get their blazers, hats, diaries and everything organised for the end of the day. I already had to adjust my lesson slightly due to the weather So instead of the students collecting items from the wetlands to do rubbings over, students did rubbings inside the classroom. There was a spare 30 minutes in the morning block after literacy so my teacher let me start my lesson ( accounting for the fact that the afternoon block would really only cater for about 20 minutes practical time.) So I explained to the students how to do a texture rubbing, gave them examples of good and bad texture rubbings. I modelled this for them so they could see visually how to do it. We brainstormed as a class the different sorts of things we could do our texture rubbings on. Then the class went and did their texture rubbings. The students then drew over the top of their texture rubbings in oil pastels a monster. I explained to the students that I needed to see all five parts of the body related to five senses on their monster. (eyes, mouth, ears, hands, nose). I showed them an example of a texture monster that I had created as an example. I let them put as many eyes and ears etc on their monster as they wanted. The students loved this, some managed to cut it out, others didn't get the cutting out finished. I explained that in the last period just before home time we would cut them out and then add different textured materials onto our monsters. In the afternoon the students were late from library so it was lucky we got most of the work done in the morning. I set up 2 stations, one for students who were up to the texture adding part and one for the students who were still drawing and cutting out. The students were so creative, you really see the creating and making learners come out and into their element in art.

Analyse: 1 period of art is just not enough to cover kindergarten kids making something, It was lucky that I was able to complete some in the morning session.
Always give clear simple 2 step instructions to kindergarten, especially in ART lessons. Students were on task I felt this lesson even though they were tiered and it was the last lesson of the day. They were engaged in something fun. I spent lunch setting up the equipment needed and had to change around the desks to suit how I wanted them to work in groups. I felt the new group structure was good for them, they were excited that they could work with their friends and interacted well.

Plan: Plan less time consuming tasks for the end of the day art period, it really is only a 20 minute lesson, which doesn't allow for pack up. Will need to allow more time for kindergarten to pack up next time, the kids were late out as a result of the extent of the activity and length of pack up. The kids really enjoyed being given room to be creative, the art activity wasn't so rigid that they were all making the same thing. I added an element of design for the students to be able to express themselves individually. I should integrate this more into lessons in other activities not just art to start to see and understand their own uniqueness and personalities.

Wet Wednesday 28.7.2010

Quote of the day..
Whist playing silent ball,the kids are told that its silent and you are out if you speak or make any noises..
A very distressed Chloe says " But are we aloud to breathe.."

I guess more then anyone a teacher has the responsibility to believe in their students, when everyone else says you cant the teacher should be but often arnt the ones to say they can, to give them skills and to give them words that will make them believe they can... We forget or perhaps we take lightly how much we shape their future..

Note to self: When its raining, children need undercover areas to play. The classroom becomes louder, the fights become bigger, the food gets messier, everyone becomes crankier and really the only thing the kids want to do is run around in the rain and jump in the mud puddles..

Describe: I had a computer Lesson last period today, and the kids were surprisingly well after being locked in the classroom all day... I had to make a few adjustments we normally would go up to the computer lab to go on the computers but because of the rain bucketing down and there being no undercover walkways the students wernt aloud to leave the classroom. So I instead did whole class activities on the smartboard what I would have got them to do individually. We played a game of Keyboard-o-Rama, the students had to type in the letters of the aplphabet onto the screen and then it would come up with a word starting with that letter. I then held up a paper keyboard, and modelled with the students the backspace, enter, caps lock and space key and what their function was. We then opened a word document on the computer and the students had to type in the letters of the alphabet, a capital, lowercase then enter a new line. Students made mistakes and then we used the magic delete button to take them away. I then got the students to colour in the letters in their name on the paper keyboard individually.

Analyse: I thought the lesson went well considering that the students wernt able to be on their own computers, was probably a good problem to have as the students could all focus on the smart board. There was a lot of modelling and guided discovery in this lesson which was probably a good introduction to the keys on the keyboard. ideally I would have like everyone to have had a turn on the smartboard typing in a letter in the alphabet but time did not permit. I think the kids had a good introduction to the lesson. I was more firm with students who were misbehaving, which empowered me, but I made sure that I was following through with positive encouragment.

Plan: Its good being able to be flexible with weather and other such variables.. For next time will need to make sure with modelled learning all students have equal participation, allow more time for individual exploration, I felt it was a bit rushed towards the end..

