Week 1In my first week at MLC I have had many opportunities to be involved in the life of a teacher.
I have noticed the importance MLC has on ongoing assessment. The teacher is accountable for making it evident of what the children are learning within the classroom. A lot of documentation is taken within the prep classroom. Majority of the work that the students complete is pasted into their corresponding book of the subject. Having the different work books allows for each students work to be organised and easily accessible. This is a great source of evidence that the teacher can use to show students family members or colleague the work that the student has complete during their time at school. There are also documentation on each students level of reading. Running records are used to access each student’s individual level of reading. The students also have their own spelling list and reading words list. Each week the students are tested and given new words if required. Regular testing allows the educator to see the progress of each students' learning which then can give the educator an understand of each students individual learning need. This week I have been introduced to the schools token rewards system. The idea of this system is to reward students who are being safe, aiming high, respecting others and valuing the community. When a student has collected 10 tokens they have the opportunity to pick a reward out of the reward box. Usually when a student is seen to receive a token, the other students around them who may not be doing the "right thing", will correct their own behaviour before being directly told. For example... Ella is swinging on her chair. Henry, who is sitting next to Ella, is sitting his chair safely. The teacher may say, “Henry, I love the way you are sitting on your chair safely, here is a yellow token, well done". At this stage Ella may reposition herself more safely on the chair. From what I have observed this week, this technique has worked. Next week when I have the opportunity to take some lessons, I will have a go at using the token system. Week 2This week I had the opportunity to take the lead in a couple of sessions with a CRT. The strategies that i have used to effectively guide the students within the group was by encouraging each student throughout the lesson. In group time I would remind the students to show whole body listening. This would prompt the children to be sitting on their bottoms, eyes to the front, hands in their laps and listening ears on. Generally this strategy would gain the children's concentration again.
Once the whole class activity is over, the students go off onto an activity individually. Some of the time, the set activity requires some of the students to copy the writing of the board. I had noticed in my first week that the the students at the back table were unable to see the board without getting out of their seats. The student have the option of working on the floor if they wished. But I thought the students would find writing at their table much easier so I told the student at the back table that they can use their Ipad to take a picture of the board so that they can see the the writing better. I have also continued to complete assessment this week. My main focus of assessment of this week was to complete a form of summative assessment on 3D shapes that were covered this week. Using google sheets I created a table with each students name it it. As you can see this table shows the areas the the students got correct and the students that did not get correct. This data is going to be used for the classroom teacher to make and anecdotal record for each individual student about their knowledge of 2D and 3D shape.
Ready to teach blockWeek 4 & Week 5Over these two weeks I have planned all the lessons and implemented them. Whilst filling out the planning document for the week I referred to the statement of intent to generate learning intentions and success criteria for each lesson daily. The lessons were carefully chosen, insure that they were inclusive to all the students level of knowledge.
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In a primary school setting, an educator documents students learning through post and pre-tests. This shows the educator what the students know before a topic is taught and what they have learnt after the topic is taught. For graphing we gave the students a pretest. This required the students to tally 7 counter by colour and transfer their data to the graph provided. This data gave us an idea of what the students knew and who would need the most one on one attention. For the post test the students are given the same activity. The Educator uses the data gathered from both tests to write an anecdotal record on each student's knowledge on graphing and tallying. Other forms of summative and formative assessment is used to document students understanding of the different topics covered.
The data that the educator collects from the varies types of assessment assists the educator to plan lessons that students are able to engage with that further their understanding and challenge them to extend on what they may already know. The setup of the environment is really important. The environment needs to be inclusive to all students, in a way that they feel safe and included. An educator can do this by ensuring that students are respectful to one another in a way that they do not distract others from their work. Also students receive encouragement when they are on the right track. Students engage in the environment when they can relate to their real life. For example, for a mathematics lesson on graphing, I planned a lesson for the students to graph a bag of M & M's. Each student had their own bag of M & M's that they needed to tally and then graph the data they collected. This was great hands on activity that everyone achieved the completed stage. During my teaching block I used varies strategies to effectively guide the students in my class. Some behaviour management skills I used included hand clapping, hands on heads, 3,2,1 waterfall and hands on top that means stop. These types of techniques are used to gain students attention when needed for instruction. I believe that whilst on placement I was able teach in accordance with my personal philosophy. This was evident in the way that I formed respectful and responsive relationships with the students. This allowed for the student and I to work together to reach the learning outcomes for each session. How I met the standards on placement...PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGEStandard 1Demonstrate that they know students and how they learn.
Whilst at MLC I have noticed that all the planned lessons are very visual and a model based approach. For example in a numeracy session this week on 3D shapes started with showing the student a youTube video about the different 3D shapes there are and examples of objects in the environment that are those shapes. This help the students make connections between 3D shapes and their everyday environment. The main activity of this numeracy was for the students to take photographs of 3D and 2D shapes within the their playground. Students are most engaged when they are active in the process of their learning. Once the students took their photographs of shapes in the environment we came back together to share their findings.
