Multiple Intelligences

This past week I have been looking through some resources that the Vice Principal, Helen keeps in her office and one has really caught my interest. I believe that students need different opportunities in the classroom to express themselves and show me what they have learned. Not every student is going to be great at Math or write the perfect story. The Multiple Intelligences are a fascinating part of the human brain/body and I am really enjoying the information that I have been finding. Here are some quotes I picked out from just the first few chapters:


"Knowing one's own unique pattern of intelligences empowers a student to translate a different learning situation into an opportunity to operate from strength."


"Multiple intelligences empowers us to be more successful. We begin to see ourselves and others in more differentiated ways. No one is smart or dumb; each of us has a unique pattern of intelligences. Of our students we stop asking, "How smart are you?" and begin asking, "How are you smart?"
**I absolutely love this quote because sometimes it is so hard to remember that it is not always about how much a student knows and to what extent they know something, but more importantly that they know how they are getting to these answers and why they are able to figure things out (what intelligences allow them to solve these "problems").


"Each student has a very different mind; each is attracted to, comfortable with, and in turn becomes skilled with different kinds of stimuli."


"The more often we use our non-dominant intelligences, the stronger they become."
**This is another fantastic quote that really rings true for myself. In working with Lauren, I have learned that I need to be more comfortable with myself and the "silly" side of me. Students enjoy the animation and enthusiasm that you put into teaching. It is necessary to approach teaching from all different angles, whether that means singing a song, acting out or signing to the students; each opportunity can give yourself and the students a different view of who you are and the intelligences you possess (whether weak or strong it does not matter). Without practice you will never get better or comfortable with something.

Also from reading this book, I really want to try and make the teaching and learning more even between myself and the student. I would like to create lessons and activities that push the students to discover their own learning and also give them the opportunity to teach one another what they have discovered. This way they are held responsible for the information and also have to come up with how to discover what they want to know. As I read more, I hope to find ways to implement this at Greenhills in my last few weeks of teaching here. The students have such a variety of talents and all think so differently that I believe it would be a learning experience not only for me to try in the classroom, but also for them to discover things they do not know about themselves as teachers and learners.

This past weekend Susan and I went to a concert, Sound Relief. It was a benefit concert for the bush fires and between the Melbourne and Sydney concerts, over five million dollars were raised. Over 80,000 people attended the concert we went to at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) in the city. It was a fantastic experience, despite the rain that was definitely needed here. We arrived when the gates opened because we had tickets in the open lawn area. Unfortunately it rained for the first hour and a half we were there and it was rather cold. It took us a while to figure out that there was a place where we could sit inside and stay dry, so we did our best to warm up before the actual concert started. There were both Australian and American artists that performed at the concert. Each group or individual performed for about 30-45 minutes. Some of the artists included: Split Endz, Jack Johnson, Jet, Midnight Oil, Kings of Leon, Gabriella Cilmi, Paul Kelly, Augie March, Hunters and Collectors, Liam Finn, and Wolfmother. There were a few other artists and I really enjoyed the majority of performers. I think one of my favorites was Hunters and Collectors. The crowd was very active during their performance and the style of music was comparable to Journey or Kansas. I will definitely be downloading some of their music!

That's all for now. I have more to say on the concert, but need to have a sleep for now!

Sweet dreams:)

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

The Thunder Rolls

The weather has varied a lot in the past 5-10 days and today we heard the first thunder, hence the title of my entry.  Over the weekend it was cool and over 20C on one of the three days and today it hit 30C again.  You never know what you are going to wake up to and it is nice to have that surprise everyday.

With our week being shortened because of Labour Day on Monday, our Literacy and Maths groups have been split into 3's instead of 4's to get everything in.  It was supposed to be Grade 6 camp so that has given me a bit of breathing room for planning, but somehow I still feel like I am being rushed to cover the differ topics and specific skills that the area is focusing on for the week. Things seems to take a bit longer for this group of students, which is something I have had to remember when I am planning my lessons and rotations.  As long as the students are on task and not wasting time, I do not mind giving them the extra time needed to work.

