Classroom Displays

When we were setting up the classroom for the start of term last week, I was amazed at the treasure trove of stuff my mentor had already laminated and ready for creating displays... I wondered where I might get that kind of stuff when ultimately I'm setting up my own classroom.

Then, another student teacher friend showed me this link:

http://www.schoolslinks.co.uk/resources_displays.htm

And wow!!  It has everything!!  Hope it stays active and current until I get my own classroom!!

New school year

I think I am very lucky to be completing my prac from Day 1 of a new school year.

On Tuesday we had Orientation Day where the parents and kids came into see their new classroom, meet their new teacher (and student teacher), find out who was in their class and see what has changed around the school.  The kids were a little disappointed, as due to a rearrangement the classrooms which were Year 5 last year are Year 6 this year.

The formalities of the day started with the Primary Headteacher giving a welcome address in the main hall. His voice was pretty hoarse as by the time he had welcomed us, he had already welcomed each year level from Nursery to Year 5, but his speech was well polished!  He then introduced each Year 6 teacher, the EAL teacher and me!  We then took our kids and parents back to our classroom, and my mentor discussed the expectations of the year, distributed timetables, homework guidelines and a welcome letter.  She then asked all the parents who were there to introduce themselves and their kids... I thought that was a clever way to get to know them early on...

Wednesday was D-Day - the first official day of the school year!  We had a Year 6 meeting, and the Yr6 Co-ordinator welcomed everyone, and congratulated them for getting to the top of the primary school, and explained while they now had increased privileges, and with that expectations of behaviour, participation and responsibility levels also increased.  By not living up to their end of the deal, privileges can be removed.

The tasks for the day were all fun things - like designing personalised library cards, cover pages for workbooks and 'getting to know' you games.  I took all the kids photos (one smiling and one silly) and we printed them out in various sizes for a range of other tasks for during the week.  We have one clown in the class who put on the straightest face and said it was his smile, and then kept the exact same expression for a silly face.  He's actually a pretty funny kid, I think he's likely to be quite bright too.

The school sets for Literacy and Numeracy from Year 1, and today we had a Reading Comprehension SAT which is part of defining the Literacy sets.  It took a bit over an hour, so a lot of concentration was required.  There is another literacy test tomorrow and Monday, and two Numeracy tests next week.

I taught my first lesson of this prac today - an overview of Science for the year.  Listed all general topics that will be covered, and a teeny-tiny bit about each.  Then the kids designed the cover page for their Science Workbooks.  I am going to be teaching Science over the next 4 weeks - the topic I'm covering is Forces (friction, gravity, buoyancy, thrust, magnetism, balance, etc.) so it was nice to teach science from the beginning!  My Smartboard presentation skills need a bit of work.  Although I'm sure they'll be on track by the end of prac!

I'm enjoying prac thus far - am a bit concerned about all I have to do... lesson plans, plus learning the content, 2 assignments, keep up with my readings and coursework and, of course, continue to be wife and mum!  Keep on top of it all, stay organised and hopefully everything will stay on track.

Three days down, 22 to go!  But I'm having fun, and not really counting down!

Induction Week

I am starting a 5 week prac in Year 6 on Tuesday.  It is the first day of term for the new school year.  After the long summer break, there has been an induction and personal development week for all staff.  The primary headmaster was kind enough to invite me along to attend any and all sessions I was interested in.

Some of the sessions included:

• Assessment for Learning
• Assessing Pupil Progress
• Personalising Learning
• ICT training - including Moodle (an online learning envt) and Serco (register and reporting system)

I felt lucky to be a part of all this, as it gave me a 'real' view to how teachers really do so much above and beyond the classroom, and are looking for ways to enhance the learning experience for all the students.  

I also enjoyed becoming part of the school community, and listening to the Headmaster talk, by gearing up the teachers for a successful and opportunity filled year.  Hearing what some of the staff were up to over the holidays and the new ideas they would like to implement was inspiring. 

Getting our Year 6 classroom ready with wall displays, and new name labels, and books was refreshing. Discussing with the other Year 6 teachers the plan for the year, made it all quite concrete for me, the actual level of work to do.  Because there were 2 new teachers, meant that nothing was glossed over and every requirement was spelled out clearly.

Compared to working in business, my very high level view, is that it is really nice to be able to wipe the slate clean at the beginning of each school year, and start afresh.  Issues in business can hang in there, occasionally one or two may be wiped at the start of a new tax year, or after a legislative change.  But the opportunity for a true fresh start really only comes with a new job, so a fresh batch of kids and a new school year means you can work on doing things better than last year, change approaches and targets accordingly and work on becoming a better teacher.  

Introduction

Hi - I'm Abby, and I'm studying to be a primary school teacher.  As part of the course, we need to create an ePortfolio, and as such, this is the start of mine!

I am half way through my course, a Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning through the University of Southern Queensland.  It is one year full time, but because of having 2 small children under 4 years old, I opted to take two years and do it part time - two subjects per semester.

I live in Shanghai, China.  And next week am starting officially my prac at one of the International Schools here.  I am going into a Year 6 class, and am looking forward to it very much!!

That's about enough for my first post...

Thanks for joining me, and hope you come back to keep in touch with my journey.
Abby