Storytelling - Recount

I did not receive professional development about transferring the storytelling process over from a familiar story to a recount about a child's experience. I decided that after the holidays I would use the same process to help the children write their story in-depthly and in a good sequence.

I adopted the hear map step and then write:
Hear: children shared their stories with more that one buddy.
Map: Children had to draw a story map of their holiday with at least 5 pictures. This was a challenge for some as the children had to rely on their own memory, I could not model their stories for them.
Step: Children stepped out their stories. Again this was a challenge as every child had their own story they could not do it in buddies.
Write: Children had to write 2 ideas per picture.

My findings: the children's sequencing of their ideas was better as they followed their map for recall of their experience. The language was not as in depth as the other stories. The children found some parts of this process a bit more challenging as they could not work with their peers.

Kupu O Te Wiki

The teacher at the school who is in charge of the cultural committee runs 'kupu o te wiki,' the Maori word of the week. I have recently begun helping her to distribute these to the other teachers to help prompt the use of te reo Maori in classrooms.

Last term we focused on the weather. This was great as this related to our inquiry for the term. Each morning I went over each one and the children had to choose the one that matched our weather for the day.

One thing that blew me away was that one of my children begun to use this knowledge in his writing. He used the Maori words to describe the weather in his story. It was so exciting to see!

Storytelling - Maui and the Sun

Maui and the Sun For this story I found resources harder to find but there were some interesting ones I used.  ·         Deepening: Instead of stepping Room 7 acted out this story in groups. They loved acting out the story and this helped them to remember it for later.  Completed a picture dictionary. This was useful to help develop the understanding of the Maori language incorporated in the story.  ·         Story sequencing: Putting images in order. Discussed the movie 'Moana' and compared the character Maui from the movie with the one in the book.  Read other Maori legends with the character Maui in it to further explore this character.  ·         Imitation: Retold the story in writing. ·         Invention: Wrote the sun was dangerous and how to protect yourself from it. Story picture sequencing: My findings: The children found acting out this story a lot of fun. I found for 6/7 year olds acting out the story was easier to grasp that stepping out the story.  Once again the retell of the story was very well written even with my reluctant writers. as they knew the story well and they had multiple resources to help them remember the story, they were not as reliant on me or my modelling to help them remember the story.

Reflection - Recording Myself

As part of the Incredible Years Training I am doing they recommend recording yourself teach and reflect on what you notice. This week something on my agenda has been to record myself teaching. This is something I have not done before and I felt quite uncomfortable about the idea.

It has been a few weeks since I was told to do it and I have only got up the nerve to do it. I gave a school iPad to my 'star of the day' and their job was to record me.

This actually worked really well. I had to have a laugh when the child's finger was in the way of the lens for a good 30 seconds.

Anyway....here were my findings:

• I noticed lot of non-verbal hand gestures, even while talking I was using my finger on my lips to stop children talking. 
• I enunciate A LOT! I was surprise how clear my voice was and it was very interesting to listen to. 
• Proximal praise: I noticed that I was doing this here and there and it was cool to see the children respond. 
• I was not speaking loudly all of the time. I was dropping my voice to quieten those whisperers. 
• Lesson was clear and I happy how it was modeled. All of the children knew what they had to do. 
• Next step: For me it is praise, praise, PRAISE! I still don't feel that I am doing this enough. It is so easy to focus on those children who are whispering to a buddy or aren't looking at you or who are getting a bit wriggly on the mat. I need to spend more time noticing and praising those children that are doing the task. 

Term 2 Week 6

I have been noticing more behaviour problems lately and most of them are occuring in one area of the classroom. this is the cubby hole area. I am finding that lots of children are hiding out in there and this is where they can begin to bother other children and swap toys.

How my classroom was set up my back was to the cubby hole so therefore, I could not see what was going on in there. I believe that the children were completely aware of this. I have now moved my teaching station so that I can see the cubby area while I am teaching. I have also done this so that my mat space is smaller. This way the children have to sit up close to me and this is limiting some distractions.

So far this is working well. Only one child has attempted to hide in there since and I could spot him moving straight away.

Storytelling - Three Billy Goats Gruff

For this story again I continued with most of the process from the previous stories but I am still consolidating this new knowledge and adding more things as I go.  Three Billy Goats Gruff: New Things I tried:  Read Big Books and picture books that relate to the story. These followed the same storyline but the endings where different and sometimes the characters were different.   Deepening: Acted out the story in groups from a play.  Completed a picture dictionary.  Incorporated puppets and retell activities in Reading. Invention: Created out own character description of a troll. Picture Dictionary: Great for ESOL learners!  My findings:  The discussion after reading the different versions of story was great as the children could pick out all of the different things that did not match the version of the story that they were familiar with. At first I was worried that this would confuse them but instead it consolidated their knowledge of the story and it also provided them with more vocabulary to include in their own writing.  I also found that the detail of my writers retell of this story was fantastic! Most children included quotes from all three stories, including the play. Their writing had a clear sequence and I believe that the mapping process has helped this.

Term 2 Week 4

This term is already flying by......

I have one child in my classroom that is on a behaviour management plan and she has lots of other people who are supporting her. One thing I have been thinking about is changing her reward scheme.

Last year she loved Barbies and she would earn 'Barbie time.' She had to earn 4 barbie stickers to get this. Barbie time would be to play a game with a friend for 10 minutes. This also helped her social skills.

I adopted the exact same plan as this was working for her and it was familiar for her. Now into Term 2 I am finding the Barbie slightly frustrating. It can take her time to choose a game, she can be quite noisy and distracting when the game is being played and more time is taken up when it is time to pack up. I found it was taking up a lot of my time to preempt her when it was time to pack up and to constantly check if she was cleaning up the game.

We are very fortunate to have a school dog and she loves him to bits. So instead of earning Barbie time she now earns Benji time. This means that after she has earned 5 pictures of him she can go and pat him with a buddy 5 times. This takes less time and there is no mess to pack up. She then said that she would rather walk him. So to compromise I said that every fifth time she earns 'Benji time" she could take him for a walk with a buddy and an adult.

So far this is working really well. She is excited to go and see Benji and it is less time consuming for me :)!