Tomorrow is always fresh.

Today I went into class prepared for the worst after the kerfuffle yesterday. Following Mrs D's advice about classroom management yesterday, I was resolved to jump on the first test of my behaviour management and squash it soundly, only I didn't have to. The class was extremely happy to co-operate today. I did give out several warnings, and two students got to time out, but that was at computer and the kids all get a bit feral at computer. I was very pleased with how the day went today.

Something I found particularly interesting about today: You don't always have to push, push, push to keep the kids working. At lunch time Mrs D. said to me:

"I think the kids look really tired. Lets just settle them down and let them have an hour to wind down, watch a film and finish off some work". 

So we did just that. The kids all settled down and watched, drew or finished off, and we ended the week in a calm positive way. I think that it was the best strategy after a testing first week for both me and the kids.

20th October

Week 11 - Get me out of here!
What a horrible day. Actually, only the last twenty minutes of it was awful, but those twenty minutes were enough to make me want to run out of the room, and my degree, and never look back. 
I did two lessons today. One was working on Pinquo by Colin Thiele, a novel the class has been reading together. The students had to work out main ideas from the text and make some inferences with guiding questions. That lesson went really well. 


The second lesson however, did not. I have planned a sequence of lessons for Technology and Enterprise, and this afternoon was the first. It involved newspaper, scissors, glue and students on the floor. The bulk of the lesson went okay, but when it got to clean up, something went horribly wrong. Five boys just went completely off the hook. I DIDN't KNOW WHAT TO DO. I was all alone and had no idea of how to react. I managed to get the situation under control (just) and have the kids packed up and ready to go, but it was a close run thing. 


After talking to my supervising teacher, I know now that I need to be much tougher on student behaviour. Looking back, there was niggles going on all lesson and the last part just provided too good an opportunity. I need to use the behaviour management system that is in place at the school and follow through consistently. 
I also feel that my instructions could have been slightly clearer. 


We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm ready to jump on the first person who puts a toe out of line. I wonder if anybody will get to detention tomorrow. I hope not. 

17th October 2011

Week 11 - P.D. Day
So, first day of my three week block today. I had completely forgotten that it was to be a professional development day, and consequently was dressed to the nines when all the other staff were wearing really casual clothes. Oh well. 


It was really interesting to take part in the days activities. The morning session was spent going over NAPLAN test results, finding out where the weaknesses were and which students were at risk. It was good to see how the school used that testing data to inform planning for the next term. It was found that for Numeracy the school was above the average of schools in Australia, however an area of weakness in all three year levels was the concept of place value and spatial transformations. 


In the literacy component of the test, all of the students were generally weak, however reading was perhaps the most concerning. It is easy to see why there is such difficulty with literacy when the school population is considered. The main areas of weakness with reading seems to be with making inferences from the text, and students being able to imagine other's feelings. 


After lunch, there was a presentation given by a Nurse from Armadale Hospital about reporting procedures for developmental delay assessment. It went through the nitty gritty stuff about referrals for getting students the help they need as soon as possible. 


I look forward to seeing the kids tomorrow :)

August 19th

Week 4 - Pictures of Time
My group lesson went really well with the class next door today. The students had to look at pictures taken at different times of the day around Perth and try to use clues in the images to say what time of day it was. Lots of the students found it quite easy once they knew that they were looking at Perth. 


Perhaps the most educational part of the day took place in the afternoon. All of the prac students (there are five of us altogether, counting the ones from Notre Dame) got together with Talia* to go have a look at how to use some of the First Steps assessment and reporting tools. These tools are really user friendly and look to be extremely helpful for comparing student progress in Mathematics. The assessment tools not only provide a good rubric for reporting progress, but also have a strong diagnostic focus. 
After showing us some of the tools she uses for assessment, Talia took us all over to the Mathematics storeroom, gave us a tour and showed us exactly how to go about borrowing things. I think this storeroom is the most well organised one I've seen, and the best thing is, it's right next door to my classroom! Very easy access!

12th August 2011

Week 3 – Telling the Time!

Today was very interesting. For the past couple of weeks I have been very nervous about actually teaching the kids in my class, because they’re just so different to my previous prac classes and I don’t feel very confident in my behaviour management strategies for this sort of school. When I got into class this morning, Mrs D. said straight away that she had been talking to the Getting it Right Numeracy specialist, Talia*, and that she would love to have me for the time that my class would be at swimming. Talia went around to all the different classrooms and taught and helped the classroom teachers develop their plans for the term. So, after the assembly, Talia collected me from the classroom and showed me the Mathematics storeroom, and gave me a quick rundown of what she was planning to do for her lesson. The class she was taking was the one right next door to mine, a year ¾ group. Talia wanted to do small group stations, and said that I might as well just get in there and do some teaching; otherwise it wouldn’t be very interesting at all. She gave me a box full of small clock faces and asked me to go through half and quarter past, as well as quarter to.

I should say here, that I am extremely bad with analogue clocks, so that was fun in and of itself! There were four stations in the classroom, and at each station there were about six students.

After the first group I realised that I had been silly to be nervous about teaching these kids, because I didn’t have any trouble with management, and they all were absolutely lovely (probably because they were in small groups!).  I was really happy with how my off the cuff time lesson went, I only made a telling the time mistake once!

After we had finished with the Year3/4’s, Talia and I went back to her office, and she showed me the Maths Literacy resources. We discussed how the students had gone with all the activities, and she said that all of the kids had had trouble with elapsed time. We worked out what would be happening next week in that class (she wanted to do work stations again) and then I went back to my class.

