I strive for a day when the very act of putting down on paper your ideals of education is normal. I strive for a day when all teachers approach teaching as a art, as a reflective practice of growth. Crafting your own ideals and philosophies of education can be the first step in creating real and meaningful reform in the world. I strive for a day when teachers see themselves as philosophers and look within to find truth. I strive for a day when learning how to teach is not learned from textbooks and college courses, but an active practice of reflection and sharing of ones life.
I’m definitely going to have to re-plan some of my activities for this. This week went ok (gave the children maracas and tried to see if they understood ‘stop’, ‘go’, traffic light cues and then ‘slowly/quickly/gently/loudly’. It went…….ok) but the next few weeks worth of plans will be too much for them, I think. BUT I’m pretty sure there are some standards about personalising provision and making planning flexible and appropriate to children’s abilities, so even when I’m getting things wrong, I’m getting things right! (sort of)
Well, I started my 2-3s activities this week! I’ve scrapped the whole drawing area thing, as it’d be a bit too much for me to take on and too much upheaval for the room. SO I’m focusing more on the small group exercises based around communication; 5 weeks worth of actitivities with 6 total children (3 on Wednesdays and 3 on Thursdays) of different levels.
Week 1 was based on a find the colour worksheet I found. I asked the children what colours they knew, asked them to match coloured sticks (I did this activity in the music room) to the colours on the sheet and asked them to find other coloured things in the room. Speech-wise it wasn’t great, but they all displayed some understanding and largely were able to do as asked (really good for two especially quiet children, whom my mentor wasn’t sure how they’d handle the whole affair)
I got the activities from this ^ website. My plans are based on the acivities found here, but are different, allowing for the abilities of my chosen children. Personal provision!
Well, my 2nd and 3rd placements are getting going now, and I’m having to start planning things. In 2-3s, I’m aiming to bring more focus on drawing, because most creative activities are MESSY! LOUD! FUN! GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY! GO MENTAL! etc, and I just think there’s a lot of scope for a focus on quiet, contemplative, considered creative activity, even at that age. Not sure yet how I’m going to get this going, though. AND I want to run some small group sessions geared around communication for some of the children in 2-3s who don’t really/can’t really talk that much.
AND, if that wasn’t enough, my 3-5s mentor has loads of plans for me to get into there; forest school philosophies, helping with the transition to primary school and the behaviour management that comes with that, SEN, even going on some courses for them! This is going to be such a busy year…
I once told my girlfriend that, when I was younger, I had the romantic notion that electricity pylons were like giants protecting the areas of the countryside they were in (and she laughed at me)
Props for mad writing skills: 7-year-old Pennsylvania first-grader Annie Clark didn’t let her disability — she was born with no hands — limit her ability to write clearly. Clark won a national award for penmanship skills from Zaner-Bloser, a company that specializes in language arts. Clark learned of her award, offered to disabled students for the first time this year, in an assembly held in her honor. She won $1,000 and a giant trophy, and on top of that has better chicken scratch than we do, which is a major honor in and of itself.
Skagen is the northernmost point of Denmark, where the Baltic and North Seas meet. The two opposing tides in this place can not merge because they have different densities.
