Today I started my official student bench marking in reading by administering the Fountas & Pinnell reading assessment. I feel as though I have a pretty good idea of where my students are reading at because of the reading I do with them, the books they are taking home for home reading, and the many conversations I've had with them. But there are still things I'm curious about despite having all this data. By administering this "official" assessment I feel as though I gain "authentic" data which can be compared across all grade levels in our school (we all have access to this assessment kit). It also helps confirm for me, what I think I already know.
Today I worked with five students. I was not surprised to see that they tested out pretty much exactly where I thought they would test out. What did surprise me was the number of strategies that I've taught them this year that they are using while reading. One student made a prediction about the story as soon as I read her the title. Another was inferring as she was reading, showing me that she was obviously using her brain. One of my English Language Learner (ELL) students understood everything she read in her story, until the story pattern changed because a skunk entered the picture. She has no prior knowledge on skunks but instead of reading on, she stopped and asked me to tell her about skunks.
It's moments like these that make me really proud to be a teacher. Have you ever experienced moments like this? I'm curious to hear how your students have made you proud.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Fostering Independence in Grade One - A Few Examples
I teach grade one. I teach five and six year olds (who in the new year will start turning six and seven). They are young children. Many believe that they need to be hand held each step of the way. But I disagree. In my classroom I do my very best to teach independence instead of dependence. It starts early and it continues all year long.
To begin with I set up routines that are easy to remember. My students know what they have to do when they come into my classroom each morning. They know what to do and they do it. They also know where our classroom supplies are so if they need a new pencil, or a pair of scissors they know where to go without my help. Having simple routines set up allows my students to be responsible for themselves. These simple routines help foster independence.
During writing my students are also independent. I teach whole class, small group, and one on one writing lessons, but they are independent writers. What I mean by that is I do not tell them what to write, nor do I spell for them. From time to time I will give them suggestions of things they could write about but I never tell them what to write. I am trying to foster authentic independent writers, and so I want the writing that they do to come from them. In the past I have found when I tell my students what to write, they constantly ask me what they should write. If I tell them how to spell their words (before they have tired it first on their own) they constantly ask me to spell for them. This ends up creating students who can't write (or spell) without me telling them what to do. This year I've broken that dependence by encouraging my students to write what is important to them.
My students are also independent with their problem solving. That doesn't mean that I won't get involved when I'm needed but most of the time I'm not needed. My students use their words, and more specifically their "I messages". I teach them how to use their voice when they don't like what is happening around them. I teach them how to listen to one another. I also teach then to use their voice when they like what's happening around them. My students make mistakes, and hurt one another's feelings just like any other five and six year olds would, but most of them have the tools to fix up the situation when misunderstanding happen. They problem solve with clear communication, which I believe fosters their independence. Most of time my five and six year old students can independently solve their problems on their own.
These are just a few examples of how I foster independence with my students. I'd love to hear how you help foster independence with your students?
To begin with I set up routines that are easy to remember. My students know what they have to do when they come into my classroom each morning. They know what to do and they do it. They also know where our classroom supplies are so if they need a new pencil, or a pair of scissors they know where to go without my help. Having simple routines set up allows my students to be responsible for themselves. These simple routines help foster independence.
During writing my students are also independent. I teach whole class, small group, and one on one writing lessons, but they are independent writers. What I mean by that is I do not tell them what to write, nor do I spell for them. From time to time I will give them suggestions of things they could write about but I never tell them what to write. I am trying to foster authentic independent writers, and so I want the writing that they do to come from them. In the past I have found when I tell my students what to write, they constantly ask me what they should write. If I tell them how to spell their words (before they have tired it first on their own) they constantly ask me to spell for them. This ends up creating students who can't write (or spell) without me telling them what to do. This year I've broken that dependence by encouraging my students to write what is important to them.
My students are also independent with their problem solving. That doesn't mean that I won't get involved when I'm needed but most of the time I'm not needed. My students use their words, and more specifically their "I messages". I teach them how to use their voice when they don't like what is happening around them. I teach them how to listen to one another. I also teach then to use their voice when they like what's happening around them. My students make mistakes, and hurt one another's feelings just like any other five and six year olds would, but most of them have the tools to fix up the situation when misunderstanding happen. They problem solve with clear communication, which I believe fosters their independence. Most of time my five and six year old students can independently solve their problems on their own.
