Category Archives: 3. Prof. Skills & Abilities

Preparation is Key…….

Now that our first placement is looming and apprehension is creeping in more and more each day it is important that I am on the ball with all the areas within my control. After having some experience within a Primary School prior to coming to University in terms of volunteering one afternoon a week I have a very rough idea of how challenging it will be especially now that I will be in charge of group and whole class lessons.

Growing up one phrase that I always heard, regardless of my surroundings was ‘preparation is key’ and that could not be more true for placement. Planning every aspect in the hope to ensure the whole process runs smoothly. As much as every student wants it to run smoothly and be a success in some shape or form the main key of placement is to get an initial taste of professional life as a teacher.

Aside from the placement ROTR tasks, completing prescribed evaluations and being observed and finally assessed, one thing that is important to focus on right from the word go is personal and professional goals. This is something that I am thinking about now and something that I may have to re-evaluate once I meet my class and become aware of the different needs of every individual within the class. There might come the need to base one of my goals around an individual or group that I am responsible for, this will be something that I will have to monitor each week and use my initiative when out on practice.

It is important that I make my goals:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Timely

SMART goals for MA1 placement:

(Behaviour) MANAGEMENT

I want to make sure that I go in from day one as a teacher figure and not as someone who the children view as a friend or a ‘soft touch’. You hear tips from professionals in the profession saying “Don’t crack a smile for the first few months” as the pupils need to know that you are in charge and that you have complete control of the class. In my last smaller scale placement at a primary school the children only saw me for a couple of hours an afternoon and I got the sense that they viewed me as not very authoritative and would try and push the boundaries in terms of their behaviour.

I will make sure that I am familiar with the Behaviour Management Policy and the different procedures that the class teacher has in place regarding discipline and equally appraisal. This will ensure there is consistency and hopefully respect from the pupils.

Engage Learners from the start

Regardless of what stage you have at school it is vital to engage the pupils from the offset. I know myself when I was at school you could almost gauge how your teacher was going to deliver a lesson or introduce a new topic, this became slightly tiresome and the ability to stay focused on what was being taught became tedious. I believe if you fail to capture pupils from the start of the lesson you are doing them an injustice regarding their development as learners as they will want to participate and contribute more if they are interested in what is in front of them.

I intend to use my initiative and make a conscious effort to think of creative ways to introduce any lesson that I will be responsible for. Whether this is thinking of new ways to deliver specific areas of the curriculum or getting the children involved as much as I can so that they can become independent learners.

Getting to know each individual

It is a teachers’ responsibility to cater to every individual in their class whether that is something as simple as knowing their names to more extensive aspects such as knowing the best way they learn regarding their learning style. I found one of the most frustrating things growing up was when your teacher simply didn’t know you as a person.

I want to make sure that I know the children’s’ names from the first few days so that it will make my teaching practices run more smoothly and ensures that I am engaging with a range of pupils when posing questions to the class as opposed to sticking with the same children repeatedly. I want to be aware of any additional needs or children that need extra support within my class so that I can cater to their needs or if I need to go away and read up on any extra resources so that I can fully benefit each and every individual I am responsible for.

Basic Academic Skills

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One of my main fears about this course has definitely become the academic side of it regarding grammar and punctuation. It is not the feeling of I can’t physically do it but more the task in hand of reminding myself about all the grammar ‘rules’ and punctuation ‘codes’. As someone who has been away from education for a few years now I certainly feel a bit rusty. The different uses for commas for example, which could result in what you are trying to write meaning the complete opposite.

I have found ‘The Study Skills Book’ a great help, by just reading the specific extracts relating to grammar and punctuation it has forced me to take a more active approach to my learning. This required me to make a list of areas where I feel completely out my depth in, from this I have looked at the different places where you can get more help, so that I can practice until I feel confident in them. Due to this fear I also made a separate list of areas where I still feel strong in to give me a little boost and keep me motivated with this side of the course.

My next step regarding my academic skills will be to ensure that I am regularly carrying out the OLA’S, in particular the English one. I have yet to attempt it as I am apprehensive of how I will do but I need to get over this barrier or else I will never be able to develop and build on my weak areas properly.

My understanding of Reflection

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Reflection is a daily aspect of our lives whether we are fully aware we are doing it or not. This general idea of thoughts or consideration concerning a certain topic or a certain past experience that we have underwent. There are different types of reflection some in more formal circumstances where we have to be more critical in our thoughts and some more informal regarding how we simply feel about something.

Reflection is so much more than just thinking back about a past experience and remembering how you felt in that moment or following through the certain steps you took to get somewhere or achieve something. Especially in the profession that I am entering I believe that reflection plays a vital role for both the teacher and the pupil.

A teacher can reflect on circumstances in a more critical way for example lessons that you may have taught, you can reflect back on your planing and they way your lesson actually went in relation to this plan. This analyse can really highlight the points that worked well and the points which didn’t seem to go as smoothly. Therefore this use of evaluation can set you up for future lessons and act as a guidance tool. It can also act as a great confidence boost as you can gather up all this information and be sure with what your future steps should be and what things you want to stay the same and therefore build on your repertoire.

Likewise a child can use reflection in their daily life especially when it comes to taking charge of their own learning Much like a teacher a child can take responsibility for what they felt they did well and what they feel are their weak areas and want to in time improve on. This will allow them to engage more with their work and their understanding of where they perhaps went wrong. A great task that schools use commonly is the approach of ‘two stars and a wish’. This idea that after carrying out a piece of work or dealing with learning points they have to state two things they felt they did well or went well in general. Followed by a wish which entails an area that they want to improve on. This acts as an informal way of critical thinking. It is getting them to acknowledge their strong points but then making them go that one bit further in identifying areas that they need to develop in, which will get them thinking about future goals.

Taking all of this into account reflection is just as important than anything else we do in our day to day lives. As a firm believer in; you learn from past experiences and the actual doing of something. I feel that it is always important to cement what you already know and then work and plan from that.