Professional Portal for Donna Rudduck

What? It is important to keep working on relationships with the students. I believe that if they feel safe and valued by their teacher they will learn. There are several ways that I can do this.  So What? When I am on duty I join in Handball with them and spend time chatting to students. I take the time to find out about my students personal lives. Every year we have an exhibition game of Netball against the Yr 8 A team. This builds relationships with the students and lets them see you in a different light. I always play or umpire, whatever is needed. Teachers v Students Now What? I need to continue to support the students throughout the school.  Some of the girls in the 8A Netball team I have taught and coached. They always come and chat to me in the playground or at sport. I love this. I have watched and supported the Year 8A netball team throughout the season and have watched some of their games and that of other teams. The girls really like it when teachers ...

What? Change of Government I wanted the students to engage with something that was meaningful and had a real context. As the election is coming up at the end of September we chose to investigate change in government. A full resource from Life Education for the Electoral Commission was available and we received this to support our topic. I feel our student inquiries often don't have a real context and I wonder how much learning the students gain from them. But when it is a relevant topic and in a real life context that they can relate to, they are more engaged. I certainly found this when we looked at the Olympics when they were on last year as well. So What?                        The students have discussed what groups they belong to and how the rules for these are made. They have thought about whether or not their voices are heard within these groups and what chances do they have, to have their say. This was interes...

What? There are more and more students coming through the system that struggle with Reading, Writing, and Spelling. I have 5 students in my class with various reasons for this. Some are diagnosed with traits of Dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyspraxic and low processing.  So What? I want to know how best to help these students moving forward. Life is stressful enough for them. It is hard to know what you need to focus on most and what things to let go of.  MY WONDERINGS : Do I need to make my students who are dysgraphic/dyspraxic physically write or should I just allow them to go straight onto the computer? Am I wasting my time giving spelling words to my dyslexic students? What resources are available to help these students in the classroom? Now What? LEARNING MATTERS CARLA MCNEIL Attended 3 sessions with Carla, discussing and learning about Dyslexia. Learnt that dyslexia is a genetic language-based learning disability. These students have a low...