These are just a few examples of how I foster independence with my students. I'd love to hear how you help foster independence with your students?
Teaching A Comic Lesson I Learned on Twitter
This afternoon I showed my class a YouTube video of a student in Ontario, Canada teaching his former class how to draw a cartoon character. I've never met this student but I actively follow his previous teacher on Twitter. I think at first my class was a bit skeptical to be learning from a boy in a classroom across the country but they were just as curious to see what he had to share. The way the teacher filmed the video of her "young teacher" made us feel like we were sitting on the floor with her class too.
In the end it was probably one of the best directed drawing lessons we've done this year. They were so curious to see what he was going to do next. They remained on task at all times, and the language between one another was music to my ears. In the end each made their own special "peanut" person and they were all so proud of their final products.
This lesson is another big change for me. In the past I have rarely utilized YouTube with my students. I always thought it wasn't worth the time and it was too much of a hassle to set up. This lesson confirmed for me that I've got to use the resources available to me to their full potential. I will once again credit this change in my teaching to my new love, Twitter.
If you're curious to see what we did please check out our class blog post here.
In the end it was probably one of the best directed drawing lessons we've done this year. They were so curious to see what he was going to do next. They remained on task at all times, and the language between one another was music to my ears. In the end each made their own special "peanut" person and they were all so proud of their final products.
This lesson is another big change for me. In the past I have rarely utilized YouTube with my students. I always thought it wasn't worth the time and it was too much of a hassle to set up. This lesson confirmed for me that I've got to use the resources available to me to their full potential. I will once again credit this change in my teaching to my new love, Twitter.
If you're curious to see what we did please check out our class blog post here.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Technology Frustrations
It's been over a month now since I wrote my last blog post. It was never my intention to go so long between posts. There really is a lot I want to share. I've been struggling with something which has made it difficult for me to write a positive post.
Since joining Twitter in July (yes, a line I seem to use over and over again because its impact has been that huge on me and my teaching and learning) I have jumped in with both feet to utilize technology with my class to the best of my ability. I've created, for the first time, a class blog which includes a direct link to individual student blogs; I've utilized our school's laptops and extra computer lab time; I've integrated our school interactive smart board; I've signed out our district ipods and ipads; and I've helped those at my school to utilize technology too. I'm proud of all those things.
My school district is really keen on getting us technology savvy to help better meet the needs of our students. I love that about my district. I have been attending a technology dinner series entitled Engaging the Digital Learner Series listening to some amazing speakers. I've put my school on the list to get wireless technology sooner rather than later. I work in a forward thinking district and I'm really happy about that.
My biggest source of frustration is the technology that is available to me in my classroom. I've adopted four iBooks. The iBooks were saved from a trip to computer heaven and are long past their due date, so I don't complain about them at all. We can use them for very basic things but not much else. I don't expect them to perform consistently because they are so old (notice I wrote iBook, not MacBook). I also have an eMac which is a bit better than the laptops, and an iMac G5. The iMac is the best computer in my room. I've managed to wiggle a lot of computers into my classroom which is a good thing. I've also been able to get the school's one portable smart board to be stored in my classroom for this first term. It comes with a brand new MacBook laptop and its own projection device. I thought I was really l lucky to have this interactive white board in my room. So why am I so frustrated?
My computers are constantly crashing. When I open up our class website on the iMac G5 more times than not it crashes and quits Safari. It's a hit or miss if I can open it up any other computers in the classroom. My students are keen to blog during their writing time but by the time we get a page up and running way too much time has passed because they are so slow! My school board also has control of what goes on our computers. When we received new PC computers in our lab they installed an old version of Microsoft Word so any document created in a newer version of Word won't open at school. I am constantly being told that my software is out of date and any upgrading has to come from the district.