I think two of my biggest challenges/frustrating moments in the last two weeks has been managing 28 students during rotations and getting the students to think for themselves instead of rushing to a teacher for an answer.  I believe there are many strategies that can be implemented at the beginning of the year that will help avoid the constant question asking.  I decided to do some more research on this and found some great resources from both Susan and her cooperating teacher, as well as the Vice Principal, Helen.  They both gave me information on the Habits of Mind which really makes students responsible for their learning and pushes them to think on their own for various reasons.  

Some of the habits include:

1. Persisting

2. Managing Impulsivity

3. Listening to Others

4. Thinking Flexibly

5. Thinking about our Thinking

6. Striving for Accuracy and Precision

There are 16 habits and I am very excited to have this as a future resource.  It is definitely something I will implement in my own classroom and over the next 3 weeks I am going to try and think of short activities or discussions that I can have with the students that focus on the "thinking" habits in this program.  

I think the challenge of having 28 students has been a beneficial learning experience for me and has pushed me to really work on my management skills as well as differentiating my instruction.  No matter what subject area I am teaching, there are some students that are at a very high intelligence level and also those students who really need to extra help and explanation to comprehend the information I am sharing with them.  This week I decided to make mixed-ability groups for both Maths and Literacy to see how the students would work when there were very high and low achievers working together.  Besides the reading rotation where the students sit and read a specific book with me, I would have to say it worked extremely well.  The students were able to help each other when they had a problem and I think the higher achievers who produce quality work were able to demonstrate to the others in the group what the expectations are.

I am very proud to say that we were able to get through all of the Maths and Literacy rotations despite a setback in Maths early in the week.  One of my rotations was having the students play Yahtzee with a partner and explain how the game related to our focus for the week.  There were a few students who knew the game, but not the majority so on Tuesday I did a quick demonstration.  After one rotation, there was much confusion about the rules and process of the game so I spent a session the following day doing a whole group round of Yahtzee and answering the questions they had.  This showed me that I need to slow down and take my time with instructions the first time so students are not confused.  Students need more time process the information I demonstrated the first time and it was rushed, which caused for the setback. This is one of many learning moments I have had this week in planning and teaching the majority of the day.  It has been a great week and will have more to share soon!

Random note:  Susan and I were making a list of the things we have tried since arriving and I wanted to share some of the chocolate bars we have tried and do not have in America!

-Violet Crumble, Picnic, Freddo Frogs, Caramel Koalas, Crunchie, and Morro-

Yawning? A microsleep can kill in seconds

A long journey, but every second was worth the 17 hours in the car, 1000K, and 100L of petro! This is a weekend I will never forget and cannot wait to share with friends, family, and my future students.

Alan being creative with his photography skills

The Enchanted Forest (turn your head to get the right view-- it wouldn't upload properly)

Susan and I after our walk through the forest and on our way back to the car (This was the first experience we had where the map was misleading and untrue to the time it would take us to complete the walk.  We ended up having to walk along the road to get back to the car.)

Experiencing wild kangaroos on our journey over the long weekend

The stunning experiences on The Great Ocean Road

It was a long weekend this past weekend so Alan and Carolyn decided it would be a great opportunity to take us along the GOR and have a bit more time to see all the sights along the coastline and then inland on the way back to Diamond Creek.  Of all the views I have seen since arriving in Australia, these were some of the most beautiful scenes, sounds, and smells that I have come across.  We had a very rigorous agenda that we wanted to complete and here is a list of everything that we did from Friday night after school until Monday at 10:15 pm when we arrived back in Diamond Creek.

Friday night:

-Drove from Diamond Creek to Torquay where we stayed at the family cottage

Saturday: (The start of our journey along the GOR)

-Breakfast at the cottage, quick stop at Rivers in Torquay, walk through of the market (we saw baby lambs, pigs, chicks, and bunnies)

-Burnside camp in Angelsea: This is where I would have been for the week if Grade 6 camp was not cancelled

-Aireys Inlet: lighthouse and coastal views

-Lorne: Beach views and lunch, pier walk, and a close up encounter with a shark head

-Kennett River: Koalas doing what they do best in the Eucalyptus trees

-Apollo Bay: final stop for the day; dinner on the beach and some fun taking pictures while on a walk along the coastline

--> Saturday was our light and more relaxed day of travel.  We all had a nice sleep and prepared ourselves for the 19 stops we made on Sunday.

