Starting a new journey

This year I have had a few changes. We have had another addition to our family so I have had most of the year off. We have also moved to another city. Here is where my new learning journey begins.
After the move, I decided that I am ready to start looking for part-time work. I redesigned my CV using Canva, wrote a few cover letters and began applying.
I was a little bit nervous because I hadn't been through a full-blown application process in 10 years. However, I was fortunate enough to be accepted for a position that I am very excited about. While everyone around me winds down for the year, I have been spending evenings going through resources and working on my planning.
I will be working with a wonderful team of people, who are just beginning their e-learning journey. Today we had a meeting to plan the first term and I'm excited to implement some of my skills as well as learn about how much education has changed while I've been busy with my children. I've been keeping an eye on what people are doing and I'm looking forward to trying some of the ideas I've noticed.
This year we will have some challenges to work through.
Firstly, the classroom space is being completely changed. The single cell spaces are being opened up and redesigned. This means that we are starting with a clean slate. We can design this space to suit us and let it evolve with the learners. Watch this space, because I will be reflecting on this on a regular basis.
Secondly, I will be job sharing and be working collaboratively with a team who is new to this process too. Previously I have slotted in with people, who already had a workflow in place. Once again this is great because we have an opportunity to find our own workflow.
Another challenge for me is my knowledge of Te Reo. There is a bigger focus on Te Reo here (and rightly so). This is something I need to work on as an educator and also for my own children. Culture and heritage is very important to me and this is something that I need to learn more of for my children as well as my students.
I need to refamiliarise myself with Google classroom and Hapara Dashboard again. I imagine that it has changed a bit since I have used it last. Google, in general, has changed since I was in a classroom that used Google Apps.

So exciting times ahead! Watch this space. Hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year holiday. See you all on the other side.

Writing Feedback

This year I started marking the kids writing books the way that I had seen other teachers mark in their rooms.   After a while, I found that it didn't work for me as it wasn't giving enough ownership to the children.  When conferencing with the children I found that they were waiting for me to give them all the answers. They didn't have any responsibility for the errors they had made and were not in charge of making changes.  After rereading, "The Writing Book" by Sheena Cameron, I decided to try the wish and tick system again.   This way of conferencing takes longer but instead of correcting all the mistakes for the children I instead write some things they need to check themselves.  A wish and a tick. One thing they need to fix and one thing I think they did well.  Sometimes, depending on the child, there might be more than one tick or more than one wish.  The wishes and ticks are added only after the children has had a go at correcting their surface features first (once again pushing the, "this is your writing and you're in charge of it," point).  The wishes are always related to our learning goal for the day or to the child's specific goal.  It took a while for the children to get used to this system.  Some still wait for me to fix everything but they are getting there.  For the children who at times have trouble seeing their errors or finding them, I will use a highlighter to show that there is something wrong there that they could fix.  I think the best thing about marking this way was seeing the pride in my kids after they managed to fix an error all by themselves.  Here are some pictures of books to show how I mark.  

Simple iPad Apps and writing

Yesterday some of the teachers at school presented ideas that they learned at uLearn 2014.  Being in the junior school I decided to attend the workshop that focused on creative thinking and the use of iPads in the junior school.
One idea I tried today following our workshop was using QuickVoice App (or any other voice recording app) to record children's ideas. I decided to try this idea on some of my students who have trouble with writing. Some have trouble with verbalising their ideas and others have trouble concentrating or just forget what they were writing about.
These children used the QuickVoice app to record their story after the initial planning stage. All the children went away to a quiet space (cloak room, library corner and our outdoor area) to record their story from beginning to end. Once the children recorded their story, they started to write. The benefit that I found from doing it this way was that the children could replay their story as many times as they wanted. Some of the children who frequently forget what they were writing about finished their stories in a logical sequence because their mind didn't wander. For others it was good practice verbalising their ideas prior to writing and listening to what they sound like when they talk. They saw the gaps in their ideas without my input. The best thing for me was that these kids achieved success and they were really proud of their efforts. They were proud that they stayed on task for such a long time, they were proud that they completed their work all by themselves and they were proud that they got to be creative without having to worry too much about the recording process.
A successful day I think :)

 Planning our

Control vs Choice

Recently I have been thinking about teaching in general. It has changed completely from what I remember happening in my primary classroom. It has even changed in the time that I have been working (that's only 7 years). I have always been a strong believer of moving with the times. If something didn't work I tried a different way. I have always been the type of person who jumped in the deep end and learned as I went. I tried, I experimented, I failed but most importantly I learned. Not everything was easy. Giving away some of the control in my classroom to my children was difficult at first. I have always been taught that I should be in control! Unfortunately I found that this approach was not sustainable for me. I think this also stopped me from giving the best opportunities to my children.
I think Modern Learning requires teachers to let go of some control. Giving ownership to the children teaches them to make choices that are right for their learning, it also teaches them that all choices have consequences (whether they be good or bad consequences depends on the choice made). Letting go of control I found had to be a gradual process. You can not give control over to the children without first teaching them to make good learning choices. Some children will be able to do this instinctively others need to be taught.
Moving year levels has taught me that giving children choice can be done at every year level (obviously with more or less support). My Year 5 student's weren't necessarily better at making good choices than my current Year 2 students. In both cases I had to introduce choices slowly. Giving two options for a particular curriculum area at first. Teaching the children which to use when. With time I was able to give a few more choices. I didn't have seating with my Year 5 students and I still don't with my Year 2s. They have to think about the best place for them to work for a particular task. My little Year 2s can now think about what they are doing and how they need to do it, whether they work on their own or in a group. They seek out experts to help them with tasks. Our philosophy is if someone asks a question then you show instead of just tell. These kids are able to pick the best app for the task. They know how to publish their work on Pages or on the blog depending on how they want to share it. I'm absolutely blown away by them! I didn't think this was possible with Year 2 students at the beginning of the year. Here are some spaces my children like to use for different tasks:

