Placement Reflection

Placement Reflection

7th July, 2016

Aaron looks back on the first week of the last placement round for his final year

Placement, the time where we finally get to put all the hours of reading, listening, writing and falling asleep in front of the computer late at night to good use! I’m always pretty excited about placement; I think after spending a long time working with children, this is actually the part of studying education that makes the most sense to me now. I feel confident when I walk into a room of total strangers, all of which are much smaller than me, and can at times be a challenge to manage. I think this challenge is rapidly becoming one that I enjoy the task of completing. This first week out was a great way to get to know the students, and as much as I’d prefer this all to be done in one go, I’m starting to understand why the final placement has been laid out in 3 sections – it’s easing me into it quite well.

As with my previous round, I have been placed in a Prep classroom and once again appear to be pretty fortunate with a class that has a very loved and respected classroom teacher. I spent the week observing as much as I could to take in all the intricacies of how the teacher runs her lessons and manages behaviours and routines in the classroom, as to not cause too much of a stir when I take control, and I think this week was a good chance to see it all. Final week of term can always be a bit hectic, and seeing Prep students at that stage in the year attempting to cope with disruption and change to their learning is quite eye opening. In the last round, we had students at the end of the year, excited and eager to move on, this time we are seeing them smack in the middle, and their resilience is really tested at this point and it shows that at this stage in their learning you really are teaching them a lot more than just numeracy and literacy – you’re preparing them to deal with the unexpected and the unknown, something they likely have had little experience with at this stage.

Similarly to last time as well, I have been placed in a classroom that does a lot of team teaching, and with another PST – this will be a good way for us to support one another and I think will work to both of our benefits having someone their to assist and pick up some slack where needed. I’m looking forward to getting into running some lessons and planning classes with the team when we return from the break next week, I’m feeling pretty antsy at this point, like I’m sure a lot of other final year students are, as we’re so close to the finish, and so close to getting paid for our time – which at this point is getting pretty necessary! I think all lessons you learn in life are important, and the task of completing a degree at University has been a lesson I have been learning for a while now – I’m ready to use the fruits of this labor to start planting seeds and starting down a path that I haven’t been fully expecting, much like the Preps before the holiday break! 

- Aaron Osborne

Hmm, how am I going to get this job?

Hmm, how am I going to get this job? 

5th May, 2016

Aaron explores the weird and often confronting concept of self-promotion when applying for jobs post-university.

In my position at my place of employment I spend a good chunk of my time looking through job applications for potential childcare workers, and also take part in the interview process for new hires. I’ve been working for the same company now for quite a while, in the industry for a little over 10 years, and haven’t really needed a good job application or display of my previous work recently as I’ve just moved between different companies to get to where I am. In light of this, some recent assessment tasks we have been set with at University have required a lot of creative thinking on my behalf to build up my portfolio for the future if I intend on getting into the field of teaching and learning how to promote myself as an effective teacher – without sounding like a total jerk.

One thing I’ve found is the need to set aside the judgments we all unconsciously place on ourselves, and look at our work output and personal perspective from an objective standpoint. This doesn’t mean to take your personality out of what you are creating, but more to allow yourself to look at your application/portfolio/resume as someone who is looking to employ people at their place of work.  Now, I should also add, I am not a school Principal, I don’t have a perfect sense of what each individual will think when looking at my work, but as someone who has sifted through quite a lot of job applications in recent years, I can say there are some definite things to keep in mind.

I could write a big list of things to write or to leave out, but I think what’s more pertinent here is the approach you take to what is being written. Look at your efforts during your time at University, what are you proud of? What helped you develop a greater understanding of the world you are studying? What will prove that you have developed as a person during your time spent sitting in lecture theatres and staring at computer screens late at night? We can all remember the things that we place value on, so use that, even if it doesn’t sound like the perfect quip for a job, it is your honest reflection on your achievements, and being confident and proud of what you recognize as a strength will show in your chosen written format for job acquisition, and will show in your explanation and reasoning in your formal interview.

We’ve all heard stories of people who have lied their way into jobs, and heard stories of people who have been caught out on those lies. Don’t start off on the wrong path, or let self-doubt get in the way. Self-confidence isn’t something that comes naturally to everyone; so using the objective eye is a great way to move past that. If you were looking at this application and this portfolio of achievements, would you be impressed? Is this believable, and does it show growth and merit in the field you’re applying to work in? If you think ‘YES!’ then you’re on the right track. Believe in yourself, c’mon, just try it.

- Aaron Osborne

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

Circular planning

Circular Planning to Inform Lesson Planning

12th November, 2015

Aaron looks at the term 'Circular Planning' and how may it provide some assistance to pre-service teachers  

For anyone who has worked in the child services field, the term ‘Circular Planning’ won’t be new to you, it may be annoying at this point, but it certainly won’t be new. For those of you not familiar or irritated with the term, it basically functions as a tool to plan activities, games and experiences for children that are founded in their personal experiences, interests and ideas. The idea is that through careful observation, interaction and conversation we develop an understanding of how we can jump off and extend upon a child’s interests and ideas to create the opportunity for children to flourish in the activities we plan for them.

Since my first placement in a school, planning lessons has always been the most daunting task for me. It’s something that I’m never 100% certain I’m doing right, and something that due to the strict nature of the paperwork we are required to plan with, is something that I’m never quite comfortable with how I’m being asked to plan out. However, this has changed in the last year or so since I realised, “Wait a minute; I effectively plan lessons for children on a daily basis at work!” Now these lessons may not relate directly to the Australian Curriculum, but none the less they require planning, and thoughtful consideration about how they will develop a child’s learning – and that really is the goal with lesson planning in the classroom.

In a recent unit at University, we spoke at length about ensuring students had the opportunity to relate their personal experiences to the lessons we plan for them, and how this was important for them to place value or interest in what we as teachers are teaching. Hearing this really helped me confirm my idea of using this Circular Planning technique in relation to my lesson plans for placements, and made me realise that I wasn’t just pinching ideas from work! Since this discussion as well, I have found myself really looking forward to the observation dates for my upcoming placement as this will really be my chance to soak up the interests and ideas the students in the classroom have, and use these observations to inform the planning that I have to do for the class.

I think this is something that really needs to be discussed more, and perhaps brought to the light a bit for PSTs, as we are regularly expected to plan lessons for students we don’t know, nor have any experience gauging their interests and how these interests will affect our lessons. I look forward to the opportunity to take notes on things I see in the classroom, and interactions the students in the classroom have to develop my lessons, and implementing this newfound realisation. Again I might just be harping on here, but I can’t stress enough how my experiences in Childcare inform my Education practices, but this one was too obvious not to bring up. I think the real thing this has made me realise though is that I’m excited about a skill I have developed through experience in the workplace informing my education and helping me in my further career aspirations, even though the two areas may not seem intrinsically linked. Further suggestions for anyone reading, look into the recesses of your mind, what experiences have helped you with your teaching in the past? Implement things that may not seem to link, it might help you in the long run!

- Aaron

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