Communication

Something that is so so important is communication with parents and keeping them in the loop with what is happening in the classroom.

Every Friday I am sending out an email explaining up coming notices and what they need to help their children prepare for.

I have found that this helped the children have everything they need at school. My only issue is that I am unsure of how many parents are reading this email.

We also have a large whiteboard that we sit outside the classroom door with the upcoming events for each day on it. This is great for parents to see as they come in and it caters for those parents who do not have an email address.

Writing Buddies

Something I am finding is that teaching time goes so quickly! I find it so hard to meet with my writing groups and conference with them.

I have some very capable writers in my room and I have some children that find this such a challenge.

Something that I am trialing is a system called 'writing buddies.' I met with my more capable writers and we talked about how we could help our peers and what our goals could be. I formatted their ideas in an order and put this on a check list. The children keep this with them when they meet with their buddies and help guide their writing. I selected only a few children to see how this works.

So far it is working well. Some children are really embracing the leadership role this is giving them.

Next year I might simplify this but have the whole class working with a buddy to conference with.

Handwriting Incentive

I have recently noticed the children's focus and care slipping a bit during Handwriting time. It is clear that some children are not producing their best work during this time.

I have decided to include more management strategies to increase the positive reinforcement in my room. Each Handwriting session there is an incentive for those children with their neatest work and who have been following instructions beautifully to receive a handwriting brag tag. They also get to sit out of Handwriting the next time and they use the Handwriting app (School Fonts: Learn to Write).I feel that it is important to reiterate to the children that it is about the neatest work that they can produce, not their friends. It is about their progress and the work that they put in, not about comparing their work to other peoples. Each time I document those children who have had a turn to make sure that each child gets to experience success.

So far I have found that the children are very hopeful to receive the reward of the Brag tag and a turn on the ipads. Some children are taking more care with their work and if they are reminded they are following instructions better.

This app is great as I also can instruct children who need extra support in handwriting to use it during reading time as a rotation activity.

Storytelling - The Little Red Hen

The Little Red Hen ·         Hear, map, step (acting it out.) ·         Read different versions of the story. ·         Deeping: Completed plot matrix and mood map. Children have acted out the story in groups. Sculpt characters from the story with playdough. ·         Imitation: Retold the story in Writing. Example of the map and the story sequence pictures: Children drawing their own story map: Children stepping out/acting out the story: Sculptures of the Little Red Hen:

Inquiry - In the Hood

This term we are focusing on the history of Belfast School. We discussed the important people in a community and what they do to help us.

As an activity before school the children can sort out the important people in a community and what things they use. This will help the children draw on their prior knowledge about how these people help them and why a community needs these people. The children have been using this wall and it it great to see them sorting the pictures correctly. It is a great assessment tool to quietly watch them complete this activity in case there are any next learning steps that need to be addressed. 

Storytelling - Recount

I did not receive professional development about transferring the storytelling process over from a familiar story to a recount about a child's experience. I decided that after the holidays I would use the same process to help the children write their story in-depthly and in a good sequence.

I adopted the hear map step and then write:
Hear: children shared their stories with more that one buddy.
Map: Children had to draw a story map of their holiday with at least 5 pictures. This was a challenge for some as the children had to rely on their own memory, I could not model their stories for them.
Step: Children stepped out their stories. Again this was a challenge as every child had their own story they could not do it in buddies.
Write: Children had to write 2 ideas per picture.

My findings: the children's sequencing of their ideas was better as they followed their map for recall of their experience. The language was not as in depth as the other stories. The children found some parts of this process a bit more challenging as they could not work with their peers.

Kupu O Te Wiki

The teacher at the school who is in charge of the cultural committee runs 'kupu o te wiki,' the Maori word of the week. I have recently begun helping her to distribute these to the other teachers to help prompt the use of te reo Maori in classrooms.

Last term we focused on the weather. This was great as this related to our inquiry for the term. Each morning I went over each one and the children had to choose the one that matched our weather for the day.

One thing that blew me away was that one of my children begun to use this knowledge in his writing. He used the Maori words to describe the weather in his story. It was so exciting to see!

Storytelling - Maui and the Sun

Maui and the Sun For this story I found resources harder to find but there were some interesting ones I used.  ·         Deepening: Instead of stepping Room 7 acted out this story in groups. They loved acting out the story and this helped them to remember it for later.  Completed a picture dictionary. This was useful to help develop the understanding of the Maori language incorporated in the story.  ·         Story sequencing: Putting images in order. Discussed the movie 'Moana' and compared the character Maui from the movie with the one in the book.  Read other Maori legends with the character Maui in it to further explore this character.  ·         Imitation: Retold the story in writing. ·         Invention: Wrote the sun was dangerous and how to protect yourself from it. Story picture sequencing: My findings: The children found acting out this story a lot of fun. I found for 6/7 year olds acting out the story was easier to grasp that stepping out the story.  Once again the retell of the story was very well written even with my reluctant writers. as they knew the story well and they had multiple resources to help them remember the story, they were not as reliant on me or my modelling to help them remember the story.

