Camp

                           I went on my first school camp as a teacher in early November (a couple of weeks ago). I was apprehensive and anxious because I'm not a fan of school camps but I had fun and here are my thoughts on camp.

Formative Feedback and Scaffolding

I noticed that while I was giving plenty of feedback verbally, I wasn't getting time to give recorded feedback. My thoughts are verbalised in this video.


In addition to this, I should mention a variation on an idea that a teacher friend suggested to me. My variation on his idea is to go around and give the verbal feedback, but get the student to write (type) the feedback themselves. This is easier on paper, or if I am not worried about the students commenting on their own work, using their own accounts, however I think a work around could work. Perhaps I could have students type their feedback on my laptop. Not always feasible, but it's an option. Another option would be to have them type their feedback, then I just sign my name on it. I would also have to organise a way to be able to get around all of the students. If I can get students used to peer feedback, then I could have the students do that (which is normal practise), then just sign off with one or two brief comments. Next year will be an experiment...especially with a Y5 & 6 class.

Athletics Professional Development!

On October 28th, Kiwisport held a PD session for athletics. My summary of the PD can be seen on the attached video. It's a bit longer than my previous vlog posts because I haven't edited the raw footage.



There are a couple of points that I missed out on when filming. Mostly these points are regarding running instruction. Instruction involved mainly having students comparing incorrect technique to correct technique. For example, when teaching to run with eyes forward, we were first asked to run in a zig zag motion. Following that we were asked to run with our eyes focused on the point directly in front of ourselves. As reflection we were asked to consider which technique gave the better result.

Classroom teaching: mathematics focus

Mathematics teaching is a focus of mine at the moment. This vlog entry is a reflection on a whole class lesson. After reflecting on my lesson, I have seen that I need to go back into my planning and structure the lesson using the materials-imaging-number properties sequence.

Unpacking vocabulary and clarity of instruction

This vlog entry is a reflection on unpacking the vocabulary that appears in the Create tasks that learners have to do. Related to this is clarity of instruction that I give when asking learners to do particular tasks.

Feedback and martial arts

This post is about how I am affected by the feedback process in my own learning of martial arts and how it relates to my teaching context.

Vlogging, not blogging

In this first video I talk about why I am trying vlogging rather than blogging to record my reflections.