Apple Tree

The teacher I'm replacing had a Star of the Week award, which I never quite knew how to do, so I turned it around to the class to take responsibility for it.

Star of the Week from the Apple Tree

This tree, made from cut out hands of all the class, has had a couple of reincarnations since it started as the classroom Christmas tree.  It became the Chinese New Year wishing tree, and then was incorporated into an Earth Hour display, and now, in passing the responsibility of Star of the Week to the class, has now become our Star of the Week tree.

Next to the tree there is a plastic pocket full of apple cut outs. Class members write the name of another classmate on the coloured part of the apple, and then on the flipside write why that person has been nominated, then hang it on the appropriate branch.  This example is one of mine. 
At the end of the week I pick all the apples off the tree and work out who has the most nominations, or the 'best' nomination and then announce the "Star of the Week"!

The Perils of Googling

Today, one of my sweetest kids, a nice polite boy, who always looks like his legs are too long for his trousers, and also one of my shyest (most shy?) was finally up to do his book review in front of the class.  He is in my Literacy class, out of EAL at the beginning of the year and unfortunately for him, he was straight up after one of my most literate and confident kids.

He did a review on a book called Franny K. Stein: Mad Scientist - about a girl inventor, and his plot synopsis, character development and thoughts on the book were well structured and although he read it rather than talked it, he maintained an air of composure and bravery all the way through his presentation.

Then, suddenly I was knocked for six - he launched into a discussion about the author, and instead of talking about Jim Benton, he gave a full biography of J.D. Salinger, or in the way of a typical Year 6, Jerome David Salinger. I couldn't mask my surprise when he said that J.D. Salinger was the author, and we examined the cover of the book, only to see the name Jim Benton, one of the other kids in the class suggested he'd used a pen name to write Franny K. Stein. So I stifled a giggle and let it slide.

On my way home I was thinking through how he would have mixed those names up, and then it hit me... J.D. Salinger wrote Franny and Zooey. So I googled "author of Franny", and sure enough - J.D. Salinger came up as first billing on the Google results list, and poor old Jim Benton was all the way down at #5.

QCT Standard 6

Some time ago, I said that I needed to write about my first experience of being the 'teacher' at a parent teacher interview... then I got my results for for my ePortfolio, and decided that this entry about QCT Standard 6 met that criteria, and made for a good post anyway... and for the double award: I've never posted twice on one day... 


Support personal development and participation in society

---

Beliefs:

I believe in creating a reciprocal learning environment where the strengths of each student are fostered and used.  By using positive and consistent behaviour management strategies, a culture of respect between students and teachers can be maintained.  Developing caring relationships, and helping to nurture students to develop into moral citizens, who care about others and themselves is also one of the responsibilities of being a teacher (Danforth and Smith, 2005)

Situation:

One of the girls, in my Year 6 class was upset because her friends ‘were avoiding’ her, mostly during my classes where they ‘suddenly didn’t want to work with’ her. This coincided with the start of summer, and the return of 30 degree days and high humidity.  I closely watched the interactions of the class, after she confided in me, over the next few days.  I also mentioned the issue to one of her other teachers, curious to see if it was the case in all lessons.  Her teacher for numeracy and literacy, which are timetabled before morning recess every day, indicated that he hadn’t noticed any problem.

A couple of days later, after lunch the class came in, and in helping her with some work, I noticed that she had a rather strong body odour.  Almost fortuitously the next day, I overheard one of the other girls in our class commenting on it too, a bit gossipy, but I let it go then, and determined that I would need to deal with the body odour issue independently.  But I wasn’t sure how yet.

Results:

At parent teacher interviews, I was speaking with her mother, who also brought up some of the social issues experienced recently, and how she hated to see her daughter, and only child, upset.  I took a deep breath, and brought up the body odour issue, and mentioned that with the change of seasons, the possible start of puberty and the upcoming school trip to Beijing, maybe it was time to start using deodorant.  This was tonight; the relief that washed over her mother’s face when it looks like it is possibly such an easy solution to returning her daughter’s happiness was intense.  For me, it also seemed like the direction to take should come from home, when she is part of a loving and caring family, especially with relation to personal hygiene.  The final outcome?  I don’t know, but I hope it works out for her, it’s only been a short time since summer started, and she really is a lovely kid.

