Goal Two
Actively engage in establishing and maintaining effective relationships with school staff, students and their whānau during Practicum 1
Reflections
One thing that has been mentioned numerous times in my learning so far is how integral relationships at all levels are within the teaching profession, spending time in a school, even just two weeks, has shown me how true that is.
The relationship between teacher (or trainee teacher) and student is key and I was very conscious of that before I came on practicum, which is why I placed high value on making connections and building positive relationships with students. Learning children’s names was one thing that I wanted to do well and I found it difficult to do, with 54 students, many with names I was unfamiliar with. I found that a flexible learning space made it more difficult for me as children are free to move around the classroom rather than having a specific desk, but suspect that having access to the digital based roll system and photos of the children would make it easier to learn names. I spoke with my AT about strategies she uses when I was finding it difficult to learn all the names, one thing that she does is take multiple photos of the children sitting on the mat in the early days of the year and tests herself at night.
New Zealand is such a diverse country and teachers have a responsibility to take this into account in their classroom. The children in my classroom came from a wide variety of backgrounds and countries with 29 having English as a second language. Barbara Whyte (2016) talks about the importance of knowing the students you teach and how important it is that teachers are aware that a student’s potential for achievement isn’t limited by their ethnicity and first language, and that taking responsibility for our own values, attitudes and beliefs allows us to create new ways of working. I observed how the teachers had connected with the students through their culture. This included using greetings taught to them by the students and learning about their culture and weaving it into the classroom, which allows the children the opportunity to teach their teachers. As a teacher, there is such a responsibility to know the students you teach, including where they come from (literally and figuratively) and their whanau.
Learning about and observing the different roles within the school and how they interact gave me insight to how much collaboration goes on in a school. I liked the collaborative relationship between the teachers, particularly in the syndicate, but also throughout the school. The marae trip was a day trip of year 3 and overnight for year 4. One teacher has a mixed class so the teachers in my class looked after half the year three children while she was on the overnight section of her Marae trip. This changed how our class ran on those two days, as for example, we did no small group work, but my teachers were more than happy to help out and adjust their plans. The teachers within the syndicate all had roles in organising the school trip to the marae and worked together. When one needed help getting materials ready for the poi activity 5 teachers (plus me) helped out at lunchtime to get it done. I observed teachers in different classes sharing and negotiating the use of resources, for example on of the teachers in my class wanted to use a specific big book in relation to some work on owls we were doing, so spoke with a new entrant teacher, although they both wanted to use it in the same week, negotiation around the time our class would use it meant the book could be used in both classrooms.
I’ve realised that by being placed in a co-teaching classroom, I was given an amazing opportunity to observe teachers closely collaborating, how this impacts the way the classroom runs and the learning outcomes for the children. The two teachers were constantly communicating throughout the day and adapting what they were doing in the classroom throughout the day.
The teachers would have a catch up at the end of most days, discuss what had happened through the day and how they would deal with any issues. One example of this was on the first Wednesday, when both teachers noticed that lots of children were asking to go to the toilet, sometimes to chat with friends or as a way to avoid work. In addition, some children would ask one teacher, if they said no, they would ask the other teacher. The teachers decided to set up a system so one teacher is on toilet duty each day, they are the only teacher the students can ask, and that only one child can leave the class at a time. This was implemented the next day and had an immediate impact. This showed me how wide classroom management is – it’s not just making sure children are listening, working and learning effectively, it’s making sure that the whole classroom operates in a way that is effective for everyone. The teachers saw the disruption multiple visits to the toilet was causing, discussed the issue and problem solved, coming up with a solution to rectify the issue, then implemented their plan successfully. This was done with a five minute discussion after school and had an immediate and positive effect on the classroom for the rest of the time I was in the class.
How teachers and relievers worked together was a key learning for me. I had thought that for planned absences, teachers would leave set work but it wasn’t always like this. One teacher in another class was going on leave for a week and her relief teacher was someone who works in the school regularly, so she left a general plan but trusted her to run the class and set her own lessons. When my two teachers were away for a day, they left some general activities and direction on what lessons were to be run but did give the relievers a large amount of autonomy. Neither teacher had met either of the relievers before, one teacher communicated via email over the weekend with her reliever and the other spoke with her reliever first thing in the morning on the day.
I have much more work to do on this goal, I didn’t manage to involve myself in extra curricular activities within the school and would like to experience this in my next practicum. I was planning to attend a lunchtime chess club and spend time at the library one lunchtime in my final week (to compare a lunchtime library session with our class visit), but ended up in the resource room over several lunchtimes preparing resources instead. The bonus of this was that it helped me build relationships with other staff and see how they use and create resources for different levels and classes.
Going into practicum, I knew there was a lot I didn’t know and spending significant time in a classroom for the first time since I left school many decades ago has reiterated just how much there is to learn. Practicum has highlighted the importance of future relationships between myself, my students, their whanau and the staff I will be working with, along with the importance of cultivating strong relationships as I go through my training. There are always resources available and help with the mechanics of teaching, but the core relationship between student and teacher is absolutely key to their successful learning.