Reading aloud

I have always loved reading. Mum tells me that I learned to read before I went to school with the help of the Dr Seuss books and I have never stopped reading since. However, I do admit that during term time I read very little due to time constraints and absolute exhaustion! 

I teach and encourage reading in school in a variety of ways. One to one reading, guided reading, reading eggs, home reading and reading journals, independent reading with reading buddies (cuddly toys which the children love!) and me reading aloud. 

Our current topic is Katie Morag and as a result we are reading almost daily during Literacy. In addition I am also reading The Angel of Nitshill Road. 

My class love me reading to them! It is the one time during the day when they are guaranteed to be quiet! I am not one for putting on different voices for different characters but I do read with expression really well. In fact I won a competition for reading aloud when I was in primary school! 

We read, we chat, we question but most of all we share the joy of reading and being read to. 

I don't always get to read every day due to the tight curriculum we teach which frustrates me but I do try to read to the children as often as possible. 

So if you do read aloud regularly I salute you! If not, why not give it ago? I truly believe encouraging and fostering a joy for reading is a gift. A gift that all children should receive. Why not be the one to give it to them?

Lifelong learning

I have always classed myself as a lifelong learner I even have the statement as part of my Twitter and Pinterest profiles. 

So what is a lifelong learner? Well the dictionary definition is: 

Lifelong learning is the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated" pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. A learning approach that can be used to define lifelong learning is heutagogy. 

 Heutagogy definition is:

Heutagogy places specific emphasis on  learning how to learn, double loop learning,universal learning opportunities, a non-linear process, and true learner self-direction. So, for example, whereas andragogy focuses on the best ways for people to learn, heutagogy also requires that educational initiatives include the improvement of people's actual learning skills themselves, learning how to learn as well as just learning a given subject itself. 

Very relevant for me because I am hugely interested in the workings of the brain and what helps us to learn. I think as we reach adulthood most of us think we have a pretty good idea of what type of learner we are or the conditions in which we prefer to learn. 

However, I do have to add that I think the way we learn and our preferred conditions for learning are always evolving. The brain isn't fixed for life so neither is the way we learn. At the grand age of 52 I am still discovering, acknowledging how I learn. Perhaps this is because back in the 70s and 80s when I was in school how children learned was not really thought about and certainly never taught. As a result I think I genuinely didn't learn, or at least retain as much as I could have. Maybe that's one of the things that led me to teaching and also leaves me, at my age with a thirst for knowledge. 

So for me everyday is a learning opportunity. Yesterday I learned all about seahorses and brown bears whilst reading to my grandson. One of the facts that I retained was that the name for seahorses eggs is fry. The reason it stuck was that I associated it with something, the phrase 'small fry' A light went on in my head, 'so that's where that phrase comes from!' Association is a good way that works for me of retaining information. 

Another way of learning and retaining information I think is 'using and applying'. This was highlighted to me after our last school inset day on MFL-German. As part of the day we were taught colours, numbers, greetings and animal names. I had learned them before and remembered the odd one but because I hadn't 'used' them since I did not remember most of them. 

My reflections on all of this as a teacher is to expose children to knowledge. Teach them, provide situations for them to discover, allow them time to apply what they learn and take into account different learning styles. 

As for Me I will keep seeking information and see each day as a learning opportunity!

A busmans holiday

Today I took my grandson to a birthday petty in a local church hall. His Mummy and Daddy were in work so it was my job to take him. It was his friends sixth birthday and the whole class had been invited. 

The party was hosted by a company called 'Full of Beans'. The invitation said comfortable clothing and so armed with Grandson dressed in jogging bottoms and trainers and gift off we went. 

The party was held in a church hall less than a mile away but although having lived in the area for over 20 years it was my first visit. I was impressed. It was a light and airy hall with a fully equipped kitchen and a dining hall. Absolutely ideal for accommodating the anticipated 30+ children and accompanying adults. 

On arrival the children were ushered into the hall and the adults were given the option of staying or leaving. I chose to stay but had decided that if my grandson was 'stilted' by my being there I would leave. As it happened he wasn't bothered one way or the other so I stayed. He is a confident boy with children and adults he knows but very shy with all other adults so the fact that he was happy to stay and really actively following all the instructions of the young man hosting the party left me the opportunity to be an observer of the whole process. 

