Placement 1: 4 weeks Harvest Christian College
Reflection week 1:
Day 1:
Today I had one English Literacy class. I presented the topic of Gothic Poetry by showing the students a PowerPoint. My mentor teacher said the starting activity was well thought out. I used the PowerPoint to present images that resembled the theme of “gothic”. I then asked the students to choose which picture they thought looked to fit this theme. I was extremely enthusiastic to read the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe (a famous gothic poet of the time), as well as going through the short story “The Red Room” by H.G Wells, however my mentor teacher advised me not to “spoon feed” the answers to the students, and allow them to answer the questions. Rather than telling them the information, I should have asked them certain questions in order to develop their higher order thinking.
Day 2:
Today I had one year 11 English class, a double HASS and a double English.
In the double HASS I taught US civil rights, we focused primarily on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and Nelson Mandela and when he was freed. To get the students to collaboratively learn the material I photocopied a section out of the book, cut out the three sections, stuck them on coloured paper and wrote questions on the page. They then had 10 minutes to read the text as a group and answer the questions on google classrooms. I believe this worked well to help them collaboratively learn the text. In the second half we focused on Jim Crows Laws however, I found I needed more material for the second half of the lesson.
In the double English, my mentor teacher read the “Red room” out loud and then I went through “The Raven” and its poetic techniques. By focusing on the techniques, it made the poem’s purpose clearer to the students. The students seemed to really enjoy the analysis of the poem with one student saying they loved the analysis because it allows an array of ideas to be shown.
Day 3:
Today I had a year 11 essential English, where I helped the students go through their speeches. They were to show that they were able to use colloquial language in order translate their topic over to the target audience. I then had Year 12 English Lit where there were only 2 students present (being a country school the classrooms are much smaller). I helped the students with their essays; I found one of the students' essay quite hard to understand so I helped him develop his writing skills and how to properly format an essay.
Further on in the day I had Year 10 HASS, the students and I went through the textbook and I wrote questions up on the board in order to spark their ideas and get them to think about what was being read. The questions included:
· When did Rosa Parks follow Segregation Laws?
· In what state did Rosa Parks follow these segregation laws but still get arrested?
· What does NAACP stand for?
· How many percent of bus riders were African American?
· How long did the boycott last?
· Was Martin Luther King’s message non-violent or violent?
· By 1963 how many protests occurred?
· What does CORE stand for?
· What were the two most segregated states?
· What form of advertising made the most impact?
· What did this broadcast?
· Who led the SNCC sit ins and Marching protests?
I taught them about the bus boycotts, sit-in and ‘freedom rides’, and Protest marches during the civil rights movement in America. I believe this lesson went really well and the students seemed to respond well to my teaching style, the questions and the content.
Day 4:
Today I observed in a year 9 English class, where they were planning for the NAPLAN. I was able to walk around the classroom and help the students with their spelling and comprehension. I found my voice well in the classroom and established a good rapport with each of the students.
I taught year 11 essential English where they were doing their speeches, they all did an excellent job. I’m starting to find it easier to assert my authority. At the beginning I was a little timid in front of the class.
Day 5:
Today I taught year 12 English and a double of Year 11 Essential English. The class went really well, we went through the poetic techniques of "Fairy-Land" and "The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe. I showed them a clip of The Bells being read aloud which demonstrated to the students the tempo of the poem. My mentor teacher said that I was building good rapport with the students. I wrote the poetic techniques up on the board which allowed the students to feel confident in their analysis of the poem. The techniques included enjambment, alliteration, assonance, personification, onomatopoeia, and many more.
Week 2:
Day 3:
Today I got involved in an extra curriculum activity called Maypole, it is an old traditional dance, performed to celebrate harvesting and renewal, as the Copper Coast is farming and mining area. It is a dance that involves many children using ribbons to make a pattern by twisting and turning around the pole. It was really great to be involved in this traditional dance as it is important to the Copper coast area and the school. It was performed at an event called Kernewek Lowender that involves the schools from the Copper Coast triangle, being Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo. I got involved by sitting on the base of the pole to steady it as well as joining in the dance at the end of the performance and skipping around the pole with the students. (See images at the bottom of the page, I'm the one in the orange dress).
