Swivel

The Swivel is a great gadget that has your i-pad mounted on it and then it tracks your movement and records what you're saying through the use of a dongle that you hang round your neck - all linked by Bluetooth. I decided that I wanted to monitor how I interacted with my mentor group so I wore it during a "Bringing Books Alive" session in week 2 of Term 4. Maybe not the wisest choice of time as we were making paper maiche trees so it was noisy, and messy and I couldn't look in detail into the relationships I wanted to! Here are my findings;

What I did	Reflection
Set out expectations	Good to do and clear
When child wasn’t listening finger in their face	Change – intimidating
Modelled the process	Good
But didn’t make sure all could see or were focused	Change – alter logistics to ensure all can see / hear
Came down to their level to listen	Good
Focused on a negative	Change – should have focused on the positives of other children
Too long modelling	Change – break down into stages
Use children to give out supplies	Change – have it better set up prior
Level of engagement	Good (Yay!!)
Didn’t notice a new child hadn’t really started until near the end	Change – should have given my time and attention to all, not those who made the most noise
Helped where was called not necessarily where needed	Change – as above
Telling children who have finished to support others	Good
Saying “Excuse me” to the children when off task	Change as there was no follow up and I had the expectation they would change – should give direct instructions when needed
Asking “What should you be doing?” to off task children	Hmmm, didn’t always wait for a response
Saying “Great effort, don’t give up” to a new child who didn’t want to do it	Good – positive on the effort
Saying “Is this area tidy?” (when it clearly wasn’t!)	Change – better to make it a statement rather than rhetorical question
“Pick up 10 pieces of rubbish”	Good – competition to see who could pick up the most
Ended the lesson explaining where to next	Good – could have given them some reflection time too.