Week+3

 The lecture today made me think about a few things. I’ll pose them as questions. //What makes a great teacher?// For me a great teacher is inspiring and makes a connection with their students. They have respect for their students and present and display sound morals and values. A great teacher is enthusiastic and knowledgeable and, as we have discussed already, creative. I think a good teacher takes risks, that is, they are prepared to give something go. Prepared to try something new that might reach out and connect with some students that have so far been disengaged.

//Where do the boundaries lie?// In the short film clip we were shown today, the teacher was perhaps uncomfortably direct towards his students, yet it was that pushing and provoking that got the desired outcome. This brought a few things to my mind. How do we know where the boundaries lie? Will we ever accidentally cross the line when we are under pressure and say something we will regret later? This thought reminded me of a movie I saw not that long ago, it is a French film called “The Class”. It films the day in, day out life of a high school teacher with his class, the struggles he faces to motivate them and control them. I don’t want to give too much away, but basically it highlighted that even good teachers make mistakes and perhaps cross that line or boundary sometimes.

//Are we going to integrate theory with our practice?// Are we going to keep in mind all this theory we are learning when we have a classroom of our own? Is it going to be forgotten about as soon as we step foot into a school? Is it going to sit at the back of our heads and although won’t consciously think about it, it will perhaps influence our decision making? I know that when I have spoken to some newly trained teachers they make snide remarks about not really using any of the theory that they learnt at uni. Do you think that is the case?

That’s all from me for now Cat 

Something I have found very interesting is meeting different people and discovering their motivations for wanting to become a teacher. Ayres (2001) covers some of these 'expected' reasons in his article, 'Beginning: The Challenge of Teaching'. Whether it be for a love of children, a want to share knowledge, individual and community motivations.... everyone has a combination of feelings for why they want to step into a classroom. I think part of the motivation for why you want to be a teacher is portrayed in the type of teacher you become. I agree with Cat in regards to what makes a great teacher - words including creativity, initiative, flexibility, motivated, respect, risk - are all attributes that I hope I can bring to the classroom, and attributes that help ensure an engaged class.

In relation to Cat's comments about where boundaries lie, again reflecting on my own teaching of music, I know and can recall instances when I nearly allowed a child to get the better of me. But that sensible voice in my head allowed me to stop before I said something I might regret. I guess, as teachers, we are going to be tested and pushed to the limit at times, and it is important to be able to recognise this and work out ways that help ourselves deal with the type of pressure we might experience (hopefully rarely!).

Finally, I also agree with an article from this week's readings from Thomas Ryan 'When You Reflect Are You Also Being Reflexive?', and the importance of personal reflection and different levels of reflection as a teacher to better ourselves as educators. I don't believe the 'perfect lesson' exists, there are always ways we could improve something, make something more effective, more descriptive, more understandable, so on, so on.... But with reflection maybe we can get close!

Emma   What makes a great teacher? I think Emma and Cat have largely covered the characteristics that make a great teacher. As a student I really enjoyed when a teacher had a different approach to any other previous experience (eg getting students to sit in role order and making the student start the morning with a run around the oval before getting into the teaching are two examples I remember). As a teacher, I found that when I approached a lesson with flexibility in mind and letting go of a very strict structure and allowing students to have input made for greater student participation and enjoyment. However, too much input meant they started to get out of control - I discovered there is a very fine line.

Where do the boundaries lie? I suppose the lines are up to each individual to create that they feel are most appropriate and will enable the optimal outcome from each and every student. Personally I can't see myself as a teacher who is critical or the type of in their face as we saw in the lecture, this is not in my nature I aim to bring a supportive and encouraging type mentality. I believe that mutual respect is important. I recall that when pushed by students I struggled to maintain control of them.

I believe that self-reflection and integrating theory with practice is vital and a desire to be the best one can be should ensure that you do this. I have already started picking people up on some of their language. For example, some one told me 'the weather man was wrong' and I said, 'no the weather man's weather prediction was wrong'. I think we can integrate little things like this into our everyday lives and this will help ensure that what we are learning at present gets transported into the class room. This year should not just be able learning to pass assignments but learning as a teacher and everyone is a teacher to someone (friends, family, partners, etc) all of the time.

The article by Thomas Ryan confused me a little, my interpretation was that reflexion was reflection on how your actions affected those around you. In a teaching sense how your actions affected the students. If this interpretation is correct it is a very important part of reflection though one must not believe that theirs is the only influence on the children in the class room. One must remember all possible factors including the weather, friends and family situations, etc. I also read 'Beginning the challenge of teaching' I found this article inspiring to begin with and how the above abilities as a teacher can have such a positive impact on students, though towards the end of the article I became daunted by the variety of situations and possibilities that you may face as a teacher I also had similar feelings at the end of the lecture. Towards the end of today's lecture when he discussed his friend with bipolar who had been killed by a policeman and questioned the audience 'was there anything their teachers could have done to prevent this situation?' I felt that this type of thing is placing a great deal of focus on the teacher because each of those two individuals came from families and would have had many friends during their lives. I felt to single out the teacher was very focused because there were hundreds of other people involved in each of these peoples lives and many people who were present at the time of the incident. Sure it is great to have an awareness of the impact you as a teacher can have a child but you must also maintain perspective because you will not be the sole influencing factor on each and every student.

Matt

I agree with Emma's comments about the Thomas Ryan article 'When You Reflect Are You Also Being Reflexive?', and the importance of personal reflections, not only now as early teachers but to continue the practice of reflecting throughout our whole career.   However, I would like to say that I think through reflecting on your own efforts you gain not only an insight into how you could improve things next time, but I think maybe it would also give you the chance to pat yourself on the back for doing a good job. I don't think that personal reflections always need to be about picking out all the negatives or faults, I think that personal reflections can/should be about giving yourself praise when necessary as well.   I get the feeling that this positive reflection is something that can get overlooked (as I've heard from my mum and friends who are teachers) as we tend to be in a society that focuses in on the negatives and how badly we've done something. We don't often get the chance to look at ourselves and say "Great job on that fun maths lesson! The kids loved it!".  I think, after reading Thomas Ryan's article and listening to the lecture today, I am going to do the best job I can of not only reflecting on what I could do better next time, but also make sure I'm giving myself positive credit where credits due! :-) 
 * Laura*