School Kit

If you haven't heard of it before go and check them out- now!

I heard of them last year when they gave classes the New World Little Gardens which at the time fitted perfectly into our 'Growing' unit. I signed up and low and behold 40 Little Gardens arrived at school. What's the catch you ask? Yes, they do ask for a favour in return. Ours was photos. Take pictures of the class growing their garden. 

This year every time their email appears I jump on it asap. This was the first one we did this year in Term 1.

As a class we were asked to read the book Diary of a Wimpy Kid and to take pictures of the class enjoying this book. They had partnered up with Kelloggs and participating schools would receive a new book in return for proof of purchase of two Kellogg's cereal or snack products from your nominated New World store.  

The class loved the book and we got all of these in return to share with the whole school!










Our second activity was also a great one! Getting to know us as a class and then sharing that with another school. We had so much fun doing this. We learnt about metaphors and created our own one about ourselves. It was a great way of teaching what can be a hard concept for children to understand. But they had so much fun and the fact they were sending their metaphor to another school meant they wanted to do exceptionally well!



What are we doing now? We are growing bacteria! It's so gross yet so cool!

    

 This has been a super cool activity to do. Children have been mesmerized at how bacteria grows and the different ones that are growing. We are now at the stage where we are trying to identify all the different types of bacteria growing!

                                                                                                                                                                       

That one child.

Every Kids needs a Champion   by Rita Pierson says it all.

Every year we are given students we struggle to connect with. This year for me it happened. It seems like a terrible thing to say but it can happen. I saw it straight away and reflected on how was I ever going to find a connection with this one child. They were so disengaged, uninterested and had no empathy for their peers. Yet I also knew they didn’t have the greatest home life and therefore lacked a lot of confidence and self-esteem. 

As Rita say in her Ted Talk, 'until the relationships are built the ‘real’ learning will not happen'. There is a value and importance of human connections. It took me nearly two terms to find a connection with this child and it developed over reading. One-one reading with them every day and I saw a side to this child I had never seen before. They would smile, feel proud of their efforts and enjoy themselves. Better yet, their reading improved dramatically.

I realised in a group situation that this would have never happened and if it meant that I started my reading programme at 8:30 in the morning to cater for this need, then so be it.

As Rita says ‘Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like’

Growth Mindset

These posters are a great way of reminding my students about growth mindset concepts. I have had these ( and a few more) up around the room and each week we have take one and looked at what it might mean. The students have loved discussing about 'Growth Mindset' and the clips on ClassDojo are great to consolidate these ideas for students. 

As a teacher you always get 'warm fuzzy' when you hear students talking to others and discussing these Growth Mindsets and re-phrasing their wording! 

Poetry Slam

I enjoy poetry and love sharing this with the students I teach. Unfortunately, the minute you utter the words ‘poetry’ you can hear the groans and look of boredom spreading over their faces. I find it a little upsetting that children these days have no idea about well-known poets or poems. In the past I have taught my year 5/ 6’s ‘The Highway Man’ and the ‘Lady of Shallot’ with great success. With The Lady of Shallot we created a whole cross curriculum unit on it and even performed the poem to other classes using mix media to tell the story.

I try to immerse my classes with a range of poetry. Whether it be through guided reading, handwriting, word study activity or even as a class read. I think it is important for them to experience and learn how important poetry is. I am much the same when it comes to Shakespeare and believe that there is a place for him in primary education. Probably why I loved this Ted talk and why I wanted to do something like a rap or poetry slam unit.

 I loved the idea of linking music and writing and being able to describe the characteristics of poetry in jazz, rap and hip hop music. There were so many wonderful ideas swirling around in my head and it also made me realise how easy it was to create a cross curriculum topic on this that could also incorporate, history, geography, art, values etc.

As a class this is what we wanted to achieve by the end of the unit.

• Introduce students to spoken word poetry: Slam Poetry
• Give them the opportunity to create and perform poetry
• Practice working in a group and speaking in front of the class
• Learn and understand some poetry terms and techniques

In groups students identified basic poetry and literacy elements. They looked at Eminem, Notorious BIG, 50 cent, Andre 3000, Tupac, Snoop Dog and many more. For most of these raps/songs, I gave them snippets of the words rather than the whole thing. We also looked at poems and did the same-  Robert Frost, ‘Road less taken’, Langston Hughes,’ I dream a world’, Mya Angelo, and others I felt that they should know of.

From that I introduced poetry slam. I showed them EliseWilson

To This Day Project - Shane Koyczan

If I should have a daughter -Sarah Kay

My students really surprised me at how well they could articulate the message in these three slams.

I spent a lot of time discussing the techniques (as well as I could) of a poetry slam and looking at how rhythm and rhyme were important. We looked at how certain words were ‘stress’ ‘speed up or slow down etc.

After this, students were given 3 things they could slam about in their groups. In the end most decided to slam about ‘bullying’ as Relationships was our Value and we had taken part in “Pink Shirt’ day. I also think Shane Koycan’s slam left a huge impact on them.

It was a fantastic unit and I know the class and myself thoroughly enjoyed it.

 I did record them but somehow lost all of them! As I did this last term and only blogging about it now, I have tried to get one group to record their slam but we have had a few illnesses in the class! Here is what they wrote though.

