Hey Everyone,
I've started my last Professional Practice. This time I am in a lovely year 4 class at a great school. One of the ideas I am going to try on my Prac it the "Friday Journal." Below is a picture of what I have created for the students. You will notice I renamed to journals "My School Journal." This was done just in case there wasn't enough time to incorporate the journals on Friday and it had to be Thursday afternoon instead.
I found the notebooks at Officeworks for 20c each, bargain. I cut up some scrapbooking paper to help individualise the journals and to make the labels stand out. The journals have also been covered in contact to ensure they survive the journeys to and from school. On the inside cover I have placed an information sheet for the parents to read. This shows parents what the journals are for and how they can participate in writing comments back to their children. A great idea I found on Pinterest. I haven't put these in the journals yet. I thought I would go over the explanation sheet with the students first and have them glue it into their own journal. This saves me some time and also gives me the opportunity to explain how the journals work to the students. I have complete the first journal as an example (I did a terrible job on contacting this book but still wanted to put it to some good use).
"My School Journal"
Hopefully this journal will allow me to complete some of the goals I must achieve during my Prac as well as the yearly curriculum requirements. Year 4 students need to learn how to write journal entries. Once I have given the students a run through on what a journal entry is and how to write one, then they can practice in their own journal. It also provided that essential communication between student and parent and informs parents about what their child is learning in the classroom. As part of my Prac I have to show that I have communicated with the students parents in some way. Hopefully this will also meet that requirement.
I'll give it a few weeks and then post again about how the journals worked within the classroom. My mentor teacher thinks they will work and that the parents will love them. I think they will be really good too, but only time will tell.
**** Friday Diary Update****
After having to look at the original diary covers for a few days I decided that they really didn't cut the cake. So I spent some time designing a new cover that I was sure would excite the students and see them busting to write in their diaries. This is obviously based on the popular children's books "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." (what year 4 doesn't like this book???)
As predicted the students loved it. They couldn't wait to begin their new diary. They have all been busy colouring in their covers to personalize them. I have even had a parent in the classroom to say how great they think the covers are. Lots of parents have said that they loved the idea of a Friday Diary and I would highly recommend this idea to all teachers.
Having said that though I am still waiting on half the class to get their parents to write comments on their entry. However, I am thinking that this might improve as the routine of a Friday diary becomes established. (Most of the students LOVED the idea that their parents had homework they had to do.)
I had students glue this on the inside cover of their diaries to help explain the concept to parents.
