The photographs above are of two areas in my classroom, they were both taken in September last year. The first is my Maths board. As you can see my border consists of different mathematical instruments, I bought these reduced to €1 in Star school supplies. The graph was created by a student teacher in my class at the time. It was very interactive and the children changed the data on it regularly.
The second is my library corner. This photograph was taken at the end of the day and it is easy to see that it has been used by the children. At first I would always be down tidying it trying to keep it looking is best but I soon realised the children were not bothered about this. They loved getting a chance to sit in the library. They would choose a book and sit themselves down on the armchair. They would then snuggle with a teddy and cover themselves with a fleece blanket. They loved the comfort and it really helped to develop good reading habits. They would often talk about what cosy spot they had found at home to read their books. My point is that you can give yourself unrealistic expectations of how your classroom should be. It is not a sign of your teaching ability. It should be somewhere to display the children's work and some key areas of each subject. You will soon find out that it should be ever changing to suit what the children are doing at the time. Looking at Pinterest I can see why teachers feel the need to go to IKEA and turn creates into stools for their reading area and why they feel the need to have a classroom that looks like it should be a magazine! Your classroom is an ongoing project and it is unfair for people to feel that it must be a work of art. So take a minute to look around your room and decide what you want your room to be like!
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I had a large press at the bottom of my classroom so I decided that this would be the perfect place to put a behaviour chart. We started this at Christmas. I made a large chimney using card and cotton wool and gave each group a Santa figure which they coloured in. The aim was to get Santa to travel up the chimney and back down again. When Santa reached the bottom of the chimney the group could choose between time for a specific activity (e.g. 10 mins to play Lego, to sit at the writing table, to use the large shovels when gardening) or they could do a lucky dip with some prizes in the prize box.
The fact that the group had to choose one activity was really great to watch. They would gather in a huddle and vote on which they wanted to choose. There were no arguments, which was surprising and it helped the children to work together when making other decisions. After Christmas, we discussed what our next display and rewards would be and the children agreed they wanted to use something similar to the Santa display. They worked in small groups and wrote down all of their ideas, which we discussed as a class and voted for our favourite. The display that we chose was similar to the one pictured above (found on Pinterest) and each group had a different colour owl. The children really enjoyed this and were delighted with how it turned out. The final behaviour display that we used was designed by a student in the class. Each group was given a superhero and the backdrop was similar to a New York skyline. It was very impressive when it was up and the children really felt ownership of it. Rewards Prize box: This usually contains a selection of pencils, erasers, bouncy balls etc. This year I bought the Mol an Óige "Back to School" pack which will be a great starter. Passes: I give these and other similar passes. A Gardening Pass allows students to choose what job/tool they would like to use first, a Lego pass allows the student 10 minutes LEGO time while a Writer's Table Pass allows children 10 minutes at the writer's table - this is free writing time. Sometimes if a student was really exceptional during a lesson or did something very kind, I would put a pass under his desk while he was on break. When they arrive back to class I tell the students that someone had earned a pass and they check under their desks. They are usually excited checking if they had won. When the winner finds the pass, the rest of the class cheer and often give him a pat on the back!! When i started out with my first class I thought one behaviour management strategy should fit all. However I soon found out that this was not the case, the strategy has to suit your class but also yourself. Behaviour management is key to a smooth running classroom. I find that boys really need immediate rewards or sanctions and that is how i have chosen my behaviour management strategies.
It is worthwhile to send a note home to parents at the start of the year to explain your chosen strategy. This especially helps when sending home the children's percentage score in ClassDojo. Over the next few days I will upload a selection of different useful strategies. ClassDojo: This is a brilliant free resource that has grown and developed over the years. It can be used for individual or group resources, I have used it for both. The website is fantastic and has some great teacher resources where you can watch tutorials and download a Professional development pack that you can use show other members of staff. It allows you to choose the headings under which children can earn points. The focus is on the positive behaviour, even if you choose to take points away for poor behaviour. It also allows you to send home a code for the parents and students to log on and check their progress. This has both it's up and down sides. I would advise you to use it without sending the log in codes first and then decide. The layout itself is really handy because it shows each students progress in the form of a pie chart. This is very useful to show the children, especially those that are losing points for a certain thing e.g. shout outs. When showing a child i would always ask them what they notice they have been doing very well on and what they need to foucs on for the following week. Each child gets a percentage at the end of the week which shows how well they have done. You can print this out and send it home each week, i usually just write it in each child's homework journal. the children really loved I always have a display similar to this with one page per child. It allows the student to display something either they are proud of or that i am proud of. They choose when to change their display and sometimes they even bring in work that they did at home. It is a great way for them to realise that they are all talented in different ways. Some may want to show their improvement in handwriting, story writing or even art. I found some A4+ backing paper that makes a perfect mount for A4 pages and i glue a push pin onto the back of the peg so it makes swapping their work that bit easier.
