Reflective Practitioner - What Does This Term Really Mean?

Reflective Practitioner – What does this term really mean?

30th March, 2016

Nick discusses his opinion of what is means to be a reflective practitioner in the teaching profession

The term ‘reflective practitioner’ is one that is consistently raised during lectures and tutorials, placements and journal articles. Principals and teachers are searching for graduate teachers who are reflective practitioners, but what does this really mean? The term reflective practitioner it is quite an abstract concept and can have different meanings for different people.

My personal definition for a reflective practitioner is a teacher who is willing to examine their practice and acknowledge what is working well and what could be improved. Quite often at university we are required to write these thoughts and opinions down and recall BIG moments of when something did not work in practice. Is this really what being an effective reflective practitioner is? Do we always need to focus on the negative? Can we still reflect and focus on positive aspects of our practice and still be critically reflecting?

I will often complete an activity with a student whilst at work or on placement and instantly think “I should have completed the task a different way” or “that lesson did not go as intended”. As a result I have been left feeling disappointed and frustrated because I wanted to give the student the best chance to perform during the task. I remember after a particular lesson that I thought did not go well, an experienced teacher gave me this piece of advice, which shaped how I reflect on my practice. ‘Although the lesson did not go entirely as planned, as teachers we need adapt to every situation.’

This comment made me realise not to focus too much on the negatives and reflect on what worked well and build on that. Yes, it is important to reflect on what did not work to improve future practice. However I believe the best reflective practice is to focus on the ‘what worked’ moments. Identifying what worked provides confidence and reassurance that what you are doing is of benefit to the students you are working with. What does this mean as a preservice teacher moving into their first year of being an in-service teacher?

I believe that an integral part of shifting from a preservice teacher to a graduate teacher is being open to learning through reflection. This means observing what other experienced teachers are doing and consistently reflecting on what you are observing. Whether this reflection is in the form of writing physical notes or taking mental notes both can be implemented into future practice. I also believe an effective teacher is consistently reflecting on their own practice, evaluating where improvement can be made to best benefit student learning. This will be most crucial in the first few weeks of being an in-service teacher as this is where I feel a lot of new and important learning will take place.

- Nick

Applying for Jobs

Applying for Jobs

22 March, 2016

Applying for and acquiring jobs seems to be increasingly difficult for teachers in Victoria. Kristen explores what it means to be finishing her course and the job application process.

I’m in the final year of my Bachelor of Education (Primary) in Melbourne and most weeks I’ll get asked the question ‘So when do you finish?’ and I’ll say ‘this year!’ enthusiastically, and then I get the comment ‘ahhh, so you must be nearly ready to apply for jobs!’. All of a sudden, I’m feeling daunted, stressed and anxious, much like the lady in the picture. I’ve heard bad things about applying for teaching jobs fresh out of university.

Firstly, I think back to a friend who finished her Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) degree three years ago - one of the most lovely, friendly girls you’ll ever meet. She applied for over 100 jobs, and had only 4 interviews come out of it. The problem with the interviews was that they were for a position that had already been ‘filled’, but government required the schools to interview at least two other candidates before they could hire/re-hire that candidate. She was offered a position in a country location, however chose not to accept this position.

Secondly, another friend finished her Bachelor of Education Secondary, specialising in English and Drama two years ago. A similar story, applied for what seemed like tens of hundreds of jobs, writing unique key selection criteria suited to each school, without much success. It is important in this case to consider that drama is a specialist field, and these jobs are hard to come by at the best of times. She has a theory though (which she claims to be true), that a school will receive hundreds of applications, split the pile in half, and throw away one of the piles without so much as a glance. I really hope this isn’t true.*

Now, I’m not telling you these stories to scare you - I’m telling these stories to help us explore how we can set ourselves apart in the application process. Keep reading to find out what happened to these two friends (there is hope, don’t worry!). These stories do however beg the question: How to we get schools to look at our application?

If there’s one thing that I know for sure - schools want you to have a range of experience. Experience that may not be limited to placements required by your course, but experience working with children in other settings too. This indicates that you’re proactive and have demonstrated the necessary skills to work with children on a regular basis. 

For the duration of my course, I’ve been volunteering at a children’s art class that runs weekly after school, as well as a breakfast club at a local high school. Every time I mention that I’m studying Primary Teaching to one of the parents, they make the comment ‘that’ll look great on your resume!’ and I (mentally) pat myself on the back. Perhaps you’re like Alex who volunteers in a classroom (see below) - or perhaps you’re a swim teacher or maybe a nanny. What I’m trying to say is - whatever experience you have working with children is experience that schools want to hear about because these experiences will inevitably have helped to shape you as a teacher.

