Week+5

Ok, I thought I’d get in early this week…

Today in the lecture Greg showed us a great variety of video clips in relation to models of teaching and learning. We looked at the 4 different belief systems and how teaching is viewed differently in each one; he followed this by showing us an entertaining maths video clip and later encouraged us to look at our belief system in relation to teaching. Whilst I have never really thought about creating my own belief system, being shown this in the lecture will be really useful going forward.

Another area I found particularly interesting about the lecture was the 5 E’s of Teaching. The engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate stages each describe a phase of learning and is a great model for sharing experiences, building knowledge and assessing understanding. Each stage is clearly defined and seems to be very logical and easy to understand in its explanation. Whilst the information in the model is fairly basic, I think as prospective teachers, the key to it is that it breaks everything up for you and clearly defines each little step rather than just give you a big chunk of info, which I think is very helpful. I agree. Its strange to think about your teaching belief system. I thought the 5e's were really good and gave you something to work with and think about. Clearly the tute changed everyones perspectives a little?!! I think the socratic circles was a good exercise to gain differences of opinion and open your eyes to what others value as important in their teaching models. Whilst I am all for voicing your own opinion, it is sometimes better to keep your thoughts to yourself don't you think?! After that final incident things should get very interesting....And can i just add that I don't agree with the opinions that were voiced! Kids hate bitches......

Hahaha well said Bre! Why does the interesting stuff always happen after the bell rings?? Anyway, socratic circles worked quite well, I think the only thing was that once we had all put our ideas on the board, there was nothing up there that I really thought was unimportant, so therefore it was quite hard to pick the most important ideas. Hopefully when we have our own classrooms the students will be comfortable to contribute anything and everything to brainstorms, and then there might be more to choose from and debate. I think the more time we spend in classrooms the more complex and concrete our belief system will be, for now all I've got is sort of 'Try and be interesting, encourage learning, don't be a bitch', it all seems like fairly generic stuff, and I don't actually know how it would all pan out in an actual teaching situation. Wow, that was a bit of a ramble, but I think I had some points in there... Yes, totally agree that going out there and being a "bitch" is the worst way to go about forming a respectful classroom environment. Although I have been told "not to smile until easter" to assert your authority and get the children to know where you stand! Not sure that I agree with this..I'm sure including a smile would be much more effective at promoting a happy and productive classroom environment! But like you mentioned Kim, I think we will definately get a better idea of the teaching styles that work well as opposed to those that aren't so great as we spend more time in schools and different classrooms. I thought the 9 guiding principles mentioned in the lecture were quite interesting and can see how it would be beneficial to incorporate these into teaching, much the same way as the as the 5 E's to create a productive learning environment.