Monday 22 February 2016

Korero Mai

Korero Mai Term One 2016.

This round of Korero Mai, I feel, was the most successful yet! I have a mix of students I taught as juniors and students I have not taught before. It was really insightful meeting the parents and having the chance to hear what they have to say about their child. The key focus for the first two weeks of term one (even more than usual) was too get to know our students as people and as learners. I had spent a lot of time talking to my students and watching how they interact with each other etc and had sent home several home tasks for them to complete with their family. The feedback from parents was really positive regarding the home tasks and class activities we had been doing. It was great hearing the parents talk about their child and what they have been sharing at home about their learning. Every parent reported their child was happy and settled and I was really flattered by the positive reactions from parents whose children I had taught previously regarding how they feel about their child being in my class again.
Several parents indicated they would be able to come in from time to time and share their skills and passions with a group of children. The parents were very positive about the physical changes in the classroom layout and the new learning program. They were particularly positive about 'Genius Hour' and are looking forward to seeing this develop through the year.
It was also really valuable hearing from several parents that they were concerned about their children making friends this year as they were not students who had caught my attention for social concerns. Now I know this I can check in with them and support them in making new friends in Kahikatea.
Bring on Korero Mai 2 I know its going to be awesome.

Yay I'm back in!

Wow I have certainly hit the floor running this year! It started with an additional seven students I  wasn't expecting due to a colleague taking leave.  For the first time I had an actual holiday and did not start doing school work from day two of the holidays, instead I had a well needed break from all school work and did not pick up any work until the week before we went back. I am really pleased for me and my family that I took the break BUT I am now working overtime to finish all the prep I would have normally done over the holidays. I had spent a lot of time toward the end of last year exploring options for my learning program and had a good idea of what it was going to look like. However what I didn't account for was the amount of time it takes to create the visuals and sort supplementary resources. Thank goodness for my husband who has spent too many hours laminating and cutting for me.
Having said all of that the original version of my program would not have worked in that form with this class so I have been tweaking it for the last three weeks and possibly saved myself from making a bunch of displays and resources that were not needed.
It is all coming together now and i am excited to see how it works with this years group of children.

Getting back into blogging

I have been trying to blog from my computer but have forgotten how to do it so I am going to try posting this from my phone and going through the notification email it will send me. Fingers crossed as I have plenty to blog about!