Teaching in Scotland

I went to Scotland on the assumption of doing some casual relief work while also travelling, this however didn't go as planned and I was really lucky to walk straight into a teaching position. As I'm sure many of you are aware Scotland (especially the highlands and coastal areas) currently has a huge teacher shortage, it has gotten so bad that they have begun offering Kiwi teachers a £1000 ($2000) bonus. Any teachers wanting to go over make sure you do your teacher registration well in advance.

The school I gained a position at was called Hermitage Primary up in Helensburgh. Each morning/afternoon I travelled a scenic 40 minute train ride along the coast. My class was a great wee class of P1 students (end of kindy/new entrants level). My class was in a open plan area with the option to close the door between our classes.

Every morning we began with Jolly Phonics and Active Learning (play based learning). I found Jolly Phonics relatively easy to teach as Yolanda Soryls phonics programme has aspects of it included (plus I had been introduced to it in Oman). Our Active Learning for the week would depend entirely on our topic. Children would split up into groups of 5 and complete simple tasks. For example The Post: programme a bee bot to deliver mail, design a airmail envelope to a country of choice, sort post from other classes and deliver, weigh and sort packages. These changed weekly and had topics such as Halloween, autumn, babies, Christmas, measurement and shape.

The first topic I was involved with was Our School and this was focused around the school and the people who help us (teachers, cleaners, cooks, lollipop ladies). We did activities such as mapping the school, identifying and interviewing the people in our school and because this was the first topic a lot of work around the rules at school.

Our next topic was the post shop and this was a great topic. We looked at the journey of a letter and how it gets from the sender to the receiver. The children all made a letter to someone else in the class and these were then put in envelopes. We organised a trip to the local sorting office who were great at taking the time to show the kids the process from arriving to being sent with the mail man. We then purchased some stamps and posted our letters from 4 different mail boxes 3/4 arrived the next day and 1 arrived a week later. During this topic we set up post boxes around school for other classes to send mail to each other (it worked out great with Christmas time and all the Christmas cards being sent)! Each day children would have to collect, sort and deliver the mail to each class which was great especially when they were dressed up in all the post gear.

During our post topic we were also super busy with Christmas play rehearsals. We decided to do a play called the Wriggly Nativity and it was awesome. Lots of hard work was put in by all and after all the practice and rehearsals the kids did an awesome job.

As a teacher we had to run a club during the term and my stage partner and I ran nature club together. We began by introducing the focus and gathering the students questions. From this we developed a rough programme of what we would cover each week.Our first session began with a bug hunt and it was awesome seeing the children getting their hands dirty and the language they used when hunting.

Over the few months I spent in Scotland I learnt so much. Their programmes differ slightly from New Zealands and I can see the benefits from both. I had a laugh when we started using these old school head phones!

Space

Our last topic for the year is space.

We began this topic with a visit from Grade 3 who had just been studying space. After this we looked at the planets and their features. I then gave children a sheet that had the 8 planets (and Pluto) and they had to colour and glue in the correct order in their book. 

The next lesson I gave students a questionnaire that required them to read through space info cards. The next day I gave students the option to make either a poster or booklet to inform people what they had found out. They used their questionnaires and also a range of texts about space. This was completely independent (I was very impressed with their work). 

For art we made out own planets. This was extreeeemly messy (I had done this lesson with a previous class and I don't remember it being as stressful, maybe because we had done it outside). I gave children a small pile of shaving foam (in itself they loved) they then choose what colours they wanted their planet to be and added several drops of food colour. They then did a little mix - the less it was mixed the better they turned out). They then put the paper on top of the shaving foam - normally I would have used a ruler or the likes to scrap the excess foam off. However by that point the classroom was chaos! 

We then pushed all the desks back and covered the floor in paper to make our sky. We covered a piece of paper in black paint (school has run out of black paper so we had to improvise) and then we sprinkled it with white glitter. Once both had dried we cut out the planets and glued them on. They did turn out looking good.

The next week we began by making rockets. This was simply paper on the end of a straw - what fun! We had competitions to see whose rocket could go the furthest and just in general had fun shooting the rockets.

For art this week we made our own aliens. We began by sticking 8 googly eyes on our paper. I then modeled how to draw an alien using the eyes and let the children draw as they pleased.

Fairy tales

We began this topic exploring the story gingerbread man.

On Wednesday we made gingerbread men, in groups children had to mix ingredients, knead and cut. It was a rather stressful lesson as I allowed an hour to make 4 batches however next time I would definitely allow more time. I then took them home that night and in batches put them through. The next we decorated them. Children had to first design their man and then they had the opportunity to ice and decorate them. They were quite pleased with their work - I can't say how they tasted as they took them home to eat and I gave mine to our wee cleaner who was stoked.

