Shared Writing Observation

My shared writing observation was really not that great, I found out later that what I was watching was not actually shared writing, which was half the problem.

I was also trying to help several kids at the sometime... and multi tasting is not really a strong point of mine so that was a fail.

Back at tech, I learnt what shared writing actually was, the class and teacher coming up with a quality sentence together.
What I watched was the teacher guiding the children with their first sentence then letting them finish it on their own.

Any way, this probably should have been longer but theres not much else I can say on the subject, hopefully next time I will l have a better idea of what I am doing(:

SBL: 30 min PE lesson

Today went okay...not as smoothly as yesterday.
I had fun but I should have planned more. The kids powered through the lesson I had prepared so I had to think of more ideas on the spot.
I think I managed fine but next time I will prepare extra activities, just in case.
Today i had seven kids, as opposed to the six I had yesterday.
The extra one, although he means well, is a bit harder to teach than the others.
Hes a bit PE challenged but his enthusiasm is incredible :) so adorable...anyway...
he loved to bounce the ball, but it kinda bounced of sideways a bit, so he was constantly running after it. This was a bit of a distraction from the lesson...but other wise it was awesome.
I really can't think of anything else to say....bit of a blank really.
Cya:)

SBL: 15min game

Today I finally got to spend my 15 minutes on a game with six children, it was great! I think I have the well behaved children in the class because they were amazing! They listened, did what they were told, participated...et cetera.

I ended up playing simon says for their warm up (I had planned to do line tag, but the courts are in the middle of the classrooms where the teachers can see, so decided against it in case the children behaved badly and make me look stupid :p)

Back to simon says...They loved it, and had turns being 'simon', and I joined in...soooo unfit!
Then I teamed up with another candidate teacher and our two groups of children played 'kangaroos' and 'farmer, farmer' with each other.
It was a little wild at first but they stayed within the cones, listened, and had a lot of fun...so we didn't mind.

For me it was really special because it really reminded me why I'm doing this course. I thoroughly enjoyed it and took great pleasure in reporting back to their classroom teacher that they had indeed behaved 'Fabulous!'

second week of School based learning

I'm so exhausted...such a big week.

I probably should have blogged about this earlier but I forgot :I

Anyway, so i finally got to  go into a senior classroom, which surprisingly I actually enjoyed. It was really nice to have children who actually could hold a semi-mature conversation with you, :D.
And even the topics they were studying interested me.

The day after I was placed in a year two class...completely different. But still so fun!
The teacher was a bit stressed but it was nice for me to be able to walk around and various children the one on one help they seemed to need.

What was really interesting this last week was being able to participate in the newly founded Accelerated Learning Programme. We got to go around year one classrooms for thirty minutes or so and help little tables of year ones with their writing.
Its amazing how patient you have to be...I don't remember ever finding writing and reading as hard as some of the children I see find it.

Any ways better get some rest, so I will be going now,
Nighty Night!!

School Based Learning

Soo...I was sposed to write this post last week, but I never got round to it.
Okay, So we had SBL two days. The first morning we talked with the deputy principle and got shown around the school. Then for the afternoon we were placed into classrooms.
I was in with the older year ones. They were adorable!!! but very in-you-faceish, I had about five little girls hanging off me and three or four little boys begging me to listen to their stories...that day was exhausting!
The teacher was nice enough but she didn't give me any instructions so for the first part of the lesson I felt a little lost, kind of aimlessly wandering around not feeling particularly useful.
However the next day i had a year three and four class all day.
Being a bit more capable and intelligent, it was a completely different experience from the first but not so exhausting which was nice.
The teacher was amazing, she gave me instructions and even a few times corrected me when I did things that didn't work so well, which was refreshing...and I really appreciate it.
I got to supervise half the class outside as they completed an activity on the playground, several times having to resolve small playground fights:), most of them were other classes that were unsupervised.
It was really interesting seeing how much technology they are using now, on the playground the children had to take the iPads with them to take photos...i was scared they would smash one!!
I also got to take a small group for maths...not my strength, and to be honest even I was learning about maths as I was 'teaching.'
Anyways...really looking forward to next week!!!
(:
ps its really weird getting called "Miss McIntyre"

Okay, so today we covered several topics. Most of the time splitting into groups and discussing these subjects amongst ourselves. The first being Effective Pedagogy (which I found out means the study of children). From there each group was given a separate topic that stemmed of that main one. We then had to create a picture/drawing/motto/whatever to help us remember it (thats really a guess). Ours was "Teaching as Inquiry."

So basically what this is, is the teacher constantly inquiring into proven strategies to help with her teaching and changing them if need be. Also when a student has competed a certain thing, the teacher should inquire and/or gather information from reliable sources on what her child's next learning step should be.
Our team basically created a simple flowchart with simple drawings to explain this.
The other groups completed topics such as, creating a supportive learning environment, encouraging reflective thought and action, making connections to prior knowledge etc.

Anyways, I'm so exhausted so thats all I'm not bothered writing.
so yeh, cya:)

20/02/14
My first entry:

Yay, blogger finally decided to work for me, none of this 'page invalid' nonsense!
OK, so today I was late (sat my restricted and passed!!) so I didn't quite catch the morning session but this afternoon we all drove to a local school and learnt the basics behind a PE lesson.

To be honest I don't remember much due to the most unbearable combination, hot sunny weather and EXERCISE!! Yuk.

Anyways, despite this I did learn a few things. For example always come prepared for a PE lesson, write it down on paper and bring it with you etc. But not only that, be prepared by planning alternatives for children who may be less capable. And I don't mean alternative games or separating them from the group, I just mean have ways to make it more doable for them. Easier moves for the less flexible, a way to participate for those who have difficulty walking or running etc.
The other thing is, you have to set boundaries for children so they know what they can and can't do. This helps to  keep the classroom under control particularly outside where it is difficult to hear. A good idea to help with this is to explain instructions and rules inside the classroom prior to going outside.

Yep, so that's about it for now, until next time :)

(this is fun!! and actually helps to remember stuff)