Netflix’s as a Resource?

This was a reflection/note I had written whilst out on placement.

Sitting in the staffroom a few of the History teachers were talking about the plus side of having Netflix’s account and being able to use them within the classroom setting. A lot of the staff said that they have been able to use the number of history documents and history channel episodes to help introduce topics or provide a visual clarification for students.   I do not have a Netflix’s account however it may be an interesting thing to try and have as a history teacher. The kids enjoy the content which is often modern and has current effects and has an engaging plot.

A list of all the documentaries available to Australia is available here: http://www.netflixaustralia.com.au/documentaries/

Reflection

This term has been a long one, I feel incredibly warn out and ready for the summer – particularly to recover from this semester ready for my last year of university to begin.

I have taken a lot from EDC3100 – ICT and Pedagogy.

I feel that although the content is quite demanding, requiring you to constantly participate on Study Desk and complete activities which are time consuming… I have learnt a lot about the integration of ICT into teaching and how to ensure that it is beneficial to students learning.  I have taken a lot from the tips and the types of programs that we have examined throughout the semester.

I feel like my placement in the course has left me confident and reassured that this is exactly the job that I want to be doing for years to come.  This course really has been that clarification that I needed that this is what I want to be doing.

ONE MORE YEAR TO GO!

Certificate Based Learning

Similar to a blog written by Melissa which is located here.

I also had students working towards completing work which would be going towards a certificate.  The concept of work based training which is discussed as one of the Four Principles of Andragogy is focused on the needs of the individual learners and not a classroom learning experience.  Differing to Melissa, I had students who were in Year 11 working towards a Certificate II in Business – however a lot of these students did not want to be in this class and simply had nothing else to enrol in.  Motivation was frequently lacking or non-existent for most students.

Reflecting on my placement – I feel like this is one area I could have been a lot stronger in and I still have a lot of doubts of how to successfully and effectively help 30 students who are all at different stages of assessment and require a lot of individual time.

Although students did complete work and sign of on competencies whilst I was on prac I still feel like there was so much more I should have been able to do with these students.

The struggles of an unwell student

On reflection I have taken off far more then I can chew this semester.  I am working 30something hours a week and trying to do full time uni – it is not the smartest decision I have ever made.  Throw in the fact my university campus is closing for added stress and that I have just done a three week prac at the end of the semester, with an impending exam block and assessments. 

I can actually feel my body radiating hate towards myself.  I am beyond exhausted. Which is probably how I have managed to catch the full fledged flu in October.

This said… I just need to make it until Thursday then I can sleep.

The situation is getting desperate so I have taken to researching to try and find some hints and tips about staying healthy whilst teaching.

Advice for teachers provides some really helpful and great tips for teachers to stay healthy and happy throughout the year. A summary of the articles five main points are as follows:

1. Eat Healthfully, Incorporate Healthy Foods in Your Day
   2. Get Plenty of Rest
   3. Exercise at your own pace
   4. Avoid negative, gossipy, or miserable teachers and staff
   5. Don’t take your job (or yourself!) too seriously.

For more advice and tips to stay healthy whilst teaching click here.

Productive Pupil Free Day

Some more rambling reflections from my recent prac. 

I had a pupil free day during my placement – I also had two mentors whilst on prac.  One was a Head of Department who was whisked away to senior verification and the other who was caught up in awards night preparation.  Thankfully, a couple of the teachers within my staffroom adopted me for the day so I could see how they used this day.

The school I was at had arranged to meet with another local High School to perform an information junior verification.  Both schools would bring a variety of samples from their junior years to be examined by the other school to make sure they were examining closely to the same way and to the same standard.

I found this so incredibly interesting to watch, especially since the other local High School had combined the junior subjects of History and English – so the students would have multiple combined lessons during the week. However the subjects were assessed differently.  Personally, I had no idea that this even occurred.

I was so grateful for the teachers who adopted me for that day so I was able to see the interaction between the classes.  I was surprised by how much I learnt and got out of the experience.

JOHN GREEN YOU INCREDIBLE MAN

Whilst on placement I have two history classes – both of which were starting new topics and my mentor mentioned a fun and interactive way she likes to use ICT to introduce the topic to the students. 

John Green – A Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, Looking For Alaska – yes that John Green has created the most incredible, informative and fun collection on History Crash Courses.

The courses range from a variety of topics over 42 episodes that range from our earliest history right through to our modern times.  The CrashCourses are fun, modern, educational, relative and the students honestly love him so much.  I had never thought that 28, Year 11 Ancient History kids could get so so excited to watch a CrashCourse on Medieval Europe, but they really do love John Green and how he provides the information to them.

I can not recommend the CrashCourses highly enough to any preservice teacher.  I am kicking myself that I had not come across them until now.

