Week 3 Reflection - Term 2 - 2016

Writing

Last week Jan, Virginia and myself got together to collaborate ideas around Writing and plan what we would like to cover over the term. Over the next three weeks the children will be learning to make their stories more interesting by adding detail. They will know they have achieved this if they can add WOW words and use their senses in their stories. Last week we did Leaves as the topic for Writing. The children loved going outside to rake the leaves off the footpath. They were really excited to give lots of ideas for the different senses. I was really impressed by the Writing produced by the children and am looking forward to seeing more progress over the next few weeks when we do the topics, Bubbles and Pop-corn. I began ability groups for Writing this week also. Last year I found my Writing to be really successful working with Writing groups. This year I had began Writing as a whole class due to the many children being out of the classroom in our Writing slot (MST children and Te Tipuranga) but I didn't feel I was covering the needs of the children as well as working with smaller ability groups. The children seem to be loving working in groups for Writing and I felt the Writing produced this week was fantastic. It was easier to really focus on not only the needs of each separate group but individual needs also.

Team Assembly

Woooohoooo!!! It was our time to shine in our team assembly. Not having planned for a team assembly, I was super excited for my children to share some of their learning and to get some of my less confident children up on stage to speak in front of the team and not the whole school. The children who spoke really got a confidence boost and were grinning from ear to ear about getting up on stage. I had set some challenging expectations for some children and they made me so proud! Jabez and Shamony shared their full Mihi and it was great to share some things that the children have been doing in class on a powerpoint. Team assembly is a fantastic opportunity for children to present/share their work in front of children, parents and teachers. 

Powerpoint:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PpNISGjbo1h-rU0bLV86IP9dDm_dZSDAD_bKD-csL5Q/edit#slide=id.p4

PB4L

I had a wonderful experience going to Linwood North School to do their set with Glenys. It was a great learning opportunity and I came away with many ideas to promote positive behaviour for learning in my classroom. At Linwood they mentioned they teach a PB4L lesson each morning from 9 - 9.30am. They have displays visible for all children to see what their PB4L focus is for the week and every child has a great understanding about what PB4L is and the rewards they can gain from demonstrating what is expected of them. This week (Monday WK4 T2) I taught a following instructions PB4L lesson and I'm going to try teaching/re-teaching/revising expectations etc over the week as well as making sure I have a new PB4L focus each week. As Sandra (Principal - Linwood North) mentioned, Positive Behaviour for Learning is needed before anything, whether that is Mathematics, Reading etc. They have really strong systems in place for each teacher to follow and is used effectively throughout their whole school. 

Autism New Zealand

Monday the 18th of April Robyn Young came to Addington School to present to the staff about Autism and Autism New Zealand. I currently have one student in my class who has recently been diagnosed with Autism and have another child joining our class at the beginning of next term. The information Robyn presented to us was very helpful. She also provided us with ideas to use in the classroom. Something that really stuck walking away from the meeting with Robyn was about difference and that even though as teachers we are open to teaching in an environment that accepts culture of difference, we also need to teach this to our children to enable them to be accepting to all. "We are all different. The world would be a boring place if we were all the same. Sometimes there's a name for difference and one of those words is Autism." Words that also come to mind are TRUST AND POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS - Although this is aways a focus for me to have with all my students, trust and positive relationships with their teachers is really important for children with Autism. 

Robyn mentioned a positive way to share and explain what Autism is to children.  

DVD: In My Shoes 

http://www.inmyshoes.co.nz/

As one person with Autism describes it:

It's isolation of a special type that us strong and protective. It is a way of living in a unique whole personality separate from others. A quiet shy life can be happy too. Negative descriptions come from those who observe on the outside. I have beautiful experiences that I would never give away."

My understanding of Autism is that people with the disorder have trouble communicating and relating to people around them. The disorder varies from person to person. People who have Autism are born with the disorder and it can't be medically tested for. Some difficulties include social-emotional reciprocity, understanding non-verbal communication, difficulties in creating and maintaining relationships and demonstrating restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour, interest or activities. 

Ideas for the classroom:

-Children like routine (Visual timetable - explain when change is going to happen *IYT LINK)

-Children saying "I can't, I don't want to" (Don't have the communication to say they didn't understand, need further instructions - Be aware of this and check in to make sure they understand the task)

-Give choices (Choice between two different things - Don't say you need to...instead we need to as it will help take some of the pressure away from the person)

-Visual cues (Link to making visuals for children http://connectability.ca/visuals-engine/)

-Counting to 5 after having given an instruction. 

