Who are these people?

Who are these people?

29th October, 2015

 Nick uses his personal work experience to discuss the role of an integration aide within the learning space and how future teachers can incorporate them into their teaching practice.

Including and incorporating all students within the learning space is of utmost importance. Within your class group there is a great likelihood of encountering a student with a special need; this will present many interesting and exciting challenges to you as the teacher. One of the greatest challenges that may be faced is how to include these students in every aspect of learning that takes place in the learning space.  In this situation you may be able to utilise the work of an education support staff member, specifically an integration aide.

The role of an integration aide varies from classroom to classroom depending on the needs of the student. As aides work alongside students with special needs it is important for them to be flexible in their approach to accommodate and ensure inclusion for each student. Some key roles of an integration aide are as follows:

• To ensure inclusion rather than isolation within the learning space.
• Collaborate with teachers to ensure delivery of educational programs to students with special needs.
• Be conscious of the classroom teacher’s expectations for the entire class group and support the teacher with carrying out these expectations.
• To be happy, friendly, warm, encouraging and supportive.

The idea of inclusion is something that is at the heart of my teaching philosophy and I am passionate about the notion of EVERY student feeling as though they are a part of the classroom environment. As an integration aide this means that when working with students in the learning space there is more to the role than assisting students in completing their ‘work’.  The idea of inclusion incorporates assisting students with social strategies as well as effective communication strategies. It may also mean providing students with assistance for mobility or other needs specific to that student to ensure they are able to actively engage within the learning space. These inclusion strategies may extend beyond the learning space into the playground.

How do I incorporate an integration aide into my classroom?

In my role as an integration aide I have been able to gain some insight into how teacher’s can best utilise an aide through collaborative practices. It is important to note that although your learning space may have students with special needs, an integration aide may not always be present, if at all.

Collaboration is vital within the school setting; whether it is between staff or with parents, it is the key to a successful learning environment. Teacher and integration aide collaboration is best achieved through effective and consistent communication to ensure the best outcomes are achieved for students. Allowing access to unit planners or weekly planners is a great way to ensure each party is working towards a common educational goal or outcome for the student. In particular, as a future teacher it is important to ensure these planners are specific to the learning goals of the child with special needs as well as being clear to anyone who reads them.  It is also important as the teacher to liaise with the aide during the session to ensure the student is on track. Alternatively, you can have a brief discussion post session to discuss how the student worked and what areas need to be improved on for the next session.

Overall it can be a great asset to have an education support member in your learning space. However, as discussed, it is vital that they be used effectively to ensure not only inclusion of the students, but to also assist them in achieving the best educational outcomes possible.

- Nick

In Conversation With Chloe

As part of my upcoming blog posts I decided to interview a variety of people who I believe can offer some useful information to pre-service teachers. Given I have about four or five interviews to post, I thought it might be wise to make the interviews into their own segment entitled In Conversation With... and provide the rest of the PST blog team with a platform for posting other interviews. I hope pre-service teachers garner some useful pedagogical tips or ideas from these interviews.

27th October, 2015

In Conversation With ... Chloe.

Chloe is a 2nd year graduate classroom teacher who completed a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) in 2013. Her favourite aspect of teaching is connecting with a diverse number of people and she specialises in creating a safe and supportive classroom community.

Hi Chloe, thanks for being our blog's first interviewee!

Can you remember your first day teaching? How did it feel?
 
Exciting, daunting and right.

Did you feel unprepared? If so, in what way? 

Not on the first day, but as time went on I found it difficult. You don’t know what’s around the corner so while everyone else is preparing for the next thing or getting ahead so they aren’t swamped when reports come or whatever, you are blissfully unaware and then it gets you!

What do you know now that you wish you had known on your first day?
 
From day one hit the ground running. Have the children decorating name tags, take photos of them, collect a writing sample, test them on their times-tables, ask them who they’re friends are, what they are worried about, learn their parents names and siblings, label books, rule margins, set up rules for the classroom.

