Another Week Gone By

Maths:

I wanted to explain some of the activities the students have been doing in Maths over the past week because I have not gone into detail about many of the lessons I have been preparing. Like I mentioned in my previous entry, we were able to get through all three rotations plus two teaching sessions which was not originally planned. One of the biggest challenges in 5/6 is trying to fit everything in and being prepared to have to spend more time on topics than you plan for. I think this is very common for all teachers, but because of all the 'extra' things that happen in 5/6 the pressure is really on to get the content to the students.

This week our focus was on positive and negative numbers as well as finishing up discussion on chance. The students were exposed to chance and probability last week so one of the rotations this week was Yahtzee. My students really enjoy hands on activities or games so I thought this was a great way for them to stay engaged and also work on their basic multiplication and addition skills. After my second explanation of the game it seemed to go very well. I definitely learned from the experience, and realize how important it is for me to slow down, explain, and demonstrate how to do something before just letting them 'give it a go'.

In another rotation I split the 50 minutes in half and took four students to do instruction with the Interactive Whiteboard and had the other four or five students use the Nintendo DS's to do Brain Training games. Each Grade 5/6 classroom has 6-7 Nintendo DS's that they can use. The Brain Training game helps students with their problem solving skills as well as speed and accuracy. Last week we had World Maths Day where students spent time on mathletics.com (this is a school wide program) working on all types of Maths problems. I noticed that a lot of my students are very slow to solve basic subtraction and multiplication facts so I gave them an opportunity to practice these types of problems for part of the session. On the IWB I worked on negative and positive numbers by providing various examples for the students and either slowing down or moving into more complex problems based on the group that I was working with. Any chance the students have to work on the IWB is great for them because their interest level is so high and they are enjoying the learning experience.

While I do not like to use handouts, this week I decided to use it for my third rotation. I found a great sheet in the Maths curriculum book on negative and positive numbers that would assess show me how much the students knew after my instruction earlier in the week. The problems were both application to the real world and basic concepts such as placing numbers onto a blank number line. From the sheets I have corrected thus far, the students seem to have a strong understanding of our focus for the week.

A few other things happening-

1. Our lizard, Junior, has shed his first layer of skin and is growing very quickly
2. We had a "love letter" incident in the classroom this week- It was interesting to observe what Lauren decided to do with this situation.  My instinct was to stop the chatter and talk to the students involved during tea or afternoon play, and then possibly have a class discussion about it.  Lauren has not addressed the situation yet with the class and right now has decided to let it go for now.
3. I have been reflecting on what I was like when I was in Grade 5/6 (Some comments from the students this week... "Weird, as in I'm weird." and "Do you want to go do some handstands in the oval for a bit?" They never fail to amaze me with their comments and I can really relate to some of the interests they have
4. My focus in the next week or two will be proper Assessment Tools. I have been using various types since I have taken on more teaching responsibility, but I really want to take this a step further.

I will leave you with some Australian Lingo:

have a go- give it a try
rubbish- garbage, trash
dodgy- sketchy/not quite right
I reckon, What do you reckon- I think, what do you think
good on you- nice try, way to go
muckin' around- goofin' off, wasting time, doing something you are not supposed to be doing