What a week!

After a two week break, it was back to school for me on Monday...well, actually Tuesday (I had a doctor's appointment on Monday). I'm amazed at how my teaching counterparts seem so on the ball and on task in the other part of the world. They're working, creating resources, attending conferences during their summer break. Perhaps, the only productive work I managed to do was my Whole Brain Teaching posters. (Sigh!)

I even brought my iPad to work with the intention of recording myself teach my kids the Whole Brain Teaching rules so that I could upload the video on the blog. I taught the rules (the kids and I were so proud of ourselves) but the iPad stayed in the bag. (Sigh!)

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm one of those that gets really excited about professional learning and then sort of fizzle out after that. (Sigh! There MUST be teachers like me out there!) So I thought the smartest thing would be to buy an ebook on the iPad...which I did. Way more cost effective. This is what I invested in.

The book's quite insightful and hopefully after the coming week, I'll have more to say about it and how I've used it in my conferences, Guided Reading and LLI.

Then I was going to work on this awesome package on teaching Procedural Texts which is the text type we are working on now. But I lost my creative streak and only managed an anchor chart on a visual procedural text. We made three of them but here's a look at the one we made on chocolate chip cookies.

 

A mind map by a student

Those chocolate chip cookies need a bit of work...I started getting a bit stressed out for the lack of creativity I possessed when my team partner and I had to deliver a spelling lesson. We had lots of resources on our table - Words Their Way, Soundwaves, Diane Snowball. It took us awhile to get ourselves sorted. But eventually, we seemed to be onto something. We looked at the "i" sound and our students drew a mind map before sorting the words into different groups.



Sorting out the words



And then as quickly as the holidays ended, the first week was over. Phew!

July Currently

Hey there, it's been awhile.  It's always great to link up with Farley from Oh Boy! Fourth Grade for the Currently Party.

As I write this, lunch is prepared (Mashed Chickpea Salad) and I am watching DC Cupcakes as I type this. I love anything to do with baking. If I wasn't teaching, I'd have my own bakery selling vegan goodies. 

It's the Winter break in Australia now. A week has gone by and I'm thinking "Where did the week go?!" It just zoomed past. I still have a week to go so that's good. I have been trying to get some work done, but found myself staring at the planners for next term and having a mental block. (Don't you hate it when that happens?) I did get some Whole Brain Teaching posters done which I'm quite proud of and will probably write about in a later post. 

I do wish this break would go on forever. I like catching up on reading blogs, magazines, books...recipes. I love the holidays. I somehow have a confidence boost over the holidays every time. It's like I can conquer the world. I do need to work on building my confidence. I'm always doubting myself and capabilities. When I began the blog a year ago, I thought I would have these amazing ideas I could blog about. Well the blog was there, the amazing ideas just weren't flowing, well at least I thought the ideas weren't amazing enough as compared to the amazing blogs that were out there by teachers. So what began as this awesome idea, just sort of died. 

Then I find out my mum was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and was told she didn't have a long time to live. My mum's a survivor though. We've had our ups and downs since then but she's pulling through and I'm pulling through. I've started to focus on eating healthy and exercising. 

The thing is my life is too short to be worried about if I'm as good as everyone else. So I'm giving this blog idea another shot. I revamped the look (the old look was awesome) but I needed something to bring me out of the closet. So in walked Megan from A Bird in Hand Designs, who helped me create a new look. I'll get there. I know I will. That's my July Currently. Peace. Out. 

Interactive Notebooks

My love affair with Interactive Notebooks happened by accident. Although I don't remember the specifics of it, I know I was looking for a Maths resource on Teachers Pay Teachers when I chanced upon Blair Turner's TPT store.

Interactive Notebooks are a big part of my daily routine now and although it's almost the end of the school year in Australia, I'm already thinking about how I can better implement it in my classroom next year. I even came up with my own interactive resource for Rounding Numbers during the break. I'm still learning but I'm quite proud of myself.

So anyhow, I was really excited when I found out Jennifer from 4mula Fun was hosting a webinar about Interactive Notebooks. Of course, with the time difference and all, it meant that I wasn't able to watch it live. (I'm at work at the time...)but thankfully, the clip was uploaded with handouts.

So what I've learnt thus far:

PLAN

It's really important to plan. Because I did not start Interactive Notebooks at the beginning of the year, it lacks a certain 'flow'. So, I get how important planning would be for next year as I embark further into my journey of using Interactive Notebooks.

ROUTINES

Fortunately, establishing routines haven't been as difficult for me. I haven't established everything that was recommended but I have implemented one strategy - placing baskets on the tables of each group for them to put the bits and scraps after they are done, which has worked so well. I don't have an assigned student to hand out the baskets, for some reason it seems to miraculously appear on the tables. Most of my students are on auto-pilot mode (this year). What's worked for me is giving my students a time limit for what to either cut, paste, write etc. The students decide how much time they would need, I ask several students how much time they think they would need to complete a certain part of an activity and we then decide how much time they would get, (usually between 2 to 5 minutes). I use a stopwatch to tell them how much time they have left. The students who complete the assigned task before the time is up, usually either check or colour in what they've done. This has worked really well for me and my students, so they are constantly engaged and no time is wasted. (But I hear so much about how colouring is done outside of classroom time, so I'm wondering if I'm really using that time well.)



MATERIALS

Materials aren't really a problem because the students' book packs come with glue sticks and scissors and exercise books.  (Haven't tried liquid glue yet.) I guess one disadvantage would be the printing and copying that I usually have to do. Staff in my school get about $100 printing and copying credit every term  and that doesn't last very long, so in desperate situations, I use the printer at home to print the necessary sheets for my students.





OUTPUT

Hmmm...this video has caused me to reflect on my student's Interactive Notebooks. There's lots of input but they don't do a lot of output in their books. I use other forms of assessment - exit slips or tests to assess their understanding but I haven't given my students the opportunity to reflect or show what they've learnt in their books and that is something I would need to put more thought into.

My key takeaway from this webinar was in regards to modelling the use of Interactive Notebooks...something I haven't done enough of, actually I have done it at all (although my students do refer to previous activities they've done on their own) and also, having my own Interactive Notebook. That's where the planning bit comes in.

So there, my first Professional Development post. My mind's already buzzing with ideas and thoughts. If you are reading this, please do leave a comment of how you use Interactive Notebooks in your classroom. It would be of so much help.