Tales after two weeks of being an NE teacher

I am now two weeks into being a New Entrant teacher and what have I learned?

I am bone tired shattered at the end of each day!!  Guaranteed I will have a kip in the chair in front of the telly each night and that I will come home full on Zombie-like due to the need to be hyper-aware all day.  My old principal Bob used to say, if you are not dead on your feet on a Friday night as a teacher, then you are not doing it properly.  But I am also going to say that after seven terms as a relief teacher, I'm not match fit for full time teaching yet; I need to rebuild my stamina.

As I stated in my blog two weeks ago, It's Term Four and I'm freaking out!!!, I am going with a play based philosophy in this class due to a number of children with low oral language and the need to build relationships.  There have been times when I have felt a bit redundant or fraudulent, and consequently I've had to push myself to make interactions with the children by engaging in play myself.  This is something I will need to make myself do more: get lost in the play.

I have found that this is also useful for when I have needed to do things one-on-one with students.  They are playing and I can call up the one I need and know that (theoretically) all the others are engaged meaningfully. 

After having the equipment for two weeks, I'm finding some students are getting 'bored' and so I have held back a couple of things and I will endeavour to introduced them over the next couple of weeks to re-inject the interest in play that is waning.

But I also think I need to introduce more structured play and some literacy and numeracy activities because I'm thinking some children may be needing more of this.  How I do this is my next big challenge.

Sometimes, at certain times, I feel like the Count.  And then other times I have them in the palm of my hand.  That's teaching!!

I also have a couple of lads who are challenging me with their behaviour.  One thing I did not miss as a reliever was the feeling of constantly repeating myself to the same students day after day for pretty much the same behaviour.  I am now working with the families to be able to report back about how this behaviour is being managed and how we will change it.  That's a work in progress that could be reported on in a future blog.

We have been successful with a few key things:

• we are really good at packing up our toys and activities.
• we are getting better at asking to go out to the toilet and to put things in our bags or to get a drink.
• we are learning to read the shared big books together and do alphabet and sight words.
• we are improving with learning the days of the week.
• we all know that each hand has five fingers and thumbs and the Slavic abacus has five of one colour and five of another colour on each row and we are great at counting to 20 on the abacus.
• we are making some awesome art

We made these awesome bears below because we were focusing on the letter B.  We also went out to blow bubbles for the letter B and wrote some stories to go with the photos.

We also made bees for the letter B.  First I cut out a bee shape from yellow card.  I cut up some back strips of paper and demonstrated gluing them on.  We used PVA and we put the glue on with our fingers because I want them to learn that paint brushes and PVA do not go together.  Then I hung them up to dry over night on the netting curtains.

The next day, after I trimmed the excess stripes and caught up an absent student, we tried to PVA glue on the pipe cleaners for the legs, antennae and proboscis.  Only one child was successful at getting them all to stick.  Not even I was successful.  So the next day I worked one child at a time to hot glue the legs, antennae and proboscis on.  This was more successful.

We have since glued on wings made of gold cellophane with the hot glue gun.  I've also made a big flower on some cupboard doors and the children have made painted hand prints to make the flower a bit more 3-D and frilly.  Eventually the bees will be buzzing around the flower.  There are photos to come.

Below are the letters we have focused on so far.  I get the children to brainstorm the words with me on the board and then I do them up for our big book to practise.  This sits along side our poem for the word.

A wonderful junior room teacher I used to work with, Ruth Foulkes, always taught even the smallest students big words.  So I am not shying away from big words.  As part of the letter A this week we have watched YouTube videos of acrobats and astronauts and anteaters (did you know anteaters can climb trees?  Neither did I until this week!).

For the letter A we had a big focus on "A for Apple".  I went to New World and purchased five different varieties of apples (which all cost differing amounts) and we spent some time looking at the apples and talking about what they looked like.

Then we sketched the apple with our pencils.  We talked about what colour crayons we would need and we coloured our apples in.

