Our Learning

Something my school's partnership is focused on this year is developing 'Powerful Learners'.

What are powerful learners? I hear you ask..well here's what I believe...

Powerful Learning is where children develop the skills they require to succeed at any task. Powerful Learners are independent, resilient, persistent problem solvers who have a go at what life throws their way. They are able to collaborate successfully, and stay on task when distractions appear. They are in control of their learning, and are able to understand how they learn best. They are engaged, and inquisitive.

Woah. So with that in mind, I use a few different teaching techniques to encourage children to develop into powerful learners. 

I LOVE when children to engage with each other. Think Pair Shares, Turn and Talk, group work, paired work, table work, buddy time... all examples of how I use collaboration in my classroom. 

I also been collaborate with students to see what they want to learn. I did this the other day when talking with them about what they know about number (we've been focusing on base 10) and what else they could learn. They came up with things like: "Do numbers stop?" "I want to learn about the 100s!" "What about the number 0?" It was fantastic and from that I have been incorporating these into my morning maths meetings! 

Teaching year 1s is amazing. I love how they absorb everything. Something we sometimes struggle with though is encouraging children to become more independent... not the children but the parents. This year we have had to speak with several parents and explain it is not their job to unpack their child's bag! Due to this, we have introduced "Independence Day", where parents are not allowed in the classroom in the morning. We encourage a 'kiss and drop'  their child off at the door (or even better the gate!).

To develop independence in children's learning, I encourage them to 'Ask 3 Before ME' and have been introducing "Strategies" to encourage children to solve their own problems... e.g. One little fella came to me saying he had finished his work. It was no where near finished, there was no colour or labels so I asked him to take his work to another child, show her and ask her what else he could do, I then stopped the whole class and he explained what he did "I asked someone else what I had to do!" This was great - he was asking for feedback from another child before coming to me. I also encourage children who feel like 'experts' at a particular skill to be mini-teachers and help others if they see they are stuck. 

Something we have just started is looking at ourselves as learners ... this is something we are developing, the 'language of learning'. As a starting point (and just in time for parent teacher interviews!) I made up a proforma, and asked the kids to think about things they are good at and things they would like to get better at. At the bottom I included what they would like the teachers to do, and what they can do. Because this was the first time they had probably ever been asked these questions some were a bit random, but most kids were pretty honest. 

I love the last one on this one "Using my strategies" This kid just gets it! 

I can't wait to do these again in a few weeks and see what they write! 

Mini Authors

After completing several running records with my class, I noticed that a lot of the kids were struggling with retelling the story after they had read it. 

I thought... I wonder what could be a fun way of encouraging children to retell a story... so...

I read 'Jack and the Beanstalk' to them and explained that they were going to be authors.

They lapped it up! We spoke about how fairy tales and fables were made up a long time ago, and lots of people have  retold these stories using their own words. I chopped up some A4 paper into A5, and off they went!

Every single one of our 50 kids was on task, engaged and writing! It took some of them a while to realise they were in control and were asking "Anna...can I write this...?" or "Anna can I draw my picture now?" I told them "You are the authors & illustrators! It is entirely up to you!"

Since they were loving this task (it took them a few lessons to finish the whole book) Sasha decided to make an art lesson into the cover of their books... here is one of my cutie's finished product (oops I think I have photographed one of the pages out of order!): 

Super cute!

TPT - First Upload!

Bit excited to announce I have posted my first product on teacherspayteachers! 

I have always been inspired by the dedicated teachers who regularly upload their work so I hope I can keep it up! 

My school & partnership of schools has been focusing on creating 'Powerful Learners'. I have been busy in my CPAC role making some resources which I believe will support teachers and learners with this. 

The first product I have uploaded is a student self assessment chart with the numbers 1-4, and word equivalent posters (novice, apprentice, practitioner & expert).

Head over to my tpt store for this free download :) 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Beachy-Keen-In-Jp 

Plants & Growth

The past few weeks have been great! I cannot believe it is the end of week 7!

I have been settling into my new role as CPAC - which has been busy! Had a pupil free day at one of the schools about moderation & the english curriculum - very interesting! We also had our whole partnership staff meeting which was a great chance to meet & network with a variety of teachers from our local schools. I met with all the year 1 teachers, where we shared some ideas and thought about what we could do next time we meet. I think most of us were happy just sharing ideas and learning together. Next term there is a partnership pupil free day - hopefully another good chance to further build these relationships. 

This last week at school has been fun! I love going back into the classroom after being out for a week. The kids are so amazing, and it's great to see their growth even after a week! I'm super lucky with the amazing team of teachers I work with in my classroom!!

This term, as part of science, we have been learning about plants and growth. 

Science Understanding
Biological Sciences 

• Living things have a variety of external features
• Living things live in different places where their needs are met

Science as Human Endeavour 

• Science involves asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events

Science Inquiry Skills

• Respond to and pose questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events
• Participate in different types of guided investigations to explore and answer questions, such as manipulating materials, testing ideas, and accessing information sources 

This is one of our favourite experiments. We have 3 different plant groups - one on the shelf by the window, one under the sink in a cupboard, and one on the shelf in the classroom. We predict what might happen to each group, then are responsible for a couple of seeds. We then observe and record the changes over a few weeks, and finally summarise the experiment. The kids are loving coming in each morning to see how their plant has changed. 

During this plant unit, we also make and label our own plants. We gave the class instructions that they were to make and label a plant, we also looked at some plants online and around the school. It was interesting to see the different ideas - especially those who added rain, suns, etc. Very cute & a good way to show their learning & prior knowledge! 

As part of Science / Art, we read Eric Carle's 'The Tiny Seed and the Giant Flower'. This book explains the life cycle of a seed and the changes over the seasons. We designed and made 8 petals, then put them all in a box. Then we were given 8 random different petals to make our flower. They turned out really cute don't you think? 

  
That's all I've got today - I plan on taking some photos of our maths we've been doing and posting it. We've just changed our task cards to include more information from the Australian Curriculum so I'll talk about that next time!