My 2015 Journey!
Victor Harbour Placement Journal
Entry 1: 5/6/15 (End Week 1)
Week 1 has been amazing! After a few days of observation and just helping out with individual students I was able to do some classroom teaching. I taught the year 10’s about paragraph structure, both for their introductions and their body paragraphs. To do this I produced a scaffolding guide as I was advised this particular group need quite heavy levels of scaffolding, as this was their first real taste of proper essay structure. I was able to circle to room and read each students introduction and give them advice where necessary. It became apparent that they were not used to this style of writing so I was able to give a lot of guidance and helpful hints such as including the key words from the question throughout their introduction, as well as having a good plan of what their essay was going to focus on before trying to write the introduction.
The amount I have learnt this week already is astounding. I’m excited because I have been given the opportunity to write and implement both and English unit and a history unit for two year 8 classes. I’ll teach my English Unit to one class and the history unit to two different classes, which will give me an opportunity to see how different classes and groups of students go about their learning. The people I’ve met have all been a great support and they’re happy to let me guide my own learning and support me if required. Across all the different lessons I am teaching I get to work with several different educators so I can experience a number of different styles and student groups. So excited to implement my unit plans in the coming weeks!
Week 1 has been amazing! After a few days of observation and just helping out with individual students I was able to do some classroom teaching. I taught the year 10’s about paragraph structure, both for their introductions and their body paragraphs. To do this I produced a scaffolding guide as I was advised this particular group need quite heavy levels of scaffolding, as this was their first real taste of proper essay structure. I was able to circle to room and read each students introduction and give them advice where necessary. It became apparent that they were not used to this style of writing so I was able to give a lot of guidance and helpful hints such as including the key words from the question throughout their introduction, as well as having a good plan of what their essay was going to focus on before trying to write the introduction.
The amount I have learnt this week already is astounding. I’m excited because I have been given the opportunity to write and implement both and English unit and a history unit for two year 8 classes. I’ll teach my English Unit to one class and the history unit to two different classes, which will give me an opportunity to see how different classes and groups of students go about their learning. The people I’ve met have all been a great support and they’re happy to let me guide my own learning and support me if required. Across all the different lessons I am teaching I get to work with several different educators so I can experience a number of different styles and student groups. So excited to implement my unit plans in the coming weeks!
Entry 2: 12/6/15 (End Week 2)
The week started with a student free PD day that gave me the opportunity to work on my own professional development. I worked in a triad with my mentor as we compiled and analysed student feedback data and what it meant for my mentor. It was interesting to see how data is collected and used to improve teaching practice.
I was able to start my units on media for English and on Shogunate Japan for history. I felt I had a good balance between theory and activities for my lessons but on occasions I had too much or too little time. Too little time was easy to manage as we focussed on smaller areas and could catch up next lesson but too much time when the activities took less time than anticipated left me having to think on the spot for something to do. I was able to do this and the students would’ve been none the wiser but I certainly didn’t enjoy that feeling so will be look to plan better in the future.
I have identified that I need to look at more ways to differentiate my teaching to suit a variety of learning styles and abilities. I also haven’t had the opportunity yet to assess much student learning so I’m intending to be heavily involved in marking the final pieces of work for my units.
The week started with a student free PD day that gave me the opportunity to work on my own professional development. I worked in a triad with my mentor as we compiled and analysed student feedback data and what it meant for my mentor. It was interesting to see how data is collected and used to improve teaching practice.
I was able to start my units on media for English and on Shogunate Japan for history. I felt I had a good balance between theory and activities for my lessons but on occasions I had too much or too little time. Too little time was easy to manage as we focussed on smaller areas and could catch up next lesson but too much time when the activities took less time than anticipated left me having to think on the spot for something to do. I was able to do this and the students would’ve been none the wiser but I certainly didn’t enjoy that feeling so will be look to plan better in the future.
I have identified that I need to look at more ways to differentiate my teaching to suit a variety of learning styles and abilities. I also haven’t had the opportunity yet to assess much student learning so I’m intending to be heavily involved in marking the final pieces of work for my units.
Entry 3: 19/6/15 (End week 3)
I feel like this week I was really able to immerse myself in the school this week. I attended the senior school drama performance and was really impressed by the performance. The language was poetic and excellently performed by students.
I had a student request some 1:1 support so we agreed on a meeting time and place and I was able to provide some intensive support for a Japanese exchange student, predominantly focussing on essay and sentence structure. This was a good experience working through a language barrier but very rewarding to read the finished essay product and see the improvement in the writing.
This week several of my mentors were away at various points so I taught several lessons with a relief teacher. This gave me a greater sense of control and responsibility that I relished. The year eights tried to take advantage of the situation but I ‘put my foot down’ and was able to achieve some productivity from most of the class. Unfortunately one student clearly had zero intention of cooperating and was disturbing the rest of the group. I removed him and issued my first detention, it was apparent despite numerous warnings and other options he had not anticipated I would take more formal action.
I had a rapid learning experience with the year 10-history class. The lesson was not run very well and my mentor gave me this feedback. I was fortunate to be able to teach a similar lesson with a different group of year 10s later that day during which I significantly improved the management of the lesson. My primary focus was to ensure clear and concise introductions and conclusions to the lesson. I worked with students individually to set a personal target for that lesson for their assignment.
I am looking forward to next week. I get to pick up a line of year 10 English and continue my work with the year 8s. A lot of what I a have planned with the year 8s is already resourced and ready, which will allow me to focus on behaviour management strategies and pedagogy in more depth for the next few weeks
I feel like this week I was really able to immerse myself in the school this week. I attended the senior school drama performance and was really impressed by the performance. The language was poetic and excellently performed by students.
I had a student request some 1:1 support so we agreed on a meeting time and place and I was able to provide some intensive support for a Japanese exchange student, predominantly focussing on essay and sentence structure. This was a good experience working through a language barrier but very rewarding to read the finished essay product and see the improvement in the writing.
This week several of my mentors were away at various points so I taught several lessons with a relief teacher. This gave me a greater sense of control and responsibility that I relished. The year eights tried to take advantage of the situation but I ‘put my foot down’ and was able to achieve some productivity from most of the class. Unfortunately one student clearly had zero intention of cooperating and was disturbing the rest of the group. I removed him and issued my first detention, it was apparent despite numerous warnings and other options he had not anticipated I would take more formal action.
I had a rapid learning experience with the year 10-history class. The lesson was not run very well and my mentor gave me this feedback. I was fortunate to be able to teach a similar lesson with a different group of year 10s later that day during which I significantly improved the management of the lesson. My primary focus was to ensure clear and concise introductions and conclusions to the lesson. I worked with students individually to set a personal target for that lesson for their assignment.
I am looking forward to next week. I get to pick up a line of year 10 English and continue my work with the year 8s. A lot of what I a have planned with the year 8s is already resourced and ready, which will allow me to focus on behaviour management strategies and pedagogy in more depth for the next few weeks