Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Day 3

What a day! Students are starting to get restless now, maybe it's because holidays are coming up. Today a student was distracting others around her and not paying attention in class. My colleague teacher asked her many times and gave her warnings but she still kept on disturbing other students. She was finally sent to sit in the time out area. I believe she shouldn't be excluded from the lesson even though she still can see the board from where she was sitting. As she can play with other objects surrounding her. It might be better if the teacher moved her away from her group of friends or even moved her to the front near the teacher. That way the student can always be monitored.
For the whole day students were separated into their mixed ability group and did rotational tasks. I supervised the children doing the painting. They did a self portrait influenced by Matisse. The fun bit was they had to smear soap flakes mixed with water and paint. That covered the whole piece of paper, they then used their fingers to draw their portrait. During all that was fun, but when it was time for me to clean up, my oh my. What a mess!

Much effort is needed when planning for the day. From day one, lecturers at uni stresses to us the importance of planning.Teacher planning comes under Element 3 of the NSW Institute of Teachers’ Professional Teaching Standards. For a lesson to be success the teacher will have to plan on things such as material to be taught, questions to be asked, activities for students that finishes first and how to manage disruptive behaviour. Failing to do so is just planning to fail. The class may become out of control if the teacher does not have a succinct plan. Having said that, not everyday will go according to plan. There will be disruptions, there will be emergency meetings, there will be practice lock downs, it's just a part of life. Teachers will have to be flexible and cater to these disruptions. Thus, we'll have to plan to catch up.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Day 2

Who would have thought that observations can be so tiring!
Jan was talking in one of her tuts the other week, about different ways to mark the roll. Today the kindies had a very engaging way to do so, involving the smartboard! There were 18 spaceships on the board, each have a students name on it. The kids line up and find their name, tap on the spaceship and it flies over the finish line! I think that is a great way to incorporate ICT in marking the roll instead of the old fashion way of name calling.
Since there is, on average, about 4.5 hours of learning hours in a school day it is impossible to allocate time for each subject to meet the requirements of the BOS. So it only makes sense to integrate subjects. This in fact enriches the learning of students.
For religion today, my colleague teacher integrated English and drama into the unit. She read a book to the students and asked questions in the end. The book was about the parents' love for their children.Questions were asked to stimulate the Ss' critical thinking skills. Some examples include, what the story is about, how do you know the dad loves the child, what can you see in the picture that shows the dad loves the child, why are they holding hands. From these sorts of questions the children were able to provide a variety of answers. The students were then asked how they know their parents love them. Some students had trouble answering the question but after being prompt they were on the roll! After the discussion the students were allocated into groups that the teacher thought would work well together. The students were then asked to do a role play. In their groups of 4 or 5, they had to act out ways to show how parents love their children. It was very entertaining to watch.
It's been another day, soon enough, all my prac days will be over and eventually I'll have classes of my own.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Day 1

It was like the first day of school all over again but I soon realised there was nothing to be scared of. First time meeting my class was when I had to pick them up from the playground and take them into the classroom. The little kindies just looked curiously at me, some were brave enough to give me a big smile and wave. That was when my nerves were settled. 
My colleague teacher sure knows how to settle the class efficiently. She would compliment a student for sitting down the quickest or have the best posture. This encouraged other students to do them same because as kids, the crave to please you. She also has a point system, students are grouped according to the table they sit at. She rewards her students individually or sometimes as a group depending on their behaviour. At the end of the week, scores are tallied up to see which group received the most points, and they would get a reward.
It was obvious the teacher had total control over the class. In the event of a child misbehaving, all she needs to do is look at them in the eye and they know they've down wrong.
At one stage I was asked to read the class a story while the teacher set up the painting station. I finished the book before she finished setting up. I had to think on my toes because I still have 18 pairs of eyes on me. So I asked them about the story, what they like the most. I also tried to remember everyone's name so I won't be just pointing. I managed to accomplish that by the end of the day. Let's see if I still remember them next week! One of our readings was on Questioning. It says to always plan what questions are to be asked or else you will be standing on the spot thinking what to say next. The reading exercise I did with the class have made me realised that preparation is crucial. I may be able to wing it with the kindies but when faced with older students with more difficult work, I will need to be more prepared. Element 4.2.2 in the Professional Teaching Standards states that a competent professional Use questions and classroom discussion effectively to probe students’ understanding of the content. I will need to work on my questioning skills in order to achieve this goal.

It was evident in the class that there was a near equal if not equal teacher-student talk time. Maybe it was the activities the kindergarten have to do or maybe it was their age group, direct instruction was not used in the class.
Being in an actual classroom really open your eyes, can't wait til my next prac. I'm sure I'll learn even more as time goes by.