Teaching+Rounds

  I am assuming you are talking about Teaching Rounds here Luke?! I had a whole class full of Jordan's. It was a massive challenge but a great experience at the same time. I have been with Grade PREPS at St. Alban's Heights PS for the last 4 weeks. It was a fantastic experience and really opened my eyes to the world of teaching. The school I have been at is very multicultural so lots and lots of the students I was teaching did not have English as their first language. In fact, a lot of them are still learning English. This was a huge hurdle for the students but they did very well at adapting. I was very impressed by how quickly their young minds pick it all up. I found PREPS were a very demanding and full on class to teach. I would go home exhausted every night and by friday I was well and truly ready to drop. The tricks and techniques I have picked up over the last 4 weeks have been invaluable. Something you would never learn from sitting in stuff old lectures. Things like getting the kids to hold hands to create a circle because they just don't quite now how to do on their own yet. The range of the abilities in the classroom was awesome to see. While there was a child who could write better than a grade six student there was also those that could hardly write at all. Some could read and some couldn't. Some still couldn't understand simple instructions. But this is all part of it. I have learnt greatly on how a range of abilities in a classroom can be adventageous. One thing I learnt so much about was discipline. Wow!! It was absolutely draining trying to control a group of PREPS who still don't know the English language very well. I realised it was all about routine. The routine needs to be kept so that they can understand what is expected from them. My voice got a good beating as well. I heard in lectures that our voices were important but I didn't actually realise how much until I was using mine constantly. During the 4 weeks of teaching rounds I was lucky enough to go on a few PD's. One of them was to visit another school and look at how the PREPS use their developmental play time. I had never really thought of a classroom this way. The traditional classroom is out. At the same time as it was very different, it also made a great deal of sense. At this young children learn best by playing. And especially for these students, the language development is essential through play. I also went to a PD on "Writer's notebook." I don't think I can stress enough how valuable this would be for a classroom. From the PD I have already started planning what I would like to do in my classroom and how inspirational it could be. If anyone gets the chance to listen to Deb Sukarna I would say "DO IT." She was fantastic and I really understood for the first time how to implement Literacy into the classroom. After being confused many times in English this semester it was great to be given some practical ideas for the classroom. I could instantly see exactly why this would work in a classroom. I loved to work one on one with the PREPS. It was a great way to learn and gain an insight into the issues they face in all areas of the curriculum. I hope you all had a fantastic time on teaching rounds. The most valuable portion of this course was my placement. I worked with Grade 1 and 2 students. They were the most fantastic group of kids and I already miss them as I write this. I went into placement with an open mind as I had no idea what I was doing! It did not take long for me to pick it up and start taking lessons and creating bonds with the students. I planned and took lessons in every learning area possible. My mentor teacher was very accommodating and enthusiastic of my learning. The highlight of my placement was ‘Footy Day’. I organised a day of lessons covering literacy and numeracy all in relation to Footy! I also wrote a special ‘Aussie Rules Footy Quiz’. As I stood at the front of the class reading out the quiz questions, with all the kids smiling and anticipating what I was to say next, I knew teaching was for me. I only realised this notion on placement. I did not know one way or the other how I really felt about being a teacher at University, this all happened in the classroom. I did take a lot of the information I was taught at University to the classroom, but what I learnt in the class proved the most remarkable.

I concur that placement was definitely the most valuable part of this course. I also had preps, and I simply loved it. I loved their innocence and creativity. Nicole spoke about the writers notebook, which my school already had in place and I loved waiting to hear what ideas the preps came up with! I especially loved show and tell time, some of the questions asked were fantastic! It was funny how some of them cried at the drop of a hat, and stopped crying just as quickly. A prep teacher plays a role very similar to that of a parent. There was lots of comforting, tying shoelaces, helping put jumpers on, fixing sores - but my mentor was very big on encouraging independence. She never opened their lunch for them - they have scissors, they can open their own, and sorting out their own fights (when necessary). I loved it. I know that I will love teaching the younger children so much, and I believe teachers who teach the older children are very different to those who teach the younger children. I would like to try all grades though. I too, got lots of good little tricks that I will take into my classroom. My favourite was "1 2 3 4, feet flat on the floor, 5 6 7 8, chairs in, back straight, 9 10 11 12, is your pencil correctly held?" The children responded so well to that. I was very sad to leave my class, but I am now going in every Thursday morning to hear reading with the Mums that do it. Just so I can still see them! Placement has made me so excited for next year to come so that I can have my own classroom with my own children. I cannot wait!

I cannot tell you how good it felt to be back in the classroom, even though it was not my own! It felt so good to be back in a school and I finally felt that I was beginning to learn about schools and the education system here in Victoria.

I spent two days observing my class before placement. Once on placement, I took over the class completely from planning right through to assessment. I was told which topics had to be covered, then I went away and planned units of study which I then delivered in the classroom. I also gave a PD to the staff in the school regarding an approach that I use to teach and upskill the children in writing.

I knew that the school had taken me on in order to see if I would be a suitable candidate for a job which was coming up in their school. I applied for the job (teaching a composite 4/5 class) and got it. I start at the beginning of term three. So, one year after finishing at my last job in England, I finally begin life and work here in Australia doing what I love!

All the best for the rest of the year to you three! May the amount you experience and learn on your second placement surpass even what you have learnt in this first one. I look forward to hearing of your completion of the course and your embarkation upon your first year of teaching! Next Previous