Category Archives: 3. Prof. Skills & Abilities

Behaviour Management TDT

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How do they help maintain the attention of the children?

In this short clip, the teachers use multiple ways to maintain the attention of the children in their class. The most common approach was the use of arm gestures. By gesturing their arms and nodding their heads, the teachers invite the class into the lesson and encourage them to share their ideas. Another common technique is that of pacing up and down the classroom, this allows the teacher to ensure that the distance between themselves and their class never becomes too great and reinforces the idea that they are there to be listened to. By varying the pitch of their voice the teacher can encourage children to stay engaged in their lesson

How do they show respect for the children?

One way the teachers respect the children is by encouraging them to share ideas. When the shared idea may be incorrect the teacher does not embarrass the pupil by immediately saying “no that is wrong”, instead he takes the wrong answer and manipulates it and presents it back to the class. They also tend not to raise their voice when they are annoyed with a situation, respecting the children by not shouting but simply changing the tone of the sentence.

How do the teachers show authority?

They show authority by freely moving around the classroom and mingling amongst the classroom. They do not allow the children to have this freedom as they are there to listen and learn. The teachers also show authority by only allowing children to share ideas when asked and not allowing them to shout out or speak over them.

How does the teacher gain and maintain authority through using and moving in their space?

When first coming into the classroom the children are persuaded to walk in single file by the teacher positioning herself carefully in the doorway. This settles the class down so that upon entering the classroom they are reading to learn. When using the whiteboard the teacher paces back and forth to maintain attention but this also ensures that every child can see the board. They do not stand behind their desk as this can seem like a protective barrier and can suggest the teacher is not confident.

How do the teachers manage the movement of the children?

One teacher encourages the children to enter her class in single file. This instantly calms them down. When tidying up after a lesson, the teacher assigns each pupil with a specific job and monitors this closely to ensure that children are following her instructions. By continually talking the pupils through the process the children remain aware that the teacher is still in command and in control. Upon ending her lesson the teacher asks each table a question and if they answer correctly they are allowed to stand ready to be dismissed. The teacher then conducts them to leave one table at a time, this again reinforces that she is maintaining control.

How do the teachers manage the behaviour of the children?

One teacher adopts a ‘thinking pose’ by touching her chin with her hand. This indicates to the children that she wants them to think about the question she has asked. When a pupil continues to talk over the teacher she signals that he should stop by placing her finger in front of her mouth signalling “shht”. Instead of raising her voice to the pupils the her intonation remains reasonably flat even when she seems angry or irritated. Instead, she maintains control by using signals collectively.

Personally I really like the idea of the teachers constantly grabbing their pupils’ attention through big hand gestures and whole body movements. I tend to have quite closed body language and know this is something I definitely need to work on in order to show my confidence and authority. Before this video I didn’t really understand the importance of gesturing things such as the ‘thinking pose’ to pupils however I feel that this is something I may try if my class are not engaging with my questions as it seemed to work extremely well for these teachers. Another technique I would like to try out when on placement is voice control. These teachers all remained calm and in control no matter how they were really feeling inside. Varying pitch allowed the teacher to maintain the pupils attention but also showed when she was impressed with answers or perhaps displeased with behaviour. I believe that every teacher will have a technique that works extremely well for them and others that do not work at all. I hope to try as many of these techniques as possible whilst out on placement in order to find out which suits me best but more importantly which stimulates pupils learning most successfully.

Improving through our peers

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I have always enjoyed using other people’s work to improve and influence my own. Not only can we learn lots from our peers but we also learn lots about ourselves by comparing writing and learning styles. I am really glad that today we were encouraged to view other’s blogs, read and comment on posts that we particularly enjoyed. I found myself learning and reading things which I had perhaps not even thought about before and feel that I have learned lots of new tips and ways to improve my writing.

I was really interested by one blog in particular which used a game to simulate and create a classroom layout. I had never thought of using so much imagination in relation to my own blog! I also found that referencing throughout a post allows others to see exactly where you got your information from but also gives you the opportunity to easily revisit sites and books which influenced your post. This is definitely something which I plan on doing in future posts.

Some bloggers posted things which weren’t necessarily related to teaching but managed to link their understanding of the original concept and related it to their teaching practice very well. I feel like this is something I could begin to do. I often notice videos or newspaper articles about children or interesting topics but don’t blog them as they don’t relate to what we have been asked to post. Through my peers I have learned that there is no limit to blogging and although something may first seem irrelevant links to education often begin to arise. I hope to continue to post TDTs and now to also post anything interesting I discover and give my opinion on matters. I will definitely be revisiting other sites as I feel that I learned so much in the past hour!

