Reading Recommendations

Last week at parents evening, I was asked by one parent if I was the Harry Potter fan.  It turned out he was pleased how addicted his daughter now was to reading HP and was wondering if I could suggest something she should read next.  He mentioned Alan Garner so I was pleased to be able to say my Alderley Edge connection to them, although I didn't actually enjoy reading them as a child.  I said I would have a think and make a list of recommendations which I did yesterday.  I decided to photograph the HP postcards I had written and record on here in case it's useful in the future:

A Year

It's totally hard to believe, that this is the last day of the school year!!!!  I really did do it!  I taught for a whole year.  Had been saying for a while that we were nearly there, and even at 1 o'clock, with half an hour to go, I was still saying 'well, nearly'.  But now it's totally true and dusted.

I am very proud of myself.  I don't think I did the best job ever, and still often feel like a fraud, but people have been saying kind things to me and I am surely no where near as much of a fraud as I was at the beginning of the year.  Why wasn't I so much more nervous then, I was clueless!!!!  I got some lovely presents from the kids and really kind words from the parents which mean the moon to me!

I felt a little emotional, but only slightly.  We were trying to read the last two chapters of the Enchanted Wood in the last half hour, and initially I couldn't find the book which was fairly comical!  But in that they were saying good bye to each other and I did feel a little pull at the heartstrings thinking that would be me and them soon! 

But oddly, the most emotional I felt, was as I was taking my stuff to the car, having tidied my classroom and I was hanging up my badge and switching off the lights.

And the afternoon ended nicely too :-)

NQT - the smiley and drunk way

Well, what a bizarre day at the NQT conference! Well, actually only a bizarre afternoon. The morning was pretty good. Sue Cowley led it and there were some fairly standard yet good tips about teaching. And we also got to play with plasticine. Can't take the credit for the one on the left, but the simple snail is mine, on top of the free highlighters we acquired. Oh and there was a crime scene.

But the afternoon... was it meant to be a joke, was he drunk??? Was there a punch line. Who knows what it was really on about. The only potentially positive things I really took from it were: www.commoncraft.com and wordle.net

The best bit of the afternoon was definitely our tables representation of making a sponge cake as an audio clip. Pure entertainment and genius. My iphone came into it's own - how brave of me to suggest it!

Well that's been 24 hours of investigating how to get an audio file onto a blog!  So I have finally gone with drop.io having seen it on another blog I follow.   Here's some information I read about drop.io.  It wasn't mentioned in the blogger information on how to post audio files, so I was a little hesitant, but I searched for reviews and nothing bad came up initially.  Hope I shouldn't have looked further.  Am still wondering how to actually embed it in my post, rather than just being a link.  Will carry on investigating.

Has this worked? 

   

  Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io 

 

Well, would you believe that??????????????????  It did work! So that was courtesy of this friendly video on the drop.io website, where I discovered it's pronounced 'eo' kinda radio rather than 'I oh' that I was going for.  I had to 'embed' which took me a little while to find and then I had to copy and paste a whole load of stuff - is that called html stuff?  Anyway, feeling dead chuffed now!

6/11/10 drop.io on it's way out :-(  hopefully this will last a little longer.
17 06 2010 14 58 1


Feeling a little guilty for being so harsh on the guy of the afternoon.  He was generous enough to give us each an electronic copy of his book and his software.  He also had hard copies of his book for sale for £10 with half proceeds going to Haiti.  Hike up my guilt feeling at having no intention of buying it.  I hate feeling bad for people when I think they've tried and have been generous and are passionate about something.  I remember Mrs Yates who ran middle school arts club on a Friday lunchtime.  Just the thought of it would bring me to tears.

Tweak of the week 1 - Is she right?

I started getting under way after my tweak of the week inspiration course.  I started with number 1 on my list that we had been told quite early on in the day and was the first one to grab me.  So at the Living Rainforest the following day I gave it a go.  I asked my group what they thought they might see in the rainforest and followed each person's suggestion with 'are they right?'  surprisingly it kinda worked as it got them all interested and discussing although it wasn't the ideal situation as they were speculative answers in the first place.  I tried it later in the day with a more sensible question (can't remember what it was now) but was again impressed with how well it worked. 

On Thursday we were playing round the world in maths and I realised I was telling the children when they got a question right.  I had been proud at getting the other children to ask the questions rather than me, but realised I was missing an 'is she right?' opportunity.  It was funny how hard I found it not to answer and I ended up making a joke of it with the children where I had to cover my mouth.  Didn't quite get it slick yet, the question setters were still looking to me generally for confirmation before giving the thumbs up, but was good to be thinking of in the first place and will get better with practice I think.

Also in thursdays maths lesson, I put 12 questions on the board and asked the children to do the 3 hardest - a way of reducing information, number 18.  Moderate success though some children said there weren't any hard ones! 

It's half-term now, but I am going to leave this as my tweak of the week for the first full week back.

