Week 1 of placement at Temple Christian College has been full of new learning and greater insight into the world of teaching. It has been a pleasure to be welcomed into the community with genuine care and support. The school core mission 'to empower students to grow into Christian character, service and influence' extends to all members of the school community and accepts faith at the centre of all learning. I found this particularly evident in the classroom where certain texts were chosen to reflect Christian values.
I am grateful for my mentor, who kindly took me on board as her student teacher. Her wealth of knowledge and experience brought a sense of inspiration and awe, observing her teaching practice. At the start of each lesson, the teacher would clearly state her objectives and aims for the lesson. She also included both academic and behavioural expectations, stating her objectives clearly so that each student understood before the delivery of new content. Undoubtedly, the technique to seize all student attention and engage them from the outset of the lesson.
At the start of each lesson, students engaged in a starter activity that helped assess their prior knowledge. For example, in Geography, students were given a set of terms relating to technology and asked to write a short definition. As a class, students shared their responses before the teacher reading an official definition. The activity was a subtle approach to identifying student knowledge on the topic and assisted her to scaffold the rest of the lesson. It was inspiring to see her lead the class calmly and intuitively during the entire lesson. Her presence engaged all students on task and interested in the content.
The teacher fostered a student-centred learning space. Using open-ended questions, students could reflect on their thinking even in times of difficulty. Students were never told or discouraged by their answers if they were incorrect; instead, students were encouraged to explain their initial response further. For example, "that is a great start, what more could you tell me about …" "How else could you define that …" "Is there anything else you can think of about…" "Let us hear what Jimmy has to say". Relevant 'fun facts' of technology were also incorporated to enliven the content with meaning and drive the students to interpret the content from different perspectives.
The use of the teacher's language was inspiring to observe. Her clarity and fluency of language guided instruction and interaction with all students. Her tone was always calm and nurturing, using nonvocal cues to gain students' attention, whether that is raising a hand or clapping. Overall, my first week at Temple Christian has been an informative and nurturing experience. The continuous support and resources offered to student-teachers have exceeded all expectations.I look forward to working in collaboration with my mentor over the forthcoming weeks
My second week of placement at Temple Christian College has been full of opportunities, growth and new learning. After thorough lesson planning and developing lesson resources, I began to teach both Year 7 and 9 English. I was surprised by the influence these initial lessons had on my pedagogical stance and how I aim to approach teaching in the classroom.
First, I have learned the importance of creating meaningful interaction with the students as an essential part of the teaching and learning process. Although this was difficult to achieve coming into Week 10 of the term, it was evident that my interaction with each child stimulated their engagement in the classroom. For example, the majority of Year 9 students held a soft and shy nature. To overcome this barrier, I took the time in each lesson to check in on each student, whether it was through their progress with the activity or short chat. I found this to be particularly successful in gaining their respect as a facilitator in their learning.
Imbedding a constructivist-based approach to most lessons, I was able to encourage student engagement. Activities such as small group work, hearty challenges and whole-class discussions, created and maintained an interactive classroom. It was particularly useful for balancing the participation between the introverted and extroverted students. Everybody was encouraged to 'give it a go', and nobody was ever 'wrong'. As such, the students were able to learn the importance of patience and the value of understanding diverse perspectives. From this, I recognised that every student is different, coming from diverse backgrounds with distinctive learning needs and as their teacher it is my responsibility to uncover these differences to understand my students better and connect them to have a better understanding of knowledge.
Another learning process this week involved honouring the art of 'messing up'. Although I reassure my students that nobody is perfect and that it is more than okay to mess up from time to time, I often tend to be my own worst critique. During the week, I found this mindset creep into one of my lesson's that did not go according to the plan. The objectives for the lesson were for students to develop their understanding of clauses and predicates in grammar. The activities designed for the students to engage with were far too strenuous, as the whole class had limited prior knowledge on the matter. As a result, students began to disengage with the content quickly and consistently ask for support. In this instance, I have learned the importance of assessing student prior knowledge and scaffolding to their needs and understanding. Most importantly, I have learnt to accept that activities might not work out in practice. From now, I will take my mistakes as opportunities to grow, rather than allow them to discourage my confidence. Showing vulnerability and accepting the art of 'messing' up will undoubtedly guide me in my growth as a new teacher, adapt in the classroom, and consider alternative strategies.
This week I returned to Temple Christian as a request to support the classroom during the last week of Term 1. I felt immensely grateful for the offer and took it on board with great enthusiasm. Week 11 involved a chaotic week of deadlines, co-curricular activities and DEBATES!
