I've put up a new page about my "one book lesson plans" to help people understand exactly what they are and what they are getting when they buy one.
Regards,
Mel.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Working on "stuff"!
I'm currently working on a few new things.
First, I'm working on a professional development program for new teachers moving into CRT work. I'm personally pretty excited about this one as it's centered around helping new teachers to find their strengths and really shine in their careers!
This comes from the feedback of a number of provisionally registered CRTs who are saying that their university course didn't really prepare them for what they are in for. It covered some of the areas but but they felt that their lecturers were a little out of touch with what's going on in schools for CRTs and the advice that myself and other Wodonga CRT Support Network members keeps offering them is 1000% more helpful to actually become a confident and capable CRT.
There's currently about 5 more in the works to go along with the "When the wind changed" activity and the "Memory Bottles" lesson plan.
The Giants loo roll is nearest completion and I'm quite happy with this one. Even the name of the book itself grabs the minds of primary students ;). It's a great book that lends itself to literacy, some more complicated Math and sums as well as an art exercise.
The activities will include as many curriculum areas as I can cram in such as:
So lots of stuff being worked on and hopefully I'll be having some of it coming out soon!
Regards,
Mel.
Professional Development:
First, I'm working on a professional development program for new teachers moving into CRT work. I'm personally pretty excited about this one as it's centered around helping new teachers to find their strengths and really shine in their careers!
This comes from the feedback of a number of provisionally registered CRTs who are saying that their university course didn't really prepare them for what they are in for. It covered some of the areas but but they felt that their lecturers were a little out of touch with what's going on in schools for CRTs and the advice that myself and other Wodonga CRT Support Network members keeps offering them is 1000% more helpful to actually become a confident and capable CRT.
One Book Lesson Plans.
There's currently about 5 more in the works to go along with the "When the wind changed" activity and the "Memory Bottles" lesson plan.
The Giants loo roll is nearest completion and I'm quite happy with this one. Even the name of the book itself grabs the minds of primary students ;). It's a great book that lends itself to literacy, some more complicated Math and sums as well as an art exercise.
1 Resource - 40 activities.
Using 1 resource to set a theme, each of these packs will have 40 activities (a somewhat arbitrary number decided upon by the fact that the number 40 appears twice in the name of my TpT store!).The activities will include as many curriculum areas as I can cram in such as:
- Literacy.
- Maths.
- Geography.
- Science.
So lots of stuff being worked on and hopefully I'll be having some of it coming out soon!
Regards,
Mel.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
One Book Lesson plans: Reading to engage.
With the curriculum getting more and more packed each year, it gets harder and harder to prioritize what teachers can bring to their classrooms. Teachers are slowly but surely losing the ability to choose the elements of their Student's education as they have to "pack in" everything they are supposed to teach in an efficient way. The "extras" are slowly going by the wayside and modern students are missing out on a lot of what we used to get in schools as students.
While Teachers scrabble to educate their students in a way that gets them reading, writing and composing? It's getting harder and harder to find the time to make it a priority to give them a passion for books and a love for reading for the simple enjoyment of it. I get around this by killing two birds with one stone and using my favourite books to engage with my students as a basis for a lesson rather than using books purely as a teaching aid.
One Book Lesson Plans use reading to your class as an engagement tool which is a little different from reading to settle a class. Reading to settle a class is about focusing their attention away from playground issues and giving their bodies time to stop giving out all the chemicals that make them jumpy and excited for example (although this isn't the only time when it's a good idea). Reading to engage is a little different in that it is to grab their attention and get them personally invested in the subject matter to provide self-motivation for the following lesson.
One Book Lesson Plans capitalize on the fact that engagement is a very important tool for CRTs as we need a solid way to overcome the fact that we are an "invader" into the classrooms we work in. We are an immediate excuse for the students to once again start testing boundaries to see what they can get away with so the tools to overcome this are built into them in an intuitive way. Keeping students engaged with their work is a very effective method to steer them away from testing those boundaries, they are so busy with something else that it just gives so little time for it to occur to them to try and step over one or two.
To naturally and inherently reduce the difficulties that CRTs face in the classroom every day.
While Teachers scrabble to educate their students in a way that gets them reading, writing and composing? It's getting harder and harder to find the time to make it a priority to give them a passion for books and a love for reading for the simple enjoyment of it. I get around this by killing two birds with one stone and using my favourite books to engage with my students as a basis for a lesson rather than using books purely as a teaching aid.
