Connections, Connections, Connections

As it is the start of a new school year I have only had my students for two days, however I have already been able to see connections that they have been making between their learning last year and this year.  What has been the most interesting thing to watch is that it is often a group of students making connections and building off each other's connections.

At the moment in Art we are creating self portraits.  For the students to make these they have to follow a four step process.

1. Trace/Sketch a photo of themselves onto A3 paper
2. Practice using finger painting to create bold lines and light shadows using a mixture of the techniques of dabbing and flicking
3. Choose appropriate colours and experiment with mixing these to create colours that they believe represent them
4. Apply this learning to their paintings in order to create a finger painted self portrait

One of the Art topics that all of the students in my class did last year was creating a still life finger painting that represented either a single flower or a group of flowers.  They have all previously done work on complimentary colours and learnt the techniques of dabbing and flicking. 

When I mentioned to a student today that I could see the effort that he was putting into flicking with the right amount of pressure to create the effect of shadow, the learning conversations that took off around what they learnt last year and how they could apply it to their new style of art were incredible. The quality of their artwork instantly improved also as they all wanted to make improvements on their work from last year. 

I guess that the learning that I have from this at the start of a new school year is the importance of providing the students the opportunities to connect their new learning with previous learning in order to develop their understanding of a topic.  This is something that is always on any teacher's mind but the importance of it was definitely highlighted today for me.  A beautiful reminder at the start of what is promising to be a wonderful year!

Below are a couple of photos of my students at the first two stages of this process.

Term One - Nearly Done

Wow. What a crazy term it has been. I have learnt so much about what I love in a school and about what makes me tick as a teacher - insights that I had not gained on practicums even whilst being exposed to a range of experiences. Over the next week or so I will endeavour to record as many of my thoughts as possible from my first term as a PRT.

Room Three.

Everyone always told me that my first class would be one to remember and that certainly is appearing to be true by all accounts. Twenty nine ten year olds and twenty nine distinct personalities awaited me on my first day, and, day by day I have grown to know them and love them. Behaviours of certain children have challenged what I believed to be effective behaviour management processes and thus have helped me to grow. Other children simply make me smile everyday by just being themselves.

My most entertaining moment to date with these precious children was earlier on this week. Our school had a full school mufti day where each class dressed up according to a theme. My class decided that they wanted to dress up as ninjas and all the children were very keen on the idea. That is, until one girl piped up (very seriously) concerned and asked how I was going to be able to teach them if I couldn't see them because they were ninjas.

The importance of children having an opportunity to own their learning has been highlighted time and time again this term with the children being most engaged in activities that were specific to their class and their individual needs. One of the 'units' that has thrived and the children have been fully engaged in is an inquiry unit where they are looking at what it means for them to be healthy. Through this unit the children are exploring and will continue to explore; social, emotional, mental and physical wellbeing, how community support affects someone's health, statistics, information literacy, report writing and presentation and collecting and collating data. This is a unit that was developed by the children in my class for the children in my class. All the children feel listened to and that they are contributing. In contrast to this, my students have just finished a unit where they were carrying out 'inquiry' tasks based on caves and caving. Whilst students enjoyed this topic many failed to see the relevance that it had to their lives and therefore were less stimulated by it.

The importance of having an opportunity to own both my learning and the teaching that occurs in my classroom has also become obvious. I have found that the times that I have been most frustrated in and out of my classroom have been times when I have not felt afforded the ability to exercise my professional judgement about what would most suit the needs of my students. Having the opportunity to put my PD into practise and be able to apply it instantly has had such a positive impact both on how much I am learning and how much I feel I am able to teach and help my children. As I grow as a teacher I look forward to having the confidence to suggest more of my ideas with my team so that my knowledge and up to date professional development and studies are able to benefit both my team and myself also.

Support

For a beginning teacher having an effective support structure in place is vital. I have been so lucky to have a wonderful tutor teacher, two teachers on my team that support me and help me realise the ins and outs and ups and downs of teaching and two enthusiastic and knowledgeable deputy principals that are more than happy to lend a hand the second one is needed.

My tutor teacher has been my saving grace. I feel both extremely supported and encouraged and pushed to reach my potential. Monthly observations help me to recognise whether or not I am on the right track, how well I know my students and whether or not my reflections and analysis of students are correct. Weekly meetings and the on going support and availability of this wonderful lady have meant that I feel supported and heard both inside and outside of the classroom environment.

I have two teachers on my team that are angels in disguise and help me to realise that what I am experiencing and feeling is normal and that it is important not to beat myself up. These two teachers come with experience within both this school and other schools and provide opinions and explanations that truly do help me survive some days. I am extremely fortunate to also have two wonderfully supportive deputy principals that work closely alongside me both in helping me to develop my programme and helping me to develop my sense of who I am as a professional.

I look forward to blogging about curriculum coverage and will be doing that my next blog post.