Term 4 Week 6

It has been a wee while since my last reflection.

It has been so busy at school lately while we begin the preparations for next year. I have been assessing all of the children's reading so I can enter accurate data into the school's data base. I have also tested all of those children whose reports are due for Numeracy. I have assessed the whole class for their numeracy knowledge and I have assessed the whole classes writing through a writing sample.

I am now in the process of completing the reports for those children who are due for reports. This is a big process but I am slowly crossing it all of my list.

I have also had to assess the ESOL children against the standards. Therefore I have to assess their writing, listening and oral language. This is to establish what stage they are working at and whether they are still needed to be funded.

I have completed referral forms for certain children. This was about recording those children who are below the standard or who have specific needs that need to be catered for. At the start of the year I recorded what their needs were and what I was going to do about it. I have assessed and evaluated these and I have decided if I felt that they should remain on the referral system or if they should be taken off it.

I now need to think about those children in my class that need to be transitioned into next year. I do have some children that do not cope very well when the routine is not the norm. These children will need a class visit and be able to meet their teacher for next year. I will also forward particular information to their next years teacher to prepare them.

Overall I feel I am going well. I am meeting dead lines and I am working hard to keep up. It will be very interesting how I go next year when I have less release days and more time in the classroom.

I am enjoying my class so much. It is great to see how much their self management has blossomed. I will miss them next year.

Term 4 - Week 3

Soooo Orana Park was a success! I felt this was organised well and the children had a great day. Whooo!

I am thinking more and more about my practice and changes that I can make for next year.
Something I am really considering is setting a job chart for children. The state of the classroom and the shelves is not being looked after and this just adds an extra job.

I am also thinking about displaying the writing process in a fun and inviting way. I have seen this on line. I would love to adapt it so that it fits with the Belfast school writing process. I like how it clearly shows where the children are working. This similar to what some of the other teachers are doing at this school. It would fit in well with my programme as we spend more that 1 day on a piece of writing.

Term 4 - Week 2

It has been a great week so far. The children are working so well. I am seeing so much progress. It is great.

As I have said before, my goal is writing at this point. I feel I have a few great writing sessions this term. I am trying really hard to end Maths on time so I can start writing promptly. So far this has been great. The children are having at least 20 minutes of writing time and sometimes we even have time for sharing. I have felt that my conferencing has been stronger as I have more time. I have been able to teach some guided writing sessions and I have also been able to roam and conference with more students.

 I have organised the school trip this term to Orana park for the syndicate. This has involved me creating a newsletter, completing the RAMs, arranging for buses to be booked and booking the dates for Orana park. I had to organise the documentation for the teachers so that they were organised. I have found this quite stressful as I do feel responsible for the organisation of the trip and I wanted this to be run as smooth as possible. However I have really enjoyed taking on board extra responsibilities and contributing to the team. Our trip is not until Friday. I am looking forward to this tho my fingers are crossed for the weather to be good!

Term 4 - Week 1

Term 4 Ahhhhh! It has come round too fast!

I have thought a lot over the holidays about my practice and feedback from parents. Last week I posted about a parent's concerns relating to the reading log book. I have realised that this is something that has gone on the back burner a little bit. I am making more effort to check and sticker the books for each night read. I am making sure that the children are seeing me do this to provoke a bit more motivation.

My big focus this term is Writing. I want to get better at my time management during writing time. I find that some lessons run late and this runs into writing time. Therefore I need to cut my modelling time shorter otherwise there is not much time allocated for writing and then my conferencing time goes out the window! This week has been amazing for time management. Yesterday the children had a full modeled session as well as 20 minutes of silent writing time. We even had time to do a writing circle. This is where all children bring their writing to the mat and we have some children share their writing. As a writers circle the children show respect towards others and they provide feedback by saying 2 things they liked and one way that child could improve their writing. I am recording the children who have shared so that it is fair and all children will eventually get a turn.

I find it a challenge to assess writing and establish children's writing levels. My tutor and moderated all of our children's writing to check that our assessment is fair and consistent. I have found that this as made my assessment clearer and more fair.

I created a game for Mathematics called "I have...Who has..." This is game that targets number knowledge and place value. At the end of the holidays some of my children pulled out this game and played it independently. It was great to see the children do this.

Term 3 - Week 9

Almost at the end of another term!

I have noticed how tired the children are. There has been a lot of tears this week. It is so important for me to maintain a calm and settled environment to help these children get through the week.

For Mathematics, I have created a game called I have Who Has. Today it was great to see some children pulling this out to have a play independently. It involves place value and knowing the amount of ones and tens that are in a number. It was lovely to see them helping each other and playing this game so well together.

I had some feedback from a parent this morning which is well worth reflecting on. She was not happy with the children's reading log book. She was concerned that I was not looking at these and therefore the children do not have an incentive to be reading at home. She said that if I wasn't checking them then what is the point of having them. I do check these but I am not recording that I am looking at them. Next term I will definitely make this more of a focus in reading time and I will mark each reading night with a sticker and I might put a comment in there for a week.
This is something worth thinking about as children love to receive stickers and to know that their reading at home is acknowledged.

Term 3 - Week 8

Wow! Stress levels are beginning to bubble.

It has been a mad week! So many extra jobs have jumped up. I am gradually ticking these off my list.

I had an observation from the Deputy Principal this week with writing. I had a really good lesson planned about poetry writing where the children could experiment with similes. This lesson begun really well. My lesson allowed for a lot of oral language opportunities. Sadly the modelling time ate through the time and the children were left with only 10 minutes to write. This is a problem that I need to address. The children need more time for writing. My goal is to keep fitness and maths on time and not to run late so that I have a solid 45 minutes for writing.

