Behavioural Management Notes - continuing
From the very first day of prac. I noticed that whenever my teacher gave her class instructions or managed their behaviour, she explained her reasoning to the children. Without this context, the children would fail to apply what they have just learned to their learning (Edwards & Watts, 2004). My colleague teacher does not punish the children and never raises her voice and as a result, she has a class that is (of the most part) extremely settled and attentive. She is, what Lee and Carter (1976; 1990, as cited in Konza, Grainger & Bradshaw, 2004) would call, an Assertive teacher. She notices the behaviour being displayed that she wants in her classroom and reinforces it either through a kind word or a reward scheme.
While I am still very much a beginner, my colleague teacher is most definitely what Frederic Jones (as cited in Konza, Grainger & Bradshaw, 2004) called a "natural". I have been observing her class for the past 5 weeks and she has not had to stop the learning process to show management 'body language'. I believe the children and my colleague teacher hold a mutal respect for each other and she does not need to show body language to keep their behaviour managed; she gives the instructions for each lesson with a no fuss attitude.
However, I noticed the dynamics of the classroom change when my colleague teacher was out of the classroom for some of the day and we had a casual take over for the morning and afternoon sessions. This casual teacher had been teaching for many years but had little grasp over the new technology. I happened to know the teacher from many years ago and was able to help her through without standing on her toes but even so, there was a lot more chatter as we worked through the ActivBoard issues. Because of these issues the casual had to spend far too long on the one activity and many of the instructions were largely ignored. I noticed something very similar to Michelle Vartuli (http://mishmishv.blogspot.com/), the casual teacher said to me "you must know more about this than me, you do it".
ActivInspire & ICT
As teachers, we should be aware that there are numerous ways of asking a child a question. In the NSW Mathematics syllabus, specifically stage one (of which is my focus), it states that students should:- use the terms ‘add’, ‘plus’, ‘equals’, ‘is equal to’, ‘take
away’, ‘minus’ and ‘the difference between’
- modelling multiplication as equal groups or as an array of
equal rows
- finding the total number of objects using repeated addition
- recording equal parts of a whole, and the relationship of
the groups to the whole using pictures and fraction
notation.
In my ICT resource, the students will match which two mathematical questions fit together before the timer runs out!
Teaching methods have changed to incorporate the fast pace of technological change. Mark Prensky states that "today's students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors". I can certainly relate, during primary school we had little access to computers let alone the internet and mobile phones, now it is integral. On my first day of prac. I was prepared to walk into the room and see a SMARTBoard, something I have had some time working on for my position as a teacher's aide, but when I saw they had a Promethean ActivBoard I became quite stressed and thought to myself, "something new to learn". Mark Prensky suggests Digital Immigrants need to change their "language" in order to teach these new Digital Natives, it will take some time but I do believe that through self teaching I can update my language.
This video from youtube says it all:
The scariest thing for me was "at least once a week, 14% of my teachers let me create something new with technology, 63% never do"!
"Whatever, Whenever, Wherever"
A final note - as a new teacher, we should not be scared to try new things but to embrace change! I believe if we keep up with technological changes now, there will be less to learn later. Use the curriculum to teach what you want them to learn but teach them in a way to make them WANT to learn it! Roblyer (2004, as cited in Finger, Russell,Jamieson-Proctor & Russell, 2007) claims it will be challenging, but then I wouldn't have chosen teaching if I thought it was easy!
First Formal Lesson
Wednesday 4th MayGuided Reading Wk 2 Term 2
Book: Getting Around
Level 13
My colleague teacher asked me to run a guided reading group for week two and I thought, no problem, that is until she ran through her own group the before the holidays. I merely thought guided reading was having a small group of children read a book outloud, but there is definitely more teaching involved.
My colleague teacher established a link between what was happening in the book and the children's real lives - it is important to put the books they read into context. Predictions were then made using picture cues from the front cover and throughout the book (without reading the text). The children are reminded of the teacher's expectations of them during group work; they are all to read but only in a whisper as not to disturb the one person whose turn it is to read that particular page.
Correction of mistakes were not made during the reading, my colleague teacher waited until the end of the paragraph or page and then corrected or congratulated the child for self correcting their mistake. If needed, the teacher would reiterate the rules of the lesson by pausing the reading and relaying the expectations. Finally, the teacher had planned a task for the children, related to new graphophonic knowledge learned.
For me, the most difficult part of the experience was that I didn't know the children that well and it meant I had no idea of their reading needs, an important aspect of preparing for a guided reading session according to Hornsby (2000). Hornsby (2000) suggests following four stages when teaching guided reading:
1. Introducing the text
2. Reading the text
3. Revisiting the text
4. Responding the text
The most important part of guided reading is to know how much support to give and when to provide it (p. 77).
My colleague teacher gave me a factual book to read with the children and we had a talk about who had been on any interesting transportation forms and what was special about it, we then searched through the book to find any words the children did not understand (using their "navigating" fingers) and we discussed what they all meant. I established rules for the children, similar to that which my colleague teacher had previously set, for continuity sake. There were a few hiccups where I interrupted the children to correct mistakes but overall I felt confident with the lesson.
A great book to get you started planning a wonderful Guided Reading lesson
Hornsby, David. (2000). A Closer Look at Guided Reading. Armadale, Vic.: Eleanor Curtain Publishing.
Day Four
Last prac day before the end of term and I thought the kids would be pretty exhausted but they were still their wonderful selves and happy to be there to learn - one of them even said she wished she didn't have to go on holidays as she much prefers school! Choosing teaching as a career, I understand how she feels, but I'm sure she was only humouring me!I did another sports lesson with different rotations and it proved to be more encouraging than the previous week. My colleague teacher suggested, when we return from school holidays, I take on a guided reading group as well as doing another sports lesson. I think next time I'll get all the kids doing a game together to see how they interact as a whole group - as I know there are some very competitive ones in the class.
A side note to comment on how the lesson went after it was performed, as it was zone cross country we lost half the primary age students so some of the remaining composite 5/6 students joined our class and this proved to be a benefit for the year one's when we played a half court game of soccer, the 5/6 boys helped the year one's with the rules and made the game a lot more fun for them as they could interact with children older than themselves.
My colleague teacher also mentioned that the flipchart I made for her for mathematics failed to open when she wished to use it, so devastating. Undeterred I made another addition and subtraction flipchart for her to use the following day. Fingers crossed it works this time!
We didn't have library this week so we moved our maths lesson up to library time and did art after lunch instead of the usual maths. I was excited to see what my colleague teacher would do for the lesson and how she would handle teaching the kids about Van Gogh. She didn't mention how he died but did tell the kids he was sick in his mind. Not so sure what they thought she meant by that. The kids have been creating their version of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' and used watercolour paints to add a background to their painting. What a mess they made! At least they had fun, once they got over the initial shock of doing art on a Wednesday!
Day Three
First informal lesson
I had a fabulous time teaching the children my sports lesson. I had this awful idea I would forget all my rotations and forget what to tell the children. It was a real eye opener to see how many of the children had had previous experience with ball skills and who had trouble. It was so successful my colleague teacher wants me to teach sport again next week! Looking forward to it, just hope it’s not as hot as it was today!I was finally able to see all that we’ve been taught at uni being practiced in a school environment. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, but this prac just reinforces my passion for education.
