Term three week five

This week we had some tasks to do for our culture assignment two so we were based in the staff room and not in class rooms. The tasks we had to do were observe in two or three classrooms to look at culturally responsive teaching and we had to plan and implement two rich lessons around technology and we chose cooking.

The highlights were going into the classrooms and seeing things like manaakitanga, kotahitanga and Rangatiratanga being performed by the teachers and now I have this knowledge being able to recognise this happening. The best part for me was doing the baking and cooking with children. We had to bring together a group of six children from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and to provide an experience to see how the children interact. I was amazed with the result of it something like cooking broke down all cultural barriers and the children 

Term three week four

We have returned back to our student based learning (SBL) days after completing our first practicum block. It was a great three weeks of practicum and it was a challenge to come back to focus on an assignment rather than turning up to teach. We had a meeting with our mentor teacher because we had no contact with her during practicum and we discussed our two days of SBL. We have started a culture paper so we had to complete some tasks for the two days.

It was a highlight to have had a meeting with some of the ESOL students to get to know them and what they think of school. I got to speak with three children one was from the Philippines, India and Austria. The three boys were different ages ranging from year two to six. They all spoke very well and answered the questions and even gave more than we expected so we got to know more about them. Another highlight I had for this week is we got to help and watch the cross country. This was a good experience to see how it was run and what organisation is needed for an event like this.

A challenge for this week was resuming the role of student teacher and not being in a class to teach. I also found it challenging asking the ESOL students some tricky questions that could be interpret the wrong way. It was mainly about them and their immediate family. The questions I was unsure about their reaction was around what their parents did for work. 

I have learnt about how the school run their ESOL programme and I have learnt a lot about three of the students I identified. This was a valuable experience as a developing teacher because I will need the skills to understand each culture and to learn some strategies to teach these children. I learnt about setting up cross country and what is involved to make it successful. You need parent support because it takes lots of people to make it successful and safe. 

Term 2 week2/3

Highlights

I sadly had to leave the year four class I had been in for five weeks and move into a year three class. This is always good to see other teaching styles and different children to work with. The first two weeks in this class has been great and I have seen a different style and different techniques used in the class room. The teacher uses a good weekly system of all sorts of different jobs and the children do them well and are learning some self management skills. This class is doing folk dancing which is really good to see and take part in as I haven't had any experience in dancing.

Challenges

The main challenge for me was completing a running record of my focus student for my 5.01 assignment. This was a challenge because it was my first attempt of doing this and I am confident in how to do this but my speed is slow at this stage. I know with more practice and time I will get faster and more confident.

Learnt

The best part of these two weeks was being invited to a staff meeting that had four teachers performing two different presentations. I really enjoyed these and took lots away with me. The presentations were on getting passive learners involved and how to teach fractions. The teachers had done a lot of research and the half an hour presentations were first class. 

Term 2 week 1

Highlights

It was good to be back at school and in the class room. These two days I was back in the class I finished the term in which was a year 4 class. The big highlight was getting a chance on Wednesday to start the class by myself which is great practice with practicum coming very quickly. I got more experience and practice with taking maths and reading groups also got to help some pieces of writing the children were doing about their holidays. My base class teacher takes singing on a Tuesday afternoon which is good experience and a chance to observe some music. 

Challenges

The big challenge for me was on the Wednesday and starting the class, it was difficult to settle the class down and need to keep working at being a bit tougher and using some different strategies to get the children to settle quicker. It is also difficult at times to complete my weekly tasks as it is very busy at SBL and the teacher I was with was awesome and gave me a lot of opportunity to try things in teaching the children

Learnt

On Wednesday the fire alarm bell went off and I got to see the fire procedure and what that teacher uses. The teacher used a number system where all the children said their number when it was up to their number. I thought this was a quick and efficient system but there was a little hick up with two of the children forgot their number. I explained in the challenges about starting the class and working n strategies to settle the class down I am still learning and working on this.

Week 8

This has been the best week so far. So much happened in the two days and plenty of highlights. On Tuesday I was invited to go on a trip to Napier to view the Rocky Shore and the national Aquarium. My highlights on this trip was getting my science interview completed, learning about habitats and learning about field trips. On Wednesday I turn up to my base class and my teacher is taking a choir group. So I got the opportunity to call the roll and read the notices and get the hand writing exercise underway. After lunch break I got to take a PE lesson with my base class which is a year 4 class. This was great as I only had junior classes for PE.

The biggest challenge I had this week was settling down the class and getting the roll done and also getting the handwriting exercise underway. I found this a bit of a challenge because I had no instruction on what they were doing. I have been given more responsibility in my base class with reading groups and this has been good because we are studying literacy at the moment. I am still learning about literacy so taking these groups is a challenge, but I am learning more each time I take these groups.

This week I learnt about the organisation behind setting up field trips. This was a great experience to see what is involved and how prepared you have to be. I have been in this class for three weeks now and I am getting a better view on what a year four class does on a weekly basis. I have been taking my weekly reading groups and still learning about literacy and what to do with the reading groups and how to ask the correct question about the text.