This week was a poetry competition for the Juniors and the New Entrants. All children had to choose a poem and learn it off by heart. They have an in class competition. Each teacher chooses two children to go through to the poetry finals. The teachers all got together to help set up the hall. My tutor teacher and myself decided to create a back drop on the stage covered in poems that our children had made. This looked really cool, bright and colourful. I think the children felt really proud to have their poetry writing displayed. I also created some medals for those children who won the competition.

Term 3 - Week 7

The term....where is it going! :0

This week has been fantastic! I am just so happy with how things are going at the moment.

Regarding the behaviour management - the boy who's behaviour was becoming challenging has become so much better. He is now on a note book. I write in this everyday after each school block and this is sent home to mum. This helps him to manage his behaviour better. We check over his notebook every morning and look at the previous day. We talk about what he was proud of and what he thinks his goals will be for the day. This notebook also limits the meetings with mum. This was taking up a lot of time. Yes it is important but it is an easier way for me to give her the information.

I am a very reflective practitioner. I am constantly thinking about my teaching and making changes as I go. This something that I feel is very important and it is something that I want to model to the children. Therefore I have created a reflection wall. This happens every Friday afternoon where the children have the opportunity to talk about the highs and the lows of the week. I have created starter bubbles and a visual prompt. I also record the children's names who have shared so that over time everyone will get at turn. The children have enjoyed this so far.

Star of the day: Everyday I have a star of the day. They get to sit on the special chair and they get to do any jobs that need doing for the day. They get to take Leo the lion home and they have a book where they can write what they get up to with Leo. I have been struggling to keep track of who has a turn. I had a list but I would forget to mark on it as it was on the other side of the room. I have created a new list with is more appealing. I mark the star with stickers and this is kept right beside the teacher. I find this much better as it keeps me and the children on track.

Maths- I have been trying to think of ideas to make Maths time more interactive for those children who are not with the teacher. I have also learnt how important it is to teach Place value so that children can consolidate this knowledge and apply it to knew learning. Therefore I made a wall where children have to build numbers and be thinking about the amount of tens and ones. This is great so far! It also allows the children to work in the shared space and this keeps the noise level down in the classroom. I am looking for a similar resource that involves hundreds. This will help to expose children to bigger numbers and to challenge those who want to give it a go.

At Belfast school, I am part of the cultural committee. Therefore part of my role is to congratulate those children who have participated in Kapa Haka and in Maori language week. This is fantastic as I can interact with other children at Belfast School and these children can get to know who I am.

Writing! As part of my teaching as inquiry I am focusing on Oral language and trying make writing and fun and exciting time of the day. This term we are focusing on Poetry writing. I am not very good at poetry writing myself, so I knew that this would be a challenge for me. I have been doing some reading from Gail Loan " I've Got Something to Say." This text mentions the importance of models and how the children should be exposed to other author's writing and to use this to draw from. Therefore I found short poems from other authors and the children used this to create their own poems. This has been great! Their focus is on changing the words to fit their own poem. I am very excited about these poems. 

Term 3 - Week 5

This week has been where things are things are becoming a little bit crazy.

I am still focusing on my writing. I am working had to see every child a week and conference with them one on one. This is time where we talk about their writing goal and work together to assess their work. I find that this can be very challenging because writing time can easily become limited for several reasons. Sometimes maths time can become too long and cut into writing time. I also find that I can talk too much in the mat and this cuts into their writing time again. The less time the children have for writing, the quality of the work isn't as good as it can be and the conferencing time is lessened.
This week so far I have felt really good about conferencing time. I trying very hard to watch the clock and hove more writing time. I am making sure that I am seeing a writing group every day. The children are getting to know that this day is their marking day with me. The other children are getting to know that if they finish they are to put their writing away and just do some free writing while others finish.

I am also working very hard on my behaviour management. I am still finding one particular child very challenging. He is still hitting others and not following instructions. He can sometimes argue when he is asked to do something in front of other children. He responds really well to one on one conversations. I have been talking to his mum still but I am concerned that his behaviour is regressing. At the start of the year he would become upset and leave when he did not win a game. He did not do this last term. He is doing it again now.
I am thinking of trialing a notebook that I can send home with him to mum. This will make it easier to communicate with mum. She can write notes to me to. I can write a comment for every break of the day about his behaviour. My fingers are crossed that this might help!

The Ferrymead trip was fantastic! It was organised very well and the children's behaviour was great. The only issue I saw arise was that some parents would only take one child of their group to the toilet and then the other children in the group couldn't find their parents and they needed to go to the toilet as well. I will try to make this more explicit for next time.

Writing Goals for myself

What am I working on currently?

• Links into oral language.
• Anecdotal notes on plans. 
• Conferencing - making this more meaningful. 
• Dating the goals when they have been achieved. 
• Trying to allow more time for sharing. 

What might I try?

• Introducing the writing session: video clips and music.
• Visual prompts for buddy conferencing. 
• Let the children have a go at highlighting their own work when conferencing. 
• Modelling books for writing. 
• Writing buddies. Higher level writer and a lower level writer. 

Term 3 - Week 4

The term is flying!

Last week was maths week and this was a really fun and fast week. The children had lots of activities all relating to maths. For writing the children could write about how they use maths in their every day lives. They could also write some word problems. They also could have had a maths challenge where they brainstorm as many words that they could think of and try to put them in a story.
The children completed a maths about me template which look really cool.
The children also completed a fruit burst challenge where they had to rip the rapper into the longest line they could.
The children had a question to answer every day which was a fun competition.
They also had some maths are to complete.
With the buddies the children did an activity called metric me. This involved them measuring themselves and their buddies. This was a lot of fun and was a good challenge for my class.

As mentioned previously, my focus is oral language and writing.
I trialed using the 'talking donut' for sharing time. This was great for the children as they got to share with their buddies the first time and then after that they had to share with other people. This is something I will do again.
We had a staff meeting yesterday which provided a lot of ideas that I could use to enhance my writing programme.