Week 3:
I am beginning to feel much more confident in my ability to teach. This week we (the year 10 HASS class and I) moved from US civil rights to Aboriginal and Torres strait islander peoples prior to 1945. When transitioning from one topic to the next, my mentor teacher told me, that despite my efforts in linking the two topics, I could have elaborated more on how the two topics tie in with each other, aka more in depth scaffolding. In this same class there was a bit of “silly noise” as described by my mentor teacher; I didn’t stop the noise straight away and it grew as I was writing on the board. My mentor teacher advised me to stop the noise immediately as that class are known for increasing their noise levels quite rapidly. I was told that to stop the noise I could do a silent cue, “shoosh” them or tell them to “dial it down a notch”. I also need to develop my "teacher voice" in order to gain respect from the students, apparently this will come with time and practice.
In this class I did a lot of collaborative learning. In the double I got the students to do three activities; a PMI (Positives, Minuses and interesting facts) about the “White Australia” movement, a worksheet that attempted to evoke empathy from the students about “What Federation Meant” with the questions such as “How did these decisions impact the culture and identity of indigenous peoples, How would you feel about your culture? How would you feel about your sense of self? How would you feel about Australia and the government? How would you feel about your options for the future?”. The students appeared to be very engaged in the class and I wrote their answers up on the board in order to appeal to the visual learners. The third activity that worked really well was an analysis and annotation of a picture from the textbook in relation to the Great Depression, here they had to write down what they saw in this picture, such as aboriginal people, dogs, bushman, huts, etc.
In this class I had my first behavioural problem; one of the students was distracting the other students by playing games on their computer. I moved one of the students however the main culprit continued to her distracting behavior. My mentor teacher told me I should have moved the main culprit, but if I’m being honest, I was subconsciously afraid she was going to defy me. I believe the more I teach, the more my confidence will grow and therefore I would have handled this situation with more authority.
My mentor teacher informed me that my “wandering” around the classroom has developed well and I am using my “teacher eyes” better in order to keep an eye on the entire class whilst individually working with students.
Week 4:
Today I taught the year 10 HASS class about the Stolen Generation and I showed the Kevin Rudd's apology speech. I also showed a Ted X talk by Sheila Humphries and tried to evoke empathy from the students, to my delight all but two students were engaged with the information being told. I think maybe it was a coping mechanism from these two girls as the material was quite in depth and heavy. It was important for me to pull these two girls up on their behavior as there was an aboriginal student in the class and she actually go quite upset when listening to the Ted talk. After the student got upset, myself and my mentor teacher spoke to her in private to make sure she was okay. She said she was fine and that she was just moved by the video. This was an important situation for me to be in as it allowed me to practice my skills within this area.
Placement 2: 9 Weeks Harvest Christian College
Reflections
Week 1:
I started off the week on Wednesday, after a two-day CSA conference for the first two days. It was an excellent day filled with nerves and excitement.
I taught Year 9 English and Year 8 HASS (history).
I felt quite confident in front of the students as I had prepared thoroughly for the lessons. I did find it quite hard however, to switch from one class to the next straight after. However, my notes from my mentor teacher were very positive. I started the class off with a quick Kahoot about myself and two truths and a lie from the students to make them feel like they knew me better. My mentor teacher said I needed to keep other students on topic when the other students were talking so they didn’t distract the student speaking.
There was a little bit of difficulty with the sound and technology when trying to show a video however I apparently “handled it really well”. I had a backup plan in case it didn’t work, and that was to use the t brainstorm, “why is history important?”, “what can we learn from history?” and the students could have done a poster or we could have had a class discussion.
I then presented a title page task, according to my mentor I “repeated the task well to students who didn’t understand the first time”. My mentor also stated that I could have shown them on the board how I wanted to set the title page out, however I wanted to give them creative freedom. In saying this, next time I will show them what I want on the board.
I read out of the textbook and needed to “move around the classroom” more and ask students to randomly “read out loud in order to keep them engaged”.
Furthermore, I could have tried out a range of “attention grabbing” techniques to “help students know when I would like them to stop and tune in, e.g. count down from 5.
The next class I had was Year 9 HASS. I found myself even more comfortable in front of the class, according to my mentor I had “excellent use of technology”. I allowed the students to use their laptops to find out answers to their own questions, this was apparently “engaging for the students”. I made the students put their hands on their heads when they had finished writing down in their books, so I knew when to move on. I wasn’t sure if this was too “primary school” but my mentor teacher seemed to like it and the students didn’t object. Whilst talking about the Industrial Revolution I explained what each piece of machinery was and was well explained to their age group. I made the students write a glossary in the back of their workbooks so they could put words down that they didn’t know, and then look them up later. At one point I was able to use my grandparent as an example, my mentor teacher said “used your grandparents personal stories to help students understand further but at a personal level from you as their teacher – excellent – the boys at the back tuned in and were very drawn to hearing what you were sharing, awesome work!”.
