My Teaching

Ok So I found out my Prac school, and I know that I am in a Composite class prep – year 1, but when I rang the school they were not very interested. I asked what there expectations of me are and I got ” you need to practice writing on the whiteboard” umm I already do that??? now slightly confused. I then asked what time would you like me to turn up on Monday ” Well the kids rock up between 8.15 and 8.30 so any time between then.” The principal seemed very uninterested to talk to me considering it was the fourth time I had tried to ring her, but I hoping that my professionalism and my ability will change her attitude a bit.

So I am still a little in dark unlike Danielle (view her post here) that has meet her mentor and and knows how many children are in the class.

Anyway Goodluck everyone hope you have a wonderful time on Prac.

Well I have finally completed my Cybersmart Certificate. Between Beef week and now Mini school for distance ed students it has been a very tedious task.

However, there a few things that I learnt throughout doing the certificate, however underpinning all of these is RESPECT and COMMON SENSE, to things that are lacking in society and the school system. The saying everybody has a right to do whatever they want. Yes it is true but it should not disrupt other people as it is done.

The lack of Respect is a big issue, students do not respect students, students do not respect teachers, teachers do not respect students, teachers do not respect teachers, parents do not respect teachers, parents do not respect students. So of course cyber bullying is going to happen of course bullying is going to happen it is taught from a young age, if you do not like someone or something say so.

So why is it not a wake up call to everyone to show and teach respect it is not a hard concept to understand.

As the finale to beef week last night, I attended the PBR rodeo. While sitting there watching the bull riders and the bull fighters get in the ring with a bull that is over a tonne in weight one thought came to mind, there is no amount of technology that can save you in that 8 secs. Below is a video from the 2013 PBR season in America I have chosen it shows numerous wrecks from that season and backs up this statement: THERE IS NO AMOUNT OF TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN SAVE YOU. If you watch the entire 6.19min video and sit back and wonder what would you do or how could that be safe or what could be done to make it safer. There is not much trust me I spent an entire 4 hours wondering last night. Although there have been many improvements in the sport over that last couple of years including, each rider must wear a vest and some chose to wear helmets and the bullfighters train hard to protect the riders. There is still nothing that can save you in that eight secs as that bull is trained to kill you and it will if it gets have a chance. Enjoy the video and let me know your thoughts.

Yesterday, I spent the day walking around Beef Week that is currently in Rockhampton. To find out more click on this link to the Beef week website. This is a large ag show that happens each year to look at beef beef and more beef. But while walking around the stalls I was amazed at how much the beef industry has changed over my lifetime because of technology.

Yards are now safer and some can be controlled through a tiny little push button panel. (I don’t know whether many of you have gotten between a cow and its only calf but it is not fun and you literately see your life pass between you eyes.) So technology has benefited greatly to make this industry safer.

I also saw how the feeding of cattle has improved through fodder solutions found here.

From my wanderings yesterday I saw a lot of technology within an industry that a lot of my students are going to be passionate about, and I feel as a teacher I need to have some knowledge of these things to communicate and connect with them and I also feel that because of my context there is a great deal of learning to be had at such an event.

Liz

I really enjoy maths doing calculations and working things out, but am I going to be able to teach it . Alongside this course I am curently doing a Maths subject as well and I have been enjoying it thoroughly we used Pearson MyMathLab found here to complete one of our assignments. It was good because I could work through it at my own pace and just enjoy doing math. I hope that I am able to this for the kids that I teach. I now have to create five challenges related to different areas of math one area is percentages and I have found this website that will help year 6 children work out sale prices and discounts. I liked this site as the students could work at there own pace.

Also as I have to work in the higher grades of primary for this subject I have been looking at apps that are self paced and use decimals fractions and percentages. I found this app (information here)  which is a number line where students have to place percentages, decimals and fractions in order along the number line, another self paced learning experience for students. I could also see this app being used as a group activity as well.

I thought that these websites and apps were very good for self paced learning and something that I would encourage within my classroom.

Until Next time

Liz

Ok so I have just finished week 9 and the last thing that week nine says is to start develop my context for assignment three and understanding what I am going to do on PE.

HOW I AM I SUPPOSE TO DO THIS WHEN I DO NOT HAVE A PLACE?

Okay so I am a bit mad (I would swear but obviously can’t) I feel I am being unfairly treated as others of you will already have you placement and can make a start on Assignment 3. How can this be classed as a fair assessment pieces when I can’t do any of the work as I DO NOT HAVE A PLACEMENT. with two weeks to go. ‘To be fair, any assessment should allow students to do equally well’ (Ferguson, 2011). So how can this be set as a fair assessment piece when I can not do as equally well as others when I don’t have the same amount of time and do not know my context?

I would like to know how many people are in the predicament? and what your thoughts are.

Reference

Ferguson, P. (2011) Assessment, Feedback and Reporting. In Teaching Making a difference. John Wiley and Sons: Milton.