• For conferencing time, I should allow the children to look for their own errors and they do their own highlighter marking. 
• Spend 2 min conferencing a part of the child's writing, not the whole piece. As I'm talking to one child, the child beside them will hear my questioning and get themselves ready for their conferencing making this process faster. Ideally the children will be fixing their errors so that they are ready. 
• Use a card at the top of the books to write a writing goal onto. This could save time and the children will be able to see their goal everyday. 
• Introduce the term writing club instead of group.

Term 3 - Week 3

This week has been Maths week and man it has been crazy!
There has been lots of extra things happening this week. The children have had a canta maths competition. They have also had a maths trail. All week there has been things that relate to maths. They have been having lots of fun and some children have asked me if we could do more maths on a Friday.

I have been closely monitoring my writing programme and the progress of the children. One boy I have been concerned about as his handwriting hasn't been getting any better. I looked through his book and I haven't seen a lot of progress. I have found teaching this boy quite challenging because he is very quiet and he doesn't respond to my questions very often. I have let the school SENCO know about my concerns. It has now been arranged for him to have some extra support. A lady will work with him for 2 30 minute sessions each week. One session will be based on his writing and oral language. Another session will be focused on his handwriting.

As a whole the children are very well behaved when working independently. They remain focused and most get their work completed to a high standard. The mat manners still needs work. There are about 5 children that struggle to put up their hands and call out a lot (particularly the boys). It is these children that influence the others to cal out too. These is a point system. They have 5 seconds to be giving me 5. Id they do it, they get a point. If they don't, then I get a point. The incentive is 5 minutes of free time.

My organisation is improving. I am organised for the whole of each day and this makes me more flexible to accept change. I try to be fully planned for the next week the week before to limit my work load over the weekend. This does mean long days of work, but I enjoy having most of the weekend to get more sleep.

The Olypics inquiry topic is starting up now. The children have begun to create some olympic torches which look fantastic. This will be a lot of fun. My class will represent the Philippines. The children will have the opportunity to learn about this country and compare their results with New Zealand.

Term 3 - Week 2

Another awesome week!

The children are settling well into the new term. They have swapped desk spots and they do not have mat spots at this point. I may not give them mat spots this term but restrict some children from sitting next to certain people. I have one boy that needs to sit right by my feet.

I have begun to implement circle time every day after lunch. This is to go for 30 min. I find that this is a long time for the children. I am trying to make the closure games involve them to move to make the last few minutes better for those children who are struggling to sit still.  However they do enjoy it. They sit on chairs in a circle. They like to feel included and share their ideas. However there is a lot of chatter when other are talking. They are now aware that if they talk and have had a few warning their chair will be turned around and they will be excluded for the next round.

I have had a few issues where a student has been struggling to keep his hands and feet to himself. This has resulted in some parents being concerned. I have communicated with his parents and the parents of those affected. I also emailed the duty teachers to keep an eye out for him. He has still made some silly choices since then so I have now restricted his play to one area on the junior playground. I will wait and see how this goes. Fingers crossed there is an improvement :).

Next week is Maths week. I have looked into my programme and OMG it is going to be a crazy week. It will be a lot of fun!

Term 3 - Week 1 - My Focus

I have thought a lot about what I want to focus on this term.
Writing is a whole school focus and this is something that I am taking seriously. I am trying to think of methods that I can use to improve my writing programme. Something I am beginning to implement after each lunch time is speed writing. This is where straight after lunch the children have 10 minutes of silent writing time. They can write about anything that they like. This is work that I do not mark. The purpose of this is to increase their time writing and school and trying to increase their mileage.

Another focus for me is behaviour. This, again, is a school wide focus.
One method that we are implementing is circle time. This will be done at least once a week. I have received some resources to help me implement this effectively. I have found a template that describes the rules of circle time. This will be used as a visual to help reinforce the rules. The first few sessions will focus on setting up the rules and the expectations. Other focuses I will use will be active listening, being a good friend, making mistakes is okay, using your WITS in the playground and seeing a duty teacher.

Wall displays

Just a few images of recent wall displays that have gone up :)

Term 2 - Week 10

So the term is over! I am now a 1/4 of the way to becoming a fully registered teacher in New Zealand. I can't believe it!

There are many things I have been thinking about for next term.

In regards to Numeracy, I have completed many I cans testing and it is amazing to see how much the children have improved this term. I need to compile all of this data and regroup my class ready for next term. This will help me to cater for their abilities much better.

Reading: Helen and I are both really happy with how our reading programme is going. We are happy with where we have place the children. My top groups are enjoying their contracts. I have a boy who loves space and I created a space contract for his group. It was exciting to see his face light up when he found out about his focus. I am debating about giving them some novel studies or incorporating some reciprocal teaching at some stage. I will research this over the holidays.

Writing: I am loving teaching writing at the moment. I have been trying to focus on incorporating oral language as much as I can. I have also been trying to select topics that the children would be excited about. This involves them getting outside of the classroom and writing about experiences.

This past week we have had appraisals. This involved having the children's books inspected and having an observation. My observation went very well. The syndicate leader was impressed with my modelling book and the displays in the room. She felt oral language was included well in the programme. The children were aware  of their writing goal and they understood what the green and orange highlighter meant.

My book inspection went well. I have made sure that all work was marked and that there was a WALT written in the book. I also made sure that the WALT was highlighted in green if it was achieved and in orange if it wasn't. Next steps for me were to write next step comments for the children. Also to ensure that the work has been dated.

Matariki Art

This week the children have been learning about Matariki, the Maori New Year, and about the seven sister stars. In light of the the children have created Matariki mobiles. These look amazing in the classroom :)

Thinking ahead for next time, I might have the children label the stars. This will increase their learning and awareness of Matariki.

