Longworth Education Conference: Transition to school

 Transition to School by Jill Skkjottrup

Links between Te Whaariki and NZ curriculum 

Constructivism 

Social and cultural experiences, children develop their knowledge through experiences 

Importance of relationships 

Relationship with the teacher, whanau, peers 

Knowing the child and getting to know the family 

Emotional security between a teacher and the children affects how the children play  

A sense of belonging 

How do we know that the child is the heart of the matter? 

P42 NZ curriculum - intended link between the curriculum and Te Whaariki 

Linking to Level 1 

This is why we are doing it, we know that there is a smooth link between the two curriculums. 

Are you a ready school? 

Find out about the learner 

What the learner brings to the environment 

Environment as the 3rd teacher 

The child is the first teacher, being creative, experimenting 

Being ready for the child 

Sheets, ropes, and pegs 

Piaget theory- developmental stages 

Natural resources 

Foster imagination 

Three Ps 

Play, Pocket, Planet 

Do they connect to nature in the environment? 

It is the process that is important not the product 

Do children have access to the equipment? 

Outside environment 

Woodwork table, water trough on the deck 

How often do you allow your children outside? 

What are the barriers at your school and how can you overcome them? 

Why do some students find transitions so difficult? 

Supporting other teachers with ICT needs

Over the last 4 weeks, I have been creating little how to videos for teachers so that it will be really helpful for the teachers to navigate themselves during the time of online learning.
First thing I did was download Screencastify which allows me to record the desktop of my laptop. This way, I can show people how I am doing certain things on my laptop without videoing myself with a phone.
I have created videos about how to use Sunshine Classics and how to upload a video on Blogger. More helpful Seesaw videos were added as well.
I have shared this with the whole school so that the teachers can have access to it and saved it on our drive. 
I think I find myself always wanting to up skill myself and learn new things. I like to be creative and using Seesaw, I can add some creative aspects to it in terms of how I present the activities to the children and families.
I have also really enjoyed working with other teachers and communicate about how other people are doing certain things online and learn from each other. This itself has been a great professional development. I think that I feel more confident about using Google drive, Seesaw, Screencastify, Vimeo, and IMovie.
When I go back to school, I would really like to keep up the use of Seesaw with the children. Now the children have had some chances to use Seesaw and how they can communicate with me or others, I think this might encourage and extend the use of Seesaw in the classroom.

Reflection on the science conference

Going to this science conference for 3 days with Edie has been very valuable and eye-opening experience. I really did not know what to expect for this conference and I feel that I have learnt so much about what science learning is about and what Edie has been trying to work on with the support from Royal Society Te Aparangi.

Sharing our science experience with others and listening to other people experiences have been really beneficial to understand how we can teach science and get the children to feel really excited and be engaged in the science experiences.

There were a lot of opportunities to discuss, share ideas and hear thought provoking ideas, and I really enjoyed this part. I like how Jen said about how teachers say that science is everywhere, but we as teachers have professional responsibilities to teach our children and that we need to know what we are about to teach.

Over the 3 days, I thought a lot about myself as a teacher, science teaching and science in our school. I have never really thought myself as a science person, someone who is really interested in science although I do have some interest areas like sustainability, insects and looking after our environment. If I really want my children to think like a scientist or act like a scientist, first of all, I need to establish their ideas about scientists. Then, we can establish and explore our ideas about scientist. When we know that we are all scientists and we all do what scientists do in our daily lives, I can then use the language like "I like the way you are thinking like a scientist!" Using words like observing, describing, and gathering data in my practice is also really important so that it is explicit teaching and they will understand what these actions mean. I feel that I know where I want to start from next year with my new group of children to explore science in a more explicit way.

Listening to Edie and sharing ideas with her has been so valuable and I have learnt so much from her for the last 3 days and have felt her passion in teaching science. I didn't know how much time and effort Edie has put in order to create the past unit plans. It was so great to work together to develop the next year's unit and we were very excited to share this with our group and get some feedback.

Visual support implemented

To support a child with limited language, I have been using visuals and New Zealand Sign Language to support the child ways to communicate his needs/feelings.

The time schedule helps M understand what will happen that day and what is coming next. The running card is used when he starts feeling full of excitements and when he is not able to deal with those feelings. When this happens, he is jumping, running, not able to regulate his feelings. He puts the lanyard on and goes for a run around the school. Sitting on a bean bag at mat time works amazingly as possibly this hugs him in and he feels content. 

M knows some basic signs and he communicates using these signs. He is really interested in signing the alphabet and really enjoys this time. He signed 'same' and 'fish' in the same sentence the other day which really surprised me. 

Using these visuals and New Zealand Sign Language gave ways for M to be able to communicate his needs/wants/feelings. He is less frustrated and is able to regulate more often than when he started school. He is developing the routines of the day because of the time schedule. More importantly, he is developing friendships which enables him to stay in the classroom for play. 

Changing the learning environment

Throughout teaching in ECE settings, we have always said that the environment is the third teacher. I have always believed in this statement as I know how important our learning environment is for our children.

It is so important to set up our environment so that it is inviting for our children. I want the children to feel that they are comfortable in the environment and that they want to play and explore with the materials and resources that are set up in the classroom.

During the term 1, I really struggled with the fact that we did not really have an inviting reading area. Due to the limited space, I placed some books on top of the puzzle shelf. I never really saw children reading or looking through books, so I would display a couple of books in a basket so it would look a little more inviting, and this seemed to work as I saw a couple of children reading or looking through the books.

I thought that this really needed to be changed as I felt that it was really important for me and the children to have a reading corner.

With the help of our school care taker, I was able to make some space in the corner of the classroom. The bookshelf that we have is a little hard to use for our small children, but it still looks inviting. I placed a couch in front of it as well so they can sit and read books there.

I also wanted this place to be a calm area where children can come and have their own space. It is important to create a space where their privacy is respected, but also at the same time the children know how to manage themselves in this area as it can be hard to see when I am at the jellybean table teaching a group of children.
I placed a doll house with new dolls in this area too.

As we came back in Term 2, some girls were immediately drawn to this area and really enjoy spending time here. I saw our teaching assistant spending time with some children reading, and many children love this area to play with dolls in the doll house, or little teddy bears that I got recently.

I would like to place a mat on the floor for comfort and possibly put some cushions around so that it can be comfortable for the children.

I feel that this change of the environment was quite successful as I see children utilise this area much more than before. I will provide a mat and some cushions in this area to see if that changes anything. I hope to see more children engaged in reading as well.