Full disclosure:  this was my picture.

I'm fairly pleased with our first go at observational drawing.

Before Morning Tea we sat down and ate the apples.  I cut them up so that we could all try each variety and see if there were differences and similarities.  We did discover some were more sour or tart than others.

After Morning Tea we made apples out of the lower case 'a'.  I got this idea off Pinterest from a Letter of the Week blog.

This one is mine.  I will do all the activities.  I always have.

This activity got them to focus on listening to and following instructions, looking at models, and the fine motor skills of putting on glue and gluing things down.  Learning how to put glue around the outside and then a cross across the middle is still a work in progress, but we are making progress.  Somethings these small skills are actually the biggest gifts we give our littlest learners - and that does not come through on a National Standard.

I'm going to love these going up on our wall.  Watch out in the next couple of weeks for a blog about our classroom environment.

Day Two of being a New Entrant teacher - some early learnings

So I've only been a New Entrant teacher for two days, but I have some early learnings I thought I should reflect on while I remember to do it. 

• You are hyper aware all the time and need to watch what is happening because things change quickly and it can all blow up (not badly - yet - because we've seen it coming).  Consequently you are really tired at the end of the day.
• I need to remember to wipe the tables down after morning tea and lunch eating time (spillage!) and keep a supply of spoons in the class for the kids who forget their spoon for their yoghurt.
• Some children are more happy to talk than others.
• While the child may have been ok on day one, reality sets in on day two and the tears flow - hence I spent 20 minutes having a cuddle with a little girl this morning until she felt she could get back into the flow.
• It is important to do things like drawing side by side with the children.  This morning we had a session with the St John Ambulance educator and I wanted the children to draw a picture about it.  Some were not keen, so it took a bit of talking to get them started and sitting down to draw with them.

• Get them to tell you the story of their picture as soon as possible after drawing it before they invent a new story because they forgot the story!
• Some kids will not try because they are not experts - so this morning I had a chat with one wee boy about how much he has learnt already during his long five years of life (talking, walking, toileting, getting his own drink of water, etc), and while he thinks he is not good at something, we will end each statement with a YET - I also told him I am still learning how to do somethings too.
• Packing up takes a long time - and the more stuff you play with the longer it takes to tidy up.
• Printers hate the new person on staff.
• You can not get everything sorted for the first week and you need to take it slow and add the achievable in each day, building up what you can do (hence doing the calendar and number work on the board).
• I can not draw gorillas, rats or zebras.  The evidence is below.

I am however really thrilled we got a piece of work finished today to go on the walls, after a failed attempt yesterday to draw a picture of ourselves (back to the drawing board on that one).  So these pictures and stories went up on the wall this afternoon.  I hope they kids like seeing them tomorrow.

This little guy is my resident artist!!  He gives me pictures everyday!!

This wee girl is only on her second day at school, and she's a sharp we thing for the details.

As the teacher, you have to lead by example!

Don't they look cute dressed up as paramedics?

It's Term Four and I'm freaking out!!!

Tomorrow I am doing something I have never ever done before and I am freaking out!!!

I am opening a New Entrant class tomorrow.

I've never ever taught a New Entrant class before (except as a reliever) let alone started one!  So I am on a big as learning curve - and hence I am freaking out.

I am doing this because I needed to get outside my comfort zone and try something else and grow as a teacher.  I've taught mostly Year 3-8 students because they fitted my personal philosophy of being able to tie their own shoe laces and pack their own school bags.  So teaching five year olds, brand new ones, will be a challenge.  The first big challenge is giving them enough time to tidy up, pack their bags and get their shoes on at the end of the day to get on the bus and cover their mouth when they cough and sneeze; something I need a "must improve" on.

Term Four is also ideal because many schools find that they need to open a new room and so it seemed like the right thing to do.  The school I am going to knows me as a reliever and I really like the students and staff at the school, so I was very comfortable in applying because I knew the atmosphere I would be in for this very busy term.  I'm also in the class right next to the other NE class with a very experienced teacher.

