Parent-Teacher Interviews

We had a really good turn out for Parent-Teacher Interviews this term. I had 12/14 parents come. One of the parents who didn't come was because their child has only been at school a 2 weeks and I see her most days to talk about how he settling in so we decided together that we didn't really need an interview. The other one I had personally rung to book an appointment with but they didn't show up in the end. This is by far the best attendance rate I have had, which may be to do with the change in times or the informal get togethers we have had each term.

Either way it has been great. All appointments went well.

Teacher Inquiry Portfolio

Attached is a link to my Teacher Inquiry Portfolio

Strategic Goal 1:  To improve teaching and learning, and raise student achievement in Reading and/or Writing

What does authentic play-based learning, with a particular focus on oral language,  to improve early reading

and writing achievement, look like?

Strategic Goal 2:  To improve teaching and learning, and raise student achievement in Maths

How can play and drama be utilised to improve early mathematical concepts?  

Term 2

This term has been crazy. I have been away from school a lot and feel as though I'm not really in the game. My kids have had good consistent relievers which has been great but we've also had a couple of new students which are unsettling the class as a whole.

Two of my new students have been under Early Prevention Services support at their ECE Centre which has been really helpful. We have had productive meetings which support their transition to school and help me understand their strengths and challenges.

My biggest issue at the moment is getting the students settled and listening on the mat. One student in particular really struggles to sit quietly at all. Often humming or talking loudly over anyone else about his own interests regardless of the topic. He is making some progress but it is very difficult to keep the rest of the class on track and following class expectations about mat time behaviour.

I also have several students who are struggling to keep their hands and feet to themselves. They are constantly in someone else's space and annoying each other by touching, pushing, prodding etc.

I am trying to get back into using way more positives but it is difficult when I am feeling run down by having to use constant reminders. I think my mat times are becoming too long, because I am struggling to give instructions quickly due to interruptions.

As far as curriculum goes, we are doing OK with Reading, Writing and Maths. I am struggling a little bit more with fitting Inquiry, Te Reo, Science, Technology, Arts etc into my day.
I am trying to incorporate a bit of drama into our day through character play in relation to stories we have read etc. I think I may need to plan 1 day a week where I do purely Inquiry that also ties into the Arts, Sciences etc to ensure we are doing some of that more specifically.

I have handed writing over to Robyn to monitor for now. I am doing Modelled/Shared writing every day and the students are writing independently with roaming support from Robyn when she comes in. They get explicit letter-sound/spelling teaching.

I really want to get goals up and running within their writing and maths books.

In Maths, I am trying to get back on track with my Number Agents maths. So far I am teaching number knowledge games and doing a simple word problem each day as a group to help them understand how they can solve the problems. We have been working on using materials as models which the kids have actually grasped quite quickly.

What are we doing to improve progress in reading, writing and maths?

For Whaea Robyn's board report we were asked to reflect on what we were doing in our planning and teaching to improve student achievement in reading, writing and maths

Reading

Daily sight words practise

Levelled book boxes (Magenta particularly including books with learnt sight words). Students then have their own choice about which book they would like to read to/with the teacher.

1-1         reading (rather than group) with the teacher 3-4 times a week.

Poems relating to learnt sight words.

Shared book includes learnt sight words.

Daily reading to.

Writing

Using SEED Learning website and resources to…

Developing strong letter-sound knowledge by learning 1-2 sounds per week. Focusing on hearing and recording the sound.

Developing phonemic awareness to hear sounds in words.

Writing simple three letter words with known sounds.

Writing about student’s own choice of topic.

Developing oral language through play based learning, language experiences, discussing videos or books.

Recording stories orally on iPads using Seesaw. – taking photo of work and talking about it, or reading own writing aloud.

Maths

Using playdough and manipulatives to make different groups for counting practice.

Use NZ Maths website to support planning of Geometry units.

A lot of repetition – finding numbers in different contexts, counting other things.

Number of the day with numeral, tens frame, finger and dot patterns.

Counting rhymes

6 March General Reflection

Things are going ok. We are slowly getting there but things are definitely hard. We are up to 18 in our class with only 4 carried over from last year and they all started late last year so weren't too clued up. This has meant that setting up time has been hard work. Getting routines in place and not expecting too much has been a big part of my day. I am definitely not on track with most of my long term planning with things taking much longer than expected. The kids are generally pretty good but some of the behaviour is difficult as many aren't really ready for school.

The play based learning has been challenging as I haven't been able to participate in the play as well as I would like. However, having Angelique in class now means that she is able to support some of that play while I take groups. I still need to find ways to get more out of the play but don't really know how to do that yet.

My kids are all getting the idea of drawing a picture, "writing" and then recording their story. I think this has been really good for the development of writing as telling a story. I am hoping that soon they will be able to do this fairly independently so they can do "writing" every day and I can focus more on teaching some of the skills they need.

So far, I have not implemented any goal sheets. I think that I probably need to do this soon and touch base with everyone at least once a week about their goals. They can then take photos of these on Seesaw to share with their whānau.

I am loving the use of Seesaw for documenting learning. I am trying to use it at least once a day and soon I will get students to make some choices about what they want to share. The kids are going to show Ms Rose's class how to use it and I think that will be really cool for them to be the experts.

Maths has not been going very well at all. I've hardly been getting to it due to swimming and setting everything else up. I've had big ideas about using Maths Heroes but it hasn't really followed through yet.

Ministry Play Suggestions

This link goes to a document made by the ministry of play ideas and suggestions for early childhood centres. It may well have some good ideas for my classroom too.

https://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Early-Childhood/Play-ideas/Play-ideas-complete-collection.pdf

Getting going in class.

Nearly three weeks in and we're doing ok. My class is beginning to learn the rules and routines and most of the kids are keen to learn. I'm doing a lot of one on one teaching while the others are playing which is working well as I'm not having to redirect kids so much. Whole class mat times are a bit of struggle with a few kids who find it really hard to sit quietly and listen unless I am speaking directly to them but they are progressing well. I am not spending enough time playing alongside the children and I already find myself worrying that we are not doing enough "learning", however I feel like I am getting to know the kids pretty well. From the work and discussions I have had, I know which ones are ready for a bit more, and which ones still need a lot more of the basics. Most have picked up the sight words really quickly but I think I will need to do some more revision now that they have 4 words that they have learnt. They are easily forgetting earlier ones. I also think we need more work on the sounds and I want to start putting them together soon to make short cvc words.

I am using Seesaw and loving it. The kids are getting it pretty quickly but I am still supporting them to make their journal entries for now. I am sure it won't be long before most of them can do it independently. Currently the content isn't too important as they learn how to use the app but soon I hope to use it to display handwriting practise, retelling stories (for reading and writing) and to show maths thinking. I have also found making myself a "student" login allows me to easily post to our blog some of the work we have been doing. I can then also model how to do all the steps of a post. Today we sent home the login sheets for parents so hopefully we can connect with them and see lots of positive sharing of learning.