Getting back into Term 2

The last week of Term 1 was a stressful one for me for reasons far outside my control and the first week of holidays provided far too much time for me to think.  What should have been a relaxing holiday at the beach was filled with stress.  As a result of this, the work that I was going to do in Week 2 got pushed back right until the end of the holidays so that I was able to enjoy at least part of my holiday.  Thankfully in the second week holidays did seem to happen and I was able to enjoy some time in Auckland and Mount Maunganui with good friends providing me with the exact brain break that I needed before starting back at school.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all spent in at school but I am definitely feeling relaxed and ready to start this term clear headed again which is key.

It was so nice being back with my students today - we enjoyed a day of exploring the MRS GREN characteristics of living and non living things in our school environment, brainstorming all of the things we loved about our school that we could write about in a report and developing a piece of ANZAC art that we thought appropriately captured the enormity of 100 years since landing at Gallipoli.  The children can't wait to do our 'thinkers keys' activities and make their own ANZAC book!

The challenge for me this term will be staying on top of everything with the huge amount of things that we need to have handed in.  Within the first 12 days of this term we have IKAN testing to do, running records to have begun, four daily sessions on cycle safety and a road ride with the local policeman, a trip to Lake Rotomahana and a videoed reading observation and interview of our students - all alongside our normal teaching programme.  I think working closely with colleagues will be a huge aspect of staying on top of everything this term and so am very grateful for the sharing of resources and knowledge that have already occurred on day one!

I am looking forward to getting back on top of my blog after the holidays also and sharing what I have learnt about working in MLE's and with Maori learners that I can implement into my own classroom - but for now planning for the next crazy couple of weeks awaits!

Feed back/Feed forward

As part of our on going professional development we have our team leaders come in each week to observe us, provide us with feedback about what they thought worked well and ideas about where we need to next focus our attention.  These get sent through to us after every third observation and there is an opportunity to discuss these notes with our team leader.

Below is the feedback and feedforward I have received about what my team leader has observed of my teaching practice and classroom environment so far this term. as you can see, a lot of the focus so far this term has been around the classroom environment.

The main focus that I will be working on from here is how to use the Apple TV to model work effectively with my students.  It is very different to using an IWB which is what I have had experience with so far and I am looking forward to the challenge.

In addition to having this as feedback and feed forward I have been doing some professional reading about how to ensure that my classroom is a place where I am engaged and ready to learn.  One of the readings that I came across had a very succinct and to the point checklist of the different factors that can instantly effect student engagement and therefore achievement, but also continue to do so in the long run. 

I have attached the checklist and how I will be using this is I will fill it out on myself and I have also asked my team members and team leader to pick it up when they are in my classroom during teaching time and fill in / check off what they are observing - and if they are not observing something happening to provide some advice and guidance to me about how I could get this working effectively for both my learning and the development and growth of my students.