Goal Two Evidence

My class had 54 children, 29 of whom speak English as a second language (ELL), two teachers and several Teacher Aides who work regularly with some of the ELL children, which is a large number of people to get to know in a short space of time.

Learning the children’s names was a challenge, especially as I was unfamiliar with many of the names. However knowing the names of all the children in the class is vitally important, most importantly from a relationship perspective but also for ease of classroom management, and it was definitely a priority for me. The first week was not standard, as we had some extra children in the class on the first Monday and Tuesday and a trip to a local Marae with three other classes on the first Friday, so it took me longer to learn all the names than I had hoped.

I found that while I got to know the children very quickly, it did take time to connect their name and them. Each day I connected more names and children and by the middle of the second week, I felt like I knew all of their names, although I did get confused occasionally (in my defence, the teachers would also occasionally use the wrong name).

The class started with free play each morning, and so that I could get to know the children better, I would join in with a different group each morning. This really helped me to get to know the children and observe the classroom dynamics. On the second morning, one child (A) became upset because some other children started playing with the Lego he wanted to play with. Another child (B) immediately asked him if he wanted to share the Lego that he was playing with, and they started building a structure together. I was impressed that child B instantly noticed that child A was upset and followed through with an action that made child A feel better. I had been chatting with child B’s mother at drop off and pick up throughout the week and when I saw her on the Marae trip, I decided to describe the situation to her, as I felt that her son had acted in a very empathetic way. She told me that hearing about this incident made her day, as you never quite know if you’re doing the right thing when you’re raising a child, and it made her so happy to hear how kindly her son had acted. This example brought home to me how important the relationship is between school and home, as children are at school for a large portion of the day and parents don’t necessarily know what is happening or how their child behaves when they’re apart.

During drop off and pick up I made a point of greeting and chatting with parents (and children) and got to some know of them. On several occasions I noticed when a child was reluctant for their parent to leave by talking to the child and involving them in an activity I knew would interest them. When children came in each morning, they put their names up on a whiteboard under one of four sections – I feel happy, I feel OK, I feel bad, I feel bad and would like a check-in with a teacher. I started to keep an eye on this and would make a point of having a chat throughout the day with the children that had said they feel bad or would like a check-in. I also noted some of the children that consistently said ‘I feel OK’ and would also ask how they were doing. I think that using the board in this way was helpful for me as it gave me an understanding of how children were feeling and meant that I was aware if they were feeling ‘off’. I found the children seemed to appreciate these conversations and some started initiating discussions with me.

While I was in the class, one child gave me a card that they had made for me during free time and another a small piece of paper, which when unfolded had a picture that they had drawn for me. I was really touched by these and felt that it showed I had made a genuine connection with these children.

As time went by, I had more and more children connecting with me in a variety of ways, such as by telling me what they had been doing out of school or coming up to me in the playground to say hello or show me the game they were playing . One child had a slightly sore ankle (she hurt it outside of school) which was making it hard for her to tie her laces. I sympathised about her ankle and showed her a different way to tie her laces so her ankle was more protected in her hi-top sneakers. She gave me updates on her ankle over the next few days and wanted to show me each day that she was tying her laces in the ‘new’ way.

For our class trip to the Marae, we needed to prepare wool for the girls to make poi. I helped four teachers with this one lunchtime and it was a great opportunity to have a bit of time to get to know them in a more informal situation. At the end of it, we still needed more lengths of wool made and the plastic circles cut out. I offered to finish them off in our classroom (which I did while my AT was reading The BFG after lunch and the children were watching a video on Marae protocol). I think this was appreciated as one of the teachers had been going to take them home to finish overnight.

Dinah Harvey ran a session on maths after school on Thursday 19^th March. I didn’t know it was happening (my AT was away that day), but the other teacher in my class suggested I attend, at relatively short notice. I found it a really helpful session for a number of reasons. The content was interesting, including discussion about how maths at home could work if schools were closed and all teachers brought a maths game which we discussed in groups. There were also some games introduced by Dinah, which we then played. I hadn’t met many of the teachers who attended so it was a good opportunity to get to know them (we did lots of work in small groups, so there was a lot of discussion) and I got some good ideas, one of which I used with a maths group in class several days later.

I designed and made laminated name tags with the children’s passwords for their computers and mathletics (as it sometimes took a very long time for them to locate their passwords which were stuck in their exercise book) and laminated some owl pictures the children had done. I did a lot of this in the resource room at lunchtimes and it was a good opportunity to speak with teachers and office staff while cutting and laminating.

Both teachers were away on a TLIF Day on the second Tuesday so we had two relievers in the classroom. Neither of these teachers had been in this class before, so I worked with them to help them understand the class routines and dynamics and took responsibility for picking up a child after morning break/lunch who had some specific behaviour strategies. I found it interesting to see how the class ran with two relievers and was able to compare it when we had one teacher and one reliever on the last three days of practicum as my AT was away sick.

My AT was away for four of the last five days so I didn’t get to speak with her before the school closed, but the other teacher in the classroom told me that I now have a relationship with the school and class and that I was welcome to come back throughout the rest of the year to potentially spend time in the classroom and to discuss questions I have with her. I really appreciated this as I think that spending as much time as possible in the classroom and with different teachers is so important for trainee teachers, particularly when it is a one year course.