Whilst on placement I was able to identify which students need their learning to be extended on, modified or challenged. I had the opportunity to complete a range of assessment on each student to gain a better understanding of each students capabilities. This assisted me in planning lessons that the students were able to complete based on their learning styles and level of understanding.Due to the varies learning needs, at times I would work with a small group on the floor with the students who need extra guidance. Standard 2Demonstrate that they know the content and how to teach it.
Whislt planning the lessons for the first two weeks of term 4, I would completes some research on ideas for the best way to present information to the studends. Aswell as researching ideas that would engage the student the most.
I also used the AusVels to assist me with the creating learning intentions and the success criteria for the students to work towards each lesson. PROFESSIONAL PRACTICEStandard 3Competence to plan for and implement effective teaching and learning.
On this practicum I have had the opportunity to plan and implement lessons in the first two weeks of term 4. This experience with planning has required me to fill out the weekly planner. The planner required me to state the learning intention and success criteria for each lesson daily. The activity chosen for the students to complete help student work towards the set learning intention and success criteria. At times the learning intention is the the same over a couple of days. This allows for student to have more time understanding the concept being taught. For example the learning intention for mathematics for one week was "We are learning to use tallies and transfer the data to graphs". This was planned for the whole wee for different activities that work the students towards the goal. The more students have to practice a concept the more likely that the students will have a clear understanding of the topic instead of the learning being squished into one session.
Standard 4Competence to create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments.
In my first week at MLC I have taken the time to introduce myself to each of the children and get to know them and get them comfortable with me. A lot of this happened during the individual testing that I completed. I believe that it gave the students the opportunity to feel more comfortable around me. This was help through the encouragement that I gave them during their testing about their achievements that they have made.
Due to the relationships formed with the students I was able to make a big emphasis on having a go at every task. It was a great opportunity to express to the students that it is okay to make mistakes and that we learn from making mistakes. Standard 5Competence to assess, provide feedback and report on student learning.
I have had the opportunity to complete some assessments on some prep children. I have completed some letter I.D assessment. This assessment involves the students to identify the correct capital and lowercase letter on the sheet in front of them. They are also required to tell the educator the corresponding sound that the letter makes. Their is a recording sheet for the tester to tick the letters they get right and left blank if they have not recited the right letter or sound. The children are continuously tested throughout the term until the child achieves 26 out of 26 letters. Through this assessment the child is also aware of letters that they can practice at home.
I have also had the opportunity to complete the Numeracy online test with a student. As a result of the assessment I was able to gain an understanding of where the child needs assistance to be able meet the standards of the Victorian Curriculum progression points of foundation level. It is also a useful tool for teachers to find areas of the students learning that they can extend and challenge. The students were also tested on the first 100 Oxford words. As a class the students were required to write the words down that the educator called out. If the students were unsure they were encouraged to sound out the word and write down the letters they hear. Once all the test were marked I entered the results into the google doc where previous results were recorded. Through this experience i was able to see the progression of each student between 2nd term and now. All students had made a improvement. It was rewarding to see. I have also had the opportunity to complete Fountas and Pinnell (F&P) benchmark testing. This is in the form of a reading running record that allows the educator to put each student in a level of reading. The test requires the students to read a leveled book out of the the F&P testing kit. As the student is reading the educator marks off the words that they got right and the words that they struggled with. Once the book has been read the educator counts up how many errors that the student has made. Each book has a certain amount of errors that they child can make, if they pass that amount of errors it shows that the book is too hard. If the student has no errors the educator will test the student on a higher level and continue the same process. There is also a comprehension component to the assessment also. The student is asked a series of questions about the book to see if the student is comprehending what they are reading. Without satisfactory comprehension the student cannot move up levels even though they may be able to read each word in the book correctly. PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENTStandard 6Engage in professional learning.
I have had the opportunity to attend all meetings after school on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. Throughout these meeting I gained an understanding about the importance of teamwork within the teaching community. It was great to see how the prep team plan together the learning intentions and success criteria. From these learning intentions the individual educators then plan their lessons in correspondence with their grades interests and needs.
Standard 7Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community.
I have had the opportunity to attend the prep Term 4 planning meeting. At MLC the Prep team work together to plan the topic to be covered each term. The team meet together one day after school at the end of term for 3 hours. Within the three hours, together they go through the investigations links grid to discuss the different focuses for the term. The focuses include reading, handwriting, numeracy, investigations, science and well-being. With the use of these focuses, together the team come up with a statement of intent about each subject.
For the statement of intent each educator uses the inquiry grid and statement of intent to plan their individual class plan. The class plan includes learning intentions and success criteria. The educator uses the learning intention to assist her with the activities that she plans for the students to engage with. |