I believe that as a future teacher, it is imperative that the teacher acts as a mentor towards the students. It is the duty of the teacher to ensure that the students are learning and not being taught or forced into memorisation. A strong belief of mine comes from Ackoff & Greenberg (2008) which is that, a teacher should do what computers and machines cannot do. 

 

Not only is acting as a mentor important, keeping the classroom as a safe and warm environment is also a major requirement. This will aid the students in their growth, as safety will allow to be part of class discussions and question what they are unsure of.

 

I do not believe that as a teacher we should mould the minds of our students, rather we should use this privilege as a means to allow the students to expand and grow their own individual personalities. Thus, allowing them to become creative.

 

Most importantly, I come back to a quote from Oscar Wilde, “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught.” I will strongly advocate self-teaching in my classroom as I strongly believe that sometimes the best way for anyone to learn is to follow their own differing learning methodologies. 

 

 

Whilst I spent the first week of placements observing my mentor, I was given the opportunity to spend time with two students who had learning difficulties. It was a great challenge trying to figure out how I can aid these two students to keep up with the rest of the class. The first was George in year 7. He struggled with spelling and putting his ideas and thoughts onto paper. When working with him, to ensure that he was able to spell the words, I would pronounce the word through the use syllables. This would help him immensely when it came to typing. Getting the ideas he had in his mind, was an extremely difficult task. However, after speaking to my mentor, I was advised to get his thoughts out through questioning. By asking him questions that are aligned with the topic he was able to splurge his ideas onto the computer and finish the appointed task. Georges final Powerpoint has been attached to show how I have used questioning and syllables to help him complete his assignment.

 

The next student was Vernon in year 8. His reading, writing and speaking abilities was extremely low in comparison to the rest of the classroom, therefore he wasn’t able to do the same activities which his peers where doing. A different program was formed for him where he would still complete the task required but in a different form. Instead of writing with him, I had the task of sitting with him and creating a comic book on the life of Jessica Watson.  Sitting with him was a great experience as it showed that, although the student is not on par with his fellow peers, he can still be part of the class and reach his potential through the use of external resources (McDonald, 2010). 

Working closely with these two students in particular made me realised how rewarding being a teacher is. The satisfaction which you get from helping not only special needs students but any student in general is like nothing else. Not only was it satisfying helping these students but it was also an eye opener as to how important a teacher is in the development of a child. 

 

As a future teacher, I will be teaching in the digital age, therefore it is of paramount importance that I use technology and the resources it offers within my classrooms. Being placed in a school which heavily relies on the use of technology, I witnessed and experienced what teaching will be like in the future. With the students having technology surrounding them in their daily lives, they aren’t accustomed to sitting in the classroom and taking notes. Therefore, using technology to mirror the learning environment like that of their daily lives will assist in the student’s engagement and also in excelling in their studies (Christen, 2009). Through all of my lessons technology was in use as the school was operating a system known as ‘zoom’ in which I was able to teach students from other campuses whilst also teaching my own. I also used Kahoot, PowerPoint presentations, and also videos that complied with the school’s policies and curriculum to enrich the students knowledge. 

The following artefact shows, how i used technology to create an activity which well get the students thinking and writing. It also shows the use of zoom in the classroom. The activity being completed is a creative writing one, in which students are given an image that they will write a short script on.

 

Managing classroom behaviour was something that I found extremely challenging throughout my time as a pre-service teacher. I would be so focused on delivering the content and following the lesson plan, that I would completely ignore what is going on in the classroom. I was not aware of what was going on however, it was reported to me by my mentor that the students would be playing on their laptops and not listening whilst the lesson was proceeding. 

 

Another common occurrence in my classroom was the constant rocking of the chairs and yelling out of the answers in the classroom. In particular, I had one student who was extremely fascinated by me. This fascination would cause him to persistently ask me personal question mid class, which would really catch me off guard and cause me to lose my train of thought. 