When showing a YouTube video, I stopped it every few minutes in order to engage students and ask them to share 5 points they heard from the video, this was apparently “an excellent motivator and engager”.
Reflections
Week 2:
On Monday I taught double year 10 English, I went through the techniques of teaching film editing. My mentor teacher said it was a “well-paced” lesson and I “used the board well” and explained the techniques thoroughly. I found I was more comfortable in front of the class and wasn’t as nervous.
I then had a double of Year 9 English where we are doing ‘The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas’. I got the students to do questions on chapter 5 and for the students who had already finished I gave an extra task to.
Thursday, double year 9 HASS
Today I taught the students about the assembly lines during the Industrial Revolution. I made the students watch a short clip on the Ford manufacturers of assembly lines and then asked them what that would psychologically do to a person, only doing one part of the job for their whole lives. They would never be able to see the end product. I then lined the students up into 3 lines and we did our own assembly line but with paper planes. I got one student to stand up the front and show us how to make the plane and then the first line did one section, the second line did the second section and the third line did the fourth section. I timed them and they were really engaged! This activity allowed the students to see how assembly lines were made, I went around the room pretending to be the boss, yelling at them in a commanding way that made them realise what it was like to work during the industrial revolution.
In the second half of the lesson I taught the children about the unfair work and exploitation of children during the industrial revolution. I told them about the chimney sweepers and how the children would get soot in their eyes and go blind. I told them about how the children would be working on the looms and if they didn’t work quick enough, they would burn or even have their hands chopped off.
I told them about how they worked 14-16-hour days sweeping up the pieces of cotton that would fall onto the ground. And how there would be fires in the factory if it wasn’t swept up. I then pulled out a banister brush and asked two students to sweep the floor for 1 minute. One boy exclaimed “I feel sorry for those poor children”. All of the students were engaged and asking questions like “how come men got paid more” and “how much is a shilling in a dollar” (as the video explained that the workers would only get 5-8 shillings a week). Both of these activities evoked empathy within the students and to me it was one of the best lessons I have ever taught.
Year 9 English
I then had year 9 English, where I was getting the students to read out The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I allowed a student (who volunteered) to sit up the front and read. She particularly likes special attention and letting her read out the front gave her confidence and made her stay on task. She started off being a bit cheeky and saying “I don’t like being told what to do” but when I gave her this task she thrived!
Year 8 HASS:
I found myself getting quite tired towards the end of the day, so I started to become quite harsh on myself. I noticed when a year 8 boy was getting frustrated with me, but I think he was actually getting frustrated with himself because he didn’t know how to answer the question. When some of the boys had finished their work, they grabbed a football and started handballing it to each other, I simply took the ball away from them and gave them an extra task to complete.
Reflections
Week 3:
Today I had year 8 HASS, year 9 HASS and year 9 English.
In my year 9 English class we did PEEL (point, evidence, explanation and linking sentence) Paragraphs, I found it really beneficial to walk around the room and individually work on each student’s writing and help them one on one. One female student in particular was off topic and walking around the classroom, I noticed she had started her work but began doubting herself. (she usually rips out pages of her book if she doesn’t think her writing is neat enough). I decided to try a different approach with her rather than telling her in front of the class to sit down. I got this idea from the Bill Rogers “preventative behaviour management”, I pulled her aside and quietly encouraged her that her work was excellent (which it was) and told her exactly what I wanted from her, to sit down, complete three more sentences and then go on to read chapter 10. She responded really well and did exactly what I wanted. It was a small victory but one none the less.
Today I had a double of year 10 English, where they presented their “film log” assignment, where they had to analyse a movie of their choice, commenting on cinematography, characterisation, editing and film score. I finally feel comfortable in the classroom, I’m more relaxed and my true personality is finally showing through when I teach. I really learnt the role of the teacher this week, working in Home-Work Club, spending all of my non-contacts and staying in after school to finish marking and lesson planning. I was told by many teachers that once I start to feel more confident in my teaching abilities, creating lesson plans will become a thing of the past.