AS the topic for this week on Blackboard was Working with Parents, I asked Mrs D. about what was coming up and if she had any thoughts on effectiveness and strategies. She told me that she really thought it depended on the social environment and the schools attitude. Brookley Primary has a really dedicated group of parents who organise a breakfast club three times a week, as well as helping out around the school in other capacities. When I first talked to the principal, and he was telling me about some of the changes he and his deputies had been trying to achieve over the last three years, he told me that prior to his being at the school there had been hardly any parent involvement. However, now, there is a parent’s room and apparently there is a core group of Mum’s who are there every day. The administration gets a huge amount of support from the P & C.  Mrs D. has actually been preparing for a School open night next Wednesday, where hopefully all of the parents will be coming in. I was really annoyed because I wouldn’t be able to go to the open night, because I have dancing on Wednesday nights. Oh well.

5th August 2011

Week Two – Observations

This was my first full day at Brookley Primary School*. The school day starts at 8:30am and finishes at 2:30pm. The school has an assembly every week first thing on Friday morning, and this week it was my class performing. They had been working on a jungle song and dance, and when I got there all of the kids were running around trying to get costumes and my supervising teacher was looking stressed. The assembly went off really well, and the kids were quite excitable.

My classroom is trialling a voice projector: the teacher wears a receiver around her neck and as she speaks the sound is picked up and broadcasted through the speakers at the back of the room. It looks like it is really handy, because it’s much easier on the voice, and if the teacher wants to call for attention she can speak straight into the microphone, or make a silly noise which is really effective.

After assembly, the Friday timetable looks a bit like this usually:

8:30 am	Assembly
	Mathematics
	Language
	Library Exchange
10:30 – 10:50 am	RECESS
	Phys. Ed. (Dott)
	Computer
12:50 – 1:30 pm	LUNCH (1st Duty)
	USSR
	Senior Sport

Today, Mrs D.* extended the normal period of Mathematics time and did an amazing lesson. It was the best Mathematics lesson I have seen so far on my pracs. She used the Interactive Whiteboard and a simple circle chart to work on rounding, starting with tens, then moving to hundreds and then finishing with thousands. It was a very interactive lesson, where she acted as a facilitator and voice of authority when needed. The kids were also able to use diagrams and concrete materials to help them with solving the problems. After the introduction to the lesson, Mrs D. pointed out four students who generally had difficulty with Mathematics so I could see what the students were capable of. As I was walking around the room looking at the kids work and helping the four students pointed out to me it was really nice, because those kids really appreciated the assistance and were really eager to have a go. While the school might be a bit rougher than my previous prac schools, I think the kids at Brookley had much more enjoyment of their schooling and treated it as a benefit, rather than a simple chore.

After recess, Mrs D. and I sat down and had a talk about what would be happening in the next few weeks. Because of the structure of Fridays, she was a bit worried I wouldn’t be able to get as much contact with the kids as I might like. Another problem was that the next week, her class were starting swimming lessons, which would take place in the language and Mathematics timeslot. Mrs D. said she would ask around and see if she could find another class I might join for the next two weeks in that period of time.  

Mrs D.’s style of teaching is the most casual and encouraging of student self-efficacy that I have seen so far. She said that she wasn’t really a warm motherly type of teacher, and that she preferred to let the kids try something out and then discuss with them the effects or consequences. I think I’m really lucky to have gotten Brookley Primary.

29th July 2011

Week One – First Visit

I had my first visit to the school today. I’ll start with first impressions. Brookley* Primary is in an area where there is a lot of different people: Different cultures, different levels of education, different amounts of ready cash and different values. I live in the area; about 5 minutes’ walk from the school, which is incredibly handy. As I walked up to the school, I first noticed the barbed wire fences and the gates that are lockable. Fair enough, I thought, there must be a lot of vandalism go on around here. I then noticed the care put into the gardens and the friendly welcome from the administration staff. My interview with the principal was really great, I was genuinely welcomed and he prepared me gently for the sorts of challenges I would likely face in the school. The staff seemed extremely driven, and I was interested to note that many of them were much younger than I was used to seeing on Prac.

The principal kindly gave me the grand tour and introduced me to my class. Oh my gosh. I came to the following conclusions straight away:

1. I’m in WAY over my head with these kids. I don’t even know where to start.

2. This is my biggest challenge yet.

3. I’m going to have to learn so fast I think my head will spin.

I think my supervising teacher is very good at reading expressions, as she laughed a bit, we had a quick chat about what I should expect of the class, what her plans for the term were and how I could fit in my teaching requirements. My teacher was quite interested in doing a PowerPoint Project for the kids.  She then gave a pack of information about the school and sent me on my way.

My class is going to be the most challenging I've had so far, I think. There is a huge range of ability, and cultural background. I have several Indigenous students, and about half of the class were born in a different country, or are the first generation born in Australia. Apparently literacy levels are very low: four of my kids are ESL students. Mathematics is the favourite subject in the class, and the stduents are very quick to pick up on topics.

However nervous I am about my ability to cope with what may be thrown at me here, I am really looking forward to going back next week. I feel really good about the school and the behaviour management policies. In my information pack it was said that the school policy is based on the work of Bill Rogers, Peter Smilanich and Barrie Bennett. The theories behind these men’s work (and also the whole school behaviour management plan) are what I believe in most as a third year education student: prevention is better than cure and winning the students over before they have a chance to resist is half the battle won.