A new year and a new class name. After so much preparation and day one finally arrived. We had severe winds and heavy rain in the lead up
days, some places have been flooded and some have experiences tornadoes. This morning I woke to sunshine and blue sky. What a relief and an answer to prayer! A great start to the new school year.
The children and parents arrived and it was all systems go.
I had a teacher assistant up until lunch time today. I now have all the books labelled and on the
correct shelf, the children have set up their own tidy trays and the tissue boxes
are ready for those coughs and sneezes that come during the year. The parents
left after a few quick words about no homework or parent helpers this week and
it was time to launch into wbt. I had watched the Day one webinar last night
just to make sure I had things clear in my mind before the day started.
We started with class, yes and the electronic scoreboard. For
the first time I had a child say class back to me but I was not really
surprised, as Coach B did say that may happen. The children love the scoreboard
and so do I. In the past I was always looking for a whiteboard marker or on the
wrong side of the room. Now I just get a child to tap the Ipad and they love
it. We then moved onto rule 1 and used mirror words and gestures. Fun burst
worked really well. They also really liked it when I demonstrated what follow
directions, was not going to look like. The children were rewarded with some
free play time when the happy faces won.
I was able to incorporate two lots of small group talks
about different topics and already the children have the idea, that I expect
them to be doing what is asked. They were not so thrilled when the odd sad face
scored a point. Some other techniques used today were ‘’hands and eyes’’ and ’’ it’s o.k.” I only taught the class up until
lunch time so tomorrow will see us add in rule two, teach/o.k and our first
power pix. My Super Improvers wall is on display but no child has made a
comment about it yet.
In conclusion, day one was amazing and I know the children
were using their whole brains. I am also amazed by what you can learn about a
group of individuals in one morning. I look forward to day two. To the stars,
hoot, hoot!
