School Prac Visit 5

6th May 2010

This week I had organised with my colleague teacher to attend my observation practical on a Thursday. Since the teaching schedule is fixed for each day of the week we decided it would be a good idea for me to try and attend school practicals on days other than a Wednesday to get an all-rounded experience for each Key Learning Area. I am grateful that I was able to organise additional visits to my school for each day of the week so I can settle in to my ES1 classroom (and hence the school’s) schedule with ease once our intense 3 week practical block begins. There’s nothing like jumping into the deep end and at this point, I am not prepared to test the waters at a time where I feel we should at least be able to float if not swim. In light humour, the only concern I want to deal with is how I am going to tie up my students’ shoelaces as my pregnancy draws to an end.

Thursday begin with 15 minutes of morning prayers followed by English, news and phonics (1/2 hour lesson); Jewish Studies (1 hour); Recess at 11am (15 minutes); Mathematics (1 hour); lunch at 12.45pm (55 minutes); and H.S.I.E (1 hour). Class is dismissed at 3.10pm
I began my day by following Miss G. to English (reading and writing). Miss G. is an assistant teacher that tutors select students requiring additional help with their literacy skills. At least 3 times per week, my colleague teacher sends her weaker students to Miss G. where she spends time teaching them reading and writing skills. This ensures these students get the attention they need to improve as well as identifying exact problem areas so they can be quickly and adequately addressed. It also means that these students are able to keep up with the rest of the class where possible and that the rest of the class is not falling behind in their English content because the teacher is busy trying to keep the students requiring additional assistance up to speed. During the lesson, I note Miss G.’s questioning and responding. In her introduction, she showed her students pictographs drawn on the whiteboard and asked them to explain what these images meant. She continued to reinforce their meaning by asking the students to demonstrate the five L’s of classroom management: Look, Listen, Lips (sshh whilst teacher or a student answering a question is talking), (hands in) Lap and Legs (facing forward). This was followed by a picture of a hand raised straight in the air to demonstrate that this is what students must do when wanting to answer a question. Upon observing this, I remembered Barry, K. and King, L.’s (1998) ‘procedure for responding’. I also observed that when a student called out an answer without raising their hand she either ignored the call-out or responded with, “Oh dear. It seems you forgot our rules so unfortunately I can’t accept your answer”. When asking questions, Miss G. also adopted many of the suggestions put forward by Barry and King (1998):

· Asking questions in an encouraging manner – Miss G. was enthusiastic , warm and friendly which encouraged students to feel comfortable with her yet maintain a certain level of respect
· Questioning was direct – Miss G. directed her questions to the entire group and paused before choosing a student with their hand raised to respond
T: “I wonder what sound these letters make. Can anyone tell me?”
(pause)
T: “Yes, Joshua”
· Incorrectly answered questions were redirected but in a positive manner or redirected to encourage multiple answers by students for a single question.
T: “Are you sure this is the sound these letters make, Joshua?”
“What other sounds can we think of?”
· Questions were not directed to specific students but fairly distributed between the group
· I did not observe any rhetorical questioning.

All in all, I found Miss G.’s questioning and responding style quite effective and I will surely be adopting some of her techniques to incorporate into my own teaching style.
Following morning recess it was straight into Mathematics and group work activities. I would like to focus a little on group work here as it has been a main style of teaching and learning in my ES1 classroom. Though a little different to the group structure proposed by Whitton, D. et al (2010) whereby students are grouped in a team-style structure and work together towards achieving a common goal, ES1 is divided into groups but complete the same activities individually. The content and structure of the maths lesson was quite interesting and focused on ‘Position’. My colleague teacher introduced the concept of position by standing in the middle of the classroom and asking various students to either stand or sit in a position near her. That is, either to the left, right, in front, behind her, and so on. Students were then instructed to join their groups and each group was directed to a work station. The work stations were as follows:

(1) Drawing a robot with square tiles only. The position of the tiles will determine what the robot will look like.
(2) Cut and paste activity. Students were required to cut out objects and paste them in certain positions within an illustrated landscape. A bus on the road, for example.
(3) Computer activities: Maths Made Easy 1
(4) Counting down by rolling the dice and taking away counters corresponding to the number on the dice. This activity aimed at teaching students to subtract and was taught in a previous lesson.

