A "Yay Moment"

Ever since watching the Jim Henson's TV series "The Storyteller" as a nerdy 10 year old, I have loved stories and have been wanting to really tell a story to my class since day 1. I read to them everyday after lunch from a picture book and this engages the vast majority but until today I hadn't told them a good, old fashioned story.

I had read the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" to my 7 year old son the night before from a book and he really enjoyed it. So I thought why not give it a go with room 14?

I localised it to make it a bit more relevant to the kids (eg. the prince was a successful rugby league player) and it really worked. The whole class was totally engaged, some of the boys had never been so engaged in a story; to the point where the one boy who is rarely capable of sitting still long enough to follow a story was crying out "You see girls, that's what will happen to you!". Eyes were wide, faces looked worried and shocked in the right places. The transformation of prince into beast was greeted with a round of applause.

A few girls recognised the story as "Beauty and the Beast" but this didn't seem to stop them from enjoying it again.

Now, what to read next?

What can I do with the one slow reader in my guided reading groups?

In as couple of my guided reading groups, I have readers who are processing the texts much more slowly than the other readers in the group. Consequently, they are reading much more slowly and finishing texts much later than the others in their group. This is creating a problem in my management of the guided session. Do I cut them off before they have finished? Do we all wait patiently? 

Suggested remedies included:

putting them down a group

• child wont be challenged by the text and therefore may make less progress.

reading the same text before class

• child may see this as a punishment. The child also often arrives late.

having the child become aware of their reading speed 

• could be quite easily achieved as a post reading activity. Would she hear her "slowness"?

encourage a buddy reading time

• easily do-able. Paired with a more fluent reader could enable her quickly to compare speeds. 

End of Term 3 Inquiry

Before entering the classroom on day 1 of being a BT, I had these lofty dreams of creating autonomous, self-regulating children.  3 terms on, I realise that these were indeed lofty dreams that need scaffolding and support strategies and routines to help their realisation.

I have started to implement techniques and tools to try to ensure that the children are able to work successfully, independently from the teacher. These include having audio of instructions embedded in Explain Everything slides, going through follow up activities as a group before-hand, keeping follow-up activities straightforward and replicable and creating expectation where children realise that they need to work independently of the teacher.

I fear that I may have been responsible for encouraging a degree of dependency on the teacher but I have been made aware of this; of how some children will attempt to monopolise their time with me. I feel I am making positive steps away from this and i think that the children are benefitting.
Looking to term 4, i will persist with the strategies I have implemented and more than anything try to discuss "independence" and "autonomy" with the kids so that hopefully they can see where I am coming from and what i want to achieve which is, ultimately, children taking charge of and responsibility for their learning.

Great Expectations ;)

Learning has been non-stop since day 1. Having spent lots of time reflecting on classroom management and ways to engage learners, my major learning to date has been a growing awareness of how I do or don't enforce my expectations in the classroom. I am now making a conscious effort to make my expectations clear to the kids re.work and behaviour. I am hoping this will ensure work gets done and the classroom becomes more in-line with how I would like it to be and I will become more available to push, help or direct kids as need be.  What I need to work on right now is making those expectations clear at the right time.

Term 2 Reflections: What I've Learnt and What I Need To Do

As Term 2 draws to a close I can honestly say that I have spent 11 weeks reflecting on my practice. I have been lucky to get so much support which has been an incredible help to me. My main focus for the term has been in continuing to nail classroom management of this group of children. I feel I have made a lot of progress particularly in realising how I need to be in the classroom so as to be true to myself and be the kind of adult I want the children to be around and thus be the best and most effective influence, role model and authority that I can be to these 28 kids.

I feel I have forged relationships with the children, but I am aware that the balance of that relationship making was weighed in favour of the "interesting" few and to the expense of the angelic majority. I need to redress this in term 3.

I believe the kids know what I expect of them and I must make sure I constantly stick to my guns and enforce these expectations. By doing this I hope that more academic learning can happen in Room 14 and that the kids can be pushed intellectually as a result.

I have also learnt that a LOT of scaffolding is needed to enable the children to work independently of me. However some kids are very able and they need to be given room to fly as well.

I need to push the class more. To really encourage them to do their best and think as much as they can. I need to make the children know that their BEST work is what I expect and I need to ensure that I give them the time and opportunity to do that

Term 2 Inquiry Presentation

Gwyneth Pt.2

From this PD what hit home was how important it is for me to really implement the prompts. I can see how helpful it can be to a cohort of children if teachers are using the same terminology. This aside it got me thinking how i really need to make more of my reading time with my kids because i don't feel that they are getting the quality time they should be having, which would involve me using these prompts effectively. This is because other children are preventing me from fully engaging with my group. This comes in various forms which may include: 1. The disruptive child who refuses to engage with work 2. Tech problems preventing a child from beginning work 3. Children who don't know what they should be doing. My task from now on is to minimise these variables and make sure I have done everything I can to ensure my groups have the quality teaching time they deserve. To do: 1. Ensure each group's weekly rotation is well-thought through. That they are given sufficient time with me to complete EE activities independently. 2. Ensure EE activities are appropriately graded and do-able. 3. Make the reading rotation sequence clear to the class - to minimise the "Mr, I've finished" conversations. 4. Constantly enforce "the zone" 5. Be clear in my own mind about the WALTS of each session and what I want to achieve with each group in that timeframe. 6. Make this clear to the kids. 7. Share good work with the class.