Criterion 8

Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how akonga learn.

Key indicators:

• enables akonga to make connections between their prior experiences and learning and their current learning activities.
• provides opportunities and support for akonga to engage with, practice and apply new learning to different contexts.
• encourages akonga to take responsibilities for their own learning and behaviour.
• assists akonga to think critically about information and ideas and to reflect on their learning.

Reflective Question: How does my teaching reflect that I understand the main influences on how my akonga learn? 

What is the learning/teaching experience: This week has been crazy busy, the last couple of weeks I have been getting all my assessment up to date and getting report comments underway. I was quite impressed with the assessment I did and the students who I knew, were below the standards, did not surprise me. The writing and reading National Standard I find is a hard one and I have really pushed some of my students so they are on track, some will need extra support next term and I have discussed this with our school SENCO (Special education needs coordinator). The hardest part of assessing the students learning I find is writing. I got some help from my tutor teacher to work out if I am on the right track. The thing with moderating writing is that your interpretation can be very different to that of someone else’s, so getting an idea of below, middle and above from students writing gave me information on where I need to put the students. After talking to my tutor teacher, it was great reassurance to see that I had the same thoughts as him when moderating.

I find writing report comments quite a hard one. Trying to get the right wording to explain the students learning and what they are like in the classroom, and how to start is the hardest part. Other than one, I did last year this is the first lot of report interviews I have had to do. Not many BT’s can say they have been teaching for a year and have only given one report. To help me with the writing comments, my tutor teacher had given me some examples of where to go and then another colleague gave me a ‘report bank’ resource with lots of sentence starters for each curriculum area, which was fantastic to work with. I have eight reports to write with some of the students on track to meet the standards and others not so much.

So What: What did I learn?

• Communication with Colleagues to make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to assessment
• National Standards are tough

Now What? Next Steps

• Research more on how I can help my writers succeed.
• Finish report comments and give them to tutor teacher to read over

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 8, Criteria 11

I do really enjoy teaching 5 year olds and they bring a lot of laughter and fun as well as some moments where you want to go into the corner alone and rock!

Things I have learnt since teaching 5 year olds:

• They will talk to you all at the same time.
• They would share their news all day everyday if they could.
• They will put their hand up and share completely off topic answers e.g I love my mum, im going swimming after school.
• They love praise and the smallest amount goes a very very long way.
• The happy bubble and sad bubble are the best things ever!
• They will pick up staples off the floor and show you before they put them in the bin.
• They cannot tie shoelaces, if I had a dollar for every shoe lace I have tied up I would be rich.
• They will definitely make you laugh.
• Seeing them learn words, write words, go up a level in reading is so rewarding.
• The most important part when students are starting school is for them to have a positive transition to school and for them to feel happy.
• It is important for parents to feel positive about their transition to school and for them to feel welcome and happy as well.
• There will be tears
• When you get excited about something, they get excited also.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 1, Criteria 2, Criteria 7, Criteria 8

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 most difficult aspects of becoming a teacher is learning how to motivate students. It is one of the most important. Students who are not motivated will not learn effectively. They won’t retain information, they won’t participate and some of them may even become disruptive.

I have two to three students in my class that im really struggling to get motivated to learn, they either do not listen, don’t follow instructions and don’t seem to be bothered talking when im talking. I have done a bit of reading to find some ways to encourage these students to learn as they really need the help. When doing some research, I found a variety of reasons as to why my students may be unmotivated. They may feel that they have no interest in the subject, find teaching methods un-engaging or be distracted. It may appear students actually have difficulty learning and is need of special attention.

So What: What did I learn?

• While motivating students can be a tricky task, the rewards are more than worth it.
• Motivated students are more excited to learn and participate. Simply put: teaching a class full of motivates students is enjoyable for teacher and student alike.
• Some students are self-motivated, with a natural love of learning. But even with the students who do not have this natural drive, a great teacher can make learning fun and inspire them to reach their full potential.

