Day one and more school profile

Today I taught three lessons; Fitness (20mins), Maths (50mins) and Non-Fiction genre (50mins). The fitness lesson was a running game involving pegs and strategies. The maths unit was decided by the classroom teacher and we are focusing on decimals and Fractions. In the afternoon I had NIT. I felt that I had prepared very well for this day in particular in the holidays. I did however feel extremely nervous and felt I mumbled through my words. Good day Lesson plans Below: 

I put aims at the beginning of my lesson plans so I can say this to the students. This way they 100% understand what the learning intention is for the lesson.

 My grouping chart that I am going to be using throughout the 6 weeks. I took this idea from a Tomlinson video from a tutorial. It is the most effective and easiest way to put children into groups!I change it for each class and the students quickly go up to the chart to check what group they are in and then make their groups. I had to practice with the students for the first lesson to get into the groups as quickly as they could, but since then it has been smooth sailing. I LOVE THIS CHART!


 SCHOOL PROFILE:

Today I had a discussion with the school principal and the year 6/7 teacher. We talked about the school policies and lunch time enrichment programs. HPS has a large school grounds and students are encouraged to explore the grounds during play time. There are a lot of natural play equipment including a "pines' area where children are allowed to build cubbys using found materials. Students also have gardening programs, chicken programs, sustainability programs and team building programs during lunch time. The school also has active after school programs to encourage participation in sport.

The year 6/7 teacher informed me of the ways she plans in the classroom. She has 3 students with disabilities and has to differentiate the class to aid in their learning. These students have problems with literacy and some mathematics. The teacher actively plans around readiness and also inclusion which is important in a composite class. She has stated that she is finding the history curriculum difficult when the year 6 students are doing Australian History and the year 7 students are doing ancient Greece.  For this class, she has to separate the two year levels and then group the classes again depending on readiness. She allows for all students to access the content from the curriculum but at their own level.

In week 2 of term 1 I also drew a outline of my 3/4/5 class. It shows the 4 tables for grouping. Each table has a year 3 student on it and a year 4. Students have been placed in certain areas of the classroom to accommodate any special needs. She has placed the hearing impaired student near the speaker system, the student with anxiety near the front of the class and one student with dyslexia near the front of the class.