One Book Lesson Plans use reading to your class as an engagement tool which is a little different from reading to settle a class. Reading to settle a class is about focusing their attention away from playground issues and giving their bodies time to stop giving out all the chemicals that make them jumpy and excited for example (although this isn't the only time when it's a good idea). Reading to engage is a little different in that it is to grab their attention and get them personally invested in the subject matter to provide self-motivation for the following lesson.
One Book Lesson Plans capitalize on the fact that engagement is a very important tool for CRTs as we need a solid way to overcome the fact that we are an "invader" into the classrooms we work in. We are an immediate excuse for the students to once again start testing boundaries to see what they can get away with so the tools to overcome this are built into them in an intuitive way. Keeping students engaged with their work is a very effective method to steer them away from testing those boundaries, they are so busy with something else that it just gives so little time for it to occur to them to try and step over one or two.
To naturally and inherently reduce the difficulties that CRTs face in the classroom every day.
The beautiful part about using books in this way is that they are used for "justifyable educational purposes" when it comes to how other view what you are doing in a classroom. It also gives you an easier pathway to providing your students with productive learning as well as being a step back in time to when it was also easy to make instilling a love of literacy and books in our students a priority too.
Schools will love it. You will love it. Students will love it. A perfect addition to your "Bag of tricks"!
Regards,
Mel.
Schools will love it. You will love it. Students will love it. A perfect addition to your "Bag of tricks"!
Regards,
Mel.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Is it holidays?
It's been a busy week of working on lessons and activities. I think my brain has forgotten that it is holiday time. I have been enjoying some new picture books I found, cuddling up with them, reading and letting all the fantastic ideas come together in front of my eyes. I am hoping to get a couple of One book lesson plans finished these holidays ready to test in the classroom in Term 2.
Over the next couple of weeks I will also be putting the finishing touches on the new ones I have trialled in the classroom and add them to the bank of stuff ready for TpT.
I've also been working on a new 12ish page booklet which is my spin on what it takes to be a desirable CRT. Not a good CRT, there are a whole bunch of good CRTs out there! It's about polishing off your Professional Identity in ways that help you to have a good amount of career satisfaction as well as getting that professional identity out there so schools can see it and want to put you right near the top of their CRT preference list!
I mean, really, how could I have a store devoted to CRTs without having a booklet like this?
The last project in the pipeline is an interesting one for me to do! One of the ways I recieve extra work in schools is by specializing in intervention level literacy. Over the years I've developed my own set of activities, systems and ethics about approaching the students and their education. It's been a very interesting journey to put it down on paper! My husband just keeps telling me "You're just a natural born teacher, stop thinking about it because all that makes you do is stress out. Just walk in and do it and you'll get it right, you always have". And he's kind of right because I've always taken the CRT approach, used my CRT skillset and modified my methods on the fly to suit particular students.
It's actually where many of my activities come from. I get stuck, scan the room for simple stuff I can have the student help me quickly make something out of that does what the student needs it to do. Then I refine and add to it over time until it works for just about all of my students (nothing works for everyone is one lesson I've learned over the years!)
This is where I'm comfortable. Analyzing it or writing it all down?
Well, I've never studied my methods or tried to figure out why they work so well. They just do and in the end working out why was always kind of like just making more work for myself.
Teachers pay Teachers though gives me a reason to do it and I'm kind of glad it has. I knew I was good at what I do, I just didn't realize the pool of knowledge I had to pull from until I was given a reason to pull it apart and look at it!
This one will take a while to produce as to make it as effective as it should be I think the production of a few support videos to go along with it is a good idea!
Regards,
Mel.
Over the next couple of weeks I will also be putting the finishing touches on the new ones I have trialled in the classroom and add them to the bank of stuff ready for TpT.
I've also been working on a new 12ish page booklet which is my spin on what it takes to be a desirable CRT. Not a good CRT, there are a whole bunch of good CRTs out there! It's about polishing off your Professional Identity in ways that help you to have a good amount of career satisfaction as well as getting that professional identity out there so schools can see it and want to put you right near the top of their CRT preference list!
I mean, really, how could I have a store devoted to CRTs without having a booklet like this?
The last project in the pipeline is an interesting one for me to do! One of the ways I recieve extra work in schools is by specializing in intervention level literacy. Over the years I've developed my own set of activities, systems and ethics about approaching the students and their education. It's been a very interesting journey to put it down on paper! My husband just keeps telling me "You're just a natural born teacher, stop thinking about it because all that makes you do is stress out. Just walk in and do it and you'll get it right, you always have". And he's kind of right because I've always taken the CRT approach, used my CRT skillset and modified my methods on the fly to suit particular students.