And the interactive white board. The board itself has been awesome but the laptop that accompanies it has been nothing but trouble. While it is brand new, it freezes all the time. It's been re-imaged and while things improved for a while it is still totally unreliable. I've planned so many lessons utilizing it to have to scrap them because my technology has failed me. I now get excited when the lessons on the interactive white board actually work because it is such a rare occurrence.
The school laptops have also been a source of trouble. On some of them there are some strange restrictions that won't allow my students to log into their personal blogs. Sometimes they pick up the wireless network available for me, and other times they don't. This is so frustrating.
I don't want to complain any more because I know that I have it better than most in my school, and most in my district. My school is not yet a needy school because we have a full 30 computer PC lab, and 30 laptops available to us. However when you look at our technology, and how out dated it is becoming, I can't see how we'll ever be in the 21st century. What we could use, and what we can actually afford are way too far apart.
So I will continue to do what I can with what I have but a big part of me will continue to dream about the day when the technology works as it should. My question to you is how do you deal with your technology frustrations?
Since joining Twitter in July (yes, a line I seem to use over and over again because its impact has been that huge on me and my teaching and learning) I have jumped in with both feet to utilize technology with my class to the best of my ability. I've created, for the first time, a class blog which includes a direct link to individual student blogs; I've utilized our school's laptops and extra computer lab time; I've integrated our school interactive smart board; I've signed out our district ipods and ipads; and I've helped those at my school to utilize technology too. I'm proud of all those things.
My school district is really keen on getting us technology savvy to help better meet the needs of our students. I love that about my district. I have been attending a technology dinner series entitled Engaging the Digital Learner Series listening to some amazing speakers. I've put my school on the list to get wireless technology sooner rather than later. I work in a forward thinking district and I'm really happy about that.
My biggest source of frustration is the technology that is available to me in my classroom. I've adopted four iBooks. The iBooks were saved from a trip to computer heaven and are long past their due date, so I don't complain about them at all. We can use them for very basic things but not much else. I don't expect them to perform consistently because they are so old (notice I wrote iBook, not MacBook). I also have an eMac which is a bit better than the laptops, and an iMac G5. The iMac is the best computer in my room. I've managed to wiggle a lot of computers into my classroom which is a good thing. I've also been able to get the school's one portable smart board to be stored in my classroom for this first term. It comes with a brand new MacBook laptop and its own projection device. I thought I was really l lucky to have this interactive white board in my room. So why am I so frustrated?
My computers are constantly crashing. When I open up our class website on the iMac G5 more times than not it crashes and quits Safari. It's a hit or miss if I can open it up any other computers in the classroom. My students are keen to blog during their writing time but by the time we get a page up and running way too much time has passed because they are so slow! My school board also has control of what goes on our computers. When we received new PC computers in our lab they installed an old version of Microsoft Word so any document created in a newer version of Word won't open at school. I am constantly being told that my software is out of date and any upgrading has to come from the district.
And the interactive white board. The board itself has been awesome but the laptop that accompanies it has been nothing but trouble. While it is brand new, it freezes all the time. It's been re-imaged and while things improved for a while it is still totally unreliable. I've planned so many lessons utilizing it to have to scrap them because my technology has failed me. I now get excited when the lessons on the interactive white board actually work because it is such a rare occurrence.
The school laptops have also been a source of trouble. On some of them there are some strange restrictions that won't allow my students to log into their personal blogs. Sometimes they pick up the wireless network available for me, and other times they don't. This is so frustrating.
I don't want to complain any more because I know that I have it better than most in my school, and most in my district. My school is not yet a needy school because we have a full 30 computer PC lab, and 30 laptops available to us. However when you look at our technology, and how out dated it is becoming, I can't see how we'll ever be in the 21st century. What we could use, and what we can actually afford are way too far apart.
So I will continue to do what I can with what I have but a big part of me will continue to dream about the day when the technology works as it should. My question to you is how do you deal with your technology frustrations?
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Before I Was a Good Teacher. Now I Hope I'm a Better One.
Before I had a class website where I posted information. Now I have a class blog where we post items together and we (and the world) can comment on our posts.