I spent yesterday and today staying in recess and lunch working with students in order to get them to finish their work. Today I was given the opportunity to asses, grade and give feedback to the year 10’s for their presentations. I loved marking and felt very honoured that the year 10 mentor teacher allowed me to have control of that.
Reflections
Week 4
Today I had double year 9 English and double year 10 English.
I had to be quite strict today towards my year 10’s, despite giving them ample class time to finish off their film log speeches, some students were still not ready to present. I encouraged them that they could do it and I would be there to help them; I gave them until the end of the week. My mentor teacher gave me great advice saying “Caitlin, you can help them until you’re blue in the face, you can give up your recess and lunches but if the students don’t meet you halfway, the pressure is off of you. Give them until the end of the week and if they don’t have any work to present, you give them a zero. They are year 10s, they need to start taking responsibility for their own work.” i felt like a mean teacher saying that to the year 10’s but i knew i had to put my hard hat on and show them that even though I’m a student teacher, I still expect to receive quality work. In the next lesson I taught them about the “PEEL” paragraph structure, and then told the students to practice writing their own PEEL paragraphs, two of the students who rarely do work, actually handed up a paragraph, and it made me feel so proud.
I really enjoyed my year 9 English class as well. I made them do a “review” activity game, where the class was split up into 3 teams, they gave themselves a name and then came up with 10 questions about the noel we are studying per team. This encouraged the students to actively engage with each other as well as cognitively revising what we have learnt in the novel.
Tuesday:
Today I had to deal with quite a few behavioural issues; two of the students began to fight over an answer in class and one student then proceeded to put the other student into an aggressive headlock. I had to give them both a formal warning which required filling out some paperwork and ringing the behavioural management teacher. I had a really good one on one talk with him and he gave me a few behavioural techniques to try. Especially revolving around attitude from both the boys and the girls in year 8. He said to not tolerate it at all and to stop them immediately, and if they continue to speak to me with attitude or snarky comments, to send them straight to him, no questions asked.
I reflect that the revising activity I did with my year 9’s did not work as well with my year 8’s, if I were to do this activity again, I would only allow one student at a time to stand up and answer the question, rather than allowing their whole team to come up the front. Due to them all being taller than me, and having 30 students in the class, I felt as though I lost power and was being over dominated, I don't generally feel like this when they are all sitting in their seats.
After the year 8 HASS I had year 9 English and year 9 HASS, they both renewed my confidence as every student was on topic and delivered me excellent paragraphs with the use of figurative language. (what i had just taught them in class).
I then spent the rest of my day marking multiple assignments and learning how to install them into the “marks book” online. I felt as if I really learnt a lot today.
One more thing, the year 11 and 12 teacher asked if I would be their “special guest” on Friday afternoon to deliver a lesson on how to write an essay. So, I will let you know how that goes.
Today I felt exhausted, it was a huge week full of behavioural management issues, although it was a good week, nonetheless. I learnt a lot about how to deal with students with behavioural issues, and that attitude should not be taken lightly. I started this new technique that when kids raise their hands and answer a question, I write their names up on the board, I tried this with my year 8, 9, 10 students and they all responded exceptionally well to it. Today a student was being disrespectful and commenting on something that was up on the board, I reacted and said, “you should be a stand-up comedian”, my mentor teacher thought I should document it as the parents may complain.
My previous mentor teacher told me that it was important, especially with difficult students, to have certain comebacks that aren't mean, but will show them that we as teachers are in control. It’s hard when you have two mentors telling you different things. But I am trying to find my own methods and seeing what works best for me.
Year 9 Camp – “Rite Journey” Reflection:
I had the privilege and honour of being invited to join two other teachers and the year 9’s on a school camping trip called Rite Journey, Wilderness Escape. I happily accepted and in week 8, packed my bags and spent three days camping in tents, cooking meals on Trangia’s and baked potatoes in the campfire coals.
Over this time, I built positive and stronger relationships with the year 9’s and the other teachers. On the first night, the students had to camp alone away from everyone else, called a solo night. It was about building character and resilience, learning to be with themselves.
Over the three days we did many activities such as, hiking, rock climbing, abseiling, mountain bike riding, starting a campfire with a flint, and a “save the pilot” activity.
Overall, I felt as though i flourished during this placement. I grew so much in my confidence and teaching abilities. I had an interview with the principal, and he offered me relief work in fourth term.