My first observation was that some of the adults should have left, as it appeared to the seasoned eye that some of the children clung to their Mums and did not join in while some played up. Quite confident it appeared that they would 

be able to get away with a lot more than usual as their Mum would not shout in front of all of the other Mums. It really is very interesting to observe the very complex child/parent relationship. It's like a chess game where one plays the other. Having said that perhaps about 75% of the children just get on and join in. 

Another observation which was quite striking was the huge difference between the boys and girls. The girls were on the whole following the instructions to the letter while the boys were being giddy and dipping in and out. The girls were actually often reminding the boys of what they should be doing. 

My final observation was behaviour on the whole. Watching the two leaders try to organise the children and get them to follow instructions was hard work. It honestly took all of my inner strength not to employ my teacher voice and look in order to gain control. 

I think the bedlam was due several factors:

Parents being present - now if you've ever been on a class trip and taken parents you will be well aware how a normally well behaved child will suddenly push their luck. 

Giddy children - having recently hosted a class party at Christmas, were 34 relatively noisy children became an over excited explosion of noise I could empathise. 

Inexperienced organisers - the people running the party were lovely, very good and very patient with the children. However the structure of several of the activities was not condusive to calm. They also made the classic mistake of shouting over the noise and chaos when a simple signal introduced at the beginning would have resulted in a much less stressful time for them. 

I could go on but would run the risk of sounding like I was putting them down when I am genuinely not. As I said before they were great. The activities and the whole idea behind the party was brilliant. Anything that entertains 34 five and six year olds for 2 hours is not to be undermined. 

My grandson had a ball. As for me like I said a busmans holiday but I have to admit enjoyable. 

Headteacher awards

In our school we have weekly reward assembly's called head teacher awards. KS1 have theirs on a Friday morning after register and KS2 after Friday morning break.

I have always enjoyed these assemblies as it is an opportunity to see what other classes have been doing all week and to see children being rewarded for good work, working together, doing great homework etc. 

Having attended both KS1 and KS2 assemblies I have to say KS1 headteacher awards have to be my particular favourite. 

When the children in KS1 get their minute in the spotlight you can see them physically grow in height! They stand their proudly sharing what they have been doing with the rest of children. The other children all listen carefully without fuss to what the headteacher and the pupil is saying and are really pleased for their friends. 

Whereas in KS2 they still enjoy it but you can see the disinterest, cynicism and quite sadly embarrassment beginning to creep in. They are also generally a lot more fidgety and restless. 

The other thing awarded during these award assembly's is 'Star of the Week'. Awarded to one pupil from each class, each week. This differs from head teacher awards as instead of being for a specific piece of work it is for general good work, effort, improved attitude, behaviour, being kind etc. The child receiving this award gets a badge to wear and a trophy to keep on their desk for a week. They also have their photograph placed on a large display in the main entrance hall for all to see. Again for a week. 

Today during KS1 assembly I witnessed a really heart warming moment. Two boys from F2 were receiving head teacher awards for their counting in class. Whilst the headteacher was talking to the rest of the assembly about one of the boys, the other boy very quietly patted his friend on the back. He was genuinely pleased for his friend! It really was one of those real 'aaah' moments and reminded me of 'Dean Schneider's' 20th kid. 

I also sat their and thought how good our school is at awarding and recognising ALL of the children. We are a very inclusive school and ensure we recognise the achievements of everyone not just a 'chosen few' as I know some schools sadly still do. This is often in sure due to this drive for 'excellence'. However excellence doesn't come to everyone in their primary years. Some of the greatest minds, sportsmen and entrepreneurs that we have had did not 'excel' at primary school. Perhaps this was due to being late bloomers, having learning difficulties such as dyslexia etc or maybe their brand of excellence came across as eccentric, odd even. Also some people will never achieve educational excellence, yet will work their socks off, be kind and helpful, good team workers etc and we must not forget to reward these children too. 

Number 9 - running to stand still

Thursday began with maths - addition using a number line with a 4 way differentiation. I count myself lucky that today I had the help in this lesson of two adults. This left me with only supporting 4 groups instead of 6! Now I know some of the children should be able to work independently and the reality is some of them can but what I am still struggling with is that even the most able seek reassurance and attention. Something I am working on a lot at the moment is building independence but then most of them are still only 6. 

