For this assessment, I chose a blog format. A blog fits well with my type of reflection process, where I can write and discuss various subjects in a casual style and reader friendly with short posts. I also enjoy the use of technology, which is something I always try to use in my own classrooms.
Another reason for choosing a blog format is because during placement I had the idea of creating a blog for my senior Biology classes, where everyone is able to post and comment on various and interesting Biology topics. This might be pictures, a youtube video, a journal article or an animation however it will be an online community for learning in a more relaxed setting than the classroom. Thus, this assignment is good practice.
This blog has assisted in capturing some crucial moments throughout my professional placements and my university year that I will be able to quickly refer back to during my teaching career.
What will I make?
Achievement. Positivity. Relationships. Respect. These are just some of the adjectives that come to mind when I think about my personal philosophy statement, but at the moment they are just words. I am uncertain about the nature of teaching as a profession and how I will fit into that world. What do I believe in and what do I value? How will I teach students and manage a classroom? Will my interaction with students create excellence, better social skills and improved self-awareness? And finally, yet most importantly, what do I need to do to achieve this upon emerging as a fully qualified teacher at the end of the year?
After watching Taylor Mali's powerful poem, 'What teachers make', I was inspired to visualise what I want to make; what I want to achieve. This resulted in the following...
My teaching philosophy is centred on building positive relationships with my students, members of staff and the wider school community. I believe in creating an engaging and positive classroom environment where students feel challenged and supported according to their individual strengths and needs. I aim to share the responsibility for learning with my students by showing respect for them and the content being taught, providing clear aims and goals and promoting learning by inquiry. I aspire to continually develop as a teacher professionally and personally and always be reflecting upon and improving my pedagogical content knowledge.
After watching Taylor Mali's powerful poem, 'What teachers make', I was inspired to visualise what I want to make; what I want to achieve. This resulted in the following...
My teaching philosophy is centred on building positive relationships with my students, members of staff and the wider school community. I believe in creating an engaging and positive classroom environment where students feel challenged and supported according to their individual strengths and needs. I aim to share the responsibility for learning with my students by showing respect for them and the content being taught, providing clear aims and goals and promoting learning by inquiry. I aspire to continually develop as a teacher professionally and personally and always be reflecting upon and improving my pedagogical content knowledge.
Quiet and listening.
A piece of feedback I received during both my placements was that I should create a way that is unique to me with assisting in settling the class. I found either the start of the lesson or bringing students back from group work the most challenging. Although I have good voice projection, I would often find myself having to raise my voice louder and louder asking the students to stop talking and pay attention.
My supervisors had some suggestions, such as clapping or instead of raising my voice, lowering it so the students couldn't hear (clearly, this did not work!) I tried the silent treatment and the 'stop and glare' technique, which I found would be effective once or twice but I would end up participating in the game of 'raise your voice'. I was really at a loss of what to do.
After watching an English lesson, I noticed that the teacher would say 'quiet and listening' to gain the attention of her students. Although this type of attention grabbing wouldn't personally work for myself and I wasn't terribly sold on it's effectiveness, I asked the teacher where she got her idea from. Her reply was from classroom management guru, Dr. Bill Rogers. I decided that night that I would do some research into Dr. Rogers and see if he has any tips for this situation. And indeed he did.
I totally related. Questions like, 'why are you here?', 'are you a teacher miss?' and 'what's your name miss?' were thrown at me in ample supply. I even had wolf whistling in one class, which was both disrespectful, confronting and foreign. And as Dr. Rogers explains, most teachers will ask 'can you please sit down' or 'can you please be quiet' (guilty as sin!) however this is a question, not a statement. Yes, I really did need a technique to utilise. I needed a 'sense of calming and focus so that they can begin the day' (Rogers, 2012).
The main points I took out of Dr. Rogers video were:
1. I needed to utilise clam, clear and positive directional language.
2. Describe what the student is doing and then give them a directing cue.
3. Only when there is calmness, can you thank the students for responding appropriately.
After watching this video and chatting with my mum (who is also a teacher with nearly 25 years experience), I decided to try the cue of 'let's look and listen'. This was going to be my technique and will say it with a calming firmness (sounds great on paper, doesn't it?)
Hopefully, crisis averted.
My supervisors had some suggestions, such as clapping or instead of raising my voice, lowering it so the students couldn't hear (clearly, this did not work!) I tried the silent treatment and the 'stop and glare' technique, which I found would be effective once or twice but I would end up participating in the game of 'raise your voice'. I was really at a loss of what to do.
After watching an English lesson, I noticed that the teacher would say 'quiet and listening' to gain the attention of her students. Although this type of attention grabbing wouldn't personally work for myself and I wasn't terribly sold on it's effectiveness, I asked the teacher where she got her idea from. Her reply was from classroom management guru, Dr. Bill Rogers. I decided that night that I would do some research into Dr. Rogers and see if he has any tips for this situation. And indeed he did.