His channel is hands down worth the watch and can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9  

Challenging Year Sevens

PART TWO 

After my initial concern regarding taking this class – I spoke to one of my mentors who is quite strict and has little to no behaviour issues in her classes. She provided me with a lot of useful and helpful advice and pointed me in the right direction to help research methods that might be useful with dealing with the Year 7 class.  This was beyond useful and I am so glad that I reached out and spoke to my mentors regarding my concerns about this class.

Coming into a classroom for three weeks in the last term to a class which has had behaviour problems from the first day was incredibly hard but on reflection and after a lot of late night research and planning my lesson plan  I feel like I was able to appropriately and effectively control the class.   Going back to basics was going to be the key.

I found a very effective website which provides 6 Behaviour Management Strategies and Techniques To Help Teachers – and although they may be simple techniques I found they were incredibly useful when dealing with this class.  The techniques are:

Number 1: Develop your class protocols/rules

Number 2: Create a reward system

Number 3: Attention Grabbing Techniques

Number 4: Use your voice properly

Number 5: Consequences (Can I give them consequences?)

Number 6: Talk to the child’s parents

To start this lesson – I had the students line up in two lines and sit down on the floor of the classroom, where I was able to explain my expectations, consequences and that computers will be treated as a privilege and not a right even though the class is in a computer room.  This seemed to be very effective and although there were a lot of moments that required behaviour management techniques, the lesson wasn’t a total disaster like I had initially envisioned it be.

Computer Labs

PART ONE

Some more rambling observations from my first week at this placement has honestly left me for a real distaste for lessons to be held permanently in computer labs when the subjects are not entirely ICT based.  Ironic huh?

Taking an ICT and Pedagogy class at university but realising how distracting and frustrating having 29 Year 7 students in front of computers can be.  At the ripe old age of 23 I am finding that for a particular class I have on placement that the computers are causing problems more than anything and I miss the good old days of just paper and pens.

NOTE: This class also takes place in a very strange set out computer lab – please see earlier blog post regarding this. 

From the observations over the past two days I have found that the students in the class are consistently talking, consistently distracted and off task more than they are on task. The students are rude, constantly misuse the computers and attempt to damage the property and each other.  The reputation within the staffroom regarding this class is more negative than positive and a student who was being a tad smart wished me “good luck and that it’s suicide” from me to take his year 7 class.

I’m yet to teach this class yet, and honestly I am so nervous and quite intimidated by it.  I am really hoping that I am able to plan a lesson that is engaging and useful where the student’s behaviour will be easier to maintain as a result.

Certificate Based Classrooms – Some Initial Ramblings

For the first time ever since doing school teaching placements I have found myself teaching in a very different class, during my current placement I have a Year 11 Business Certificate II class.   

In this class students are constantly working towards attaining competencies for a Certificate II in Business – all work that is covered in the classroom directly correlates towards attaining more competencies.

Why I agree that this should definitely be an option provided to the students, from a pre-service teaching point of view this has honestly left me a little bit stumped on planning,  behaviour management and how to tackle the class overall in general.

My first observation lesson with this class the students worked through a PowerPoint and completed information in a work booklet for the first half hour, leaving the remainder of the lesson for students to work on the competencies for the remainder of the lesson.   However this presents a problem in itself.

5 students within the class were completely up to date with their competencies and the remainder of the students are at a varying degree behind on the content.  The 5 students who were up to date were given free time – it was period two of the first day back of term so the students had no other work to catch up on so they spent the remainder of the lesson talking and playing computer games – the five students consistently distracted the other students in the class and behaviour in the classroom quickly became an issue.

My question –i n classes such as this, where behaviour is often poor and motivation is often lacking should time filler activities been provided or is it best sometimes to just let the kids ‘chill out’?

Students as strangers

This is my first placement at a very big school – when I say big, I am referring to school with an incredibly high population compared to what I am used too…The grounds are also enormous and quite overwhelming when you first see them.

On my first day, within the first few hours I became very aware about how large the school really was.  In Year 11 (where I had majority of my classes) there are over 350 students and it is not uncommon for students for students to not know other students within the year level or even within the classes they take.  They often have little to no relationship with teachers who do not directly teach them and will often have no idea who teaching staff are or the role they play within the school.

As I had attended a relatively small high school and my previous university placements had been at small schools also, I found observing the relationships between students very strange. I was astonished that in Term 4 I heard a student ask the teacher who a fellow student was in there classroom because they had no idea (what shocked me more was that I often saw this occur during the three weeks of placement) because I had never witnessed this before I took to Google for some additional information.

From a quick Google search it appears that students can often form click relationships in large schools that do not change and often do not develop strong relationships with teachers – however the overall schooling experience can be different to that which can be found in small schools, students are usually not disadvantaged or advantaged by the size of the school they attend.