Week 5

What are the desirable attributes of a Middle Phase teacher?
When you look at a Middle Phase teacher you are looking at someone who can engage with their students and be a role model that encourages their learning journey. A teacher in this area must have good behavior management skills, as this stage in a teenagers life can be very challenging for both parties. We as teachers must be able to support all our students in their learning journey even when at times these students may not seem to want to be taught and are disengaged from learning, it is a teachers responsibility to find a way of engaging that student through profiling them and adapting the curriculum to suit the child's needs.
Teachers in this area need to have these attributes,

• Strict class standards
• Good communication skills
• Know their students
• Compassion
• Be organized at all times
• Want to teach students
• Passion to be a teacher who makes a difference.

What implications do these emergent issues have for your teaching area - eg body image in Home Ec or HPE?

In my area which is English, my major problems would be literacy and whether my students are meeting the minimum requirements and guidelines when they first enter my classroom. If they are below standards this needs to be addressed immediately and getting support for those students is a priority. As a teacher it is your duty to profile and know your students and where their learning is currently at so you can plan your lessons around this and allow students who are below and above to get the essentials that will advance them. Things like testing, previous folders on students, assessments and any other data on the students assists a teacher in being able to plan the learning outcome for his/her students.

What sort of warning signs will you be watching out for?

As a teacher behavior changes in a student can be one of the best guidelines for us to tell if a student is struggling or having issues outside the classroom which is affecting that students learning. A student who is disturbing others and just not participating is also a way for a teacher to gain insight to a student who may be at risk. Previous history on a student can also be of help when issues arise and how as a teacher you will deal with this.

What pedagogies, strategies adjustments are important for your teaching area?
Behavior management plans which are in every school assist the teacher and support them when issues arise.
Using DOL will help as this allows the teacher to know their students and learn to profile them and cater to their needs.
Essential Learnings gives us guidelines that we can then design lessons to gain outcomes that are required by the education department.

What classroom and school structures will support the well-being of these students?
All schools have policies that cater to these problems with students who have either learning or behavior issues. There are councilors, chaplains, teacher aides, learning support, health nurses and student managers that can assist a teacher when they feel a student may be at risk.

Have you noted any adjustments in classrooms for students with a disability?

As a former teacher aide who worked with students with learning and behavior issues I have seen how teachers have to cater their lessons to meet these students needs. Teachers need to be trained properly in this area, as it is a growing issue and it seems to be playing a vital part in teachers leaving the industry due to stress. If a teacher is properly trained in behavior management skills and has support from others in the school with good policies and guidelines, they should be able to cater to their learners with problems and encourage there learning journey in a positive way. I found that in the school I was in, years 8, 10 were the worst for behavior issues but as long as the teacher had good class management skills the issues where ironed out very quickly. It is very important that the teacher has assistance from others in the school, (Principal, Guidance officer) as this reinforces to students that a teacher is not alone and has support when things are not going correctly.

Week 3 Essential Learnings

Breaking down English Essential Learnings:

When looking into the Essential Learnings and adapting them into lessons and units a teacher must pull apart each section to gain understanding of the outcomes their students need to complete by the end of a year. In this blog I will be looking at year 9 English Essential Learnings and breaking them down so I understand them fully for my assessments for this course.

Learning and Assessment focus :

• Students will use their imagination and world views to interpret and construct English texts that hold their ideas, persuade and audience and address issues that are in their own lives and that they can draw upon.
• They will analyse, evaluate how texts can position an audiences view on people, characters, places, events, things, issues and ideas and how they create implications and what implications they may have.
• They will evaluate a variety of texts which represent various cultures, people and events. These will include Aboriginal knowledge's and Torres Strait Islander knowledge's on the people, culture and events.

Knowledge and Understanding:

This area in English has 5 sections and is broken down into points that need to be completed by the end of year 9. I will place some of these up, but not all as there is a lot and other students may put up different ones.

1. Speaking and listening: Involves using oral, aural and gestural elements to interpret and construct texts that achieve purposes across local, national and global contexts.
   

• The purpose of speaking and listening includes examining issues, evaluating opinions, convincing others and managing relationships and transactions. e.g: presenting a persuasive speech.
  
• Words and phrasing, pronunciation, pause, pitch, pace and intonation express meaning, establish mood, signal relationships and are monitored by listeners.
  
• Nonverbal elements, including body language, facial expressions, gestures and silence, express meaning, establish mood, signal relationships and are monitored by listeners.

2. Reading and viewing: Involves using a range of strategies to interpret, analyse and appreciate written, visual and multimodal texts across local, national and global contexts.

• Readers and viewers draw on their prior knowledge, knowledge of language elements, points of view, beliefs and cultural understanding when engaging in texts. e.g. a student who may have experienced loss might emphathise with a character in a poem or novel and draw on this experience.
• Words and their meanings are decoded by using the cueing systems together (grapho-phonic, semantic, syntactic), and by using word origins.

3. Writing and designing: Involves using language elements to construct literary and non-literary texts for audiences across local, national and global contexts.

• Words and phrases, symbols, images and audio affect meaning and establish and maintain roles and relationships to influence an audience. e.g. PowerPoint presentation using audio techniques to enhance presentation and gain audience interest.
• The purpose of writing and designing includes parodying, analysing and arguing. e.g. writing a film review.

4. Language elements: Constructing texts involve manipulating grammar, punctuation, vocab, audio and visual elements, in print-based, electronic and face-to-face modes. Speaking, listening, reading, viewing and writing and designing across local, national.........

