WEEK 3 of Block - 5

THIS WEEK I:

• Taught 4 out of the 4 classes in my timetable for the entire week.
• Strengthened my relationship with all my students through interaction in class.
• Began formal assessments in my Religion Classes.
• Continued to review where I am at currently in terms of teaching practice and my own performance – STRENGTHS/STILL DEVELOPING SKILLS.
  • This week was specifically focus on areas of development.
• Able to use the school online portal to enhance student learning.
• Attended a Faculty Meeting within the Health Outdoor Physical Education Subjects
• Focused on continuing to build rapport but at the same time this week more content focused with me managing the classroom and learning environment.
• Looked at new ideas.

 

THIS WEEK I LEARNT:

Current Strengths

• Greeting students as they come in, creating rapport.
• Thorough planning for lessons and logical sequencing of content and activity – building up students for success (values and process underpinned in Backward Design / Understand by Design planning framework)
• Clear instructions to articulate expectations and requirement for lessons.
• Continued use of my ‘teacher voice’.
• Balance between authority and social responsibility of my students.
• I easily build rapport and make relationships/connections with my students
• Setting up a classroom (roughly first 10 minutes) to ensure student have success…. This is seen as an important [at of my schools context] and the student require this.
• Seeking to learn and know about students, their interests and how they learn in order to inform my planning and my teaching practices.
• Providing student with the WHY we are doing this, rather than just here is a directive, go do it.
• Explanation in a simple, clear, understandable way for different students and their levels.
• Developing my own classroom management style – hands up to show me you have completed directive.
• Use of whiteboard, to illustrate and backup my spoken instruction. – Clear and effective, neat and legible hand writing
• I am flexible and patient in dealing with the students and what goes on in the classroom.
• I understand that students have other stuff going in outside of school.
• My values surround setting student up for great achievement and success, this comes out through my classes.
• Time managing – setting limits for myself and for students to ensure we finish on time and compete all required tasks.
• Closure and conclusion to lesson to bring all themes and task together to show the common purpose and goals.
• Follow through – taking feedback and actioning to improve my practice and the experience that my students have within the classroom
• Clear and understandable questions provided for student to answer.
• Active position in the class, moving around, chatting and helping as required.
• Learning is a journey, I let students know where they are headed and where have been – link it all together.
• I use a variety of teaching strategies and instructional methods for student success and understanding.
  • Learning intentions at the start of class – what are we doing today?
  • Debrief/Recap – what did we do yesterday
  • Connecting to prior knowledge of students.
  • Make it transferable to other experience they have had in my classes, other subject and the outside world.
    • Real-life transference.
  • Repetition
  • Hands up
  • Clarification – verbal, written, one on one and via handouts.
  • Time limits – you have XXX time for this, counts down, plan on board so students know.
  • Facilitate learning – not just giving student’s answers.
  • WHY ARE WE DOING THINGS? – Questions – this is facilitating the learning and not just providing students learning.
  • Think, pair, share. – Time to think privately and write it down, pair and share and then share with the class.
  • Ask three before me. – Students using their classmates as resources.

 
Still Developing Areas

• I feel my beginning of class recaps could be stronger in order to be more effective and debrief what happened yesterday to lead in the next lesson’s work/assessment.
• I would like to get better at following up student work and not just letting it pass by the due dates.
• Need to work more with performance standards and my own understanding of them.
• Need clarification on what I can and cannot do in the drafting process.
• Knowing, if I am doing too much and expecting too much of my students – especially in Year 8 and 9.
• Projecting a weak presence – initially feeling uncomfortable and looking it. Showing my students images of timidity, awkwardness, and indecisiveness might be taken as signs of weakness that students may have been known to take advantage of.
• Behaviour management – I am comfortable with discipline student who are talking, addressing the whole class but feel as though right now the strategy I tend to use to deal with students who are be disruptive etc. is to speak individually with the student, once or twice and then ignore it. I would like to develop strategies that I can use to manage this types of behaviour.
• Personal literacy – missing glaring easy errors on student worksheet, need to take the time to check properly before uploading and distributing.
• Authoritative voice – e.g tone. Needs to be improved.
• Sometimes, my words run in to each, I need to articulate more and slow my speech.

 
New Experiences

• Running a practical in Year 9 Foods.
  • Felt like beginning of lesson was messy, but redeemed myself quickly.
  • Timing difficulty with BROWN rice put group a little behind but all worked out
  • Student seemed to have a lot of attitude and not a positive attitude to aid there practical. Simple questions provide unwarranted grunts and eye rolling etc.
    • Teacher clarified that this is usual.
    • However, girls that are usually okay in other class are attitudinal in this and don’t work well in this class.
  • I feel overall this was a positive experience for me being able to run a Food Practical (with little assistance).
• HOPE Learning Area Meeting

  
New Ideas

• Introducing a skills or technique by having student doing it.
  • Learning by doing – first without instruction then with instruction.
• Screen-O-Matic
  • Enables you to teach and not be there… https://screencast-o-matic.com/
• Peer teaching – prior to you thinking.
• Visual demonstrations of Fat/Salt/Sugar content in every day snack food.
• Consider having your teaching taped and getting some expert opinions when you view the tape.
• http://topnotchteaching.com/experts/behaviour-management-strategies/

 
 Teaching Standards
Reflection on Teaching Standards is presented within the Teaching Standards Tab Area (LINK HERE) – uploaded after completion of placement and documented in notebook.
 
NEXT WEEK I WILL:

• Continue and conclude all of my classes.
• Mark assessessements for 8/9 Religion, 11 Child Studies and 9 Home Ec.
• Start to develop ways to move those still developing skills to developed skills.
• Finalise final report comments and liaising with Mentor Teachers.
• Will evidence the APTS to where I am currently.