my full control has finished

My full control of my placement has finished - I still have one more week to go (after the July holidays which gives us two weeks off) but I'm just helping out.

I had so much fun teaching and loved almost every minute of it (there was the odd REALLY!! moments).  I ended up teaching for 5 weeks instead of the required 3 weeks which was fabulous of my associate to let me, mind you she loved the opportunity of being able to get caught up on everything before she headed off on her travels.

Teaching my maths unit was amazing, I loved watching all those light bulb moments happen as the kiddo's really got something.  You can actually see get go across their face as they go from total confusion to oh yeah...in a heart beat.

Through my students lack of knowledge of statistics it meant I had to change my unit plan somewhat to cater for the additional time that I had to spend on areas I was sure I would only be revisiting rather than the complete introduction of the topic/section that was actually required.  This did mean leaving some parts out (the extension activities) in order to cater for their learning needs - but hey that's the role of teaching - things change based on the needs of the students not my need to teach what I spent ages planning.

Introducing foldables as a learning tool to the class was a total hit.  To say they loved them is an understatement.  They loved taking ownership of their own learning and been able to make graphs up that reflected their own knowledge rather than what I dictated that they had to do.  I also included that they had to write an explanation of what each graph style was and was used for in their own words (to further demonstrate their understanding).  The first time they filled it out, they were all checking with me that they had it right, and if what they had done was okay.  By the end they were seasoned pro's and trusting in their own knowledge - so fantastic to see.