The groups formed were mainly eclectic though the students with learning difficulties were grouped together. The groups were permanent, comprised of 5 students and given names of Australian Native Animals. In supervising group activities, I noted that most students worked well within their groups however, the group with learning difficulties proved a challenge to manage as they were disruptive and did not pay attention. I found it quite difficult on most occasions to ensure the work required was completed within the short time-frame allocated. Though the students worked individually within their groups, they were able to work harmoniously on most occasions and developed interpersonal skills between each other so that they were able to enforce a common discipline amongst themselves to earn points for their team.
The afternoon ended with H.S.I.E and an interactive class activity on the smartboard – a truly effective use of an instructional resource! Students were initially introduced to homes and materials used to build homes through shared reading of a big book. The lesson developed and ended with interactive activities on the smartboard: building a house and identifying homes belonging to various animals and insects. Refer to website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/wwww/homes/kids/index_choice.shtml

It was clear that students thoroughly enjoyed the lesson through their eagerness to participate and answer questions. ICT has surely come a long way. It will be a challenge trying to keep up with new and improved technology.

References:
Whitton, D., Barker, K., Nosworthy, M., Sinclair, C. & Nanlohy, P. (2010). Chapter 15: Grouping. In Effective Teaching and Professional Practice Handbook, (pp151-154). Australian Catholic University Ltd, North Sydney.

Barry, K. & King, L. (1998). Developing instructional skills. In Effective Teaching and Professional Practice Handbook, (pp160-171). Australian Catholic University Ltd, North Sydney.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/wwww/homes/kids/index_choice.shtml

School Prac Visit 4

28^th April 2010

Today’s blog will focus on reading and writing- the typical program on a Wednesday- and the instructional resources used to deliver an effective teaching lesson in English. My colleague teacher excitedly informed me that today would be kindergarten’s first shared/guided reading lesson. The lesson would focus on The Gingerbread Kid by Paul Galdone and the letter of the week, ‘O’. Every Monday, students are introduced to a new letter through a short chant or rhyme that can be referenced back to the short story.

The day would unfold with shared reading of the book, writing and constructing sentences with the letter, O and an afternoon of reading and writing activities amongst a few other lessons. One of the activities included cutting out a series of illustrations (not necessarily in order) taken directly from the book and rearranged in order to coincide with the events from the story. Students were required to retell their favourite part or even the whole story.

The resources used in the various activities were predominantly visual:

• Smartboard – for teacher demonstration on writing the letter, O and sentences containing this letter
• Storybook – The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone
• Worksheets – required for tracing and writing the letter, O and other sentences to build writing skills of students through practice
• Word cylinder models – used in constructing word sentences
• Illustrations worksheet – for retelling of the story, The Gingerbread Boy
• Workbooks – for further practice of writing skills
• Flash cards – connecting and recalling words in a game called Word Bingo

Audio-visual resources were only of a single type:

- Computer – interactive reading program

As in Barry and King’s (1998) Developing instructional skills in Beginning Teaching and Beyond (3^rd ed.), I did find the resources used helped students to learn more effectively by:

- Reinforcing, integrating, and extending classroom instruction (worksheets, word cylinder models, writing workbooks, computer aided interactive reading program)

- Helping in the recall of information (illustrations worksheet, flashcards)

- Helping to gain and maintain interest in a lesson – I believe this to be so because the activities were of only a 20 minute duration and were conducted in a rotational format

- Making learning more meaningful by providing an organized structure that gives concepts learned a concrete representation

In addition to the information resources used however, it was evident that without the support of the teacher and assistant staff to guide and provide mentoring during the activities or to provide instruction in how to use the resources the information resources on their own would not have been sufficient enough to deliver a purposeful learning experience. Within my group, I observed that offering praise for good work and for trying to do well, motivated students more than the activity itself. Also, supervision was absolutely necessary to ensure students were actually completing the tasks at each work station correctly and in an efficient and safe manner. For and early stage 1 class however, it probably shouldn’t be expected that students are able to work independently for extended periods of time due to their short attention spans and mischievous nature.

Barry, K. & King, L. (1998). Developing instructional skills. In Effective teaching and Professional Practice Handbook (pp160-171). Australian Catholic University Ltd, North Sydney.