Sport Relief

Totally loved to today, it's why I want to be a teacher, and I had to record a quote from a child.  I haven't been doing very well at recording cute sayings.  To be honest they haven't been 10 a penny.

Todays: 'Miss Greig, I ache all over'.

The day started well with me waking up early and excited to dress into my Sarah Outen outfit.  Although it makes me feel more of a loner I think i will have to go and take a photo of myself to prove my attire (oops - had a shower before remembering about the photos again)!  Had a meeting with my mentor before and at the beginning of school which went much nicer than I was expecting and set me into a good mood.

Then it was assembly over the road which I got to partake in :-) 5 teachers took part in a sporting challenge.  I was asked as I was sitting down while the children were coming in.  I admit I was a little nervous but definitely excited - this is something I had been waiting for my whole (even though limited!) teaching career - getting up in front of all the kids and making a fool of myself for their enjoyment (inspired but the stars in their eyes events at my secondary school which were highlights of the year - thanks teachers!).  I didn't know what I'd have to do but fortunately I was given the task of trying to catch a ball in a hoop type thing and I amazed myself by managing it twice!!!  When the children were asked how many times we had done it I showed up 10 fingers so that's what they shouted out.  When asked how many the others (football keepy uppies, so glad I didn't have to do those!) had done a boy in my class answered four.  He told me afterwards that he said that so that I would win.  I was delighted with his maths and quick thinking and support of me!

After a mega improvised maths lesson and a surprisingly relaxed lunchtime, it was time to get psyched with our class for the mile.

woah woah woah - rereading this morning and can't believe I forgot to write about the highlight of the day - tough though that is as there were so many great moments!  It was actually one of the highlights of my year.  Am going again to copy from an email to Sarah - still so surprised I didn't write about this.

they were going out for lunchtime and somehow (im hazy about who said what) but it ended up with me going out to the playground with my half blade to row in a sunken rowing boat they have in the playground.  i was absolutely amazed, taken aback and delighted, that by the time it took me to pick up my blade and head out there, that half my class were in the boat excitedly waiting for me - one of my top moments this year.  i stopped to take a photo and then got in and pretended to row - apologies that i sat the wrong way.  kids swarmed round and it was such fun!!!!   they were yelling are we in Mauritius yet!!!!

back to the original post: 

I showed them on mapmyrun.com where we'd be going and talked about ways to encourage each other (a very little bit of pshe that I was fairly proud of!).  Then over to the juniors to start.  It drizzled most of the time but it didn't dampen spirits and they did a great job at running.  Twice round the route was a mile but I had kids doing 10 laps.  I went round twice and then a break before doing a third a little while later.  I also entertained myself with some Scottish Dancing with mine at the start/finish line.

The children didn't seem to get bored but in the end all the classes headed back over.  The children were exhausted and all moaning about sore feet.  We sat and had a quiet time talking about how it went and we watched a sport relief video about a girl in India which I was impressed they engaged in.  It was while we were talking then, that the little boy got up and walked all the way round the classroom to come and tell me the above line.  Bless him, I had to giggle!

And this evening has finished off with fun and board games at a colleague's house - can't get much better!  For a week that has felt like it has had a few lows I'm in a pretty good mood now :-)

Sarah Outen

I have had a very proud day as my friend, Sarah, came to school.

I have mentioned her before - she is the amazing one that rowed across the Indian Ocean solo last year - (she has a great website).  I told my kids on Monday that she was coming and they have been getting more and more excited all week at the thought of her coming.  Am not quite sure how the excitement started building - it was genuinely more them than me!!  One girl emailed Sarah on the first evening and I shared that in school and put her in the special book for it which was a snowball effect!

Anyway, needless to say she was amazing.  I was there for the talk she did to the infants which was such fun, and then she went over to do a talk to the Juniors which sounds to have been fantastic then she came back to chat to my class which they loved and loads were crowding round her at the end of the lesson when they should have been going to lunch!

Here is the email of appreciation that I sent Sarah this evening.  I hope it conveys the amazement and the thanks:


I can't really begin to thank you enough for coming to school today and how amazed everybody was and the impact that you had on staff and pupils.  I don't think i had done a good enough job bigging you up before, as to me you are still my friend Sarah who has happened to have done this amazing thing.   But now they really know just how incredible you are! I know you must get a lot of praise all the time, but i just wanted you to know what our School thought, so here you go:


Mr, the head, spoke to me several times this afternoon saying what a great job you had done and how amazed the kids were and how we have to get your visit on the school website and how we have to follow your next adventure.  the head of the juniors said in passing what a great job you had done.  all three year three teachers spoke to me (on separate occasions) about how fab you had been for the year three children all the way up to the year 6 children.  one of the teaching assistants who had been in the assembly stopped me and was talking for ages about how fascinated she was and was asking me loads of questions and i came across her later on discussing you again with someone else!  On the infant side, it was the head of the infants, one of the most senior teachers (and my mentor) who gave you the work just before you left from her class so that's a really high opinion to have!  Also the lady who said you were the best guest assembly speaker and possibly the best assembly ever, was the head of the reception year and really pretty senior!  Another reception teacher said how enthralled both the children and the adults were.  Lots of these people talked about what a good speaker you were, it wasn't just that you had a great story but it was how you told it!   And loads of my kids were saying how excited they were because it had been such a good day because you had visited them.   I think more members of staff have talked to me today than ever before - if nothing else you have definitely put me on the map at  school!!!


