What to Do Next Year?

What to do next year?

15th October, 2016

As he nears the end of his university degree, Alex considers the future and some options for next year

As I and many of my university colleagues come to the end of our four year teaching degree, decisions about next year loom. What to do? It seems almost a ridiculous question to some people you ask, as they promptly answer, “Uh... teach? What else would I do?” However, others you talk to are looking to some other options; unsurprisingly after four years of study many are thinking of travel, while some people just aren’t ready to begin full time work. Although I’m in the “I must teach!” category, looking into next year started me wondering – what are the options? Let’s explore some.

Teach full-time

After pondering on it for a while I can say with great certainty that I am ready to teach – and that is my hope for next year! There are a number of benefits I can see, the first being the idea of having my own classroom. As we have progressed through each placement I have felt my teaching ability develop and there is the push to get out there next year and see what I’m made of! Also, having a salary would be nice – as many pre-service teachers will agree, working part-time and studying as well often leaves you tired and lacking in money. However, there are some challenges ahead. Working five days a week will no doubt leave me an exhausted husk of a human being for the first few months. And as we all know, teaching is no easy job; there’s planning, staff meetings, school activities and general day-to-day lessons! I completely understand that some people might need some time to themselves before they start something as intense as teaching. So what other options are there?

Work as a casual relief teacher

One clear alternative is casual relief teaching and it has a number of benefits. Firstly, no planning – you show up on the day and take the class! Casual relief teaching also pays well – it’s better than working full-time in a cafe and you get the chance to develop your teaching skills. It’s also the perfect way to set yourself up for a full-time job; you’re in the school working, you know the staff and they know you. However, casual relief teaching can be stressful, there will be hard classes where you haven’t had the chance to build a relationship with the students and the teacher might not have left a plan for the day! Also, the work isn’t assured – you might end up not working as often as you would like. Relief teaching may appeal to some, but not to others. So, are there any other options? Here are a few you may want to consider...

Take some time off. You’ve worked hard. Most university students study full-time and work as well – you deserve a break! Finishing study is the perfect time to earn some money over the summer holidays and take off to somewhere exotic.

Look into teaching overseas. I’ve got two close friends who are both teachers and taking off next year to England to teach! There are numerous overseas options and England is definitely a popular one – there are various teaching agencies that will set you up with work and help you get over there.

Work as an integration aide. This is an extremely rewarding job and will no doubt help you develop your teaching skills, without the stresses of being a full-time teacher.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that there are a number of options for next year, don’t get stuck thinking you HAVE to be a full-time teacher! Four years of study is a long time, don’t be afraid to take a break or make a change – whatever you do, just be glad you’re finishing your degree! The wide world awaits!

- Alex

Collaborative Online Planning

Collaborative Online planning

28th July, 2016

Alex shares some of his recent experiences in online shared planning

At my current placement each year level works together to collaboratively plan what they are going to teach for the term, from that they decide what to do each week. This is the usual method of schools in regards to planning and has a number of benefits; cohesion across the year level classrooms, discussion of ideas, and support for beginning teachers. However, many schools are also adopting the use of online methods to share their planning with each other. My placement school currently uses Google Drive, Google Docs and Dropbox to allow its teachers to share resources and collaborate on their planning. It works wonderfully; here are a few reasons why.

Everyone can contribute during planning. Gone are the days of one teacher hunched over a computer acting as the scribe, typing into a closed document while several other people squabble about ideas. With Google Docs everyone can be writing in the same document at the same time. It seems like a small thing but it balances out the power of group dynamics and allows people to quickly brainstorm ideas.

Resources are always shared. One of the main problems with sharing resources is finding the time to actually give them to other people; you need to scan them, send them and sometimes teachers feel they just don’t have time to do that. With Dropbox, you store your resources in one communal online location, which means that people can share resources quickly and ultimately it lightens the burden for everyone.

There’s cohesion as everyone can see what’s coming. My placement creates term planners which are available to be viewed and edited in Google Drive. This has been fantastic for me, and the other teachers, as we can all see what is coming up in the next few weeks and anyone can add in more information as we progress. It means that everyone is clear about what is happening and people have the freedom to plan ahead.

