Criterion 4

Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice.

Key indicators:

• identifies professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues.
• participates responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community.
• initiates learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills.

Reflective Question: How do I continue to advance my professional learning as a teacher?

What is the learning/teaching experience:  This week I had an observation done on me by my tutor teacher. It went really well and I got some great feedback, as always you get so nervous when your getting observed and this was no different. You will find my observation details under reading observations on the tab. One thing that both my tutor teacher and myself thought I could work on more is using effective questioning, I always find this a tricky one not so much with my yellow readers but with my readers that are still on magenta. I did some research and found some readings to help me with effective questioning and below are some information that I found helpful and interesting for my reading development.

Questioning is perhaps the instructional tool used most commonly by teachers. Strategic and purposeful questioning is crucial to students’ literacy learning.

Questions may be directed towards building a particular aspect of students’ knowledge, such as a strategy for encoding or decoding. At a metacognitive level, questions can help to build students’ awareness. Questioning can be an ideal way to generate thoughtful discussion and help students to develop the habit of being critically reflective, for example, “How do you think …?” “I wonder why …?” “What have you noticed …?” “How will your audience feel …?” One or two well-thought-out questions can be powerful in helping students to get beyond the surface features of a text they are reading or writing. It is important that teachers ask a range of questions and know why they are asking them.

So What: What did I learn?

• A teacher who uses questions effectively provides a good model to students and shows them how to develop their own questioning strategies. This helps them to bring a critical perspective to texts by asking purposeful questions of themselves as they engage with a reading or writing task.
• In a classroom environment of critical reflection, thought-provoking questions are not seen as threatening, they are welcomed as a highly valued part of learning.

Now What? Next Steps

Questions become effective teaching tools when:

• they are directed towards helping students to meet a learning goal;
• they are centered on and draw out students’ knowledge;
• there is adequate “wait time” for students to think through their responses;
• students’ responses are valued and not transformed by evaluative comments that
• suggest the responses were inadequate;
• Appropriate follow-up questions are used to extend students’ thinking.

 For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 2, Criteria 4, Criteria 5, Criteria 7, Criteria 8, Criteria 9, Criteria 12.

What is the learning/teaching experience:  One of the challenges of teaching writing is that it can be challenging for children to see improvements day to day. One of the challenges for me as a teacher is to help the children catch a glimpse of progress they have made with their writing and development as writers and celebrate their learning success. I have some writers that are real battlers and just have no idea, they have little phonics knowledge and this makes writing super hard for them. This term we are really focusing on our letter sounds and phonics.

In week 8 I went out and did an observation at Rolleston Primary school where they use a Reggio Emilia approach to learning. I found it very interesting to see how their lessons worked. I was able to observe in two year 0-1 classes side by side. The literacy programme was very interesting. Writing was not modelled in one class I observed but was modelled in another class. The writing and reading programmes were joined and went through till lunch time. The teacher went from taking a writing group, then a reading group, then another writing group etc. I thought this was quite a different way of doing things but it really worked for the students learning as they were at many different levels and the teachers found it amazing for their learning and also easier for writing as like most of us teaching year 0-1 writing it is a challenge!!!

So What: What did I learn?

• I personally like having writing and then reading separate as for me it looked a bit confusing and all over the place. While the groups were working with the teacher, other children had one certain reading activity to achieve and then they could go on with reading games. A lot like our Must Do Can Do’s. There were definitely similarities in the programmes from school to school but also many differences with how their programme was run to ours.

Now What? Next Steps

• Talking tins: These can help those children who always forgot what they are going to write and make our jobs easier because we don’t have to remember for them. What they do is they child records what they are going to write onto this talking tin and then they can play back the recording so they remember what to write.
• Pobble: This website is full of amazing pictures for writing prompts, there is a new picture uploaded every day. I thought this was amazing and I spent a long time on it when I found it. I was able to find some pictures that I used for our Flight unit also and integrated it into writing. http://www.pobble365.com/

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 4, Criteria 5, Criteria 6, Criteria 9

What is the learning/teaching experience:  I sat down with my Tutor teacher this week and discussed some goals for this term to focus on. A curriculum area that I always struggled with was Numeracy and at this New Entrants level I find it so tricky because there are so many different abilities and Maths has never been a strong point of mine. I really wanted to focus on maths this term so I can develop brilliant maths learning for my students. To do this my tutor and I discussed observing another teacher in the junior area and then from their taking what I see and putting into practice in my lessons. My tutor teacher can then observe me teaching maths and give me more helpful hints to develop my maths teaching skills.