Also i got this text from one of the year 3 teachers at the end of the day:
Hi! Just wanted to thank u and Sarah.  It was just fantastic!  Wondered if Sarah was around as i wanted to say thanks and let her read some of the letters the class wrote.  Thanks and happy friday!


I have brought the letters home with me so if you wanted to stop by tomorrow morning you are most welcome to look at them, but i know you will be busy. 

Wow and thank you, Sarah!

ICT in SBT1 School - Serial Week

So, having spent a very enjoyable first week in my first school based training school, I feel it's about time to get some of my ICT reflections down on paper... in a manner of speaking!

First off, I should say that this was not a normal week at this school in terms of ICT. I believe usually each class in the school has two hours of ICT a week by a specialist ICT teacher, while the class teacher has PPA time. During the week I was in school, there were a large number of teachers absent on various courses, and so the ICT teacher understandably stood in as a class supply teacher.

The school has a separate ICT suite which I did get to go in for a Spanish lesson. The Spanish teacher used a powerpoint display on the interactive white board (IWB) and the children had space to dance to a song they were learning. There were also two computers in the entrance area/art area/tray area/general-outside-of-classroom-area to the year one classrooms but I didn't see these switched on during the week I was there.

Sadly I didn't get to see the interactive white board used in the class I was observing in. 'My' class teacher was only in the first two days, and when one external supply teacher tried to link up the teacher laptop to the IWB to use some Guy Fawkes related website, she, the TA and I all tried but failed! One of the pitfalls of technology: not knowing which wires to connect where! This is something I will be asking the class teacher about on my next serial days. I was able to look on the websites on the teacher's laptop to find some of the answers to the questions the children were asking about Guy Fawkes. I guess ideally we would be getting the children to do this research, rather than myself, but I expect the reading would be above the level of year 1 children.

One consideration of IWB use was brought to my attention during the week. A step/bench/seat was constructed in the Year 1 and Reception classrooms below the IWB as the boards had previously been placed too high for the children to reach to use them effectively in an interactive capacity!

I saw the teacher laptop used in two other instances during the week. The register was taken morning and afternoon via the computer. I didn't investigate this and will add it to the list for my next days in school.

The other use of the laptop was for playing music. The class had a 'tidy up song'. The children knew when the teacher started playing this song on the laptop, it was time to start clearing away and to be sitting down on the carpet by the time the song finished. Also, the laptop was always used to play the songs during the THRASS (teaching handwriting, reading and spelling skills) lesson. The children (and I!) loved dancing to these songs, each based around one phoneme (a demo of the /j/ sound we were doing last week; i often found myself singing this song!). I hadn't previously seen laptops used for playing music in other schools; it has always been with CD players. My initial reaction was that a CD player was the natural thing to use to play music in school. But reflecting on my own life, I haven't had a CD player for probably about 6 years; any CDs get copied straight onto the computer. I will have to start adjusting my thoughts on what is 'natural' for schools, to make the adjustments from how school was when I was a pupil to the potential that is out there now in all aspects of teaching and learning.

Each class at the school has a digital camera. In a couple of instances during the week the teaching assistant got the camera out to photograph the class in action. She is keeping a book record of the year in the class and has been printing the photos out. The book is kept at the entrance to the classroom and the parents are able to see it when they drop off or collect the children. I think this is a great idea and as I am a keen photo album keeper, I would like to do this in any class I may have in the future too. I will try have the flickr (or the like) collection of photos as well, but i still think it's nice to have the hand held evidence to look through as well.

The final use of ICT I can think of to record, was a special computer that had recently been purchased for an SEN child with Global Development Delay. It had a touch screen which has apparently been a fantastic step forward as he was unable to use the mouse. I often saw him sitting at the computer tapping on the screen when appropriate. Apparently he has been enjoying it so much that they are having to find ways to restrict the time he spends on it or he would do nothing else!

For what I had felt was a very limited view of ICT last week, I seem to have managed to spend a long time writing about it. Overall, I would say I experienced a very adult lead use of ICT but I anticipate seeing more child-centred activities once in school at a 'normal' time.

One last unrelated thing. Received an email today about using hyperlinks. Thought I should try this again, as I got a bit confused doing this on the group wiki. So fingers crossed here's a nice elegant link to the blackboard.