School Prac Visit 3

23^rd April 2010

I thought I would dedicate this reflection to my teaching lesson. Today, I was to deliver a 1 hour mathematics lesson to my ES1 students. The topic: ‘Thick and Thin’. I won’t go into details of what I taught in the lesson to achieve the lesson outcome as the feedback from my colleague teacher was that the lesson activities and resources I provided were excellent. What I would like to discuss however, is the overall frustration and slight shock that I felt in managing a classroom of 30 kindergarten students. In the back of my mind I was always aware that classroom management would be somewhat of a challenge however, in my experience on this day I felt like I had walked directly into a scene from Kindergarten Cop! Unfortunately, managing smaller groups of students during rotational activities at a specific work station is nothing like standing up in front of a classroom and managing these same students collectively during a lesson.

As my colleague teacher graciously put it I needed to, “work on my classroom management skills and timing”. Had I stepped into her shoes however, I probably would have been more forthright in delivering my criticisms.

The lesson began quite well with the first activity. Students were to use playdough at their desks to make a thin and a thick snake. This activity was relatively simple but I underestimated the time that my students would take to complete this task, most probably due to my lack of experience of dealing with the very short and virtually non-existent attention spans of these 5 year olds. The students finished the activity relatively quickly which meant they became bored and started to become restless and cause distractions. At times my lack of voice projection also meant that students were unable to hear me properly and therefore lost their focus for the rest of the lesson. This didn’t seem to be a problem with the girls as they were in fact all very well behaved but the boys adopted attention-seeking behaviour and resorted to yelling out answers without raising their hand, one male student yelled out irrelevant answers; touching equipment when told not to and at one stage the boys broke out into a chant of ‘thick-thin…’. One of the most difficult things was remembering all the student names. This meant that it was also difficult to draw on the attention of some disruptive students when I tried to enforce discipline. Tactics I employed at the time included:

- stopping the lesson until I had regained their attention. This worked initially but did not thereafter. Probably a bad idea. I don’t think ‘waiting’ for any kindergarten student achieves anything.

- raising my arms in the air and twinkling my fingers followed by clapping rhythmically. This technique worked quite well when used by my colleague teacher however, did not work as well with some students when I tried it. One student did not follow the pattern of the beat and would purposely adopt his own clapping pace.

- Giving a warning and enforcing consequences if a student didn’t stop the disruptive behaviour on a count of three. This seemed to work but was not enough.

All in all I was very disappointed with the outcome of the lesson as it had the potential to provide a wonderful learning experience for the students that did want to learn. I was however, grateful for the experience as it gave me a realistic idea of the things that needed to be addressed both for myself as an educator and for the students in the classroom. There are many things I feel I could have done differently. Perhaps not emphasizing poor behaviour as much and instead focusing on good student behaviour; implementing praise and encouragement and describing why the student behaviour is valued; finally, familiarizing myself with student profiles. That is, a few students have a certain history of familial problems or are developmentally delayed. Had I been aware of this information, I may have adequately prepared myself with management strategies to address behavioural issues from these students. One thing I did conclude from this experience however is that students appear to demonstrate a certain kind of implicit respect for their classroom teacher as opposed to a casual or student teacher. I hope I can prove myself wrong on this point. I guess I will find out when I conduct my next lesson on 28^th May.

Following my lesson, I took notes of the strategies used by my colleague teacher to manage behaviour in the classroom. These are listed as follows:

- approach student. Deliver long, wide-eyed and stern stare

- stern, assertive, clear, loud voice to deliver disciplinary verbal cue

- maintain student attention during lesson by delivering short, quick instructions; use lots of facial expression, an expressive voice and hand actions when describing things

- where necessary, come down to student level to deliver verbal disciplinary cue

- students that call out without raising their hand are excluded. Student told to stand up and move away from the group. They are told that they are no longer a part of the lesson.

- students that raise their hands to discuss other things that divert from the question at hand get the teacher response: “That was not the question and you’re not answering it”. Teacher quickly moves on to the next student.

- students that raise their hands without having an answer ready first get the following teacher response: “Do not put up your hand unless you have an answer ready!”

