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!