Category: beginning and end of year procedures

Starting Anew

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This year I have moved to a new school in a small country town to teach Indonesian. It has been extremely challenging adapting after such a long time at my previous site, but I have absolutely no regrets about the move. As I look back over the term, there are several points I’d like to explore and hopefully in this, they will help others who may be considering moving sites or have already done so.

The biggest challenge for me moving to a small town by myself was that the only person I knew here was the person I was replacing! Chatting on the phone to the wonderful Senora Anna/ Ibu Anne about my feelings of loneliness made me realise that this was the first time I had moved schools by myself! With all my previous moves, there was always someone with me; someone who was also adapting to a new place and who was also navigating unfamiliar streets, shops and people. Let me tell you, it’s super tough by yourself! I felt so conspicuous everywhere; just walking around my neighbourhood felt awkward and uncomfortable.

So, if there is anyone new at your site, please reach out to them as soon as possible. I wasn’t expecting meal invitations! I just wanted people to say hello and ask how I was going! The fact that the staff at my new site didn’t do this is not a reflection on them personally, it actually speaks volumes about their workload. They hit the ground running! So today; please take the time to smile and say hello to anyone new on your staff. It will honestly make their day!

On top of loneliness, another huge challenge has been two hundred and fifty new students. After almost eighteen years at the previous site where I knew every student as well as their families extremely well, it has been a steep learning curve for me starting again. A kind and thoughtful colleague from the previous site gave me a notebook as a farewell gift which has been invaluable. Every day it sits open on my desk and in it I jot down any thoughts I have during and post lessons. The most frequent comment I wrote to myself was; get to know the students. It was super difficult to build connections with students at first when I knew nothing about them; not even their names!! Without connections, students push back on everything. This in turn necessitated strong behaviour management routines however there are only so many students you can have in classroom timeout at any one time!! Without a doubt, the best strategies that have helped with behaviour management have been incorporating nakal/pandai points (Ibu Sharon), phoning home (Ben Slavic) and classroom jobs (Bryce Hedstrom).

Nakal/Pandai

I have blogged about this technique several times. Read here and here. As you will quickly notice, in the past I only used pandai/nakal points with junior primary students. Sharon and Hannah though, use it successfully with all ages and it has also become one of their classroom jobs. A student tallies the points as they are accrued and then at the end of the lesson, they tell the teacher the total for each in the target. language. Another aspect of how Sharon and Hannah implement this is that at the beginning of each year, they hand out a small paper rectangle to students who then each write their name on one before decorating it. These then are placed in a class envelope for a random student to be selected from if the nakal points are less than the pandai. This lucky student then has a dip in the treasure box while their name is added to the paper clip in the envelope of all those who have already had a turn! I highly recommend this as it allows you to surreptitiously ensure your ‘selection’ is appropriate. Unfortunately some classes suggested using the random option on class dojo to which I agreed before remembering the benefits of the envelope! To get around this, I have instigated a rule that any student on a step is ineligible for a dip in the treasure box for that lesson. A special mention to Sharon who raided her local shops for prizes for my treasusre box and I recieved in the courier a parcel full of goodies that have been very popular. Thank you so much Sharon!

Phoning Home

Overall my new students are great kids however in most classes there are a small group of disrespectful ones who constantly challenged and sabotaged the lesson. As a new teacher, I was treated like a TRT. This on top of managing some tricky students with special needs, was extremely disheartening. So I dug out my TCI/TPRS books for ideas on behaviour management.

In one of Ben Slavic’s I discovered his main tip for behaviour management with new students. He strongly recommends phoning parents as early as possible as this, he promises, will stop misbehaviour instantly. He also suggested offering to phone students’ parents as a reward option! I really like the idea of offering to phone home to say how well a student is progressing in Indonesian! I understand the value of phoning home but the idea of phoning new parents in a new community really pushed me out of my comfort zone! I was terrified. I imagined several scenarios where the phone call was not successful. So, in the end I do what I am very good at, I put my head in the sand, procrastinated and soldiered on.

I am so grateful to a bunch of colleagues who in week 5, travelled long distances to spend a day observing me for a day. Their support, encouragement and feedback at that time was invaluable. I will be eternally grateful for their positive comments and constructive feedback at a time when I was feeling so alone. They also reminded me again that it takes a while to settle into a new school! A very important fact that I keep overlooking!