Term 2 - Week 8

The whole class is going so well this past week. They are following instructions really well and are managing themselves. Some children are more focused on other children are are forgetting about what it is that they are supposed to be doing. I am trying to encourage the children to manage themselves and to mind their own business.

An issue that has been popping up is that some children are very competitive in Room 7. They have been laughing at other children when they make a mistake and have been fighting to yell out answers first.
I have started the first of many workshops relating to the school motto CARE, SHARE, LEARN and GROW. We talked about the importance of mistakes and how to be supportive of each other. We also talked about calling out on the mat and how important it is to take turns talking.

The children are not taking care of the classroom equipment. There are a lot of pens missing and whiteboard markers drying out because lids are not being out on them. My next circle time will focus on this.

I have been thinking about the importance of a reflective practice. I value reflection clearly as I reflect on my practice each week. I would like to allow more time for the children to reflect on their day at school. I am thinking of either recording this on the class blog weekly or creating a booklet that I can use at the end of some school days. It would make a great point of closure for the day or week.

My Teaching as Inquiry is all about oral language and trying to create opportunities for the children to talk about their writing with others. I tried something new last week that went really well. Sometimes the children struggle to look at their own work critically. They don't see or don't admit to their own errors. I am a person who struggles to proof read my own work so I can relate to this. At the end of a writing session I decided that the 8 children who had finished could participate in an editing circle. This is were they edit and proofread someones work and make some changes. We talked about having respect for other people's work and that they spent a lot of time on their writing and that they are proud of it. We talked about how important it was to ask before we made changes as it is not our writing we are changing. The children were aware of this. I modeled some writing and had some children offer ideas of how I can fix it to make it better. I accepted their feedback and I made the changes. I asked why they felt certain things needed to be changed. After the children had swapped books I sat back and watched. They were reading and actually making changed. Fantastic discussions were taking place as they were offering ideas as to why certain things needed to be changed. The children were accepting the feedback from their peers and would make the changes to their writing together. This is something I would definitely like to do again.

Term 2 - Week 7

The Term is absolutely flying by!

Last term and this term I have completed many 'I can' Numeracy assessments. This has made me reconsider the stages I have the children working at on my planning. All children should be assessed. I plan to over the next few weeks go through all of their 'I cans' and regraph and regroup the children. This will make the learning more meaningful for them.

Last week I talked about the Reading Contracts that I have created to extend my top two Reading groups. This so far is going really well. The work is being completed. The children are enjoying selecting a book that they want to read. They are focused on this each day. Occasionally an activity is forgotten but I'm sure that this will happen less and less as they get used to the routine. I am trying to make the last activity of the week a bit more fun like a puzzle or a wordfind. The children are enjoying the self-management and they are working together.
Last week some contracts were going missing. This was an issue because they can't complete the work without the contract as it holds all of the activities. I have decided to take the contracts in each and put them in the group box. This way I can monitor it and I can mark it as they go. This will also prevent children from doing the work at home.
Another issue is that the children are forgetting to swap books. I try to get a variety of 4 books and I put them in the group box. The children know to swap these amongst themselves and within the group box. They will need reminding of this.
Over all, I am happy and I think the parents are too :)

Promoting the Well-being of Akonga

• Physically Safe Environment: Classroom Treaty and rules outlining how to move about the classroom safety. Written about stair manners and how to manage behaviour. Social story: about the rules on the playground.
• Socially Safe Environment: Sharing and talking about the Belfast School moto “care, share, learn and grow.” Examples of what this looks like. I plan to take images and do a brainstorm of what each one looks like with photos and present this.
• Culturally Safe Environment: I plan to complete the “where do we come from wall" with images of each children with links to where they were born.
• Teaching and encouraging the children to use their WITS and their I statements.
• Emotionally safe: Circle time weekly or when needed. Discussing how we are feeling.
• Incorporating the use of te reo Maori, kupu o te wiki, celebrated matariki with the children, celebrated samoan language week by incorporating the language as much as possible.
• Celebrated New Zealand Sign Language, taught them how to play hangman with Sign Language.

Term 2 Week 6

This week, some new challenges have risen.

I have a boy in my class who is timid and quite shy. I was warned at the end of last year that he may be reluctant to read to me. I have kept this in mind but have not had too much trouble getting him to read to me.
When a child turns 6, they must have a sic year net assessment. When the lady came in to test him he began to cry and I could see that he was anxious and scared. After trying very hard to prompt him to go I realised that he wouldn't go. Asked if the lady would try to test him in the classroom. This did not work as he became upset again. I spoke to mum and we thought that he may do the test if I was present. So I walked him over to the room to where the testing takes place. There was no verbal response and he did not want to read the book for the lady to take a running record. After 10 minutes of prompting there was still no verbal response.
The lady has talked me through most of the tests and I have started to implement some of them. He is responding to me and this is working well. I have sent the tests to the lady for her to analyse and she will get back to me for the rest of the testing. These tests consisted of a running record, a letter identification test, word reading score test, the burt word reading test and a writing vocabulary observation test.

After sitting down and thinking about my Reading programme, I have realised that most of the children in my two top groups (Level 21-23) are getting bored of some of the books. I want them to be motivated to read. So I have created some reading contracts which involves the children reading a variety of books based in one topic. They have a selection of activities to complete, one a day. I am still debating if this is too much work for the children. I will reflect at the end of the week and make changes to next weeks planning if necessary. Overall I think the children are more exited as they get to choose which books they want to read each night.

Term 2 Week 5

I am trying to help the syndicate out with odd jobs here and there that can ease the work load a little for others. I have created some playground card rules that are used as visual reminders for children. The duty teachers can use this to help remind them to keep vigilant.