I know some of the students already which I will be teaching, having relieved in the existing class for a few days recently.  But at least half the class are new enrollments early in Term Four, including a very special needs child - another challenge for me and the support staff.

Looking at the children I will be receiving from the existing class and the data already assessed, oral language is a challenge for them.  So apart from building relationships, growing their oral language will be my focus before reading and writing will be.  To grow their oral language and develop the relationships, I am running the class with a play-based philosophy.

I wrote this in the blog post ULearn16: Breakout Three - Research and Inquiry Symposium: Play and Creativity last year:

Play-based learning is defined by Wikipedia as:

Learning through play is a term used in education and psychology to describe how a child can learn to make sense of the world around them. Through play children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.

I strongly believe in the benefits of play-based learning in the early years of school, especially for oral language and the soft skills of problem solving, working with others, creativity and so on.  My thoughts have their roots in how I learnt as a child, starting school in late 1978, with the influences of Beeby, Tovey and Richardson still ringing in the ears of my teachers in my primary school years.

Lucky for me, the principal and deputy principal who interviewed me for the the position were happy for me to run a play-based philosophy and want me to treat this class like it is the first day of the year to develop the relationships.  I'm really grateful for that, because you can not start learning programmes and expect them to run effectively if you do not have the relationships established.  And part of that is routine as well.

So the exciting thing about starting a new class is setting it up.  And I have been able to go and buy some resources to do this play-based learning thing.  So I did a reccy around K-Mart, took photos of everything I thought might be appropriate, went back and listed it all out with prices to check I was within budget and then took one of my best mates shopping.  She just happens to be an amazing New Entrant teacher with the most amazing play-based classroom set up you have ever seen.  Now mine will be no where near the standard Louise has set for a play-based class, but her insights into the mind and behaviour of a five year old were invaluable.  She even took me to her favourite $2 shop which does "teacher hours" (it's open until 6:00pm each day) which was packed to the gunnels with stuff.  Below is what I bought:

I had to stack it all up on the freezer so I could go over to my lock up, go through my resources for what could be used in a New Entrant class, and pile it all into the car. 

Most of the things I brought are wooden.  I choose wooden toys for several reasons.  Firstly, durability.  Students have a tendency of breaking things.  I'm hoping wooden toys will withstand the use better - and Louise assures me they will.  Secondly, we just have too much plastic in our lives, and I was introduced, by Louise, to the concept of Reggio Emilia which emphasises are more natural approach.  This is the definition found on Wikipedia:

The Reggio Emilia approach is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It is a pedagogy described as student-centered and constructivist that utilizes self-directed, experiential learning in relationship-driven environments. The program is based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery through a self-guided curriculum. At its core is an assumption that children form their own personality during early years of development and are endowed with "a hundred languages", through which they can express their ideas. The aim of the Reggio approach is to teach how to use these symbolic languages (e.g., painting, sculpting, drama) in everyday life. It was developed after World War II by psychologist Loris Malaguzzi and parents in the villages around Reggio Emilia, Italy, and derives its name from the city.

As you can see, Reggio Emilia fits in well with the concept of play-based learning.  And so I will be exploring both of these teaching/learning styles over the coming term and learning about how this impacts on my practice as well as the development of relationships between myself and the students and between the students, and how the relationships improve oral language and subsequent learning.  So lots of learning all round for me and the children!!

This is the classroom before I started setting everything up:

Yep, it's one of those panoramic 360o photos where I pivot around to give you the full effect.

My set up was all about finding homes for my things and putting some bits and pieces up on the walls and sorting out the things I splurged on at K-Mart.  I then rearranged some furniture.

The top shelf shows a few of the things I purchased that were not wood.  The cooking set on the left is made of tin.  The cash register is plastic and so is the fruit and veg in the container on the right.

