The children in my Year 2 classroom loved to learn outside of the classroom - even if it was just out in the playground or in someone else's classroom. They loved hands on activities where they could make their own learning and ask their own questions. As soon as children knew where and how to access information, they would enthusiastically and independently go off in search of answers. They also loved to share their learning with other children so they became the experts.
School helps you learn about how to look after yourself and you can have fun.
The coolest part is playtime and free time and sports and swimming.
Going on the ipads and going out at play time.
How I learn best in class: ipads, computers, working with others, by yourself and with the teacher.
working with the teacher, hands on activities, drawing to get my ideas out.
Would like not to have a uniform - it makes me feel uncomfortable/weird, be able to bring my toys, tardis in the playground that you can climb in and over, skate park - the gounds more adventurous.
These answers are from two boys with ASD - one is ORs funded - who have both made tremendous progress in literacy and mathematics this year.
I have just been on School camp. What an amazing classroom that is and how many boxes does it tick. Yes a lot of planning, but if you are planning an activity that is truly worthy in the classroom how long does it take you?
In our short 2 days we covered The Arts, Physical Education, Science and lots of the key competencies and values that are intertwined in all of our curriculum areas. The best part was for the children to see you as a person and for you as the teacher to see them as a 'whole child'. The little things you don't get to see in a classroom.
EOTC should be made easier, not harder, maybe school should be given a separate EOTC budget, that allows camps to happen at all schools.
Hey Jo, I agree that camp is fantastic!! I bet you are exhausted but satisfied and you comments really got me thinking. One of my seniors reply when I asked him what he was doing for the long weekend was "I'll be online playing probably." I asked whether he was going to be doing anything else and he said "probably not, Mum's working and Dad will be need a break from working all week but don't worry Mrs Scott as I can do everything online no matter what the weather and its safe." This really got me thinking as he was sure that all his needs including talking with his mates could be sorted online and I couldn't argue as he could answer every idea I had with an online alternative. Being a gamer myself I could understand his enjoyment of the creative online environments but I still love to be outside etc, how much is too much and how educational is it????
We are considering very seriously how to create truely innovative learning enviornments for our two NE-Yr1 classes for next year. We have opened up the wall between the two classes and we are ready to try something new and exciting.
The comments already made here are interesting and clearly show that children like to learn in different ways and in different contexts. Being able to provide an innovative environment that will capture the interests and needs of all learners would be wonderful.
What would it look like? Varied, bright, spacious, comfortable, elements of choice and routine, using the school enviornment,
To support our learning: technology,expertise from each other and the community and some new play based resources would be great for our NE.
The seniors at our school are in BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) classrooms. Most children bring to school their devices (ipads, tablets, laptops, ipods etc) and have the choice of uploading their work on the likes of Google Docs and sharing with myself as the teacher or also with parents/whanau. They have the internet on hand at all times during the day to support them in their learning. Each child chooses where they work in the classroom to suit their style and where works best for them and their devices. We encourage children to upload work, videos and photos online via Google or Ultranet so it is available from any device. We are wanting to have our seniors to eventually be in Modern Learning Environments where our senior teachers and students will collaborate and learn together.
Learning at school needs to be engaging and relevant. Children need to be clear about learning intentions and success criteria. Studies have shown that, when students are clear about what they need to do they can become proficient in self-assessment; this can really enhance learning. This comes back to bringing the community in, engaging children by giving them relevant contexts and incorporating learning tools such as ICT (e.g. LEARNZ) to widen their horizons.
School is an environment where children expect to learn and whanau 'leave' children in our care to be educated. To make the most of that 'drop and learn' practice, finding out who the children are and what they know and are interested in leads the engagement of our tamariki. ideally for me, having a range of 'sites' in the classroom that pull children and help them to learn from emerging experts amongst themselves, is relevant learning. Children's talk at home becomes more lively and parents are more likely to engage in the school setting. It is the exploring, wondering and questioning of the world or classroom, that should inform our next steps with the children. Teaching foundation skills (3Rs) in the early years remains pivotal. So... time to jump off a cliff and do things differently. i/we are looking at teacher led reading and writing less often and following interests more often. Watch this space.
I held an interesting discussion with a group of parents about learning and I was pleased to discover that they weren't focused on the physical buildings that are available - it was more about the learning opportunities available that will ignite and engage the students interests. Below are some of the points we discussed:
Flexible learning times - having some choice in the times that they are learning certain things - core subjects in the morning!!
Homework - this being more project based that is interesting and open-ended. This also allows for the child to do as much as they feel they can.
Ignition activities that will "spark" their interests.
Building on experiences.
Learning from the Community
Focus on teaching research process and working on common tasks that can fit in a range of topics
Elements of choice in programmes generated from the children.
Finding innovative ways to use the learning spaces available
Trees outside
Physical Activity - activities that are practical and are clearly linked to a purpose and learning intentions
We would love to hear your suggestions on what you think:
To make the most of that 'drop and learn' practice, finding out who the children are and what they know and are interested in leads the engagement of our tamariki. ideally for me, having a range of 'sites' in the classroom that pull children and help them to learn from emerging experts amongst themselves, is relevant learning. Children's talk at home becomes more lively and parents are more likely to engage in the school setting. It is the exploring, wondering and questioning of the world or classroom, that should inform our next steps with the children. Teaching foundation skills (3Rs) in the early years remains pivotal. So... time to jump off a cliff and do things differently. i/we are looking at teacher led reading and writing less often and following interests more often. Watch this space. 