Our next story was the Elves and the Shoemaker. We watched the story through You Tube and discussed the feature of the story. Over the last few weeks children had bought in their own old shoes. I gave students out their shoe and they had to sketch an image of it. I then explained that we would be creating our own shoe and what materials (to tie into our topic) they could use. They then set about doing their sketch and creating a final design. Once their design was complete I let them loose on the fabric, beads etc. Now I have never heard concentration like I did this afternoon. The whole was silent in a very busy concentrated haze. The final product was awesome and the kids were really proud of their work.

During our fairy tale topic our science focus was material. I began this by introducing children to fabric, metal, plastic, paper and wood. I had small labels made up and children had to go around the class and identify the materials in the class and then stick them. Most children did this easily. My next lesson was a sample of the 5 materials and children had to explore whether they could stretch, bend, roll, squeeze etc. 

We had a break between out two topics with Science week. During this week we had to present to different classes our learning over the last few weeks and we also got to visit other classes. I had some children bring in some great wee experiments in the weeks leading up so we decided to use this in our class. The experiments we did were: floating egg, lava lamps, pepper with dish liquid, orange peel and balloon, and dancing popcorn. The kids did an awesome job presenting them to children older than themselves I was really proud. Next time I would do a bit more work around the science of the reactions. 

During science week we were given challenges. Our first class challenge was to build the tallest tower using only the material supplied (news paper, pasta, tape, tin foil, blue tack). I put my kids into 3 groups and gave them 30mins to make a tower. It was quite interesting to see how they tackle a practical task and the children who can work together - they gave it a good go but only got a tower 80cm tall.

The next challenge was the egg drop - to create a egg protection shell using the material provided (plastic cups, shredded paper, tape, tin foil, news paper). The absolutely loved and when it came to dropping them - how exciting! We began at 1m, then 2m and then from the steps (about 7m) - 3 survived the 7m drop so we took them to the school roof. Unfortunately none survived the roof but it was a great team building experience.

Teachers were also given a challenge to build a car that could safely transport an egg the furthest without using battery power. We decide to use human power and borrowed the tricycle from KG. We made a box to fit over the drivers head. This was also good fun and put some healthy competition between the grade and provided a good team building activity for our grade!

In maths I have been doing number bonds and positional language.

Number bonds was good to teach, most children know their addition facts to 10 so it only took several lessons to help them realise the pattern. My more capable students picked it up faster and I was able to extend them well. To finish the learning we made number bond butterflies which was a nice end of week craft, consolidation of learning and looked great on the wall.

Our next week in maths we did positional language. Unfortunately it is very hot in Oman now 45 degrees so we were confined to the class. I started the lesson by instructing them to move into different positions in the class. I then gave them a sheet where they were required to listen carefully to instructions and draw pictures in certain position, was a nice lesson. The next lesson was similar however I gave them more independence and they were required to read instructions themselves. The next we learnt left and right (I explained that I struggle with left and right so we would learn together). This was more a practical lesson mixed with positional language.

The Giants Garden

I began by introducing the topic with a letter sent from the giant asking for help. The buy in was great.

I then did a quick modeled lesson on letter writing and children wrote back to giant explaining how they would/could help him. I love how kind and caring some children are.

Several days later the class received a letter back from the giant along with some beans.

We talked about how we grow a plant - I made out that I had no idea so it was all student led. Together we figured out how to plant a plant using what we had in the class (cups and cotton). Once we had decided on how to plant them the students all were able to plant their own bean.

We made some flower art for the giant to decorate his walls. We used cardboard peices for the grass, finger prints for the flowers and sticks for the stem.

Next we began writing our stories back to giant. Explaining what he needed to be able to plant with and then the instructions for how to plant them. We revisited the language we used when writing instructions at the beginning of the year so it made the lesson a bit easier. I actually got really good writing out of all the children.

I gave students the story Jack and the Beanstalk all messed up and they had too rider the sentences and find a picture to match. I gave students an example of the story messed up and this led into a discussion about the importance of writing our stories in order so it makes sense.

We had two rain days this week which was very exciting. Lots of thunder, lightning etc.

Week 3 we received a letter from Jack asking for help. The class had to think about how they can help out Jack. Children had to tell the Jack how to care for his plants and how he could fix his relationship with the giant.

We created a flip up leaf book to show that for plants to live they need: water, sun, food and air. 

Our plants grew really well and the children loved looking after them and seeing the growth. I planted a seed in a glass jar so the students could see the root growth and the plant growing.

We made some books to label each part of the plant and during our ICT time the children made and labeled a plant.

To finish off our plants topic we took a trip to the gardens. It was a lovely morning, we took our food and ate first and then had a play on the playground (we don't have a play ground at school so it was interesting to see what kids take risks and how they interact with each other) the kids had a blast on it. We then went for a walk around the gardens sketching and observing the different flowers and plants.