The bottom shelf has several different toys: a floor puzzle with the alphabet; a magnetic fishing game for motor skill development; a magnetic dress-up doll; and magnetic shapes that build things.

I love the car transporter!  I'm also fairly in love with the fire truck, tractor, truck, castle set up and the farm set!

I am really excited about the train set in this container.  I purchased the city version, but I am tempted to go buy the farm version too.  Maybe after a pay day.

I've always wanted a marble run set.  So this is the other bit of plastic I splurged on. 

The containers in the above picture were all purchased at The Warehouse over the last ten years and I have found them to be really good for various activities and storage requirements.

But I do not think this room is truly set up yet.  I need the children in it to try it out for size and it will be rearranged again to suit them and I and the learning we will do.  Also, a significant portion of the class has been set aside for the special needs student.  His needs are very much different from the average five year old.

I'll be reaching out to my PLN (personal learning network) over the next few weeks to check in and ask questions and I will be blogging about the challenges and the learning and successes I may be experiencing.  It's kind of like being a beginning teacher all over again.

Anyhow, it's getting very late and I want to be up super early to get there and start the day tomorrow!!  I'm freaking out and no one ever sleeps well the night before the start of term, especially when it is a new class!!

Behaviour management - the making or the breaking of a class.

Behaviour management - it makes or breaks a class environment and affects relationships and learning progress if you do not get it right.  Every class is different.  Every class has a different key that the teacher needs to find with the students to create the effective classroom environment to foster relationships and learning.

Over the years I have used a variety of systems. 

One school I was at I used the tried and true points system.  I had my class divided up into 4-6 groups (depending on numbers) to earn the points.  It had the advantage of ready made teams for fitness and sports as well.  I dished out points for having all their chairs down before the morning bell, being in class before I was after any bell, bringing completed homework back, winning students in maths games, being ready to listen, participation.... you name it, it had the potential to earn points.

Other schools had students in houses, so I used that to give out points.

Then there is the classic smiley face/sad face name on the board for positives and negatives.

I had CBGs (Caught Being Good cards) that I dished out to one class in order to keep a positive vibe going and so I didn't develop permanent frown lines.

Some classes I did not need to bribe students/give out points.  The evil eye and the phrase "I'm very disappointed..." was enough to do the damage.  In another class I had, students would hold my hand while I was on duty to pay back their time to me.

 



Over the years I have been to a number of behaviour management and class climate courses.  I believe this should be a must do for every teacher ever 2-3 years because we can get stale and 'forget' strategies if we haven't used them in a while.  I've particularly enjoyed the courses I went to by Bill Rogers (assertive discipline) and Lynley Russek (more classroom management techniques) and have used their techniques over a number of years. 

But there is always new tricks an established teacher can learn, and I am currently in the middle of a steep learning curve.

I took over an established class a few weeks ago.  There has been a lot of firsts for me in the last few weeks, and at times it has been overwhelming.  Firstly, I am teaching for the first time at a big town school - a huge adjustment after mostly teaching at small country schools with less than 120 students.  I'm working in a syndicate, which I am still working out how this works.  The planning is different.  The way staff meetings are run is different.  The daily timetable is different.  The methods of communication is different.  The behaviour management system is different.

This school follows the virtues model.  It is actually something that I am excited to learn about.  I was first introduced to the concept at an introductory workshop many years ago that my principal sent me to in order to find out about it and report back.  Zoom forward many years and I wanted to go through many of these virtues with my with a Year 5-8 class using a fabulous book by Peter Millet, The Anzac Biscuit Man.  So the actual virtues themselves are not unfamiliar, but the implementation of using them in a behaviour management system is.  It is like learning a whole new language.

And that is the part I have struggled with the most, the discourse of how to speak the language of the virtues.  For the senior leadership team (principal down to team leaders) this language flows freely from their tongue as they support me as a beginner to this way of speaking.  They use the virtues as the basis for restorative conversations between students and between individual teachers and students.

