As I have said this was my first Prac in a primary school. I was amazed how many teacher aides worked at this school, having a building for children that have learning difficulties, behavior management and EAL/D. Many of the students in my prac class require assistance and throughout the day are taught in small groups. I am aware of teacher aides but didn’t realise how much they were used and needed. Is this normal??? Guess I won’t know until next prac. The building was amazing and had counselors and professionals to help these children. Another student Kelsie wrote a blog about behavior in her class that I found interesting.
Resource from mentor
My mentor uses a website called Teachers pay teachers and she uses it regularly. I thought I would pass this on as the resources are made by teachers, some of them cost money and others are free. If you type in the year and the subject you can get a range of activities. To be honest it takes a while to scroll through but a good website to keep in mind to add for future teaching and Prac. There are many websites for teachers but feel this could be useful to others as the resources are made from teachers and hopefully that means they were useful, if they have taken the time to upload it.
Prac part 1
This was my first Prac in a primary school and had a lot to learn in a short/fast time frame. Two deputy principals and the curriculum coordinator all played a part in observing me, having meetings with me and to say full on was an understatement. My mentor was supportive and helped me through. To add to the Prac there are no ICTs in the classrooms and the school has a very strict explicit teaching strategy. To say the least I am now quite good at planning explicit lessons.. haha.. It was a tough road but I made it and passed. Now to finish the last assignment and then holidays.
IWB
When I first started this subject I had to ask a friend what an IWB was and found the concept amazing as there was nothing like that in EC. I haven’t worked with one and can’t quite work out whether the school has them or not. Through the learning path I now get a better understanding and found it a good resource to keep and refer back to. So lets hope that the class has one and can finally have a go.. I mean plan something amazing for the students. Considering my Prac will be C2C I’m not sure what is ahead. Luckily the mentor is nice and likes helping students.. Phew!!
This link is helpful regarding IWB
Most of us have Facebook and after all the cyber safety I have my eyes a little wider open.
I often use it though as a resource tool. When I see something I think could be useful in the classroom I save it on my phone and can refer back to. I help a centre with their planning and often refer back to the pics i have collected to inspire them. There are a lot of great ideas and it may cause a lot of spam on your news feed it is worth it collecting ideas. You can never have too many good ideas 🙂
Thanks
I admit I’m not the best at this blog business and can never really keep track of how many I write vs how many I do. Anyway on a previous blog I had written that I was really nervous about my first prac at a school and scrolling trough the info about my blogs I came across a blog by Reezy75 who took the time to respond and say that I will do a great job and that the nervous feeling is mutual. That was nice of you and hope you have a great prac experience and can see the light at the end of the tunnel for this ICT course.
I’m still on the cyber space theme.. One more
I have friends that are around 20 and each Friday and Saturday night there are endless selfies that they all take in the bathroom of the club they are in. Endless pics often drunk and perhaps not their favourite pics but they are on facebook for all the world to see. I am 33 and have seen many pubs and clubs and partied just as much as these guys but the difference there were no smart phones and social media. If we had a camera, odds are we lost it. You can’t get those photos back and although they find it funny and posts all kinds of comments, I feel that these continuous pics may come back to bite them in the future.
Seems the modules helped all students
I have read through students posts and it seems we have all got something from the modules. I enjoyed that Wendy has already planned to implement the resources on the site. I believe strongly in providing the students with information and tools to prevent the predators and online bullies etc in order for them to feel safe. I think we need to enforce policies for those that do the bullying and are part of tormenting these children. I’m not meaning suspensions but the bullies need to be held accountable for their actions and should be forced to be involved in programs that educate them on the damages bullying does. Too many young children are taking their own lives as a way out of the torment.
Connect ED
I had an idea of what teenagers get up to online after having family friends that are on all sorts of social media, up late at night like the people in the modules.
I liked the task of being a teenager and dealing with the onslaught of messages. It stressed me and I knew I was pretending. BUT this is real life for teenagers.
I thought the modules were interesting and now see the importance of education verse trying to stop them.
A tool for the tool belt
The National Museum of Australia is a great source for ideas for planning and it links effectively with the curriculum. There are also interactive sessions and tours you can have. Keep it in mind as a resource. The link is here.
Also the Queensland Museum is a great tool for resources. You can choose a topic and a year level and they will put together all sorts of goodies related to the topics. At the Kindy I worked at we were learning about dinosaurs and they sent us bones and fossils. Some are in cased in plastic but still great. They are very strict with getting everything back and on time so don’t lose anything and return it promptly.
Shannon's ICT Blog 