Ksenia

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media type="custom" key="10300863" width="350" height="350" Term 2 Week3 2012: Thank you Jacqui for showing me how to create templates in Google Docs. Mae for an awesome lesson with some great results. Posted something on my blog to share what we did.

Term 2 2012: Time for an update :) We had a fairly difficult first term. I found that this group of kids is quite different to previous years. I have had to battle the little group syndrome by setting up spelling buddies and blogging buddies. They have to work with those people for other activities also which has helped. Talking was another issue that we faced last term (having quiet spaces didn't always help as the kids would just move to the quiet area and start talking there) it took us a while but we got there in the end. This term started in a very exciting manner. During the holidays I turned my class into a war zone (to a point). After having a blast with Space Day last year I decided to have a week in the trenches this term for ANZAC Day. This is what the class looks like at the moment.

donate some of his old army gear like his amo tin, camo netting and old army vest. You can see the tin on the floor next to our hideout. || I tried to immitate camo netting as you can see on top of that table. || them today. || This is a better view of the class as a whole ||
 * [[image:DSC06036.JPG width="381" height="289"]] || [[image:DSC06039.JPG width="219" height="287"]] ||
 * I managed to get some props for the kids to play with. Had a friend
 * [[image:DSC06038.JPG width="376" height="284"]] || [[image:DSC06037.JPG width="367" height="280"]] ||
 * These are our trenches. The kids have had fun crawling around in

Term 1 2012: I have thought long and hard about how I will set up my room this year. I have set up a couple more areas and more spaces for the kids to go if they need to get away. After all these changes I still wanted to do more but I ran out of time. I have come to the realisation though that I will keep changing my room around no matter what so I might as well stop and see how my new bunch get on. The one thing that I have been a little bit worried about is getting the kids to make wise choices about where they sit. After one day I can already see the little groups that the kids are in. They seem to gravitate towards each other. So that is my challenge for the term is to teach the kids to manage themselves. Last year I got my tables part way through, so the kids already knew my expectations and knew what was not ok. Here are some photos of my room so far, but it could look completely different next term. Will update my page to show you any changes.



Term 4 so far:

We had a Space Day today (16.11.11). I was a little bit nervous going into it but the day turned out better than I thought. We started a discussion earlier on in the week about the experiment some astronauts did to see the effects on people after prolonged time in space. The children didn't quite understand why it would be so bad. So I decided to have a day where the kids spent the day in smallish areas (their spaceships) with a small amount of people (their space crew). The rules were that they were only allowed to leave to go to the bathroom otherwise they had to stay in their ships (with the exception of syndicate sport time.) The kids had to be organised and have all their equipment for the day in the spaceship before take off (as you can't just turn the ship around and go back for the supplies you forgot). All disagreements had to be sorted amongst themselves as in space you can't always call a mediator. I was interested to see how they would cope being in their groups with out a break for such a long time and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I think they worked harder than they have ever done. I was also very impressed by the level of discussion that the children were having amongst them selves. They did still have to do their school work but I tried to make it space themed. This lead to some amazing discussions. It was also quite odd to have all the kids hidden away in little spaces as I'm so used to having them in front of me all the time. We had a class evaluation at the end of the day and I was pleased when they said that they didn't think they could spend a year that way as it would be hard not to get sick of the same people. They also said it was hard at times being in such a small space because you couldn't just get away when you needed to. They did have some positive feedback also: They said they learned how to solve any problems they had amongst each other (yey!) as well as take turns to talk (double YEY!)

All in all, a great day!



Term 3 update: We have had a crazy term but that hasn't stopped me :) After having a discussion about desks vs tables with Jacqui and Steph, I decided to take the plunge. I discussed the idea with my class and we had a vote... the kids decided that it was a good idea to try and get rid of our desks. So far we have no proper tables but what we did do is move our desks togethe r and put sheets over them. I had one art table and some quad tables which are the favourites at the moment as they are the most comfortable to sit at. I must say my days have become more full on but the results for the children have been amazing. They are much more engaged in what they are doing and the quality of work has become higher. Having the tables freed up the front of the class. My IWB is not really used by me as traditional teacher at the front of the class tool. It has become a tool for the children to use and interact with, while I have been working with a group at one of the tables. Modeling/work books have been fantastic. We have been working in these while discussing different topics. I make notes in these with felts and colouring pencils and the children then have the books to go back to if they ever have the need. After I have taught the children something in the modeling book, they become the experts. These experts then teach other children (this always reminds me of something Neil MacKay said at one of his work shops - that in reality kids will remember more of what they teach each other than what the teacher lectures them about). So I think the experiment has worked. Will report back on the feedback from the children soon.

QR Codes: We have used QR codes during maths week: I had an idea for a treasure hunt type of activity for maths week, when I sat in the conversation about QR codes. So what I did was create a wiki with different pages for different tasks. Each page had a questions for the kids to answer at at the bottom each one had a form for the children to fill out. Once the kids filled out the form they would get a response with where the next clue was hidden. So far I have not been about to figure out how to make sure that the form excepted only the correct answer. However, it has been quite nice for the kids who needed a bit of a boost with confidence because they thought that they had the right answer and were getting much better at math.

Overall we had a great time exploring the school, looking for clues and answering math questions with our iPods and iPads.

Here are the first couple of codes from out hunt. See what you think:


 * [[image:START.png width="271" height="272"]] || [[image:Task_1.png width="271" height="270"]] || [[image:Task_2.png width="274" height="276"]] ||
 * Start || Task 1 || Task 2 ||

Check out our class wiki. It's always a work in progress. I'm currently working on a reading wiki which aligns with the reading strategies I'm covering in class. Each strategy will have a page with online activities and webquests (watch this space, probably going to be a holiday job)

I have recently been using Google Docs with my class. They e-mail me any work them have finished at home. The kids also complete their current events homework using Google presentations which are e-mailed to me at the end of the week and presented in front of the class.