The Coconut Tree: 2015

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Haim Ginott (1972): Between Teacher and CHild

I have come to a frightening conclusion:

I am the decisive element in the classroom.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Friendships and Social Relationships

The book in previous post is really a practical book.
lots of love!

Some useful resources to help children develop friendships:

Brown and colleagues (2008) offered a wealth of addtional information supporting the need for social relationships and developing friendships.
Brown, W. H., Odom, S. L. & McConnell, S. R. (2008). Social competence of young children: Risk, disability and intervention. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Vaughn and colleagues (2003) conducted a research synthesis that reviewed 23 social skills interventions that were most effective across disabilities.
Vaughn, S., Lim, A., Morris Sloan, C., Hughes, M., Elbaum, B., & Sridhar, D. (2003). Social skills interventions for young children with disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 24(1), 2-15.

The Center on Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning provides additional resources on interventions that work.
http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/

Hanson and Beckman (2001) described strategies that parents can use to help their children make friends.
Hanson, M. J., & Beckman, P. J. (2001). Me, too! (Vols 1-6). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co,

A book I must buy or borrow!

Monday, August 24, 2015

Sharing from Tanya Burr - C&K Early Childhood Advisor - Guidance and Counselling

In my Inclusion subject today, there were some sharing from Tanya that I really like:

1. As a teacher, no matter which stage you are (first year teacher or lots of years of experience), imagine yourself on a continuum. =) There is always room for improvement. Every day is a learning journey.

2. There is no best practice for children and family. There is a diversity of services out there. What matters is about meeting children and family individual needs.

3. Teachers should not be disheartened when parents are not ready to share. We are part of their journey. We might not be their destination of a partnership. However, we continually build relationship with them so they can reach the destination. Although teachers have the field related knowledge and skills, but we are not experts of their child. Parents are always experts of their own child.

4. While talking with parents, do not jump into the topic straight away. Start with "dog, weather or a cup of tea". Treat them as a person first =)

5. Teaching is about bringing your personality to it. There is no the best teacher role model. Every teacher has different way of doing things, we cant copy everything. Be personalised =) believe in yourself =)

Saturday, August 22, 2015

This is beautiful. Thank you for writing this.

http://pursuitofajoyfullife.com/2014/01/26/what-students-remember-most-about-teachers/

Monday, August 10, 2015

21 children books to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day

http://www.babble.com/babble-voices/21-childrens-books-to-celebrate-world-down-syndrome-day/

Thursday, July 23, 2015

children literature

Children's stories on natural disaster
Erbrusch, W. (2008) Duck, death and the tulip
Mellonie, B., & Ingpen, R.(1983) Lifetimes.
Leson, C., & Hansen, G. (2003). Molly and the storm
Stallone, L The flood that came to Grandma's house.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Teaching strategies for anti-racism or anti-bias education

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Using ICT in classrooms

http://www.scoop.it/t/early-years-ict/p/3303603351/2012/11/12/early-ict-kent

http://www.kelsi.org.uk/

http://www.skoolaborate.com/content/about (collaborative way of using ICT between schools)

http://thekinderkids.edublogs.org/

http://webquest.org/

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html

http://www.ndlrn.edu.au/default.asp
The National Digital Learning Resources Network (NDLRN) is a technical infrastructure that connects Australian schools to enable the distribution and sharing of digital resources through education portals. The Network is the outcome of initiatives of the Australian Government and the state and territory governments.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Education is just fascinating!

We just submitted in our science assignment yesterday, which was also the last assignment of the semester. Just prac, and then exams! that's it!!!! That's it!!!!!!

less work compared to previous semesters =)

So today's literacy tutorial was really interesting. When Lesley was asking our thoughts about assessment, it started a lot of interesting sharing from her.

So, apparently there used to be a really good education program called NEW BASICS in Queensland. But it was removed due to some reasons. Lesley said that this program was really good as it goes like a theme for a term and then different activities covering different curricuulm areas are planned around it.

We shouldn't be teaching static knowledge of disciplines, we should be teaching ways of being in the world.

After all, we don't do knowledge. WE USE KNOWLEDGE TO DO STUFF!

And that was really, really inspiring and motivating. It's by Allan Luke. It reminds me the importance of authentic learning, and looking at education in a macro view. Teach what that would be useful to them. Use the curriculum creatively.

In this prac, I have to remind myself of this!

Lesley said that politicians always blame education whenever there is economic problem or poverty or what, saying that literacy level is low, so we have to restructure the curriculum. The thing with education is everyone have been through education therefore everyone has a say about it. They think that it should be done a certain way.

What I felt at that point was as a teacher undertaking a proper education degree, it is really important for me to justify the decisions i make in education.

So, Jenny was asking me today whether do I like studying.
Yes, I do.
It's moments like this, discussions like this that empower me in what I do. And motivate me to think more, reflect more and do more.

Grateful to be a teacher =)

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The power of being positive

Jenny was telling me that prac next semester is for 4 weeks!

