Keep Learning Going During Holiday & Vacation Times

 Adapted from Responsive™ blog posts by Mike Anderson and Margaret Wilson

  http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/newsletter

Suddenly, it seems like the class is falling apart. Classroom routines that were going smoothly just a few weeks ago now seem rough around the edges. More and more children are forgetting to follow classroom rules. The noise level is higher, and academic productivity seems lower. What's going on?

In the weeks leading up to winter vacation, what you're seeing may well be a case of the holiday season jitters. From November through January, children often become more fidgety, giggly, testy, and tired. There are many reasons: they may be distracted by the excitement of home activities, or they may be reacting to increased stress at home. At school, schedules are often disrupted at this time of year by assemblies, plays, and special events, and such changes in routine can throw children's behavior off. Plus, at many schools, recess is curtailed once winter weather arrives.

What can you do to help your students stay on track and learn at their best during this season? We've found that an extra measure of calmness, consistency, and structure can work wonders. Here are some strategies you might want to try.

Stick to Routines

As much as you can, stick to the routines that you've established to shape the school day. For instance, if a daily Morning Meeting is part of your routine, you may find it's even more helpful now. Starting off each day with Morning Meeting helps students make the transition to school through a welcoming experience that reinforces expectations for behavior and builds enthusiasm for the learning day ahead.

You can use each of the four components of Morning Meeting strategically to help get the school day off to a good start. For instance, choose a calm greeting (such as a simple "Hello" passed around the circle) to settle the group if they seem especially bouncy coming in the door. Or use seasonally-themed sharing topics to help students learn more about each other. Choose sharing questions that every student in your class can answer comfortably. For example, questions such as What do you especially love about winter? or Do you enjoy any special holiday foods? don't exclude children who don't have vacation plans or who don’t celebrate holidays at home.

Promoting a culture of continuing professional development

 5th August - Teachers' Professional Development Day.

Dear PD Coordinators'
 I am sure all of  you would be busy now planning for the 3rd PD day, hope the following link would be useful...


Effective continuing professional development (CPD) should be an integral part of your school’s culture. Embedding CPD policy and processes into wider school processes will ensure your school development.

Your role is to promote a culture that celebrates staff learning, and encourages colleagues to share their learning with others. In a successful learning community people learn both with, and from, each other. Ensuring the positive impact of professional learning is celebrated and shared will support positive changes in the CPD culture and practice in your school.

http://www.tda.gov.uk/teachers/continuingprofessionaldevelopment/cpdleadership/promote_cpd_culture.aspx

Blog - A Constructive Tool for Learning

Dear Teachers & PD Coordinators,

Create your own blog and expand the walls of your classrooms.

Fernette and Brock Eide’s research found that blogs can:

-   Promote critical and analytical thinking

- Be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking

- Promote analogical thinking

- Be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information

Combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction

Reflective, journal-type blog to ..

- Reflect on your teaching experiences

- Keep a log of teacher-training experiences

- Describe what worked for you in the classroom and what did not work

- Share ideas for teaching activities or language games to use in the classroom

Start a class blog to…               

- Post class-related information such as calendars, events, homework assignments, …

- Post assignments based on literature readings and have students respond on their own blogs, creating a kind of portfolio of their work

- Communicate with parents

- Provide vocabulary activities or grammar games

- Provide online readings for your students to read and react to

- Provide links to appropriate sites and annotate the links as to what is relevant about them

- Post photos and comment on class activities

- Publish examples of good student writing done in class

- Build a class newsletter, using student-written articles and photos they take

- Link your class with another class somewhere else in the world

*Encourage your students to blog..

The true potential of blogs in schools comes when students and teachers use them as publishing tools

* To create your own blog pl. visit:

http://www.blogger.com

First Experience of a PD Coordinator

Profession Development Day 1 – 2010,
Gemanafushi School
17th March 2010.

This day of the workshop was really fantastic, informative, and enjoyable. Two other schools nearby requested to participate them in the workshop with us. So my audience was more than an ordinary class where I used to teach every day of my life. It was 50 participants which consist of trained and untrained teachers, leading teachers and even school heads like principals. It went far better than I expected. I got 100% participation from all the participants. I felt that they all accepted me as a professional development coordinator for them.

 Group Presentations

I would like to share with you what my principal had written in the feedback form.
“the workshop was helpful to know about the different aspects in classroom management, learning styles, and teaching strategies etc… it would have been better we conduct theses workshops frequently. It helped to refresh our ideas, share the different experiences of the teacher and of classroom environment. We learnt how to make the class a quality and effective one.”

In addition, see what others have written in the feedback forms.

“It was worthy, looking to the present situation. It really helped to find remedies to some of the problems”
“It was effective and informative”, “good and well organized. Really fruitful”
“It was a great workshop. I got lot of information from this workshop. And I revised so many things again. Overall it was a very well organized one. It was really helpful for my professional development as I got a review of some learning strategies and behavior management strategies”.
These are some of the highlighted comments and feelings from the participants.

A group photo with all the participants together with facilitators was taken as a future remembrance of the first PD day in the history of Gemanafushi School.

The day was concluded with all the participants fully satisfied and feeling like patiently waiting for the next PD day. All went back to their islands saying “thanks a lot” with a smiling face.

IN CONCLUSION, I would say the PD coordinators training workshop at Thinadhoo really helped me to conduct such a successful workshop. It was my first experience as a facilitator for the same level or higher level adults of the same profession. It increased my knowledge and self confidence as a teacher as well as a PD Coordinator. I even got lot of new information from the participants.

It was really a nice, interesting, informative, effective and helpful workshop for all our staffs.

Prepared by: Ismail Saudulla
Qualified teacher – Principles of accounts
Professional Development Coordinator
Gemanafushi School