Reflection on my 1st week on prac

I have been thinking about writing a reflection on my first week of prac and not getting there. Crazy isn’t it for everyone out there. My only advice is to keep going. The teacher I usually work with always says “It’s never ending isn’t it?” and well, she is right. I have been very busy working out what to do next and planning my every move. Unfortunately my mentor teacher’s father passed away the night before my prac started so I have been with a relief teacher this week. My mentor won’t be in until Tuesday and my relief teacher has another school booked, so tomorrow I am with someone else!! – And it’s my first day teaching for two third’s of the day!! – But with all of that things are all good. I am loving everything about the school and have had lot’s of support. 

My lessons have been going really well. I have taught Literacy, Maths and Science  and this week I will teach Religion. The students are following directions and questioning, when they have any difficulty. I did an art lesson on Friday and although the relief teacher and I thought it might be quite difficult, the students were completely absorbed and actually took some material home so they could do more. We made “Eye of God” pieces and played the you tube clip from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HKU1h3pkjc. We played this once, then repeated it whilst I made one in front of the kids. We had all of the materials on their desks, before lunch as we were concerned about the time. the children came in from lunch, went straight to their desks and didn’t even need instructions. They just sat down and started working. – Yes, they all needed help to start off, but most of them, even those with issues did about 2/3. 

I am also working on a display wall at the back of the classroom with words and pictures of what we have been doing, which has been exciting. We already this week have doen poems about ‘Water’ and put them up in the room on cardboard hanging like drops of water. – All to add to our theme of ‘Water’. 

Reflective teaching ideas is the page that David has asked us to review for Assignment 3 and this knowledge has also helped to remind me to keep a view of how the children in the class respond to my teaching pedagogy. I will keep reviewing my pedagogy and note on the response the children are giving me, for now I am very pleased with how they are connecting with the learning experiences I am providing. I hope everyone is having a good prac experience. 

My Interactive whiteboard resources!

During the process of sorting through week 9’s book, I have discovered 2 resources. The first is a Maths resource which I am hoping to use. I will be introducing my students to division and this flipchart explains it all in detail. This is from Smart Exchange. The second is from topmarks.com and offers ways to learn about types of sentences, from topmarks. I did look at promethean planet, however my computer wouldn’t allow me to download the required programme. I will endeavour to explore the teacherhub.com website more over the next few weeks, as it offers some great ideas for interactive learning. I enjoyed reviewing other blogs about resources found, such as jlitwinczuk and Teagan, who will also use promethean planet on her prac placement. I am looking forward to discovering more about these websites as my prac placement begins next week.

 

Maths ideas!

Today, I have found another 2 resources that I may be able to use in my prac as resources. I would certainly use them in a classroom as an educator. They are interestingly both about Maths, which is certainly not my favourite subject, but I do find that when teaching Maths, if you make it interesting and engaging enough students will want to know more. Isn’t that one of the keys to teaching well? The first is all about a number and the ability to use that number in several different ways. – This type of activity invites a creative sense in children’s learning and I am hoping to use it during my prac experience. The idea is from teachthis.com, which is a teaching website with wonderful ideas available. This idea allows for knowledge of a new number to be written, drawn, added to, then subtracted from, then added to again, developing knowledge in several different ways! The next idea is from the teaching channel and offers 3 new ways to solve problems, encourages collaboration and the building of joint ideas.

           

Related articles

• Magical Maths (mrwilliamsmaths.wordpress.com)

Mindshift!!

I’m really enjoying having access to some of the great teaching and education websites I take this journey with ICT. Some of the websites that I have accessed, I have linked to my facebook page and I am constantly building my skills. One of the websites that I have access to is Mindshift and the article that I was particularly interested in is; Four Ways to Think like a Scientist with Science Notebooks. The benefit is to have all of the knowledge at the tip of your fingers, as a gentle reminder or a skillful educating reminder. The unit I am working with during my prac is all about Water, year 2 primary connections and I am sure the science information I have gathered from Mindshift will help a great deal. There are Maths ideas and many more available, that I will continue to explore as I develop my Personal Learning Network.

Learning about being Cybersmart!

Tonight, I am finishing activities on being Cybersmart. I have been viewed by a very strange man, who was watching me through the computer screen. My son standing next to me while I was doing this activity and it scared the heck out of both of us. I then went into the Cybersmart website as a part of the connect.ed resources. Although I am familiar with most of the practices, I found that they were far more extensive than I had thought. I particularly like the activity that helped Sammie and Jo work their computer. I believe this would be suitable for prep and year one children. Zippep’s Astro circus looked like an interesting game to play as well.

This was a great learning experience and I found myself looking forward to the next thing. Wendy also found the experience worthwhile and Roslyne found some useful resources and lesson plans on the website, which I will explore more over the next few weeks. Catherine posted some interesting information about fear and how it is a barrier that holds us up. – Yes, I can attest to that one. Not for myself, but I do know people who are overly concerned about using facebook, yet I have also dealt personally with unsafe computer use within my own family. There definitely needs to be a lot of common sense.  Cyberbullying seems to be rife in the world today, it’s the knew type of bullying where you don’t actually have to see the bully’s face. – What chickens bullies have become!

