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.