Sharon Graham Blog for PE4

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Reflections for PE4

First five days of placement.

What an experience being at Canterbury College. Assisting and teaching with Mrs Fawkes. Mrs Fawkes teaches the kindergarten and the year 11 and 12 students (Certificate III in Early Childhood). The kindergarten curriculum is based from the Queensland Kindergarten learning guidelines, which is an extension of the Early Years Learning Framework for children 0-5years of age. The year 11 and 12 students follow the training package for Early Childhood Education and Care.

On my first day at Canterbury College I completed an orientation which involved walking around the high school and the kindergartens, completing all required paperwork. I was handed information about the school (school philosophy, duty of care requirements, behaviour management policy, emergency evacuation and inclusion policy) on a USB which I was to sit a Quiz on for the following week. I had to complete a confidentiality form, stating that no information about the school would be discussed out of the school and my blue card was checked and photocopied and put in my file. I was shown were the meeting points were in case of an evacuation(AITSL7.1 and 7.2).

I noticed the school rules are displayed around the whole school and students are frequently reminded to wear their hats or put their phones away, especially when it was class time. As role models teacher MUST wear their hats when walking around the school. One teacher walked past a child who was on her phone texting and said “Phone away”, then walked off so as soon as she went by the student was on her phone again! I asked the student to look up a variety of face paintings as we were involved in the “Under 8’s day”, we were in charge of the face painting section so instead of asking her to put her phone away I encouraged her to use it for the task at hand. The student was quite happy to assist with this task (AITSL 4.3).

The program that they have developed for the year 11 and 12 students for early childhood involves them being involved in a playgroup each Thursday. The students have a roster which gives them the opportunity to plan activities for the day, the other students complete their observations and build relationship with the children and their parents. This is an authentic experience for the students (Applied Learning Principle 3). Some parents are quite happy to let the year 11 and 12’s change nappies and feed their babies. The registered playgroup ranges from 3 weeks to 4 years of age and all people in the community are invited to come in (Bronfenbrenner, n.d, ALP 4). All students seem to enjoy this time with the children, they can put into practice what they have learnt about (ALP3).

One student who is studying Early Childhood is being closely monitored (a year 11 student), his behaviour has been challenging in many of his other classes. He is doing Certificate III in Early Childhood, however Mrs Fawkes did inform me that he needs lots of assistance, his behaviour is good in this class. However, Mrs Fawkes informed him before he started the Certificate III in Early Childhood that if he misbehaved he would not be allowed to continue with the course (AITSL, 4.3). Is his behaviour better in this class as he has built a relationship with the Mrs Fawkes?Mrs Fawkes has had a positive impact on this child (Timperley, 2009). She has been open and honest with him. I have noticed that his literacy skills are quite low, I noticed this when he read a book to the kindergarten children as he struggled to read it. When reading through some of his work in class he has some very basic answers, surface level of understanding (Blooms taxonomy, AITSL 1.1). If you verbally ask him questions the basic knowledge is there, however when he tries to write he really struggles. He wears a hearing aid and has very low literacy levels for a year 11 student, so reasonable adjustment has be implemented to assist him. Mrs Fawkes said that he verbally informs herwhat he wants to write and Mrs Fawkes scribes for him (AITSL 1.6). At Tafe reasonable adjustment is only offered in the student has disclosed a disability and works with the disability support people (Student rules).

When completing lesson plans for week 2 and 3, I must consider all the students learning needs (Gardner, 1991, AITSL 1.5, 1.6). Nearly all students in class are completing OP subjects, so their literacy skills are high. I must also cater for the student who has low literacy. After having met the student with low literacy I have learn that he likes movies so I will plan to use discussion and clips (you tube) to assist with his learning (AITSL 1.1).

I had the privilege of sitting in on parent interviews for the kindergarten class, Mrs Fawkes said that the year 11 and 12 students had their parent interviews coming up in July so I asked if I could sit in on those to which she was more than happy for me to do. Mrs Fawkes was well prepared for the interviews, documentation had been uploaded onto the canvas where the parent could see what the children were doing as a group and an individual. What I was quite surprised about was that the parent didn’t know how to access their portfolio which is where all the children’s individual observation and documentation are stored. The kindergarten children’s parents were very academic based, only one parent was concerned about their children emotional wellbeing which I found quite interesting. All the other parents were asking what else they do at home to improve their child’s reading levels, these children are 3-5 years old! Parents asked about correct hand grip and what activities they do at home to improve their hand strength, the correct pencil grip was advised. I would have chosen playdough, spray painting or tong use to encourage hand strength. As a teacher we all have our own pedagogical practices. The children were compared to others, confidentiality was maintained, no names were mentioned. Mrs Fawkes discussed literacy, numeracy and how the children have been learning to count in 5 different languages. Whilst the interviews took place I learn that the kindergarten children have a Chinese lesson each week, access to the machine room which is a room with padded walls where the children get to do particular physical activities and the school has a speech therapist that will assess the child (AITSL 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5).