I was shocked
I was worried
I was nervous
The thought of it is just horrifying

Many things to prepare then
Many, many things.....

Then when Chrystal came to talk to us
She explained that 4 weeks is actually fun, you have more time to know the children, build more secure relationships. By knowing them better, it is easier to plan lessons for them and doing differentiation. So much more to learn etc. And at the end of it, you might be crying for leaving them...

A positive thought a positive mind can really make a hugeeee difference.
Suddenly, the crazy stressful feeling faded.
After all, 4 weeks is not that scary hey, hehehehe, at least, what I feel now......

Be positive, darling! <3

Spelling

It was an interesting tutorial where our tutor let us do a spelling test!
To be in children's shoes and feel the spelling test experience....

I loved what Sarah shared at the end. She said that it is important to view spelling as a process, as a continuum. It is not just right or wrong, right spelling or wrong spelling. Let children know that spelling wrongly is not the end, you can improve and progress.

I love her viewpoint. I find it useful in many parts of education and even our life.
Thanks Sarah! =)

Monday, March 30, 2015

Science additional web resources

General Educational Sites

http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au The Queensland Studies Authority

http://www.education.qld.gov.au Education Queensland

http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/pid/1 Education Network Australia - great search engine for educational resources

http://smartmoves.questacon.edu.au/games_and_downloads.asp Canberra museum science and technology website

http://www.abc.net.au/science/ A great site for keeping up to date in the lastest happenings in science

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/4_11/science.shtml The BBC schools´ website: interactive for children

http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/index.cfm Providing a wealth of resources for K-12 science educators, Science NetLinks is your guide to meaningful standards-based Internet experiences for students. Has lesson plans, interactive activities and links to more websites.

http://www.abc.net.au/children/ ABC’s 3-8 years website that has an abundance of activities across all curriculum areas, as does the ABC’s 8-14 website: http://www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/

http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=educationIndex CSIRO’s education home page – lots of opportunities provided to explore science including challenges and awards

www.howstuffworks.com This site is an informational site for adults to help you understand some of the science and technology behind ‘how stuff works’

http://www.science.org.au/pi/goodbooks/index.htm is part of the Australian Academy of Science’s website

http://www.brainboost.com/ "BrainBoost is a revolutionary new search engine. BrainBoost uses Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing techniques to go the extra mile, by actually answering questions, in plain English."

Science: Earth and Space Sciences ( Earth and Beyond)

www.onkaparinga.net/caring/own_ed.shtml Incorporating catchment/water issues into the curriculum

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/kids/kids.html A kids’ site all about volcanoes. Links to home to give you information about volcanoes as well

Biological Sciences (Life and Living)

http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/ The 5 senses

http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/ The Howard Hughes Medical Institute invites curious kids to explore biology...on screen, off screen, and in between. A site dedicated to making science fun for kids

http://www.tased.edu.au/schools/scottsdp/science.htm An example unit on Worms

Science as Human Endeavour (Science and Society)

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors A site with heaps of information on inventions, inventors (historical and present) as well as looking at the invention process today.

http://www.csiro.au/helix/sciencecareers/profiles.htm Several young scientists and engineers profiles in written and video format are presented here to help give students a more realistic look at what being a scientist is really all about!

Chemical Sciences (Natural and Processed Materials)

http://www.tased.edu.au/schools/scottsdp/science.htm A unit on toys

Physical Sciences (Energy and Change)

www.eere.energy.gov/kids/solar.html A US government site for kids all about alternate energy sources including solar, wind, geothermal, alternate fuels and energy efficiency tips

www.teachingheart.net/rainbows.html Some ideas for teaching how rainbows are made

Technology Practice

Technology Practice is also incorporated into all the other strands of the Technology Syllabus

http://www.abc.net.au/schoolstv/technology/default.htm The ABC TV program Take on Technology is aimed at lower primary and takes on an investigative approach to solving problems for a variety of technology and science areas. Click here to see the episodes for 2004, along with teacher notes and a blackline master for DMA (Design Make Appraise) activities

Technology Materials

http://www.shol.com/agita/pigs.htm A site with the story of the 3 little pigs that acts as a link to brick making!

www.btha.co.uk/playsafe/docs/PlaysafeCompetition.pdf 'Make a toy' unit at this site

Technology Systems

http://www.moomilk.com/ An amazing site that does an online tour of the process of milking, from the cow to the market. Very bright and colourful, and of course can be used across many of the science strands also

http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/ Make paper aeroplanes

ICT support sites

http://www.netc.org/earlyconnections/ A site that gives ideas for integrating ICTs into the curriculum

http://4teachers.org/ A technology support for teachers site

http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/ A site for teachers to learn now ICT tools and strategies for using these with children

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

[VIDEOS] Watch A Literacy Lesson

I find literacy very structured in a school setting.
But as I am studying here, I have to go through internship here in order to graduate.
Although I do not plan to work in school setting in the future, I believe knowing more about how literacy is delivered in classrooms do no harm.