Reflection - Recording Myself

As part of the Incredible Years Training I am doing they recommend recording yourself teach and reflect on what you notice. This week something on my agenda has been to record myself teaching. This is something I have not done before and I felt quite uncomfortable about the idea.

It has been a few weeks since I was told to do it and I have only got up the nerve to do it. I gave a school iPad to my 'star of the day' and their job was to record me.

This actually worked really well. I had to have a laugh when the child's finger was in the way of the lens for a good 30 seconds.

Anyway....here were my findings:

• I noticed lot of non-verbal hand gestures, even while talking I was using my finger on my lips to stop children talking. 
• I enunciate A LOT! I was surprise how clear my voice was and it was very interesting to listen to. 
• Proximal praise: I noticed that I was doing this here and there and it was cool to see the children respond. 
• I was not speaking loudly all of the time. I was dropping my voice to quieten those whisperers. 
• Lesson was clear and I happy how it was modeled. All of the children knew what they had to do. 
• Next step: For me it is praise, praise, PRAISE! I still don't feel that I am doing this enough. It is so easy to focus on those children who are whispering to a buddy or aren't looking at you or who are getting a bit wriggly on the mat. I need to spend more time noticing and praising those children that are doing the task. 

Term 2 Week 6

I have been noticing more behaviour problems lately and most of them are occuring in one area of the classroom. this is the cubby hole area. I am finding that lots of children are hiding out in there and this is where they can begin to bother other children and swap toys.

How my classroom was set up my back was to the cubby hole so therefore, I could not see what was going on in there. I believe that the children were completely aware of this. I have now moved my teaching station so that I can see the cubby area while I am teaching. I have also done this so that my mat space is smaller. This way the children have to sit up close to me and this is limiting some distractions.

So far this is working well. Only one child has attempted to hide in there since and I could spot him moving straight away.

Storytelling - Three Billy Goats Gruff

For this story again I continued with most of the process from the previous stories but I am still consolidating this new knowledge and adding more things as I go.  Three Billy Goats Gruff: New Things I tried:  Read Big Books and picture books that relate to the story. These followed the same storyline but the endings where different and sometimes the characters were different.   Deepening: Acted out the story in groups from a play.  Completed a picture dictionary.  Incorporated puppets and retell activities in Reading. Invention: Created out own character description of a troll. Picture Dictionary: Great for ESOL learners!  My findings:  The discussion after reading the different versions of story was great as the children could pick out all of the different things that did not match the version of the story that they were familiar with. At first I was worried that this would confuse them but instead it consolidated their knowledge of the story and it also provided them with more vocabulary to include in their own writing.  I also found that the detail of my writers retell of this story was fantastic! Most children included quotes from all three stories, including the play. Their writing had a clear sequence and I believe that the mapping process has helped this.

Term 2 Week 4

This term is already flying by......

I have one child in my classroom that is on a behaviour management plan and she has lots of other people who are supporting her. One thing I have been thinking about is changing her reward scheme.

Last year she loved Barbies and she would earn 'Barbie time.' She had to earn 4 barbie stickers to get this. Barbie time would be to play a game with a friend for 10 minutes. This also helped her social skills.

I adopted the exact same plan as this was working for her and it was familiar for her. Now into Term 2 I am finding the Barbie slightly frustrating. It can take her time to choose a game, she can be quite noisy and distracting when the game is being played and more time is taken up when it is time to pack up. I found it was taking up a lot of my time to preempt her when it was time to pack up and to constantly check if she was cleaning up the game.

We are very fortunate to have a school dog and she loves him to bits. So instead of earning Barbie time she now earns Benji time. This means that after she has earned 5 pictures of him she can go and pat him with a buddy 5 times. This takes less time and there is no mess to pack up. She then said that she would rather walk him. So to compromise I said that every fifth time she earns 'Benji time" she could take him for a walk with a buddy and an adult.

So far this is working really well. She is excited to go and see Benji and it is less time consuming for me :)!

Movement Breaks - Fitness

Teaching Year 2's it is very important to give them regular movement breaks and release some energy.

Each morning just before writing the children and I do a Jump Jam song. I usually have this music on my phone and I use my speaker. The children watch and copy me as they dance. The children have really enjoyed this as their teacher is getting involved and dancing too. I am constantly calling out positive praise and reinforcing those children who are doing the right thing and are making good choices.

