Two interesting points!

Here are my two interesting points before going on placement. I really enjoyed reading previous students thoughts.

In one of my classes I used a video and the video took 10 minutes to load. I wish that I had known to get all of my ICTs ready at the start of the lesson so that it will be ready for when I need to use it.

I think this point is a very valid point. Sometimes we forget to think of the little simple things, we get so caught up in making sure we are covering the content and if the activities will be engaging that we forget to check that the ICT work or to get it ready before the lesson. Thanks for the reminder!

Making sure that students have the prior knowledge on how to use the particular ICT you have chosen for the lesson.

Here is a point that is very useful to know or think about before going on placement and integrating all these whiz bang ICT resources. You need to first look at what the students know. Do they have access to computers generally? I read previously that another person experienced children who had lack of ICT abilities due to being in a low socio-economic area. I too will be attending a school in this context and need to think about the children’s capabilities before planning the lesson.

Thanks for sharing these points David and it has really given me a head start.

**Keep calm and enjoy your prac**

Well this just says it all!

As pre-service teachers we are all feeling a little overwhelmed as we try to organise our uni lives and our family lives before going on placement for 3 weeks. I know myself, I am getting frazzled just thinking about it all, but in all honesty, I am really excited and can’t wait to get started. I need to get past the huge checklist and get focused. I need to think about the big picture of teaching our young generations and I need to keep calm.

Good luck to all my fellow uni friends who are most probably going through the same huge checklist as me and getting every thing organised. I hope you all have a great placement and get to learn many new strategies for our future as teacher. Enjoy guys!

 

Reference:

Keep calm and teach on. [image]. Retrieved May 16, 2014 from: firstgradeflipflops.blogspot.com

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Digital Footprint

Currently working through this week’s learning path and thought about my digital footprint. It’s funny, cause I haven’t really thought about it much until now. After watching that disturbing lollipop clip I still feel sick. I actually could not watch the whole thing as I felt my heart starting to pump harder and can still visualise the dirty creep’s face.
I quickly googled myself to see what come up and it’s good to know there is not a lot about me on there. I then quickly checked my Facebook settings and they have been set quite high, however I think it is time for a friend clean out. I have way to many people I don’t need.

My theory is – if you would not stop and say hi to them on the street, then why are we friends on Facebook.
Sorry to those who will be deleted soon 🙂

It was nice reading about Tamara’s post about digital footprints – seems she did the same as me 🙂

Connect.ed

Today, I am playing catch up. I have been giving some of my other subjects some attention before going on placement and now I feel like I am chasing my tail over here. It’s all good, I will get there – “just keep swimming” is my motive.

Today I completed the Connect.ed modules and was granted my cybersafety awareness. I found it to be a really good resource, which provided easy to understand information along with further online resources for children of all ages. If you have the chance and would like to learn more about cybersafety, I highly recommend it. It will really make you think about social media and how much information you really share. I personally don’t think I would share as much information as students do, as I don’t have time for the 100 selfie pictures, however I still share probably a bit to much.

I got goosebumps when I learnt how easy it is for a stranger to log into a home computer and ask children for their address whilst playing a game. I found this disturbing and hard to watch due to having two young children of my own, however in saying that my children are not at an age to type our address, although they are at an age where they could click a button if asked which could lead them some where else.

I have a fairly good understand of cybersafety due to my current employment and if a student would experience any inappropriate behaviour I have enough information to point them in the right direction, or if not, I would find out the information needed asap.

Here is a link to some other uni students connect.ed thoughts Click here and here.

Hope your having a fun Friday 🙂

Meet and Greet!!

Well the time has come again where you have to walk into a new school and meet your mentor, who will be coaching and guiding you for the next 3 week placement block. I always seem to get quite anxious – what will they look like, will they be nice, I hope I portray good appearance and positive bubbly nature. I do not know why I do this to myself, but I am sure every one goes through it.

Well, my meet and greet wen fantastic – the class were very excited year 2 students who showed signs of disappointment as I had to leave the class and my mentor shined so bright the whole time I was there. She is only still quite new to teaching and she has so much enthusiasm and love to give. Her positive attitude made me want to placement there and then. Now, I can’t wait to start placement and it’s time to get organised. I need to dig out my prac bag which should have my hat, blue card, name badge, A4 clipboard, notepaper, awards, stickers and start to get organised. It’s great to see Izzie is doing the same thing.

 

Encouragement can go along way in a child’s mind.

                     

Today I am sitting reflecting on an experience I had yesterday when I was aiding in a year 6 class at work. I was given a group of 6 kids to work on a comprehension activity with. We started by reading through a piece of text and then answering multiple choice questions to gauge how  much the children actually listen and comprehend. Anyway, we took it in turns to read a few sentences working around the 6 students. Some children loved the involvement and reading and others not so much. We stopped at one student who didn’t want to read, there response was ” I can’t read”. Well, for a fact I knew they could read cause I have worked with this student before, so they were not escaping it that easy. I started with motivating words, saying ” I know you can read” and “give it ago”. This didn’t even touch the sides of this student. Now, I sat for a moment and thought…… should I let them not read…… should I keep going with encouragement…. should I negotiate….. or should I just let them not read. Well, I decided on point number 2. I decided to keep on motivating this student with encouragement and showing to them that they can do it and to have a go. After about a minute, this student starting reading, it was very quiet and so hard to hear, but I was happy, they were reading. All went well till the student got stuck on a word which made them hesitant to read again, but this is when I started to negotiate. I had thought, since they attempted to give it ago, the least I could do was help them out some more. So I said, if you read 5 more words, I will finish the paragraph for you. And with this, the student happily read those 5 words confidently knowing that I would finish it off for them.

Now today as I sit and reflect about my workings yesterday, I wonder….. Did I do the right thing in that situation…. Should I have made them read more?? Should I have not made them read in the first instant. Well, as I type, I am thinking I did do the right thing for that child. I offered encouraging support to motivate them to read and they did read, not the whole paragraph, but they did read like every other student involved in that group. I hope it gave the student some positive vibes inside knowing that they can do it . 🙂