Tuesday 27.7.2010

“The Universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson.” - Orison Marden

What a day.. I think I must have left my problem solving and creative thinking skills at home... There were so many behaviour management problems today in class and it felt like every 5 seconds someone was misbehaving and I couldnt seem to catch a break.

I learnt that the key to sucess in kindergarten is having games and activities up your sleeve to break up the day, it just takes the edge off always having to speak to someone about something they have done..

Describe: So today in handwriting lesson, I felt underprepared I think, I hadent actually done a handwriting lesson before and so really should have practiced my language with the kids first, i.e letter formation, how we write our letters. We sang the nursery Rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep, I used picture cue cards with the students to sing the nursery rhyme. We then mixed up the cue cards and I asked students to sequence them in the correct order. I then went through the first word with the students on the board. We talked about punctuation, grammatical features, Question marks. Students wrote the sentence and then drew a picture.

Analyse: The first part of the lesson went well, the students were engaged in the nursery rhyme. However when it came to the handwriting part I moved to quickly for the students on the board, I modelled the first 2 words for them and then rewrote the rest of the sentence too quickly. I should have gone through in more depth the features of each letter, got the studnets to copy and then put their pens down. The other big thing that I noticed was that I waited until everyone had finished their sentence before I started going around and marking, this took a long time and then the class was going wild because some students had finished and I hadent planned any activities to do.

Plan: When it comes to kindergarten, its worth spending the extra time just making things really plain and simple, being explicit in instructions. Its time consuming but the more repetiton they have the more they understand. I think sometimes I forget how to think like a kindergartener and rush through things too quickly assuming they understand what im saying. I dont really give them much of a chance to explore ideas.

Trick is to always have half the class moving, seperating it makes less noise and chatter and distracted students. Next time I should mark half the class and then when they have finished put their books away and do a hands on activitiy on the floor, i.e letter tile words etc while the other group gets their work marked. Then read the story at the end to bring them back together.

Behaviour Management, the most tricky concept to get your head around with kindergarten. And even though they are little people they pick up on everything, like not following through with consequences, not being firm enough etc.. I need to work on being more firm with the kids and setting achievable consequences but following with a positive.

Learning so much as I go..

Week 2 26.7.2010

I had the kids today all tugging at my heels saying "Miss Stevenson, When is it going to be my turn to be King/ Queen of the day, didnt you see me being so good today?..." I remember what it was like in school when your just being so good all the time and feel like no one notices and rewards you for it.and having to wait a WHOLE day is such a long time in kindergarten. I pointed out to the children that just because you didnt get King or Queen of the day doesnt mean I wasent watching you today and that I didnt see how good you were behaving, it simply means that you have to be patient and we cant have a whole class of kings and queens everyone will get a turn but you have to be patient.

Monday Monday Monday.. Bon jovi sure got it right in " I dont like Mondays"
Ever get that feeling like as you just get busy moving along, suddenly you surprise yourself at how easy it becomes, the things that used to stress you out seem to come naturally. Today I sat there and really just felt like beaming, I think once you get those creative juices flowing, its just a natural progression

Describe:

It should almost be illegal for maths on a monday, and on a friday.. but there we had it smack bang in the middle of the day was monday morning maths. Im teaching the kids the numbers 21-30 this week. Today the lucky number was 22, so I decided to start the lesson off by slap counting from 1-30 and then backwards, needless to say I pretty much only heard my voice on the way down. I paused at one number and heard no voices, the kids looked at me sheepishly all looking around at the others to see if anyone else knew. I then had a jar of 22 (lolly teeth) and asked the students to guess how many were in the container, just to engage them. I then tested my Smartboard skills and got the kids to play a game of guess my number touching the number they guess. (The Kids loved this, I swear anything with technology is a winner). Then I broke the class up into 5 small groups and they completed learning center activities exploring the number 22.
Station 1: Building a house using 22 matchsticks
Station 2: Cutting out 22 letters from a newspaper and making a collage
Station 3: Making the number 22 out of play-doh
Station 4: Drawing 22 kings/Queens
Station 5: Finding 22 pairs in a deck of cards.