Then in week 8, I had the ‘Week From Hell’! Everything that could go wrong did. Student behaviour dropped to an all-time low and consequently I became severely sleep deprived directly caused by the stress. A truly vicious cycle. I took Thursday off to recharge my batteries and mentally regroup but Friday was no better. In fact I burst into tears when a friend came into my room after school to commiserate on the terrible day.  I wanted to retire then and there. I shuffled dispiritedly home and spent the weekend resting and trying to regroup ready for Monday. By Monday, I was resigned to the fact that I just had to be super tough and consistently put students through the steps regardless of any consequences.

On opening my email, I discovered that parent student conferences were scheduled fot the following week. Perfect!! This was the final impetus to finally make a few phone calls. I rang one parent to ask if she was free during the week of conferences to come in and chat with me. I then rang another. The first parent returned my call and arranged a time. The second parent has yet to return my call, however her son has been significantly better behaved, so obviously the call in itself was worthwhile. As a result of just two calls and a meeting, there has been a noticeable improvement in behaviour.

In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I should have made the calls earlier. So if you too are procrastinating about ringing parents, I highly recommend making a list of the key students and then approaching other staff you trust to ask about the benefits of making the call. Best too to get a heads up on volatile parents which may have worrying repercussions for the student.

Classroom Jobs

I blogged about classroom jobs in 2015. As can be seen in the post, I first heard about classroom jobs from Ben Slavic. Bryce Hedstrom is now the go to person for thoughts and tips on student jobs.

10 THINGS THAT HAPPEN WHEN TEACHERS START TO USE CLASSROOM JOBS

Classroom jobs are a great example of why getting to know your students is a priority at a new site. I prefer to incorporate student jobs early in each school year and it has always been hugely successful. Until this year! In week two, I began by introducing three jobs and only got as far as choosing a secretaris and a tukang foto; both essential for Kursi Luar Biasa. I had intended to also hold auditions for the ketua kelas position as well but only did so with one class. I learned very quickly that in order for students to be invested in auditioning for jobs, they had to trust me on not only the importance and value of the job and also the selection of the ‘winner’. Thus I recommend starting with just a sekretaris and tukang foto with new students and ensure that there is an aspect of the job that makes it desirable. In my classes, it was that these two people were the only ones who could sit on the sofa! The ketua kelas will instead be introduced in other classes next term!

Once students start to ask about replacing the sekretaris and/or tukang foto, I know they finally value jobs and can see the benefits! This then leads me nicely to explaining that job holders hold their jobs for as long as they want it. I used to change job holders regularly (every 5 weeks) but doing this used to take a whole lesson!! I prefer to encourage students to think of a new and different job that supports the teaching and learning of Indonesian and they would are happy to do. I illustrate this by pointing out that while cleaning up after lessons is a useful thing to do, it does not help teaching and learning. It’s fascinating what ideas students come up with. I also make the jobs desirable by offering job holders special seating options. In past classrooms, they had first pick of the limited chairs available and this year they are the only students who enjoy a comfy chair to sit on. The comfy chairs (old staff chairs rescued from the furniture shed covered in a piece of batik) are placed at the back of the room and while not intentional, their placement has meant that students are easier to manage now that the class has three separate seating options! Comfy chairs are currently along the back wall, plastic chairs are arranged in semi-circle facing the interactive tv and the third seating option is on the floor in front of the plastic chairs.

Since my 2015 post, I have tweaked the student jobs several times in several ways; both in what they are called and what they are. I am a huge believer in using multifunctional language in the primary classroom. This language is based on the language I believe my students would find useful if/when they visit Indonesia or talk to an Indonesian/Malay person. Just so happens that there are at least two Malaysian families each owning a Malay take away food shop in two nearby towns! Woohoo! I spoke Indonesian while ordering my food and everyone I spoke to was incredibly friendly and happy for me to use Indonesian. (Note: Please be respectful and aware of the current political animosity between Indonesia and Malaysia.) A couple of weeks ago (prior to phone calls home) several of my students asked about the value of learning Indonesian. They were absolutely amazed to learn that they could use Indonesian so close to home.

So, the language I use for my jobs is simple and centres on the word ‘tukang’ (skilled expert). Last week the number of job holders started to increase significantly as interest in them grew. Not every class has the full range of these jobs yet, but it won’t take long before word gets around!