Standing with a friend who is being bullied doesn't mean you have to take a punch for them.

We feel alone- small and weak.

Scared to go out and speak.

Every day the pain keeps increasing.

All of their pain they keep releasing.

The kids need help but who’s gonna give it?

All day every day we sit and wonder why somebody doesn’t stop it?

Then I realised I am somebody.

Calling someone ugly won’t make you prettier.

Calling someone stupid won’t make you smarter.

Calling someone a loner won’t make you popular.

Calling someone fat won’t make you skinnier.

Why do you do it?

There’s no reason.

Shadows leapt up behind me.

I never know who it is?

Was it a Friend?

Was it a teacher?

Before I could think I was 6 feet in the air.

The sun blocked my eyes but a few features could be noticed.

Long hair

Pierced ears

Big nose

Big mouth

Yellow teeth

I felt a dribble of spit flickering at me.

The eyes…

I couldn’t see something was covering me.

Across the distance 3 shadows became smaller.

I felt the wind sweeping through my right ear but nothing on the left.

I was let go

I felt great

I felt alive

I was free

Free from pain

We walk into the darkness hardly to see, they punch me they kick me they through me to the ground.

Every time someone calls my name the harsh words jumbling in my brain.

Our bodies crumple into the ground being deteriorated into little pieces.

Where are we sitting?

Reflections about the changes that have been taking place in the classroom. This will be a few posts as lots has happened!

Term three as been all about continuity for the class room. In term 2 (mostly) we changed the room physical and also changed our learning styles. New ideas were developed, new ways of thinking and learning posed. Therefore term 3 meant continuing with this and not making any more radical changes.

Also I have been off work so have been unable to implement anything else.

So how has it been going?

FEEDBACK: Where are we sitting?
One part of changing my room to a more MLE has always been about the children’s involvement and feedback. The last thing I wanted to do was implement something that they didn’t like. So a lot of the time I would propose the idea to them, get feedback and then run with whatever the outcome was. The only rule I had for them was they had to give it at least 2 weeks before they gave me their feedback.

Feedback has been great. The children have been very honest! Personally it can be very hard hearing negative feedback on ideas that I thought were amazing! But it did give me insight into how they thought and saw things. Which to be honest is what this journey is all about.

What really surprised me with this class was how many of them didn’t like sitting low to the ground. This surprised me as I had read and seen so many MLE with cushions and beanbags. There is this encouragement of moving away from children having their ‘own’ desk and research showed children enjoyed working down low or up high. In particular the girls (mainly my yr 6’s)  didn’t enjoy it at all.

They preferred instead to bring chairs over. So my next step is to find maybe stools to cater for this as although I appreciated their feedback, the chairs are annoying!  One thing we did do as a class is use the area around the IWB as our ‘collaboration’ area. We created two sections using the tables in the room and put more chairs then were needed. That way when we needed to all come together I didn’t have students grabbing all the chairs around the room.



Tables at the front where we collaborate.

This has worked quite well. Students have the opportunity to either sit on the chairs, or the floor with cushions. This is definitely one thing I would like in the new school. But instead of one main area, I would like two. This is because there are times when I want to collaborate with the class but don’t like the constraints my IWB area has. I have a tendency to move to the back of the class where I feel I have more space and movement. Maybe that is something I need to think about?

Is it because when I am at the front I feel like I am doing the ‘teacher talk’ type of teaching rather than having a more student centred feeling?

I am not a ‘front of the classroom’ teacher. You will find me on the floor, at the back or sitting beside a child at the tables. So for me that freedom to move around the room is important. Therefore it is important that my students have the opportunity to do this as well. They have enjoyed not having 'assigned' seat and the fact they can move around the room freely.

Freedom to work where ever they like

Some haven’t enjoyed the change. I have had a few students who found it hard to move away from having their own desk and tote tray. These students, I have noticed are the ones who find it hard to develop friendships. It has taken them a while to adapt to the changes but I do think it has been a positive move for them. I am seeing more independence in them and they have slowly seen the benefits in their own learning. I also found that some students don’t understand what type of learner they are and through a lot of discussion and modelling, they have developed a better understanding of this.

 We had talked as a class about bringing in a low table in but once again they were not keen for that. My girls wanted to cluster together. They have decided to incorporate 3 tables and tend to sit around this. To outsiders this may sound awful and the image of girls all talking and chatting rather than doing work. But it is the complete opposite. They actually encourage each other and work extremely hard. They are also very independent in the fact that they know what place in the room is the best place for them to work in. So they will move away straight away into smaller group areas or to the quiet areas depending on the lesson.

We don’t line up anymore! I worked out by the time I left the staffroom after every break ( we have 3 as we have two 30min lunch breaks) waited for them to be in line etc. I had wasted nearly 5mins. Imagine that in a week- 25 minutes of learning. So instead they just go back into class and carry on with what they need to be doing. It is great! Children actually make it into class faster than they used to lining up. I think it gives them a sense of responsibility and the knowledge I trust them enough. To be honest in the real world how often are they going to line up? They need to learn to be self-directed learners and understand how to get on with a task with having to be always told.