Manaiakalani - Sharing Blog Knowledge

Today in our staff session I looked at a blog and the benefits of having a blog. I looked at Simon Scott's Blog. He is a Deputy Principal at Hornby Primary School. He discussed that as part of his learning journey with Manaiakalani he assigned his students the task of creating a blog for their learning journey. He said that it was exciting to see the high levels in engagement with the children as they were sharing their knowledge with their peers via their blogs.
A focus for him was teaching the children to comment on other peoples posts. To do this the children followed the following criteria:  

He stated that  "following this template it has stopped children from giving shallow feedback like 'Good work',  'Awesome, well done!'.  Their comments now are full of advice or questions that promote further learning or initiate a learning conversation.  But the biggest impact to the students learning has been the improvement of punctuation in their writing.  This has been transformational!  Through the combination of the  3 steps to writing a comment and having an authentic audience the children's punctuation has improved out of sight. "

When reflecting on my classroom environment I do not feel that teaching the children to have their own blog will be beneficial. Due to the age group this will be a struggle to monitor and teach the children. However I like the idea of the 'Positive, Thoughtful and Helpful Feedback.' This is something that I could teach the children to do after following a learning experience, whether this is Writing, Reading, Mathematics, Performing Art, etc. This could be done verbally to help the children develop the ability to listen and accept feedback from their peers.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.