Setting up for prac

I had an amazing meeting with my mentor last week. I have been concerned about prac, as have many others I am sure but was relieved to met her and felt very welcomed into her school. Rosaria, also expressed a good meeting with her mentor as did Hayley. I am lucky to be going into a school that is close to home and I have been there previously. Because I am in the school system, working as a Teacher’s Aide, I have some inside info as well, which is always a good thing. I was terribly nervous and year 2 seemed like it would be a huge jump from prep, but I am getting used to the idea, have lessons planned already and my mentor has given me so much information I have a wealth of info to work from. I have met with my mentor twice and have missed out on meeting the children as yet, but I am eagerly waiting for time to tick on. Bring it on!!!! 

The Everchanging World of Teaching

I have been busily thinking about how to work ICT into my prac, and I came across Tyahnie’s weblog, which discussed teaching with ICT’s and the repetitive nature of learning. The cartoon used specifies that teaching is repetitive, although we have changed the way we teach. I feel that yes, some teachers who refuse to grow and change may teach like this, however I good teacher who choose to grow and learn with their students update their teaching skills, growing and changing their teaching strategies constantly. A teacher I used to work with once said to me, we are all learning and this continues every day of our lives. – Helen also discusses this topic and states that she has little experience with IWB’s and has not seen teachers using them effectively, due to their individual skills with technology. – I have been working as an Aide for six years and I must admit that I have seen both. Teachers unwilling to use IWB’s well and teacher who have the capacity to use them to create wonderful new interactive lessons that inspire. These are the sorts of lessons that I will endeavor to teach. This is why I want to be a teacher, an educator of the future, to inspire future learners! I felt blessed, when I met with my prac mentor this week as she had everything outlined for me and obviously has a sound knowledge of the ICT world. Em Perri also makes an interesting discussion about the use of ICT’s in her working environment and how she hopes to use them during her prac. Em states that using an iPad in the class significantly saves on time. I would like to back this statement and say that …If you know how to use IWB’s and ICT technology that is efficient, it does save time and make teaching so much more accessible to all, creating inclusive learning opportunities for all and activating learning! 

Preparing for prac and assignment 3

I finally began looking at week 7’s study plan tonight! Wow!! Everything is laid out in order to help prepare us for our prac experiences. I am meeting with my mentor teacher on Friday this week and can’t wait to begin seriously working on ideas for lessons. I am looking at little birdtales as a resource to use and have found some wonderful activities on scootle. Two that I have found useful are ‘Counting Beetles’, ‘Fractions’ and Exploring addition and subtraction word problems. I am set to go into my meeting at least armed with a couple of ideas, however these may of course change due to the suitability.

When looking at the preparation for the assignment, there is a lot to see about how to investigate the context of my professional experience. Kate has outlined this as well in her blog. Miss Red, talks about 13 free resource tools that all teachers and students  should know about and I also found this useful information. I will endeavour to explore this much further.

We have been asked to outline our professional experience context by several questions.

• Where is the school?
• Demographics of the school?
• Do they support special needs or ESL?
• The year level we are working with
• The abilities in the class.
• Are there children with special needs in the class cohort.
• The access to ICT’s
• Is the mentor teacher a proficient ICT user/teacher?

Then discuss our integration of ICT in the learning plans we have developed. – My thoughts are currently with the understanding that ICT’s should be taught through inquiry learning and active student involvement. Collaborative partnerships between the student and teacher should be supported and developed. Also TPACK should be noted. The professional standards should also be mentioned along with the Australian curriculum requirements.

I am excited to learn about the school context I am going into, yet concerned about working with year 2. – Because I  work in prep, I feel like it’s like working with the big kids! – I have found some interesting ideas on youtube that also offer lesson ideas and I am sure that they will help me in my planning.

Mult-e-Maths Toolbox – repeated addition

 

Assignment 2 is in!!!

Well, thank goodness, assignment 2 is in!! I actually enjoyed writing the unit plan for assignment 2 and chose year 3, which was quite out of my depth. A teacher from work, offered me some advice and helped me to get started on the right path. Some material that I was able to read through was; Reading to Learn. Reading to Learn is one of the world’s most powerful literacy programs and it is appropriate at all different age levels and areas of study. the small amount of reading I did in preparation for this assignment has helped me and I am sure that I will look back at this reading again and again. The company offers training sessions and this is something that I would love to attend. I think it would be a wonderful opportunity to learn and gather/share knowledge with others.

Destination Prac!!

Last Thursday I finally confirmed my prac placement for year 2. I am excited, scared, frightened and the whole works!! It is such an experience. I am very set into prep world as i am working as a Teachers aide in prep at the moment, but am sure that it will all work out well in the end. I meet my teacher on Friday and can’t wait to begin planning. So far 2 of my friend’s studying are doing year 2, Nicola and Sherridan, it will be awesome to share the experience with them and fellow students. I have been busy looking at resources and there is a tremendous amount of wealth to be sought through. although, I still like Glogster, which I used for my first assignment, so I will discuss this with the teacher on Friday and if she feels that the children will be able to use it I may give it a whirl!! – The website is so accessible; I have my 16 year old daughter using it tonight to create a page for her school liturgy group. There’s another good thing about assignment 1, I was able to teach my children something about computers for a change!! I have added the Glogster picture below as an example.