Now What? Next Steps

• Encourage Students
• Get them involved
• Offer incentives
• Get creative
• Draw connections to real life
• Praise students in ways big and small
• Expect excellence
• Spread excitement like a virus
• Mix it up

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 5, Criteria 6, Criteria 7, Criteria 8

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:  Stress, stress, stress! Sums up this week super well!! This week my room and the other new entrant’s room were the hosts of our Junior Assembly. This involved sharing a piece of art, performing a dance and having some of our students introduce each item.

The first step was to finish our Collage art work wow these look amazing but it was a race to the finish line to get them completed. Then we had to do create a dance for the two classes to share, I was excited about this being a former dance teacher I was definitely in my element. Not only did they do the dance but they dressed up for this also. They had costumes, which looked awesome on the stage. They all pulled it off amazingly and come morning tea Friday it was a big sigh of relief as we sent the students to have their morning tea. I was very proud of how amazing they did, this was my first Assembly to organize as well along with my Colleague, thank goodness she had done it before because I would have had no idea what to do. It was a great experience; one you wouldn’t want to do very often. We had lots of practices so you could say maths went out the door this week. It was totally worth all the stress to see them on stage and giving it their all. Now to enjoy the weekend!!

So What: What did I learn?

• Hard work pays off
• High expectations are not a bad thing
• Communication with colleagues is important, especially as a beginning teacher.

Now What? Next Steps

• For the next time I am on Assembly, I will be aware of what I need to do and won’t have so many questions for my poor colleagues.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill?  Criteria 1, Criteria 5, Criteria 7, Criteria 8

What is the learning/teaching experience: Routines, routines, routines!! Everything is about routines. Also praise, reinforcement, fun and having a ton of energy all the time. When these five year old’s start school they have to learn how to learn and until that’s done they’re not quite school ready. It is so amazing learning about how much some children have little knowledge when they come to school to those that are super confident and have quite a bit of knowledge. Some children come to school and aren’t even sure what hand to hold a pen in.

What I love about teaching new entrants is how fast they learn, they are like sponges and take in everything you teach. Of course some learn faster than others. But I did some testing this week on my release and I have children moving onto read reading level and they are so motivated to learn and identify their wonder words. It is a great feeling when you know you must be doing something right as they move up in their learning process and are achieving great things.

I love the bond I have with these children and am definitely learning so much from them. Being a teacher of New Entrants, there is so much more involved than just teaching lessons. As this picture sums it up very well.

So What: What did I learn?

• Routines are very important
• Positive Reinforcement is key
• Need a lot of energy

Now What? Next Steps

• Continue to develop clear set expectations of students
• Use more positive reinforcement
• Focus on the positives more that the negatives.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill?  Criteria 1, Criteria 2, Criteria 5, Criteria 7 Criteria 8

What is the learning/teaching experience: Some of my students have come back after the holiday and wow what an improvement in their writing it is so amazing! I am so impressed, its honestly the best feeling when you see students take in what you have taught them and they try really hard. I also tested my students that have been as school for a while now on their wonder words 1 list (High frequency words) and some of them have now moved onto wonder words 2!! Very exciting. Now because I have put them up on the wall with their names beside them they can see where they are and some really want to go further so took their wonder words home in the weekend so they can practice and move forward.

So What: What did I learn?

• Seeing things visually for the students helps motivate them.
• When students see their peers succeeding they what to do the same.
• Communicating with parents about their child’s learning and what they can do to help at home.

Now What? Next Steps

• Keep encouraging and communicating with parents
• Create more resources for writing and reading with more high frequency words.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill?  Criteria 2, Criteria 8, Criteria 11

What is the learning/teaching experience: Had my first school entry assessment get together with a parent this week. I was actually so nervous! It was such a casual meeting just to talk about where this student was at, how they went in their SEA and what they can do at home to help. I guess it is just that worry about what if they aren’t happy with what I say. Not that there was anything negative to say you just never know with some parents. Overall, it went very well and their mum was very happy with how the student is going as am I. Plenty more SEA catch up with parents to go! I call them catch ups as they aren’t very formal.