The year 11 and 12’s students then had block exam week and school holidays.

Second 5 days of placement

On return of school after exam week and the school holidays one student had hurt her knee skiing so we had to cater for her sore knee in class. The students currently have their classes in the kindergarten room, sitting on small chairs or on the floor in front of the whiteboard on the floor. The students said they preferred to sit on the floor as the small kindergarten chairs were too small for them. This would also be a health and safety issue (ergonomic issue, AITSL 4.4), we are covering health and safety this term so we pointed out that this would be a health and safety issue and that we must make sure that we have a safe and practical area to have a lesson in (ALP 3).

I got to take my first class. I had arranged a power point on Early Childhood legislation and used an umbrella as a visual prop. The legislation is the umbrella, all the Acts and Regulations that apply to Early Childhood dangle from the umbrella and must be adhered to all times, these vary from Education and Care Services National Act/Regulations to Child protections Act 1999 to Work Health and Safety Act 2011, just to mention a few (AITSL3.2, 3.3, 3.4. I also asked the students to look up Regulation 181 in the Education and Care Services National Regulations booklet that I bought in for the students, making it a “hands on” experience (AITSL 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.2).

The feedback that I got from Mrs Fawkes the following week was that I spoke to quickly and that the students struggled to understand me!(AITSL 3.5). Mrs Fawkes then said that I should use flip learning, provide the power point so the students can look over itbefore class and then go through the assessment questions in class (AITSL 6.3). Due to a time restraint, the school has so many activities on and block exams that the students miss out on many classes throughout the semester. Mrs Fawkes said that this is the only way she will be able to get through the course in time (year 12’s have to be completely finished/graded by week 5, term 4, AITSL 2.2, 7.2).

That morning I had to change my lesson plan. I uploaded all the power points onto the school canvas so the students have access to it. I then worked through part C of the quiz with the students. Only one student submitted their Quiz online! We had a discussion about why that would be the answer for that question and used examples of what the students had already knew(ALP 1). An example of this would be when we were talking about job descriptions and the importance of looking and being professional, we had just spoken about how the students had been asked to be in the photo shoot to advertise the kindergarten and the Certificate III in Early Childhood and the importance of wearing their formal school uniform, so they look professional (ALP1, AITSL 1.2).

Year 11’s and 12’s had their parent teacher interviews, unfortunately none of the parents booked in to see Mrs Fawkes. Mrs Fawkes said that the school uses a platform called Accelereswhere parents can see all the feedback from the teachers to the students (AITSL 5.5). Mrs Fawkes then did go on to say that she has no idea what the parents actually see, as her head of Department completes that section!

I have had many professional discussions with Mrs Fawkes but I must remember to record them for evidence. We will often talk about what they have at the school that reflects the training package, and how unfortunately other school activities, take preference to the Certificate III in Early Childhood class. We have discussed the issue Mrs Fawkes is having with providing evidence for the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers1.4, Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander students as she doesn’t have any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders in her class and 2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian. Showing respect can be proved as Mrs Fawkes has invited Elders in and provided in-service shows for the children.

Third 5 days of placement

I sat down with Mrs Fawkes and discussed my concern about one of the student’s attitude (AITSL 4.3). Mrs Fawkes said that that is just her and that it depended on what kind of the day she was having. Lots of things are going on at home which she was unable to discuss with me. I asked what the school behaviour management policy was, Mrs Fawkes said that she tries to deal any issues and only if the issues continue does she get the Head of her Department involved. I did notice that Mrs Fawkes wrote down concerns about this student (AITSL 4.3, 7.1, 7.2 and ALP 1).

Feedback from Mrs Fawkes regarding my class preparation and delivery was very positive (AITSL 2.2, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4). The students are enjoying my lessons, they engaged well with your tube clips and can understand what I am saying, now that I have slowed down when talking (AITSL3.5, 3.6, 6.2, 6.3)!