Although many schools have already taken to using some form of online planning tool, it is clear that not all of the teaching community has made the transition. I would recommend getting familiarised with the available online sharing platforms, as they provide numerous benefits when planning and will be of great help when you start teaching!

- Alex

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

The New Digital Technology Curriculum

The New Digital Technology Curriculum

11th May, 2016

Alex explores the new digital technology curriculum beginning in Victoria next year and some resources that may be of help

A curriculum is a dynamic and multifaceted concept that, while guiding the education profession, is prone to sway with the political agenda of the time. So it isn’t surprising that over my four year university degree I have explored three primary curriculums; AusVELS, the Australian Curriculum, and the soon to be introduced Victorian Curriculum. As of December 2016, the AusVELS website is to be archived (see the AusVELS homepage) and the Victorian Curriculum will become compulsory in government schools. A recently introduced aspect of the Victorian Curriculum, which is causing some concern, is the inclusion of digital technologies.

I have never completed a compulsory unit at university regarding the teaching of digital technologies, and I imagine many pre-service teachers would be in a similarly daunting situation. It also helps to bear in mind that many graduate and expert teachers will have little to no knowledge of what best practice teaching digital technologies looks like – putting pre-service teachers and qualified teachers on an unlikely level playing field. I thought this might be an opportune moment to explore the new digital technologies curriculum, unpack some its concepts, and suggest some resources and methods to go about teaching it.

What does the curriculum say?

The curriculum is split into three bands for primary education (F – 2, 3 – 4, 5 – 6) and there are three strands to the digital technology curriculum (VCAA, 2016);

Digital systems

“Focuses on the hardware, software and network components of digital systems”

Data and information

“Focuses on the properties of data, how they are collected and represented, and how they are interpreted in context to produce information”

Creating digital solutions

“Explores the interrelated processes and associated skills by which students create digital solutions”

A basic scan through the actual content of the curriculum reveals that the F – 2 band engages in mostly exploration of different digital concepts, hardware and ideas. As the curriculum progresses to the higher years, the content becomes more directed to action and the use of digital technologies to solve problems.

 How will I teach it?

After listening to various different talks regarding the teaching of digital technologies and how best to approach this challenging task, I thought it would be best to provide some resources that can be used to assist you in the process.

Little Bits

LittleBits are very simple programming blocks and digital tools that are designed to be used by children. They are colour coded and magnetically attach, allowing for independent exploration and play, without the need for constant supervision. The website offers packs for educators and overall I believe this resource could be used to explore the Digital Systems and Creating Digital Solutions strands.

Scratch

Scratch is a simple coding platform that many pre-service teachers would have heard of. It allows students to explore coding in a way that is accessible, while still providing the technology concepts needed. It will be useful in addressing all the digital technology standards.

VCAA

The Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority has this specific advice for curriculum page regarding digital technologies, which is fantastic. It has resources on assessment, progression, external resources and links to sites such as the Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria (DLTV) – which offers free membership to PSTs! Definitely check this site out.

I hope I have been able to provide a basic overview to both pre-service and qualified teachers about what the digital technologies curriculum is asking and some resources for how to meet the task of teaching it. I truly believe that the digital curriculum is going to be a focus point in the future and, if we can get on top of it, a fundamental part of primary education.

-Alex 

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

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

The Very First Day...

The Very First Day...

 

2nd February, 2016

Nick discusses the very first days of school for both students and teachers

The very first day of school can be an exciting yet daunting prospect for both students and teachers. Among university colleagues I often find myself in discussions about how to go about setting up your learning space for the very first day of the new school year. What displays should I put up? What expectations should I set with my students? How do I go about planning for an entire year? How do I get to know all my students? My role as an integration aide in a primary school has provided me the unique opportunity to observe teachers preparing for the school year as well as the initial days of school. I will discuss some of the interesting ideas that I have witnessed that I think would be brilliant to put into future practice.

 

• Setting up the learning space – An arduous task, however a fun one as well. Many teachers put their own unique impression on the room and when you walk in you get a different vibe in every learning space. I have observed the importance of creating a space that reflects you as a person.

