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

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

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

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