Term 2 Week 5

I am trying to help the syndicate out with odd jobs here and there that can ease the work load a little for others. I have created some playground card rules that are used as visual reminders for children. The duty teachers can use this to help remind them to keep vigilant.

It has been discussed the behaviour in the playground and how we can manage this better. We have talked about the need for sports gear to be put out for the children so that they have something more constructive to do during their break times.
My tutor teacher and I are organising the playground equipment into some kind of container. I am hoping to collate all of our sports gear so I can take a photo and create a stock sheet. This will make it easier for us to keep track of the sports equipment.

I am trying to focus on sending an agenda out to parents via email each Friday or Sunday. This is to give them a heads up on what is coming up for the week. It is an opportunity for them to reply with any questions or concerns that they may have.

Helen and I have reflected on the incorporation of Wordlab. At the moment I am trying to fit it in during Newsboard time. I am finding this very muddly as it doesn't link in with Maths which comes next. It also doesn't flow well as there is not time for the children to write the words which is very important. This makes it not meaningful for the children. They can not link this learning with their writing. I have talked to Helen and we have decided it is better to focus on the Our Words and teach the wordlab during Phonics time as the spelling patterns link with Yolanda Soryls phonics programme.

I had previously mentioned meeting with the DP about Dezaiah.  She has created a chart for him. She came in and taught him how the chart works. The other children were asking why Dezaiah has this and they don't. The DP discussed that all children have different needs and that this is what Dezaiah needs. I think that the children need an incentive to help Dezaiah with this. I am thinking about talking to them and explaining that when Dezaiah's chart changed from 3 to 6 boxes, the whole class gets 5 minutes extra play. This will be more of an incentive for Dezaiah as he will be in control of if the class can get the extra play.

Term 2 Week 4

What a couple of weeks it has been!

Dezaiah's behaviour has been fluctuating a lot lately. Some days I find that he can be challenging, other days he is great. I am trying to actively record observations of his behaviour to see if there is any corresponding patterns. I have spoken to the Deputy Principl about his behaviour and she mentioned the amount of time the children spend on the mat. I have thought about this and I am now trying to include more movement breaks.
I then spoke to the other Deputy Principal regarding whether he needed a RTLB referral. She has offered me her help regarding his behaviour. We talked about is contract and we ave decided that the reason it is not working is that I haven't referred to it enough and also because 10 steps to get to a rewards is too much for him. She has created a new template which involves moving 3 pictures. We target one single behaviour. Every time he shows the desired behaviour a picture is moved. When all three are moved, he gets a reward. Once he is doing this a lot, the template changes to 6 pictures, then 9, then 12. Once he has been on the 12 template for a while and can do this successfully, We start again but with another behaviour to target. I am looking forward to beginning to implement this new behaviour strategy.

A focus for my teaching as inquiry is writing and how to implement more oral language. I am including more think, peer, share time. I am also trying to get children to say sentences and stand up the front. I have 5 children each with a sentence and they tell the recount or procedure writing. This encourages more oral language and less talking from me.
I discussed this with the Deputy Principal and she recommended having the children break off into groups and repeat the 5 sentences together in their group. This will encourage more oral language.
I also went and observed Julie Winton's writing programme. She had amazing structure and her modelling book was fantastic. Please refer to my observation as this has a lot of self reflection.
The main thing I thought about was that she gave her children a purpose for their writing. She talked about who would read it and why it is important to think about this. Therefore, I have created the star writers club. This is where I choose (or my class could choose) 3 children to have their writing published on the class blog.

This week my class and I ran the Syndicate Assembly. This was very nerve racking for me but I was very proud of Room 7. Some children shared their half portraits and other were readers to introduce the assembly. We had practised on the Friday and the children who were reading practised their lines over the weekend. Then we practised again on the Monday before. The ICT didn't fail (THANK GOODNESS). It was a well run assembly. Next time it would be cool to perform a jumpjam dance or something like that. I think Room 7 would enjoy that.

Term 2 Week 2

I am settling more into the new routines set up. I had changed a lot over the holidays and it has taken we a wee while to get used to my own changed. The children are dealing with this really well and are settling into this routine.

The rotation is fantastic! I don't have to remind the children of their noise level very much. They know exactly where they need to be and they are focused.

Helen and I have thinking about my term goals and trying to make sure that these align with the New Zealand Teachers Criteria. We are going to look over these in more depth and create goals that interlink with these.

Thinking about my students learning......I think I am catering quite well for those children who are my priority learners. I make sure that I am seeing them everyday and including them in extra workshops.
However I have many children who are above the standard and I am worried that they are getting bored or aren't being challenged enough, particularly with their reading. I may need to talk to some experts about how to extend those children who need to be challenged.

Overall I feel like I am on cloud nine :). I could not be happier with how things are going. I enjoy being reflective and changing those things that do not work.