It is ok to say ‘YOU JUST HAVE TO DO IT’. The reason I say this is in my current context I have a student that is in Prep and being in a distance ed classroom she has a lot to do, but she is in a school room and has to learn the do’s and don’t of the school room as well.

For her she spends a lot of time with me working through unit lesson that are so BORING they put me to sleep, but we just have to do it. (don’t worry I skip half the stuff that she is confident in and try it make it more fun, but sometimes it is hard.) So we now have a saying ‘we just have to do it.‘ The other day in the classroom we were working through a unit session and the student says to me ‘ I just have to do it, I don’t want to and it is boring but I just have to.’

I think this is an important thing to learn and it was a big step for her (as we had been experiencing quite a few melt downs and tantrums) particularly at a young age, because there are a lot of things that we as adults don’t want to do but, maybe a boss is telling you you have to, or it is a family matter. Learning to cope with things that we don’t want to do is a big step. I know I still have little tantrums when I don’t want to do something.

Then the student had to fill in an evaluation form to send back to her teacher, (I had to laugh on the inside). I told her that she had to be truthful.

The question was How do you feel (sad/ ok /happy) when you have to do

Listening the coloured in the sad face

Reading the student coloured in the okay face

Watching the student drew her own face and said bored

Talking she coloured happy face

Using a computre she coloured happy face

Investigating she coloured the happy face.

She was completely honest and it showed me and hopefully her teacher what we have to do to encourage this student to learn, but it also shows me that the current school system and curriculum does not cater very well for her as there is not enough, ICT and investigating. I say this because as a home tutor I have to follow lesson plans that are already put in place (mind you whoever wrote them needs a reality check) these lessons plans are written from the C2C and they have been written in a generic form and seems like all children have to conform to this, but unfortunately they don’t but I said above sometimes ‘YOU JUST HAVE TO DO IT.’

I am slowly working through my way through week 8. (Procrastination is a curse) But as I have been working my way through I came across this comment

It’s not uncommon to see students spend a lot of time getting the “details” of unit plan correct.

I start to panic!!! I have not spent a lot of time on my unit plan I have been slowly adding to it as I go, but I feel confident in it. I also feel that my learning objectives are very clear. However I do not understand why so much effort is put into firstly learning how to do learning plans and writing them in a particular way that a lecturer wants them.

Firstly it is a plan using this site ( great site for kids to find synonyms and look up words) I found the meaning of Plan it says a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making. I interpret this as it is not set in concrete and changes can be made. When implementing a plan there are a lot of other factors that would play a part in implementing a plan, an no plan ever goes to plan it doesn’t matter how good it is.

Secondly, as I feel I have a relative amount of experience, as I implement a plan, children are going to ask questions and have a variety of ways of interpreting it so therefore there are going to be changes to the plan as it is implemented and thinking that is going to be happening ‘on my feet’

Knowing this I feel that  yes it is important to have the correct information in my plan, but is it essential to so much time into something that I know is going to change once I start to implement it.

Personally I feel a plan should be a range of notes and ideas as to what could be done throughout a unit and then the lesson plans will go into more detail depending on the path that the children go as the interpret information that is given to them.

Would be interested to know other peoples thoughts on this?

Liz

This morning I woke up and I had this post from Maree waiting in my in box. Yes I agree with Maree we shouldn’t aim for a pass, but then why does it exist?

I have a very high dislike for the University education and I am not afraid to say that, as I believe they have an unrealistic view of life and what is needed by future educators. As I say to people who I meant it doesn’t matter how good you are at the paperwork or the theories behind education, if you CAN NOT control the behaviors and if you CAN NOT get the kids to like and respect you then you CAN NOT teach.

And to be quite honest I am speaking from experience working in childcare for a number of years we had a teacher come in to do the kindergarten program and she was excellent at the paper work and correcting my mistakes in paperwork, but the kids hated her and it was so obvious we had more behavior difficulties that year just because of the teacher.

So no we shouldn’t aim for a pass, but a high distinction in not going to get you anywhere either if you can not do the basics.

Maree says that I am saddened that the expectations can be so low in some university students. Why is that? My expectations of my self are not low, but my expectations of completing this course are which is sad because I am already a great teacher. SO how can we have high expectations when it is hard to see the finish. The reason I am saying this is because next year I have two major pracs therefore I will not be able to work for 45 days of the year. I am rather stressed about this because how exactly am I to survive, I will have no money, I have no financial support, jobs are scarce anyway and my personal beliefs stop me from walking in to centerlink and asking for money. So what is my incentive to finish the course because I am going to be in a worse position than I am already in.

I have a great deal of thinking to do and I have to find an incentive to finish but again it doesn’t matter if I have a P or my certificate or a HD, I still have a piece of paper that tells me I can actually teach.

While looking for a video o Group work I came across this video and found it to be very interesting I got quite a bit out of the video and though it would be ideal to share. I also have a question do we have people in Australia that come around and give feedback on lesson that teachers provide?

Although the video is 26min long I was very keen to watch all the video the progress that this teacher made by adding a few little steps was amazing and I think that I would use this more within my classroom as well.