Teaching Portfolio

Things to consider for next year: Students can now manage selves really well after building relationships and expectations. I need to think about how to manage this starting again next year. Do we start with a more traditional model and then move? Also Year 2 children coming through are used to having their own space, need to cater for this in new modern layouts. How to store resources effectively to reduce mess, time take and things getting lost. Students need time to build relationships with each other before they feel comfortable move around the classroom and work with a range of people.

Last term we shared our teacher inquiries with a small group of our colleagues. I found this process really interesting and beneficial for a number of reasons. Firstly by sharing my own inquiry I was able to really see the progress my inquiry child had made. By articulating and explaining the process I had been through it was clear to see this child had made huge progress both academically and socially since the start of the year. I think sometimes it is easy to overlook these successes when you work with a child every day but taking time to sit back and reflect with others gives you time to appreciate how far they have come. Another really valuable part of the sharing process was listening to other people’s ideas and processes. It was really interesting to see how teachers of other year levels had implemented their different ideas. An idea I took away was the idea of giving really focussed feedback in writing. This is an area I feel I need to work on as a teacher as I often feel over...

During term 3 and 4 Sam and I started up a Spanish club. After several discussions we decided to open it up to years 2,3,4 with the hope of having the children continue on next year. In our first meeting we had a lot of interest with about 60 children coming along! Over the weeks this has reduced to a comfortable group of about 15-18 year two students. One problem we faced was the children having other commitments on at lunchtimes and not be able to continue with Spanish. When we start planning for next year this is something we will need to take into consideration. Overall the Spanish club has been really successful and the children are progressing really quickly. It is fantastic to see their engagement and enjoyment of learning a new language. Something I have thought about is trying to make our sessions more interactive and varied. We have both been searching for resources but have struggled to find activities and songs that are both level appropriate and achievable in the time we...

Big jump to year 3. Expectations are much higher in the middle school. Need to be aware of this having only taught year 4 before. Playing in all areas at lunchtime will help with transitions and friendship groups. Focus on handwriting – not so much in the middle school. May need to revisit this. Stationary – will yr 4s go to yr 3 style writing books. Bigger lines would be good for many year 4s also. Different roles in collaborative teaching. How do you deal with a lack of distraction when dealing with behaviour? Can eliminate this to certain degree but another adult talking or whispering will always create some distraction. I will aim to combat this by discussing this openly with my team teachers to create a structure on dealing with behaviour while the other is teaching. These are areas I will need to reflect on and discuss with my team teacher next year to clarify what we both think. The huge benefit I can see is that I have a good understanding of year 4 from th...

I was focusing on really getting to know the senior teacher’s styles to help with class placement ideas for next year. I decided to walk through all the senior classes to compare a the different styles and layouts. I was already aware of various teacher’s styles, expectations and ideas however I wanted to have a look at all of the classes and the layouts etc to start thinking about how to place my children next year and what skills they will need to hone in term 4. I saw some amazing ideas in the senior school that I am keen to give a go. One thing that really stood out to me was the need to be excellent self-managers. My class have gained really great self-management skills so far this year through flexible and independent timetables and I will continue to work on this next term. I have been really impressed with how my class have coped with these changes. Something I would like to focus on next term is the children gaining skills to manage their belongings. As we move to more of a...