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.

Establishing Expectation and Goal Setting!

Hi All,

This blog is a little late for the beginning of the Australian school year, but just in time for the start of Term 2.  Many would think that teaching in an online environment would mean no behavioural problems.  And yes, to a certain extend, this is correct due to the lack of physical contact, but how do you get a child, who can be up to 10 hours away, to stay on task and participate?  Would you believe it's actually the same as any other classroom?

I always get my students to establish the learning and behavioural expectations and consequences for our classroom.  This way they have ownership and responsibility for their own actions.

I start the discussion through the use of a picture book to cue the class into types of appropriate behaviours.  My favourite is 'No, David!' by David Shannon.  The behaviours David uses in the classroom seem so extreme and are therefore funny to children in the lower years, which gives a great positive vibe to the discussion, and allow you to have an in-joke for the rest of the year about 'David-like' behaviours.  However, avoid this book at all costs if you have a David in your class!!

This year I used a downloadable book from Heidisongs called 'Wiggles learns the rules at school'.  Basically Wiggles does a series of wrong behaviours and the children in the class teach him the correct way.  It is a very simple, repetitive book but it does have a printable dog puppet and a small version of the book that can be sent home.  Great for the early years! 

We then brainstorm the sorts of behaviours we should be using in our classroom to ensure everyone is having the best opportunity to learn.  I write these behaviours under the headings of personal, classroom and playground and then lead the children identifying no more than SIX expectations that we can use to ensure everyone is feeling safe at school and can successfully learn.  The typical expectations in an online community come down those that encourage courtesy and manners and hold the learner to be personally responsible for their own learning, rather than on the physical expectations.

Click on link to go to Heidisongs website.

At the start of every lesson I go through these expectations as a reminder and at the beginning of every term we discuss if we need to add or take from the list.

While establishing classroom expectations the students also set the positive and negative consequences for their learning.  Negative tend to be along the lines of warnings on-air and parent phone calls.  Positives are the typical stickers and reward boxes as well as using our web conference tools to give claps and praise.  This year I have also included positive reward postcards to acknowledge achievement.   I mail these out to the students along with their sticker reward charts.

 

    Click to download Positive Postcards             Click to download Reward Charts

 

In previous year I will admit I have been a little lax in student goal setting.  However, after much summer reading, I have come to realise its importance in helping students to have control over their own learning and empower them to become independent learners and risk takers.  At the end of Week 1 I had each student tell me their goal for reading, writing and maths.  There is no time limits on these goals, as each student identifies when they believe they have achieved it.  I have the goals displayed on the wall of my office and each child receives a PowerPoint of their goals.  The aim is that every five weeks, or sooner, I will have an extremely quick conference (phone call)  with each child and if they are ready to move up the goal arrow they tell me and explain why.  As they move up there is less and less adult assistance until they are doing their goal independently  Once they have reached the top of the arrow they receive a reward postcard and choose a new goal.   Goal setting for the teacher is also important and my goal, after the Easter Holidays, is to actually have those conferences!  You can click on the links below to download each of the goal setting packs I use with my students.

 

 

                Maths Goals                          Reading Goals                       Writing Goals

 

 

So that's the first of five blogs to be written this weekend.  My next blog will be all about our annual school  'Kickstart Conference'.  Till then.