On Tuesday 1st November, we took part in a workshop which encouraged us to look at the standards for teaching which can be found on the General Teaching Council Scotland website. Firstly, we looked at the four main areas:

1. Social Justice
2. Integrity
3. Trust and Respect
4. Professional Commitment

We sorted a variety of statements from the standards into these four headings in our groups. As there were four groups, each heading was then given to a group to give ideas of what this actually involves as a teacher. My group were given the Integrity heading. At first we were unsure what that actually meant for a teacher as we felt it was very similar to the Trust and Respect category. However, we came up with a few ideas including:

• Sticking to your core values
• Respect
• Encouragement
• Wisdom
• Reflection

We then had to make our way around the other groups pages and write down any ideas they hadn’t yet thought of. As we went round it got harder and harder to think of new ideas as most things had already been written down by previous groups. Finally, we had to gather the main points from the task for Integrity in teaching and present these to the class along with practical ideas. We compiled the following list:

1. Reflection- It is important to reflect not only during but after activities with your class. It is important to look at both the areas you did well in and the areas where you maybe weren’t just as effective in e.g. if nobody in the class gained knowledge or understanding in an activity, it would be a wise idea to change how you present that information in the future to ensure the children are learning whilst having fun. This helps to improve your practice.
2. Courage/Confidence– It is crucial that you as the teacher have confidence in what you know and in yourself. If you don’t come across confident whilst teaching, pupils may pick on this and not feel confident in you. Additionally, if children see your confidence, this can encourage them to be confident too.
3. Openness/Honesty– By letting your pupils get to know you as a person, you are allowing them into your life. You become more than just a figure of authority to them and they begin to feel that they can be open and honest with you. As a teacher you are setting an example.
4. Wisdom– It is important to have a good understanding of the world and the different backgrounds people come from. By having a sound knowledge of different cultures, you are able to teach these and apply them in the classroom, allowing pupils to gain a better understanding of equality in a culturally diverse classroom.
5. Link between personal and professional values– It can be easy to let your personal values slip into classroom conversation. Sometimes this can be beneficial, however, teachers must be careful to ensure their personal values don’t come into the classroom especially in incidences when the values are likely to offend or encourage pupils negatively. Carrie gave us an example of a student teacher who didn’t agree with a culturally diverse classroom. This is not an example to set to children in the classroom and should be kept to yourself.
6. Challenging Assumptions– Within society today there are many stereotypes regarding race, gender and social class among many things. It is important not to believe these negative stereotypes and to be open minded as to what each pupil in the classroom can achieve and has to offer.
7. Adaptable– As children have different learning styles, a teacher needs to be able to adapt for all pupils’ needs to ensure each child gets the education they deserve and require. It is important to be diverse and able to adapt to different professional settings e.g. some learning activities may be best completed outside the classroom to increase variety in learning environments for children.
8. Challenging Yourself– You should not be afraid to take risks as they either work or don’t which means you can then reflect and improve upon it. As teachers, we should always strive for excellence and to do better. We want to ensure that we get it right for every child and need to include a variety of methods, we shouldn’t just settle for one that does the job. We need to go above and beyond for our pupils.

I found this workshop useful as it helped me to practically think of how to apply the standards from the GTCS into the classroom during placement and after university.