I totally related. Questions like, 'why are you here?', 'are you a teacher miss?' and 'what's your name miss?' were thrown at me in ample supply. I even had wolf whistling in one class, which was both disrespectful, confronting and foreign. And as Dr. Rogers explains, most teachers will ask 'can you please sit down' or 'can you please be quiet' (guilty as sin!) however this is a question, not a statement. Yes, I really did need a technique to utilise. I needed a 'sense of calming and focus so that they can begin the day' (Rogers, 2012).
The main points I took out of Dr. Rogers video were:
1. I needed to utilise clam, clear and positive directional language.
2. Describe what the student is doing and then give them a directing cue.
3. Only when there is calmness, can you thank the students for responding appropriately.
After watching this video and chatting with my mum (who is also a teacher with nearly 25 years experience), I decided to try the cue of 'let's look and listen'. This was going to be my technique and will say it with a calming firmness (sounds great on paper, doesn't it?)
Hopefully, crisis averted.
Is there one right answer?
Whilst I was marking my Unit 2 Biology SAC on Behavioural Adaptations, I started to notice the amount of feedback I was leaving for my students. I saw a trend, if the answer was correct a simple tick was given if the answer was incorrect there was usually a couple of sentences written about the correct answer. But what was the correct answer, and what gave me the right to deem an answer correct or incorrect? Obviously, in an education system there has to be a 'right' and a 'wrong' for students to progress through their school life, but is there one right answer? To put it simply, no.
Allowing students to fail, and being ok with that, is apart of the learning process. We are dealing with a culture that has an infatuation with one right answer, however what do we learn from this? To tell students to never be wrong or to ask them to always have the right answer doesn't encourage them to learn. Instead, it encourages them to be passive learners.
At Nossal Secondary College we completed a SAC for Biology where the students made a poster about the biogeochemical cycles (water, carbon or nitrogen). My supervisor had suggested to me that we could use a double lesson to create a 'gallery' of the posters and students can visit and critique their peers. Thinking about this, I was slightly tentative about the suggestion. Does it encourage the idea of failure, and that one students poster is better or worse than another? In the end the gallery went ahead. To promote discussion, I asked the students 'who has the best poster?' and immediately they all pointed to the most visual poster in the room (refer to picture). The next question was 'why do you think it's the best?' with responses such as the design is great, there's lots of colour, it's set out well and I like the pictures. The students were suggesting all visual features. Next, I asked the students to read the information and they could see some of the information written was flawed. Then we went to a different poster, who's visual and layout wasn't as great but the written information was fantastic. After the students had wandered around the gallery, we spent some time discussing the learning process. The students could see that it wasn't about who's poster was perfect, or what I, as the teacher, could create. It was about what they could create themselves and this may have involved failure, processing information and learning from their mistakes. So when we do another poster or visual assessment later in the year they will do better as learning has to include a dash of failure. Failure is instructional.
If we continue to look at education as if it's about coming to school to get the information and not about experimental learning and embracing failure we are missing the point. An educational culture of one right answer and standardised testing will not achieve educational goals. Education must be better than this.
Allowing students to fail, and being ok with that, is apart of the learning process. We are dealing with a culture that has an infatuation with one right answer, however what do we learn from this? To tell students to never be wrong or to ask them to always have the right answer doesn't encourage them to learn. Instead, it encourages them to be passive learners.
At Nossal Secondary College we completed a SAC for Biology where the students made a poster about the biogeochemical cycles (water, carbon or nitrogen). My supervisor had suggested to me that we could use a double lesson to create a 'gallery' of the posters and students can visit and critique their peers. Thinking about this, I was slightly tentative about the suggestion. Does it encourage the idea of failure, and that one students poster is better or worse than another? In the end the gallery went ahead. To promote discussion, I asked the students 'who has the best poster?' and immediately they all pointed to the most visual poster in the room (refer to picture). The next question was 'why do you think it's the best?' with responses such as the design is great, there's lots of colour, it's set out well and I like the pictures. The students were suggesting all visual features. Next, I asked the students to read the information and they could see some of the information written was flawed. Then we went to a different poster, who's visual and layout wasn't as great but the written information was fantastic. After the students had wandered around the gallery, we spent some time discussing the learning process. The students could see that it wasn't about who's poster was perfect, or what I, as the teacher, could create. It was about what they could create themselves and this may have involved failure, processing information and learning from their mistakes. So when we do another poster or visual assessment later in the year they will do better as learning has to include a dash of failure. Failure is instructional.
If we continue to look at education as if it's about coming to school to get the information and not about experimental learning and embracing failure we are missing the point. An educational culture of one right answer and standardised testing will not achieve educational goals. Education must be better than this.
Media and teaching.
I thought I had finished my reflection for this assignment, but today I read a very interesting article in The Age (here).
After reading the article, I reflected on a few points that I found could potentially relate to my teaching practices.
What would I do differently? Is the response of 'you will get a detention if you don't participate' justified? Probably not. It is well acknowledged that PE teachers always have a struggle with participation, especially with repeat offenders who fake notes from parents or miss class to avoid the subject. So what would I have done? Most likely, I would have ensured that the student had a note from home explaining the situation and I would have got her involved in a more stationary duty, such as scorer. After class, I would have followed up with the assistant principle to compare the stories that had been told.
