Week+8

The lecture in week 8 was conducted by Diane Powell and was based upon surviving accountability in your first year of teaching. This was a very professional lecture and was held at an appropriate time considering we have just finished our first round of teaching placements. The thing that I found most interesting about the lecture was the survey carried out on children at primary school about their ideal teacher. This gave us a plethora of dot points in regards to what students would like from their classroom teacher. Interestingly, not only did they say they want someone who talks/listens to me; they also said they want someone who gets me to think about thinking which I think is fantastic. I will certainly be doing my best to fulfil all these points when I become a teacher.

I liked the slides about the ideal teachers too Chris. You would like to think that as a teacher you would be able to meet all these criteria the students think makes the perfect teacher but obviously in some cases its not always possible. However I think it is great that you should strive to be the 'ideal teacher.' Perhaps this exercise could be done at the start of the year. For Example get the students to put their hands up and write down what they expect of you as the teacher and vice versa... Hang it up in the classroom and refer back to it. I think its a fantastic way of setting out everyone expectations for the year.

Great thinking! I know, the childrens perspectives of the ideal teacher being fair and a good listener was expected, but I was quite surprised too that the children also found 'someone who gets them to think about learning' an important characteristic. I thought that letting children make mistakes was another great way for letting children explore the depths of learning and encourages them to learn for themselves. They then see learning as an ongoing process that is not always directed, but more so guided by the teacher. I was also relieved that the fact that 'we are not alone' was emphasised in the lecture. this weeks tute was also a great oppportunity to discuss our placement - I was actually amazed at just how different everyones schools seemed to be - I know we've been told no two schools at the same, but to hear other peoples experiences was very insightful and I guess relevant as we need to keep such things in mind for our next placement.

Wow, my perspective on everything has massively changed now we have actually been in classrooms and tried out many of the abstract concepts we have talked about in schools. In a few of the classrooms I was in both on placement and fieldwork there were brainstorming sheets created by the students at the beginning of the school year, both on what makes a good teacher and a good student. Some were a common theme througout, and were shown in the lecture as well, from quite broad ideals, based on communication and positivity, to more specific concerns, such as being allowed on the computer and playing music. Some of the ones in the lecture were really quite advanced, things that I wouldn't have even come up with if asked to brainstorm the topic, but actually make a lot of sense, both for the teacher and the student. A prime example of this is the comment Chris made 'someone who gets me to think about thinking'.

It was fascinating to hear about other people's experiences in the tute, up until then I had only heard about several people's placements, and as we all went to the same sort of schools in the same area they were quite similar to mine. Just hearing about some people who had quite big issues to deal with on their rounds, and maybe didn't have the best time, I'm really glad that I had a fantastic first experience, so that I know, even if my next round doesn't go as well, that there are schools with good environments, supportive staff and engaged students do exist!