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.