Week 6 term 1

This week we have started a new paper and with that comes a change in the classrooms we are observing. I have been placed in a base classroom until the end of this term and this a highlight because I can see how they progress. My base classroom is a year four class and my class for observing maths is a year one class. My first maths observation was great I had to ask a student some questions. I thought that being year one they might not want to answer my questions. I had one student that wanted to answer my questions and she done a fantastic job.

I had some challenges coming into this week as I missed last week due to illness and Mondays class. The challenge I faced was not knowing what we were expected to due or what we were observing this week. This was cleared up with our Tuesday morning meeting with out mentor teacher and lecturer. The next challenge was sorting times out with my base class and my maths observing class to make sure I could see the maths lesson.

I have learnt this week how to be proactive in catching up with the work that I had missed out on. I have learnt some new mathematic techniques with year one students about using number lines. I am also learning the behaviour of year four students and how to talk to them. This is very different as my first five weeks were with mostly junior classes.

Week 4

This week my base classroom was a year six class. The highlights I had were observations of a maths lesson, art lesson and taking my own PE lesson that I had written up my own lesson plan. The maths lesson was a highlight because I hadn't yet been in a year six class and was unsure what level they covered. The next highlight was the art lesson as this is one of my major work ons as a developing teacher. I got to see some new ideas and actually take part and paint and gain more experience. It was also a highlight to have written my own lesson plan and to teach it by myself.

With the highlights I had there were challenges that came with them. The maths lesson that was being taught many children did not understand how to find the answers amongst the text. I had to really think about how I could explain to them as I already knew what to do. This was also a great experience as I had to really think a out my examples and explanations. The PE lesson I took went ok but I didn't spend enough time on setting the expectations and forgot my whistle which made that lesson a challenge.

This week I learnt a lot and was challenged further in the higher year level. In the maths lesson they weren't allowed to use calculators so I had to think back on how to work problems out. I was lucky in the fact that I had an awesome bunch of children who were helping as much as I was helping them. The art lesson was great as I now have some more knowledge about art and how to set expectations with using paint in the classroom. The last lesson I learnt was around my PE lesson and setting the expectations early and being firm will help me next time.

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.

Second week of SBL

Week two was going to have a lot of highlights as everything is all very new. This week we were given a class and year group each that we would spend the two days in. This was good because it gave some consistency and a chance to see how a classroom operated over two days. One highlight was taking a PE lesson by myself I had the chance to watch one on Tuesday and then to perform that on the Wednesday. Another highlight was the teacher in my particular class giving me a range of tasks to help with and take which was a great experience. I also had the chance to read to class each day where I had a chance to practice my reading skills

Some of the challenges I faced over the two days were knowing my role, being put on the spot, being nervous in taking new entrants for PE and remembering I am with new entrant children. I knew I was going into the new entrants classroom but I wasn't sure in what I would be doing. I thought I would be observing and helping out where I can but I was very lucky where the teacher had put me straight into it and I was helping out from when I walked in. She had put me on the spot to help with reading groups and this was a great learning experience. The biggest challenge was to know how to communicate effectively with my students as they are the youngest class in the school. Our task was take a PE lesson I was very lucky that I could carry on with the module that they had started and the children responded well.

I had a great experience being with this age group and had learnt a lot. The class I was in had a great classroom culture and I experienced how firm with rules you have to be with this age group. I got see how you give instructions and how long you run a PE lesson for new entrants. I learnt that giving firm boundaries and giving the student their own space was a key element of the session being successful. The instructions have to be very clear and short so the student can stay focused to execute the skill or task. I found this worked really well in my lesson.

First day of SBL

Yesterday was my first day of school based learning (SBL) at Havelock North Primay and I had so many highlights. The first highlight was being greeted firstly by the principle of the school. This was a highlight because it is always nice to be greeted firstly by the head of the school. We then got to meet our mentor teacher and she done a great job on the first day to show our group around and to have organised a great day. Our group then got a tour of the school by some year six students which they done a fantastic job. We then got the chance to sit in and observe in some classrooms this was a highlight because it gave me a taste of things to come. I was given the task on the first day to read a picture book to some year two students . This was my biggest highlight because we had full control of the situation with no other teachers assisting, this gave me my first teaching experience with the children.

On the first day we were always going to have some challenges and the first challenge for me was being nervous and not sure what we would be doing. This challenge was cleared up quickly because when we met our mentor teacher she was very clear and took those nerves away. The next challenge I faced was going around the classrooms to observe and trying to interact with teachers and children as they were busy learning. This was awkward at times as I popped into classes and the teacher was busy and I felt uncomfortable while I was there. Other times I had good timing and students were busy doing tasks and had the chance to chat with teachers and students. Another reason for this challenge was that we had limited time with each class.

Before I got to my SBL school I knew I was going to learn a lot on my first day because this is all very new. The limited time I did have in the classroom to observe I learnt a lot. The first thing I noticed was how different every teacher was at getting the children's attention. Some teachers had clapping rythem's and I am familiar with that, one teacher had a shaker that made a noise which was a good idea. One teacher I did see snapped her fingers at the children and I did not like that so it was good to see that because I wont be using that while I am teaching. I got to see all the year groups and got to experience the different ways of communicating with different age groups. The new entrant class the teacher had very basic instructions and kept the instructions small, compared with the year six teacher who gave the the students their options how to best use the next hour and gave them a chance to have some ownership.