Analyse:

- Need more practice counting backwards, Ill have to get a bit creative with that, hand slaps get a bit boring and monotonous, all learners arnt engaged all the time.
- Kids loved the lolly jar guessing game, engaged them, they remembered what number we were looking at today, simply I think because they all remembered exactly how many lollys were in the lolly jar. Its all about appealing to their interests. Lets be honest what child isnt motivated by a little sugar.
- Guess my number was a great idea in theory, however I started off getting them to guess a number between 1-30 but then the smart board was too high for them to reach so not thinking clearly I got the kids to think of a number between 1-100. Not sure what I was thinking kindergarten dont learn up to 100, So most kids switched off while others were having their turn. The kids were just simply pressing numbers on the smartboard, most of the time they didnt know what number they were pressing. Looking back on it now I should have got them to say the number they were pressing and then tell them higher or lower. Take a little extra time to work through looking at numbers higher and lower (more then/less then). I should have started off with 1-10 for this strategy and worked my way up in coming weeks.
- Learning center activities worked well, Kids all engaged, allowed for all learning styles to be met. Didnt have enough time to rotate to any other activities so will rotate when exploring the other numbers 23,24,25 etc, So kids can have a go at each learning station.


Plan:

For Next time..
- need to be realistic about the timing of activities, for example the hundreds chart game was only a warm up activitiy to get them engaged. I should have taken a little more time and used it in guided discovery phase, focussing more on the number 22. Looking at numbers more then and less then 22.
- Need to watch language with students that positive praise students for doing the right thing without degrading kids doing the wrong thing, aim is to motivate and inspire them to do the right thing not to make it impossible for them.

Friday 23.07.2010

Got so very little seep last night I spent all hours of the night cutting out little domino cards for the kids 'feely dominoes' touch activity for our senses unit. Just a side note as to why today was such a huge day.

Athletics carnival Friday..

Ive always been on the student end of an athletics carnival, I now have a new found appreciation for all the organising and logistics that goes on behind the scenes and on the day from all the helpers and teachers etc..

As a kid we either have a love-love or a hate-hate relationship with the athletics carnival. There are no in betweens only one extreme OR the other. I saw it in the kids today, you ca always pick it up straight away. Often its things we see in them that we recognise in ourselves.. The forgetting my sports uniform trick, or I have a tummy ache, my mum made a note ( clearly kids handwriting) saying I can sit out.. as if mums now hold all the power.

Then the other extreme, the parents coaching/ lecturing/ peer pressuring their kids to do their best.. I learnt quickly how to be assertive with parents who are very controlling and invasive about the results of the day, getting re throws, re jumps, re measures.. All for primary school athletics I was stunned.

I was with year 2-6 in the morning block, I had the lucky job of handing out the ribbons, with that all too familiar feeling of a deep sense of pride over a plastic blue bit of material.
I rushed over to my gorgeous kindergartens ( who were so cross with me that I wasent in class with them this morning) and year 1s for the middle block. I was helping on the egg and spoon races which was such a delight but as each group came around you saw how quickly with each progression the students became more weary.. In that moment I saw firsthand the big difference in energy between my kindies and the older kids.

Describe:

By the afternoon session sleepy heads were wandering into the classroom. So I decided to settle them down with a Skwirk video clip about the senses, which worked a treat and then we set about making our own feely dominoes which worked a treat. The kids loved it, they described how the texture felt and then matched each texture up with a pair. We spent the afternoon playing small games of dominoes and big games. The boys event built a castle out of dominoes which I said was fine as long as the textures touching each other matched. It was a great way to consolidate learning about touch and fun way to engage them.

Analyse:

I could have incorperated my other activities into the lesson as I felt there was a great deal of time spare just for the kids to play with their dominoes but I felt that if I tried to intorduce any new information it would have been beyond them considering their day and how exhausted their little bodies were.

Plan:

One of the big things I need to work on is time management.. and filling in time when there is time to spare. I'm going to spend the weekend looking up games to play and little attention seeker ideas to refocus students when off task.

catching up for thusday 22.07.2010

I'm trying to take mental note that when I'm in the classroom to be always attentive and learning new things and writing them down. Because the days slip by and I'm learning new things all the time but very few seem to stand out at the end of the day amid all the chaos of the classroom.

Describe:

So computer lesson last period on a Thursday afternoon, the weathers been mysterious black clouds looming ( for some reason that's an excuse for wild rampant off the walls behaviour.) I'm picturing in my head kids going wild on the computers and me in my best efforts to control 30 kindergarten students and their hands on the computer.