- the teacher demonstrated that even with her back turned to the class, she was continually listening for distractions and addressing them promptly

- verbal praise was given (and a gold star to add to student Star Book) with the teacher describing the good behaviour demonstrated by the student: “Good. You were listening to instructions”; “X gets a gold star because he was minding his own business and didn’t turn around like everyone else when Y was being disruptive”

- during group activities, expedite teacher roaming and assessing progress of student work meant there was no time for students to slack off or cause trouble

- student attention was gained by rhythmic clapping above head

- the 5 L’s: Look, Listen, Lips (quiet), Lap (hands folded), Legs (forward)

- praise of groups as well as individuals. Group praise resulted in table points.

- Hands that were raised in the middle of a lesson without a question asked by the teacher were ignored or waved down.

Helpful resources include:

Edwards, C., & Watts, V. (2004). Discipline Problems and Their Causes. In Effective Teaching and Professional Practice handbook, (pp173-180). Australian Catholic University Ltd, North Sydney.

Konza, D., Grainger, J. & Bradshaw, K. (2004). Existing Models of Behaviour Management. In Effective Teaching and Professional Practice Handbook, (181-192). Australian Catholic University Ltd, North Sydney.

I found the various models of behaviour management quite informative in their content. It is useful to extrapolate points from these models and apply the strategies offered in the appropriate context.

websites:

http://www.behaviour.com.au/hcentre.htm

http://www.proteacher.org/c/507_Attention_Signals__Quiet_Signals.html

http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=2010

http://712educators.about.com/od/discipline/a/student_conduct.htm

Finally, practice, practice, practice! And seek advice where necessary.

School Prac Visit 2

Ah yes! I was truly proud of myself on the morning of Wednesday 24th March. I had made my lunch of falafel, semi-dried tomato and fetta dolmades, sumac-spiced fennel salad and Israeli hommus - and packed it all neatly into my lunchbox. Ok, so I probably cheated in my food preparation skills (falafel was a pre-packaged mix requiring only the addition of water and dolmades were canned) and went a little too far with the 'Israeli' Hommus but I do swear by its unique, smokey undertone, smooth texture and great flavour - thankyou Bondi Fruitologist! My mug was carefully placed in my bag (I was informed that sharing mugs in the teacher staffroom was a 'pet hate' and strictly a 'No-No') and my clothes chosen (and tried on) from the previous evening. No dramas here today. I left on time and was at school within 45 minutes.

It was straight to the assembly hall again this morning for prayers and a music performance. We were joined by several parents of the students who gathered proudly to watch their children sing and perform to the song of 'Old MacDonald' and listen to a select few play the violin. I must admit that I was quite impressed by these budding violinists as I do have a professional violinist in the family and this stringed instrument can and does require the use of fine motor skill to play.

I noted that the significance of today's student visit however, was the assembly performance of the song, Old MacDonald. During my first prac visit I noted the students were learning to read a picture book about a family living on a farm. This leads me to discuss the importance of reading and the strategies used to successfully build the semantic knowledge of students in language /reading development. I also observed that the same book was used to draw on other various useful materials related to life on a farm as a means of developing skills across curriculums, therefore further enhancing and building student knowledge in these other areas in a way that was applicable. However, since the focus here is about developing reading skills my observations led me to conclude that the strategy adopted was one that was very similar to the whole-part-whole model of reading. My colleague teacher had built up the knowledge of the elements associated with reading (semantic, syntactic, graphophonic and paralinguistic) by engaging the students in various activities related to the large picture book as well as drawing on other resources (e.g. cloze word activities, word bingo,visual illustrations of animals and associating sounds made by them, You-tube movie clips about farm life and learning of song Old MacDonald, student own storybook creations and other activities etc). In addition, the big book was used to focus on a letter(s), 'M/m' and 'D/d' for example, and then Ss asked to complete written worksheets where the T demonstrated how to write the letter, to complete sentences with words beginning with the letter (in both upper and lower case instances), colour illustrations where the object in the picture began with the letter and to think of and write words beginning with the letter. All words were verbally repeated to draw attention to the sound-symbol relationship. References were made to specific parts of 'the book' depending on the purpose of the activity. In most cases, except where writing skills needed to be demonstrated, the activities were organised as such that students were divided into groups and allocated a workstation. Ss spent an allocated time at each workstation until all tasks were completed. There was one activity in which I questioned the effectiveness in developing Ss reading skills. I was supervising an activity that involved Ss reading the book, Dan the Flying Man. This book contains many rhyming words and was previously studied in class. Upon asking the Ss to read a page each I noted that some pupils didn’t really read the text but simply learned the words by heart. I tested this by asking the S to point to specific words, which the S was unable to do correctly in most cases. It made me question whether short stories containing text that rhymed were a good idea in teaching the novice reader to read.

