Successes

Teaching can be a great job and a very difficult job…even in the same day! There is so much to the job you need to boil it down and make sure you are clear with what your goals are. We would like to produce self-regulated learners who are motivated to continue learning new things and applying their knowledge as hey proceed through life. The poor moments in a class, are when you can see the class is not getting anything from what you are doing. You tend to have put in lots of work, trying to get into the student mindset to think where they are and what will speak to them, and then deliver your lesson. When it does not come off it can be difficult to assess were the issues arise but there is a good chance it starts with you, not the kids!

When its works, you flip all that! A lesson can snowball in a sense and move from teachable moment to teachable moment. In a really good class you can even be a spectator to the action, as students interact, analyze, question and derive meaning from an activity beyond what you expected.

There are a lot of students this year who are adjusting to the rigors of moving to high school and it has been hard work to get a few of them to succeed through the year. We get students from a huge number of feeder schools and therefore they have a range of abilities and proficiencies. I have put in extra effort this year on areas of skills such as literacy and essay writing. The science department in my school has been discussing streamlining and vertical planning. We have considered that essay writing is critical if students want to progress to AP Biology so we are trying to have students write more essays in assessments. It has been a tough road in getting students to think about what and how they write but it is slowly working. There are students who seemingly refuse to accept advice and put in effort but the class standard has risen considerably.

I also have been putting more time into teaching note writing and study skills. Again the work has been Curriculum a recent survey did show students were staring to go beyond just reading the book. They are also putting more thought and effort into taking notes. In recent times I have seen improvement in their notetaking homework. Having students create quizlets, show me notes they have written of their own accord, or discuss and share notes, wordwebs and learning strategies makes me feel like the work has made a difference and is resonating with the students.

It has been quite a time in the Masters. There has been a lot of work on top of teaching and some sections which have not really rocked my boat – I am happy to leave the Curriculum and Assessment to those others and concentrate on the day to day classroom stuff – but there have been other sections which have gone above and beyond. I really enjoyed the Psychology and have worked on making sure I consider more about the students as more than receptacles for learning. I need to be more aware of their environment and what they need in order to succeed. I did not expect literacy to inspire me as it has but I have tried to have students read more and explore more as they learn. I see the benefit of having students learn through reading new related content. I have had student’s complete worksheets with open questions that show revealing answers that display wonder and curiosity it can be difficult to unearth. Another area I have added good material is with the resources I have been opened to. There are loads of apps and websites with great extras from games and test banks to lesson plans and units ideas which will prove to be useful going forward.

For these and a multitude more I will be a better more holistic teacher moving forward…

Thanks