It has been discussed the behaviour in the playground and how we can manage this better. We have talked about the need for sports gear to be put out for the children so that they have something more constructive to do during their break times.
My tutor teacher and I are organising the playground equipment into some kind of container. I am hoping to collate all of our sports gear so I can take a photo and create a stock sheet. This will make it easier for us to keep track of the sports equipment.

I am trying to focus on sending an agenda out to parents via email each Friday or Sunday. This is to give them a heads up on what is coming up for the week. It is an opportunity for them to reply with any questions or concerns that they may have.

Helen and I have reflected on the incorporation of Wordlab. At the moment I am trying to fit it in during Newsboard time. I am finding this very muddly as it doesn't link in with Maths which comes next. It also doesn't flow well as there is not time for the children to write the words which is very important. This makes it not meaningful for the children. They can not link this learning with their writing. I have talked to Helen and we have decided it is better to focus on the Our Words and teach the wordlab during Phonics time as the spelling patterns link with Yolanda Soryls phonics programme.

I had previously mentioned meeting with the DP about Dezaiah.  She has created a chart for him. She came in and taught him how the chart works. The other children were asking why Dezaiah has this and they don't. The DP discussed that all children have different needs and that this is what Dezaiah needs. I think that the children need an incentive to help Dezaiah with this. I am thinking about talking to them and explaining that when Dezaiah's chart changed from 3 to 6 boxes, the whole class gets 5 minutes extra play. This will be more of an incentive for Dezaiah as he will be in control of if the class can get the extra play.

Term 2 Week 4

What a couple of weeks it has been!

Dezaiah's behaviour has been fluctuating a lot lately. Some days I find that he can be challenging, other days he is great. I am trying to actively record observations of his behaviour to see if there is any corresponding patterns. I have spoken to the Deputy Principl about his behaviour and she mentioned the amount of time the children spend on the mat. I have thought about this and I am now trying to include more movement breaks.
I then spoke to the other Deputy Principal regarding whether he needed a RTLB referral. She has offered me her help regarding his behaviour. We talked about is contract and we ave decided that the reason it is not working is that I haven't referred to it enough and also because 10 steps to get to a rewards is too much for him. She has created a new template which involves moving 3 pictures. We target one single behaviour. Every time he shows the desired behaviour a picture is moved. When all three are moved, he gets a reward. Once he is doing this a lot, the template changes to 6 pictures, then 9, then 12. Once he has been on the 12 template for a while and can do this successfully, We start again but with another behaviour to target. I am looking forward to beginning to implement this new behaviour strategy.

A focus for my teaching as inquiry is writing and how to implement more oral language. I am including more think, peer, share time. I am also trying to get children to say sentences and stand up the front. I have 5 children each with a sentence and they tell the recount or procedure writing. This encourages more oral language and less talking from me.
I discussed this with the Deputy Principal and she recommended having the children break off into groups and repeat the 5 sentences together in their group. This will encourage more oral language.
I also went and observed Julie Winton's writing programme. She had amazing structure and her modelling book was fantastic. Please refer to my observation as this has a lot of self reflection.
The main thing I thought about was that she gave her children a purpose for their writing. She talked about who would read it and why it is important to think about this. Therefore, I have created the star writers club. This is where I choose (or my class could choose) 3 children to have their writing published on the class blog.

This week my class and I ran the Syndicate Assembly. This was very nerve racking for me but I was very proud of Room 7. Some children shared their half portraits and other were readers to introduce the assembly. We had practised on the Friday and the children who were reading practised their lines over the weekend. Then we practised again on the Monday before. The ICT didn't fail (THANK GOODNESS). It was a well run assembly. Next time it would be cool to perform a jumpjam dance or something like that. I think Room 7 would enjoy that.

Term 2 Week 2

I am settling more into the new routines set up. I had changed a lot over the holidays and it has taken we a wee while to get used to my own changed. The children are dealing with this really well and are settling into this routine.

The rotation is fantastic! I don't have to remind the children of their noise level very much. They know exactly where they need to be and they are focused.

Helen and I have thinking about my term goals and trying to make sure that these align with the New Zealand Teachers Criteria. We are going to look over these in more depth and create goals that interlink with these.

Thinking about my students learning......I think I am catering quite well for those children who are my priority learners. I make sure that I am seeing them everyday and including them in extra workshops.
However I have many children who are above the standard and I am worried that they are getting bored or aren't being challenged enough, particularly with their reading. I may need to talk to some experts about how to extend those children who need to be challenged.

Overall I feel like I am on cloud nine :). I could not be happier with how things are going. I enjoy being reflective and changing those things that do not work.

Rehashing Blog

I am just thinking about my blog and how to make this more organised for people who view it.
I am adding more labels that correlate with the Registered Teacher's Criteria.

Term 2 - Week 1

Wow! Lots to reflect on this week!

In the holidays Helen and I got together and went  over our reading planning. We talked about how we had so many reading groups and that we were struggling to get through  them all. So we decided to do an interchange. We completed running records for our whole classes. Then we collated these all together and identified each child's next step in learning. We also identified our priority learners (those children that are below the standard). We managed to bring the groups down to 10 groups-5 each. I adapted my programme so that it is similar to Helen's and created a visual for the children to refer to.
There are 3 rotations. The first rotation is always browse box reading which is time manageable with Phonics just before Reading. During this time I take my priority learning group every day. This is helpful for them as the classroom is silent for their reading.
I have decided to focus on this routine with the children and making sure that they know this Reading routine thoroughly. This will make Reading time much more time efficient, allowing more time for focused Reading sessions.
I am much more excited to teach Reading. This is more manageable and it is more clear to me when to give out focused Reading activities.
As there are less children on each activity, their volume is much quieter, meaning my group can hear me and focus much better.