My current jobs:

  •  tukang foto – Photographer
  • tukang menulis– writes information on the board
  • tukang diam – shusher:  at a gesture from me, they stand and loudly say DIAM, 1,2,3 by which time the class must be quiet. Repeated as often as required!
  • sekretaris – secretary
  • tukang proxy – proxy (must be prepared to do any job when needed)
  • tukang kertas – hands out paper
  • tukang pensil – hands out, counts, sharpens pencils
  • tukang klipboard – hands out clipboard (great opportunity to discuss c/k
  • polisi – keeps track of behaviour – good and bad – with details
  • tukang hp – answers the class phone during lessons
  • Ketua kelas – welcomes adults to the Indonesian classroom
  • Tukang pandai/nakal – records points as they are accrued

Last week was tough with students being super excited about the Easter long weekend. However I was so relieved to see that with a few stategic nakal/pandai points, I was able to settle classes quickly and teach with minimal interruptions. I didn’t realise just how improved the students were for me until during a hand over discussion with a TRT for the second lesson, I was warned that her class had been extremely disrespectful during lesson 1. The behaviour she described sounded all too familiar, small stuff but so disruptive. I was therefore amazed when they settled almost immediately after entering the Indonesian classroom and I had no problems with anyone. Next time she is in, I will enourage her to send to me any ratbags and I will deal with them appropriately!! GRRR

Fingers crossed though that students continue being settled and respectful in my lessons next week after a long weekend feasting on sugar!! Most classes will be illustrating book pages as I anticipate that this will be all that they are capable of doing!!

If you are also new at your site, what has been helpful for you? Did you also face some of the issues I have struggled with this term? I really hope you too are starting to feel a sense of belonging and familiarity.

Behaviour Management for Junior Primary

Kursi Luar Biasa for Junior Primary

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It has just occurred to me that I have only posted about how Kursi Luar Biasa works in middle primary and upper primary classes. I also use it successfully with very young students in a much simpler format. I initially began incorporating it into my younger classes for several reasons and they are threefold: to introduce the concept of a special chair for a special person, to introduce the language ‘kursi’ + ‘luar biasa’ and as a sneaky yet compelling way to review target structures! The exclamation ‘luar biasa’ (awesome) is such a positive one that it is beaut that students are provided with the opportunity to hear it repetitively in their first year of school. It is also useful that the word for a common item of classroom furniture (kursi/chair) is introduced at this point too. Having a Kursi Luar Biasa also provides me with a designated ‘teachers helper’ in my classroom. As most junior primary teachers incorporate student jobs into their class routines and due to the fact that each class’s procedure & system differ, it is considerably easier for me to have my own system specifically for the Indonesian classroom.

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Who wants to sit in the awesome chair?

I choose the student using my paddle pop sticks using the language, “Siapa mau duduk di Kursi Luar Biasa?” following it with a comprehension check; “Bahasa Inggris? Siapa mau duduk di Kursi Luar Biasa?” and then after a student correctly translates, reply with, “Ya!! Bagus!! John pandai. Satu poin John! Who wants to sit in the awesome chair?” I repeat the English for my reception students to ensure they hear the translation clearly. I then dramatically choose a stick. I also check that the letters KLB are not written on the stick yet (this is my record system to ensure everyone gets a go) and if all is good, I make eye contact with the student and ask, “Susie mau duduk di Kursi Luar Biasa?” Naturally ‘Susie’ will nod yes and I will restate, “Susie mau duduk di Kursi Luar Biasa!” I do not circle this with reception (prep) students because of the disappointment factor, I just repeat the sentence several times as I write KLB on ‘Susie’s’ stick before returning it to the container. At this age, young’uns are still learning to understand turn taking and I strongly believe in the importance of ‘social skills pop-ups’! When I get comments along the lines of “I haven’t had a turn.”, I answer this by asking the entire class in English, “Who hasn’t had a turn yet?”, emphasising the word yet. The beauty of this question with very young students is that they either can’t remember if they actually have had a go yet or even more likely, want to sit in the chair again so much so that they pretend they haven’t sat in it yet, and also raise their hand!  This gives me the opportunity to show the student who blurted out in English that they are not the only one who hasn’t had a go YET, and then reassure everyone that there are still plenty of  weeks left in the year and everyone will get at least one opportunity. I do it in English; both to keep it short and snappy (pop-up) but also because I strongly believe in the importance of developing social skills and the necessity for this snowballs with each yearly student intake of reception students.

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The Awesome Chair: Boy or girl, Good or ok? Are you clever at running fast?

