Wednesday 15.9.2010

Describe

There are good days and bad days, today was that hump day I think just over the halfway mark and the kids were really feeling it. I really stretched them this morning, we had so many things to get through and im noticing that the term is creeping slowly to an end and I realize we still have so much work to cover. So I had to do comprehension this morning, two sheets on twinkle twinkle little start and then I had to finish off the book week booklet, Grammar workbooks and spelling.

So I guess the kids may have picked up on my rushed mentality, I gave them strict time limits


Analyse:

Just like always harping on about negative behavior doesn’t work the same goes for always making tasks tedious and monotonous. They need to be short engaging and fun. There may be a lot of work to do but if the kids aren’t engaged and aren’t having fun its so pointless you raise the frequency of behavior problems because they are bored and disengaged. Its much easier said then done. I really struggle to think of ways to transition between activities and make each activity fun.

Plan:

Creative ways to time activities, like a timer on the smart board, or a theme song that they know when its coming to an end. Need to brainstorm ideas.

Tuesday 14.9.2010

Describe:

Had a really great Maths lesson on the seasons of the year. We looked at the changes in each of the seasons, from winter to summer to spring to autumn and how the trees change color, different things appear on the trees.

The kids loved discussing what their backyards looked like, I got them to create tissue paper scrunched up collages on 4 different trees. Each tree had different color leaves in each of the different seasons. We spoke about the pink and yellow flower buds coming out in spring, the red orange and yellow leaves in autumn, green leaves in summer and snow in winter.

Analyse:

They did a great job, the kids loved exploring and experimenting with the different mediums, the hands on activity really consolidate their learning of the seasons. It took a little longer then anticipated but we just rolled over into the next period, I didn’t want to limit them with time. Some of them were so creative. It’s so amazing to hear students encouraging one another; today in class Maddison said to Hayden “ Hayden I think your going to be an artist when you grow up, yours is so so beautiful.” It’s so so beautiful to see people encouraging each other because all it takes is one for them to start flowing.


Plan:

For next time I think It would be good to perhaps show the kids some images of trees in the different seasons, perhaps a smart board interactive website to engage the kids to think outside the box at all the different things that happen in the different months.

monday 13.9.2010

Describe:

Had the kids on my own again today as my CT was away. The kids were little gems, honestly soaking up all their goodness in one day. I had some of the high school teachers come down into the classroom and just observe make sure everything was ok.

I think the morning went well, really pushed the kids to get a lot of meaningful learning out of the literacy block..

I think today really made me understand the importance of knowing your kids, knowing what they can do when is too far. I think having to make sure that everyone is ok, being aware of the big picture but also more importantly all the little details that make up the bigger picture.

Things such as assembly, I thought I was on top of my game, remembering everything, shoelaces tied, blazers off, shirts tucked in, badges pinned, hair off face, green awards etc. But of course there will always be things you forget. Its bound to happen, especially when the principal is making a special appearance. Johns king of the day crown, he was still wearing it all assembly. I knew it always one things that you will forget and other people will notice. I was so busy running around loosing my seat trying to separate all the naughty students who couldn’t sit through an assembly without kicking someones chair, talking really loudly, sitting up on their knees.

Analyse:

I really need to pay more attention to the little details. I think that its so easy when you are in charge or responsible for a big class to make sure you get the big things ticked off, sometimes neglecting the smaller things.

Plan:

Next time need to think of some strategies for reassuring kids, making sure they are ok, when they have sore eyes, hands, sick tummys, thirsty, hungry, tiered. All the things that come up in kindergarten sometimes they are just coming at you left right and center that you just tend to palm them off instead of dealing with them

Friday 10.9.2010

Describe:

Everyday now the kids are asking is tomorrow the holidays yet. They totally feel its close; their little brains can’t cope with an overload of work. So we decided we have to make anything assessment wise as fun as possible. So for our assessment of their 5 senses we decided to take them on a picnic excursion to the wetlands to explore and investigate. By using their 5 senses we got the kids to use verbal communication with each other to prompt discussion.

The kids were so excited all morning, the literacy block was a breeze, and they were constantly pointing out how good helpers they were, being kind to their friends. It was delightful because in the literacy block we had to squish the maths assessment in as well due to the excursion to the wetlands.

Our trip to the wetlands was absolutely incredible, its amazing the things you will learn if you simply move the kids into a different environment outside the classroom. Its almost like they get so used to the routine of the classroom all you need to do is change it up a little and you learn so many new things that often surprise you.

Adelaide was raving about how she caught a whole family of tadpoles in her net, she then went on to explain that tadpoles have lots of eyes and they can see everything going on around them “ Miss Stevenson when I grow up im going to be a scientist because my dad is a scientist and Im going to save all the tadpoles from people squishing them in ponds.

