End of Year Reflection!

Well it has certainly been a busy year with so much learning taking place for both my learners and I. This has been my first year in a junior classroom and I have absolutely loved it. This is just a quick reflection as most of my reflection is either in my blog or on myPortfolio and done during term time.

Next year I am continuing in the same class with some of my kids moving up a class and gaining some New Entrants through out the term/year.

Mathematic - I have enjoyed maths this year. In my class I had Stages 0-5 that I was teaching which was pretty good as I was able to pull kids depending on their needs rather than classifying them at Stage 4 and only focusing on that content. Next year I plan on running my maths programme similar to the Daily 5 where children have more choice. I also had some really good PD in maths from Brenda Walker at Te Toi Tupu through the Waikato University. It was such a great course and I learnt heaps of simple, practical ideas that I use in my classroom everyday. Some which I have referenced in my blog through out the term.

Reading - This has been a steep learning area for me as I haven't had to teach children how to handle a book and start from the basics. My kids made good progress however I believe they have the potential to make even more, and I have a few ideas that I would like to try for my inquiry next year. At the beginning of the year I was running the Early Words programme but found it wasn't working effectively for myself or my learners (this was partly down to time constraints and students not completing activities for homework). I then implemented the use of high frequency words and these can be found in many places in our class. So far it has had a positive outcome on my students learning and I am looking for ways as to how I can adapt it next year.

Writing - In our school writing was a big PD focus so we were working with Louise Dempsey, Lisa from the University of Waikato as well a cluster of local schools. For me personally writing is a weak area so I found the PD that we received very valuable. I still have so much to learn in writing and look forward to developing my writing programme next year.

Topic - For topic at the beginning of the year I was doing a 5-10 week theme however I found that my kids were getting bored as it was going to long. So I changed this to 1-2 weeks long and this has worked much better as their focus is sustained.

Maori - I am not very confident in this area of the classroom however I believe the only way for me to develop as a teacher is to have a go and if it doesn't work then I can reflect on why and change it accordingly. Our last focus was Kai and my class looked at the process of Kai. It was a hands on unit and went well.

Well that is all from me. I have one more term to go until I am fully registered which I am super excited about. Merry Christmas and see you next year.

Christmas fun in Room 6

With Christmas approaching super fast we have been doing lots of Christmas themed activities.

Monday
We watched a short film of The Night Before Christmas. We talked about the main things that happened in the story and then children had to retell the story in their own words. Each student created their own 'The Night Before Christmas' book.

We then started our draft letter to Santa - we have done a bit of letter writing this term so my kids were good at knowing what was needed. The criteria was:

• they had to say something nice to santa
• why they have been good and should deserve a present
• what they would like

(we will publish them tomorrow once I have checked spelling etc).

In the morning I had played Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer to the class and none of them knew it. So I scheduled some time in to learn some Christmas carols. We learnt Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and Jingle bells. I found a video for each on youtube and then printed matching words.

In the afternoon we made some Christmas Elves. I was really pleased with how they turned out. I could only find a picture for this activity so I can't link in instructions but here is a photo of some of my kids elves.

Tuesday

Today we did some touch up work for a couple of projects we needed to get finished.

For our writing topic we filled out an elf application. My students has to explain why they think they would be a good elf and draw an image of themselves as an elf - see below for one of them. The following is a link for the activity.

In the afternoon we took advantage of the nice weather and went outside for some striking practice.

Check back each day for more insight into our class Christmas activities.