Before my class website was used by the parents of my class. Now my class blog is looked at by people all around the world.
Before I talked about teaching and learning with the people that I worked with, my fellow teaching friends, and the people at the workshops I attended. Now, through Twitter, I'm having conversation with amazing educators from all over the world.
Before I told my students what to read. Now they chose what they want to read.
Before I felt we couldn't afford technology. Now I'm finding ways to get it into my school.
Before I thought we could only have physical education when we were in the gym. Now I know we can have it every single day.
Before I worked in isolation only sharing with my close friends. Now I'm sharing with the world.
Before I had no place for my students to write on-line. Now my students have their own individual blogs.
Before I told my students what to write. Now I let my students write about what's meaningful to them.
Before my students wrote in notebooks or on paper. Now they write where they want including their notebooks, papers, white boards, computers, blogs etc....
Before my students sat in their own desks and always did their work there. Now my students are free to work with whom ever, and where ever in the room they'd like (most of the time).
Before I didn't think my students could handle technology. Now I know that they can.
Before my students went up and down during reading time constantly changing their books. Now they have their own just right book box with books they are interested in reading.
Before I felt that I had to do what everyone else was doing. Now I do what I believe should be done.
Before I told my students how many sentences to write in their journals. Now I just encourage them to write.
Before I was afraid to bring laptops into my classroom early in the year. Now I can't imagine not bringing them in.
Before I set goals for my students but they didn't know what they were. Now we set goals together.
Before I kept the student's individual goals private. Now I share them quite openly.
Before I needed to be in control of everything that my students were doing. Now I give my students a lot more freedom to explore while they learn.
Before I asked for student volunteers to share their ideas. Now we turn and talk to one another so we all have a chance to share our ideas.
Before I taught the whole class to read at the same time. Now I work with small groups, and individuals too.
Before my lessons in the computer lab were done in isolation. Now what we do in the lab the children can easily do at home with the links provided on the class blog.
Before I was expecting everyone to do the same thing at the same time. Now I'm differentiating my activities so everyone is doing their own thing at the same time.
Before I taught the whole class to write at the same time. Now I work with small groups, and individuals too.
Before I just taught, never really thinking about what my individual students already knew or needed. Now I use my assessment data to help structure my lessons.
Before I was a good teacher. Now I hope I'm a better one.
Before my class website was used by the parents of my class. Now my class blog is looked at by people all around the world.
Before I talked about teaching and learning with the people that I worked with, my fellow teaching friends, and the people at the workshops I attended. Now, through Twitter, I'm having conversation with amazing educators from all over the world.
Before I told my students what to read. Now they chose what they want to read.
Before I felt we couldn't afford technology. Now I'm finding ways to get it into my school.
Before I thought we could only have physical education when we were in the gym. Now I know we can have it every single day.
Before I worked in isolation only sharing with my close friends. Now I'm sharing with the world.
Before I had no place for my students to write on-line. Now my students have their own individual blogs.
Before I told my students what to write. Now I let my students write about what's meaningful to them.
Before my students wrote in notebooks or on paper. Now they write where they want including their notebooks, papers, white boards, computers, blogs etc....
Before my students sat in their own desks and always did their work there. Now my students are free to work with whom ever, and where ever in the room they'd like (most of the time).
Before I didn't think my students could handle technology. Now I know that they can.
Before my students went up and down during reading time constantly changing their books. Now they have their own just right book box with books they are interested in reading.
Before I felt that I had to do what everyone else was doing. Now I do what I believe should be done.
Before I told my students how many sentences to write in their journals. Now I just encourage them to write.
Before I was afraid to bring laptops into my classroom early in the year. Now I can't imagine not bringing them in.
Before I set goals for my students but they didn't know what they were. Now we set goals together.
Before I kept the student's individual goals private. Now I share them quite openly.
Before I needed to be in control of everything that my students were doing. Now I give my students a lot more freedom to explore while they learn.
Before I asked for student volunteers to share their ideas. Now we turn and talk to one another so we all have a chance to share our ideas.
Before I taught the whole class to read at the same time. Now I work with small groups, and individuals too.
