I am Kelly Jordan, a primary school teacher at Leopold Primary School near Geelong, Victoria. 2013 is my tenth year of teaching and I have a Grade Four class this year. I will again be team teaching with Kathleen Morris.
I enjoy all aspects of teaching but I have developed a particular passion for Literacy. I endeavour to learn all I can about Literacy education and I believe my students benefit from my explicit and innovative approach to teaching the foundations of reading, writing and oral language.
Integrating technology into my curriculum is another focus of my teaching. I am passionate about blogging and love using the 4KM and 4KJ class blog in my Literacy Blog every day.
Aside from teaching I enjoy keeping fit, reading, cooking, shopping, spending time with friends and family and of course surfing the net to learn all I can!
Here I am (left) with my team teaching partner, Kathleen Morris.
Hi Kelly,
I stumbled on your “persuasive” writing blog while searching for how to prepare my 2 kids for persuasive writing. What you are doing through this website is just great for confused people like me who haven’t gone through the education system in Australia and really struggling to understand how to teach at home. The examples on naplan website and other sites regarding the structure of a persuausive text contradicts what my daughter who is finsihing year 6 tell me – she insists that she has been told to give dictionary meanings of the words in topc in paragraph 2. For e.g if the topic is “should teachers be replaced by computers”, she went and gave meanings of teacher, replace and computer in the paragraph 2 – it totally broke the flow of the topic. Can you please give an outline of a structure of persuasive text – if you can refer any book, pdf doco, anything, so I can help my kids in the Xmas school holidays..
many thanks in advance,
poonam
Hi confused mum
One of the best things to do to help your 2 kids is through talking with them – help them to develop a point of view or an opinion about issues that interest them and encourage them to justify their comments – why they think that way. Have conversations where you encourage them to agree or disagree and think about what helps them make up their mind. Help them listen to and think about the opinion of others – but make all this talk purposeful and real for life – not NAPLAN preparation. Enjoy!
Hi Ms Jordan
Thank you very much for the comment we love to that you like our blog!
Any way your blog is so long How many pages is it?
I do hope all the kids listened because after we left we had a talk to one of the kids while we were heading back and he was getting the lunch orders he is very good at listening to us thanks any way
Yours Morgan
Remember be safe on the net!
HA HA
Hi Kelly,
On the night before Term 2 starts I am SSOOOO excited to have found your blog! I also teach in Victoria (Melbourne) and have been reading about the Daily 5 on the proteacher community for quite some time. Are you a member of proteacher? I love the simplicity of going back to what is important and spending my energy of catering to the students instead of making different literacy activities for each different rotation. I have yet to implement the Daily 5 in my Grade 1 classroom as I work in a Catholic school and we are under a program called ‘class’ where reading and writing are to be explicitly seperated, interesting who thought of that one! Your blog has inspired me to start to introduce parts of it into my teaching. One question – do you do a specific oral language activity as part of your literacy block? I know its not in the original Daily 5 plan.
Thank you so much for the inspiration Kelly!
Have a great start to Term 2 with your students.
Liz
Your blog is fascinating. I am wondering if you are coming along to the National Australian Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA) Conference in Melbourne 7 – 10 July 2011? http://www.alea2011.com
Regards,
Christine
Thanks for such a practical and helpful website. Love the checklists and look forward to learning more.
I was excited to find your blog, I have gone back to classroom teaching grade 3/4 after teaching reading recovery.
I have been doing some research as not feeling happy with literacy program and love the daily five, individual reading idea. Love the way you are blogging and using Ipods. Giving me inspiration
Dear Kelly,
I was just reading your class blog and loved learning about your postcard project.
I am from the UK and am the founder of a new children’s website that develops their knowledge and understanding of the world, http://www.oddizzi.com. The site is really engaging, full of interactive features and above all fun to learning from!
On part of our site is a piece of functionality called ClassPals this enables classrooms to send virtual postcards to classroom all around the world. The beauty of this is that it doesn’t rely on time differences and is an simple activity that involves your children within a site that educates them about the world.
To view a demo of our site click here http://bit.ly/l4mWQC.
We have schools from around the world using our site who are keen to get in touch with schools in Australia therefore we are looking to donate a years subscription to the site to a couple of schools in Australia.
Please get in touch if you are interested.
Hi there,
I just discovered your blog after it being mentioned on one of my favourite blogs Langwitches. I haven’t had time to read much of it yet but I am putting it on my Reader to learn more.
I am starting individual blogs with my Year 4 students. I am excited about the process but also apprehensive about beginning this journey.
Keep up the great writing.
I just came across your blog today as I was searching Daily 5 and CAFE information. I am an instructional coach in Iowa and I get excited when I find blogs like yours! I am definitely passing along your blog to all my teachers that I work with. You are posting some great information that they need to hear from other teachers and that you need to make Daily 5/CAFE work for your classroom. I signed up to receive emails when you post something new. I’ll be looking forward to reading them.
Emily
Hi Kelly,
I am a student teacher currently studying a unit called ‘Living and Learning with Technology’ at Murdoch University. I have an assignment at the moment which requires my to find resources on how best to use technology in the classroom. I was wondering if I could have your permission to use your blog as one of my resources? It will be fully referenced (APA) so all credit will go to you.
Thank you
Alana
Hi Alana,
That is fine, no problem at all, thanks for asking. I hope you find my blog useful!
Good luck with your studies,
Kelly