One of the most significant skills I have obtained throughout my degree is knowing how to build great rapports with students. In my opinion, I think I have been able to create and maintain positive and professional relationships with each and every one of my students.
As part of the National Standards Professional Knowledge standard 1 ‘Know students and how they learn’ graduates’ are expected to establish professional relationships with students to support their individual needs within the teaching and learning environment (Australian Institute for teaching and school leadership, [aitsl] 2011).
To successfully achieve this I have discovered students strengths, weaknesses and interests (through student profiling), participated in extra-curricular activities to get to know them outside of the classroom and have had conversions with parents/other colleagues to develop understandings on the way they learn best.
The comments below have made me aware that I have always formed positive and professional relationships with students.
‘Jennah has worked hard to build positive learning relationships with learners’ (Guinane, Personal Communications, 2009).
‘Demonstrated an Immediate rapport with students, insightful observations of learners individual needs’ (Shanks, Personal Communications, 2010).
‘She has established a rapport with the learners in a co-operative teaching class of 56 students with two other teachers’ (Roberts, Personal Communications, 2011).
‘Jennah interacts appropriately and professionally with the students and continues to establish rapport. She is determined to find ways to reach and continue to build on the rapport she has with some of the more challenged of the students. Jennah has great sensibility and is able to maintain safe, supportive and encouraging learning environments with students’ (Lamb, Personal Communications, 2011).
The courses Managing Diversity and Building Learning Partnerships have also provided me with lots of information on how to cater for students learning needs and have emphasised the importance of social and emotional learning. Comments include
‘An excellent discussion on social and emotional learning that link to the needs of your cohort, well done’ (Busch, Personal Communications, 2011).
‘ It is clear that you have many strategies when it comes to differentiating the learning for the diverse needs of your students and developing strong relationships with those from differing cultural backgrounds’ (McKee, Personal Communications, 2010).
Organisational skills
The teaching profession is an occupation that relies heavily on one’s organisational skills. Teachers are frequently required to use these skills as they prepare lessons, make transitions from one learning experiences to the other, report on student progress, attend school camps, hold parent/teacher interviews, gather/create resources and develop classroom structure.
Personally, I would consider my organisational skills to be at an excellent standard. I have always taken great pride in developing unique lessons for students in which my organisational skills have played a vital role. In association with my Embedded Professional Learning practices, I have designed and implemented many learning experiences where my organisational skills have been interwoven. These skills were evident when
· Developing a blog in which parents can access, explore and keep track of students work
· Using the Green Room to record oral presentations that were later viewed by the upper school
· Marked students assessment pieces and homework (before deadlines)
· Selecting students of the week
· Holding school performances
· Constructing Group, Individual and whole class activities
· Researching topics for explicit teaching purposes
· Incorporating the use of relevant and high quality resources that were used to enrich students in key learning concepts and created classroom structure. For example
The Science Space corner – this area was formed for students to display facts and information about space that they could refer to during science lessons.
The Deltora Dragon – This was created to demonstrate to learners how to effectively draw mythical creatures and develop visual representations that aligned with the text ‘Deltora Quest, Forest of Silence’. This area was also used for students to display their own work for parents/careers and other staff members.
Some of the comments received linked to my organisational skills include
‘Well organised lesson’. ‘Well researched topic’. ‘Great hands on activities’. ‘Well planned, catered to varying degrees of ability’. Fabulous Lesson, motivational and well sequenced’. (Shanks, Personal Communications, 2010).
‘Jennah has consistently engaged the students through her ability to organise subjects and activities effectively through lessons that are well planned and implemented to an excellent standard’ (Roberts, Personal Communications, 2011).
‘She is becoming highly effective in her organisation and management of different sized groups and individuals, and the transitions with this group’ (Roberts, Personal Communications, 2011).
It can be seen that this area has developed quite well overtime and has assisted in creating engaging and worthwhile learning experiences. I believe that my ability to organise will become easier as I become more confident and experienced in the teaching profession.
Behaviour Management
Pursuing a career as a teacher involves consistently developing behaviour management strategies for successful learning experiences to occur. I believe that developing the most appropriate behaviour management strategies is an ongoing process that is determined by students’ diverse needs.
Some of the behaviour management strategies that have been highly effective throughout my practicums include;
- · Establishing expectations
- · Cueing with parallel acknowledgement
- · Body Language encouraging
- · Descriptive encouraging
- · Selective attending
- · Redirecting to the learning
- · Following through (Department of Education and Training, 2007).
