So here are my GREAT things that happened this week!
1. I got an Easter present from my secret buddy. My first EVER Lindt Bunny. Our school has a secret buddy society and all the staff have someone they have to be 'nice' to for the year. Secret Buddy's are reveled at the end of the year function. It feels good to give, and it's exciting to receive!
2. I graduated to the next level of teaching P4C - small steps. We got a new resource at school and I ran my first Philosophy session from it. "Philosophical and ethical inquiry for students in the middle years and beyond." by Chesters et al. I had a great discussion with my Y8 students using Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind as stimulus for thinking. My students had some awesome ideas about what Dylan meant by "The answers are blowing in the wind."
3. I found clipboards for $2 each and decorated them to put on my classroom wall to make a display for "Great Writing" - I always want to display students work - but have found it hard - looking forward to putting the display together and getting some student's everyday work on the wall!
4. My class got out of the classroom and we went on our first field trip of the year. We visit the local Museum and dressed up in WW1 uniforms to learn more about ANZACs and the war. There was some great learning, and loads of things to be hand on with. It did mean almost 90mins of walking for my class - but it was a great day, and we enjoyed being outside together. (Loads of complaining - and 'Are we there yet!") I feel lucky to live in a small town where we can get out and WALK to the museum. Looking forward to next weeks visit to the local War Memorial.
5. We stream maths at BIS - and I have one of the lower classes. This week they successfully added & subtracted DECIMALS! I have never seen kids so excited about maths. This term I taught written form instead of the Numeracy project - and my students have had success after success. They feel confident about maths - something these guys probably never had had. When they solved addition problems for 7 digit numbers there were high fives all round.
6. #TWIMA - I introduced this to my class a week or so ago. We did 100 dreams in 10mins - I have never seen so many smiles in a classroom. EVERY single student left with a smile, and went on to try and make their dreams come true. When we got the email on Friday morning Room 1 were so excited that their writing would be in a book & that there was a possibility to create music to go along with it really made some of the class really excited.
The more I wrote - the more I realised that my week wasn't as bad as I thought it had been.
What were your happy moments this week?
Yes, we do have to remember the small things or grab hold of the positives when it feels there is a lot of negative or frustration around us. It can be hard as I think we are good at noticing the bad rather than the good.
ReplyDeleteMine would have to be;
* Seeing one of my struggling readers move up a level.
* My maths group realising mistakes are great and we learn from them!
* My writers having such a great week- me fits pumping the air when I read all their rich vocabulary and realising that breaking from the norm has been the right decision.
* The excitement of seeing nearly every hand go up when I asked who would like to share their writing?
* Seeing some of my students realise that it's ok to fail, to not be there 'just yet'.
I'm relieving currently, so here are my five positives for the week:
ReplyDelete* I got two days of relieving and the three classes were lovely.
* I got three cuddles from three lovely girls on Friday who's class it was my first time in.
* The staff at the school I was at this week went out of their way to include me in morning tea and lunch discussions. Warm fuzziness.
* I'm seeing some fantastic work and practice in the classrooms I am working in to inspire me.
* I got to hang out with my nephew, who starts school next term, and my niece a lot this week because my sister in law was away for work and my brother goes to work real early, so I slept over until Aunty comes to look after them. Their imaginative play was refreshing.