• Setting expectations – Personally this was something I was interested to observe. The important idea is that the expectations need to be created in conjunction with the students, not the teacher dictating what they want the students to do. This process also involved what expectations the students have of the teachers to ensure equality between student and teacher; expectations are then displayed within the learning space for all students to see and refer back to. It was interesting to note that during the initial days of school, teachers would often refer to the expectations during classroom discussion to ensure students were being immersed in them.

• Planning for the year – A challenging concept as there is often many extra curricular activities occurring within the school community. As a result the year is planned out by topics and then when the time approaches the topics are expanded to meet the requirements of the students at the time.

• Getting to know students – The answer to this question is quite simple; talk to them and play games in which they discuss aspects about themselves. A further way of doing this is through ‘choosing time’ where students can choose and activity they would like to undertake. Teachers can then observe who they play with, what activity they choose and how they interact with others to get to know the personalities of the students.

 

This is a broad overview of some of the types of things you will encounter in your first few weeks of teaching. It is also important to think about how your learning space will cater to the diverse needs of the students and ensure inclusion of each and every student in your rom. The biggest thing to remember is there is ALWAYS someone in the school you can ask for ideas or help and you are never on your own.

 - Nick
 

Thinking Out Loud: Pre-service Teacher Skills

27th January, 2016
  
Alex talks about the lack of focus in current teacher training courses on behaviour management, a skill he believes is crucial to starting out as an effective teacher

As I enter the fourth and final year of my teacher training course, I have begun to reflect on what I have learned and whether or not it has prepared me for my first year of teaching. While I will happily acknowledge that my time at university has developed my skills and understanding of pedagogy, especially in relation to the teaching of mathematics, I must admit that I feel there have been, in my view, several key elements left out. The one I wish to discuss here, and in my view the most important, is behaviour management.

One of the issues that seems to consistently arise when talking with recent graduates is the challenge with behaviour management. It is, in my mind, the most important skill for new teachers to have when they enter the classroom and I've heard various horror stories (directly and indirectly) of stressed teachers struggling to achieve order and function due to a lack of management skills. Thus it seems curious to me that I had to pursue an elective, under my own motivation, to develop an understanding of behaviour. None of the core (compulsory) units at my university covered the topic in any particular detail, nor provided strategies or research on how to master the classroom. I consider myself extremely lucky to have chosen the elective which looked in-depth at behaviour, classroom management, community creation, and crisis control. I learned a vast amount of practical and theoretical information which has shaped and improved my behaviour management skills. However, many of my fellow peers have not had the chance to engage with this unit and may not be able to before the end of their final year. I fear for my friends as they enter the workforce with skills that may be inadequate to deal with the challenges they face. I can't imagine a stressful and frustrating first year of teaching will inspire any loyalty to the profession. Thus I can't fathom why a topic as fundamental as behaviour management is not covered rigorously over the first few years of our teacher training - when it is, perhaps, at its most crucial.

I believe this lack of a core behvaiour unit results in two serious issues; firstly the lack of development of an essential skill. As I mentioned before, various teachers have told me how important having strong behaviour management skills are, and I think there are many pre-service teachers graduating under-prepared into the work force. This sees them struggling in their first years of teaching to deal with issues that they simply do not have the skills to successfully resolve. This in turn results in the second serious issue; a reliance on ineffective and negative management techniques.

As I progressed through my placements I took on the behaviour management strategies of the associate teachers I worked with - simply because I had none of my own! I was a blank slate with no comparative concepts of management and classroom set up. Now I have engaged with the behaviour management elective I can see that some of the tactics and strategies used by teachers I have viewed are extremely negative. They are short-term, authoritarian and destructive. I have also seen some extremely positive and long term behaviour strategies. However, I think many pre-service teachers are leaving university with little or no behaviour management skills, and the ones they have are not best practice. If you know no alternative to yelling, then that will be your behaviour strategy. And the tragedy is that after a few years whatever behaviour practices you use will become habit. I believe that many pre-service teachers are graduating with knowledge only of negative, authoritarian behaviour practices.These will destroy any chance of positive relationships with your students and ultimately cause them to dislike you, and dislike school. Children and teachers deserve better than this.