Before my lessons in the computer lab were done in isolation. Now what we do in the lab the children can easily do at home with the links provided on the class blog.
Before I was expecting everyone to do the same thing at the same time. Now I'm differentiating my activities so everyone is doing their own thing at the same time.
Before I taught the whole class to write at the same time. Now I work with small groups, and individuals too.
Before I just taught, never really thinking about what my individual students already knew or needed. Now I use my assessment data to help structure my lessons.
Before I was a good teacher. Now I hope I'm a better one.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
A Look Back at My Year in Australia
In 2009 I spent the year teaching in Melbourne, Australia. For me, spending the year working and living in Australia was a way to mix up things in my life. It was an interesting year for me because while I had seventeen years of teaching experience, I felt like a first year teacher all over again. The systems were different, the rules were different, and the structures were different. But the kids, the kids were the same. One thing that I know, no matter where in the world you are, six and seven year olds are six and seven year olds. Some of the biggest differences I noticed included how the day was scheduled, the number of meetings I attended in a week, the amount of administration/leadership roles, the amount of technology available to me, and how I was expected to teach.
The day was structured around five one hour sessions per day. There were two sessions before recess, a thirty minute recess, two after recess, a one hour lunch break (15 min for eating followed by 45 min for playing), and one session after lunch. It was expected that my first two sessions per day were reading, followed by writing. Maths was typically session three. The remaining sessions of the day were left for "topics", school wide buddies, school wide assembly, and my specialists - library, art, and p.e.
I must admit I loved the two hours of structured literacy time in the morning. I could actually get a lot of reading and writing done in that time. Here in Canada I *typically have approx. 97 min before recess (15 min) and I find the time flies so quickly that as much as I have a great structure to cover a lot of reading and writing, it's really tough to fit it all in. I *typically have 90 min between recess and lunch, and 114 minutes after lunch. At lunch time my students go out to play first for 25 min, then come in and eat for 15 min, before we start the afternoon lessons.
While in Australia I also loved the 180 min a week I had for planning/prepping lessons. My students had p.e. for one hour a week, art for one hour a week, and library for one hour a week. Here in Canada I have 100 min a week for planning/prepping lessons. My students have two 30 min music sessions per week, and one 40 min library block per week.
What I didn't like was all the after school meetings we had. Most weeks we had a meeting Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday after school. Tuesday was typically a staff meeting, Wednesday I attended either professional development type meeting with the entire staff or a Welfare meeting with a quarter of the staff, and Thursday the year 1/2 team met. During the 1/2 meeting I had to share what I learned at the welfare meeting while others on my team shared what they learned at their Wednesday meetings. To me it was completely crazy how many meetings we had. At times I felt like I was meeting to talk about why I was meeting, so that we could plan a meeting, to meet. In Canada I typically have one staff meeting a month, and one primary meeting every six or so weeks. Most of our communication is done via on line weekly messages from the principal, or through our on line conference. Of course we meet when there is a need but we don't meet for the sake of meeting. There is always a purpose to our meetings. In Australia, I did like that the 1/2 team met regularly and if we had used the time to actually discuss what we were doing in our classes and plan together the meetings would have been great. But they didn't really work that way, and they became more about keeping us in a meeting for the required amount of time than actually using the time wisely. In Canada, while we meet as a primary staff far less often, when we meet we have an agenda, and we get a lot accomplished. Maybe it's a difference between Canadians and Australians, or maybe it was just the school that I was in, but those Aussie meetings sure did suck a lot of my time.
Another big difference that I saw between my school here in Canada, and my school in Australia was the amount of people involved at the leadership level. Here in Canada I teach at a school of 500+ students. We have a full time principal, and a part time vice principal. That's it, that's the leadership team. In Australia I taught in a school of around 300 students. We had a full time principal, a full time assistant principal, and the equivalent of 2.5 teachers removed from the classroom each week to fill a leadership role in the school. The leadership team met on Mondays, so they had meetings four of five afternoons a week. I'm not really sure what they met about though because I have to say with that many people trying to lead a school there seemed to be a lot of confusion of who was doing what.