A few videos that my lecturer shared with us.
Videos are always great in visualising the lesson.
Enjoy!

TEACHING FLUENCY

http://www.teachingacenglish.edu.au/explicit-teaching/punctuation-and-grammar/explicit-teaching-punctuation-and-grammar-year-2.html

TEACHING VOCABULARY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDoJKlTl4ME

•http://www.teachingacenglish.edu.au/explicit-teaching/reading/explicit-teaching-reading-foundation.html

•Watch teachers talking and a prep child reading – demonstrates very specifically cueing strategies (semantic, syntactic and phonic cues) 8 minutes

•See specific prompts to use with children for each type of cue (lists for each cue are given)

•Open the ‘extra’ sections at the bottom of the page with the + buttons

•Open Resources and find “Engaging in and exploring reading in the early years – a practical guide for the classroom teacher.”

Modeled and shared reading techniques

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHz0xAQiRkw

Guided reading

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txC-Qo_8GiU&feature=related

•This clip looks at the ‘what’ of guided reading as well as the ‘how’ in terms of classroom management issues for working with small groups and literacy centres

Comprehension

The scholastic website has a range of printable overviews for a checklist of strategies that students can use before/during and after reading to support comprehension.

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/search/teacherautoComplete=1&?query=checklist+of+strategies+students+use+before+reading&as_values_059=&channelOnly=true

The following website contains games, powerpoints (for use with children and teachers) and resources that may be supportive for comprehension lessons and activities.

http://languagearts.pppst.com/readingcomprehension.html

Thea reading rockets website has a host of comprehension strategies, clearly explained with examples and in some cases videos.

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/#comprehension

COMPREHENSION IN ACTION

Watch a year three teacher support her students as they learn to understand and answer inferential questions (7 minutes)
You need to be registered with Scootle to view (See registration instructions at the bottom of the learning resources page)

http://www.teachingacenglish.edu.au/explicit-teaching/reading/explicit-teaching-reading-year-3.html

Read an online article about supporting children's comprehension:

http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00625/chapter1.pdf

GRAPHIC ORGANISERS

Research indicates that graphic organisers can support students to visualise abstract concepts and content.
Graphic organisers can support students to comprehend a range of texts and provide scaffolding within a lesson or series of lessons.
They are not an end product in themselves and should not be filled out and finished like a worksheet.
Instead they are to be used to assist students to conceptualise abstract concepts and to plan and organise their thoughts. They should be used as a step or scaffold within the larger concept of comprehension.

http://www.balancedreading.com/graphorg.html

http://www.educationoasis.com/index.htm

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=2983

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3479

http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/page/2/

Sample resources

Attached Files:

Comprehension Books n Blanks.doc (140.5 KB)
comprehension basic.doc (48.5 KB)
Blank's comprehension questions 001.jpg (522.147 KB)
Blank's questions for Hungry Caterpillar 001.jpg (443.664 KB)
Comprehension questions and types and bookmark.docx (19.924 KB)

Here you will find further description of the types of questions in a checklist chart and a list of possible questions (under the four question types) for The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
There is also a list of sample questions (for each question type) for Koala Lou by Mem Fox and an idea for a bookmark to ensure you are asking questions from all four levels for any text.

in google drive

QAR (question answer relationship) and levels of questioning

Attached Files:

The attached pdf gives question stems for the four levels of questioning (qar-question stems)

There are three classroom posters here that relate to levels of questions as well (here, head and hidden questions)

QAR cards pdf has classroom posters for each level of questioning as well.

This document looks at how the QAR works in a simple format for young children.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson232/question.pdf

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Science education

Been blessed to have Mia as our science lecturer this semester. She has provided amazing resources for us! This will document the resources given by her...

In the QUT Library catalogue, for information on science teaching teaching ideas :-
Science Study and Teaching Early Education or Science Study and Teaching Primary into the search bar under keywords. Some of the ideas will be for preschool or very young children in ECEC, and some for early years primary education.

Many general science education books are also available :-
Bell, R. (2008). Teaching the nature of science through process skills.
Brooks, J. et al (2010). Big science for growing minds.
Johnson, J. (2005). Early explorations in science.
Rutledge, N. (2009). Primary science: Teaching the tricky bits. e-book.
Wade, H. (2008). Teaching science in the primary classroom.

Some information on science and tech in ECEC for very young children is in general EC texts e.g. on heuristic play, block play, play and pedagogy.

For further information on science content, you can use books meant for lower secondary school students, or science books for teachers:-
For lower secondary school students
Williamson, K. & Garton, A. (2007) Science essentials
Stannard, P. & Williamson, K. (2000) - see e-book
Forte, I. (2002) Science concepts and processes
O'Toole, M et al (1999) Science skills.
For teachers
Brenner, L. (2005). Science essentials.
Deverua, J. (2007). Science for primary and early years: Developing subject knowledge.
Farrow, S. (1999). The really useful science book.
Gillard, L. (2005). Science knowledge for primary teachers.