Why Teachers Should Never give Up on Any Students ?

As teachers, we all have our moments-( when things haven't turned up the way we want them to be--whether it is when the students are naughty or when the team leaders are hassling you to complete your plans when you already have a hundred things to do ), that we might just let it be! Then we will look at those innocent faces that are staring at us and we will give it another chance! This is called " Never never give up! Got it ? ". I love my job as a teacher and the following video reenforces my beliefs that I can make a difference! Cheers, my courteous readers!

What is Life to You ?

For the last few days I have been thinking and reflecting. Time flies!! Life is precious or rather time is precious! Whether we like it or not, people move on and things change with or without our knowledge! I find this pretty scary! In a short period of time, I have lost a few things and gained a few things! The passing of my dear friend, Mata, has a big impact on me! I have tried to stay on top of things by keeping myself busy. I took a trip to Asia visiting Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. I had an awesome time! The trip was planned for me by my family. My brother in Malaysia has been telling me that my father is in ill health and that I should pay him a visit and so I did.

Now that I am back in reality, I find myself looking for inspiration! Then I saw a quote posted on a friend's facebook wall --it says: " The happiest people don't have everything, they just make the best of everything. Live simply, speak kindly, care deeply, love generously. The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.". Well, this is so true and wise. This quote or rather the passage was taken from the video--"Life is like a Cup of Coffee!". Watch it carefully because it has brought smiles to my face and hope it will do the same for a lot of people. So enjoy, my friends!

My class's Waka Pictures!

In Term 3, my class were learning about the Mighty Mariners. As part of the learning experiences, the students were also able to draw pctures of canoes or waka (Canoe in Maori). Here are some of their beautiful work!

We had the Dragon Dance at the Cultural Festivals at our School.

I offered to produce a cultural item for our school cultural festivals in September 2010. I came out with the idea of Dragon Dance and was very happy that Helen Squires who is also very creative wanted to be part of it! Together, we put the item together. To make it more interesting, we had added kung fu and umbrella dance as well. We are very thankful to the talented children who wanted to be part of it!

Garth J made the dragon head and Helen and I put the dragon body together.

We Should Listen to the Kids!

As teachers, most of us tend to think that we know everything and that the students should listen to us all the time! Well that was how it was like when I went to school. The students' opinion was never taken seriously. How could it be as the teachers were always right! My dad was a teacher and a principal when I was a little kid. I had to keep quiet or else I was not allowed to get any treats from him.

Then I became a teacher in the 21st century and guess what I had found out or rather what I had learned! As a first year teacher, I had never used Mac computers when I arrived at my present school. I didn't even know how to use the mouse which has no right or left clicks. I felt quite embarrassed that I had to ask a Year 6 student to show me the function. I dared not ask my colleagues because I didn't want them to know that I couldn't use the mouse! I am proud that since then I have advanced quite fast and actually know a lot more than the six and seven years old children in my class. Even then I find myself asking them about certain things that they had learned from their ICT lessons and they never hesitate to show or teach me! They never ask me why I don't know how to do certain stuff because they have this collaborative learning nature which many adults are still struggling to get used to.
A week ago, a Facebook friend has posted the following video on my wall and I thought that it is a wonderful video to share with my friends-whether you are a teacher or not.

I just got to share this video with you! Are we looking after our Planet ?

This morning while I was on the net, I came across this video! After I have watched it, I almost spilled my toasts onto the table!
Take a good look!

Thom Yorke - The Clock (1st Place D&AD Awards) from us (design studio) on Vimeo.

Are Task Boards useful in the classrooms ?

In New Zealand, a lot of teachers especially those who teach the Juniors--Year 1 to Year 6, use task boards to help them manage their class. The task boards are essentially a list of rotation activities that the children can do while the teacher carries out his/her micro teaching groups. Why micro-teaching? Well, the little children can not handle whole class teaching. They get lost easily and many can't bear listening to a teacher talking in front of the class for a long duration of time. The next reason which could be a more valid reason is that the children are of different abilities or levels right across the curriculum areas from reading and maths and social studies. Because of this, the children are sorted into different ability groups and hence there are small groups teaching.

How do task boards work ? Well, the children's names are listed under the names of the activities and when they are asked to change activities, they look at the chart and go to do the appropriate actitivities. In this way, all children have something meaningful to do while waiting for their turn to be called to the teacher.

When I first started teaching in my first few years, I had found that the task boards were extremely useful in the year one classes. Children at this level,--five year olds, found all activities helpful and kind. Nowadays, I have progressed so much in use of integration of e-learning that I have found the constant interruption of the rotation cycle actually break the link in e-learning. Many children are not happy to leave the computers to do another activity that is listed. Many have found out that going back to the computers later on is just not so cool because the original ideas have gone from their heads. Because of this, I have modified the task boards in a way that the children ar allowed on the computers till they have finished the projects.

I have also changed the way the task boards work. The task boards that are just lists of things on the charts that the children can do. They are encouraged to choose wisely --like attempting different activities, never overcrowd an activity (Max:4 persons). So far, this is working and I am happy that there is flexibility.