Hi All,

You would most certainly be forgiven for thinking I had disappeared off the face of the Earth for the past two years.  Unfortunately I was having a few health issues and every time I seemed to be getting on the right path again something else would crop us.  As with most teachers my students come first to ensure their learning was not impacted I choose to stop blogging and creating resources for my TPT shop.  However, 2019 is a new year and health wise things could always be better but not bad enough that I can't pick up the things that bring me joy again. 

I have moved out of the classroom this year to take on the roles of Reading Coach and Primary Head of Department -teaching and learning.  Both of these roles of going to bring smiles, tears and frustrations as I move away from identifying the best ways to get children to learn into adult education and coaching. 

The other exciting event I am looking forward to later in the year is a two week holiday in Egypt with Bookbag Tours.  We get to spend time at a local school, participate in professional development and see some pretty spectacular historical sites. 

Officially we head back to work next week with Professional Development days and Mandatory Training but I have quickly realised when you are the person delivering said PD your holidays finish that wee bit earlier.

To making organisation more enjoyable I have made a printable 'To Do List' template and you can access it by clicking on the link below the image.

Free printable 'To Do List' template

Wishing everyone a great start to their new year of teaching,



 

Hi All,

 

As you all know the beginning of the school year is extremely busy for all teachers from Prep to high school.  You would think that because Distance Ed is done through web-conferencing there would be less preparation but actually I have found that it's quite the opposite.  Although I myself don't have a physical classroom, to create and hang resources in, I do have to be super organised and have those resources ready to mail out in the first week of school to my students.

 

The items I include in my first mail out bag are mixed.  Some are simply to create a relationship between my students and I, some are to establish classroom expectations and others are physical resources that will be used in their lessons throughout the year. 

 

 For getting to know each other I create a craft glyph using the book 'Pete the Cat Rocking in my school shoes'.  After creating their glyph my students have been mailing them back in so I can use them in a display at the school as well as sharing them on our Class Dojo where they can discuss what they have learnt about each other.  I have shared this file on my TpT's store.

Free Pete the Cat - glyph craft

Because our time on-air is very limited (1hr/ day for English) I try to use a little of the Flipped Classroom model of having students view digital learning resources before class.  This year to establish classroom expectations for learning and behaviour my students listened to a reading of the book 'How do dinosaurs go to school?' at home and in class we created a Y chart of what we wanted our on-airs to sound like, look like and feel like.  At home they completed a writing task, so I would have a beginning of the year sample and dinosaur name plaque to show cutting skills.  You can find the dinosaur template and writing paper on my TpT store.



Establishing Classroom Expectations Pack

I also like to establish with my Home Tutors some communication and teaching norms that will make a their classroom run smoother and unsure continuity.  I send out a Home Tutor Guide and in it I include timetables of lessons, work returns and hints for the tracking of the assistance they gave during the units of work.  This Evidence Of Learning feedback guide is now being used by other teachers to unsure continuity across the school. 



Evidence of Learning Assistance Guide

 

Lastly, I include templates for maths resources that can be printed out by my time poor Home Tutors to use with my students during lessons or to assist my students with their rote learning.  After the Home Tutor establishes the routine my students are then expected to independently complete these activities which frees up time for the Home Tutor to do prep work or work with their other students.  I also provide links for where Home Tutors can download songs that will assist with the rote learning of skip counting patterns and number facts.

 

    100s Counting Board     Addition & Subtraction Board      Multiplication Board

This year I have also added in a Number of the Day sheet.  This allows my students to be increasing their fluency with a range of number concepts and I'm expecting to be seeing improvements in their working time during Maths on-airs. 

  Number of the Day Book/ Board

Some students have received this as a booklet while others have it printed and laminated in A3 size and complete it with a white board pen, as per the Home Tutor's wishes.

As we all know accidents do happen and to ensure that each of my student always have access to the resources they need to ensure their learning success I provide all my Home Tutors with these resources on a USB which they return for updating every five weeks.  I also include additional resources on this USB that I feel may be of assistance to complete the units of learning in those five week.  I will have posts about some of those resources soon.

Another big post but hopefully well worth your time.  Chat to you all again soon.

Teaching Partnerships in Distance Ed.

