School's out!

I made it through five months of full time teaching to be ready to enjoy the long summer stretching ahead! I started immediately after the Chinese New Year holiday with my internship as my last practical hurdle for my Grad Dip, and rolled straight into the maternity cover position (in the same class) towards the end of March.

During this time, I have developed my own behaviour management techniques, practised planning individual lessons and units, delivered some real winners in class, and had some lessons fall flat on their face.  I have put it all down to learning for me!

I don't have a permanent job, or my own class after summer, but I will continue to offer my services as a supply teacher both at my school and at my husband and kids' school. I hope that in the next 12 months I am lucky enough to get a broad range of experience across different year levels and teaching different subjects.

I think this will be a good career choice in the end, just need my own kids to get a bit older so that I can go to school every day too!  Not that I want to rush them growing up!!

Now to enjoy that summer holiday...

Apple Tree

The teacher I'm replacing had a Star of the Week award, which I never quite knew how to do, so I turned it around to the class to take responsibility for it.

Star of the Week from the Apple Tree

This tree, made from cut out hands of all the class, has had a couple of reincarnations since it started as the classroom Christmas tree.  It became the Chinese New Year wishing tree, and then was incorporated into an Earth Hour display, and now, in passing the responsibility of Star of the Week to the class, has now become our Star of the Week tree.

Next to the tree there is a plastic pocket full of apple cut outs. Class members write the name of another classmate on the coloured part of the apple, and then on the flipside write why that person has been nominated, then hang it on the appropriate branch.  This example is one of mine. 
At the end of the week I pick all the apples off the tree and work out who has the most nominations, or the 'best' nomination and then announce the "Star of the Week"!

The Perils of Googling

Today, one of my sweetest kids, a nice polite boy, who always looks like his legs are too long for his trousers, and also one of my shyest (most shy?) was finally up to do his book review in front of the class.  He is in my Literacy class, out of EAL at the beginning of the year and unfortunately for him, he was straight up after one of my most literate and confident kids.

He did a review on a book called Franny K. Stein: Mad Scientist - about a girl inventor, and his plot synopsis, character development and thoughts on the book were well structured and although he read it rather than talked it, he maintained an air of composure and bravery all the way through his presentation.

Then, suddenly I was knocked for six - he launched into a discussion about the author, and instead of talking about Jim Benton, he gave a full biography of J.D. Salinger, or in the way of a typical Year 6, Jerome David Salinger. I couldn't mask my surprise when he said that J.D. Salinger was the author, and we examined the cover of the book, only to see the name Jim Benton, one of the other kids in the class suggested he'd used a pen name to write Franny K. Stein. So I stifled a giggle and let it slide.

On my way home I was thinking through how he would have mixed those names up, and then it hit me... J.D. Salinger wrote Franny and Zooey. So I googled "author of Franny", and sure enough - J.D. Salinger came up as first billing on the Google results list, and poor old Jim Benton was all the way down at #5.

QCT Standard 6

Some time ago, I said that I needed to write about my first experience of being the 'teacher' at a parent teacher interview... then I got my results for for my ePortfolio, and decided that this entry about QCT Standard 6 met that criteria, and made for a good post anyway... and for the double award: I've never posted twice on one day... 


Support personal development and participation in society

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Beliefs:

I believe in creating a reciprocal learning environment where the strengths of each student are fostered and used.  By using positive and consistent behaviour management strategies, a culture of respect between students and teachers can be maintained.  Developing caring relationships, and helping to nurture students to develop into moral citizens, who care about others and themselves is also one of the responsibilities of being a teacher (Danforth and Smith, 2005)

Situation:

One of the girls, in my Year 6 class was upset because her friends ‘were avoiding’ her, mostly during my classes where they ‘suddenly didn’t want to work with’ her. This coincided with the start of summer, and the return of 30 degree days and high humidity.  I closely watched the interactions of the class, after she confided in me, over the next few days.  I also mentioned the issue to one of her other teachers, curious to see if it was the case in all lessons.  Her teacher for numeracy and literacy, which are timetabled before morning recess every day, indicated that he hadn’t noticed any problem.

A couple of days later, after lunch the class came in, and in helping her with some work, I noticed that she had a rather strong body odour.  Almost fortuitously the next day, I overheard one of the other girls in our class commenting on it too, a bit gossipy, but I let it go then, and determined that I would need to deal with the body odour issue independently.  But I wasn’t sure how yet.

Results:

At parent teacher interviews, I was speaking with her mother, who also brought up some of the social issues experienced recently, and how she hated to see her daughter, and only child, upset.  I took a deep breath, and brought up the body odour issue, and mentioned that with the change of seasons, the possible start of puberty and the upcoming school trip to Beijing, maybe it was time to start using deodorant.  This was tonight; the relief that washed over her mother’s face when it looks like it is possibly such an easy solution to returning her daughter’s happiness was intense.  For me, it also seemed like the direction to take should come from home, when she is part of a loving and caring family, especially with relation to personal hygiene.  The final outcome?  I don’t know, but I hope it works out for her, it’s only been a short time since summer started, and she really is a lovely kid.

Relate:

In time I hope to develop further thinking skill strategies to enable the student to reflect on their behaviour and wellbeing, and how it impacts others.  I hope to be a teacher that encourages students to take ownership and responsibility for their own growth and development to move into contributing roles in society.

References:

Danforth, S. and Smith, T.J. (2005). Engaging Troubling Students: A Constructivist Approach.  California: Corwin Press

And FYI - the outcome... it worked: she had a great time in Beijing, and has come back with a big circle of friends again! Happy days! 

Well, I think I'm officially a teacher...

Today I got some good news.

Approximately three weeks ago I submitted my ePortfolio which was worth 60% of my final grade for my final subject of my Graduate Diploma of Teaching.  Today I received the result.  I got 88% - or 53/60.

Now, the pass grade for this subject is 50%... I'm sitting on 53%... so for my final assignment, which is out of 40, and is a seminar presentation and is in two weeks yesterday, and I've barely started, suddenly, I'm not so panicky...

FYI - my topic is TCKs - or Third Culture Kids... I'm not quite sure how or what I'm presenting yet though... was going to start it this coming weekend!  Hooray!

So - even though I've been responsible for a class for the last 4 months... I think this makes me a real teacher!!