Links to Provisional Registration Criteria

4. Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice. 

ii. Participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community.

Class Dojo & Seesaw

Class Dojo and Seesaw are apps that we use in our class, Kānuka (Room 9). Class Dojo is used as a behavioural management tool. I give out points for children demonstrating the school values, on task, working quietly etc. Children also loose points for calling out, not on task etc. Over the last few weeks, 76% of parents in the class have now joined the class and are able to log in to see how their child is doing in class each day. We have also started our class blog. We put up at least one blog per week. Often I will write something up for the class but we have also done a few posts together in class. I'm really happy with the amount of parents that have got on board with Class Dojo. I use the messenger to contact parents and send out reminders. The parent's feedback has been really positive and they love being able to use one app to see progress, what we are doing and being able to contact me, all from the same place.

Seesaw is an opportunity for children to share their learning with their parents. Each child has their own blog/learning journal within our class, Kanuka. Children are able to take a photo of the their writing and record themselves reading their story. They can write over a photo to explain what they are doing. We have two short spaces each day in our timetable for a different three children to share something with their parents. Every new item that children upload gets sent to me to be approved before being sent to their parents.

These ICT apps provide opportunities for children to engage, practise and apply new learning in a different context. It also enables children to revise what they have been learning about and feel a sense of pride in their work. I have found the the quality of work is to a high standard and that the children are motivated to do tasks knowing that they get to share their learning.

Room 9 - Classroom Setup!

Over the school holidays I set up my very first Year 3 classroom. I looked at different ways I could set up the learning space to help children be motivated and engaged towards their learning. With the intention of not covering up too many walls so that we can display lots of the children's work, I feel I have made a learning space where children will feel safe, happy and excited to be in the classroom. Bright colours are used, opportunities to use ICT devices to enhance the learning, Daily 5 activities, Maori language, and mainly having organised the classroom in a way that lets children move around and be able to access everything easily. Children desk's are in four groups (Whero, Kowhai, Kahurangi, Kakariki) to give children an opportunity to cooperate together, work collaboratively and build positive relationships with their peers. Going forward I plan to put wire string lines up in the classroom to allow more opportunity to display the children's work. I'm very excited for 2016 and seeing the children in the classroom be just as eager and motivated to learn as what I am.

Calendar Art Reflection

Swimming Reflection

What a blast Room 3 had at swimming over the last two weeks! After having attended the professional development meeting based around pb4l and writing a pb4l lesson plan for swimming  with Jan (Room 2 teacher), Room 3 worked together to come up with ideas on how we should act getting to and from the pool, when getting dressed in the changing rooms and in the pool.  We brainstormed ideas and role played certain aspects to enable children to understand what the expectation was in each of the three areas (getting to and from the pool, getting changed in the changing rooms and in the pool). Our role plays included making a bus inside the classroom with chairs. We practiced lining up and then entering the bus and filling the bus from the back first. We talked about not worrying about who we were sitting next to and how we act when we are seated on the bus. When role playing getting dressed, we role played taking our shoes off and putting our socks in our shoes. We also pretened to take of certain layers at a time and place them in their swimming bags. Overall swimming went really smoothly. Most of the time, Room 3 were very well behaved. I defiantly believe having taught two lessons around swimming in the classroom before swimming week helped and set the children up for success. Before swimming week I was really nervous about this experience but after these two weeks, I can now say it was a great opportunity and I loved seeing the development and progress of many of the children. It was great to see the children being risk takers and stepping out of their comfort zones. 

Quiet Critters

Recently I have introduced a jar of quiet critters to the class. These are pom poms that have feet attached made from felt and eyes which are glued on. Quiet critters have proven to work really well in Room 3. Due to the class often being loud when working at their desks, quiet critters allow for the environment to be quiet. The children know that the critters only come out when the room is quiet as it will hurt the critters ears and scare them, resulting in them having to be put away. This management strategy allows children to be really engaged and focused on their learning without any distraction from others. Each time we use the critters, the learning is to a high quality and all of the children have finished the activity in the time frame. I do find the critters work best when the task is an independent activity.  The children respond really well to this management strategy and are often very sad when the quiet critters have to go back into the jar. I have also thought these would work well when testing.