Once Susie is sitting in the Kursi Luar Biasa, I ask her a few questions based on the language structures their class has been focusing on. At the beginning of the year, the questions are simply “Susie baik baik saja atau Susie kurang baik?” & “Susie perempuan atau Susie laki laki?” With each answer (verbal &/or non verbal) I restate the answer in full. “Ya, Susie perempuan. Susie bukan laki laki.” I usually only ask 3 questions as that is as long as young students can focus. I like the final question to be quirky and incorporate the target structure. Sentences that have been successful include; “Susie mau makan hamburger?” (while holding up a huge hamburger cushion) or “Susie pandai berlari cepat?” (this awesome idea comes from Anne MacKelvie, however I highly recommend waiting till term 4 to introduce it so that you only have to race against a student for a limited number of weeks!! It’s highly compelling stuff for the students but eats into my energy reserves!) If ‘Susie’ says yes, I then wave the class back saying ‘Geser, geser’ (scoot, scoot) to create a running track along the front of the room. I gesture dramatically with my arms to ‘Susie’ saying “Ayo!” (Come here).  I then turn to ‘Susie’ and say, “Bu Cathy menghitung satu, dua, tiga. Bu Cathy berkata ‘tiga’, Susie berlari cepat ke kursi/Johnny.” (a nearby end point). I begin to count very slowly but for the first few counts, I change ‘tiga’ to a silly word. eg Satu, dua, hamburger!, satu dua Trent! Each time the student takes off I smile at them and cheekily say to them ‘nakal!’ I then count properly and pretend to run fast theatrically allowing the student to beat me. I then exclaim to the class, “Susie berlari cepat! Susie pandai berlari. Susie pandai berlari cepat.” Meanwhile ‘Susie’ is glowing with her success and struts proudly back to the Kursi Luar Biasa!

Once seated back in the Kursi Luar Biasa, ‘Susie’ takes on the role of ‘Teachers Helper’ and is my first goto person if I need help. This could be taking a message somewhere, collecting something, accompanying a student to buddy class/ the office or if we are playing a game, is automatically chosen to both demo a new game and be the first person to play!

Your Kursi Luar Biasa can be as fancy or as plain as suits you and your teaching situation. I prefer to lay my Batak weaving over a comfy chair as I do not use the Kursi Luar Biasa chair in every lesson with older classes. Sometimes, there is not enough time or it just needs to have a break to prevent it getting tired & stale. The beauty for me of using an Indonesian ‘sarong’ is that it can be whipped off quickly and is then easy enough to throw back on when you have a year 7 class sandwiched between two junior primary classes! This system is also very practical for mobile teachers as a sarong weighs very little in the ‘cart’.  Without doubt, the most impressive Kursi Luar Biasa chair I have ever seen is Ibu Anne’s. How gorgeous is it!! Her students absolutely love it. See the link below for the post I ‘stole’ (borrowed) the photo from!!

 

Have you tried Kursi Luar Biasa with your students? If you have or you just want to ask a question about this post, please write it in the comments below. All your questions and comments are greatly appreciated; not just from me but from everyone who reads this!

Replacing Student Books with Display Folders

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Can you believe it that there is only one more week left of the Australian school year? At the end of every year, one of my routines is to ‘sort out the folders’, a statement that when made to classes guarantees a collective groan! I don’t know why because they enjoy looking back through the work they’ve done over the year as well as comparing aspects of front covers from previous years.

The student work folders have evolved into a chronological compilation of student work. The first couple of years I taught Indonesian, each student began the year with a blank lined book however by years end, I was always uncomfortable sending home a book that was not chockablock full of worksheets and other such evidence of traditional teaching.  I have never been one for worksheets or book work. After a couple of years of this, I did some research and decided to try using display folders with the idea that they can be reused year after year, thus I would only need to buy each student one display folder for their entire time at primary school. Display folders do have a downside though and the biggest one is the fragility of the spine. I have had several accidentally crushed by students walking around the room, not watching where they put their feet. In preparation for this, I keep a small pile of ‘seconds’ (folders from previous students) that are still in good condition and they are great for replacing or repairing,

The process for sorting student folders has developed over a number of years and improves with each tweak, in my opinion. The process used to begin with students completing their ‘front cover’ during the first lesson of the school year. Each year I created a new front cover in the Christmas holidays and it always includes the title ‘Bahasa Indonesia’, the year and any language necessary for the upcoming years’ aims. It was also minimalistic to ensure that it can be completed in a single 50 minute lesson, yet with plenty of scope for more creative students. The front cover is photocopied on coloured paper and each class teacher has a specific colour. Keeping the colour consistent over the years has been incredibly valuable. If a folder is left out, I can see immediately which class it belongs to and in following years, I can see too which teacher they had in previous years. On completion, the front cover is slotted into the front page of their display folder and remains there for that year. Initially, the front covers included an introduction to each term’s theme incorporating an English ‘shush & colour’ introductory activity as you can see below on the 2014 cover. From 2015, the front covers have reflected my shift to TCI; providing junior primary students with an opportunity to revise class expectations and middle primary students an opportunity to personalise the top ten Indonesian high frequency words from a ‘Kursi Luar Biasa’ perspective. 

