I feel as though this year is just flying by.
Report cards are going to be here before I know it... like next week!
My life in and out of school has gotten into a good routine... nothing too out of the ordinary happens around here! I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.
Not only am I thinking of report cards, I'm also getting my head wrapped around this whole winter season called Christmas that will be approaching before we know it. Again this year each home room teacher in the early years will be helping their class to get something ready to perform on stage. Last year my class did a short play called "The Littlest Christmas Tree". Of course I can't do the same thing again, so I'm going to try to figure something else out. Luckily, this year I can count on the help of my colleague and put our brains together to come up with something great. But of course if anyone out there has a suggestion I'd be more than willing to listen!
This week in my social studies class we are starting to talk about Remembrance Day. I always find it hard to share something so big, and in our world, very abstract. 6 and 7 year old children aren't familiar with the reality of war. Part of me thinks that it's really important for my students to know and understand that we have things pretty good when we compare Canada to many other places around the world. The other part of me hates to have these young kids grow up so fast with the reality of life.
In the long run, Remembrance Day is in our curriculum and I will teach what is age appropriate to my students. The line is just really thin and deciding how much these little people should be exposed to can be bit of a challenge. But I'm doing my best, and I guess that's all I can really do.
Hope everyone out there has an enjoyable week!
Monday, October 29, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
SAGE
Every year in Manitoba SAGE is held. This is a day where all teachers from around the province get together to learn things in their chosen field.
This year I attended a session put on by MELIT (Manitoba Early Literacy Intervention Teacher) and I really enjoyed it. They had Regie Routman and her colleague Sandra Figueroa come to Winnipeg to speak. For those of you who have never heard of Regie Routman and are teaching writing the. You need to look up her stuff. Se has become a very well known writing guru.
Our school division has done some work with Regie's work in the past so it was really amazing to see and hear her in person. She is very passionate about what she does and it really shows in her work. She holds every child to a high standard and believes that they can achieve no matter what their label or past history with writing.
Throughout the day listening to Regie and Snadra speak my mind was racing thinking of how I can change the way that I teach writing for the better. I came away with a few things that I would like to try with my students. One such thing being to take the time and have public conferences with students so students can learn for each other. I also need and want to take the time and share and celebrate my student's learning. I know the this will take time and that's why I haven't really done it up until now but the things that will come out of sharing and celebrating should be well worth the investment of time.
If you ever get the chance to hear these ladies speak or have them in your school then count yourself lucky and enjoy! This is the first SAGE in a long time or maybe even ever that I have truly enjoyed and am excited to put some things into action!
This year I attended a session put on by MELIT (Manitoba Early Literacy Intervention Teacher) and I really enjoyed it. They had Regie Routman and her colleague Sandra Figueroa come to Winnipeg to speak. For those of you who have never heard of Regie Routman and are teaching writing the. You need to look up her stuff. Se has become a very well known writing guru.
Our school division has done some work with Regie's work in the past so it was really amazing to see and hear her in person. She is very passionate about what she does and it really shows in her work. She holds every child to a high standard and believes that they can achieve no matter what their label or past history with writing.
Throughout the day listening to Regie and Snadra speak my mind was racing thinking of how I can change the way that I teach writing for the better. I came away with a few things that I would like to try with my students. One such thing being to take the time and have public conferences with students so students can learn for each other. I also need and want to take the time and share and celebrate my student's learning. I know the this will take time and that's why I haven't really done it up until now but the things that will come out of sharing and celebrating should be well worth the investment of time.
If you ever get the chance to hear these ladies speak or have them in your school then count yourself lucky and enjoy! This is the first SAGE in a long time or maybe even ever that I have truly enjoyed and am excited to put some things into action!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Reading Help
I've always had to encourage kids to wait to help when another child gets stuck while reading until they've had time to try it out.
This summer I watched this video and got a great idea as to how I could have students wait to share their answers.
While working with a small group of readers this week I was finding that kids were interrupting each other with the correct word when thinking was still going on. In order for them to wait to help I had them hold the answer in their hand. If the kiddo who's stuck was not able to figure out the word then the other students can blow out the correct answer, similar to in the video. I'm finding that this is really working well with one of my groups in particular.
This coming week one of my goals during guided reading groups will be to have the others students work at this so each child has the opportunity to do some problem solving with words.
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