It's actually where many of my activities come from. I get stuck, scan the room for simple stuff I can have the student help me quickly make something out of that does what the student needs it to do. Then I refine and add to it over time until it works for just about all of my students (nothing works for everyone is one lesson I've learned over the years!)
This is where I'm comfortable. Analyzing it or writing it all down?
Well, I've never studied my methods or tried to figure out why they work so well. They just do and in the end working out why was always kind of like just making more work for myself.
Teachers pay Teachers though gives me a reason to do it and I'm kind of glad it has. I knew I was good at what I do, I just didn't realize the pool of knowledge I had to pull from until I was given a reason to pull it apart and look at it!
This one will take a while to produce as to make it as effective as it should be I think the production of a few support videos to go along with it is a good idea!
Regards,
Mel.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Easing into fun (and engagement)!
I am a big believer that CRTs are not babysitters, we are not any less of a professional than any other teacher and we can make a big difference in a student's life. Yes, I understand that we don't know the students backgrounds, or religious standing, mother or father's name or even if they have a learning difficulty. But I know, CRTs are some of the best teachers I have worked with and are proud to work along side. CRTs are some of the most creative and inspiring teachers out in schools, who take every situation as it comes, handle changes at the drop of a hat and quite often, fly under the radar, when thanks are handed out.
On my second day of work the classroom teacher was conducting assessment of her students. A prep/one class. She had left me a loose outline for the day and didn't really expect much more than for the kids to be happy and settled through the day. She was dropping in and out of the room all day, taking students and bringing them back (and sort of checking up on the class). She was a bit nervous as this was the first time the class had had a CRT for the year and she wanted it to be a pleasant experience.
She arrived in after our writing session and to her surprise, she was swamped by students and their workbooks, trying to show her their work! She took ten minutes out of her assessing schedule and read as many students' writing as possible, congratulating all the students on their imagination. The smile never left her face.
This teacher caught me at the end of the day and thanked me, also making the point that each student left the room at the end of the day with a smile on their face. :-)
What more could we all have hoped for. Happy, engaged students! Happy classroom teacher! And a happy me, after having a day full of fun, excitement and lots of learning!
Mel
On my second day of work the classroom teacher was conducting assessment of her students. A prep/one class. She had left me a loose outline for the day and didn't really expect much more than for the kids to be happy and settled through the day. She was dropping in and out of the room all day, taking students and bringing them back (and sort of checking up on the class). She was a bit nervous as this was the first time the class had had a CRT for the year and she wanted it to be a pleasant experience.
She arrived in after our writing session and to her surprise, she was swamped by students and their workbooks, trying to show her their work! She took ten minutes out of her assessing schedule and read as many students' writing as possible, congratulating all the students on their imagination. The smile never left her face.
What more could we all have hoped for. Happy, engaged students! Happy classroom teacher! And a happy me, after having a day full of fun, excitement and lots of learning!
Mel
Friday, February 22, 2013
My first day in the classroom for 2013!
It was one of those classes. Mostly good kids with one or two who want to misbehave and 3 students somewhere on the Autism spectrum. All indicators were that it wasn't going to be an easy day but I wasn't facing insurmountable odds, one of the Autistic students has an aide so there was plenty of help on hand!
The regular teacher also knows me and respects my classroom skills so the lesson plan I got basically amounted to "just make sure you do some descriptive writing and the rest is up to you". I love these teachers to death! Free reign to flex my Teaching strategies and give the kids a really enjoyable day (and have one myself)!
The other reason I love these days, even when they could be a little difficult, is it gives me reason to think and I "get ideas". I found 2 new books to do lesson plans around and the kids have a wonderful time!
Now I just have to knuckle down and write them out :P.
Mel.
The regular teacher also knows me and respects my classroom skills so the lesson plan I got basically amounted to "just make sure you do some descriptive writing and the rest is up to you". I love these teachers to death! Free reign to flex my Teaching strategies and give the kids a really enjoyable day (and have one myself)!
The other reason I love these days, even when they could be a little difficult, is it gives me reason to think and I "get ideas". I found 2 new books to do lesson plans around and the kids have a wonderful time!
Now I just have to knuckle down and write them out :P.
Mel.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Today's video: Adding to your Makaton Sign bank!
My first Makaton video, "using Sign Language as an engagement tool" can be found here.
Regards,
Mel.
Regards,
Mel.
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