Rocky shore or Tidal Pools Mini Diorama

Hi guys, it's been a while since my last post. But I am very excited about this great little theatre piece or should I say diorama I put together. This is perfect for studies on the Rocky shore or Tidal Pools. I love the clip art done by Educlips. 

This comes both in black and white as well as color. This is very children as young as 7 to 11. All depending on the classroom and age levels mind you. 

Please enjoy the short video I put together.

Rockyshore product only $2.99

Student Choice in Their Learning

Why do children love choice in their academic work, well they just do. Think about it  if your principal asked you to do something according to the book at precisely the same time each day, wouldn't you think it's time to change it up? Well it's the same with children. They need choice. 

When I first began teaching which was about 15 years ago, I taught according to the prescribed mode. That means Reading, Writing and Math were at particular times of the day and all class members had to do the subject as I saw fit. But that is how I was trained and that's the way I thought would work. For me I found this system draining and the children themselves did not enjoy the routine day in and day out. 

During my professional development time with a particular North Auckland School we were part of a school cluster which shared information and ideas. One day we had a day of lectures, workshops and teaching which we elected to do. One of these Lectures involved an Australian Principal who explained the way her students learned and teachers taught. Essentially the students dictated the learning. They choose the curriculum subjects and objectives they wanted to learn. The teachers became facilitators rather than teachers. The students called them by their first name.
So then in my classroom I decided to try and implement these ideas into my classroom. I photocopied a number of learning sheets and wrote down a number of topic ideas for the children to choose to complete by the end of the that period. Now remember this was radical teaching for me at that stage. How did it work? It worked pretty well actually. Yes there are those kids who are unfocused and don't complete all the learning material by a set point, but what it did is it gave students choice in their learning. The students themselves told me they preferred this method because they felt they had some sense of control. For me it was great in that the class were on task, doing topics they wanted to do first and then knew what to  do once they finished. 

Fast forward 10 years and what do I see? In many classes in Hastings at least, I see a number of classes who have combined together. That means two classes as one. The students design their timetable for the day and get on with their morning or day work. If I the teacher can help I do. Of course while independent learning is going on, the teachers take reading, writing and math workshops. This enables students to opt to take classes which they feel will aid them. 

The jury is out whether I like the two classroom idea. I prefer the once classroom idea really. There just seems to be bodies everywhere in this system. It's slightly easier for the teacher because it is two people planning the classroom learning. But sometimes it's nice of have control over what it is you want to teach students yourself and not give it up to another teacher. 

Oral Language-Sticks

The importance of oral language for children. After many years working with young children and even older children I still have a sense of sadness when I come across children who can't express their wants and needs or even recount a fun experience with confidence.

I believe it is very important for children to have a sense of confidence in themselves when using oral language. Often it is girls who hold back and allow the same children to answers questions and make statements on whatever line or topic we are dealing with at the time. I can say it is probably sometimes teachers fault who allow or cater to boys speech more so thank girls. I am probably guilty of doing just that. However I am very conscious of it and steer away from sexist or racist pedegogy of teaching.

Oral Language Sticks
I use these when I am in certain classes where I know there are particular children who dominate the conversation. I use cards or sticks with children's names on them. I let the class know that I am going to pull out a name from my box and that child when then have to answer my questions or make a satement. That means the dominating child will have to allow others to speak AND require more reluctant children to build confidence in their speech when it is expected of them. Yes it's hard to immplement and yes you will get resistence, but in the long run you will see positive results.

I first saw this done on an English television documentary where a consultant was asked to change the dynamics of the school. The very confident students were quite angry that they had to take a backseat and within a couple of months they actually didn't like the change of answering questions, so they took out their names from their teachers jars. The teachers worked this out and the documentary crew asked the girls why they did what they did. They said that they knew they couldn't answer the questions when their names where pulled out of the jars, so it was easier to take their names out. Or in another words, they didn't want to be shown up for not knowing answers when in the past they often knew the answers and so were more than confident at answering questions.

If as a teacher you try this in your class, ensure you check out the number of sticks match the number of children in your class. Oh and by the way this works very well with children, teens and adults.

Character Traits

It's important for teachers and students to work on their character traits. From respect, responsibility to being helpful in life.

In the classroom as a teacher I find especially as a substitute teacher how many students especially from lower socio economic backgrounds sometimes lack the virtue or character traits akin to that of responsibility.

I recently taught kids who come from gang backgrounds and with this often comes, alcohol and drug abuse from the parents. This often influences the children to do the same.  I have taught a Year 7 and 8 class which is Grade 8 and 9. Most of these kids were from local gangs. Their weekends were often filled with parties, getting stoned and high. Therefore you were dealing with kids, who were coming off from a high and who had real difficulty focusing or even caring.

