Term 4 2020!

The children are so happy to be back to school, and it's such a pleasure to see. They skip through the door when their bus arrives in the morning, and have great smiles on their faces. Myself? Yes, I'm pretty chuffed to see them again too.

This term is all about consolidation for my class. It's time to see the gaping gaps and close them ready for their next year. I will be losing seven children, at the end of the year, to the senior class. Are they ready? Will they be behind? Will they be nervous?

I came back to school with the intention of looking deeply into the children's targets and where they need to go next. However, I then decided to put the children on Spotlight themselves and see if they can identify their own learning needs and gaps. They have done this so well! I am surprised at how clear their understanding is when things are 'listed' in front of them. They are excited about ticking off targets and showing evidence of these successes in their work.

Creating learner agency is something I am quite passionate about as it just boosts the motivation in children when they know how to do something and how to problem solve. This will be a personal goal for me next year as I'd like to work on it for one year with the same group of children.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 4 already!

May 14, 2019 As I sit here on my PRT day, I just can't believe I'm doing planning for week 4 already! It's been a fantastic start to term 2 and the children are really responding well to our 'fix it' topic. They have brought some wonderful ideas to the table about what they would like to do, learn and share. This takes me back to the Toki Pounamu lessons we have been discussing. The children in Kōtuku have decided to make things out of recycled materials to help fix the recycling problem in the world. They would then like to open a shop to sell these goods to raise money. The money was first thought to go to feed starving children in the world, but someone asked if there's anything we need locally to 'fix' our town. This was the beginning of an interesting conversation. The children regularly come back to this conversation so no decision has been made as yet. I love teaching inquiry this way. The enthusiasm and motivation of these children give me m...
Read more

Term 2 Reflections

Term 2 Reflections - Abby Johnstone Te Tiriti o Waitangi Professional Learning During my PRT days, I have had the opportunity to read about things I’d like to improve in my class and how I can implement what I have read. Maths has been a focus for me this term, and I started with regular ‘Number Talks’ lessons each day after researching the benefits of DCIM (Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities). Because I started it towards the end of the term, I haven’t seen the academic benefits of Number Talks, but I’ve definitely noticed an increase in participation of the children due to the excitement of understanding different ways to look at things. This term I’ve also written reflective notes across my planning. This enables me to reflect on my practice to see what worked and what didn’t.   I have had two observations during this term, one from the principal and one from my mentor teacher. There were similarities between these observations and the feedback given...
Read more

Waiata

In the past two weeks I've been introducing te reo waiata into the classroom. Kōtuku class loves music and dancing and they've embraced the opportunity to explore more of this. I'm not familiar with many songs, having spent a long time away from New Zealand, but the children are more than happy to teach me. This 'side' learning has worked great at increasing the ako in the classroom. We are all up there copying the actions, pausing, going back, again and again and everyone is having a good time. Some children are singing the whole song while they're learning the actions, and others (like myself) are fumbling through the actions. Next term we are focusing on the local area and people. We will look at how Māori came to Lake Brunner and learn stories of the local area. I aim to learn more about the area and it's history. This will enable me to find out local waiata and work towards taking some sort of kapa haka group during lunchtime once a week. This may tak...
Read more