Do you feel your qualification adequately prepared you for your first few years teaching?
 
Yes but experience will always do more.

How have you developed as a teacher?
 
So much! I communicate with my students in a very open and honest way, taking their perspectives into account. Telling them the options and why and then giving them ownership over the decision. I know what to look for with reading, writing and maths as cues for gaps in learning or students not achieving their potential.

What are three essential tips that you would give to any PST about to start their first day?
 
Students want to know what’s coming, so create the timetable and show them where they can locate it each day.

Students want rules and restrictions and they want you to be the overseer of that so develop them together.

They want to know you and you to know them so spend some of the first day playing getting-to-know-each-other games and get involved.

What do you think are the most important elements to being an effective teacher?
 
 Wow. Building relationships, organisation, preparation and balance.

How could we improve Pre-Service Teacher education courses?
 
Provide more time in the classroom.
Creating usable resources such as writing, reading spelling and math toolkits as well as assessment tracking resources.

Chloe, thanks for taking the time to respond to our questions and all the best for the rest of the year!

- Alex

Although Alex has regular contact with Chloe this interview was conducted via email, with the view in mind of allowing Chloe time to consider the questions and respond when she could.

Developing Confidence in the Field

Developing Confidence in the Field

22nd October, 2015 

Aaron looks into how involving yourself in work and experiences with young students can help you understand how they think, play, live and learn

Picture this, it’s the first day of a placement, you’ve had a chat to a teacher or two prior to your first experience in the class room, but the bell has just gone and you can see 25-30 children running up to the door. Butterflies start to build in great numbers in your stomach, and a little frog appears to be slowly making his way up your throat, and as soon as those children get to the door, you need to be switched on and in charge. “What is happening to me?!?!” you think to yourself in your currently jumbled mind, “PULL IT TOGETHER, THEY’RE STANDING RIGHT INFRONT OF ME!” is the next jump, and then you calmly say out loud, “Good Morning everyone, come inside, put your bags away and come sit on the mat.”

I have found in my experiences studying a Bachelor of Education that a large number of Pre Service Teachers are very nervous heading into their placements, and the root of this nervousness is often a lack of experience working with, or being in the presence of large groups of children. Often people begin studying this degree for relatively trivial reasons like “I LOVE KIDS” or “I’ve got three younger siblings, so I’ll be a great teacher.” Which may be a useful tool at some stage in your teaching career, but initially at least on your first experiences coming face to face with a group of children; I don’t feel like these things will really calm the ever growing butterfly population in your lower torso region.

What has been really fortunate for me, and to be fair, quite a large number of other PSTs, has been the ability to develop some experience working with larger groups of kids in various forms of child care, and Outside School Hours activity groups. Now this might sound like a no brainer, of course working with children will help build your confidence – but I think as a whole it really is something that a lot of people overlook, or maybe even turn their noses up at, when starting off in their education journey. Having worked in Child Care, Outside School Hours Care and Foster Care, prior to and throughout the time I have been studying, I feel this is something that has really helped me let go of the worries I’ve had about my ability to stand up in front of a class and it also has given me a wealth of activities and ideas that translate really well to the classroom environment.

An assurance needs to be made really quickly, that I am not writing this as some sort of weird recruitment letter to the masses who may be reading it, but merely sharing a bit of advice, that I think could be helpful to people who struggle with these butterflies and frogs, as I know we all do. Working with children whether in a child care centre, babysitting, tutoring, youth group mentoring or even being a scouts or girl guides leader, can be a really great experience, and work quite well with your timetables at university, as well as helping develop some skills that will really pay off when it comes to functioning confidently in the classroom. There is nothing more confronting than being hit with a question you don’t know the answer to when standing in front of a class, or notice the outdoor PE activity is taking a turn for the rowdy, and you need a quick new activity to round out the session, and this is where this experience really shows its worth.

