Week 4, Term 2 2013

This week went by really fast after having only 3 days in the classroom.

Tuesday was a CRT day for all teachers in the school. We spent the day observing and collating the information. The morning was spent in the junior room where we observed 40 minutes of guided reading and the Daily 5 up and running. Before going into the class we had three questions which we had to ask two different students ~ I thought this was a really effective way to get the children's feedback and see what they think they are learning. After our observation we met back and collated all our data and discussed what we thought worked well and what could be improved. After morning tea we observed the senior room. There was a huge jump (as expected) in the learning levels and the independence that the teacher and students have worked hard to establish. It was really good to see that what I do effects what they can/can not do in the senior room and I need to ensure that I am building them up and getting them ready for this level of work. I also got a few ideas that I would like to implement into my own class.
After our observations we met as a whole staff and decided on what worked well and what needs to be done across all classrooms consistently. I found this helped me as a new staff member discover what is expected in the school and how I get to achieving it.

Wednesday we had a winter sports day and I was with the year 3-4 students at soccer. I found the sports day quite unorganised by the organising school and there was quite a lot of standing around at the start.
I split the students into two separate teams ~ with only one team playing at once while the other was off. I was very thankful that I had a parent help as it was rather difficult to begin with having one team on and organising subs but also ensuring the team that was off were warm and behaving. The day went pretty smoothly and the children all participated and had fun.

Thursday and Friday were spent doing my normal routines and getting children back into it. Children were quite restless and testing on Thursday after having two days of no teacher. Friday was better and children produced some good work.
I have altered my maths slightly after incorporating my class wiki to help computer time run smoother. At the beginning of computer time children are given the name of their activity and then locate it under their specific group, I found this much more time efficient so children aren't wasting time logging into activities.
Class Wiki
I have also started to have the children running the hot spot activities as this helps them take ownership and most of them are responding well to this.

During the week I also took writing samples from the children which I will be analysing over the weekend and sharing at the staff meeting on Tuesday. I had to video myself doing the motivator and will share that in staff meeting also.