Next playground duty, followed by Literacy and the joys of common and proper nouns. A group activity which they enjoyed but was noisy to say the least! Mind you 34 six year olds and 2 adults in a class is bound to be noisy. 

At 12o'clock it was lunchtime but today I had a lunchtime meeting at 12.30. 

After lunch was my PPA. A welcome part of the week as it provides an opportunity to 'catch up' on marking, assessment, tracking, IEPs, phone calls, co-ordinator duties and hopefully planning for the following week. And all of this in two and a half hours! Needless to say I didn't get through everything but I gave it my best shot. 

After school my TA and I settled down to write replies to 34 letters. My class write a letter home to their parents every Friday  (check out my blog on Friday books). Now for some silly reason I thought it would be a good idea if they wrote a letter to my TA and I about their Christmas break! It seemed like a good idea at the time. 

But today was the realisation we had to write 34 replies. Suprisingly we got through 30 in two and a half hours after school. We made them as personal as we could and even added tips on how to improve their letters next time. 

So here we are 4 days into the new term and I am genuinely running to stand still! A state I know I share with the majority of my fellow teachers and indeed everyone involved in education. 

It's a good job for most of us it's a vocation!

A brand new Visusliser

We have had a visualiser in school for over a year and I have to admit to only using it about two or three times. This was for several reasons. 

Firstly tracking it down wasn't easy as it was often lurking at the back of someone's stock cupboard or as I once discovered in the P.E. Store. 

Secondly you often don't know you need a visualiser until you need it. 

Thirdly the visualiser we had was one of the original ones and was, like most technology, after a couple of years quite archaic. I would liken using it to looking in a mirror at the back of your head through another mirror to fix your hair (I know what I mean.) Basically it was very difficult to place the item your were trying to show in the correct place.  It was also like a satellite signal newscast with a time delay because when you moved it even slightly it would go out of focus and take at least 30 seconds to refocus. Just in time for you to decide actually you needed to move it again!

Finally it was very basic, you couldn't zoom in or out, rotate, capture, video etc.

So when our wonderful techie guy Dave, who visits school once a week, appeared in my room yesterday with a brand new all singing all dancing  visualiser I was over the moon. This visualiser has it's own remote control which means you can alter it from anywhere in the room! It is crisp and clear. You can capture images of what you are showing and then write on it. It has a video capacity, the list is endless. Apparently it can do even more once some new software is installed (hopefully next week.)

What is great about it is that after only one and a half days I have used it more than I used the last one in over a year!  We have looked at some of the pupils writing together. Looked at a map of the world, Northern Europe and the U.K. and I have demonstrated how I wanted a map annotated on it. 

How long it will last who knows but I do think that, so far, due to the variety of possible uses it has it will be here to stay,  or until the next big thing comes along. As a self confessed techie geek I love it! 

If your lucky to have a visualiser check out the link;

http://bit.ly/19egBYI

for 15 uses of visualisers in the classroom. 

Challenge day 7 - The children return!

My class returned to school today all buzzing with excitement, chattering away, catching up with their friends, just like my first day yesterday. I vowed after my inset experience to ease them back in today and their excitement was the prompt to remind me.

After a New Year assembly they were put quickly into talking partners and then were to take it in turns to share what they did and got over the Christmas break. Now taking turns and sharing are two things year 2 children do not find easy so even this tiny task had to have a clear structure. They moved their chairs so that they were sat face to face then they were named A and B. A was to talk first and B was to listen then after 5 minutes they swapped over.

As I walked around listening to them chatter happily recalling their holidays I realised that even this simple enjoyable task was a learning experience. The speaker had to choose what to share, trying to choose things that would engage the listener, the listener on the other hand had to try their best not to talk over their partner but to actually listen. The classroom was buzzing!

Maths was an active lesson, counting in 2s in both odd and even numbers. Fun and enjoyable. After lunch we began our new topic based on the Katie Morag stories which involved listening to and discussing the story, predicting what would happen next and looking at the illustrations. This was followed by looking at a large map of the U.K. With lots and lots of exploring, discussing and learning.

So all in all a good first day back with me sticking to my personal vow. The children appeared to have a relatively good day with lots of opportunities to learn.

As for me and my brilliant T.A. We are exhausted!!