Shoebox Café BLOG - Private Tutor & Childminder PERTH & KINROSS, SCOTLAND

Put it in a jar! Sometimes, it's easy to forget about those wonderful 'wow moments' . However hard we try as teachers to recognise those precious moments, they're so easy to forget with the every day hustle & bustle of a buzzing school. Not to mention the one million other 'TO DO' things you're trying to remember.  Inspired by a friend, try this! It's simple and very effective! Throughout your academic year, every time one of your students amaze you with a 'wow moment', write it onto a post-it note and add it to your class jar. At the end of the year, sit and read these moments with your class. You will be amazed at how much progress can be shared together, not to mention the warmth created within the atmosphere, seeing smiles all around when you walk down memory lane. Give it a try... 'the best PSHE lesson I ever had, revealing their moments.'

2013 Batik Factory Visit   Jerejak Residential  Chinese New Year  Landscapes We have thoroughly enjoyed a variety of great outdoors learning experiences this year. Year 3 have taken part in the following: Visit to a Batik Factory (Fashion) Visit to a clothes factory (Fashion) Jerejak Island Residential (Rainforests) Divali Celebrations Chinese New Year Celebrations Navigation Around the school (Adventurers and Explorers) Visit to the local beach (Science) Adventure to Turtle Beach (Adventurers and Explorers) Wow...such a busy year! :) 

Up the mountain we go! It's that time of the year again when I'm permanently glued to the computer. As I type this post, I have unfortunately got distracted from my reports in the need of having a break! ;-) Whilst I sit here chomping on a double chocolate subway cookie, I am attempting to have a quick 5 minute break.  ..... Break over!  TIPS FOR ORGANISING YOUR REPORTS 1) Set up your student files by gender! This is very simple and stops the issue of needing to find and replace he's, she's, his, her, himself, herself...etc. 2) Inside your gender files, set up 3-4 differentiated folders (Low, middle, middle-high, high) 3) Create a bank of general comments in-line with your differentiated groups, copy & paste for every child in that group followed by a quick edit and tweek.  If you have any other fantastic ideas to support with this long process...do tell! ;-)

This post was also shared on The Staff Room We all know that peer and self assessment is the best way to ensure that our students are truly reflecting on their progress. It's with self and peer evaluation that helps young students learn how to assess their efforts and achieve the highest level of thinking; evaluation.  What do you think? How do you feel? What do you think you have improved? How have you improved since your last attempt? Was your outcome successful? If so, how? If not, why?  Not only is self evaluation crucial, peer evaluation offers our students the opportunity to learn how to provide supportive and constructive feedback to others. A necessary skill needed in employment. It can be very challenging to implement this with our timetable demands. How can we find the time to do this? Tip 1 - train your students in a few weeks with this simple key! Symbols are quick and easy to complete. Older students can spend more time writing reflection state...

Learning Logs 'I love doing my learning log every week. I get to choose my own research topic and I really enjoy making my pages interactive with flaps, questions and quizzes for my reader. It's so much fun!' Innuka, 8 Years Old, SCIPS, Penang. Are you bogged down with the daunting task of preparing daily homework for your class? Do your activities allow for creativity, choice & independence? Are you setting homework daily, marking daily & feeling frustrated with sheets/books/sheets/books/sheets/books piling up on your desk, on top of your daily class work? Learning logs are one of the best teaching ideas to inspire children to write. With a purpose, an audience and independence to choose, every child can present their ideas, thoughts and research in their own unique way. A way to improve this scrap-booking log idea further, children could present their research online by blogging either directly or by posting images of their log entry. Parents love ...

Wow! Those 2 weeks flew by :( I could seriously enjoy a further month off by the beach. I enjoyed a lovely weekend away in Bali even though our intended trip was supposed to be 10 days...we kind of spent too much money early on! Oh well...it was a great weekend though! I've really enjoyed setting up my blog and sharing posts with you this holiday. During my teaching term, I will be making every effort to keep this up every week...somehow! My new mission. It's the term of dreaded long report writing again.  *Does anybody have any great teaching tips to share about this? How to manage your time etc?? Share with me here as a comment, or if you would like your ideas published in the The Staff Room @ www.thestaffroom4teachers.blogspot.com please send an email to me at: staffroom925@gmail.com It's great professional development, great exposure & completely free... Enjoy the rest of your break everyone!  Miss Rix

Please read my article on SUCCESS CHECK POINTS - A great way to ensure formative assessment is effective in your classroom. CLICK HERE Published in the Staff Room @ www.thestaffroom4teachers.blogspot.com