I have struggled with establishing the classroom environment with this group of students.  The majority of students are keen and ready to learn, but there is a group who struggle to manage their own behaviour and have not been responding to the positive measures I have been implementing.  And because I am still learning the discourse of the virtues, because these children are testing my boundaries for reactions, I am not connecting well with these students; I have not found the key.

So here I will describe what I am attempting to implement:

I have inherited a class metaphor.  This was new to me.  Each class at the school has their own metaphor which links in with targeted virtues, and there are some really creative ones to inspire the students to develop class unity.  My class metaphor was established two teachers ago, and I thought it was best to stick with it and not reinvent the wheel.

The metaphor is: We are shining our virtues to become award winning stars.  

It uses Hollywood/movies as the theme.  My class leaders are called Assistant Directors (I guess that makes me the director) and they sit on camp chairs (reminiscent of director's chairs).  Oscar (as in the highest award for films) is like the class mascot with the following virtues attributed like an acrostic poem:

Orderliness
Self-Discipline
Cleanliness
Accountability
Respect

I've divided the class into four groups, the Grammys, the Oscars, the Baftas and the Golden Globes.  I have Tuis (named after the NZ Music Awards, and instead of CBGs) to hand out as positive reinforcements.  At the end of the day the students hand these back in with their names written on the back.  Each Tui earns the student 10 points for their group and is another chance to have their name drawn out on Thursday afternoon for a treat (highlighters, mini pads, coloured pencils, pens and pencils...).  Groups can also earn points for actions like being the first ready with books and equipment, showing they are listening, great group work, having their chairs down.

All of the group points added together will go towards the class goal, currently set at 10,000 points, and then a higher total like 20,000 once we reach that to move forward.  The whole class gets a reward.  This time round it is likely to be a sport of their choice.  In the past I have also used a movie afternoon, trip to the pools, Easter eggs, board games afternoon....

That was the easy part to implement.  The majority of the students are receptive and are working hard to earn Tuis and points for their groups.

The school also has Virtue Cards.  Teachers (and class leaders I think) give these cards out as reinforcements and rewards for the virtues they see demonstrated by students or are promoting.  The student then takes it home for the parents to acknowledge and sign before bringing it back to school and posting in the Virtues Box at the office in the hopes of being drawn out at Assembly for a special prize.

It's taken me a couple of weeks to get my head around the Virtue Cards, but I have now made it part of the daily expectations to reinforce the behaviours I want to see in my class.

But what happens with the negative behaviours?  This is where I have really struggled because the feel of the school is for those positive restorative conversations, but how to you convey the gravity of the impacts of continued negative behaviours to the students who frequently fail to demonstrate their self-discipline and respect without stepping over the mark, in a way that is effective?  I was not happy, my students were not happy. 

I sat down with my team leader and the AP early last week and nutted out what this part would look like.  What was helpful was knowing that the team leader also had to put in the hard yards at the beginning of the year when she was new to the school.  I've since had the opportunity to observe in her classroom and her hard work at the beginning of the year has certainly paid off. 

I took the expectations back to the class and explained it.  Essentially it boils down to me explaining the virtues I expect to see as we learn during the day.  If I see a student who is disruptive or off task or loud I give them a verbal reminder of the virtue they need to exhibit, e.g. Bob, please demonstrate the virtue of peacefulness (translated: Bob, stop being so loud).  I check back to see that Bob is now quietly working.  If Bob is not quietly working, I write Bob's name on the board along with the virtue they need to practice.  If Bob continues to not use his virtues, he owes the teacher, me, time in his next break.  During this time I get Bob to write out the Kawa of the school as many times as his name ended up beside a virtue on the board.  For repeated behaviour through the day, Bob can be referred to the Virtues Help Room where he has the chance to discuss his behaviour and how he can make better choices and a restorative conversation and/or to the team leader or AP for a restorative conversation, and this could result in home being contacted. 