Back to my two friends - the first spent some time working as a casual relief teacher (CRT), and secured an ongoing contract at her dream school 6 months later. The second has worked as a CRT and had three term-long contracts at different schools filling long-service-leave positions. The feedback that she has received from schools is that they are looking for someone with experience, so she will continue to try and gain some more experience. 

*if you’ve heard of some other myths like this, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll see what I can find out about them.

- Kristen

The Value of Helping Out

The Value of Helping Out

12th March, 2016

Alex talks about his experience helping out at a local school and how it has improved his teaching confidence

Early on in my teaching course I realised that while the various placements we had coming up over our four years were going to be fantastic experience, I still didn’t think they would be enough to get me comfortable with the classroom environment.

When you’re on placement it can be quite intense; teaching, planning, assignments, and generally getting to know everyone. It’s a new school, new staff and new kids – and it’s only for a few weeks! I knew I would benefit from seeing a classroom in action and helping out over a longer period of time, but I wasn’t sure how. I ended up volunteering for a charity who worked to place people in low socio-economic schools, to help students in need. Through a little bit of planning, and some luck, I found myself in my local primary school – only a few minutes walk from my house! I’ve been helping out there in various classrooms for the last year and I can tell you the experience has not only been personally rewarding, but has improved my teaching confidence and familiarity with schools.

Being a volunteer at a school has numerous benefits, but here are the main ones:

• You get to see the progression of a school year. You get the chance to witness what happens day-to-day in classrooms, as well as units of work as they progress over a term. It gives you a sense of the scope of teaching and the long-term planning that shapes each lesson.
• It’s free observation. There’s no such thing as too much observation. As you progress through your teaching course you will begin to notice new things and change your focus. As a volunteer I’ve been able to see numerous lessons, including maths, inquiry, reading, art class, and book club. You won’t believe how much you will pick up without realising, plus it’s a wonderful chance to experience some different teaching styles.
• You get to work one-on-one with kids and in small groups. This may change depending on where you volunteer, but many teachers are more than happy for you to work one-on-one with a child or small group. I’ve been lucky enough to work with a boy and girl developing their literacy, and help a year 6 class with their maths skills! It’s a great way to develop your teaching skills and put theory into practice.
• It’s more relaxed and flexible than being on placement. Forget university supervisors. Forget teaching folders. Forget assignments and taking a whole class who you’ve only just met! Volunteering is a relaxed way to build your skills; most teachers understand you are learning and are more than happy to provide you with support and advice. You wouldn’t believe how much fun being in a classroom can be when the stresses of placement aren’t there!
• You’re helping out. Truly. Many of the teachers I’ve volunteered for are so grateful for an extra pair of hands, especially when those hands are well on their way to becoming a qualified primary school teacher! You offer the chance for teachers to get help to those students they know are struggling, but just don’t have time to work with one-on-one. The children and the teacher will appreciate your support.

 
I hope I’ve convinced you to give volunteering a go – and it doesn’t have to be through a charity! Just head down to your local school and ask! You do have skills and you can be of value. Why not help out in a classroom and develop your teaching ability in the process? Trust me, you’ll enjoy it. And you might just land yourself a job.

- Alex

Aaron's Placement Reflection

Placement Reflection or, how I intend on making the next one even better!

9th March, 2016

Aaron reflects on his placement and makes some suggestions on how to approach the next one

I started out writing this blog post as a reflection on the teaching placement I undertook in Term 4 of 2015, and then, like usual with these things, I deleted half of it…However this time it wasn’t for lack of confidence with what I had written, more that I noticed I wasn’t actually reflecting, I was planning different things for how to approach my next placement.

I’m not too sure what my peers’ experiences on placement were like as yet, however I have to say this most recent one has been my most enjoyable and rewarding round to date. Not only was it a more relaxed environment, that I felt very comfortable in, it was just a great working community that actually made the PSTs feel comfortable and I really felt like I was a part of the teaching team at the school. I was paired up with another PST during my time, as we were both in Prep classrooms, and it was great working together on lesson plans, team teaching and bouncing ideas off one another while out at the school. Which leads me into my planning for the next round, so here’s a list that I’m going to try and keep for myself this year, and one that I hope to stick to while I’m out in my final placement school.

