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.