Archive for 2014

Reflective Practice Reaches New Heights!

Monday, 1 September 2014 at 7:41 pm

I was fortunate enough to be working with some amazing educators and students at Jamboree Heights State School last term. I began by delivering demonstration Guided Reading lessons to all year levels. Many of the teachers then volunteered to teach a Guided Reading lesson, giving me the privilege of coaching them. Whilst these teachers did not believe they had all the answers, they enjoyed an open culture where …

Seven Ways to Engage Teachers’ Aides Wisely in the Classroom

Tuesday, 15 July 2014 at 10:47 am

When I began teaching in NSW primary schools many years ago, teacher aides were almost non-existent. Now they are an integral part of most classrooms.

The big question is how can teacher aides best support the learners in any given classroom?

We need to address this issue by way of asking a question… If choosing between the teacher and the teacher aide, who spends the majority of …

Shared Reading

Monday, 3 February 2014 at 8:58 am

Shared Reading is a valuable approach for teaching reading skills, strategies and knowledge. Most classrooms feature shared reading lessons, but does this guarantee explicit teaching occurs. Many teaching resources support teachers to facilitate reading instruction, but effective practitioners shift between reading approaches most of the day, delivering explicit reading instruction across subject areas and incorporating a broad range of text types. Literacy instruction, where ever …