As well as doing this BT reflective journal website, I also am using Appraisal connector which is shared with the Principal, tutor teacher and AP. In this my tutor and I discussed a goal that is achievable and can really help my learners. We have three goals/targets to try and achieve. A team goal, school target and personal goal. The team goal and school target have not yet been confirmed but my personal goal is: How can I improve my writing programme to develop independence and extend them as they become more confident and able? At this stage I can only really imagine a few of mine as independent writers but it will be really rewarding to achieve this goal.

So What: What did I learn?

• To develop and improve my practise observe others to get new ideas.
• Create goals to succeed and motivate

Now What? Next Steps

• Organize to observe maths and take ideas to put into my own practise
• Reflect on the goals I have created.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 1, Criteria 4, Criteria 5, Criteria 6, Criteria 12

What is the learning/teaching experience: It was safe to say what a perfect time to have a short week. Second week into the school term four days was enough for my little ones. It was amazing how much they have grown in confidence with their learning and following instructions in just one week. They are doing incredibly well. It was a great week we did lots of collaborative learning with the other year 1 classes. Duathlon practice has begun this is going to be interesting for the students. We can’t seem to walk in a line a hundred metres without Miss Clarke having to pull out the band aids. From falling in rose bushes to tripping over shoe laces oh goodness!

I’ve had some pretty awesome advice for the amazing staff who are just soo supportive. They had seen I was a bit flustered and very overwhelmed and helped guided me. The biggest thing they said was “DON’T PUT SO MUCH PRESSURE ON YOURSELF YOU ARE DOING GREAT” I really had to listen to that. My issue is I have such high expectations of myself and im am such a perfectionist, sometimes I just need to breathe and take that “pressure” off. Exciting for Week 3 bring it on! Found this on Facebook so relevant:

So What: What did I learn?

• Collaborative learning is sharing decision making with one another.
• Collaborative learning gives students the opportunities to work with peers they have not worked with before.
• 5 year olds are still very little and young
• Don’t be afraid to ask for guidance when needed

Now What? Next Steps

• Talk to my team about more ways to collaborate.
• Still have high expectations of myself but take some of the pressure off.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 1, Criteria 4, Criteria 7

What is the learning/teaching experience: One word after this week, ‘Overwhelmed’. Wow what a week, 20 New entrants first full week at school oh my goodness. They are just gorgeous and I have lovely parents on board also. The week began off smoothly of course there were lots of tears as parents left on the first day. But they settled fine we spent the day learning about routines and rules of the school. I tried to keep to a normal class programme as well as I could on the first day. We did some writing, poetry for reading and maths. By the end of Monday the children were just exhausted the tears began flowing and they were all done for the day. Come Wednesday it was a school “Start-up Party” my class were very overwhelmed by the day with the whole school being involved. A lot of them didn’t cope at all and really struggled with all these bigger children around. They were exhausted come Thursday with over half the class randomly crying at different times. I thought I was going to need some help as majority of the children were all at once so upset I managed thank goodness and even I was exhausted come this day. The afternoon was spent watching Maths and phonics YouTube clips and the students didn’t even move. Friday we had a very cruised day lots of fun activities the children explored the classroom, we did some dance, and played some games outside.

This week I have thought to myself: “Am I good enough for this” “Am I doing something wrong” “Why do they keep crying, how can I make them feel better” “Where do I start with their learning they are all so different” “Sooooooo overwhelmed”. They have come into school so different to my students last year that were the same age but their knowledge is completely different I have students that have no idea what their name looks like, or any letters of the alphabet. I was talking to a friend and they mentioned, the children I had last year have come straight from Kindy or preschool. A majority of these children have come from holidays so some of their knowledge has gone. It totally made sense! I defiantly have my work cut out for me this year. But one thing with this New Entrant level is that they are soaks, they take everything in you tell them.