During writing tasks, the T, assistant T and I roamed the classroom to observe, assist and mark worksheets. Contrary to what we were told about using a red pen in EDFD 529 tutorials, I found that this was the preferred colour used by my colleague teacher. The process of marking included underlining or circling incorrect words, or letters not written properly (including when asking Ss to demonstrate their writing skills). Written comments were not really made explaining errors though discussion in my class tutorial won me over in that this was a very good idea and would enable parents to acknowledge where their child's weaknesses lay so as to be able to provide further assistance when worksheets were taken home. As for Digital Natives, I have yet to see any strong evidence of this in my kindergarten classroom. At home however, this may be a different story.

Following lunch, an interesting incident occurred. A S was upset because they claimed to have lost their fork. The S pointed out that another pupil from the class had taken it. I must be honest in admitting that I probably would not have been able to address this issue effectively. My colleague teacher however, managed to get to the truth fairly quickly. She asked both Ss to state the food items they had for lunch. From this list, she was easily able to deduce which of the two Ss was telling the truth. Is this the early signs of bullying behaviour? The pupil that lied was sent to sit away from all the other pupils in the class during the following lesson. The humiliation endured from the T questioning in front of all the other Ss in my opinion, was enough to make this pupil behave for the rest of the day.

The final thing noted on this particular day occurred in mathematics. Ss were introduced to the concept of time. This particular lesson did not involve numeracy. Ss were asked to look at photos of activites performed during the morning and afternoon (eg. sleeping, waking, eating breakfast, brushing teeth etc). To make the lesson a little more interesting, the T asked the Ss to choose an activity from the selection of photos to 'act out' in front of their peers. The other Ss were to guess the activity performed. The interesing thing to note was that most Ss were unable to effectively and convincingly 'act out' the activity chosen. Initially I had put this down to poor acting skills of ES1 however, upon further discussion with my colleague teacher back at the staffroom, she concluded that children today spend most of their day in various instutional settings where their actions and activities are dictated by others (eg. tutors, instructors etc) or simply spent in front of a screen watching television or playing video games. Parents' lack of encouragement to allow their children to play freely outdoors where their children may develop social skills and motor skills that do not mimic robotic movements, contributed to a generation of children that do not know how to freely express themselves. This comment gave me something to think about. I must take note for future reference to confirm whether this view is correct.

My next two prac visits are in week 8. Friday 23rd is the day I teach my first mathematics lesson. The focus is to develop Ss understanding in distinguishing between thick and thin. I can't compete with 20 years of teaching experience (that is, my colleague teacher) but I am curious to see how I go. Stay posted!

School Prac Visit 1

Who said the first day of school was meant to be easy?



I did, of course! Well think again Jo Jo. Things started off well on the morning of Wednesday 17th March but I quickly realised that I had woken to a morning of chaos. Four pairs of pants later - when did my baby belly get so big? - I had walked out the door, into my car and straight into 35 minutes of standstill traffic on the City Westlink in a futile attempt to get to the Eastern suburbs. One hour and 15 minutes later I had finally reached my destination. Well, sort of. I had to bypass 2 security guards at two separate entrances, 4 volunteer gatespeople (ie. parents of students from the school) and answer several questions regarding the nature of my visit. When did so much security get implemented into our schools? Or is it just this particular school? In saying this however, the people I encountered were friendly in the most diplomatic way. So many questions. Next, to the Primary School Office to sign in and get a visitor pass.

