Putting my findings to Practice.

I have currently took over some teaching classes for a friend of mine as she is on maternity leave. There are three classes which I teach, which are free based classes all of the young age group two to five years old. From my research there are some teaching points that stood out to me that I felt I would like to incorporate into my classes to see how the outcome develops.

 

The first point I wanted to add into my lesson was ‘encouraging the children to think for themselves’ this had came up in my interviews as they stated they liked to encourage creativity and also if the children had an idea themselves to peruse it as it was something the children where interested in and would focus on. In my classes I tend to do a  miming game with the children where I suggest we go to the beach or the forest. So with this exercise I decided to let the children develop this and see where there imaginations wanted to take them. I allowed them to pick the location, This time we went to a magical fairy land. Then let each child add a description about the land as we ‘walked through it’ This exercised worked out well, the children were really engaged and excited about the exercise and wanted to continue it on for much longer. This is something that I will now continue to develop in my future lessons as I feel it is helping stimulate the children’s minds as well as there body’s

 

The next teaching method I used in my classes but felt I could use it in more productive ways. This is the use of props. I use musical instruments in my lessons to tap along to rhythms but from my research I feel I could take this further. Two of my interviewees suggested props to grab the children’s attention when the class was becoming tired or distracted or to better explain something. I chose to put both of these together by using some scarves as props. They were a new addition to the class and brightly colored so immediately the children were interested and I had there attention. I then used the scarves so they would help the children over exaggerate the movement and fully stretch it out. For example I suggested waving them from side to side, making big circles with the scarfs. We even did some throwing and catching of the scarves so children could work on there coordination skills, and we even did a fun ‘cleaning of the room’ activity which aloud the children to use there imaginations also.

 

The final point I wanted to add to my lessons was the parental involvement. I had to think about this as these classes are not my own so I did not want to come in change everything and disrupt the balance within the classroom. I spoke to the teacher I had took over from and made a suggestions. As it is the run up to Christmas I would like to invite the parents to come into the classroom during the last lesson so that they can watch the class and see what the children have learnt. Another way I decided to bring the parents more involved with my lessons is linked with the point above. Props. I gave a suggestion at the end of the lesson this week of a Christmas tree prop as we are beginning the run up to Christmas I have decided to make my lessons Christmas themed with mimes and little dances and decided to bring a bare Christmas tree to the lesson so the children can hang there Christmas tree prop on it at the end. The prop could be something the parents have made with the children or bought, but I thought adding this helps the lesson carry on outside of the classroom and makes the parents feel more involved. I hope!

 I will blog the outcome of this next week.