Being able to relate it back to real life experiences assisted the students to understand the assessment tasks (ALP3 and AITSL 1.2). Due to the student being at the school, attending playgroup on Thursday/Fridays and assisting in the kindergarten room at other times, this enables the students to have a thorough understanding of the policies and procedures in kindergarten. Often, in my lessons I will relate to what the student already knows and extend on that (ALP1). I will refer to school documentation and then find the relevant documentation for the kindergarten (incident reports, medication forms, excursion form).

I had a very interesting discussion with Mrs Fawkes about the AITSL standards, currently the school is trailing a new system. Mrs Fawkes said that the only problem is you can’t upload documents and it only offered boxes to be filled for each standard. Mrs Fawkes also said that she is struggling with standard 1.4 as there are no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children in the kindergarten, very interesting considering there are over 120 children!

Due to Mrs Fawkes work schedule being changed, Mrs Fawkes has organized for me to join the hospitality class for the last session of the afternoon. I have one of the students from my Early Childhood Class in there. Mrs Palmer asked me to assist and supervising the students as they sometimes lack common sense in the kitchen. At the start of the class Mrs Palmer goes through the recipe, what the students need and then sends them off to complete the recipe. Many students rushed in and started their cooking, 80% of the students had to go back to get the missing ingredients/equipment. Mrs Palmer at the end of the lesson said “Well that was a flunk of a lesson, wasn’t it?”. As we reflected on the lesson, we found the issue was, students starting without all the ingredients and equipment (AITSL 6.3, 6.4). They didn’t read through the whole recipe before completing the task. I suggested maybe a dummy recipe could be completed, at the end of the recipe it says “This is not what we are cooking today, go and collect the recipe that we will be using which is located on the bench”. This way the teacher knows that they have read the whole recipe before starting their cooking. She said that she would try it and thanked me for my input (AITSL 6.3).

Fortunately the next class was more successful; the students collected all that they needed before they started to cook. Part of my role was to make sure they had all the ingredients.Mrs Palmer reflected on her lesson and said she felt her class had to learn a valuable lesson, the importance of having all the ingredients and the equipment ready.

One afternoon Mrs Palmer was away. The students’ had been set tasks to do whilst the relief teacher supervised them, no content was delivered as they had work set, on their school portal for them to complete. The relief teacher occasionally went around to check that the students were doing what they were supposed to be doing. I asked her what made a good teacher, her answer was that the teacher had to be a “bully” and really push the students. I was a little surprised by this, as own conversation continued she said that she was amazed at how low some of the children’s’ self-esteem were. She said that lots of encouragement was required and once they started to believe in themselves then the learning came naturally. I did agree with her here. I am hoping that she used the wrong word for whatshe thought made a good teacher, maybe she hadn’t been asked this question before!

On my last day of placement we had book parade. I got to dress up which was exciting (I went as “A cat in a hat”).

The year 11 and 12’s had to supervise the kindergarten children and guide them round the parade in front of all the junior school. I have attached a photo of some of the students and myself. Whilst we were sitting with the children I asked one of the year 12’s what she thought made a good teacher. She said that the best teacher she has ever had was her math teacher, he would up load a you tube clip for the students and then in class allow them to work by themselves to complete the task. She really liked this way as all students were encouraged to contact the teacher if they didn’t understand something, before their next class.

The children then went home with their parents straight after so I joined the cooking class and assisted them to get ready for their “restaurant evening”. The school has a commercial kitchen, the local community are invited in to come and purchase a three course meal, which the students prepare (year 12’s) and serve (year 11’s) which is part of their assessment task and are marked accordingly (either working towards or competent).

Only the year 11 were in class today as year 12’s had an excursion to wet and wild to celebrate the end of exams. Due to some students being away we have the ratio of 1 teacher to 2 students. This gave Mrs Fawkes and myself a good opportunity to get the 4 students up to date in their work, which they did. I then went to the cooking lesson but due to it being the last day before placement all students had received their results for this semester and got to sit with Mrs palmer to amend anything that needed amendment. I sat with a student who had completed all her work and asked her “What do you think makes a good teacher?” She said someone who doesn’t yell. Someone who makes it interesting, fun and hands on. The system that they are working on is called “Dedenbar” and the students said they don’t like it (this system has just been purchased). The system isn’t as user friendly as the previous one. The students informed me that they just e-mail each other the answers as you have three attempts. I couldn’t help wonder how much these students were actually learning in class!