The image that is attached below shows that whilst i am teaching the classroom a student is resting her leg on a another chair and the student next to her is on her laptop whilst I am speaking. These highlight the areas which I need to develop in.

 

To ensure that 4.3 and 4.4 of the AITSL standard where being followed I had many conversations with my mentor as to how I can overcome the challenges I had been facing. I was referred to watching a video by Bill Rogers who is a world renown behaviour expert. The video showed strategies which I could use to manage challenging classrooms. It made it clear to me that the bad behaviour was something common and faced by almost all teachers. The students would behave in this manner to demand attention, therefore it is essential to set the precedent from the beginning as there is no honeymoon phase with the students (Osiris Educational, 2012).

 

As noted by my mentor, with time I grew confidence and I gained the ability of shifting my tone and controlling the classroom with hand gestures which would allow to me proceed with my lesson without any interference. However, with future classes I need to set the precedent from the beginning and ensure that the students trust me and aren’t put in a situation where they are demanding to receive my attention. It is the difficult behaviour and classroom management that causes one third of teachers to leave the teaching profession within a three year span (Weale, 2016).

 

In regards to my own personal development, I was given the opportunity to attend serval staff meetings, both subject based and entire staff based. I gave my input in the meetings with some of the OH&S issues I had noticed. In the English meeting I discussed how using role play or using a word bank would make reading Shakespeare a lot for enjoyable and engaging for the students. 

 It was intended for me to go to a VCE development excursion, however due to the flood warnings and bad weather it was postponed to a later time which was extremely disappointing as it would have been a great learning experience.

 As a future teacher it is essential that I take any, and every opportunity which arises in training and developing my abilities to strengthen my practice throughout my career. Thus allowing me to manage any unfamiliar issues effectively (Mizell, 2010).

 

Prior to the commencement of my placements I attained the certificate in asthma training as well as completing the epi pen course.

 
There was a meeting I had been involved in which was between the school, the year 10s and their parents. This was a significant meeting, as the year 10s had been called up on their misbehaviour and demotivated work ethic. The meeting touched upon how the three parties can work together to get the students ready for VCE. The document for the meeting is attached as artefact below. This was a significant turning point for me as a future teacher as it showed that, yes students will behave bad and become demotivated. But that should the a reason for us to give up on them and lose hope in them becoming future ready. Rather, collectively a plan should be formed in which the students will be guided into  becoming ready for life after school

“Abdul was warm and open from the beginning, seamlessly fitting into the community and our staffroom.” This excerpt from my mentor shows that I was able to conform with my surrounding environment and conduct myself in a professional and competent manner (Sharkey, 2018).

 

I was also given the opportunity to take care of some of the administrative roles, this included me taking morning class roll as well as class attendance within each period. 

 

McDonald, E. (2010). Teaching Special-Needs Students in the Regular Classroom | Education World. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/mcdonald/mcdonald022.shtml

 

High Impact Training Strategies. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/documents/school/teachers/support/highimpactteachstrat.pdf

 

Christen, A. (2009). Christen, A. (2009). Transforming the classroom for collaborative learning in the 21st century. Techniques, 81(1), 28. Retrieved from http://mercy21stcenturyresearch.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/2/4/24241889/transforming_the_classroom_for_collaborative_learning_in_the_21st_century.pdf

 

Bucholz, J., & Sheffler, J. (2009). Creating a Warm and Inclusive Classroom Environment. Planning For All Children To Feel Welcome, 2(4).

 

Osiris Educational. (2012). Dr Bill Rogers- Managing the Difficult Class [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqIXB1RG-Vg

 

Mizell, H. (2010). Learning Forward. Why Professional Development Matters.

 

Weale, S. (2016). Almost a third of teachers quit state sector within five years of qualifying. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/24/almost-third-of-teachers-quit-within-five-years-of-qualifying-figures

 

Sharkey, C. (2018). Code of Ethics for Educators. Retrieved from https://www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/about-us/aae-code-of-ethics