Sunday:

1. Mait's Rest: rainforest walk

2. Castle Cove: views of the ocean along the Great Ocean Walk (this is a path that people can spend days doing and typically camp along the way)

3. Johanna beach: major surfing beach

4. Lavers Hill: unique birds and beautiful Australian flowers

5. Triplet Falls: another rainforest walk that leads to beautiful waterfalls

6. Gibson steps: lead down to a breathtaking view of 2 of the 8 Apostles still standing

7. The Twelve Apostles (8 still standing)

8. Loch Ard Gorge: Loch Ard is a famous ship that was built in Scotland and left the England coast in 1878 with 51 passengers and crew.  Three months into the trip, a disaster struck, and because of fog and haze Captain Gibb was unable to accurately calculate where the ship was located.  After attempting to control the ship along the rough Victoria coast, the ship was unable to hold on and crushed against the reef.  Pieces from the cliffs smashed into the ship and it sank within 15 minutes.  Only two people survived the crash, Tom Pierce and Eva Carmichael.  This is a famous, historical moment that will be forever remembered when one views this intense inlet/cove.

9. Port Campbell: We took a break from the major stops along the way to enjoy an ice cream and watch people swim in the port (was not quite warm enough for us to put the bathers on and jump in)

10. The Arch

11. London Bridge

12. The Grotto

13. Wind farm: Throughout our trip we saw various wind farms that consisted of seven or more wind turbines. 

14. Portland: This was our final destination for the day.  While I only have 14 things listed, there were many lookouts and other views we had to capture on camera so that lead to the 19 stops in all for the day.  After a nice dinner at the Grosvenor Motel, which was known to be "clean, quiet, friendly, and modern (or NOT!)", we all slept very well!

Monday: 

-Portland: views of the coast and various historic buildings throughout the town

-Wind farm #2: I never expected to see 10-15 wind turbines on the coastlines of Australia.  When you think about it though, these are some of the most productive places for them to be.  There were various spots along our trip where we saw these "wind farms" and had to capture the magnitude of them.

-Cape Nelson State Park

-Lighthouse in Cape Nelson State Park: Walked along the Great Southwest walk where we saw gigantic waves, cliffs, and a kangaroo skeleton.  Parts of this walk made me think we were in the Outback of Australia.  There was nothing but rock, dirt, and small vegetation.

-Enchanted Forest: A unique walk through some very "Snow White" type looking forests

-Port Fairy: This is where Alan and Carolyn would normally stay if they were doing the GOR in a weekend, but there was an extremely large music festival on.  Port Fairy is a small fishing town of about 1,000 and over the weekend there was 20,000+ people in the area for the event.

-Tower Hill: One last climb up a gigantic hill to get a different view of the ocean from the countryside.  This site had 270 steps going up and down, which did not include the four ramps you also had to walk up in between all the steps!

-Colac: This was our last stop on the trip back to Diamond Creek.  Most of the scenery along the way included large hills or completely flat farm land.  Colac is a town of about 5,000-8,000 people and we stopped here to get take away for dinner and make it home before midnight.

-HOME VIA GEELONG

There is so much information about the GOR and all the views along the way.  I have included a website for anyone who wants to read more or look at pictures of what we saw during our long weekend.  The site has various links to historical information as well as tourist suggestions and highlights along the roadway.

http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au

Here are some pictures from the weekend. It was really tough to choose just a few to share because there were so many fantastic views (I took over 700 pictures during the trip!).

Me inside a tree at Mait's Rest

The first 2 Apostles I saw up close after walking down the Gibson Steps. Breathtaking:) 

Indigenous Australia and Fighting for Rights

The reading rotations finished off on a positive note.  The work the students completed has definitely shown me their strengths and weaknesses.  My focus for the week was on comprehension, summarizing, and having a better understanding of terms used in the texts we are reading.  Overall the class definitely needs to revisit summarizing skills.  Many of them struggle to pick out the main idea in a piece of writing, and find it difficult to re-word the ideas to form their own sentence.  This skill is something that Lauren wants to work on with the students this year and hopefully improve upon.  She has found that when students research they do not know what information is worth using and also tend to copy straight from the books or websites.  This will be a focus in my reading groups for the week of March 10th-14th.