I have also reflected on behaviour management. I have created a visual chart for the entire class. Most of their behaviour is fine but there is still a lot of calling out on the mat and some children are not stopping and listening straight away. This chart will target those children without them realising that it is to help their behaviour. So far this chart is working very well. It requires self management-I tell the children when they can move their own name.

So far I am excited about the Term. My goals are to focus on my Reading programme and to have this running to my standard by the end of the term.
I am also focusing on the behaviour management and having the children stop straight away and limit the calling out during mat time.

Reflection-Week 11-Final Week of Term 1!

My first term is nearly completed!!!!

I have had an observation of my reading programme by my tutor teacher Helen. This was very beneficial to me as I now understand what needs to be improved. The must do's and can do's are not working very well. A lot of children are walking around and are not focused on one activity. Also I have many children coming up to me and interrupting my reading sessions. Lastly the children are still unfamiliar with the routine of getting themselves organised for the reading session.
Reflecting on this, first week of next term all groups will have the WALT: know the routines for each reading session. This means that they come straight to the jellybean table, they get out their reading log book and put it in front of me, they pull out their book from yesterday, put their reading folders under their chair and then begin to read their book silently. I am also going to introduce C3B4ME. This will prevent the children from interrupting so much. I wondered if my instructions were not clear enough but Helen believes that my instructions are very clear and precise.
We are also planning on working collaboratively in Reading. We are going to collate all of our running records and create groups of both our classes. This will mean less groups so that we can spend more time with the reading groups and see the children more often. We are going to work together to create reading activities which will focus on comprehension. I will adapt my reading programme so that it is more structured and will be similar to how Helen has hers set up. Hopefully this plan of action will help!

I have spent this past week focusing on assessment. I would like to spend my holidays going over these assessments to check that I have the children at the correct level and that I am catering for their needs. I have done a running record on every child except one (who is currently in China) and he will be assessed next term. I have done a writing sample for all children. I have tested all of their abilities for phonics. I have also tested their spelling as I plan to begin to implement some wordlab teaching next term. Lastly I have done a pretest and post-test for the Stand Maths-Algebra.

The trip last week was fantastic! It was really well organised. I had arranged to have 6 parent helpers and had planned to keep some of my behavioural children seperated. They each had an information pack with a timetable, the names of their group, a map and copies of the two scavenger hunts. Each child had a name badge. The children are in the process of creating thank you letters for the parents who helped. These will be completed tomorrow to hand out to the parents.

Helen and I have spent sometime this week thinking about the holidays and giving the children a work book to work from. We have created this together and we have decided that it is not compulsory as the children need to have a break. I am also going to send home some books for the children to read over the holidays if they choose to.

I have had a meeting with Sonia, who is involved with the ESOL children. She has given me some help with including more oral language in my teaching of Writing. She has shown me some naughts and crosses ideas where children play this using key words and orally putting them into a sentence. This will be very helpful with the writing plan for next term, procedural writing. This way I will be able to talk about those context that are unfamiliar to the children. She is also going to help me find some sentence starters and writing prompts for the children.

Overall I am very impressed with my own personal efforts this term. I have been very organised and trying to complete jobs as soon as they come up. Therefore I have not been very stressed and have been super happy with my own work!

I am aware of some of my weaknesses and I can't wait to begin to address these next term!

Inquiry Wall

Here is an image of my Inquiry display. This was not something I've put together in 5 minutes. I have added to it over the term. It has a big visual of the children's votes for the flag referendum. This incorporates some mathematics with the telechart. It includes brainstorms that the children and I have constructed together. It also includes images of the school trip to the museum. This is great as it is a reminder for the children about what they saw. They love to see themselves in photos!!!! It's also great for those parents who didn't come along to see what the children got up to. 

Week 10

Soooo I have nearly completed my first Term!

Thinking back to the start of the term, I have realised how much the behaviour of Room 7 has improved. They are slowly becoming more settled on the mat and I am not have children standing up to come and talk to me anymore. They now know that if they want a response from me they must put up their quiet hands.

This week I have completed my first lot of parent interviews. Although I found this a little daunting for the first time I still believe that I conducted myself well and had positive comments from the parents. They agreed with the strengths I identified and they also agreed with the points of concern and the next steps. I had 5 interviews to get through and each one lasted up to 30 minutes. It was great that these went so positively.

Coming up tomorrow is our class trip to the museum. I have helped to involve parent help and grouped the children in my class. I have had to check that a RAMS form has been filled in and made sure that I have all of the children's contact details and medical information. I am looking forward to interacting with the children in an environment outside of the classroom.

Belfast School has recently had the skate park built onsite. Every Tuesday the junior syndicate are allowed to bring their scooters and helmets and have some time playing over there. Each week a teacher needs to be on duty there to watch them and take them over there. I have been volunteering each week as I enjoy watching the children have so much fun over there. I always encourage some senior children to help me monitor the children over there and to help me supervise.

Something for me to continue to work on is my Reading programme. I have limited the amount of can dos that the children can do and I have also encouraged the children to spread out and use the whole space of the room. I am still having trouble with keeping the noise level down and I am and struggling to prevent children coming up to me and interrupting the group session. I am currently thinking about my instructions and making sure that these are clear and precise. I am also thinking about talking to the children about the importance of not interrupting my reading group and C 3 B4 ME.

Week 9

Thinking to myself about how the class is running, it is great to see the children really getting into the routine.

I am so happy with my Maths planning. It is clear for the children, they are quiet and focused. They have a group task board to follow which includes basic facts activities, follow up activities, ICT, and numeracy games. I am getting a lot of quality work out of them at this point. It is very rare when my group sessions are disturbed, which is great. The only thing I am trying to work on at this point is to allow for more time during each group session.