Some kids were just wandering about using their watering cans to water the plants, over and over and over again. I went up and suggested perhaps watering a new area. James replied “ But miss Stevenson look how sad this plant is, I bet he doesn’t get much water because he is under a tree so Im giving him lots of water to make him big and strong and happy like all the other plants.”

Kids wavelengths honestly amaze me every single day.


Analyse:

The wetlands excursion showed me the importance of getting the kids to be investigators; it almost gives the control of their own learning. They start to understand the importance of learning and its relevance to their world. Once you have hit the relevance mark you’re a winner with them you have successfully achieved the goal of aspiring teachers to make their learning significant.

Plan:

To make every single lesson significant, for every bit of knowledge imparted to make it significant relevant and meaningful.

Thursday 9.9.2010

Supervisor visit today, I think with these thing you always “ dress to impress” so to speak and I think for the first visit I really wanted her to be impressed, to see the creative ideas more then perhaps my classroom management strategies which were clearly lacking.

Describe:

So we had a morning jam packed with grammar, we looked at nouns and verbs, I got the kids to play a game of cross the river, stepping on the verbs and nouns as I called them out. We then moved each of the verbs and nouns into different categories. The students loved this, they loved being right. There is something so satisfying when you are really impressed and almost surprised with their answers that it makes you want to believe in them a little more, against what your knowledge tells you they know. I love being constantly surprised. The kids see the genuine looks on your face when you are so impressed, makes them try harder.

We then moved onto spelling, looking at the rule ‘ Bossy E’ and how it changes the I to make the second sound.
Knife
Wipe
Kite
Bike
Like
Kids loved the bossy E, loved the fact that the letters could talk. It’s funny how when you reflect on something it gives you ideas for how you could have taught it. Next time I guess. Guess that shows the importance of reflecting on your teaching practices and how vital it is, time consuming but vital for your own professional development.

There were different spelling learning center rotations


Analyse:

Overall the lesson went well, my supervisor said I had a great control over the class and that my management strategies had clearly changed and developed so that I had ownership over the class.


I think the range of spelling activities catered for the diverse learning group, the kids enjoyed a different way of learning their spelling words and I noticed a significant improvement in their reading in their spelling test.

Plan:
If anything I realized the importance in taking time to plan, to think outside the square, in each classroom you will have students who will all learn differently and it is your responsibility to teach them in a way that they can learn and understand. I think we get frustrated and the kid’s get frustrated when we teach something and the kids don’t get it. When really we should be frustrated at ourselves for not taking the time to sit down and really think about how they are learning.

monday 6.9.2010

Monday Spetember 6, 2010




Today really hit a wall, I think the weekend went by too quickly and I found myself feeling very unmotivated and not ready to tackle Monday again. I think up until this point I have really been enjoying coming to school, enjoying working with my teacher and the kids, but it was a little it of an effort today. Felt a little bit of a drag in the teaching.

Describe:

We had a professional development meeting with the school supervisor, my teacher and the other intern, which was encouraging to talk about different ideas for classroom management, different ways of communicating with kids and how important assessing, verbal questioning and making sure you know where your kids are at is.

We have been reading some articles by John Hattie on the importance of direct feedback and constructive feedback that allows the students to really be able to see where they may have gone wrong and correct it.

Something I need to get better at, rather then just a sticker and a fantastic or brilliant take the extra time to write comments that will help them.

We also discussed the idea of learning vs presenting, students taking control of their learning, using lots of questioning in the classroom to find out what the students already know, what they need to know, as a basis for what you teach.

These professional development meetings have been really beneficial for my own teaching practice and to talk with other collegues about things they have learnt in their own teaching practice,

Analyse:

It was really beneficial to discuss with teachers with more experience then myself and in a group different strategies to use in the classroom, the importance of educational gimmicks and how they can motivate students and consolidate and extend their learning.

Plan:

I Need to develop a personal teaching philosophy, how you approach teaching within the classroom but making it more targeted, will need to do a little research into some theories for this.

Purchase some educational gimmicks to use in the classroom, creative ideas that will link into topics in the KLA, will be great for casual teaching.

Tuesday September 7, 2010

Handwriting

Describe:

Had a handwriting lesson today on the nursery rhyme “ The Incy Wincy Spider..” really wanted to do a little introduction to introduce them into the lesson. I feel that with handwriting sometimes we jump straight into it without any introduction or engaging little activities to make it exciting. So we used our picture cues to sing the nursery rhyme with hand actions we then mixed up the order and put it in correct order, something so simple but the kids loved it. I then got the kids to sit around the learning square and we made a web with some wool, you would have thought Santa was coming to town the kids were so excited. We then got 4 of the kids to try and make their way through the web without getting tangled. I used a Smart board online handwriting exercise for the kids to remind them about letter formation. We then wrote the sentence into their handwriting books.



