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For my #picturebooks search I decided to use Instagram. It is an app that I use daily to look at clothes, food or funny pictures. When searching for picture books I assumed that I would not get a lot of results. BUT when I searched for the hashtag 58,384 posts were found. All of these beautiful brightly coloured pictures look fantastic. These pictures are posted by a variety if different users including illustrators, authors, teachers and just people who generally love books.

Compared with last week’s Tumblr search, I think that my results were limited on Instagram. Tumblr was easier to browse through results and access external links. Both did provide information on books that were new to me.

I feel that Instagram would be a platform that I could use to find information or resources for teaching. It could be good for classroom use but it does have certain elements that prevent it being appropriate. From my own personal experience using the app I have discovered that it is not suitable for children. It is not censored, is filled with negativity and people post content that is wildly inappropriate for children. So in my opinion it is helpful for a teacher searching for information, but not suitable for classroom use.

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When searching through the hashtag ‘#picturebooks’ I was happy to see many posts hashtagging things such as #diversity, #inclusion, #booksforeveryone and #representationmatters. I found it fantastic that so many authors are thinking about these things when creating children’s picture books. A post that caught my eye was one about a book called ‘Ada Twist, the Scientist’. I have included the image posted below. It looks like a book I would love to share with my future children and students.

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I watched ‘Discover the diversity of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages’. I would use this video as part of front loading for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander book that focuses on embracing the diversity of language within Australia. Both the Australian Curriculum and Victorian Curriculum discuss that at level 6 students need to be able to recognise the diverse languages and dialects within Australia. The video provides information to prepare students for learning in this area. It states that there are many languages and the children are able to hear other children speaking some of these languages. Hearing other children speak these words makes it more relevant for the children watching.

Ultimately looking at this video is recognising difference, which allows for understanding and acceptance.

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1. There are people who have no food and suffer through the night in silence; their cold hollow bodies with no strength are transparent to us, even those of which have died.

2. We have desensitised ourselves, this issue is treated as if it is a fictional concept on another planet.

3. To frontload for the selected text I would teach children to find stories and meaning in pictures. Do this through reading, analysing and discussing a book that has no text.

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My placement was in a large classroom with 29 foundation students. Over my two week placement the students learnt about the olympics and produced many pieces of work. Towards the end of the two week period the teacher and I made an olympic display that covered a wall of 3m x 5m. We created the olympic rings using 5 hula hoops and used this as the centre of our display. The students had made olympic torches, olympic rings, written olympic sentences and coloured in the mascot doing various olympic events. We covered the wall with their work and it looked fantastic. The most exciting part for me was when the children first saw the display. They loved it. The students were proud of their work and were giving each other compliments.

I have not included a picture due to names being on everything.

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A prediction activity for a primary school classroom for the novel Are you seeing me? by Darren Groth. As a class look at the front of the book and discuss what everyone can see. Then depending on the grade level of the children, they could either write what they think the book may be about or illustrate who/what they think the protagonist may be.

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This week my main type of reading has been reading the unit materials and weekly unit readings. This is my main type of reading for each week as it takes a few hours to get through all of these materials. I also communicate with friends and family frequently via text messaging and email. For my own enjoyment I have read some of my new book, Zoe Foster Blake’s ‘Amazinger Face’. When I am not at uni my main type of reading would be books that I find interesting.

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I have fond memories of being read to in my primary school library. We had a small space to sit on the floor amongst the book shelves and our librarian would read to us. I have always loved reading and being read to, so I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the library. 

We were read many different books including the Just Crazy books by Andrew Denton and A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The Just Crazy books were always entertaining for me an the rest of my class. I was opened up to different genres and became obsessed with reading. I would go home requesting mum to buy me new books or to let me go to the library and borrow more. I still love reading and do so in any spare time I have.