One negative is that if there are children down the back of the room who are not making good choices and aren't keeping their hands and feet to themselves, I can't stop and go sort the problem straight away as the children are copying me. It is not as effective sorting the problem later as it is sorting it straight away. I have set up more boundaries, e.g. have the children all in places in the room where I can see them, repeating songs so that the children are familiar with them and do not need to rely on watching me, spotting a top girl and boy who are giving it their all, having those children who struggle to manage themselves to dance near me.

I have recently trialed using the data projector and the children watch the dances on here. This means the children are not watching me and this frees me up to dance near those children who struggle to manage themselves. Once negative about this is that it takes longer to set up and sometimes it doesn't work. But this is great when it all goes to plan!

Reinforcing Positive Behaviour

This term I have noticed that many of my children are somewhat aware of the rules and expectations of the classroom but they are still breaking these rules. One boy in particular seems to constantly by talking while I'm talking and distracting his peers.

Therefore, instead of telling him what he is doing wrong, Incredible Years has constantly reinforced the idea to be positive and praise the children for doing the right thing. This has helped develop a more positive relationship with this child.

I have been focusing on catching this child out and praising him whenever he does the right thing and ignoring when he doesn't. I have noticed this working so I emailed home to his parents and commented on how impressed I was with his attitude towards his learning and how much he had improved. I found that this further reinforced this positive behaviour and since this email I have not had to focus on his behaviour so much.

Behaviour management strategies

As noted in older comments I have kept similiar behaviour management strategies from last and continued to use them for my class this year. In reflecting on these it is amazing to notice just how differently they are working. In all honesty they are not working as well as they were. The classroom dynamics this year is so different and the children are not as competitive this year. As these strategies are well imbedded into my programme I am reluctant to change all this yet. I am thinking of ways to change it subtly as first but this is proving to be more of a challenge as some of these children are not interested in earning a reward.

Is a little bit of a head scratcher at this point but I will continue to think of possible changes that will benefit these children.

Storytelling - Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Goldilocks and the Three Bears The next story I focused on was Goldilocks and the three bears. I used the same process as the previous story but this time I added some different deepening activities. This helps the children get the know the story in more detail and exposes them to more language features that they can use in their writing.  ·         Read different versions of the story and made comparisons. ·         Same process as above but this time we completed a Mood Map and discussed the feelings of the characters throughout the story. ·         Deepening: Created character descriptions with brainstorms of WOW words. Acted out the characters around the room and described how they looked, felt, liked, disliked.  ·         Imitation: Retold the story in writing. Character Description: Mood Map: My Findings: I found that the reluctant writers where more engaged as they were involved in acting out the characters and the discussions around the key words.  I also found that the writing produced had more rich language although it was still written in mainly simple sentences and there was not a very clear sequence of writing yet.

Maths - Strand - Shape

These past few weeks our focus in Maths has been about shape.

To begin this unit I did a diagnostic assessment to assess the knowledge that the children currently had about the topic before any learning occurred. This was great as it helped me to develop an understanding of the knowledge that the children have.

At the end of the unit I gave the children the same assessment to serve as a Summative assessment. This was great as the children were familiar with the test as they had done it before. It also helped me to develop an understanding of what knowledge the children learned.

Throughout this unit, before each lesson I showed the children a youtube clip that related to the key learning objectives of the lesson. This was a great way to harness the attention of the children and to get them excited about their learning. It is also another way of enhancing their learning as these clips were presented with songs, music and different visuals, a different method of catching the children's attention.

Assessment Week

So far in my teaching career I have realised how difficult it can be to monitor children's progress and ensuring that the learning I am giving them is at the right level.

My tutor teacher has helped me here as she has recommended having assessment weeks near the end of each term.

This means I give the children plenty of learning opportunities for the week that allow the children to practise the key things that they have been taught without my assistance. This way I can pull children away form their learning and assess their reading with a Running Record and their Maths.

This has helped me to constantly readjust my planning and my learning groups to help ensure that the learning is catered to the needs of the children.

At the end of each term I have also asked each child to produce a writing sample so I can assess the progress they have made with their writing over the term.

Brag Tags!!!!!

The whole syndicate is now on board with the Brag Tag behaviour management scheme. The children each have a brag tag and when they have made an achievement they earn a brag tag. These look great on the wall and the children are excited about them. I like the children to have a goal to work towards and when they achieve the goal then they get the brag tag. I have a Brag tag of the week display as a reminder and when children are working towards earning the brag tag then their name is put on the display.