So What: What did I learn?

• Take one day at a time
• Adjust the programme when needed. At this stage, putting on an educational you tube clip is worth it. When they have nothing left.
• 5 year olds are soaks, they will take everything in.

Now What? Next Steps

• Keep creating a fun and welcoming classroom.
• Observe how the students are learning and their behaviour if something isn’t working, make changes.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 4, Criteria 6, Criteria 7, Criteria 8.

What is the learning/teaching experience:  This week has been report week. I learnt how to put data in for the report and my tutor teacher guided me on how reporting worked. Things have definitely changed from when I was at school with reports, these ones are so bright and colourful and easy to read. I only had one student that has been at school for 6 months and she was the only one I had to report on. It was a nice and easy way to get into the reporting process. When sorting her data this student was slightly below for writing and reading and on the right track for maths. I was talking with a colleague and when they are below you always think is it my fault, what could I do better etc. But she reassured me that everyone learns at different paces and for this student she was quite inconsistent and that was letting her down and there is still a few weeks to go this term. The family I had the interview with were super lovely and really understanding. They are super supportive of me and they are happy their daughter is enjoying school and is making progress. I showed them examples of why she was slightly below so they had an understanding and gave them a pamphlet of things they could work on at home. It went really well and I feel like I am definitely well prepared for next year when it comes to reporting.

I have to do some small reports for the rest of the students in my class, they are called “New Entrant reports”. These just have basic comments about reading, writing and maths and also a small comment about how they get on in the classroom. There is a part in these reports where you assess the School values and how well they are at doing these. Students do a self-assessment on this also which would be very interesting especially for some of the characters in my classroom.

So What: What did I learn?

• Not to be too hard on myself
• Communication with parents
• How to approach parents in a professional manner when at interviews

Now What? Next Steps

• Understand New Entrants reports and complete these

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill?  Criteria 2, Criteria 4, Criteria 5, Criteria 7, Criteria 8, Criteria 11, Criteria 12.

What is the learning/teaching experience: I did a reading observation in Room 3. This was great. It was good to see I am on the right track with my reading lessons (See notes under observation tab). Click Link to view observation notes READING OBSERVATION

So What: What did I learn?

• Ideas for ‘must do’ and ‘can do’ to add to the list for children when I am not reading with them so they stay focused on something.
• Approaches to when I’m working with reading groups. E.g end of lessons because they are such a hurry to get through I quite often just complete the guided reading without a conclusion.
• Finishing questions for example what were the characters of the story?

Now What? Next Steps

• Include these tips into my practise
• Create more resources for Must Do, Can Do’s

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 4, Criteria 6

What is the learning/teaching experience : This week my tutor teacher and I sat down and discussed team and personal goals for the year.

Team Goal: Further developing Discovery to suit the needs of our children. We are currently changing the way Discovery is run over the five classes and having 5 ‘subjects’ that students can choose to attend. Cooking, science, art, music and sport. Students have the opportunity to sign into an area they would like to discover and have a go at. There are 30 spaces at each activity that students need to opt into an area and if the space is full they find something else to look at. Mrs B and myself are doing cooking to start with. We made it very simple and students made toast and choose either jam or honey to put on it. After the first week which was a bit of trial and era we found ways to develop it further by adding other activities to it such as bringing in the kitchen toys to go with the theme so they could play with these while they wait. Our next cooking item is popcorn so students are going to create and decorate a holder to put their popcorn in.

School Target: Improving the level of readers at year 0-1 to be reading at green after 1 year of school (When turning 6). Many of my students in room 1 are not even close to this and are just beginning to identify high frequency words which is a great start. Working on their wonder words and focusing on their reading will definitely help them achieve this.

Personal Goal: So many personal goals to think about I think I have to begin with one that has stood out for me is to have a better understanding on how to teach writing to emergent writers and to extent them as they become more confident and able.

So What: What did I learn?

• Reflections are key
• To think about how I can improve my practise to achieve these goals
• Differentiated teaching as best as we can, teachers must know their students well enough to adapt their teaching approaches and methods to the ability of the children.