Some of our other learning has been alphabetical order. For this I gave my desk groups (which are mixed ability) 10 or so high frequency words and they had to put them in order. Next term we still have a little work to do on this so that they full grasp the concept.

In maths we have been doing graphing, which I love teaching. My first 2 intro lessons we did data gathering using tally marks and displaying it on a bar graph together. I then gave students the next few lessons to do their own. We found out information about colours, Arctic animals and safari animals (3 separate investigations). I gave children each a clip board with the tally area and the names of all students in our class. They had to go and ask each child and then cross their name off and add a tally mark, this worked really well and they were all engaged.

We had a charity carnival several weeks ago which was pretty large, their were food stands, coffee stalls, bouncy castles, chair swing, games, motor bikes and cars. The carnival raised about $12000nzd which is pretty awesome! 

In the photo below a child bought his pet snake along with him to the carnival.

We now have term break for a week so I will be doing some much needed relaxing.

It's a small world

IFor the past 6 weeks we have studied a range of countries. We studied Canada, Italy, Australia, Japan, the Polar Regions and of course New Zealand. The topic started off by identifying the oceans and continents.

We began with Canada. I introduced children to a variety of books that I had borrowed from the library. We talked about what we notice is different compared to Oman. During this lesson a child pointed out the totem poles - this lead quite nicely into our art activity. We began by looking at the symbolism behind the poles and what influences the designs. The children then had to decide what they would put on their pole.

Our next country was Italy. For Italy we looked at the food they eat their, pizza being a main dish. We were pretty excited because we got to go on a class trip to a pizza restaurant called Pizza Express. From a teachers point of view I was very impressed with the trip, the staff were super organised and the kids were really engaged. We began by having a kitchen tour and seeing all the food storage and prep areas. We then learnt how to roll out our dough - children all got their own pizza pan and dough. Next they taught us how to spread the sauce and finally we were given a range of toppings to put on. The pizzas were all cooked and the children spent the next 20 minutes enjoying their creations. (The trip was a good set up for the weeks learning).
The next day we wrote instructions on how to make pizza - all children were able to do this with limited teacher input. We also made pizza art on paper plates and adding the 'topping' in the form of paper that was used. This then led into a math focus of fractions which children could grasp easily with the visual clue of the pizza.

For Australia we began by writing down questions for our Head of Primary who is from Tasmania. We had him  come and interviewed him to find out the information needed to answer our questions. Some of the funniest questions from grade 1 were: "Do you have pencils in Australia?" "Do you have cars in Australia?"
We then looked at the Aboriginal people of Australia and explored some of their art and the meaning behind it. We had a go a trying to create our own aboriginal art and they turned out really great.

Our next country was Japan. In literacy we focused on story retell. We watched a short film called Sleeping Dragon. I paused it just before the boy opens the well. Children then had to decide if they would or wouldn't open the well and why. I had a screen shot of this bit where children had to draw a though bubble to show what they would do. Following this we shared our ideas and then watched the rest. The following couple of lessons we retold the story using sequencing words. To finish we made some Japanese blossom trees which turned out awesome.

My favourite country was next. I introduced children to the Maori culture and we looked at the language and art. To begin the week we made the feathered headdress like the Maori wear. We then looked at the different art, we compared this to the Aboriginal art. Children had a go at creating koru which they did really well. I then taught them how to count to 10 which they were good out - the pronunciation tripped a few Arabic speaking learners up. During this week we also began learning about mammal, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles. For this we talked about what characteristics each animal has. I then gave mixed ability groups a variety of cards and they had to decide which animal it was.
To finish this week we had a whole school International Day. In the morning we had a massive parade where each country walked around the field to their national anthem while every one else cheered. The next block was class visits. Children went with their class teaching assistant to other classes to learn about their country they had studied. I did NZ in my class. I started off by showing them a video of the NZ landscape (I think most chn now think NZers live in hobbit houses). I then played the Haka and we then had a go at learning it.

Finally we finished the unit looking at the polar regions. This was mainly animal focused as animals were our science focus. I gave children a variety of print outs on their animal and in mixed ability groups they had to look through the information and answer their questions. We created little animal drawings and children had to draw on their previous learning to label them. Children then created their own booklets with the information they had found out about their animal.

In maths we have been learning about place value and then money. Money was difficult to teach at first because it was penny and pound which is not what we have in NZ. I told the kids this though and they loved learning with me. I also allowed the children to bring money from their home countries which was awesome. We had money from Egypt, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Europe, Algeria, Serbia, UAE and Oman. I had a little shop which I set up in the class and the children loved using the play money to buy things.

To complete this unit we had an open classroom where parents were given the opportunity to come in and see the work that their child has done so far. This was led by the kids and was great.

Our next topic is The Giants Garden.