 I spent a long time making brag tags for the syndicate to use and occasionally adding more to our pile.

Storytelling - the gingerbread man

Story: The Gingerbread Man The school where I am working has a focus on Storytelling at the moment. This focuses on oral language and writing where children engage with one chosen story and pick apart in-depthly. The children learn more language features and this helps them to sequence their writing as well as add more detail to their writing. The first story I tried this with was the gingerbread man.  With storytelling you begin with the process of Hear, Map, Step, Speak.  Here are some things I did for this story:  ·         Acted out the story multiple times, sometimes used children to help. ·         Mapped out key parts of the story. ·         Went outside to step out the story. ·         Imitation: Retold the story in writing. ·         Invention: Missing posters for the gingerbread man.

Managing the feelings in the Classroom

I have found that many children are really struggling to manage their feelings. When they are frustrated some children are responding by hitting their friends.

To prevent this and to help the children to manage their feelings I have put a few new routines in place in the classroom. I have put a red bean bag in the classroom as a cooling down area. This is where the children can sit if they need some quiet time.I also have created a rocket out of cardboard and tin foil. This is another place the children can go if they need some quiet time. This is a more private place if they do not want to be noticed and want privacy.

 The children at the moment are not very comfortable using the calming area as they feel that they are being naughty and will get negative attention for using it. I have been trying to promote this use by prompting children to go there if they are frustrated. I am praising those children who use it. I am using a puppet 'Stanley.' He makes lots of mistakes. I am using role play with him to model when it is a good idea to use the thinking spot.

However, when the children do hit, they have broken the classroom rules and they are sent to the timeout area. This has a visual traffic light where the children can read it for some prompts to think about their actions. They can also use the Calm Down Thermometer to mark how they are feeling.

The children are aware of the routines of the cal down area and the time out area. I need to continue to promote the calm down area.

Treaty of Waitangi

This is such an important part of history for the children to be aware of. It something that I wanted children to know and have an accurate understanding of this history.

I found on line on a site called Teacherspayteachers a book that explains the story in a simple form that is great for Juniors.

I also found a scavenger hunt that the children really enjoyed running around the playground and trying to find the answers to the questions. I did this with the other junior class. Only issue that I found was that some children did not know how to read the information so next time I do this I might do it with my buddy class. Will be a great way to start the year!

Promoting Self Management!

I am trying really hard to promote self management this year and encourage children to take responsibility for their choices.

 Here is an image of a wall that is easily accessible to the children. They refer to this wall to help them to get themselves ready for the day. There is also photos of each child that they move onto the rocket to 'sign in' for the day. I am trying to remind children to complete these tasks before the 8:55 bell.

I found last year that my shelves were at total mess. Therefore, equipment was going missing and it took me a long time to tidy and reorganise each term. I have now created a classroom jobs chart. Each week the pegs change and each child has a job to complete at the end of the day. I play a tidy up song to encourage them to stay focused and to get tidied up within a time frame. It sounds silly but after the song the children quickly turn themselves into a pencil shape. This give me their full attention and prevents any children sneaking off to pack their bags. Once again - promoting self management from the children!

Term 1 Week 3 - Class Treaty

What a start to the Term! I have forgotten how hectic things can be.

Room have finally created our treaty and, of course, this is space themed. I had this structured with words to help the children think of rules they may have wanted in their classroom. This looks great. However I have not been referring to it very much. I may have to move it to a more central part of the classroom. Therefore it will available as a more visual reminder for myself and for children.

Reading Eggs

At our school, all children have a Reading Eggs log in. This is accessible through the use of an ipad or a computer. My classroom has two of each available.

This programme is great as the children can read age appropriate books and then answer comprehension questions about the book. The teacher can assign specific books for reading groups to read. There are also many different word games where the children can practise their letter-sound association skills, high frequency word spelling skills and many more.

Big Books are available and I have used these before and put them up on the data projector to read as a whole class. This is more visually accessable for the children.

I utilise this best at Reading time as it is a rotation for the children. I record those children who have had a turn so that each child hopefully has an opportunity to use this programme if not once a week then once a fortnight.

The children enjoy this programme very much and it is great to see their focus during reading time. The children can also access this at home as a home learning activity.

Term 1 2017!!!!

Whooo Blasting off into my second year of teaching. I have had heaps of fun .... maybe too much... decorating my classroom as a space theme this year. Some children were excited about this and have even given me the nick name - Rocket Teacher.

This last image is the behaviour rocket. It works the same way as the weather chart I had up last year. The children move their names up for when they are making GREEN (good) choices and they move their name down if they are making RED (bad) choices. The children self manage their rockets. At the end of the day if they reach the top they get house points.