What strategies do schools have in place when dealing with this type of situation? Some teachers say if there is a note, then they get the student to sit out of the PE class for the whole lesson whilst others will say that they will get them involved in some way possible. Do schools have a set guideline to follow when a student either brings a note from home or states they can't participate? Or is it left up to the teachers judgement? Maybe Parkdale Secondary College needs to support their teachers, in particular PE teachers, and develop some direction to follow in these circumstances.
Lastly, the media can obviously be intense. Coming from a Physiotherapy background, I know that an ankle injury can have no impact on the rupture of a ligament in the knee. It's the equivalent of saying, 'I dislocated my shoulder because I had an ankle injury'. Did Steve Butcher (the author of the article) get a recommendation or supporting material to confirm what he had written is true? I doubt it. What it shows is that the media just wants a story, regardless if the information is correct or incorrect. Especially when the government is involved. Do I want to be in the media in regards to my teaching ability? Absolutely not. Thus, I will ensure that I will get very familiar and teach to the professional standards and VIT code of conduct.
After reading the article, I reflected on a few points that I found could potentially relate to my teaching practices.
What would I do differently? Is the response of 'you will get a detention if you don't participate' justified? Probably not. It is well acknowledged that PE teachers always have a struggle with participation, especially with repeat offenders who fake notes from parents or miss class to avoid the subject. So what would I have done? Most likely, I would have ensured that the student had a note from home explaining the situation and I would have got her involved in a more stationary duty, such as scorer. After class, I would have followed up with the assistant principle to compare the stories that had been told.
What strategies do schools have in place when dealing with this type of situation? Some teachers say if there is a note, then they get the student to sit out of the PE class for the whole lesson whilst others will say that they will get them involved in some way possible. Do schools have a set guideline to follow when a student either brings a note from home or states they can't participate? Or is it left up to the teachers judgement? Maybe Parkdale Secondary College needs to support their teachers, in particular PE teachers, and develop some direction to follow in these circumstances.
Lastly, the media can obviously be intense. Coming from a Physiotherapy background, I know that an ankle injury can have no impact on the rupture of a ligament in the knee. It's the equivalent of saying, 'I dislocated my shoulder because I had an ankle injury'. Did Steve Butcher (the author of the article) get a recommendation or supporting material to confirm what he had written is true? I doubt it. What it shows is that the media just wants a story, regardless if the information is correct or incorrect. Especially when the government is involved. Do I want to be in the media in regards to my teaching ability? Absolutely not. Thus, I will ensure that I will get very familiar and teach to the professional standards and VIT code of conduct.
Adios, Amigos.
The gifts have been handed out and the slight awkwardness of saying good bye to a supervisor, now friend, over and done with. I have received my marks and feedback and am leaving the school for the last time as student teacher.
My second round of placement was much more enjoyable than my first, and I came out feeling confident and proud. I had recently realised that this would be the last time that I will have someone else in the classroom, constantly assessing my teaching practices. Next time I step into the classroom, I will be by myself. Comparing the two placements, not only did I notice some changes but I also noticed some consistency in my teaching.
I am beginning to understand how students learn and how to teach them effectively. I can explain this by the 5 "e's".
My second round of placement was much more enjoyable than my first, and I came out feeling confident and proud. I had recently realised that this would be the last time that I will have someone else in the classroom, constantly assessing my teaching practices. Next time I step into the classroom, I will be by myself. Comparing the two placements, not only did I notice some changes but I also noticed some consistency in my teaching.
I am beginning to understand how students learn and how to teach them effectively. I can explain this by the 5 "e's".
- Engage: Actively engage students during the learning process
- Explore: Exploring content prompts enquiry
- Explain: Present new content and provide engaging explanations
- Elaborate: Monitor students understanding and provide feedback
- Evaluate: Assess performance against VELS standards
I know the content I teach. I don't expect to know all of it, and I never well as there is always new information to learn. But I was lucky enough to teach the same content for Biology at both of my placements. Some students may react by, 'yes, I have previously done all the work and now I can just cruise'. Instead, I decided to reflect on each of my lessons and compare the difference. Were the changes I made effective? Did I explain that in a more engaging way? Was the extra 10 minutes on that activity worthwhile? Although not every time was the answer 'yes', I do feel confident that I know the content I teach. And if I don't, I know where I can get the support I need.
I always like to use a range of practices and resources. I had constant feedback about my range of teaching methods, such as 'excellent all round! I was impressed with the variety of teaching styles used and the effort put into your preparation' or 'you put my technology use to shame'. I aim for my lessons to be detailed in content, extensively prepared, actively involve student participation and innovative and visual.
So that's that. Apparently, I should be able to teach now. I've been told from numerous supervisors I can teach, I have been approached to apply for jobs and some students have told me they wish I could stay. Could it be possible that it's not 'apparently I should be able to teach' but more along the lines of 'obviously, I can teach'. I sure hope so.
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