Last day of placement.

Well I am now on the last day of my placements for my first round of teaching placements and I am a little sorry to be leaving. When you go everyday you really tend to bond with the teachers around you and the students as well. It's only now that the students are really getting used to having me around and the year 7s especially are looking to me for help and guidance. This is a huge improvement from how awkward I was feeling in the first week.

Although I have not been teaching for the last few days I am able to have a deeper understanding of how the school runs and am beginning to see the different working styles of the students. It is a little bit of a shame that I am now having to go back to study.

On the other hand I am glad to be going back to uni because I am keen to keep going so that this year will turn into a beneficial stepping stone to next year when hopefully I will get a job. It will also be good to share some of the experiences I have had with other students and to hear some of their stories. I am interested to see who has positive things to say and who had a not so pleasant experience (hopefully there won't be many!).

Classroom management....

From all of the classes I have taught so far and the feedback that I have received from supervising teachers the thing that is almost the most essential thing to have in the classroom is good class control. From this comes many different aspects but it is very important to make sure that you are respected by the students. In order to gain respect it is important that you carry through with instructions and if punishment/consequences are required for actions that are not acceptable that they are fair and just and equitable to everyone in the class.

I am a big fan of the 'hand up' policy that this school has. It requires patience but I am improving in this area. I think that it is important that I not raise my voice when it is not necessary. In fact, I think that it is usually not necessary and often loses the respect of your students. Therefore it is essential to outline your expectations and follow through. For example, if you want hands up for silence and for answering questions then you need to follow through and expect the same behaviour from everyone. Moreover students should not speak while the teacher is speaking and perhaps even more vital is that students should not speak over one another. If noise starts in one corner of the room it can very easily spread very quickly and get out of control. It is important in this situation to remain calm and pull them back to task, this is why I like the hand up policy of silence. Although I am not convinced it will work for older year levels.

Week 3

I have taught quite a few lessons now and am beginning to feel much more comfortable in front of a group of students. I am starting to see the difference between the different year levels in learning styles. For examples the year sevens that I have taught tend to be quite a bit slower than the year eights. They are constantly trying to adapt to the different learning style that they school encourages. For this reason it is important that I recognise their difficulties with direction. It is often imperative that I give very clear, basic instructions such as get out a piece of paper and a pen, write your name at the top of the page---then walk around the room and make sure everyone has followed the instructions. It is easy to just assume that they will just follow instructions but a lot of the time they may not have been listening or do not understand.

One of my main observations so far in this placement has been that the longer I am at the school, the more comfortable the students are talking to me and how much better they respond to my requests if I know their names and they feel comfortable with me in the classroom and even in the halls. I think it is essential in teaching to build a good rapport with your students.

I have many more observations..........