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
 

End of Placement

End of Placement

13th December, 2015

Alex talks about his placement experiences at a rural school

After four wonderful weeks my placement has now come to an end – and what an experience it has been! I thought this would be a good chance to talk about some of the different challenges I faced, and the strategies I found worked well.

I had never worked with a composite class before, but now after having year 3/4/5 and 6 I’ve got a pretty good feel for how they run. Differentiating work is the main challenge, I found the best way to do this was to give each student the same task, but have different levels of difficulty within that task. This provides accessibility to the developing students and layers of complexity for the higher achieving students. While this may not work for all subjects, I think it’s a strategy I’ll use with my own class; within any year level there is likely to be a three-year span of capability, so it makes sense to provide a lesson where students can challenge themselves independently. It also linked in with the self-regulation learning behaviour my associate teacher was maintaining. Another good way to facilitate independent learning is through (and I never thought I would say this) rubrics. They work best in a senior classroom, but are great at essentially providing written success criteria and extensions for students. They put students in charge of their learning and achievement, which is great.

After spending four weeks in a truly positive classroom environment, I can’t stress enough the importance of strong learning behaviours. My associate teacher really strives to imbue each student with these and it shows in the way students behave; they act independently, challenge themselves, regulate their behaviour, and take ownership of their learning. Some examples of positive learning behaviours are:

•  Attention to detail
•  Focus and concentration
•  Resilience and independence
•  Allowing others to learn
•  Thinking ahead
•  Organisation
•   Being accountable for my learning

It’s great to focus students in on these behaviours before each lesson just by talking about them, or give individual students certain learning behaviours to work on. Explicitly teaching positive learning behaviours and explaining, or modelling, how they are displayed will help establish an amazing classroom environment and give students a great mindset to learn with.

The most challenging aspect of the four weeks was trying to be organised and flexible at the same time! There is a lot going on at any one moment in the school year, especially at the end of term 4, so it’s vital that you always have a backup plan and are ready to quickly modify a lesson. I had a number of students absent with sickness over the first two weeks of teaching, which meant lots of groups progressing at different rates. I found that thinking a few lessons ahead of what you’re doing actually helps when students are ready to move on – you know the next step and can quickly whip up an activity for them to do. Ultimately there are some times where you won’t get everything completed, simply due to unexpected events popping up, and that’s ok – keep the big picture in mind!

I had such an amazing time on my placement; I truly fell in love with the school, kids and community! I’m missing them already and can’t believe I have to wait another six months before I can get back into it. I would definitely recommend completing a rural placement, there is really nothing quite like it. I know my school would love to have more PSTs and I wish there was more support for getting teachers out there! I hope everyone had a fantastic placement and learned a lot, a merry Christmas and happy new year to you all!

-Alex

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