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.