Relate:

In time I hope to develop further thinking skill strategies to enable the student to reflect on their behaviour and wellbeing, and how it impacts others.  I hope to be a teacher that encourages students to take ownership and responsibility for their own growth and development to move into contributing roles in society.

References:

Danforth, S. and Smith, T.J. (2005). Engaging Troubling Students: A Constructivist Approach.  California: Corwin Press

And FYI - the outcome... it worked: she had a great time in Beijing, and has come back with a big circle of friends again! Happy days! 

Well, I think I'm officially a teacher...

Today I got some good news.

Approximately three weeks ago I submitted my ePortfolio which was worth 60% of my final grade for my final subject of my Graduate Diploma of Teaching.  Today I received the result.  I got 88% - or 53/60.

Now, the pass grade for this subject is 50%... I'm sitting on 53%... so for my final assignment, which is out of 40, and is a seminar presentation and is in two weeks yesterday, and I've barely started, suddenly, I'm not so panicky...

FYI - my topic is TCKs - or Third Culture Kids... I'm not quite sure how or what I'm presenting yet though... was going to start it this coming weekend!  Hooray!

So - even though I've been responsible for a class for the last 4 months... I think this makes me a real teacher!!

What a week!!

This week has flown by with the due date of my second last assessment looming,

Monday: 
Literacy and Numeracy - SATs revision, especially for my Literacy class.
Evening - assignment

Tuesday: 
SATs Testing - Literacy, Numeracy; Science - set up an experiment involving bananas decomposing in the classroom; ICT history lesson on research - find 20 interesting facts about Africa; started marking SATs papers; Playground duty
Evening - Parent Teacher Interviews (my first on my own, and worth a post soon), assignment

Wednesday:  SATs Testing - Literacy, Numeracy and Science; Marking SATs papers
Evening - assignment

Thursday:
KS2 SPORTS DAY - stood all day in the sun, determining places in track events; Playground duty
Evening - supposed to finish off assignment, imported all text into ePortfolio system, but unfortunately fell asleep when putting son to bed and woke up in his bed too close to midnight to do any more.

Friday:
SATs Testing - Literacy and Numeracy - mental maths, lesson finished with several maths games in groups; Marking SATs papers; Assembly.
Evening - finished formatting ePortfolio and submitted.  No wine.

Now for a bit of a break this weekend... we are off to have a family portrait today by a famous (well in China) photographer - "Gang of One", a birthday party, visiting a newborn baby, catching up on home duties, and planning for it all to start again on Monday!

Full Time Teaching

Planning, preparing, searching for resources, remembering when and what to set for homework (mandated by the school for Year 6), assessments, marking, behaviour management, wall displays, one-on-one time with students, group work, playground duty, staff meetings... I'm exhausted just listing it... and on top of it all I still have to finish my assignments for my last course, before I'm a real true blue teacher and do my Mummy job to my two small babies - I'm exhausted.

So sorry teaching blog... I'll check in again in a while!  Hopefully after I finish my next assignment, but before the end of term!!

Internship is over!!

Wow, time has flown!!  Can't believe the four weeks of my last prac ever are up already!  Had a great internship overall, culminating with the class presenting their assembly on the last day.  The children did really well, prepared the whole thing, with only guidance regarding costumes and props and tightening up the script.  I ran the powerpoint presentation which provided the backdrops during the performance, so couldn't see the final show, but knew that from their buzz afterwards and the audience reaction they did it well!!

I have really enjoyed teaching numeracy, I think I was able to use a lot of what I learned during my summer numeracy subject to help.  It was amazing as well, from the constructivist approach applied in that subject how that really flows through into other subjects too.  I liked having the freedom to run through a couple of topics in numeracy, at my pace, and my way.  I recognise that I need to plan for homework a bit more.

I also took on a few classes in literacy, although this was really in conjunction with my mentor's planning, as she had already organised the sequences for what has needed to be covered until now.

During the internship, I have also had the opportunity to experiment with a few things on the school moodle site, although I wasn't able to do much besides add things like spelling words, as format was largely predetermined.

I also attended a parent teacher night, and I enjoyed meeting the parents and observing the techniques used in discussing behaviour and performance of each child. I have also reviewed reports which have been written over the last few weeks and will be sent home next week.

My mentor starts her maternity leave this week, and so I will continue with the class as teacher.  The school have given me a fantastic opportunity to get this experience, as I finish my last assignments and then get ready to start my new career as a teacher!