Every pre-service teacher needs the chance to develop their behaviour management skills. They need a compulsory unit where they can learn about behaviour, its functions and causes, as well as how to manage behaviour in a positive way. I believe as teachers we model the different ways that our society and culture functions. It seems paramount to me that every student is engaged in a pro-social, democratic classroom environment with a teacher who can help children learn how to self-regulate their behaviour. At the moment I believe too many teachers are graduating with insufficient skills to make this happen. There needs to be a change. Best practice of behaviour management is essential to being an effective teacher, our teacher training institutions should reflect this and modify their curriculum accordingly.

- Alex
   

3 Ways to Encourage Participation of Students with ASD in the Classroom

Encouraging Participation of Students with ASD

12th January, 2015

Matt provides three practical tips on how to encourage students with ASD to participate in the classroom

In my last post, I began to unfold some of the basics that I have discovered for preparing a classroom for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), based on conversations I have had with integration aides and occupational therapists. Today I continue to explore the ways in which one can effectively teach a student with ASD, and today is about participation, both in set tasks and in classroom discussions. The strategies I will explain are by no means the only strategies; these are just a few that have come up in both my own practice and in discussions with professionals.

1. The NO HANDS UP Rule: When I first encountered this idea, it was in an article about new trends in education, and considering how entrenched our system seems to be in having students put their hands up I wasn’t surprised that I hadn’t heard of it before. Although this may have varying levels of success depending on the teacher, this strategy involves exactly what you think it does; removing ‘hands up’ responses in the classroom. We all know that the students who will regularly put up their hands in class are often those who already know the information; those who are unsure often will not respond for fear of embarrassment. This means that ‘hands up’ situations can be a source of anxiety for all students, and can be a particular issue for students with ASD. In classroom discussions, establishing the expectation that all students will respond (even if their response is ‘I’m not sure’) means that not only will you as a teacher gain a greater appreciation of the understanding of the class as a whole, but reduces anxiety when done in, for example, a circle. The student or students with ASD will know when it will be their turn to speak, and know that it is fine for them to be unsure, will reduce their anxiety at responding to classroom questions. It can even help any unsure students by showing them that others may be having issues as well.
2. Being Specific With Writing Activities: Often when asking students to complete writing activities, teachers will use open-ended prompts such as ‘What I did on the holidays’. This can be good for students in that it encourages students to write about something they know and enjoy, and through the fact that, in most cases, all students can write about something. However, such tasks can be a cause for anxiety in children with ASD due to their open-endedness; they often will not know where and how to start, and as such may not start at all. Although this may not always be appropriate for the whole class, making such writing prompts more specific and providing an opening sentence for all students to use can help to reduce anxiety as well as encourage participation in ASD students.
3. Integrating Computers into Classroom Activities: There is no shortage of talk, both in schools and university courses, about the benefits that technology can bring to a classroom. However, there are educational and participation benefits for students with ASD beyond that of those already established. Students with ASD tend to be predominantly visual learners; often they will not engage with verbal instruction alone. Computers present all information in the visual medium, and this medium can be tailored to suit the preferences of the individual, which will encourage their learning, increase their confidence and support participation. Furthermore, many educational programs can be attained that present problems in a structured fashion, with an identifiable start and finish and a set number of parts to complete; structure is important for students with ASD in all aspects of life, and such programs can be used to encourage independent work skills alongside the practice of other skills.

Thanks for checking this article out, and I hope that it has been useful to you. With our blog entering the New Year, I plan to continue writing about ASD, but also extend to other topics, the nature of which will, for now, remain a mystery. We will be releasing a new article every week for the next couple of months, so have a read. You might just learn something.

Signing off,
Matt

In Conversation With Louisa

5th November, 2015

In Conversation with ... Louisa

Louisa is a year 6 teacher, as well as the sustainability and years 5/6 co-ordinator at her school. She completed a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching in 2008 and is in her seventh year of teaching. Her favourite aspects of teaching are being able to perform a multitude of different roles, and sharing in the joys and struggles of her students’ lives. Louisa’s specialty is mathematics teaching; it’s one of her passions and she is involved in developing the school’s mathematics curriculum.

Hi Louisa, thanks for chatting with us!

Can you remember your first day teaching? How did it feel?