The level of technology was also quite different for me in Australia. My Australian school had an interactive white board (IWB) in every classroom. Yes, every single classroom had an interactive white board. When I left for Australia my school had NO interactive white boards. That's right, none. When I returned we had one in our school lab, and we got it because we donated space to a program and in turn they purchased the IWB for us. Last year the school purchased a second portable IWB. So now we have two IWBs in our school (and the portable one just happens to be stored in my classroom). My Australian school also had a bank of 15 computers in the library which could be booked out, and we (the 1/2 team) shared eight computers between our four classrooms. Here in Canada I have two so so computers in my classroom. I have a 37 min time each week in our school lab (30 computers), and I can book out the class set of laptops when ever I like (assuming they are free). I'm also housing four really old ibooks (the board wanted to take them away when they were being upgraded but I wanted to keep them for my students and so far I've been able to keep them).
Finally the biggest difference I noticed between my Australian school and my Canadian school was what I was expected to do. In my Canadian school we are given a lot of freedom to cover our required curriculum. In my Australian school I was expected to do a lot of things, whether I believed they were educationally sound or not. Thankfully a lot of what was imposed on the teachers the year I was there were things I had already introduced myself because they were things I was already doing in Canada. For example in my Melbourne school I was mandated to have a class library (which was so strange to me that there weren't any books when I arrived in my 1/2 classroom). I was mandated to have a class word wall word (again, some thing I had already set up upon my arrival to Australia since mine is an integral part of my classroom in Canada). I was also mandated to have just right book packages for each of my students (again something I implemented when I arrived because I felt they were so valuable in my classroom in Canada). It was expected that I had reading, writing, and math guided sessions each and every day. As it turned out I had five reading, five writing, and five maths groups running all year long. It was crazy insane for me as I had way less resources than I was used to in my classroom in Canada (I left my personal and professional resources for my exchange teacher but I was left very little), and the other teachers at my grade level were so busy with their own students needs that little was shared between us. That part of the exchange really sucked because I actually worked with a couple of really fantastic teachers, and we could have accomplished so much more if we had utilized our team meetings to our advantage. There were many other things that I was expected to do to cover the required Australian curriculm. And I was expected to do what the others were doing. Here in Canada, while I work with two other grade one teachers, we all do our own thing. We all let our strengths shine through in our teaching so while each grade one class is doing something different, we are all doing great things with our students. In Australia, I couldn't do many of the things I wanted to do because we all had to do the same things.
For those of you that have only taught in one school system I'm hoping as you read this post you are starting to compare the system you know, with the ones that I've gotten to know. I'm really curious to hear how your day is set up. What is your leadership team like? How many minutes a week are you given to plan/prep your lessons while your students are being taught by someone else? What type of technology do you have access to? Are you expected to teach a specific way or with a specific program? I'm curious to know.
*This year our recess had to be changed to allow member of the school board to arrive at our school to cover recess supervision as we, the teachers, are in job action.
The day was structured around five one hour sessions per day. There were two sessions before recess, a thirty minute recess, two after recess, a one hour lunch break (15 min for eating followed by 45 min for playing), and one session after lunch. It was expected that my first two sessions per day were reading, followed by writing. Maths was typically session three. The remaining sessions of the day were left for "topics", school wide buddies, school wide assembly, and my specialists - library, art, and p.e.
I must admit I loved the two hours of structured literacy time in the morning. I could actually get a lot of reading and writing done in that time. Here in Canada I *typically have approx. 97 min before recess (15 min) and I find the time flies so quickly that as much as I have a great structure to cover a lot of reading and writing, it's really tough to fit it all in. I *typically have 90 min between recess and lunch, and 114 minutes after lunch. At lunch time my students go out to play first for 25 min, then come in and eat for 15 min, before we start the afternoon lessons.
While in Australia I also loved the 180 min a week I had for planning/prepping lessons. My students had p.e. for one hour a week, art for one hour a week, and library for one hour a week. Here in Canada I have 100 min a week for planning/prepping lessons. My students have two 30 min music sessions per week, and one 40 min library block per week.
