Term 4 Week 6

It has been a wee while since my last reflection.

It has been so busy at school lately while we begin the preparations for next year. I have been assessing all of the children's reading so I can enter accurate data into the school's data base. I have also tested all of those children whose reports are due for Numeracy. I have assessed the whole class for their numeracy knowledge and I have assessed the whole classes writing through a writing sample.

I am now in the process of completing the reports for those children who are due for reports. This is a big process but I am slowly crossing it all of my list.

I have also had to assess the ESOL children against the standards. Therefore I have to assess their writing, listening and oral language. This is to establish what stage they are working at and whether they are still needed to be funded.

I have completed referral forms for certain children. This was about recording those children who are below the standard or who have specific needs that need to be catered for. At the start of the year I recorded what their needs were and what I was going to do about it. I have assessed and evaluated these and I have decided if I felt that they should remain on the referral system or if they should be taken off it.

I now need to think about those children in my class that need to be transitioned into next year. I do have some children that do not cope very well when the routine is not the norm. These children will need a class visit and be able to meet their teacher for next year. I will also forward particular information to their next years teacher to prepare them.

Overall I feel I am going well. I am meeting dead lines and I am working hard to keep up. It will be very interesting how I go next year when I have less release days and more time in the classroom.

I am enjoying my class so much. It is great to see how much their self management has blossomed. I will miss them next year.

Term 4 - Week 3

Soooo Orana Park was a success! I felt this was organised well and the children had a great day. Whooo!

I am thinking more and more about my practice and changes that I can make for next year.
Something I am really considering is setting a job chart for children. The state of the classroom and the shelves is not being looked after and this just adds an extra job.

I am also thinking about displaying the writing process in a fun and inviting way. I have seen this on line. I would love to adapt it so that it fits with the Belfast school writing process. I like how it clearly shows where the children are working. This similar to what some of the other teachers are doing at this school. It would fit in well with my programme as we spend more that 1 day on a piece of writing.

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.