Check out my Pinterest Display Board! Click on the link below and check out the video of Finding Nemo First Day of School. It is a great resource to use on the first day of school. It lends itself well to all ages. Thanks to a friend that reminded me of this clip!
https://www.literacyshed.com/the-thinking-shed.html Ok so anyone that knows me knows that i love to stock up before school starts in September. I have spent a fortune over the years on things that i do not need and are no use to me. So i have compiled this list of what i think are the must haves for starting out in September. ( I know some school give new teachers money to help get them started in their first year so i would check this out first)
I had a nice ramble in town today and spotted some very nice bits for school. I have attached the pictures below. Pennys have a great selection of stationary that could be used for the teacher or as prizes throughout the year. The Euro store also had a great selection. My favourite part of the day was strolling around Chapters bookstore. I do love how easy it is to order books online but it can't beat being in a book shop. Chapters has a fantastic selection of children's books and some great offers. You will never leave this place empty handed. I even found some Roald Dahl treats which will go well for our Roald Dahl Day plans. Some photographs from my trip to the Roald Dahl Museum. Definitely worth a visit if you are a fan of Dahl.
Roald Dahl day takes place on 13th of September, his birthday. I have always loved the works of Roald Dahl and find that he has a great way of tapping into children's imaginations, no matter the age!
I was lucky enough to go to the Roald Dahl museum for Roald Dahl Day. The museum is based just outside London and is where Dahl got inspiration for most of his books. It is a beautiful village and the museum is a great celebration of the life and work of Roald Dahl. I can't recommend the museum enough, especially if you love the work of Dahl. The gift shop was also a great stop at the end and we made sure to get a few resources for our classrooms. The timing of Roald Dahl Day is perfect to use as a theme for getting back to school. The Roald Dahl site has fantastic resources including a Roald Dahl quiz, which i do with my class every year. We also make a Roald Dahl display at the top of the classroom and the children are encouraged to choose a Roald Dahl book to read. The Revolting Recipe book is also a great book for the more reluctant readers. We usually choose two items to make from the book, a Plate of Soil WIth Engine Oil has been the favourite so far! We choose a day, either the 13th or as close to it as possible and we have a Roald Dahl Party. It takes up the whole day. We do everything from baking, the quiz and reading the book to art and crafts, and even solving Roald Dahl word problems! I have attached some photographs or art ideas we have used over the past few years and also links to resources. roald Dahl website: http://www.roalddahl.com/home Activity Village: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/roald-dahlhttp://www.activityvillage.co.uk/roald-dahl Puffin Virtually live: http://www.puffinvirtuallylive.co.uk/index.php During the year we focused on several different artists including Hundertwasser. I hadn't actually heard of him before a colleague showed me some of his work. From the first time we looked at his work as a class the children were mesmerised! They loved the fact that it was achievable for all of them to create something similar.
He was also an architect and one of the pieces the boys liked the most was a public bathroom! They couldn't believe that this could be counted as art and it opened their eyes up to seeing even their own school in a different way. Instead of working on individual projects we decided to do a whole class project. As a class we did a basic design on the whiteboard. The children then took a section each and worked in groups or pairs to complete their section. We had lots of images of both Hundertwasser's artwork and his architecture surrounding the art table which they used as inspiration. It was lovely to see them really encourage and congratulate their peers on their contribution to the display. They were delighted when it was finished as they were getting so many compliments from staff and students alike. We made it so that it could be taken down and be put up again either as the full display or just a smaller section. I do sometimes find it hard to focus on art history as we are so busy making crafts for certain occasions e.g Halloween, Christmas etc. However this project took a few weeks and as each bit was completed it was added to the display so seeing the work in progress gave a great insight to the process of creating something special. Just some very simple display ideas for the start of the year. |
AuthorI have been teaching for several years and hope to share some of my ideas and experiences with you. Archives
March 2020
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