Are teachers really the best teachers?

I had the pleasure of observing this in my classroom the other day.

We have been working on rereading our work and checking for errors and then correcting some of those errors independently (refer to earlier post to read about our proofreading wall). The girl on the left had recently figured out how to use a dictionary to proofread and edit her work (with great success). She has now become one of our dictionary experts. When ever the children are stuck or don't remember how to use the dictionary then she is one of our go to people.
While I was working with a group I saw these girls engage in the above learning conversation. Thinking that this is gold I quickly grabbed my phone and started filming. I would have loved to have shown more but because I was trying to be sneaky one of children didn't see my phone on the ground and sat in front of it, thus ending this impromptu filming session. What you don't see, is the girls working together to find a number of words successfully. The little expert scaffolded her buddy, taking her through step by step and then slowly handing over control to let her achieve success independently.
There are times that we teachers just can not give one on one lessons to our students even though they need them. I think having class experts in a great way to give that one on one tuition to those who need it. This approach also helps the experts become proficient at the skill they are using.
In my view it's a win, win!

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.

Modeling Books

This year I have started using modelling books slightly differently in my classroom. I have always used them for both literacy and numeracy what is different now is that they are now an observation record as well as a modelling book. What I started doing is always bringing my post.it notes to the mat area with me. As I'm teaching I make notes on who is doing what. It can be anything from who found what difficult to who was able to figure something with ease.
I found that in a very busy classroom it is difficult to remember who did what, when and where. This has helped keep my observations in one place. I also have dated evidence of what I saw. This has also been a very useful strategy to use with my Teacher Aide. She makes notes on how her group went so I know exactly what I need to catch up on and vice versa. This helps with my end of day or end of week reflections. I know where my students need to head next. I also include a CLOZE plan for reading at the back of the book. I keep some writing progressions in the writing book and stage appropriate profile sheet in the maths books.
Here are some examples of what you would see in my class:

 Reading with WALT, SC and observation notes.

 Reading level on the inside cover of each modelling book.

 Reading modelling books

 Writing: Looking at instructional writing.

 Writing instructions together.

 Writing books including targeted writing group.

 Maths books

Aha moment!

Today I decided to experiment with my class. I have found that when I work with my reluctant writers that I don't get the results that I know I can get. I have been thinking about what I'm doing wrong when I teach, how can I get them to discuss their writing in detail and to just open up to me a little. Usually what I get is my group looking back at me waiting for me to give them all the answers. This leads to a lot of waiting at time. I ask questions, I encourage, we draw pictures but they are not making the progress that I was hoping to see. These children usually do a better job when an adult is not near by. This made me think that I was the problem. Are these children feeling like I might be judging their abilities or is there just too much pressure to get things right?
This lead to today's experiment. I partnered up my reluctant writers with some of my good spellers. Rather I asked them to choose a coach out of the people on the mat. What I saw was very impressive. Some of my shy students came out of their shells. They were discussing their writing and getting some good ideas down on paper. Obviously they didn't feel as much pressure when working with their peers. I recorded two of my boys working together (the video is below). I'll give you some details about the two. They boy who is receiving help is not confident when communicating in English and at times he can be very shy with me. He didn't have any problem talking to his coach (who, as you will see, took his job very seriously). Today was the first time that I could read his story with out him reading it back to me. Most of his words were spelt correctly and it all made sense. YEY!!!!
Over all I'm happy with the result and I think all parties learned a lot from the experience. Will definitely be doing this on a regular basis.

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!

Daily 5

After watching some colleagues of mine run the Daily5 programme in their classrooms I decided to give it a go myself. I started by introducing Reading to Self. The children an I discussed what this will look like if done well, why we should do it and how to choose book.
As time went on we went on to explore the other elements of the Daily5 programme. We went very slowly starting with 3 minutes per activity and slowly working our way up. We stopped and reflected often. Now I'm feeling like the programme is beginning to run smoothly.
I'm finding that the programme is working really well with my students. They are very motivated and are on task.
I'm busy at all times. Having a timer moving the children onto the next activity has helped me make sure that my lessons are quick and snappy. I am seeing each group for reading twice a week. This gives me time to teach a strategy and then check up on the kids and check their understanding later in the week.
I can also see each group twice a week for writing. I have class teaching sessions where I introduce a genre and set whole class tasks. Later I work with each group extending them or supporting them depending their needs in relation to the set task.
I am getting great results from my students. They are getting much more small group instruction and are wanting to complete the tasks set.

The challenge I am still facing is making sure that ALL my children are completing work at the highest possible standard for them. Some of my students do tend to take the easy road but that's a challenge I will overcome with time.