Analyse:

So I had 50 minutes for the lesson but between the dawdling all the way up into the senior school to the computer labs and then sitting them on the floor and getting their attention the minutes were flying past. I quickly rearranged the lesson in my head knowing that we wouldn't have time for even half the things I had planned. I was originally going to get them each individually to play a game on the sesame street kids website learning about the keys on the keyboard. However logistically speaking opening that many web pages and having kids go that many directions was going to be a disaster. So I decided to get them to practice logging on and off with their bunny ears and tail (CTRL, ALT, DELETE) and then logging off. Now I expected that to take some time, but I'm not kidding It took the entire 20 minutes to log on and off, some kids were rushing on ahead so then they missed out on the activity. When realistically speaking I should have known I was teaching to the 'technological generation'.. these kids all have a basic familiarity with computers, Ive got kids with Ipods, IPADs, Iphones; in kindergarten its incomprehensible what on earth such a small child would need such a large technological device for.. but there you have it..Knowing that I should have provided an option for the students who knew how to log on to go ahead and the other students who needed more assistance to work a bit slower. Its the whole targeting to the diverse abilities that I need more practice on. Its easy to plan and teach for students all in the same level but no ones class ever has kids all on the one level, but we justify our planning that way so easily.

PLan:

- Everything has to be visual, there is no point giving verbal instructions without visual backup or prompting, it literally goes in one ear and out the other with not much time in between.
- Have a purpose for everything you do, without specific goals, things tend to be wishy washy.
- kindergarten kids pick up on unorganisation.. and as soon as that happens their attention is out the window

So for me this lesson was a reality check for kindergarten and how quickly the time flies, short simple instructions and lots of demonstration from the smart board. It also gave me hints about the afternoon block and how to engage the students who are tiered and at the end of a long day so concentration and energy levels are low.

Wednesday 21.07.2010

It felt so much easier settling into things today, getting into the routine. I started making mental notes of particular students interests, which makes a huge difference knowing what things to include into your planning in attempt to lengthen those short mini attention spans..

I learnt in News today that majority of boys in the classroom LOVE star wars, we had a short mini light saber war going on underneath the desks at one point. Its amazing how something that I would normally see as a distraction can be turned around into something educational. We managed to divert them from light saber wars under the desks to describing what a light saber feels like ( incorporating our senses unit - touch)..

Describe:

The tricky thing I found today was I had the afternoon block for my lessons, and underestimated their energy levels. I started my lesson before I had all their attention and then spent the rest of the lesson trying all my best behaviour management techniques to regain their attention. Introduced my Unit on the senses. There was a lot of new information for the kids I'll admit, they were all super exciteable. We modelled touch, taste, smell, hear, see on a person on the board as I asked them what was missing. We then zoomed in on touch and I read them a story on touch then students had had to trace around their hand (visual exploration) and write 5 things that they could touch. I modelled some examples on the board for students to copy as prompts.

Analyse:

I think that sometimes no matter how engaging your lesson may be or what exciting things you have up your sleeve, it wont work without their attention.Sometimes we fail to realise how simple it can be to gain their attention.
- DEtective George was a hit, they LOVE him, but Ill need to work out some rules and engage them without distracting them with George.
- time management is a huge thing, just working out how much activities to plan for... I guess its better to overprepare and set realistic goals on what exactly you want the students to achieve.


PLan:

For next time I think, ill wait a little longer, build up the suspense when bringing out detective George ( the puppet) make it clear that when people are talking he gets shy and wont come out. Its hard to also control kids when you bring out something new and exciting I found that when I introduced detective George to them and explained that he would help us put on our investigative skills to explore the senses they went crazy. Everyone wanted a pat, all the kids were asking him questions like " Whose your mum? Do you go to school? Whats your favourite food?" as if it was their best friend. Most of them were trying to be sneaky and work out if he was a puppet.. The giggled at my funny man voice, which I myself found it hard not to giggle at (the whole changing between voices thing got a bit confusing).

So for next Senses lesson I'll make sure I have EVERY ONES attention before starting, it will make it so much easier from the outset.

On a brighter note, It was the first kings and queens of the day today.. They had such a blast felt like the most important people on the planet, doing jobs for the teacher, going out to lunch first, sharpening pencils.. what is it that kids find so attractive about those menial jobs we all despise.

All in all it was a good first day teaching.. thoroughly making myself at home, settling in and finding everything a little less daunting and much more natural. I know without a shadow of uncertainty this is truly what I'm meant to be doing for the rest of my life. I feel like I've finally found shoes to fit and the little people are so so cute.

Tuesday 20.7.2010

Tuesday for teaching..


Had a lovely full on day today, kids coming back is hectic, I never realised how hectic it actually is. I did however sit through a 1 hour and 15 minute formal K-12 assembly. I have never been so in awe of kindergarten kids, they sat there so patient so well behaved, didnt show the slightest hint of boredom, it was so long for them.. I didnt teach today it was a bit of a everything everywhere day..