I had to teach in this particular class for a week and it was one of my worst weeks of teaching, but I did know what I was going into. I was warned by the classroom teacher.  On day one, I had students challenge me and my teaching background. I had students, not listen and get out their phones. I had kids talk to their neighbours and not care that I had set work for them. I had kids swear and had really bad attitudes. It was virtually impossible to get them to trust me until Thursday and Friday. It was incredibly difficult work all in all and wasn't worth the money. In New Zealand the money is quite good on a daily basis compared to other countries. But no, my sanity was worth more.

Now I want to emphasize that most lower socio-economic areas have wonderful schools, teachers, parents and kids, however I was talking about an unusual class.

When their parents feel that life have left them behind they take it out on themselves and have less care for their children. The children in turn bring these bad behaviours to school. This isn't specific to a particular race, because I have met this bad attitude from kids of different backgrounds and races.

What really bought home, was their absolute defiance and inability to take responsibility for their actions. They didn't get on with each other and often used put downs. To solve anything they'd swear and fight about it. But they'd blame, blame and blame each other but never, "Yes I was at fault and I'm sorry."

This is why I developed the unit Character Traits with lesson plans and worksheets. I want to have kids really think about their contribution and responsibility in dealing with adversity and different personalities in class. To be honest I am not sure that that particular class can be helped as most children did not act with mature or responsible behaviour. But I know that children who are teetering on the edge of misbehaviour can be helped and of course for most 'normal' kids these character traits serve as a good reminder and reinforcer. Most kids need guidance and this needs to be done often in the classroom and at home.

I feel that Responsibility is most important, so I want to show you part of this large bundle of character traits below.

Character Traits FreeBe

Responsibility
Download your free character traits Lesson plan on Responsibility.

I have included:

* 3 Lessons Plans
* 3 Worksheets
* I can statements
* One full colored poster.

All for your teaching pleasure.

Please follow me here on blogger and on my Fun Creatives shop home on Teachers Pay Teachers and on Facebook.

 

Fun Creatives for Teachers

Hello Teachers and how is it all going for you. This is my site's name is Fun Creatives for Teachers. I am really pleased to offer a range of tips and tricks as well as excellent teaching products for your fun and please.

I have been teaching elementary or primary school for over 10 years, both as a full time teacher and relief or substitute teachers. Throughout this time I have also been heavily involved in Theater and Drama both on television and on stage. So as you can image my teaching has been heavily influenced by the 'dramatics' as well.

I live in New Zealand and have taught mainly in the Auckland areas, teaching a range of socio economic areas. I cut my teeth with those students who came from the lower socio economic classes and this is where I found my teaching style. I came to appreciate the hardships kids go through and their families. I have also taught very wealthy older students and adults drama and that was also an eye opening experience.

I have also had a teaching role to some degree, such as in the classroom, with adults or even as a director and stage manager on the stage. So I love sharing my knowledge and making things 'happen' from the imagination, hence why I love teaching young children.

As a result of teaching kids, I've often had to develop worksheets, plans, resources to go with whatever subject I was teaching. This gave me a good insight in how to make resources to a high degree which works in the classroom. Also I was very lucky to work with a well known New Zealand children's celebrity Suzi Cato who offered me the change to write two educational books for teachers which included lesson plans, objectives, worksheets and related subject areas to work on. I also had the change to work on television scripts for the programs which were related to the educational workbook for teachers that I wrote. So as you can see I had the opportunity to research, write and oversea topic areas which are often taught in the school curriculum. The program is was from the Bryan and Bobby series dedicated for children ages 5-10.

So I have been noticing this great website called Teachers Pay Teachers which featured many great resources which I have needed. I have bought quite a few products from this site from Greek Urns for Adults (teaching Greek History) and drama games. Hence me wanting to develop my own resources for sale with Fun Creatives for Teachers.

I started in 2015 with some clip art and which didn't really sell well. This was probably due to the great clip art which was already out there AND also because I was just starting and hadn't had any followers. This is also something I am now beginning to work on.

So far as of Sep 2015 I have 35 products for sale and have sold around about  $350 worth of digital products. I am quite happy with this because it excites me to get sales. My sales kicked in as of the beginning of August 2015 which was about a month and a half ago. I did get a few sales from April onwards, but this was when it really kicked in which was the beginning of the new school year in the USA. So I can see the potential in the future. But I have to keep working on creating good products for sale as well as working on this blog to give good tips and tricks so people can take these and do what they will with them.

So hence my Fun Creatives website on Teachers Pay Teachers is on it's way as we speak.

First Tip and Trick

First tip and trick for selling. My advice so far is for you to take things slowly and don't despair if you don't get too many sales at first, just know it's a slow burner. Follow the forums at TPT which give you excellent advice in how to sell and advertise your products. Just make sure you make products which are high quality and have a great cover page. That means bright and colorful and the wording is not too hard to read. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Sell-Items

Thanks so much, do follow me here on Blogger and on Fun Creatives for teachers at TPT. I would very much appreciate it.