What is a Writer’s Notebook? Sometimes called the ‘messy attic of the mind’, the writer’s notebook is a magical place. It’s a place writers can collect, store, grow and nurture their ideas for writing. It is often filled with a collection of seeds (artefacts that provoke writing) like photos, sketches, holiday mementos, lists, news clippings, … Continue reading Getting Started with Writer’s Notebook
Author: emily.fintelman
The New Normal: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus
Written for the DLTV Journal in April 2020 as a follow up to my first blog post responding to teaching amidst Coronavirus. This reflection outlines my school's approach to Remote Learning 1.0. It is a difficult time for teachers. There is so much scrutiny and attention on what schools are doing right now. It feels … Continue reading The New Normal: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus
Relief Sets In: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus
Relief Sets In: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus I entered the early school holidays in a state of paralysis. To be clear, I always enter the school holidays in some sort of zombie-fied state. It's near impossible to make it to the end of term without clawing your way through your front door on the last day … Continue reading Relief Sets In: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus
How I’m Spending the Class Budget
In the last few days you have probably been given a few hundred dollars for your class budget and a catalogue for some ordering. Come the Back-To-School season, a Norah Ephron film would recommend a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils, but I personally am a paper-fiend. I am ashamed to admit how much I love … Continue reading How I’m Spending the Class Budget
Island Survival: A Cooperative Game
Do you need a great cooperative game? This one will sweep them away. I play Island Survival with year 4, 5, and 6s either at the beginning or end of the year and it is always a hit! They often ask for it again. It's a great game that allows for problem solving, justification, reasoning, … Continue reading Island Survival: A Cooperative Game
9 Types of Reading Journal Entries
A typical independent reading task in my classroom consists of reading and a response to reading. A response to reading usually is done in the reading journal. It helps students to confidently and independently respond to texts if, over the year, you help them build up a bank of reading journal entry types that they … Continue reading 9 Types of Reading Journal Entries
Mrs Fintelman’s End of Year Report
You know that time towards the end of the school year, where you start dreaming about your next class and all the things you will do better next year? The more I teach, the more I am concentrating not so much on what I do, but on the impact of my actions on students' learning and … Continue reading Mrs Fintelman’s End of Year Report
Effort and Achievement Charts
Carol Dweck's work around growth and fixed mindsets has been groundbreaking for education. It has reinforced for educators that is it essential to praise effort, not intelligence. This has led to change in the way educators speak and lots of us are doing great work in the way we provide feedback to students based on … Continue reading Effort and Achievement Charts
Mulling Time
The topic of what good professional learning looks like is always contentious. Some of us love to sit and listen and soak up some new knowledge from a great speaker. Others argue that the best professional learning happens in schools with colleagues through inquiry, observation and dialogue. I think that there is a place for … Continue reading Mulling Time
Show a Pro
Do you get annoyed when your students come to you for every little thing? Or conversely, maybe you sometimes feel yourself getting frustrated when one of your students speaks up about something they know lots about, rudely interrupting you when you are trying to teach that very same thing to the class. Schools and teachers … Continue reading Show a Pro
Mrs Fintelman Teaches 