All I’m really trying to get across in this maiden post (for myself) on the blog is that if working in this field alongside my time studying this degree, it’s that having this experience and comfort level around groups of children has really helped how I feel and inherently operate when standing in front of a classroom on placement. I think as with anyone experiencing something for the first time, we all need to expect some butterflies and throat climbing frogs. However, if we can do something to limit these, and be more in control of our feelings and our emotions when faced with a group of keen (or not so keen) learners, we will function better when standing at the front of the room, and will far more comfortably and confidently work through our lessons to deliver the best teaching that we can.

     - Aaron

5 Ways to Prepare Your Classroom for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

5 Ways to Prepare Your Classroom for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

20th October, 2015

Matt talks about creating a classroom space that caters to children with ASD and passes on some tips from an Occupational Therapist 

 

When I first set out to write about students with ASD and their unique position in the school environment, I originally planned to create a top-ten or top-five list of ways to engage with such students. Upon conducting some research, however, I found that this approach was at best short-sighted. Having recently assisted in the coordination of a social skills program for primary school students with ASD, I became aware of the variance in difficulties a teacher can face with ensuring that an environment is supportive for such students.

I find it important to mention that although the creation of classroom environments conducive to the learning of those with special needs has formed part of our teacher education, it is extremely vague. Not that it wasn’t useful; it taught us about the importance of doing so (though that is common sense). It was simply that it gave little attention to specific special needs. With ASD diagnoses becoming more common in the modern day, I personally feel that learning as much as we can about catering for diverse learning needs will prove useful in our future teaching careers.

Therefore, to do my best to comprehensively cover this topic, I have decided to write a series of articles, each of which will focus on tips and advice from a professional Occupational Therapist (OT) on how to integrate children with ASD safely into the school environment and thus best provide for their learning needs.

I decided to start from the beginning; how can one prepare their classroom to be (using classic university language) a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for children with ASD. These ways will refer to mostly physical aspects of the classroom; there will be more information at another time on classroom processes. To reiterate, this is not a top-five list; each of these is equally important.

1. Bags/Lockers: As most of us can recall from our schooling days, when students go to the ‘bag area’, whether to hang up their bags, retrieve their lunch or leave school for the day, it is loud and chaotic, with students arguing, pushing and generally causing a ruckus as they try to be the first to reach their luggage. One of the first facts people learn about children with ASD is that they can become distressed when exposed to uncomfortably loud noise, and many children with ASD also dislike being touched or crowded. To avoid this as best as possible, set aside a specific bag hook or locker at the end of a row, so that the student can access their belongings without being fully subjected to the chaos.
2. Quiet Area: If your student is starting to become overwhelmed, it is important that they have a place to retreat to, where they can begin to calm down. This can be a designated area of the classroom such as a reading corner or a quiet table, or a space just outside the classroom like the hallway, an office or similar. This will depend on the preferences and requirements of the student. It may also be useful to, in the classroom, seat your student near their quiet area so that they can access it quickly and easily if needed.
3. Schedules and Timetables: Predictability and routine are very important in an ASD-friendly classroom; sudden or unexpected change, as well as not knowing what is coming next or how long activities will take, is very distressing for most such students. Schedules and timetables should therefore be prominent in your classroom and presented in a variety of formats. To further alleviate student anxiety, students can be provided with a timer to support the student and allow them to keep track of the length of activities. According to my OT consultant, these schedules are absolutely ESSENTIAL no matter the age of your student.
4. Sensory tools or objects: Tools that engage the senses, particularly the tactile sense, are very useful for helping children with ASD to maintain focus on activities, process information and keep calm. These could include safely chewable items such as pen/pencil toppers and chewy necklaces, or toys known as ‘fidget toys’ which are often bendable. If you are worried that students will become distracted, I can assure you that I have seen these in use; although sometimes they can distract other children and make it appear that a student is not listening to you when in use, it does sharpen focus, as the children in my focus group were able to easily recall information given to them as they engaged with their sensory tools.
5. Seating Position in the Classroom: This aspect does not just involve their seat at a table; this also includes seating during time on the mat, assembly and school events. It is important to optimally position your student according to a number of factors; who they are sitting with, how close they are to distractions (such as the bookshelves or computers, depending on their interests), proximity to the teacher and to sensory distractions; these can include areas of greater/lesser light, louder noise or hanging objects. As aforementioned in discussion of quiet areas, some students will prefer to be close to a door so that they can leave if required.