Both my English classes, Year 7 and Year 9 are preparing their team arguments ahead of their formal debate on Friday. During this time, I revamped the debating resources supplied by the school and distributed a 'debate guide' to all students in the lessons. Mini workshops for practising speech tendencies ran during lunchtimes for students who wanted to improve their body language, voice projection and eye contact skills. These were fantastic sessions as students showed willingness and drive to present to the best of their standards. I set each student a challenging goal after the workshop to practice at home before the next lesson. I found this additional week allowed me to improve on providing feedback to students on their learning, specifically in a formative context.
Week one and two at Temple Christian College has been incredibly rewarding. Generally, I had terrific lessons with my students, and I could not have asked for better feedback with my cooperating teacher. I felt supported from day one, and she gave me the confidence I needed to keep progressing. Interacting with my students was organically wonderful, and I was amazed at how much my students taught me, from everything to relationships to school practices.
I have been able to apply much of what I have learned during my studies to develop effective and engaging teaching strategies in the English classroom. The areas of success within my experience involved being highly organised, planning appropriately and establishing positive relationships. I found that extensive planning and organisation lays the foundation for effective teaching. With thoughtful and organised planning, I was able to be flexible, adapt and improvise within lessons - one that considered the needs of the students as the possibilities and limitations of the classroom as a whole. Throughout the week, I sought out to design lesson plans based on the individual needs of each of my students. Differentiated material supported both highly able students, as well as students with learning difficulties. I accessed each student on an Individual Learning Plan and spoke with them individually to foster a caring and welcoming environment while at the same time discovering individual learning needs and styles. For example, a Year 7 English class displayed a distinct gap of learners ranging from six highly able and five students on modified plans. In the lessons, the highly able students were given an additional novel study in conjunction with a comprehension pack to work on once they completed the lesson activities.
Another area of success within the experience involved creating a safe and welcoming classroom environment. Using the LMS platform at Temple, I memorised each student's name before the first lesson in an effort to create a positive rapport. It was vital for me to know that the students felt comfortable approaching me for help and input, an essential element to any thriving learning environment. Furthermore, acknowledging students on ILP (Independent Learning Plans) and their learning strengths allowed me to focus on individualisation of instruction, knowledge and application of the National curriculum standards, and practising multiple modes of instruction.
Throughout the week, I was able to create a great atmosphere in my classrooms. I was slightly worried about a few of my classes early on, but as I got to know the students better and establish relationships with them, the problems mostly vanished. Once I established those connections and relationships with students, it was easy to tell that they bought into what I was teaching them considerably more. They started asking more questions, be more interested in the topics and generally have fun with learning their novel and film studies. However, I recognised that students were not the only relationships important for my teaching experience to go well. I spent a considerable amount of time and effort, establishing relationships with the staff here at Temple Christian College.
This week has proven to me that the heart of my teaching practice is constructivist learning. I felt the students responded and engaged superbly through this form of practice. However, despite my extensive planning efforts with constructivist as the foundation of it all, not all activities went to plan. As such, I understand that although activity may look successful on paper, it may not translate into a great lesson. I often tend to be my own worst critic and felt this inflicted a lack of confidence and self-belief over a short period during the week. However, with the support of my mentor, she assured me that risk-taking and creativity in our planning. Overall, I've had an incredibly rewarding experience so far and look forward to the next few weeks.
Week three and four at Temple Christian College involved a roller coaster of emotions and self-growth. Due to a personal emergency, my mentor was away from the school majority of the time. In this time, she entrusted me to develop, plan and deliver each lesson with complete autonomy. During this time, I spent outside of my comfort zone and grew immensely in all areas of my pedagogy.
I believe my thorough planning regime helped become sufficiently organised and deliver the lessons with minimal concern in terms of structure and content. During this time, I focused on improving my method of delivery and mannerism in the classroom. A considerable amount of time was spent researching the language of non-verbal cues and through observation of other teachers. For example, in a Spanish lesson, the teacher often stood in ‘regal’ pose. He explained this pose helped him display a ‘non-threatening authoritative presence’ in the classroom, appearing both relaxed yet in control.
I was fortunate enough to establish a strong student-teacher relationship with each one of my classes and experienced minimal behavioural concerns. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement. Though there was not much disruption, I recognised the need to draw attention from every student before addressing with instruction. As such, time spent on repeating instructions was eliminated and instead allowed students to maximise time efficiency and student productivity.
Feedback response from relief teachers who observed my lessons was predominantly positive. Each relief recognised an organic ability to adhere to all student needs. I also received praise for taking a proactive approach to my learning and being cognizant and respectful of the Christian spirit (ethos) of the school. Both positive and constructive feedback was appreciated and taken on board from co-operating relief teachers and other teachers.
My experience at Temple Christian College was challenging and fulfilled with more passion and growth as a teacher. The areas of success within my experience involve creating a safe and welcoming classroom environment, positive rapport with students, individualisation of instruction, knowledge and application of the new state standards, and practising multiple modes of instruction. I look forward to implementing these new skills and knowledge into my next practicum.