I mapped out where all the children sit, in my best efforts to speed learn there names. Im going to try my luck at morning welcome giving them nicknames and such to help me learn better.. I.e cool conner, wacky william, super sally, lovely liam... etc. I've nicknamed myself Miss Smiley Stevenson.. hopefully it will catch on.

If I picked up anything today just by watching its that kids eat your words, they are such sponges soaking up every single thing you say and all the things you dont say. It frightens me a little. Im going to have to be very aware of what im saying. One student became very distressed that he wasent going to be able to remember how to do his homework when he got home. The teacher explained that Mums would be able to explain it to them. He took that very literally and became even more distressed " But I dont have 2 mums I only have one." It took the next 5 minutes for the teacher to reassure him that she was referrring to all the mums in the classroom not just his..

another student was talking about his holidays and how he watched a movie where he saw " The boys fight each other".. The teacher corrected him saying 'fought'.. he argued for a few minutes and concluded " thats a different language to mine."

I think the biggest challenge for me is going to be developing kids writing, rather then just tellign them how to do it. Letting them show you, so much harder in practice, especially with kindergarteners..

I implimented the ' Kings and the Queens of the day' The kids went balistic.. asking me every five seconds if they were the kings or queens, the boys liked calling themselves queens and they all tried to have a sneaky sit on the throne.. I love how the smallest things excite kindergarten..

Big discussion about book week coming up. Im definately dressing up as Max from Where the Wild thigns Are. sooooo excited.

Professional Development Day.

Ill be bold and admit, I was a little nervous today, feeling really daunted not only by the whole teaching for 10 weeks thing but more over the fact that I will be playing a part in educating a child, giving them a solid foundation to stand on, and that it comes down to me. The responsibility is huge, especially at such a crucial age like kindergarten.

Everyone has all sorts of opinions about education, of which they are entitled to, however last week when I was sharing with a customer about my internship, all I had to do was mention the word kindergarten and he reared his ugly head and replied " What are you worried about, Kindergarten is just a glorified babysitting club." To which I just stared at him in disbelief almost too astounded to reply.I paused, held my tounge for a moment and thought 'less is more', so my simple reply came "No house stands on an unstable foundation." Sure I may just be one brick in each childs house, but its the most important one because its the foundations, you get that wrong and you may as well just be a babysitting club because your sending them backwards...

So we had professional development today which I enjoyed thouroughly, It felt so good to 'feel' like a teacher and mingle with people minus all the little kids. the morning started off with a few housekeeping and general welcoming followed by a few presentations related to creating Digital Resources (yay). Im am going to be a little sponge on Internship, my goal is to get as technologically advanced as I possibly can to really create an interactive classroom. Its strange being part of the Y generation and yet feeling like Im ancient and so out of date because Im not up with the latest technology or even the basics.

I talked over a few Classroom management Ideas with my CT today, which Im excited to try. Ive decided to impliment a ' King and Queen of the day' each student gets a chance to be King or Queen of the day based on 3 principles that I will be looking out for.
1. Listening to the teacher and peers
2. Being Kind to others
3. Doing Best work

The King and the Queen of the day will get to sit on chairs (decorated like thrones) while everyone is sitting in the floor ( to make them feel important and special) and they get to wear a Crown/Tiara. The aim is for every student to have a go at being king/queen. Each Day ill take a photograph of the King/ Queen of the day and will make a booklet for the kids, each kid has to write down next to their picture what it felt like to be the king/queen for the day.

Like I said earlier, Trial and Error, we will see how it goes, if its a complete flop we can try something different. My CT suggested using a sticker chart to motivate so they can see visually as well, so if they get 3 stickers they could be up for King/ Queen of the day, I can keep reinforcing positive behaviour with visual cues (sticker chart).

So day 1 with the Kids tommorow, Im excited to get to know them, their interests, how they learn etc. Its going to be a fun day.

I am about to embark on the strangest journey of my life.. going back to kindergarten.. Its something I thought I would never do. I was so adamant in high school that no one normal would ever want to be at school any longer then is mandatory. So here I am, kicking my profound ridicules to the curb. Internship starts in 2 days. All of a sudden I find my brain working into overtime in its best efforts to condense 4 years of knowledge into 10 weeks of application. Its virtually impossible to remember every single tutors " if you don't learn anything else remember THIS' moments, all the essays and the exams.. they all seem a little too distant. Ill never forget my tutor in first year saying

" You teach best what you most need to learn."

So it all hangs on this, now its time to show what you know, and get about speed learning the things you don't..