Rehashing Blog

I am just thinking about my blog and how to make this more organised for people who view it.
I am adding more labels that correlate with the Registered Teacher's Criteria.

Term 2 - Week 1

Wow! Lots to reflect on this week!

In the holidays Helen and I got together and went  over our reading planning. We talked about how we had so many reading groups and that we were struggling to get through  them all. So we decided to do an interchange. We completed running records for our whole classes. Then we collated these all together and identified each child's next step in learning. We also identified our priority learners (those children that are below the standard). We managed to bring the groups down to 10 groups-5 each. I adapted my programme so that it is similar to Helen's and created a visual for the children to refer to.
There are 3 rotations. The first rotation is always browse box reading which is time manageable with Phonics just before Reading. During this time I take my priority learning group every day. This is helpful for them as the classroom is silent for their reading.
I have decided to focus on this routine with the children and making sure that they know this Reading routine thoroughly. This will make Reading time much more time efficient, allowing more time for focused Reading sessions.
I am much more excited to teach Reading. This is more manageable and it is more clear to me when to give out focused Reading activities.
As there are less children on each activity, their volume is much quieter, meaning my group can hear me and focus much better.

I have also reflected on behaviour management. I have created a visual chart for the entire class. Most of their behaviour is fine but there is still a lot of calling out on the mat and some children are not stopping and listening straight away. This chart will target those children without them realising that it is to help their behaviour. So far this chart is working very well. It requires self management-I tell the children when they can move their own name.

So far I am excited about the Term. My goals are to focus on my Reading programme and to have this running to my standard by the end of the term.
I am also focusing on the behaviour management and having the children stop straight away and limit the calling out during mat time.

Reflection-Week 11-Final Week of Term 1!

My first term is nearly completed!!!!

I have had an observation of my reading programme by my tutor teacher Helen. This was very beneficial to me as I now understand what needs to be improved. The must do's and can do's are not working very well. A lot of children are walking around and are not focused on one activity. Also I have many children coming up to me and interrupting my reading sessions. Lastly the children are still unfamiliar with the routine of getting themselves organised for the reading session.
Reflecting on this, first week of next term all groups will have the WALT: know the routines for each reading session. This means that they come straight to the jellybean table, they get out their reading log book and put it in front of me, they pull out their book from yesterday, put their reading folders under their chair and then begin to read their book silently. I am also going to introduce C3B4ME. This will prevent the children from interrupting so much. I wondered if my instructions were not clear enough but Helen believes that my instructions are very clear and precise.
We are also planning on working collaboratively in Reading. We are going to collate all of our running records and create groups of both our classes. This will mean less groups so that we can spend more time with the reading groups and see the children more often. We are going to work together to create reading activities which will focus on comprehension. I will adapt my reading programme so that it is more structured and will be similar to how Helen has hers set up. Hopefully this plan of action will help!

I have spent this past week focusing on assessment. I would like to spend my holidays going over these assessments to check that I have the children at the correct level and that I am catering for their needs. I have done a running record on every child except one (who is currently in China) and he will be assessed next term. I have done a writing sample for all children. I have tested all of their abilities for phonics. I have also tested their spelling as I plan to begin to implement some wordlab teaching next term. Lastly I have done a pretest and post-test for the Stand Maths-Algebra.

The trip last week was fantastic! It was really well organised. I had arranged to have 6 parent helpers and had planned to keep some of my behavioural children seperated. They each had an information pack with a timetable, the names of their group, a map and copies of the two scavenger hunts. Each child had a name badge. The children are in the process of creating thank you letters for the parents who helped. These will be completed tomorrow to hand out to the parents.

Helen and I have spent sometime this week thinking about the holidays and giving the children a work book to work from. We have created this together and we have decided that it is not compulsory as the children need to have a break. I am also going to send home some books for the children to read over the holidays if they choose to.

I have had a meeting with Sonia, who is involved with the ESOL children. She has given me some help with including more oral language in my teaching of Writing. She has shown me some naughts and crosses ideas where children play this using key words and orally putting them into a sentence. This will be very helpful with the writing plan for next term, procedural writing. This way I will be able to talk about those context that are unfamiliar to the children. She is also going to help me find some sentence starters and writing prompts for the children.

Overall I am very impressed with my own personal efforts this term. I have been very organised and trying to complete jobs as soon as they come up. Therefore I have not been very stressed and have been super happy with my own work!

I am aware of some of my weaknesses and I can't wait to begin to address these next term!

Inquiry Wall

Here is an image of my Inquiry display. This was not something I've put together in 5 minutes. I have added to it over the term. It has a big visual of the children's votes for the flag referendum. This incorporates some mathematics with the telechart. It includes brainstorms that the children and I have constructed together. It also includes images of the school trip to the museum. This is great as it is a reminder for the children about what they saw. They love to see themselves in photos!!!! It's also great for those parents who didn't come along to see what the children got up to.