I do have some sad news to share. The Grade 6 camp has been cancelled. Alan was skeptical because this past Tuesday brought some threatening weather because of heat and winds up to 120 km an hour.  There are still some fires burning and with winds that hire there is risk for many of the surrounding communities.  On the high threat day, Susan and I both packed bags with things from the house that we would really want in case something did happen where we were unable to come back to the house.  It was very scary to think about and really put into perspective what people all across Victoria have been dealing with over the past month and a half.  Nothing happened and we were safe, but I found myself very anxious all day just thinking about what may happen.

With camp being cancelled, I have taken on the planning of everything except the Integrated Studies.  Lauren wants to get through a few more of the major topics before I take this over, and she also wants to guide me through a few things first.  I am a bit nervous about teaching this area because we are studying Indigenous Australia and even after doing heaps of research I feel like there is so much I do not know or have not heard about.  This topic is more of a learning with the students than me teaching the students.  To make myself more comfortable, I am looking at ways that I like to introduce topics to students and finding activities that I believe the students will enjoy and be engaged in.

We have a very big weekend ahead of us, and there is lots to prepare for school next week as well as pack my things! 

Wow! There is so much going on and the final stretch is within sight.  I do have to admit that I am getting anxious about completing student teaching here in Australia and having to prepare myself for job interviews within the next few months.  It is hard to believe that the time has come and I will return home is just over thirty days.

The week has been a very positive experience for me thus far.  Last week Lauren and I decided that I would teach the Language for the week and she would take back Maths for one more week just to give me a chance to see her do this once more.  We jumped rather quickly into Maths because of swimming the first two weeks of school so I really only saw Lauren teach/introduce Maths once.  I am comfortable with the curriculum for the most part, but I seem to second guess myself with a lot of the ideas just because it is something that is new to me.  I have to constantly remind myself that making mistakes is okay and everyone does it.  

I have been very busy with planning the Language rotations and after today, think that my hard work paid off.  The students were very engaged in the entire lesson and I had great feedback from Lauren afterwards.  She gave me the whole morning with the students so that they see me as "the teacher" and come to me with questions and concerns instead of approaching her all the time.  The Spelling rule for the week deals with prefixes so I broke the lesson into several pieces to give the students a chance to work individually and in groups as well as receive some large group instruction.  I also incorporated movement into the lesson by having students go to certain areas of the room depending on the knowledge they felt they had on prefixes.  I actually considered this my pre-assessment for the students because it easily showed me what students knew or did not know straight away.  

The lesson also included using the IWB, small group work in a timed setting to complete the task, practice in presenting information gathered, large group instruction, and an opportunity for students to take a chance and make a guess if they were unsure.  I feel that it is important for students to know that it is okay if they do not always have the right answer.  It is more important to me to give it a go and try, than to just sit back and let others do the work for you. I want all students to feel comfortable in contributing to classroom discussions and feel that they are valued by their classmates and myself as well.

 

One ' a ha' moment occurred today during the lesson and assured me that I am learning and becoming more confident with experience.  I have always been concerned about students giving incorrect answers and me not knowing how to address the answer they give.  I was able to experience this today, and thanked the student for their input, but explained why his answer was incorrect and had him tell me what he actually meant.  He was able to realize that the answer he had given was actually a contraction and not a prefix.  I never want my students to feel that their input is not valued or considered and I think this student appreciated how I approached his answer.

One challenge that I face on a daily basis is classroom management.  It is very hard to conduct Language rotations with twenty-eight students in a classroom.  I planned four rotations for this week and thought that my directions were thorough enough that students should be able to work independently or receive help from a partner.  I did go through each activity before the students went to work and hoped that would help.  That would be in a perfect world!  Students are easily distracted from their task and when you are trying to read and work on comprehension or another strategy with a small group of students it is hard to have discussions and manage the rest of the class as well.  I am grateful for the opportunity to work on keeping all students on task and also teach them independence and problem solving when they do get stuck.  After today, I want to have a discussion/create a poster to remind students what to do when they have a question before going to the teacher.  While it seems like such a simple concept, I think the students forget that usually they can solve the problem all on their own.

