First Day!

First day survived! Was quite a whirlwind of a day!

As it is the beginning of term I feel the main problem is the children haven't quite settled back into a proper routine yet and I introduced several new behaviour management techniques to try and encourage better behaviour.

Rather than calling for quiet every time when I need to tell the class something I have taken to write seconds on the board in ten second intervals - equivalent to how long of their break they have now missed. There is a chance for the whole class to earn this time back throughout the lesson, and a chance for "Role Models" who I select to encourage others to copy good behaviour to also leave early. I have also used clapping rhythms, and singing to gain attention where the children have to copy my pattern or line of a song. To improve behaviour further I think I need to remind/set out expected behaviour more often before a negative reaction occurs.

I feel P.E. and Literacy were the most successful both in terms of the children's enjoyment and the progress made within the lesson. In Literacy we are creating our own poems based on "Ten things in a wizards pocket" in which the children were really creative. I am looking up to the follow up session tomorrow in which we change our items from boring words to "exciting" sentences using adjectives and wow words. In P.E. we are telling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk through dance. We interpreted the music in our own way to show the magic beans growing and Jack climbing up the beanstalk and into the Giant's castle. We also performed part of a Circassion Circle, but didn't get as far as putting this to music. Next week I would like to finish the Circassion Circle, and use another track to interpret Jack taking the cow to the market. 

Interventions in Literacy and Numeracy both went well, with the children receiving greater adult attention and work more suited to their capabilities. For literacy see posts on children's work. I would like to see this continuing  and perhaps rotating a few of the pupils around the literacy to target specific needs.

Overall a good day, will probably reflect further given some time :)