I am still unhappy with my Reading Planning. This is something I am going to change up completely over the school holidays. I do not want to do it now as the children will just get into it and then it will be the school holidays.
I observed another teacher's reading programme today. I noticed that she had a limited amount of Can Dos for the children to choose from. I also noticed that a must do for them was to silently read their story to themselves straight away. As I see 3 groups each day and the children get two books a week I think it would be a good idea to have the children silently read their book on a Monday and a Wednesday (these are the days that they get new books) and then buddy read on Tuesday and Thursday (they will be more familiar with their books on these days).
I am planning on doing a little bit of research and looking into what other reading activities I could use. I know that some children are getting bored and I would like to have activities that excite the children.

Reflection-Week 8

Thinking over the last week I have seen some other issues arise.

With my reading programme, when the children can move onto their 'can do's' many are gravitating to the same activity. This increases the noise volume of the room instantly. I have now started to put out can do's on the tables. There is now also a 6 person limit on an activity. This encourages the children to use the room space and to also find different activities for each day.
I am wondering if these children need more structure for their reading programme. A 'free for all' with the can do's is quite daunting for a couple of children. This session might be more manageable if I set tasks or a rotation for the children during this time.

In regards to Dezaiah's behaviour, I am noticing that he is sitting quietly for longer periods of time. Sometimes I have to give him warnings and then send him out of the room for some thinking time. When this occurs I have to have a private discussion with him about him making a choice- to either make good choices and follow instructions, or to lose some of his play time. He chooses to make good choices. This will work for a short period of time in the classroom, then he will start to call out again but not as loud. A RTLB referral has been put in place for him.
The children are aware that ignoring his behaviour is crucial as he is seeking their attention. I have one boy who is not ignoring him but is beginning to copy his behaviour. I can see this problem will snowball if I don't address it immediately. I am trying to praise this child and to encourage him to use his ignoring muscles.

My maths planning is coming along better than I had hoped. The children know what is expected of them, routines are becoming more concrete and quality work is being produced at this time. The only issue that has arsed at this point is that children are interrupting my group sessions by having issues with other children. I am beginning to encourage them to see three before me.

Behaviour Management

Here are some of the management strategies I have put in place for the children in my classroom.

I have colour coded desks in my classroom. Each group knows which colour they are. If the whole group is quiet and focused or they have put or their chairs out in the morning or they have tidied their area after a working session they will get a point. At the end of the week that group gets a prize out of the prize box. 

Each child is allocated to a house; red - care, blue - share, green - learn and yellow - grow. When the children are managing themselves, being helpful or are making good choices I will give them a house point. This is a school wide system where each house is competing to get the most points.

I have one child who displays challenging behaviours. I have set up a race track contract with him. Under the GO list are choices he can make that are positive and that will result in his car moving forwards. Under the STOP list are choices that are negative and that will result in his car moving backwards. It is very rare when I will move his car backwards. When he reaches the end of the track he is allowed to have 15 minutes on either the computer or ipad.

Classroom Displays

Here is an image of my Reading display:

I have all of the groups displayed with their WALT (fortnightly focus) clearly written for parent to see and for children to refer to. I use a modelling book for each group. I also have this on display for children to refer back to. This is helpful for parents to see and be aware of what their child is learning during their group time. I also have displayed some handy hits to help readers that I can pull down and use as a visual reminder. I have the Must Dos and Can Dos displayed here as well for the children to refer back to as a reminder during Reading time. 

Here is an image of my Writing display:

Here I have displayed some of the modelling I have done with the children for them to refer back to. I also have the writing process for Belfast School clearly displayed. This I will pull off the wall so the children can focus on different parts of the writing process. I also have the writing goals for each writing Level (1b, 1p and 1a). Up on this display is the criteria for writing marking and the symbols used for writing feedback. 

I have also displayed each child's writing on the wall. This is to help enhance their confidence and to allow them to feel proud of their work. The parents can read it and other children can read their writing as well. I try to put a new piece of work up each fortnight. 

Here is an image of my Maths display:

Similar to the Reading display I have all of the groups displayed with their WALT (fortnightly focus) clearly written for parent to see and for children to refer to. I use a modelling book for each group. I also have this on display for children to refer back to. I have the Maths Task Board which the children refer to as a reminder during Maths time. I also have a number of the day chart which can be a good hot spot in the morning. 

Here is an image of my ICT display. 

I have a WALT (focus) for both children and parents to refer to. I also have the Username and password clearly displayed for the children to refer to. I also have instructions to help remind the children how to shut down the computers. The children use different Maths and Reading websites such as Reading Eggs and Sumdog. The user names and passwords for this are inside a folder inside one of the desks.

Reflection Week 7

Well..... How do feel about my progress since my last reflection?

In regards to keeping in contact with parents, I am trying to email them on a Friday to let them know what is coming up for the week ahead. This way they can know exactly what is required from their child.

I have had many parents approach me about my reading programme. One was concerned that there was no incentive or consequence for children reading each night. I have reflected on this and I will update my prize box. When a child has read 25 nights they can get a prize. I might then buy a bigger prize for then they get to 50 or 100 nights.
I also had parents mention that children are getting bored with rereading their books at home. As children have only got 2 books a week, I am encouraging the children to get a book out of their browse box to take home. This is the children's responsibility to do.
Another parent was concerned their child was not being extended during reading time. Her child is very bright and there are other children that need to be extended. I have now started to put in place a reading contract for my elephant group and starting Term 2 I will be expecting my turtles to do the same.

