Chasing my tail

So as the term draws to an end (2 weeks to go!). I fear that I am only really starting to get organised now.  I have realised that the downfall of being a beginning teacher is that it takes a lot of time to collate resources so that you have everything on hand that you might need.

The laminator and photocopier have become my friend.

It takes time to set up reading and maths rotations.  It takes time to scan the resource room for which reading books you need.  It takes time to find everything!  Which can be really challenging when you are "teaching in the moment".

You start getting into the flow and then suddenly there is a school trip, release, a course, or an assessment that changes the routine again.

Teachers need to be able to juggle, be flexible and chase their own tails...all with a smile on their face!

Literacy and Social Sciences

I went on a course today about how to integrate literacy and social science.

Integration has always seemed logical to me.  Perhaps because in Early Childhood there is no splitting up on subjects.  Learning just happens.

When we teach a subject in isolation learning becomes fragmented.  In life, we don't compartmentalise our experiences, so why should we do this in teaching?

Reading and writing naturally go with social science.  We read information, we use writing to show our ideas. The most important thing that I learnt at this course was the importance of oral language to help support thinking and understanding.

Teaching strategies such as "think-pair-share" and "jigsaw" all help students pull apart ideas and use their prior knowledge.  Through this dialogue, thinking is shaped.

When it comes to writing a response, students are already at a more polished stage of understanding and have confidence in their thinking.

The other integral part of this is using structure to help students write their ideas.  Writing frames provide one level of support and this can be differentiated to meet the needs of the students in the class.  Some may need a lot of support and others may know exactly what they are going to write.

And back to the purpose of social science..

'The social sciences learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens.' (The New Zealand Curriculum, 2007)

to be able to do this we need to be able to talk to each other, think critically about texts and write responses that reflect our thoughts.

Where to start?

So this is my first time beginning the year in a classroom and to be honest I don't know where to start.

And I am not the only one.  Right now their are lots of beginning teachers (BT's) running around like headless chickens fretting about what they need to be doing right now.  The old hats are telling us to "just wait" but I know that I am going to need lots of time to think and plan about what to do.

I have been collating lots of ideas and resources for the past two years and have spent the last few days revisiting them.  I am keen to do lots of things but I also am hesitant as I need to wait and see where my school is at.

I always thought that when I finally got my own classroom we would have a class blog, be doing lots of blended e-learning, have a really integrated curriculum and be a little bit free range in terms of where our learning would take us.  I know get the feeling that this isn't always as easy to implement as one would hope.

My new school doesn't have blogs yet, or student emails and I see the red tape forming in front of me.

So I am using this planning time to revisit all my ideas and see if I can link some of them.  I will also be ready to present options to my school team and sound like I know what I am talking about. My Evernote folders are neatly organised!

I am also identifying the "regular" parts of the curriculum that I want to be more confident in.  I have asked for The Writing Book out of our Literacy budget and have been rewarded.  I feel the closest thing to attending a Sheena Cameron Workshop is to at least have one of her books on hand.  I have also investigated and purchased a pile of read alouds for the year and thought of activities to help us all get to know each other.

I'm calling on my biggest resource - my Professional Learning Network, the people I know in real life and the Twitterati (teachers on twitter) to help me, guide me and mainly just inspire me while I wait for it all to begin.