What I didn't like was all the after school meetings we had. Most weeks we had a meeting Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday after school. Tuesday was typically a staff meeting, Wednesday I attended either professional development type meeting with the entire staff or a Welfare meeting with a quarter of the staff, and Thursday the year 1/2 team met. During the 1/2 meeting I had to share what I learned at the welfare meeting while others on my team shared what they learned at their Wednesday meetings. To me it was completely crazy how many meetings we had. At times I felt like I was meeting to talk about why I was meeting, so that we could plan a meeting, to meet. In Canada I typically have one staff meeting a month, and one primary meeting every six or so weeks. Most of our communication is done via on line weekly messages from the principal, or through our on line conference. Of course we meet when there is a need but we don't meet for the sake of meeting. There is always a purpose to our meetings. In Australia, I did like that the 1/2 team met regularly and if we had used the time to actually discuss what we were doing in our classes and plan together the meetings would have been great. But they didn't really work that way, and they became more about keeping us in a meeting for the required amount of time than actually using the time wisely. In Canada, while we meet as a primary staff far less often, when we meet we have an agenda, and we get a lot accomplished. Maybe it's a difference between Canadians and Australians, or maybe it was just the school that I was in, but those Aussie meetings sure did suck a lot of my time.
Another big difference that I saw between my school here in Canada, and my school in Australia was the amount of people involved at the leadership level. Here in Canada I teach at a school of 500+ students. We have a full time principal, and a part time vice principal. That's it, that's the leadership team. In Australia I taught in a school of around 300 students. We had a full time principal, a full time assistant principal, and the equivalent of 2.5 teachers removed from the classroom each week to fill a leadership role in the school. The leadership team met on Mondays, so they had meetings four of five afternoons a week. I'm not really sure what they met about though because I have to say with that many people trying to lead a school there seemed to be a lot of confusion of who was doing what.
The level of technology was also quite different for me in Australia. My Australian school had an interactive white board (IWB) in every classroom. Yes, every single classroom had an interactive white board. When I left for Australia my school had NO interactive white boards. That's right, none. When I returned we had one in our school lab, and we got it because we donated space to a program and in turn they purchased the IWB for us. Last year the school purchased a second portable IWB. So now we have two IWBs in our school (and the portable one just happens to be stored in my classroom). My Australian school also had a bank of 15 computers in the library which could be booked out, and we (the 1/2 team) shared eight computers between our four classrooms. Here in Canada I have two so so computers in my classroom. I have a 37 min time each week in our school lab (30 computers), and I can book out the class set of laptops when ever I like (assuming they are free). I'm also housing four really old ibooks (the board wanted to take them away when they were being upgraded but I wanted to keep them for my students and so far I've been able to keep them).
Finally the biggest difference I noticed between my Australian school and my Canadian school was what I was expected to do. In my Canadian school we are given a lot of freedom to cover our required curriculum. In my Australian school I was expected to do a lot of things, whether I believed they were educationally sound or not. Thankfully a lot of what was imposed on the teachers the year I was there were things I had already introduced myself because they were things I was already doing in Canada. For example in my Melbourne school I was mandated to have a class library (which was so strange to me that there weren't any books when I arrived in my 1/2 classroom). I was mandated to have a class word wall word (again, some thing I had already set up upon my arrival to Australia since mine is an integral part of my classroom in Canada). I was also mandated to have just right book packages for each of my students (again something I implemented when I arrived because I felt they were so valuable in my classroom in Canada). It was expected that I had reading, writing, and math guided sessions each and every day. As it turned out I had five reading, five writing, and five maths groups running all year long. It was crazy insane for me as I had way less resources than I was used to in my classroom in Canada (I left my personal and professional resources for my exchange teacher but I was left very little), and the other teachers at my grade level were so busy with their own students needs that little was shared between us. That part of the exchange really sucked because I actually worked with a couple of really fantastic teachers, and we could have accomplished so much more if we had utilized our team meetings to our advantage. There were many other things that I was expected to do to cover the required Australian curriculm. And I was expected to do what the others were doing. Here in Canada, while I work with two other grade one teachers, we all do our own thing. We all let our strengths shine through in our teaching so while each grade one class is doing something different, we are all doing great things with our students. In Australia, I couldn't do many of the things I wanted to do because we all had to do the same things.