I have been also thinking a lot about my morning routine. I have a list of things to get through: roll, karakia, waiata, star student sharing, revealing the new star student, milk roll, and the newsboard. I have been doing this as I remember and it has not been in the same sequential order. I think that this may be why the children are very unsettled in the morning as there is not a straight forward structure for them. I have jotted down the order of my morning routine and will stick to this each day. I have discussed this with my tutor teacher and she has said that as soon as the first bell goes she plays a song. This gives the children and the parents an indication that the day is about to start. This might be something fun to begin to implement into my morning routine.

So far I am very happy with my organisation. Reports a due in a week and I am nearly completed these.

When reflecting on my behaviour management, this still needs development and this is a focus for me. Dezaiah's contract does seem to be showing some promise. I am referring to this constantly with him and am encouraging to move his car forward. Every time he sits on the mat for a period of time without calling out or he puts up his quiet hand he can move it forward.  His reward is 15 minutes on the ipad. He enjoyed this reward last time. Still trialing this and closely monitoring this.

I am also trying to implement different ways of acknowledging children's different cultures. We are using different greeting and I am putting up a map to acknowledge where the children com from.

This week a responsibility had was so create cards for the duty teachers. This was a sickbay pass and a call for help pass. This is to make it clear that the children need to see the duty teacher for help if they think they need to go to the sick bay.

Overall it has been a great few weeks. The children are settling very well into the routines!

Questionnaire

Beginning my first year of teaching I have been thinking about the kinds of programmes to set up in my classroom. This has proved to be somewhat of a challenge as my lectures have recommended setting up a programme that caters for the needs of you students.

Well after a couple of weeks of teaching I still feel that I don't really know these children and their needs.

Another teacher at my school has sent home a small questionnaire to the parents about the child. This asks things such as current likes, dislikes, family cultures and anything else the parents think that I should know.

I found that after sending this out, the information I got back was really helpful as I could use this to guide the conversations I had with children (particularly the quiet ones) and help build a positive relationship with them. It was also helpful to use this information with my planning and t try to incorporate some of the things that the children like in their learning programme.

Room 7's Class Treaty

At the beginning of the year I discussed with Room 7 the expectations and rules for them. This correlated with the Treaty of Waitangi and the children begun to learn about the significance of this event. After talking about this we set up out own class treaty and the children signed it with a finger print. This is something I refer to when desired behaviour is being displayed and when undesired behaviour is being displayed.

Boundaries

As I am teaching Year 2 children it it very important to make the teaching of boundaries and expectations very explicit. This is something I was thinking about when it came to teaching the children about the school, where things were and where the children can and can't go.

On the very first day of school I took the children around the school and showed them where everything was and I explained all of the boundaries. As I went I took photos. These I created into a slide show which we revisited the next day. This reinforced the information I explained from the day before.  The visuals helped as a reminder as well.

Mid-Week 3 Reflection

Woooow! Week 3 already! It is amazing how fast the time goes!

Room 7 are beginning to follow routines better and better. We had to practice stopping, looking and listening for a bit as I noticed that I was starting to talk over top of children. We rehearsed this for a while and the children are much better at stopping and listening.

I have begun implementing my reading programme this week which involves must dos and can dos. I have 6 groups. I want to have time to really look into and break down a book so I see three groups a day and the other groups read all together. The children know to move onto their 'can dos' when they have finished their 'must dos.' I am monitoring their noise level at this point in time and their choice of activity.

I am now in the process of creating writing, maths and phonic groups for next week. I am using the data from last year to create my groups. I am looking forward to getting these underway so that the children are involved in a more structured routine.

I am thinking about my handwriting programme. At the moment I am teaching handwriting in a whole class context. However after a couple of weeks I may change this to a rotation. This will help me monitor children's handwriting more closely to check that they are forming their letters correctly. At this point I am thinking of having approximately 3 or 4 groups. One group will be with me with their handwriting book, one group could be forming letters with playdough, another group could be using the whiteboards. I will keep thinking about this and might make a plan.

I am working hard to keep in contact with parents. I am emailing them with reminders when something is coming up. I am aware of those children whose emails are not working so those parents get a written note home. I have sent out an introductory letter about myself. I also am making myself available from 8.30-9 and after 3 to talk to parents. Meet the teacher even is on Thursday 18/02. This will be a great opportunity for me to meet any parents that I haven't met yet.

Reflecting on Dezaiah's behaviour-He is looking for attention by calling out and being disruptive. I have spoken to his previous teachers and they have recommended that I be fair and firm with him. They also recommend that I set up a behaviour management programme for him. They say I need to get to know him, find out what he likes and build a relationship with his mother. I have created a racetrack and a contract for Dezaiah. He must obey his contract and his car moves forward. If he doesn't then his car moves backwards. When he reaches the finishing line he gets 10 minutes of free time on the computer.

Week One Completed!!! It has been a very exciting first week. We completed a class treaty while spending at least three sessions focusing on the Treaty of Waitangi. I also spent some time explaining the expectations of the school, where the children can go, their boundaries etc. The children are aware of the expectations of going up and down the stairs. I am happy with my classroom set up at this point. I can see everyone easily and there are not places where the children can hide from me. We did some circle time activities which helps the children to get to know each other. This has helped me to begin to get to know them. I decided to do an orienteering activity to help the children get to know where things are in the classroom. The language on the sheet was a little challenging for them. But the children really enjoyed the activity and it was great to see communication and team work :). There was some feedback from a parent about the sun shining on the bags during the day making their lunches very hot. I put up some black paper on the walls and this seems to have worked. I am thinking of using each window as focus for each term for care, share, learn and grow. :) I am already aware of some behavioural issues that I need to address and I am in the process of talking to these students previous teachers for advice on how to approach their behaviour appropriately. Next week.... I want to address their lining up and walking about the school. Very scattered! I also want to start a bit more art next week so that the children can be proud and more excited about their classroom. Overall I can't wait for next week. I am feeling very excited and positive at this point :)!!!!