So I began doing this.  But I had students who continually demonstrated that they were unable to manage their own behaviour.  It was becoming somewhat overwhelming and on Monday I was so disturbed by my inability to do any teaching and the frustration of the other students I removed a repeat offender from the class to the team leader's room - where another AP was releasing her for the block!  Mortifying!

But he was just as supportive as the other AP, modelling restorative conversations, some advice on how to utilise the Virtues Cards and discussing how the SLT (principal included) can support me as the teacher and these students to achieve a sustainable outcome.  This is still a work in progress, but the next day was a better day.  The students know the consequences and I am no longer getting howls of despair when I follow through.

In writing this post, I came across this meme below, which pretty much sums up the learning curve I am going through in learning the language of the virtues.

Learning the language of the virtues and establishing the climate of my class with me as the teacher is still a work in progress.  After watching the team leader with her class I was in awe.  But I have had classes like that too, and I know I'm going to have to work hard to get this current class to the standard I've had previously in behaviour and self-management.

So bring it on and let the learning continue.... and may I always remember these wise words below:

New school, new room, new class, new kids....

At the end of last year I had to make a big decision.  My job I'd been in for two years, with a group of children I had become extremely attached to, was being downsized due to the roll.  I would only be 0.5, and that really wasn't enough to pay the bills.

So I hopped back on the job application round about again, and was offered a new job.  The new job was fifty minutes away on the other side of the district.  Instead of teaching Years 5-8, I'd be teaching Years 4-8.  Instead of having eight desktops and ten laptops available to the children there would be four desktops and four I-Pads.  Instead of a SmartBoard it was going to be an ActivBoard.  I'd have roughly the same amount of kids (more girls though), with some special needs kids and a full time ORRs teacher aide.

After two years teaching more with a contract style of programme, I've returned to what I used to do: a very structured programme.  It kind of looks like this:

• Newsboard - current events and oral language and thinking skills
• Poetry - poem of the week, focusing each day on a different language feature and thinking skill.
• Reading Tumble (the kids do this while I take guided reading) - word study, punctuation/editing activities, handwriting, some other fun activities that involve reading and writing or oral language.
• Writing - I model and waah on about language features and capturing the readers' attention and they go write using that stuff.
• Mathematics - I'm still getting my groups up and running.
• Silent/Partner Reading - read silently for ten minutes from their Fluency Boxes and then they read to a partner for five minutes and vice versa.
• Fitness - get them out for a heart beating activity.
• Swimming - getting in the pool as much as possible and sometimes I get in too, the bonus of having a teacher aide with me!
• And then I try to fit in some Te Reo Maori, Art, Topic and singing in where I can.

It is all going good so far.  I've got the literacy rolling nicely, but am still getting the timing right and I am still in launch phase with how the numeracy will run.  The topic has yet to fully launch due to the amount of time swimming takes up.

One thing I'm pleased with, although the kids don't appreciate it yet so much, is the silent/partner reading.  I am trying to improve their fluency through mileage.  They think it is tiresome, but I'm thinking it may be time to change their books - one box a day - this week.  I'm sure eventually they will see the benefits of this reading time.

I'm still getting my head around the ActivBoard and I-Pads.  But I'll get there.  The best thing is that the ORRs child is also trying to fit in with some of the activities the rest of the class does, and my other special needs students are beginning to pick up the routines and have a degree of independence. 

A good gauge of how the class programme is going is the feedback you get from your teacher aide... and so far this has been fairly good.  But one of my challenges is to make sure she is just as engaged in the learning as the children, so she has job satisfaction too.

So far parents are happy with the Homework programme I have instituted.  Some kids were rather slack the first week, and I did the "if I spend the time preparing it you will do it" speech.  I've also had meetings with parents of the students I have concerns about.  I'm trying to encourage parents to feel welcome in the room, to be able to join in with activities and check in with their child's learning regularly.

So we have had six weeks so far.... and while I'm flavour of the month now, I'm just hoping that by taking time to set up a solid programme it will pay dividends later on.