  

Hi All,

I  have always felt it was vital to have an 'open door' policy in my classroom to ensure that parents felt included in their child's education and to encourage a good rapport with myself.  Because let's face it we've all had a student go home and only tell their side of a story and I wanted my parents to question whether what their child was saying was actually a true reflection of me and my actions.

However, when I moved from mainstream schooling into Distance Education two years ago I quickly came to realise that I was really only comfortable with parents being involved on my terms.  They could join in as long as I remained in control of the curriculum, learning activities and behaviour management.   It became very obvious, very quickly, that this approach was not going to be effective in my new working environment.

The reason for this was that I was no longer the primary educator anymore. I was now working in a 'partnership' with a home tutor.  I went from being the planner and deliverer of 25 hours of content a week to maybe 12 hours in a week depending on the Distance Ed school you work at.  This year I am responsible for 2 half hour reading groups a week, an hour of English a day for my Year 2 and my Year 3 classes, an hour of Maths a day for my Year 3 class and a half hour contact lesson, per Year 2 student, per fortnight. 

The primary educator in this learning environment is in fact the home tutor and it is my major responsibility, as the teacher, to support them to teach the students in my class.  Now if you are lucky the home tutor will be a trained teacher but typically they are a parent or a young governess who only have their own high school education behind them and usually have more than one child to teach.  It has nearly taken me two years to get a grasp on what is the best way for me to help and support my home tutors. 

For the past two years I have done up a 5 Week Unit Overview which outlines the units and lessons being taught and the days on which to do them. (See the example below).  I also did up a Handy Hints sheet which would identify any preparation and reductions that could be done for each lesson.



5 Week Unit Overview

Now this format is perfectly fine if you are working with other teachers but it is quite heavy to process if your are new to teaching and have multiply students who each have one of these outlines every five weeks.  This year I have created a set of weekly planners with a monthly calendar which allows my home tutors to put all their planning, preparation and to do lists on the one page.  It is also a great record to show their employer of what they are doing daily and to plan for any special events coming up in the community or on the property.



Click on this link to download file.

 

Another daunting task for any teacher, or home tutor, is setting up a daily routine.  After many years of working in the early years and with children who have autism I have found that a visual timetable not only helps the teacher, but also the student, as there are no surprises in the day and everybody knows what is coming up next. Because there can be up to 5 students in a classroom, doing different subjects at the same time, I created several version of the visual timetable to ensure each child has their own to refer back to during the day.  The visual timetable is also a great way to build up independence in the young learner by allowing them to add in brain breaks, game times and free time.

 

 

 

Click on this link to go to TpT to download files.

Finally, as experienced teachers know a lot of precious time is taken up by the tedious job of sorting and labelling workbooks.  To free up a few of those minutes I have created subject title pages and editable book labels for my students.  Although the title pages will need to be glued in the, book labels can be printed straight onto address label stickers and attached to the front of books.  I also use these labels to give each student 'returned work' zippy bags so that finished send-in sheets and assessment tasks can be kept together and delivered straight to me for marking.  I have created versions of the title page for Prep to Year 6 and these can be downloaded through my TpT shop.

   

              Year 2 Subject Title Pages                               Year 3 Subject Title Page



              Australian Animal Book Labels                               Animal Book Labels

My next post will be about setting up first day learning experiences when you don't have a classroom and you won't be meeting your students until a week after the new school year starts.  Till then,

 

My First Blog Post!!

Wow!!  Like many before me I have decided to enter the world of blogging.  I owe many thanks to the wonderful Nerida from Teaching Outside the Box, who answered my many questions and helped guide me through the process.

I have been teaching from Prep to Year 3 in Queensland state schools for 15 years now and have recently moved to the outback to work in Distance Ed.  This was a greatly needed change of scenery as well as an opportunity to work as a mentor to first year teachers.  During this year I was privileged to share my experiences of working with geographically isolated children through an interview with the Department of Education and Training.  You can follow the link to read more.

My aims for this blog is simply to share.  Whether that be learning activities, my students' successes or educational resources.  To start with I have made editable notes.  I staple these to the front of my students' workbooks, to give them feedback.  As of yet I haven't worked out how to use Google drive but these printable notes can be downloaded from my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking on the images.  All resources I create are free to download.

                    

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Feel free to ask any questions about my teaching or my resources. Till next time!