T1 W4

Focus - Starting tumbles and time management

This week I’ve started up my reading tumble by getting the whole class to practise reading tumble activities so that they will know how to do them independently. The students practise the reading activities in their groups and I have roved around to manage the noise level and transitions.

Bonnie and Annie have no English and it is difficult for her to know what to do without having explicit instructions.  My goal is to start group teaching next week so that I develop routines and expectations for students to work independently when I am with a group. 

I’ve realised that a lot of students join the class in the first 5 weeks of Term 1. What I need to remember for next year is:

1. Being consistent with routines and expectations: the addition of each child can change the classroom dynamics drastically. It has been a challenge to be consistent because I’ve felt my class progressing and then we have to start again a bit when a new child comes.
2. Incorporating lots of team building games: next year give more opportunities for students to work together through games to build positive relationships. I would also like to model how to work in a group because I noticed some children who struggle lack the social skills to handle group situations. 

T1 W3

Focus - Behaviour Management and Transitions

Highlights and Successes
I've been noticing a lot of changes in the behaviour and attitude of some children. One child in particular who finds it hard to manage his temper, this week has successfully walked away from situations where he would have usually started a fight. I think that has been due to lots of learning conversations in class about dealing with our emotions and how our brains process information.

Its also been a good opportunity for me to praise and build up the positive reinforcement. I begun to look it like a building block in the foundation the classroom environment. I had initially found it balance setting boundaries and high expectations with praising and positive reinforcement but it is becoming more clear as I've been more consistent with my expectations.

Opportunities For Improvement

This week I noticed that through the middle block, the class had found it hard to transition from one activity to the next. Often children don't move on and linger instead of packing up. I've spoken to SM about this and she suggested making this a goal for the term. So this term, my goal is to get students transitioning seamlessly between tasks. I plan on achieving this goal by having a whole class discussion and explicit teaching session. Show them, practise it, reflect on it as a class.

T1 W2

Week 2 has been a bit unsettled. This has been a short week so establishing and successfully getting though all routines has be hard.

Highlights and Successes
Finished the mini brain inquiry - the kids have enjoyed this and have hooked onto this. We had a discussion this week about anger and I showed them the video we had watched from our staff UB-SR training. The children liked this and seem to relate to it as it was in child-speak. It gave the children a chance to talk about emotions and what kinds of things make them feel angry. I enjoyed learning about them without it feeling like a serious lesson. I noticed that children were more forthcoming about how they feel and react to their feelings.

In general I feel like the class is working well together.

Opportunities For Improvement
I have noticed the range of abilities and understanding in my class and I can see how I need to be very explicit in my instructions and teaching. While my more capable students could cope with simple instructions, most of the class need more clarity. I think this has been a challenging aspect of establishing the routines and procedures because it is my first time. Last year, although I did have a few times where I had to reteach expectations, the class was mostly independent and self managing when I began teaching halfway through term 2. After talking to my MT, she has assured me that consistency is key. It is better to be explicit now and set those expectations as both the students and I will both benefit from it as the year goes on.

Last week I mentioned that I needed to work on getting students attention in class because a call and response idea I had didn't work well. This past week I have been teaching and setting up expectations around a new all and response idea. The class has taken to it really well and everyone joins in. It had been reassuring to see every one participate.

Another aspect I need to work on is making sure children are keeping up to date with their work. Most students are at different stages with their work and getting behind for various reasons, such as being distracted easily, language barriers, away because of sickness, lack of motivation.
I am thinking of using golden time on a Friday afternoon as an incentive to get everything finished over the week.

T1 W1

Week 1 has been full on and challenging. I have enjoyed setting up my own routines and getting to know the children. Something I found that worked in my favour was over-planning for the week. I also had a few shaky moments with a couple of students but those were resolved with some help from my MT and the DP. While there was a lot happening this week I am truly enjoying my new class.

Positives - I had planned to to a lot of different activities this week. I found that even though I couldn't complete every activity it help to know that there was a back up if I needed it. Lots of groups activities I found took much longer than I anticipated as I had go be quite explicit with my instructions and teaching of expectation. This will be good to keep in mind for next year and pick a few activities to do which I can extend for fast finishers.

Some things that I found were particularly successful was teaching about the brain and growth mindset. this seemed to resonate with most children who felt like they better understood how learning works for them. I would love to do this activity more as an Inquiry topic rather than a reading topic like I did this time round. It would let us dive a bit deeper into the topic and personalise it for the students involved.

I also enjoyed teaching Drama and giving the children a chance to interact in a more relaxed, fun and engaging way. I found this worked well for all students who had been nervous about being in Year 5. I noticed that children who were shy and quite break out of their shell a little more and have some fun. It also gave me a chance to observe how the children interacted with each other and their own confidence and resilience.

Negatives - While most of the week has gone well, there have been a few moments that have made me feel overwhelmed and doubt myself a little. I had student who is know to be impulsive and hot tempered physically hurt another student. This was unnerving for me as I wasn't expecting it to happen so early into the year but also because I felt like I missed any chances to deescalate the situation before it got so far. I followed protocol and called a DP and my MT as soon as I could. After giving the student some time to calm down I was able to have a one-on-one chat and we talked about what they could have done instead. My challenge will be to keep an eye out for triggers that may set off this kind of behaviour in the future. I would also like to do some more whole class teaching around the topic of conflicts and how to handle tough situations.

Other smaller things that I need to tweak are working on getting students attention in class. A call and response idea I had didn't work well, so I will have to change this for next week.