Settling Back In

Hi everyone,

 

I am sorry for the lack of updates over the past two weeks. Sure you all know yourselves how busy this time of year is! I hope you are all settling in well with your new classes!

It has been a busy time. But I just love this time of year. After school it means woolen cardigans, autumn scented candles, ankle boots,  brisk strolls in the park with beautiful leaves crunching underfoot, cups of tea, darkening evenings, and tomato soup. Well that is what it makes me think of in any case!

School wise it means brand new copies and pencils, bright display boards, Harvest Fair and the promise of a brand new school year full of possibilities and fun.

I am really enjoying teaching first and second class. It is so different. Different in a good way. I was so comfortable with 5th and 6th class, I knew exactly what they were capable of, I knew their interests, it was just becoming very easy! The one thing I am finding tricky is slowing down the speed at which I talk and the pace I deliver my lessons at. So at least I have identified my difficulty and I am working now to slow down!

 

We learned about Dinosaurs and Friendship (an odd combination I know) for the first week and a half. We are still learning about Friendship and we have moved on to learning about Trees.

 

 

 

The most effective behaviour management system ever!!

Our classroom prayers:

Irish display:

The children’s work will be added as they complete it.

Maths wall:

Classroom rules:

Under the flip chart paper you will find the classroom jobs display and the class dojo reward board. I regularly use this space for teaching however and so I just stick up the flip chart paper each day and take it down when we are finished with it.

Writing Wall:

Our nature table, which has grown significantly since this photo was taken!

 

 

I have received lots of questions about teaching 1st and 2nd class. I am new to the role so I can’t answer all of them right now. A lot of people seem to be worried about the teaching of Irish, I don’t know why. It is one of the easiest subjects to differentiate in! I use Bua na Cainte and I love it. They have a BNC workbook for their respective class levels, and I have the online material for 2nd class. I go to the 1st and 2nd class teacher manuals and write down the learning objectives for each class for each lesson. I then just differentiate by questioning and task. The themes run the same in both books anyway, 2nd class is just a little more detailed obviously. I will do more detailed posts on each subject area in the next week or two, hopefully over the weekend!

Things I have found useful so far:

Go Noodle- we love yoga with Maximo!

Class Dojo: The children love the points system!

Pasta Jar Group Awards: Very effective and is really working for encouraging team work!

Stickers and praise. Praise, praise, praise, praise and more praise!