Analyse:

The lesson felt like it was delving more into that deep knowledge and understanding in the quality teaching rather then just a surface going through the motions. I tried to use lots of questioning and be really explicit in my expectations for what I was looking for in their handwriting. I noticed that when you verbally relay what you are looking for and set your expectations high the kids show you that in their work. Most kids did their best and neatest handwriting using finger spaces, capital letters and full stops.



Plan:

Should use more interactive handwriting activities on the smart board, perhaps a sing along nursery rhyme for them to engage them. I realised the importance of the orientation to the lesson today, its so vital in engaging them right from the outset. Ill need to pay more careful attention to orientation of the lesson in my daybook, making sure I chose appropriate learning strategies to engage them.

Friday 3.9.2010

My CT was away at a basketball GALA day today, so had the cherubs on my own. I can say safely that I learnt alot in 6 hours. I really understand exactly how many thousands of things you have to remember in one day.. How easy it is to forget the very important things in the chaos of all the little things.

Getting the kids up to recess on time... get the kids transitioned into each activity on time. AND it was Friday so that has to be taken into account. My CT left so much work for me to do, which was good I felt challenged to get through it.

Literacy block was interesting, we got through most of what we needed to do, I probably could have spent a little more time consolidating the nouns and verbs activities looking back in hindsight. But ws overall happy with the way the kids worked in the morning session. A few of the kids were testing the boundaries with my CT away, but mostly had it all pretty covered.

We had a few tears and a few people saying they felt sick and wanted to go home, I think It had just been a really long week, so I just took it a little easy on them.

We had SPORT which was interesting because MY CT usually runs it, so lucky I had some other teachers there to help. We usually break up into 3 groups and do rotating activities but today we just decided to do lots of different relays, running, skipping, hopping, etc... developing their fine motor skills. Worked really well they really enjoyed it, we dramatised it for them so each relay was engaging.

We then went to the fathers day stall and the kids all bought their dads a fathers day present. Straight into maths assessment and some consolidation on volume, measuring liquid in containers with food dye ( they LOVED THIS)

In the afternoon block I let the kids have a little bit of room, they were so so tiered and teary. We did some paintings on our favourite sense and then wrote a sentence about it. I put the music on. We then made some fathers day cards for all the dads. The kids loved this, we just relaxed a little. It was chaotic at times, paint absolutely everywhere. but the kids enjoyed it.

I managed to get all the diaries marked, write in comments, send home notes, parent readers, certificates and prizes. somewhere in there as well.

I enjoyed it, I was so exhausted by the end of it, having to be the one solely responsible for this kids all day was huge!

wednesday 1.9.2010

First day of spring, you could feel it. I was jumperless today, magnificent.

Busy morning with the hustle and bustle of Grandparents day. The kids had the cuteness factor on today, it didn't really matter what they said they just win every ones hearts.We had a few tears for some kids that didn't have their grandparents come, they were very distressed, I reassured them my grandparents wernt coming either, but sometimes there isn't much you can say to make them feel better. I tried convincing them of the fun activities for the rest of the day...

Maths today went alot smoother today, I had more teacher time which I think needed to be done yesterday but I was so flustered and stressed with the runsheet of the day. So with each activity I sat down and modelled it in front of the class, talking about each of the activities.

Analyse:

I probably could have spent more teacher time on the floor, modelling the activities and using more of the language with the kids, showing them exactly what to do. Its so hard watcing 3 groups at one time when there is only 1 teacher. I guess it just takes practice at positioning yourself in a spot easily accessible to all groups, monitoring whats going on. Also I think the thing to remember with hands on activities with the kids is that we need to explore. Its hard not to try and control those groups but as the teacher I need to allow them to make mistakes, this is how they learn, by trying to find the answer with their peers.

Plan:

Next activities I'm going to have more items to put in their containers and make sure I go around and mark it straight away so they can tel me the items that went through, helps me out when I'm marking it. Also they have this big policy to mark as you go with kindergarten. Kindergarten needs to see where they have made a mistake and you need to talk through with them how to fix it. For tomorrows I am going to encourage them if they have a question, to ask their friends first, their friends might know the answer, which encourages peer learning and saves me having 20 people asking me 20 different questions at any given time.

We had a clay workshop this afternoon, it was so fun, learning about all the different textures you can make into clay. Cant wait to do it with the kids, let them explore with hands on textures.