What a relief. I was finally in and ready to face the challenges of my first day as prac student teacher in a kindergarten class at primary school. The day began with a brief chat to the school principal and assembly in the hall. The school is Jewish, so most songs were sung in Hebrew and of course, the subject content of the assembly was related to the upcoming Passover celebrations and the significance of the Tora in Judaism. The morning continued to unfold with English, student news time, the Big Book Story, English phonics and Music. As the school employs a separate teacher for music, my colleague teacher whisked me away for some one-on-one prep talk regarding the culture and customs of the school, its values, the teaching content and structure; a tour of the school; meet and greet with other members of staff; and the implicitly defined rules of the teacher staffroom. Post music lesson, we headed back to class for a lesson of H.S.I.E before breaking up for a 15 minute recess. Then it was back to the classroom for an entire afternoon of English reading groups. During this time I was able to assist and participate in directing the group activities as well as assist in reading activities for a class other than my own. This was an eye opening experience as I was able to see the comparison of student skill/behaviour/learning drive between the students in this class and that of my own assigned class. It also allowed me the opportunity to compare the teaching styles between teachers in a primary classroom.

Lunch quickly approached at 12.45pm, a short session of prayers and a trip to the canteen for some vegetarian lasagne - strictly no meat allowed on campus. My colleague teacher was on lunch time supervising duty so I gladly and willingly joined her for an opportunity to explore the playground and to develop an understanding of the student culture and group dynamics during playtime. When lunchtime (sadly) ended (the children were absolutely lovely and I noted they found any excuse to come and have a chat with me), both colleague teacher and I headed back to the staff room for further discussion about the goals to be achieved during my practical placement. Lessons in Hebrew - again conducted by a spearate teacher- for the remainder of the afternoon meant that today I would be given an early mark.

Things I observed:

• strict security on campus
• the school is an independent, co-educational, Orthodox Jewish school and is located in an affluent area
• most teaching staff are very friendly, approachable, helpful and easy to talk to
• there is a strong and active focus on parent involvement in the school community - parents are able to join in and assist in activites one day per week in their child's classroom; P&F committee.
• the school is very well equiped with classroom resources and facilities for extra curriculum activities
• The school is adequately staffed with assistant teachers on site to help where required
• there is implicit respect between student and teachers
• strong jewish cultural practices infiltrate all parts of the school and are evident of this (e.g. chidren participate in Hebrew lessons, the making of unleavened bread in preparation for passover, names of classrooms are written in Hebrew, the school uniform - boys must wear the kippah etc)
• The teachers aim to develop self-discipline, self-reliance and initiative in their Primary students
• The school's philosophy is based on believing in the innate potential of all students and teachers and providing the resources and the opportunities that enable them all to learn and grow. There is a focus in providing a happy atmosphere that fosters both positive communication and a sense of autonomy within the student body. Excellence and success are both recognised within the school and students at all levels are encouraged, hence offering varied experiences that are both fun and educational in a physical environment that values those within it.

In the classroom:

• the day began with a "Good Morning" song with the students asked to name the date, day of the week and to describe the weather
• the teacher gained and maintained the attention of her students by delivering the subject content in an enthusiastic voice, using direct eye content and a variety of resources (e.g. smartboard with pictures and coloured writing tools, You-tube downloads of songs and short movie clips, handouts with large text and lots of pictures for students to colour etc) and activities (e.g. English combined with arts and crafts; various activities offered at different workstations); lessons consisted on only 30 minute blocks
• the power of the pen? Yes, it's true but despite being told in our tutorial class to avoid the 'big bad red', my colleague teacher religiously uses it, together with a smiley stamp
• students were separated into groups during activity time and each group allocated a colour and title of a Native Australian animal.
• Teacher roaming was a frequent occurance during desk activities
• House points were allocated for good behaviour, student initiative, academic performance and providing help/assistance to the teacher/peers
• The teacher managed interruptions and distractions by implementing a long silent pause, raising her hands in the air and wiggling her fingers. All students would stop, look and follow in her actions. If talking continued, she would convert the twinkling to a steady clap of the hands. To manage interruptions by single students, she would ask the student to move out of the discussion circle where they would be 'singled out'. Students clearly did not like this and would stop the disruptive behaviour. Yelling and negative verbal comments were never made.
• I found the teaching style was in part conducted through 'direct instruction' but as my colleague teacher has over 20 years experience she was able to deliver the content of the subject matter in its most effective form using this method.

All in all, it was a very informative day and a wonderful learning experience, though I did go home somewhat physically exhausted. Kindy students burst with energy and it can be a challenge keeping up. Looking forward to next week.......