Although it is not simple or easy to prepare a classroom to be safe and supportive for students with ASD, with adequate preparation many uncomfortable and anxiety-inducing situations can be avoided. I hope that you have found these classroom preparation tips useful. Check out next time, where I will discuss five ways to design classroom procedures and processes to be inclusive of children with ASD.

-Matt

21st Century Learners

"Wait, are you telling me that MySpace is NOT a website about planets?!"

  21st Century Learners

15th October, 2015

Will reflects on the children in classrooms today, their technology-rich environments and the impact this has had on the curriculum.  

 

In 2006 I started secondary school and was part of the laptop program. My shiny new ‘portable’ device was bulky and weighed the best part of a brick, but I didn’t care because I had my generous 256 megabyte USB. Jumping forward just nine years we can pick up a 16 gigabyte USB for around $10 (a storage increase of over 6000%). Technology advances exponentially and it is clear to see we are in the rapid growth stage when you consider computers double in capabilities every 18 months. 

 

So what does this have to do with PSTs, teaching and the 21st century classroom? Well, have you considered that the students you will teach in the near future were all born in the 2000’s or even the 2010’s? (I know, they were deprived of the glorious 90’s). What must be considered is the fact that students today are technology natives. The 90’s generation were the 1st generation of technology natives; they grew up and adapted to 21st century technology. Children today are 2nd or even 3rd ‘Net-generation’ and born into a world saturated with digital technology that enhances connectivity and accessibility. For some of us, this may mean accepting that little Johnny’s ICT skills are far superior to yours. 

 

So how can we prepare ourselves for such an environment? Whilst I find it astounding that my current course does not have a core unit solely devoted to the topic, I was fortunate enough to do an elective on technology in education. In an upcoming series of blog posts I hope to share some valuable insights I gained. One resource I would encourage you to start using (if not already) is Twitter. Twitter is an interconnected web of educational resources, ideas and experts. To get started I would suggest following some of these: 

@DLTVictoria  

@ipads4learning 

@misskyritsis 

@AusLessons 

@jjash 

@LeighGMurphy 

 

One of the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum is Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This means ICT is a dimension that will be harnessed across all learning areas and as 21st century educators, it is our job to facilitate an environment where students can use ICT to: 

• Access, create and communicate information and ideas 
• Solve problems
• Work collaboratively

Furthermore, technology in education does not just exist for students. In the minefield of software and applications in the Education category, technology can also be used by teachers and parents to implement fresh approaches to feedback, assessment, planning, collaborating and communicating. 

To finish, I would like to pose a question: in what ways have you seen technology used in the classroom? Before you answer, exclude the obvious, overused and generalised answers of ‘Microsoft Word’, ‘PowerPoint’, ‘Interactive Whiteboard’ and ‘iPads’. What specific ways has the technology helped the student or teacher in the areas discussed and how did it shape them as 21st century learners?

- Will 

Accommodating for English Language Learners

Accommodating for English Language Learners

13th October, 2015
 

Adelle explores the diversity in the classroom when students who are learning English as an additional language are involved.

Recently I have begun tutoring an adult, older than myself, in English. He is French and needs to sit the IELTS exam to be sponsored and therefore, extend his visa to remain in Australia.

On the initial session with him, he told me he mainly needs help with writing and listening. After discussing a topic for 10 minutes, I was confident that he understood what he had to do and he was able to discuss his ideas well, so I assumed his writing should reflect this.

