Hi!
Today was my first day in Linda and Danes’ P/1/2 class at Northcote Primary School. My blog for today is going to be in a more informal form as there was so much to write about that I just wrote it all in bullet form… Here are some of the notes I took throughout the day… Enjoy!
Daily Routines
§ P/1/2 all meet together on the circle in the morning, after play lunch and after lunch where they go over the schedule for the day
§ P/1 go to Dane’s side of the room and 2’s go to Linda’s
§ Once finished their work they must ask for permission before they are allowed to get their play lunch. They sit in circle and eat and then are dismissed to go out to recess (must have hat on if it’s nice out)
Behavior Management Techniques
§ Heads, shoulders, knees, hands in lapà teacher says and touches the part of her body she says and teacher copiesà gets their attention
Fun Facts
§ Call teachers by their first names
§ The other student interns name is Kellie as well (different spellings though)
Reading Groups for Literacy
§ Broke up into reading groups—mix of P/1/2—depending on where they tested in- that is what determines reading group
§ Accessing the Knowledge before readingà Guided Reading Routine
o Not allowed to open their books until told to do so
o First- looked at cover and predicted what book would be about
o Then- discuss what type of things would be written about and what types of words they might see in the book
o Next look at table of contents and discuss whether or not they thought their predictions about what the story were going to be right or not
o Go to glossary and go over terms- each student reads a word and its definition
o Then read the story
§ Groups identified by colors and each group had its own station
o Orange- guided reading with Linda
§ Reading “Desert Journal”
§ Learned about different types of deserts—lowest reading group but was level 28 on their reading scale
§ Book had small print and some of the vocabulary terms included: arid, extinction, marsupial, down (referring to insulation type of down)
o Purple- Nessy—computer program with activities related to language arts
§ Some doing identifying syllables
§ Some doing spelling
§ Students worked alone or paired up at computers (really no supervision)
§ Worked on task for the majority of the time
§ Knew how to navigate to the games they needed to play
o Brown- independent reading
§ When finished their task was to make an alternate cover for the story they read
§ Got to pick book themselves—were very quiet and engaged in their activity
o Navy Blue- finishing poster on Pool Rules—writing rules and coloring
§ Talkative
§ Wrote rules such as no diving, no running, no fighting, no swimming in spa, no going on the water fountain caterpillar…
§ Most drew this water fountain caterpillar that is at the pool where they go swimming
§ Some drew pictures of jelly fish, sharks, islands—not necessarily pool related
§ Allowed to talk while working as long as they used their inside/whisper voices
§ Brought together after about 30min and had sharing time
o Students from guided reading each shared an interesting fact that they read
o Students from pool rules showed their drawings and read their rules
o Students from independent reading showed their alternate covers
Integrated Curriculumà Toys In Motionà Physics:
§ Moving from library back into renovated room and so they did a writing activity related to the science/physics they did the previous day
§ As a class when over the following questions
o What is a force
o What is gravity
o What is friction
o Which toy worked best on the table
o What did the bubbly wrap do to the car?
o What force was being used?
o What is torque
o What forces act on a yo-yo
§ Then students were told to go back to their seats and using their best handwriting, paraphrase/respond to the questions—they could refer to the board if needed
§ Organized bookshelves- each pair got a letter or a few letters and ahd to make sure all the books in that spot had an author with that letter—if not, returned
o Very independently done and came up with a loud but good system of teamwork
General Impressions:
§ I was very impressed with this class—for as young as they were they were very well behaved and smart!
§ Teacher gives them a lot of independence but they do well with that
§ Talked to like they were adults—teacher told them that sometimes they can think things but shouldn’t say them out loud
o Gave example of wanting to boil her son in hot oil—says she thinks that when he is bad but never says it
§ Let students share their stories that weren’t necessarily related and honored them but quickly got back on topic
§ A lot of respect and a definite understanding of classroom rules and expectations
§ Students got along well and it was fun to watch the older children interact with the younger children- especially at recess
§ I couldn’t believe the level of physics they were discussing and how good of an understanding these students had of these terms! They were discussing torque and gravity and friction!
§ I was also very impressed with their writing abilities—they were good spellers and writers for 2nd graders
§ Compared to US—not many students asked for help and students did not seem to be as distracted
§ Teachers really treat students much more like adults, even at this young age
§ Great accents
§ Fun to see the different types of books and fads at school compared to US
o Stories about kangaroos, wombats and emus
o AFL and cricket
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