Guest Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Hi I have a YR class of 26 and we are in the process of sorting out what we are doing re. learning journeys. My HT isn't keen on doing individual learning journeys as we are not sure that we would be using it to aid our assessments or planning but more as a memento for the parents. As a compromise myself and another YR teacher thought that we could do just 3 learning journeys per class focusing on one higher, middle and lower ability child. This way we would be able to look more in-depth at their progress and see what our next steps need to be. I know this probably isn't ideal but we feel that this would be more beneficial to us, the rest of the class would still have their own photos, observations, work etc kept but not in the same format as the three target children. What do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Hi Kerryg4...I think sometimes this 'interim' measure is needed in order to 'sway' people into your way of thinking ...particularly if they find it hard to visualize your idea You have nothing to lose and much to gain and because you are concentrating initailly on a small amount you can put more effort into making a great impression with them Are you letting your ht know your plan or are you just getting on with it and show them the examples? Good luck...let us know how it goes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 My HT and I have had many a lengthy discussion about the best way (the best way being something that will benefit the children and our ways of teaching etc) and this was the only thing we could come up with that seemed manageable and worthwhile. Thank you for your comment-my HT was keen for me to post the question on here to gain opinions from others as learning journeys seem to be a bit of a grey area with some schools near us going the whole hog and others not doing anything yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 I think your approach is wise... Particularly keeping it manageable and applicable to your school. I'm daycare so I don't have a huge amount of key children. Is this a path you are passionate about or do you feel it's something you feel you have to do? Will you just stick at 3 per class or just for a trial period till you work out the work load and then complete one for all?? You mentioned Your other children have photos, obs, pics etc how do you collect these together at the mo? Could you present these in a folder in chronological order as their 'journey' there has been much discussion on here about how everyone tackles this... A 'forum search' might be worthwhile for you. (sorry haven't mastered links yet) can you peek at another schools to see their approach? probably haven't been much help to you...Seem to have asked more questions!! For us we began asking ourselves 'why' are we doing them and progressed from there... And part of it was to provide a keepsake which then moved onto being more personal, mapping learning, working with parents, evidence for planning, sustained shared thinking etc etc I really enjoy doing them, but whether I would want to do 26 is a sobering thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 I am beginning to come round to the idea of learning journeys as i speak to more people, but only if they serve a purpose for me as a teacher. This will be just a trial doing 3 per class and maybe will reassess for next year. We've had a look at a couple of other schools which has been useful. Everything else we collect for the other children in the class will be kept in a folder alongside sticker obs and their pre-school info. So you will be able to pick up my assessment folder and see each child's journey just not in such a concise manner as the 3 target children. Thanks for your thoughts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 I have introduced the idea of learning journals this year and have to say I was dubious about how I was going to manage them all, however my teaching assistant suggested that we use it as more of an encouragement for parents to be more active in their child's learning and so have turned them into home learning journals. This way we have taken the pressure off ourselves as we have explained to the parents that this will help us to build a rounder picture of their child's learning - we look at them once a week taking on board anything significant. So far they seem to be working well and our parents are taking more of an interest in the other aspects of their childrens learning, not just reading!! Will let you know how we get on and whether it makes any difference to our assessment and teaching!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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