Week 3

This week I was in a year 2 class for my two days of SBL. This was exciting as I was in new entrants the week before and can see the next year group above. There were many highlights as this was all very new. The first highlight I had was, when I arrived they had started an writing exercise and the two students that needed a hand were two Maori boys. This was a highlight because I felt very comfortable and enjoyed working with both the boys and it brought back memories of helping my younger cousins. I also enjoyed the fact that the next day the students had to draw a picture of someone special and describe them and one of those boys chose me made me feel like I had an impact on him in a small time I was there.

I had faced some challenges in this year group as well. The first challenge I faced was knowing how much to scaffold the children in their first writing activity. The first child I helped too much and basically done it for him. The next child I changed to only helping with some words to describe his dinner and he had to write the sentence on his own. The teacher was keeping an eye on me and commented that I did a great job in not completing it for him. The next challenge I face was helping with the reading groups, this is only a challenge because I have limited time taking reading with more time I will be more confident. The last challenge I had was a boy that would get off task very quickly and would refuse to do his work. I had trouble getting him to complete his worksheet I have to be a lot firmer in those situations.

I had lots of fun in this year group and learnt a lot as well. The first thing I learnt was how the teacher had set a great tone for class room culture the children had lots of respect for her and their behaviour was great. They knew their expectations as a student in this class room and that blew me away for year two students. I learnt more about different reading abilities and how patient you have to be with someone who is at a lower level. Also found it difficult at times to give formative feedback to the children that was at their level and not an adults. The last thing I learnt was that I have to be firmer as a developing teacher because some children can push the boundaries and I have to be firmer.