Our quiet working table. Favourite with the kids who don't want to be bothered for a particular task

Where the children like to get together to read books as a group

 

This has become the favourite quiet space for those who need to concentrate on something

Group space when children need some expert advice

The biggest lesson for me was to let my students make the bad choices as well as the good. How do we really learn? As toddlers we didn't learn when mum told us not to touch the hot jug but boy was that lesson painful when we chose not to listen. Same goes for the children in my class. If you chose to stop others from learning because of the choices that you made then there are consequences. You have to catch up on late work in your own time or you lose privileges.
Letting go of control doesn't have to be as scary as it seems to begin with. I think by making small steps at the beginning of the year we can educate our students to be responsible leaders of their own learning.
How do you get your students to take control?

Giving kids the gift of independence

I know I've said this before, but being with Year 2s I'm always amazed by how quickly they pick up new skills.  The progress they make and the milestones they reach almost daily is so rewarding.  There are somethings that go outside the conventional curriculum that I thought would be worth teaching.  A little while ago I heard someone say that through teaching they don't prepare their students for the year level ahead, they prepare them for life.  I decided that this is a motto that I should live by.  I though about the skills that children (and adults) need no matter what path they choose... independence came to mind. Having the skills to independently solve problems when something goes wrong or just working through a process independently (just giving it a go) before asking for help.

Considering that I'm teaching Year 2s I couldn't just hand over the reigns completely but I could start giving them these skills in small steps. There are the usual put your book bag where it needs to go and put away your reading book, but that wasn't enough for me.  I decided to get them to start proofreading their writing. I don't mean just look at it and say yes I'm done. No I mean really proof read!

I sat down with my children and asked them about the things that I usually correct in their books.  We came up with the following list: spelling, fullstops, capital letters, adding missing words and asking questions to get the kids to add more writing. I then asked them, "which of these things could you try checking yourselves?" We came up with another list that then went on our wall. This is how the Proofreading Wall came to be.  The idea behind it is that the children can go somewhere quiet to read over their work and go through our checklist.  While they were there they could see other children who were working on the same step and swap books to read each other's work.  This is our wall in action:

At first (and on the odd occasion now) I had to remind my kids to read over their work.  In general though my students diligently check their work without me. They check their spelling words in dictionaries (another skill I had to teach them, and they picked it up really quickly), they add full stops and capital letters.  My expectation of them now is that they do not come to see me for a conference until they have gone to the Proofreading Wall and read their story with a buddy.  The results I'm seeing in their writing is pretty impressive.  They are not waiting for me to give them all the answers. Those who know how to use a dictionary teach the others. Those who understand full stops and capital letters coach their buddy.  They are being true collaborative learners.

This proved to me that we cannot underestimate our students. I went in with the mindset that if my senior had trouble doing this then how could my little people. Well guess what? I was wrong! They can do it, and they can do it well! If they can't, then it's because they haven't learnt how to do it yet.

DIY document Cam

I have recently come across this little gem from Kevin Honeycutt.

 I was intrigued by the idea and thought I'd give it all a go.
I use ShowMe and Educreations as part of my maths programme anyway but I liked the potential for manipulation of materials using this technique. I was also able to have multiple children interacting with the same piece of work at the same time. Here is the first lesson my children and I created.

This is my group that really benefits from repetition and materials. Having videos to refer to has been a tool that I have used all year but this is stepping it up a little for me. Video and maths are made for each other. I am able to see where exactly my group stands in terms of using a strategy, if they are ready to move on or if they need more support. I also like the fact that the children can always go back and check to see if they are on the right track. New learning is available to them at all times.

Here is what one of my groups came up with today.

Thank you Kevin for your awesome idea!

Student teacher

Over the past 5 weeks I have had the pleasure of having a student teacher in my class. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as I was able to watch this passionate young woman grow and develop before my eyes. I found her company refreshing and that her presence made me think about my own teaching. She was receptive, intuitive and I found her a great support in my classroom.
What I found interesting though was how unprepared she was for how technology is being is used in the classroom. It wasn't even mentioned so far in her university studies. I introduced her to Google Drive and how I use it in the classroom. She was blown away and was quick to utilise this tool in her own learning. We created a shared folder in which we created all our collaborative files. Our next learning curb was the Interactive White Board. She had seen one used before but had never had a chance to use one herself. We used pixlr.com/editor to edit images, iPods to write, cameras, educreations, wikispaces, GoogleSites, youtube ...
I didn't really think I was doing anything out of the ordinary in my room but apparently I am. I'm surprised that some of these things aren't shared at uni. With the use of social media (facebook/twitter) why not give students access to hat is happening in classrooms on a daily basis. Let them see the kind of teaching that is happening in our schools. I think it's a huge shock for students when they come into a school which heavily bases its practice on the eLearning model. eLearning is SOOO far from the way these young people are being taught, how are they expected to cope in the current education environment? It will change again by the time they're in the work force! It's scary enough as it is when you are left in your classroom for the very first time, in charge of your very own children.
I think I was lucky to start teaching when I did, as classrooms were not too far from what I remember as a child. Technology in classrooms was something that was being developed but it was in the beginning stages. I had time to work out what kind of teacher I wanted to be before I started to venture into this weird and wonderful world of eLearning.
So I guess what I wanted to say in this post is... university needs to prepare these students for the reality of what happens in the classroom (as interesting as history and politics are). I'm not saying that theory is not important but there should be emphasis on eLearning as well.
And if uni isn't prepared to do something, then my fellow educators, it's up to us!