Professional Engagement
Engage in professional learning
Throughout the year i have attended a variety of professional development sessions. I have found each one of these sessions useful in different ways. I believe to be a successful teacher it is essential to be continuously learning ourselves as teachers. These are a few of the PD sessions that i have found most useful.
6/2- STELR Project- This is an IT sharing program which is being implemented throughout the junior school this year. In this session i learnt the different features of the the program and how it can be used for summative and formative assessments.
13/2- revising staff essential aggreements, suggestions of tuning in activities for new UOI. Looked into the concept of inquiry in depth. I found the suggested activities for tuning into a new topic very useful. The benefits of these activities are that they draw our prior knowledge and are engaging. I will definitely be using these activities in future planning.
12/3- Spelling strategies - As a not very confident speller myself, i found this session very beneficial. This session covered different spelling strategies for each age group and a variety activities to support their spelling journey. We also discussed different methods of assessment of spelling and whether weekly spelling tests are beneficial and what words we should be testing the students on. I picked up a lot of useful activities and ways to teach spelling which i will continue to use not only on placement but in the future. These spelling activities underneath are an example.
31/8- Cyber Safety- This was a great session especially as it can relate to almost any school in todays society. This session covered how cyber safety can be introduced to students has young as year 2 and how it can be developed over the years. We looked at a number of online resources that can assist in teaching cyber safety such as Hector's world, Budd:e and CyberSm@rt.
6/2- STELR Project- This is an IT sharing program which is being implemented throughout the junior school this year. In this session i learnt the different features of the the program and how it can be used for summative and formative assessments.
13/2- revising staff essential aggreements, suggestions of tuning in activities for new UOI. Looked into the concept of inquiry in depth. I found the suggested activities for tuning into a new topic very useful. The benefits of these activities are that they draw our prior knowledge and are engaging. I will definitely be using these activities in future planning.
12/3- Spelling strategies - As a not very confident speller myself, i found this session very beneficial. This session covered different spelling strategies for each age group and a variety activities to support their spelling journey. We also discussed different methods of assessment of spelling and whether weekly spelling tests are beneficial and what words we should be testing the students on. I picked up a lot of useful activities and ways to teach spelling which i will continue to use not only on placement but in the future. These spelling activities underneath are an example.
31/8- Cyber Safety- This was a great session especially as it can relate to almost any school in todays society. This session covered how cyber safety can be introduced to students has young as year 2 and how it can be developed over the years. We looked at a number of online resources that can assist in teaching cyber safety such as Hector's world, Budd:e and CyberSm@rt.
AEU Student Teachers Conference
5/4- I attended a AEU student teachers conference which was fantastic, it included:
· Keynote speaker Maria Ruberto – mindsets and the psychology behind the acting out.
· Applying for state and independent school
· Behavior management
· Making the most out of 4th year placement
I thought this whole PD was extremely beneficial. The two outstanding speakers were Maria Ruberto and Jo Lange. Maria Ruberto spoke about having fixed and growth mindsets and how this after children and adults behavior and learning. What I found most useful was the psychology behind children acting out. She talked about how when adrenaline reaches the ceiling level this causing children to act out, yell and become violent. This causes they frontal cortex to temporarily stop working which explains how children can’t recall the event straight away.
How I will apply this information in my everyday teaching-
I now understand the importance of staying calm and collected myself in stressful situations and not to let my emotions heighten as will not help the situation. Also after quarrels between students or students acting out, I need to give them time to calm down and do an activity to release the rest of their adrenaline then approach them later about the situation when they are in a more calm state.
Jo Lange spoke of behavior management, the emotions that trigger bad classroom behavior and techniques to handle those situations. What I really took out of her session was the idea of ‘attack the sin not the sinner’ and to make the child who is disrupting the class acknowledge how their behavior is impacting on the greater group. I learnt the public discipline needs to sharp and short and to discuss issues further in private.
Engage professionally with colleagues, parents and the community
I Believe it is vital to have positive relationships with colleagues, parents and the community. On my final placement i have had an increasing amount of communication and interaction with the wider school community.
- 14/3-I was lucky to have the opportunity to attended and participate in a parent teacher interview. In this interview we discussed what the student is doing to reach her personally learning goals for literacy and numeracy. This student is quite strong in all subject areas so there were no concerns that had to be raised. A main aspect I took away from this interview was the main topics the teacher raises in the first parents teacher interview of the year. These being, the students past test results and how they can improve this year, the students learning goals for the term, how they are adapting to the new year socially and emotionally and the quality of work completed so far.
- 29/8- In term 3, my placement schools conducts 'Student Led Conferences'. In these session students have the opportunity to write a report on themselves, identifying their strengthens and weaknesses and showing this to their parents. They also show pieces of work and set goals for the remainder of the year. As teachers we attend this sessions but only intervene if needed. I was very fortunate to prepare the students for this process and to be present at their conferences.
- In term 2 when i had no placement i volunteered my time and assisted teaching the year 3 class every monday. This helped form strong relationships with a number of the staff and allowed to see the progression of the students over the course of the year.
- Each wednesday morning the staff congregate for a quick staff meeting. Issues such as behaviour management issues, a recap of first aid skills, abnormal scheduling and special events are discussed. It also gives the teachers an opportunity to hear what is happening in other classrooms.
- I feel forming relationships with the student's family is of great importance especially as a student. This gives the parents more confidence with my presence in the classroom. I try to make a big effort to greet each parents in the morning and have a short conversation about their child and their time at school. · Most parents ask about my progression and experience which also lifts my confidence as well.
- Yard duty allowed me to see a different side to the students and who their socialise with outside the classroom. On different occasions i had to inform and discuss incidences with the other teachers in the yard and also classroom teachers.
- In my first week of placement i attended all the specialist classes with my class. These included dance and drama, music, P.E, swimming and japanese. i found attending these classes was very beneficial as i could see how different teachers teach and different methods of classroom management.
- Assisted in coaching the Wesley College Junior School soccer clinics on Saturday mornings. My contribution included setting up equipment, assist in running skill-based drills with all the students and participating in friendly games with the younger year levels. This involved interacting with student's parents and family and the community.
- Communicating issues with mentor has been vital. Many of the students come to me with playground or classroom issues which i handle with the best of my ability but always make sure my mentor is aware of the situation incase it needs to go further. I am very thankful that i have such a positive relationship with my mentor teacher and he has been able to walk me through different procedures involving report writing, assessment, evaluating reading levels, running records and different school procedures as well.