Loud & Hot

First Post in #29daysofwriting - so therefore, 29 minutes (or thereabouts) of writing/posting for 29 days ... today very much train of thought narrative.

My first day back was loud.  Loud and hot.

Source

It is still loud - my own wee tribe are chilling and winding down before they head into bed.  It was a warm day here; and I think it needs to cool down alightly before I insist they attempt to sleep.  I love that I can hear happy chatter and giggles from three (bigger) kids who had an amazing first day back at school and even louder giggles from a nearly school boy and kindy girl.

 I loved that I got to have a quick cuddle with my middle miss at lunchtime as I checked out her new classroom.  She has a new teacher this year - a wonderful young woman who I am going to team up with for a tuakana/teina relationship between our classes.

This relationship is probably one of the things I am most looking forward to developing this year ... one idea we will implement (starting tomorrow) are a pair of my 'big kids' (Y10s) going into the Y1 class during DEAR time and reading a couple of books aloud to smaller groups.  I have some reluctant readers, and I am hoping (and have a hunch) that being able to read 'fun' books to younger students may encourage them to pick up a book again.    We are both taking part in the #NZreadaloud this year - another thing I am putting into my arsenal to build the literacy skills of my class.

Literacy skills are going to be a large focus for my inquiry, how to build not only competence, but also confidence.  I believe the confidence will come with the students learning about, understanding and applying the growth mindset we hope to cultivate in the classroom this year.

If you have some free time, here is the link to the GROWTH MINDSET TD talk that I watched with them this morning - we will look at several more tomorrow and make some class and personal growth goals.