Term 4: Week 2

This week I did my first technology lesson with the whole class which I really enjoyed. The first picture is one of the kites they made in pairs as a capture activity. I didn't give them any prior information just to try make a kite that would fly. Afterwards we talked about why some kites flew and why some kites didn't. We then touched on the four forces of flight before they went off to plan their kite with the new information they learned which is shown in the second photo. We are going to make this end product on Tuesday next week and re test our kite against a success criteria.

I also took a maths lesson this week which looked at number lines and finding the equation in word problems as they struggled with these in my observations. I was really pleased with how well they did and in my next lesson I will change the phrasing of my word problems to see if they are still able to find the equation. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to teach again this week and to work with the kids.

Term 4: Week 1

This week I was back in my practicum class which I really enjoyed because I know the kids  and the routines there so it was easy to just fit in with the class. 

I did a lot of maths testing this week particularly the GLOSS test. It was my first time using GLOSS and I found it was a really good assessment tools especially if you didn't have time for a NUmPA test or if you were unsure of the result you have gotten from a NUmPA. I found this especially when I was assessing the three children for the lessons I am going to take I did a Gloss and a NUmPA test just to be sure and to get the most information I could on what I needed to teach them.

I spent some time taking the top group for reading this week which I haven't really had the opportunity to do before. They needed focus on not their reading strategies as much like I was used to but on their comprehension skills and their understanding etc. I found I was not as capable as teaching this as I would have liked to have been because I have spent so much time learning and observing how to teach the children who struggle. I would like to observe and discuss with a teacher how and what is the best focus to have when with this group of children.