Checking up with Students' Progress

After a quick visit to Sue today, it was sooooo valuable. Sue, you are truely an amazing teacher!!!! I trialled the "timer" idea and gave one of my boys a timer and told him he was in charge of it and after every 15 minutes when the timer went off, we had to consider what we had each achieved in that time. This was a great way to "break up" long periods of independent learning, and also refocus the students back to doing tasks they had planned, if they had become distracted. So simple, but so effective!!! I haven't been getting the kids to reflect on their own achievements during the week. We've done this as a class and they all want to be more "in charge" of planning their weeks, however getting them to reflect on themselves and the week is so important. Will start putting this into the FIP's. Thanks Sue.

ideas and feedback from the Victorian teachers

what we saw today reinforces best practice.
I was impressed with how well the students can articulate learning - it was easy for them to speak about it
There was a real sense of purpose in the classes.
What was seen today was: kids who can articulate their learning, students who were ontask, children explaining the trust cards, etc...no-one mucking around!
Open and flexible spaces - going from private to public teaching. This is beginnign to happen in Australia, but seen here today.
What is the next small step in having student input into curriculum content?
name suggestion - Open Air Learning!

Athletic Champs

Well done to Nathan and Ben on their performance in the athletic sports. Our champions received trophies for their outstanding ability in running and high jump.

Goals for next year - Writing

Catering for diverse needs - this is our major focus of next year when it comes to grouping and teaching. We are still weak in this aspect and has significant 5/15 numbers of teacher still in the little to some evident quadrants. There was major shift in the other quandrants and we need to celebrate this.

Workshops and independent tasks.

This term our workshops have been running better because the rest of the class were set up better with their work. I made sure they had specific and explicit instructions of what to do when I am with a group. Although it is still their choice of WHAT to do, they are more clear of HOW to do it, e.g quality. Having the children choose their workshops, based on their area of interest or specific need meant they were excited about going to the workshops, as well as doing their independent tasks. A happy little literacy block...yay!

Booklets

My class use a booklet to track their personal priorities during the day - we set it up in the morning, with them setting a specific achievement goal for the day, and then listing their due dates, other commitments, groups they'll be in and other priorities. It sounds like a lot but it's quite easy to manage as they generally know ahead of time what they plan to do. I was wondering if/how others record what the children are working on during the day.

:)

Independence and time management

I find that prioritising and time management can be very hard for some of the children in my class (especially since some lack a sense of time and anything longer than 5 minutes may as well be hours). For these kids I help to list ‘must dos’ in priority order. However, they will usually only get through one task (and only in the last 5 minutes of the session) and never have any time to get to choose ‘can dos’. They recognise that they are missing out on getting to choose, but can’t plan ahead enough to complete their work. The only way I’ve found to work is to have them working close to me so they think I’m keeping tabs on them.

What are some strategies you have with helping children manage their time and work independently?