I have received multiple comments about my behaviour/classroom management strategies such as
‘Excellent insights- helping individuals to stay on task and complete activities, therefore avoiding potential behavioural problems’ (Shanks, Personal Communications, 2010).
‘Jennah is well aware of the diverse needs of the students she works with and has developed great teaching, lesson design and classroom management strategies, that allow her to adjust curriculum and lesson content well to cater for individual needs. She continues to seek out new strategies to add to her growing repertoire of skills’ (Lamb, Personal Communications, 2011).
‘Jennah has encouraged the learners to be co-operative and has developed many strategies to foster positive social behaviour….She has continued to develop very effective and positive behaviour management skills’ (Roberts, Personal Communications, 2011).
These comments have given me great confidence in my abilities to control classroom behaviour and have prepared me for future learning experiences. I look forward to setting up a classroom that is able to establish safe and supportive learning environments.
Pedagogy- ‘It is the art and science of teaching. It relates to how teachers teach and what strategies they use in their work’ (Answers.com, 2011).
The Professional Standards for Queensland Teachers (Queensland College of Teachers (2007, p. 2) highlights many important pedagogical practices including
- · Designing and implementing learning experiences that develop language, literacy and numeracy
- · Designing and implementing intellectually challenging learning experiences
- · Designing and implementing learning experiences that value diversity
- · Assessing and reporting constructively on student learning
- · Committing to reflective practice and professional renewal
- · Supporting personal development and participation in society
- · Creating and maintaining safe and supportive learning environments
- · Fostering positive and productive relationships with families and the community
- · Contributing to professional teams
I am confident that I have been equipped with many of these pedagogical practices and look forward to embedding these practices into my future learning experiences. My ability to design and implement learning experiences that develop students’ language, literacy and numeracy skills has always been an area in which I feel I am strong at. During my internship, the feedback I was given in relation to this form of pedagogical practice were
‘ She has the capability to take content from overviews and has great ability to place this into challenging, productive and engrossing learning experiences for the children, that align well with what is required’ (Lamb, Personal Communications, 2011).
‘Her excellent Literacy and Numeracy levels enable her to develop quality teaching experiences that require students to work to very high standards of achievement’ (Lamb, Personal Communications, 2011).
‘Her teaching and learning strategies have supported the language, literacy and numeracy needs of the individual learners in the class, where she has continued to display good planning and execution of her lessons’ (Roberts, Personal communications, 2011).
I believe I have created outstanding learning experiences as I am familiar with both the essential learnings and national curriculum and am willing continuing to renew my professional skills within each learning area. Through professional development, I have gathered great resources and teaching techniques to further my knowledge of both curriculum's. I have had the opportunities to participate in professional development programs such as Thrass training (for literacy purposes), ICT training, student protection training and National Curriculum training. I have always taken the learning needs of all students into consideration and have collaborated with colleagues to assist in the planning process.
‘Jennah has been extremely busy trialling the National curriculum in English, Mathematics and Science in preparation for 2012. She has demonstrated that she is very capable of taking key concepts from the curriculum and explicitly teaching them to her cohort of learners’ (Lamb, Personal Communications, 2011).
‘As an integral part of a team she has consistently discussed and profiled the learning needs and strengths of the group and become very aware of the different styles of the students’ (Roberts, Personal Communications, 2011).
I have also continued to create learning experiences that embrace and value diversity by integrating different cultural aspects across a wide-range of subjects. As previously mentioned (see above), I believe my ability to create and maintain a safe and supportive learning environment is at a high standard.
I have been fortunate enough to be part of a team-teaching environment that has allowed me to assess and report on students learning to a very high standard. Over my internship I developed numerous criteria sheets to monitor student progress amongst each strand and gave feedback to learners that enabled them to achieve high quality assessment pieces. My mentor teacher concurred with this when stating;
‘She has consistently used a variety of assessment approaches to monitor the learning that has been engaged in the class and offers individual learner support when needed’ (Roberts, Personal Communications, 2011).
Although I have not had much opportunity to foster professional relationships with family members, I have participated in extra-curricular activities (school musical) that have led me to become a valued member of the school community. A comment supportive of this statement was
‘She has become a productive member of the school community and always displays a professional approach when interacting with others whether its staff members or parents’ (Roberts, Personal Communications, 2011).
Overall, I believe my pedagogical practices are shaping the teacher I wish to be. I am of the strong opinion that these practices will be renewed to address Curriculum requirements, whole school approaches and the needs of my students. It is in my best interest to make each learning experience worthwhile and developmentally beneficial for my learners.