I was a crazy mixture of nerves and excitement. I remember feeling like a bit of a fraud and waiting for someone to realise that I should not be left in charge of a class of 22 seven year olds all by myself; surely everyone would find out I had no idea what I was doing! Of course I was more than prepared to teach that class but being left on my own with a class for the first time, being the one that was completely responsible for them was pretty daunting. I have almost no memory of what happened throughout the day but I remember it all went well and I was exhausted at the end of it.

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

I don’t know that you can ever feel fully prepared when you first start teaching – there is an enormous amount that you learn on the job. In fact that is one of the things I love about teaching; it is always a challenge and you are always learning, not matter how long you have been teaching. I remember the main things I felt unprepared for was the administrative side of teaching. When you are a student teacher you really only have to worry about the lesson planning and teaching so I felt prepared with that, but as a student teacher you don’t really have to deal with all the other stuff that makes up teaching – the record keeping, the reporting, permission forms etc. It was that stuff that I didn’t feel prepared for.

What do you know now that you wish you had known on your first day?

I wish I knew that I wouldn’t use the majority of resources that I spent hours printing, cutting and laminating. I was so excited to finally be a ‘real’ teacher so I spent the summer holidays scouring the internet and books for resources and then making them. However you don’t know what is going to be useful until you know the kids and are planning your lessons. Plus most of the best resources are really simple like playing cards or kids books or are the resources that the kids make themselves. Most of what I made when I first started teaching spent a couple of years gathering dust before I finally got rid of it.

Do you feel your qualification adequately prepared you for your first few years teaching?

Overall I felt like my qualification had prepared me. There were definitely things that I learnt at uni that I have never referred to again but those things probably did help to shape my philosophies. It was definitely what I learnt on my rounds that prepared me the most. I do think that my uni prepared me really well for maths teaching and is why I became so passionate about it.

How have you developed as a teacher?

That is a really tricky question because I’m constantly developing my teaching practices. I’m getting better at being a tidy teacher with a neat desk but that is still a work in progress. One day the phrase “does anyone know where I put such-and-such” will not come out of my mouth.

What are three essential tips that you would give to any Pre-Service Teacher about to start their first day?

On my first day of teaching my principal gave me some really good advice: she told me to not worry about teaching anything on the first couple of days but to just focus on building a positive classroom environment. She said to me that as long as the kids and I left the first day smiling then it was a success.

Three essential tips:

1. Be consistent – set up your expectations from the start and stick to them. You need to be firm but fair and the kids should always know what to expect from you (kids love boundaries). If you say you are going to do something then make sure you do it because kids never forget.
2. Get to know the parents from the very first day. Be out in the yard saying hello and introducing yourself. Building a rapport with the parents is really important.
3. Don’t live at school - Even if you spent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at school, you’d still find things to do. Learn to prioritise and let go. Set a reasonable time to leave school each day and stick to it. A tired, overworked teacher is a bad teacher so take care of yourself and get enough sleep.

And here is one bonus tip – keep the receipts for anything that you buy for your classroom so that you can claim it on tax.

What do you think are the most important elements to being an effective teacher?

You need to be flexible and expect the unexpected. Rarely do things go to plan in schools so you need to be prepared to adapt and think on your feet.

You need to be rich in patience and have a sense of humour.

You need to love learning new things and be reflective about your own practice. What is working well, what isn’t and why. It is ok not to know things and you need to be willing to seek help from your colleagues.

You also need to be organised.

How could we improve Pre-Service Teacher education courses?

This is another tricky question. I would say the main thing is that there needs to be more emphasis on the practicalities of planning – looking through the curriculum to make yearly overviews and term overviews and taking these to make unit planners and then most importantly creating your weekly teaching program. How are you going to organise your week to fit in the maths and literacy you need as well as specialists and the myriad of other things that happen in any given week. Creating your weekly plan is something that I think unis need to spend more time teaching.

Really though, unless you have a class most things are just theoretical and easily forgotten, you learn best by doing. That is why rounds are so important and the more time pre-service teachers spend in a range of classes the better.

Louisa, thanks for taking the time to respond to our questions and good luck with the remainder of term 4!

Louisa has also been kind enough to answer some questions regarding the interview process of getting a teaching job, but they weren’t included here in an effort to keep the article short! Her responses will feature in an upcoming blog post.

-  Alex

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

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.

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