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Showing both the progression from theme based front covers to TCI front covers and the difference between junior primary and middle/upper primary front covers.

 

A change I experimented with this year was the timing of the front cover. Previously it was completed in week 1, term 1, yet after a discussion with an amazing colleague about front covers, it was pointed out to me that this is actually the optimum time of the year where student engagement and participation is at its highest and a ‘shush & colour’ activity is a sheer waste of this window.  So, I trialled it this year in the final week of term 1; the first and longest term in the SA school calendar.  Week 11 is always a tough week and a ‘shush & colour’ activity was a godsend for me and my exhausted students. I can’t recommend this enough. It worked brilliantly. 

 

Fast forward now to the end of the school year…..

For various reasons, mostly the limited time I have with each class (50 mins per week on average), student work is rarely added immediately to student folders upon completion. I generally put it in a pile and then add it straight into each classes locker tray where it remains until the end of the school year. Last week (week 8; the penultimate week of the school year), I asked students to “Cari satu teman. Siapa ambil dua klipboard dan siapa ambil satu pensil pot?” (Find a friend. Who is getting two clipboards & who is getting the pencil pot?) I then distributed a self-evaluation sheet to each student. The self-evaluation sheet has also evolved over the years. At first it was just a back sheet to neatly package all the work completed through the year and all that was written on it was the calendar year & the year level completed by that student for that year. Imagine (or look at above pic); a blank A4 sheet with the following written in the centre in large text:

E.g.
2018
year 5

The first self-evaluation sheet encouraged students to reflect on their learning. The first self-evaluation questions asked specific questions yet many students had difficulty remembering details from earlier terms. My first questions were simply:

  • What did you learn this year that you feel was the most useful or interesting?
  • What was your favourite activity this year?

Very quickly I realised that it was too open, so I tweaked it to add prompts:

  • What are some of the structures you learned this year?

  • What were your favourite activities this year?
    *acting out class stories
    *reading activities
    *student jobs
    *kursi luar biasa
    *mengabsen
    *menyanyi
    *story based activities
    *writing your own stories
    *meeting Indonesian visitors
    * (blank for students to add their own dot point)

 

In 2017,  the following year, I left the entire process too late for many reasons and barely managed to have classes sorting out their folders let alone creating and incorporating an updated self-evaluation sheet.

This year, I edited the self-evaluation sheet once again to include the following 3 questions:
Junior Primary :
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A huge thank you to Annie Beach who has given me permission to add her gorgeous monkeys to this post!

 

Middle/Upper Primary:
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Considering the time of year and the energy levels for both me & my students, this version is straightforward and easy to explain. My explanations included making it very clear that this sheet required personal information and therefore there were no right or wrong answers because it was entirely about how you (the student) felt in Indonesian lessons. We read and clarified the statements together and students coloured in the face that best summed up their feeling for each statement.

While students were completing and adding final touches to the sheet (I suggested they add facial characteristics to their faces), I handed out the student folders. Students had to firstly remove the front cover and then while I am busy handing out their written work, students could choose to complete the front cover or any other work given to them. This is the first year I have incorporated this idea and it worked a treat as it kept the bulk of the students busy! 

Once all the work was distributed, students were instructed to put all their sheets together in a neat pile with the front cover on one side and the self-evaluation sheet on the other side, both facing outwards. This is then inserted into the last available empty envelope at the back of the folder. Each year’s pile of work is added this way and by the time students graduate after potentially 8 years of primary school, students have all their Indonesian work sorted chronologically at the back of their folder. Isn’t that cool?

I then travel around with a stapler and staple the sheets in to ensure they don’t fall out and go missing. This also gives me a chance to double check that the pages were sorted and inserted correctly. I insist that all the front covers face the back cover of the folder so that when sorting folders into the next years classes, it is easier to see student names. This part can be done later, but it is so much quicker to do while students are still in the room, especially with older students because they can re-sort and re-insert the pages themselves. While I am moving around with the stapler, I encourage any student whose folder is finished and in the locker tray to help classmates in difficulty. 

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Folders finished and ready for sorting into the new class configurations next year.

The final benefit of this system is that at the end of the year, when students are more focused on the fast approaching holidays & Christmas, ‘sorting the folders’ is a fabulous way to spend one of the last lessons of the years. It can be a noisy and chaotic lesson, but well worth it, I believe. 

Are you tempted to give folders a go? If so, my self-evaluation sheets are available free on teachers pay teachers. I will add my latest front covers soon too. Stay tuned….