I was very quickly surprised by the struggles he had in doing this.

The concept of writing for an audience flustered him and he was not sure where to begin.

This got me thinking, wouldn’t this be true of a child as well?

Discussing ideas and speaking is a very different concept than writing. Whether it is formal or informal writing, putting your words onto a page can quickly make you doubt yourself as a student, and your abilities in the language you speak.

I don’t know how many of you have attempted to learn or have successfully learnt another language, but more often than not you will find your own strength whether it be listening, writing, reading or speaking. Can you imagine only speaking English, moving to a new school in a foreign country and having instruction in the native language? Then be expected to participate in all four areas (reading, writing, speaking & listening) of the literacy curriculum and then be assessed on that?

What a daunting prospect!

A focus on oral language acquisition has been dominant when implementing strategies to help these students, however the need for focus on the other areas and giving explicit instruction is integral in them gaining confidence in all areas of English. However the need to not look at their work as critically as other students is just as important.

I read an article just last week on a new concept called “generous reading”. Ultimately it’s an assessment strategy to use with ELL’s and it involves viewing the student’s work as;

"Writing, that is, as legitimate text, with the assumption that it does make sense, carries its own internal logic, is justifiably studied as any other text, literary or expository”.

This strategy is used for students who are not yet ready for critical review of the grammar, cohesion and spelling in their work. It instead focuses on questions for the teacher to think about when reading the child’s work and gaining knowledge

of how the child is influenced, their viewpoints and what they have learnt due to mimicking etc.

The angle I took with my student was to initially work on the structure and give him some sentence starters and sentence patterns to remember. I used the ‘generous reading’ strategy initially with my student’s work, only looking for structure and if his ideas were being expressed as he wanted them to be.

We focussed on persuasive writing and developed structures together that included an introduction, outline or points and summary. I used topics that he was interested in so he could build confidence in his ability to create a cohesive piece.

Just adding some simple sentence starters; Firstly. Secondly, Therefore, Whereas, For example, Lastly, or the phrase; On the other hand, his writing improved dramatically.

Further along, I will focus on his grammar, spelling and punctuation once he has accomplished confidence in expressing his ideas in an organised way for a writing task.

I believe giving children an initial structure to follow is a starting point that can be further expanded after developing knowledge and confidence in the language. Using generous reading as an assessment technique not only enables teachers to build stronger relationships with students by learning who they are and where their writing skills are derived from. It also turns the focus away from grammar and writing concepts and instead focuses on the child perspectives and if they are able to express their thoughts on paper. Although grammar, punctuation and spelling is important, it is not the priority when beginning to express your thoughts on a page.

The article “Generous Reading: Seeing Students Through Their Writing” - Lucy K. Spence, can be found here http://www.jstor.org/stable/25656174

Check it out; I would love to read your thoughts.

- Adelle

Students with Special Needs

Students with special needs - They do exist... Don’t they?

8th October, 2015

 Nick provides an outline of the different types of special needs that a teacher may encounter within their learning space.

I was sitting in a lecture last week listening to the lecturer discussing all these BRILLIANT lesson ideas that we could use with our future students. However, I thought to myself “how are the students with special needs catered for and included in these lessons?” The lecturer seemed to be presenting the ideas based on the assumption that every student fits into a perfect box, when in reality we know that this is not the case.

It is inevitable that in our learning space we will have the opportunity and in my opinion the absolute pleasure of working with one or more students with a special need. In my three years of studying primary school teaching this important area of education seems to be neglected and there is a sense it is ignored, as if students with special needs do not exist. This leaves placement as the only time in which a preservice teacher may gain some knowledge and experience in the area of special needs education. Catering to students with special needs can be a challenge and requires careful and explicit planning in order to set these students up for success in their learning. As the teacher if you are able to effectively modify and adapt your lessons to be inclusive to the needs of these students the results can be amazing.

