While my southern hemisphere readers are starting to get ready for classes in a few weeks, I’m back in classroom and already halfway through a school a year!
Starting halfway through a school year is a challenge. While the class know each other and how the school works, I do not.
The school has a cafeteria, just like in the movies.
We’re not in Kansas anymore.
On one hand, I want to get classroom programmes up and running yet setting the right classroom culture takes time.
I am not the last classroom teacher and will do things slightly differently not because we come from different countries but because no two teachers teach alike. Even if they are in the same school, trained at the same institution their classrooms will be different because no two people think alike.
Fortunately the pedagogy of the PYP is familiar even if the language is not.
Where I might write a class treaty in the past, I now write an essential agreement with the kids.
Where I talk about key competencies there are now the IB learner profile and learner attitudes.
Nevertheless, the change had me repeating activities I’ve done in the past like improv, preparing visual introductions and an introductory ‘this is me’ video for the learners.
Which leads to an important question.
Do I what I do in a classroom because that’s what I’ve always done?
While I don’t think teachers need to go abroad a change in setting forces you to justify what you do in a classroom and why.
Reading reflections have continued and I’m beginning to bring the Daily 5 into the classroom. I’ve done the professional reading and thinking so I can easily justify the purpose behind it.
Earlier in the week I taught my class some Maori mostly because Te Reo tumbles from lips so quickly when I’m in a classroom setting I might as well let the kids know what I am saying.
As far as first weeks go, this one was both easier and more difficult than in previous years.
Things still feel very foreign which is good – it means I am learning.
WordPress let me know it’s been 3 years since I registered this blog. Wow it’s been a long journey since that first post!
Teaching the Teacher 