1. Don’t be scared of sharing your opinions on, and ideas for lessons – I found with a teacher that was very welcoming to my thoughts I had a lot more confidence about what I planned when it came from an amalgamation of my ideas, the teachers plans and the school curriculum. This confidence was clear in more successful delivery of lessons than I have ever experienced before.
2. Plan using your strengths – with my background in Out of School Hours Care, this most recent round I tried to ensure I used as much of the skills learned in this field in the classroom as possible, and it really paid off. Behaviour Management strategies, Activities, Outdoor games and planning tools all came in to play here and helped me confidently conduct my lessons and time with full control in the class.
3. Ask as many questions as you can, no matter how stupid they may seem – in the past I have been quite reserved in talks with the teaching team, and perhaps was afraid to look like I didn’t know what I was doing. This isn’t the way to go, remember we are still there to learn, so ask questions, try and make sense of the answers and ask again if you need clarity, this will make for a better understanding of everything when you’re faced with 28 children waiting for your instruction!
4. Find a way that works for you and the Classroom Teacher, and use that method – at University we are inundated with different paperwork we need to use and templates that we are encouraged to work off, and I’m not suggesting to abandon these or the systems we are taught, but use your own judgment. I found far more success working with my AT on shared documents in the format she was comfortable working with, that the school used and working within the guidelines and teaching styles that have been established in the school, and the classroom, than those we are instructed to base our teaching off, at University.
5. HAVE FUN, DON’T WORRY ABOUT WORK AND OTHER STUFF, ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE, C’MON, YOU NEARLY HAVE TO GO BE A REAL ADULT! – Self explanatory, just relax, it’s 8 weeks in a year, learn something, have fun, then go back to the daily grind and bummer that is having to work for a living.

Now I don’t know if these points will be useful to everyone, but from my experience in the last round, these are some things that I’m going to try hard to remember and stick to my plan to try and make my last placement the best one yet. I’m not sure where my future career path will take me, and whether I’ll even end up as a classroom teacher in a Primary School setting. But while I’m paying for an education and a hugely important part of that is spending time in schools on placement, I intend on having my final round be as successful and enjoyable as possible – and hopefully I teach the children a thing or two in the process.

- Aaron

Where's the Drama?

Where's the Drama?

4th March, 2016

Matthew discusses the absence of Drama Education in the primary setting and talks about some of its clear benefits

In today’s post, I’d like to deviate from my usual subject matter to discuss an issue that is very close to my heart; the issue of drama education. First, some personal background. In primary school, the amount of drama (or performing arts) education I received was minimal; aside from school-wide events such as end-of-year concerts, the only time that performing arts was treated as a subject was in my final year of primary school. This was not taught by a professional performing arts teacher; it was taught by one of the usual teachers, who had some experience with performing herself (she was a good teacher, though). Although enjoyable, it was clearly not given the same attention that other artistic areas, such as visual art and music, were given, as those subjects were taught from Prep onwards.

This baffles me, because I believe that the performing arts is, out of the areas of the creative arts, the one most applicable to the widest variety of students. It has been said that drama-based subjects tend to only teach you how to recite scripts onstage, but there is so much more to it, both at a primary and secondary level. Today I will address three generalised benefits of the performing arts that I feel are not only important for all students to learn, but in the future I may speak more specifically.

1. Drama teaches about empathy. In order to play a character, any kind of character, a person must be able to some extent to place themselves in the shoes of a person who is different to them, both in personality and in situation. This happens in any form of drama, from the simplest of role-play exercises to improvisation to Shakespeare. 
2. Drama is excellent preparation for public speaking, as well as a significant confidence booster. Not only does playing a character require a person to pretend certain emotions, it requires, at least at some point, that these emotions be pretended and lines delivered in front of an audience. As a personal hobby, I help to run a youth theatre group in my local town, and I have seen many children and teenagers move from quiet and timid individuals to confident actors, able to make a fool of themselves onstage without embarrassment.
3. Finally for today, I believe that the performing arts are fantastic for developing new friendships between students, and thus improving their social skills. Creating and/or performing a piece together promotes teamwork, and requires students to negotiate with one another about characters, settings and staging. At times, other creative arts subjects, particularly art, tend to result in a large amount of solo work, whereas here the focus is collaboration.

I could spend much more time discussing the virtues of the performing arts as a way for students to grow, and I may do so in the future, but for now I ask only one thing; have a think about your creative arts experiences at school. Which subjects did you spend the most time on? Most importantly, what skills did you learn? Because although it may be uncommon, I know that I developed the most personally, rather than simply academically, by being involved in performing arts.

-Matthew