For those of you that have only taught in one school system I'm hoping as you read this post you are starting to compare the system you know, with the ones that I've gotten to know. I'm really curious to hear how your day is set up. What is your leadership team like? How many minutes a week are you given to plan/prep your lessons while your students are being taught by someone else? What type of technology do you have access to? Are you expected to teach a specific way or with a specific program? I'm curious to know.
*This year our recess had to be changed to allow member of the school board to arrive at our school to cover recess supervision as we, the teachers, are in job action.
Monday, October 10, 2011
My Students Are Blogging!
I can't tell you how excited I am right now. This afternoon I logged onto my computer to see a request to approve a blog written by one of my students on our kidblog . I've set up a class kidblog so that every student has their own page to blog, password protected and all. Not only did they blog from home, on a long weekend here in Canada, but they even added a family photo. No sooner than I had posted a comment and approved her blog for the world to see, did I receive another e-mail letting me know that there was another blog to moderate from a second student. Then, a few minutes later a third blog from a third student.
In the past I've had a class website through our district server, but this year I took the step even further by having a class blog. Snooping around other class blogs I realized what I wanted even more was a place for my students to do their own blogging - whether they were at home or at school. Two weeks ago I gave them their individual passwords, and I showed them their individual blogs. This week we headed back to the lab to try and write on our blogs, but it was taking us forever to log on so I decided to use the time to go over internet and blogging safety. Don't worry we had already talked about it but I had a great video that I wanted to show them too. I then snuck back into the lab after school and set up a quick link to our class blog so we would no longer have trouble getting to our blogs. So this week, the plan was (is) to utilize all the computers we have access to in our school lab so that everyone could write their own first blog. I figured after that everyone would start blogging from home. We of course would (will) continue to blog from school too.
You can imagine how excited I am right now knowing that three of my students have already blogged from home. And to make things even better, after I shared this exciting news with my PLN on twitter (I love you guys) each student received three additional comments from amazing grade one teachers in other parts of the world.
My class schedule is set up so that my students have time in the day to do their own self directed writing. I know once they see the audience they have with their blogs everyone else in the class will be excited to blog too. Ideally I'd love to be able to offer a computer to anyone that would like one but my reality is I have one (possibly two) class computer(s) that they will be able to do their blogging on. Not ideal of course, but we will make it work.
I don't think I've ever been this excited to see my students after a long weekend. I am so glad I'm doing this with my class. So very, very glad.
In the past I've had a class website through our district server, but this year I took the step even further by having a class blog. Snooping around other class blogs I realized what I wanted even more was a place for my students to do their own blogging - whether they were at home or at school. Two weeks ago I gave them their individual passwords, and I showed them their individual blogs. This week we headed back to the lab to try and write on our blogs, but it was taking us forever to log on so I decided to use the time to go over internet and blogging safety. Don't worry we had already talked about it but I had a great video that I wanted to show them too. I then snuck back into the lab after school and set up a quick link to our class blog so we would no longer have trouble getting to our blogs. So this week, the plan was (is) to utilize all the computers we have access to in our school lab so that everyone could write their own first blog. I figured after that everyone would start blogging from home. We of course would (will) continue to blog from school too.
You can imagine how excited I am right now knowing that three of my students have already blogged from home. And to make things even better, after I shared this exciting news with my PLN on twitter (I love you guys) each student received three additional comments from amazing grade one teachers in other parts of the world.
My class schedule is set up so that my students have time in the day to do their own self directed writing. I know once they see the audience they have with their blogs everyone else in the class will be excited to blog too. Ideally I'd love to be able to offer a computer to anyone that would like one but my reality is I have one (possibly two) class computer(s) that they will be able to do their blogging on. Not ideal of course, but we will make it work.
I don't think I've ever been this excited to see my students after a long weekend. I am so glad I'm doing this with my class. So very, very glad.
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