Other things happening:

1. Weather precautions for state of Victoria again

~High winds and hot temperatures again are causing schools to close and camps to be cancelled throughout the state

2. Go For Your Life Challenge

~National program proposed to schools to keep families more active and working to live healthier lives (more on this next time)

3. Steve Herbert- Parliamentary Secretary of Education visits Greenhills

~Student leaders within the school were presented with awards from Mr. Fairweather and Steve Herbert at assembly on Monday

4. Attended a Parent's Association Meeting

~A group of 12-15 parents along with the Principal and Vice Principal who have two major focuses; fundraising to improve school groups and the development of classroom resources and to build the community spirit of the school

5. Staff Meeting

~I have been attending these meetings every Monday after school and this week the focus was on the School Level Report.  This was a compilation of data on student performance in Numeracy, Language, and Communication Skills.  One thing that I knew, but never really thought about is that Australia does not have National Curriculum Standards.  Each state follows their own set of standards, which could make moving to different areas in Australia hard on students. (More on this and other differences to come next time)

Upcoming events:

-Long weekend: Traveling to the Great Ocean Road with Alan and Carolyn this weekend

-Grade 6 Camp: Next week Tuesday-Friday weather permitting

-House/Fun Day: Students have an opportunity to meet other people in their house and play games and practice their house chant throughout the day 

-Aboriginal for a Day Incursion: A group of people come to the school and put on a program for the students (This is our Integrated Studies topic for the term)

-Young Leaders Conference: A day spent with the Junior School Council members in the city listening to various people speak about their life experiences (focusing on leadership skills)

Growth and Learning

This week has been wonderful for me in that I feel as though I am growing as a teacher and also as a learner. I have been very active in the classroom this week, taking over the maths sessions and also leading a reading group rotation. The theme for this term in Grade 5/6 is Indigenous Australia and because of this I am always learning new things from personal research or materials Lauren provides me with. I have found it a challenge to form new and creative activities for the students to complete because of the amount of knowledge I do not have about the topic. As the week comes to an end, I am starting to feel more comfortable with the theme and know where to go if I need more explanation. Lauren has been very helpful with pronunciations of words as well as guiding me towards ideas for the reading groups. The grade 5/6 teachers rotate book boxes that come with activities already in them, but Lauren and I have often tried to create our own. By doing so, we are able to better fit the needs and interests of our students. While it has been a challenge, it has shown me that sometimes there will be topics that need to be covered and while you may not feel the most comfortable in doing so, it is possible to teach your students successfully and thoroughly.

In teaching Maths this week, I have become more aware of the language I need to use with the students (remembering to use as many Maths terms as possible during group instruction). The students responded very well to my second and third lessons. While teaching the lesson I felt the students were very engaged and eager to know what the next instruction was (they were using paper and scissors to visually represent tenths, hundredths, and thousandths). After the lesson I was able to talk with Lauren, and she definitely made some great suggestions that I will consider when preparing for next week. There were times in the lesson where I only involved one student and could have used all the students to keep them engaged. She also suggested giving them more of a chance to discover what the purpose of the cutting the pieces up was instead of me guiding them. All of her suggestions were very helpful and I hope that as I become more comfortable teaching on my own that these things will come more naturally to me.

I think part of me has worried about stepping in to teach because the first two weeks of school were not "normal" or routine. It may have been hard for the students to see me as a "teacher". Up until late last week I think I was viewed as someone helping in the classroom and not the lead teacher. Now that our schedule has settled down and I am taking over various subject areas I think they are seeing what my role in the classroom is and will become over the next few weeks.

Other news at Greenhills & life in Australia:

1. Next Thursday is House/Fun day
The students are split into four different houses when they come to Greenhills and they stay in these teams throughout their time at school. Part of the day is spent playing games and doing various activities with members of their house teams.
2. Grade 6 Camp is a little over a week away
3. The Grade 5/6L Wiki is completed and accessible to students
4. I am trying to plan a Skype interview between my class and some elementary students in WI
5. 5/6L has a class pet (Junior): a blue tongue lizard
6. Susan and I are spending the weekend with a group of teachers
7. Next weekend is The Great Ocean Road and 12 Apostles
8. I have tried and very much enjoyed some Australian favorites:
Kangaroo, Lamb, Lamingtons, Pumpkin, Pancakes with Ice Cream, cocoa biscuits, Vegemite (this one I did not really enjoy but did give it a go)
9. I contributed a piece on my reaction to the bush fire appeal/communities uniting in Contact, which is the school newsletters