The 6 Pillars of Self-Esteem – Nathaniel Branden

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Branden helps us develop our understanding of self-esteem by describing the “six pillars” which he believes act as the foundation to gaining an understanding. The pillars include:

  1. The Practice of Living Consciously
  2. The Practice of Self-Acceptance
  3. The Practice of Self-ResponsibilityScreen Shot 2015-11-16 at 13.04.39
  4. The Practice of Self-Assertiveness
  5. The Practice of Living Purposefully
  6. The Practice of Personal Integrity

I decided to research what each of the pillars stood for in the hope of improving my own knowledge.

1. By living consciously we show an openness to learn about the world and ourselves. It gives us the opportunity to develop as a person as we seek information and feedback on the way we perform and behave. To live consciously a person should also show respect towards facts and the truths of life.

2. Self-Acceptance in my opinion is being able to think freely and not being scared to express yourself through thoughts and feelings. I also believe that self-acceptance allows a person to understand that they are an individual and takes them away from the notion of comparison with others.

3. The practice of self-responsibility can be defined as accepting that we are responsible for our own actions and behaviour. It is up to an individual to set themselves goals and to achieve them. We cannot blame others for our failures and must come to a solution as to solving our own problems.

4. The practice of self-assertiveness. I believe this to be our willingness to stand up for what we believe in. It could also be seen to be respecting our beliefs and opinions and not changing them in the fear of disapproval.

5. Living Purposefully implies that it is our duty to set ourselves long-term ad short-term goals and to recognise the actions needed to attain them. Goals should be monitored and reflected upon to allow us to improve as individuals. Setting goals also allows a person to feel good about themselves when they feel like it has been achieved.

6. The practice of personal integrity means that as individuals we must value honesty. It is our responsibility to tell the truth and to honour our personal commitments.

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What it means to be an enquiring practitioner

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An enquiring practitioner conducts research to find out valuable information. The practitioner then shares this information with colleagues. Working together is vital to being an effective practitioner however group work can pose may challenges. Ineffective communication can be a major problem when working in partnership and could cause breakdowns in relationship and misunderstandings. Conflict between team members hinders the amount of work completed and lowers the group moral. It could also isolate members and cause them to show a lack of focus and non-contribution.

There are many benefits associated with group work. Working in groups can raise an individual’s confidence. It also creates opportunities to share and develop ideas, allowing individuals to gain knowledge from their peers. Increased efficiency is also associated with successful group work, tasks and workloads can be shared and any problems can be discussed and solved quickly.

I believe that being an enquiring practitioner is important to consider as a student teacher. Acting as an enquiring practitioner allows student teachers to effectively work with colleagues to plan and develop lessons. Group discussions also highlight areas of improvement, and as a student teacher it is important to recognise weaknesses and learn how to improve on these areas. Working with colleagues in the school environment can also give you the opportunity to observe how other teachers take lessons and perhaps you can use their techniques and incorporate them into your own lessons. Being able to research issues and share your findings is valuable as it creates the ability to learn new ideas, new solutions and ways to enforce your findings. Practitioner enquiry gives teachers confidence to challenge and improve the curriculum. Donaldson states:

“…if we are to achieve the aspiration of teachers being leaders of educational improvement, they need to develop expertise in using research, inquiry and reflection as part of their daily skill set.’”(Donaldson, 2011:4)

In conclusion being an enquiring practitioner can develop our teaching skills and professional attributes. It is important as a student teacher to research and then reflect on research. Student’s can gain confidence and knowledge from working with qualified teachers and should value their opinions as professionals. Working with others helps us improve a number of skills including our teaching technique.

RSA Animate

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I found this video extremely interesting and took several notes whilst watching. I am in total shock at how fast the rate of ADHD is rising and how highly medicated children are becoming, I also find it shocking that as standardised testing increase, the amount of children with ADHD increases. Although this may not be a convincing argument to get rid of testing, I believe that maybe we should begin to take the effect of testing more seriously. This video raises many concerns about how we teach children in the twenty-first century. It discusses the view that we teach children in batches, and perhaps this is not the correct way. Children have different needs and different mentalities, it is important to consider this when planning a lesson. The fact that divergent thinking decreases with age is also very eye-opening. I feel that this is because children are taught what is right and wrong and that for subjects like Maths and Science there can only be one answer. This could potentially narrow a child’s imagination.

In reflection, this video implies that our educational system is not keeping up with the ever growing demands of our children. The system does not change with time and children are suffering. Many children are at a disadvantage through age streaming as they are not as mentally developed as others their age. We need to escape from categorising people due to their ability to pass tests. Instead of basing education on the image of industrialisation, why can’t we base it on the needs of the public?