Week 9 Professional

In school this week my teacher showed me how she plans what the children will be doing each week.  She explained to me that the school promotes independent learning throughout all the different age groups but that they also teach children time management and how to schedule their day.  She highlighted that this was particularly important for group eight (my class) as next year they will be attending secondary school and there they will need to be able to plan when to do homework and assignments for all the different classes that they will have.

The picture above shows the type of plan that my teacher and my class use each week.  The children get a plan like this every Thursday.  From the picture you can see that each day has a specific colour e.g. Vriidag (Friday) is orange.  You can see from the plan there are set lessons to be completed on certain days e.g. On Wednesday (Woensdag, Blue) the children have to do Rekenen pages 98 + 99 (Math), when the children complete this lesson they colour in the box beside Rekenen blue.  However you can see that some tasks do not have a colour beside it and that both boxes are white.  This means that the children can choose on what day they would like to complete these lessons.  The children have to think about what they will be able to achieve on that day and when would be the best time for them to do their extra work.  To allow the children to think carefully about their planning they get a special amount of time each week called ‘Blokuur’ which means ‘planning time’.  This type of development prepares the children for planning their homework and helps them think about time management and scheduling.

The GTCNI (2008) (competence number 13) states that “Teachers will plan and evaluate lessons that enable all pupils, including those with special education needs, to meet learning objectives/outcomes /intentions showing expectations and an awareness of potential areas of difficulty.”

I believe that this type of planning allows the teacher to enable all students to meet the learning objectives as the children will be working at their own pace and completing their extra work during a time that they have decided on themselves.  They still have to complete certain tasks that the teacher selects but by allowing the children to choose when they would like to complete work encourages them to be independent and think about their own level of ability.  Armathwaite Community School (2013) States that “asking children to plan and review what they do involves them purposefully in their own learning”.

Here in The Netherlands there is no curriculum that primary schools have to follow.  The teacher is able to choose what the children will learn and what type of books he/she would like to use to help the children learn.  My class learn Language (Taal) and Math (Rekenen) but the rest of the time they work on a specific project that the teacher would like to teach them.  Projects that the children have been working on since I have arrived are ‘Southern European Countries’ and they are currently working on ‘The Dutch Golden age’ (De Gouden Eeuw).  

References 

Armathwaite Community School (2013) Introduction: What is child Initiated Independent learning? Available at: http://www.armathwaite.cumbria.sch.uk/index.php?category_id=18 (accessed 06/04/13)

GTCNI Competences (2008). Professional Competences. Available at : http://www.gtcni.org.uk//index.cfm/area/information/page/ProfStandard (accessed 06/04/13)