Term 1 Reflection and Inquiry

April 08, 2019
With this being the last week of term 1, I'm really happy and proud of the work Kōtuku has done. As discussed with my mentor, it's quite easy to get a sense of having to fit everything into the inquiry topic. So much of the curriculum fit in well to the 'food' topic, that it could have taken many different turns. However, I've come to realise that it's okay to put things on 'hold' for another topic/term. It was also interesting having the children lead the inquiry so some learning areas I thought we'd put in it, didn't actually fit anymore.

Going into term 2, I will relax more and 'go with the flow'. I will question more to find out 'why' children are selecting the topics/activities that they are. At the beginning of the term I will choose goals with my mentor and work towards them.

I'm quite excited about my mathematics teaching inquiry. I want to critically examine my own practice in maths and find out about others. I will go and observe maths teaching at other schools - both ability grouping and mixed ability grouping. Term 2 will be spent teaching by ability grouping and term 3 will be spent teaching by mixed ability grouping. I will choose an assessment for the beginning and end of term so I can see the progress of the children and weigh up which style works for the children of Kōtuku.

So, week 10 this week and I really believe that it's been a great start to the year. I have had a great time getting to know the children and understanding a bit of their background and family culture. I believe this has enabled me to meet their educational needs thus far and gives me more of an understanding as we move forward to term 2.

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