What is a special need?
A Special need is an umbrella term and can be summarised as a specific educational requirement that a particular student may need in order to benefit their learning outcomes. It is often viewed as what a student can’t do, when in reality students with special needs can achieve outstanding educational results. As I mentioned, special needs is an umbrella term for many different forms of diagnosis and can often be associated with a negative as students with special needs require individual planning. In my experience students with special needs can significantly enrich the learning of other students within the learning space as well as create many advantages and unique learning opportunities for all students.

In your classroom you may have a diverse range of special needs for example:
             •    Students who have higher ability
             •    English as an Additional language learners
             •    Students with learning disabilities
             •    Students with hearing or visual impairments
             •    Students with muscular mobility and muscular disorders
             •    Students with emotional difficulties
             •    Students with social communication disorders
             •    Developmental disorders
             •    Neurological disorders
             •    Students with particular food allergies
             •    Students with behavioural difficulties

This is just a short overview of some of the special needs you may encounter when teaching. Within some of the above dot points there are many specific special needs which as an effective teacher you will need to accommodate for to ensure inclusion of all students. My aim in my next few posts is to examine some of the dot points above and provide some information on prevalent special needs you may encounter in your future learning space.

- Nick

Bridging the Information Gap

Bridging the Information Gap

6th October, 2015

Alex delves into the lack of connection in knowledge between pre-service teachers and recent graduates. He discusses his own fears about beginning teaching and makes the call to start bridging the information gap.

One of the issues concerning pre-service teachers today is making the transition from their current undergraduate state to being a full-time teacher. I believe that the underlying issue behind this concern is the mysterious knowledge gap that exists between PSTs and teachers who have just finished their first few years. I have had the opportunity to observe a few classrooms with teachers that have been two to five years out of university. As I watched them and marvelled at the casual way they went about teaching, several questions formed in my mind; how did they get from where I am, to where they are now? What do they know that I don’t? What will happen in my first year teaching? Will I struggle and fail? All I knew was that there was a stark difference in ability between myself and the teachers I was observing – I wanted to know why.

When I raised the idea with my 2nd year Associate Teacher*, she firmly remarked that she learnt everything about teaching in her first two years on the job. Whether or not this is the case for other teachers, it hints at the idea of the mysterious information gap and suggests there is much to be learned in the initial stage of being a graduate teacher – perhaps more than we can imagine. However, given the limited amount of time you have with your associate teacher, and the fact that they often find it difficult to pinpoint the complex nature of graduate teaching, there seems to be a lack of knowledge or effort around the idea of bridging this gap.

And, I don’t know about you, but that makes me nervous.

All PSTs know how challenging, and rewarding, placement can be. It’s an exhausting time. But after nearly three years of studying primary school teaching, I was hoping to be ready to face the challenges of being a graduate teacher. Yet there still remains this dark and mysterious gap. What skills, strategies, experiences and knowledge am I missing? I don’t want the first few years of my teaching career to be filled with struggle and turmoil as I work through the challenges every new teacher faces – surely we could find out what knowledge we need to survive and excel!

So I started reaching out. I talked to as many graduate and senior teachers as I could and I asked them about their first few years of teaching. In the coming weeks I will be posting interviews to this blog from several different teachers about their initial teaching experiences, with the hope of sharing what they believe to be the crucial elements that lead to success in graduate teaching.

If there is anything to take away from this blog post it’s this; it’s ok to be nervous or anxious about becoming a teacher, but we need to do something. While the current system of teacher training needs to acknowledge the disconnected nature between university and the teaching practice, we need to be proactive. We should find solidarity in each other as PSTs and work together so we ARE prepared for our first years of teaching. We need to bridge the information gap, but we should do it together.

- Alex

*An Associate Teacher is the person who supervises a PST when they on their placement. The PST will do their placement within their Associate Teachers classroom and will be marked and mentored by them.