So What: What did I learn?

• Communication is important with Parents/caregivers and whanau as there is only so much you can do at school, students also need to learn skills at home to be the best they can be.

Now What? Next Steps

• Identify the needs of students and put into my planning as tasks students can do during reading, writing maths.
• Create resources to help with gaps that are missing.
• Focus on students phonological awareness (make time for this)

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 1, Criteria 6, Criteria 7, Criteria 8, Criteria 9, Criteria 11

What is the learning/teaching experience: This week I began doing some iKan testing and it was very interesting seeing how they went with this. I also looked at their school entry reports. Some students were a lot easy to mark than others. As some students have been at school for longer obviously and its interesting these students are all within a month of age but their knowledge and mannerisms are so different.

In Maths we have currently been looking at statistics and which objects have less, more etc. It’s amazing how much they have learned in such a small amount of time. It’s a great feeling when they can talk about and identify it so easily when they are discussing graphs. Makes me feel quite proud. Maths  is definitely not my strongest subject as I didn’t have much experience in maths during my student teaching. It is a curriculum area I feel I am lacking in terms of content knowledge and how to teach it for this age group. Yes, I know what I need to teach, but lack the knowledge and confidence with this area for example where to start, what materials to use, what activities to begin with. This is definitely a goal for me to gain more confidence with my maths teaching. In regards to that I feel humbled that I have so many amazing people to learn from and ask questions.

So What: What did I learn?

• How to read maths testing
• Every school’s assessment is different
• Ask for guidance and help if I need to.
• How different capabilities, students can have at this age.

Now What? Next Steps

• Look into professional development around numeracy.
• Use the NZ maths website to help guide
• Continue to ask questions
• Observe different teachers teaching maths.

For what: What Criterion does this fulfill? Criteria 2 Criteria 6 Criteria 8 Criteria 9 Criteria 11

 

What: The staff are so amazing, helpful and friendly they make me feel so welcome and a part of the team. Still have to pinch myself thinking that I’m actually a teacher and not a student teacher anymore. It’s quite surreal 3 years doing this degree and here I am.

I have taken a lot of what I learnt and developed during my last practicum and put it into my classroom practice which has definitely been an advantage and very helpful, by developing similar routines, classroom layout etc. This week was all about creating classroom routines, such as the morning they put their reading folders in the correct box, drink bottles and lunch boxes on the bench, jackets in the jersey box and bags in the cloakroom. Doing this in the morning encourages the students to be self-managers.

Still some very upset children in the mornings as parents walk out the door. But as soon as they are gone the tears have disappeared thank goodness, it was chaos! When some wouldn’t settle for a while. I had a student that tried to do a runner but managed to settle her! Oh goodness.

Had my first release day this week which involved cutting, laminating, cutting, REPEAT! Making resources for the classroom, was very successful but again not enough hours in the day! My mentor teacher is amazing and such a great help! He found all the resources for me a “million” pieces of paper filled with numeracy and reading activities. Saved me a lot of time. I also had a chance to sort out some maths equipment, made lots of labels and created a newsletter. The classroom is coming along.

So What: The biggest challenge this week was Thursday, the day of school visits. I felt like I was super organized this week as I learnt a lot last week of how the school visits went. I had 5 visiting this week. I also had a new student begin who is only with us for 4 weeks. This student is a year older than the rest of the class. But he had a teacher aide working alongside him at his other school so it was best he came into room 1. It was a bit stressful having him come in on the Thursday with no stationary or anything and then my five visitors. Unlike last week where I had my mentor in class to help greet the parents. I also had a parent stay the whole time during the visits which distracted some of the other students as well. 

Now What: It’s all a learning experience! I’m learning alongside my learners every day.

For What: This Fulfills these criteria  Criterion 2 Criterion 6 Criterion 8

What: 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 Fulfills these criteria  Criterion 4, Criterion 6, Criterion 8

 

WEEK THREE TERM FOUR REFLECTION: OUT OF SYNC