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.