The Sound collector worksheet

The Sound Collector worksheet for children to write their own poems. You could get the children to collect sounds from your school, or from the park or from the zoo.

Lesson plan and activities for 'The Sound Collector'
Click here

Teaching children with autism

Social Stories

This is a really good site for information about Social stories.
Check it out!

Just found this link (added 26th March)

Lots of social stories

Examples of HLTA assessor questions

There have been many posts on the forum about questions that the assessors might ask. Here are a few that I have picked out:

How do you feed back to the teacher and how do you assess whether children
have progressed in learning .
Give me an eg. of an actvitiy that you had planned ,that you had to change
when you carried out the actvity to meet the needs of the children . eg . of
spur of the moment thinking...
If a child said a racist comment what would you do ?
Talk me through the process of the schools SEN policy.
How do i progress learning . Give egs.
Give me an example of how i have dealt with bad behaviour . What methods
did I use?
Have you had the opportunity to observe others. What did you learn?
How has going on a particlular course improved your proffessional
development? How do you make sure you differentiate the work that you plan ?
My involvement in assessment and recording .
How and why I analysis the information
What is your overall contribution to the school? (Chlo)

How do you get on with other TAs - do they see you as a leader?
What would you do if a teacher had planned work which was inappropriate for
child you're working with?
What do you know about the SEN Code of Practice? (don't think "very little"
would be the right answer, but didn't expect quotes from documents or anything)
How do you manage behaviour in the classroom?
How often do you teach whole class alone?
How do you contribute to the ethos of the school?
How would you deal with a racist remark from a child?
Do you do your own planning or does teacher?
How are your ICT skills?
How do you contribute to record-keeping?
Do you have much contact with parents and what sort of relationships do you
have with them? Have you been involved in a risk assessment for a trip?
How confident are you about Child Protection issues?
How do the ethnic minority children know that you personally respect their
background? (Miranda)

Group work feedback form

Thank you to Vee from the HLTA forum who has sent me these two feedback forms that she has designed.

This is a form I designed for using in class or for group intervention work. I use a simple tick, tick and question mark or a cross if the children have either got the objective, nearly got it or haven't got it at all. I find it easy to use whilst working with a group of children.

Click on the image above and then right click and save to your computer. You can then insert it into a word document set for Landscape. I hope you find it as useful as I do.

Vee from the forum just suggested a traffic light system where you could use the colours red, amber and green for if the children have understood the objective or not. Thanks Vee!

Understanding the value of each digit in a 2 digit number

Numeracy game I played today with a group of children.

You need a 2 or 3 sets of digit cards 0 - 9

and a board something like this


Each child to have a board.
Each child in turn picks a card and decides whether to put it in the tens or ones column. Each child then picks a card and puts it into the empty column. What number have they made? Who has the largest number? That child is the winner and is given a counter.

Start again to see who can make the largest number.
You could play it to see who can make the smallest number.

Advice for newbies starting out on HLTA

What advice would our members give to people who are just starting out on the HLTA Process?

Listen to your HLTA provider and take it one step at a time (Jac)

Don't panic! (Miranda)

Don't feel you have to write all the tasks before day one. Your provider is there to guide you through this process (Debbie)

Keep notes in a little book, of lessons you have done (Blueliz)

Keep the lesson plans that you have been given (Jac)

Any evidence of learning outcomes, from children's work (Blueliz)

Take photographs of any displays you have done Take photocopies of any worksheets you have marked. Keep minutes to any meetings you attend Make a point of giving written feedback to teacher, eg have a little shared book which you can both use to jot things down (Debbie)

Photograph children's work in case you need it. My Yr 4's made chairs and I photographed each one. They can go in their Art books and I can use some if I decide to use their class for Task 3. (Squirrel)

Quote the relevant polices and acts to prove you know them and are following them, especially "Every Child Matters"

Keep all IEP's and your own planning (Jac)

F 9 Evidence grid for HLTA process

Whilst searching for an answer to a query on the forum I found my F9 grid so thought I would post it for anyone else who is a little concerned about how to fill it in. I have only posted the first page and taken out any identifying information