Now What? Next Steps

• Research how I can improve my practise.
• Look for and research ideas for my target children. Create resources to improve their high frequency word knowledge.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfil? Criteria 4 Criteria 6 Criteria 9 Criteria 12

What is the learning/teaching experience: I completed my first observation of watching a writing lesson. I found this so helpful and learned so much on how to adjust my writing programme. I was definitely on the right track with the way I was teaching but am always striving to improve in any way I can to develop the best learning experience for my students. I was unfortunate that I had just missed some professional development with Murray Gadd as he was at school before I started but have got many tips from my colleagues about the writing process.

So What: What did I learn?

• Click Writing Observation link for detailed observation
• I am on the right track and continue to develop my writing programme
• To have follow up activities for when students finish i.e practising words that they didn’t get right, onto their whiteboard.

Now What? Next Steps

• To use a vivid when modelling writing (easy for students to see)
• Write the sounds that students hear and then adjust when finished (put my teacher’s hat on).
• Use more ‘Think, pair, share’.
• Try not to have students lined up to get their writing checked. Encourage them to go and write more. I then roam around and see them. This way they may be able to write more.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfil? Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 4

What is the learning/teaching experience?: One of the challenges I’ve been having since I began is whether to do my planning online or paper copies. I have used google docs a lot on my practicums and then on my last practicum I used a hard copy and it worked just as well. I decided to go with a hard copy to begin with for my planning this term and then will look next term if I will do them online. I’m a visual learner

so having a planning booklet in front of me where I can scribble on and write notes about students is a good start out for me and use it is a working document at this stage.

So What: What did I learn?

• I don’t have restrictions to do planning certain ways as we did at Uni and I am able to do them the way I prefer.
• I can only become a better teacher if I am willing to adapt, change and learn and try new strategies.

Now What? Next Steps

• Make necessary changes to planning.

For what: This Fulfill these criteria  Criterion 4, Criterion 6

What is the learning/teaching experience?: Oh my goodness it has all happened so fast, cannot wipe this smile off my face that I have been given this opportunity to work in such an amazing school.

Spent the holidays turning room 1 a blank canvas into a warm bright colourful classroom, there is a way to go with needing student’s art work etc, on the walls to make it look loved, it is all coming together.Of course the thoughts are going through my head “Am I good enough? do I know enough? what are the students and parents going to be like?” A thousand questions going through my head but as my life motto goes “I got this”.

Began this week in the Room 1 new entrants class with 6 students, some very worried and scared children to begin with. Lots of tears this first week as parents left them and took the students a while to settle in. Definitely a learning curve for me as my mother said I was exactly the same when I began school.  Very overwhelming for them a whole new experience. They had been on visits before the holidays but this was a whole day- week at school they had to get through. That first day was definitely a learning curve for me, it was such a strange feeling knowing this classroom was mine, I didn’t have an associate teacher watching my moves all the time. I had these students walking into the classroom, that I was going to teach and their parents that I would share their children’s development and success with. With only 6 children the days have been very slow as they finish things fast. They are all at the same beginning level and no groups developed yet for obvious reasons, needed to have lots of extra activities prepared to fill in the day.

I didn’t have a release day this first week as my students being very new we thought it might be best if they just had me for the week instead of being overwhelmed with a new person coming in. I was lucky enough to have my tutor teacher come in and give me a hand with finding resources and I was able to ask questions while he was there. He also helped me out with the school visits I had three new students coming in for their visits, and felt I was so un organized as they came in during the middle of writing. With some help I got through it and learnt a lot on how to manage next time and I thought it ran smoothly considering I was so overwhelmed and stressed with the experience but bring on next week it will be all under control.

So What: What did I learn

1. Teachers are always learning and developing. 
2. Always reflect on my practice.
3. It is okay for lessons to not run perfectly. 

Now What: Next steps 

1. Continue to set up and develop routines.
2. Continue to refine my own teaching and pedagogy. 

For What: This Fulfill these criteria  Criterion 4, Criterion 6, Criterion 8

 

WEEK SEVEN TERM FOUR REFLECTION: GETTING TO THE END!