Unused resource

All teachers have an amazing resource in their classrooms. At times I find this is a resource to be neglected in some classrooms by the daily grind of trying to get through the content that needs to be covered by a certain point on the term. What am I talking about? KIDS!!!
Children are far more powerful at teaching each other than some people realise.
The other day I came cross some of the children in my maths class having a learning discussion about the strategy they had just learned. After discussing what they learned they realised that some people in their class were still having trouble. I asked them how they could tackle this problem and what they needed for me to provide to make the solution possible.
I came back to this group a little while later and found them having a great discussion about their learning. They were using materials in ways I hadn't thought of and at the end of the day every single person in the group understood how the strategy worked and when to use it. I could see right away who didn't understand the strategy we were covering and could ask questions to guide the children in the right direction. From there they explored the strategy further. I found that maths was the easiest subject area to apply this too to begin with but I'm working on applying this to reading also.
Here are snippets of the discussions I heard:

There is huge benefit in putting children into groups of mixed ability and getting them to teach each other especially because they will have different strengths, different view points about the same subject and different ways of thinking about the same problem. I found that it made the children who understood the problem think about it in different ways to make the children they were teaching understand what they were talking about.
So try it. Stand back and watch what happens when the children are left to teach each other. Its fascinating!

Starting the movie process

There's no point going to conference if you're not going to use all the ideas. I find that if I don't use my new knowledge right away I loose it. So I decided to start using some of the movie making know how I learned from Helen King during ULearn 2012. After teaching two of my math groups I asked the children to "Assume That I'm an Idiot" (thanks Glenn Capelli for that one). I asked my children to create educational videos to teach me how the strategies work. To be completely honest I underestimated how valuable this tool is. Some of the children who hardly say boo during group discussion were putting on their best teacher voices to tell me all about their maths strategy. I was able to watch these video creations and with in minutes I could see who needed more help and who was ready for something a little more challenging. BRILLIANT! Easy and quick assessment that uses the children's strengths (if they want to write, they can write or if they want to act/draw/sing/dance...they can). I have also started something similar with our reading programme. I have explained to my class that hey need to make sure they really understand the reading strategies we are covering curing our group sessions as they will be making videos to teach other groups about how the strategies work. I must say I've never had such attentive listeners during teaching sessions. We'll see what they come up with once we have finished but for now here are some photos of some of the children beginning to put their videos together. If this is only day two, imagine what I can achieve by the end of the term?! Starting the Movie process on PhotoPeach

Science

Science is amazing. It makes us questions everything. Why is the sky blue? How does our heart work? How does a light bulb produce light?
I've been thinking about my kids wonderings lately ... so I thought I'd answer a couple of their questions and in the process add some more.
My class went to the Science Road Show yesterday and we had a blast. Having that exposure to science experiments and not only looking at them but being able to touch and explore, filled my kids with wonder. It was fantastic to see them so excited about learning. They wanted to see everything, touch everything, understand everything.
I think we need to expose our kids to science more often. They don't have enough opportunities to experiment at such a young age.
Today that was my mission.
Who would have thought that water and a few paperclips could achieve just that.
Today I carefully placed one single paperclip into a container of water and asked the kids to do the same.
It took them a long time to figure out how to do it but they managed.
In the process we discussed how this was possible.
Here is what they understood from it all:

All we needed were some paperclips and containers with water. Now there really no excuse to experiment!

Google what.....?

Today I decided to sit down to set up the kids folders in Google Apps. Going by Jacqui's advice I got the kids in the ICT suite and got the kids into their buddy groups. From there the children took turns to set up their folders in their Google accounts.
Now I thought I was doing a good thing using a time when the kids had a computer between the two of them where they could watch a buddy do it and then try it them selves.

Boy was I wrong...
Mrs Tauroa mine won't work... Mrs Tauroa I can't sign in... Mrs Tauroa my password doesn't work... Mrs Tauroa... Mrs Tauroa...
After we finally had everyone signed in I went on to explain how to set up collections. Going through everything step by step would be the logical thing to do right? Well not if some of the kids aren't listening.  
I had a student teacher with me so it didn't go as badly as it would have.

I shared this with Jacqui and told her how I got on even though I worked with groups, as it turn out Jacqui meant that I probably should have worked with a group at a time but not in the same day. She meant with one group a month...

After this experience.. and others like it I have realised that I have a tendency to jump straight into the deep end. Maybe that's why experiment so much, that's how I learn.
I did the same thing with Space Day last year. I planned it, thought hard about what I wanted to do and after having loads of second thoughts..... did it anyway.
Even though some of the experiments don't go so well I still learn heaps from each one.
So what did I learn from this experience?

Set the kids independent work and have a SMALL group with me working on setting up their accounts.
So that's what I'll do next year...
On the positive side everyone in my class is all set to go for our technology filled week.