• Paragraphs build and sustain cohesion and develop central ideas.
• Adjectives and adverbs are used to express attitudes and make judgments and/or evoke emotions.
  
• Vocab is chosen t establish roles and rel;relationships with an audience including the demonstration of personal authority and credibility.

5. Literary and non-literary texts: Manipulating literary and non-literary texts involves analysing the purpose, audience, subject matter and text structure.

• Texts can reflect and author's view, beliefs and cultural understandings. e.g. a novel that discusses a current theme in a new way.
• Literary texts entertain, evoke emotion, create suspense, parody and develop themes.
• Dialogue constructs relationships between characters and furthers a narrative.

Ways of Working: Things a student must be able to do by the end of year 9. Links closely to DOL (Dimensions of Learning) and Blooms Taxonomy.

• demonstrate and analyse the relationships between audience, subject matter, purpose and text type.
• identify main ideas and sequence events.
• make judgments and justify outcomes.
• reflect on and analyse how language choices position a reader.
• reflect on learning
• apply new understandings and justify future applications.

Students need to be able to look at a text and know by being able to justifying what the plot, characters and outcome is. Can speak to an audience and use various methods of delivery to influence them during a presentation. Students have to reflect on outcomes to gain knowledge which will be applied in later years in education or life in general.

English is very comprehensive with outcomes and students must gain each one to allow full understanding of the English language to occur.

I have not posted all of the elements but ones I have seen applied on my pracs and ones I can use in my assessments.

Week 2

Middle Years Schooling:

The middle years of schooling one would say from a students, teachers and parents perspective are the most challenging. For student's it is a time of change that can be positive or negative depending on the school that they attend. Parents find their child/children facing social issues that where not so impacting in their younger years of development. Teachers struggle with over sizing in classes and huge behavior management due to government policies and procedures constantly changing to try and cater to societies wants and needs.
Schools that incorporate primary and secondary up to middle years may have touched on a way of making this transgression from one to the other a little easier on the students. Knipe states 'that in the last 20 years many schools have independently or jointly tried to create a transition through orientation programs to allow for a smooth transition for the student'. (Knipe, 2007). Schools that do this create a positive experience for students and eliminate the students fears when moving into this level of education.

There are many policies/procedures around in how we can make the middle years a more positive experience. Students have also been surveyed and asked what they want, most came up with they want lessons that are fun and have real life meaning to them. Teachers need to use the curriculum and construct lessons that have a real and meaningful bases, so that students engage in the lessons and not tune out or disengage. It is my belief we have to truly look at this part of our education system as I have seen to many student turn from being 'A 'grade students in primary to 'C/D' grade after their first year in high school. The Middle Phase of Learning State School Action Plan responds to the MACER report of 2003. It has 5 key action areas that seem to may be one way of creating a plan that will be able to be put in place and make headway on Middle Phase Learning.
They are:

• Focus and accountability - embedding this into a schools planning and framework and legitimizing Middle Phase Learning.
• Curriculum, teaching and assessment- improving the curriculum to promote deeper understanding and higher levels of engagement for students through assessments based on standards at key junctures.
• Achievement- Raising the bar for all and increasing flexibility and targeted interventions to lift achievement in literacy and numeracy.
• Transition- bridging the gap from years 7,8 and 9 then into Senior Phase.
• Teachers- Support students learning and development and give recognition.

(Queensland Government, 2010).

This plan allows for a positive outcome for Middle Phase Learning if it is implemented across all state education systems not just Queensland. Our education system needs to be the same in all states to cater for students who's families move around as this also places a huge strain on these students in this Middle Phase of learning.

I have seen some schools that are implementing this and it allows for student to make a smooth transition from primary to secondary. It has made some more work for teachers when it comes to assessment and reporting, but it also makes them accountable for the students learning journey to the parents, students and education system. Classrooms are more enjoyable due to students are participating in lessons, due to the content being taught has relevance to them and less behavior management is needed allowing for learning to occur. As teachers it is our role to encourage learning but to do this the systems policies and procedures needs to be correct to allow for this to occur.


References:

Knipe, S (2007). Middle Years Schooling, Pearson Education Australia.

Queensland Government (2010). See the Future, The Middle Phase of Learning, State School Action Plan, Education Queensland. Retrieved 12th July 2010, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/file.php/3271/midaction03.pdf.

Week 1

What is Teaching and Learning?

My previous experience as a Swimming Coach has allowed me to understand the process of learning. I became a Coach 15 years ago progressing from a Learn to Swim teacher. I found this progression easy as I had the basic knowledge of how a person learns to swim and then from this advance to competitive levels of swimming. This learning experience for me was a pivotal point in my life as I realized my passion for teaching children. I progressed from Coaching into Teacher Aide work with Ed QLD, working with disability students. I studied to be a qualified Teacher Aide and my learning journey for this was challenging as the study was done externally. My frustration as a learner due to this has allowed me to see that students have various ways of learning and not everyone fits inside a box, so to speak. I am still learning at the age of 40 and feel this will progress through out the rest of my life. My learning journey has allowed me to now understand students with learning issues and as a Learning Manager in training I believe my previous life journey is allowing me to draw on this knowledge and apply it in the classroom. I had many role models through this time and still to this day contact them when I need advice or assistance. It is my belief that we always need to have Mentors or role models to assist us in our journey of life long learning.

I believe a great Teacher is a person who imparts knowledge onto their students that will stay with them through out their life. A Teacher is a role model and a person who assists students in reaching and achieving their goals. The difference between a Teacher and Learning Manager which is the more modern term, for me seems that in the past Teachers taught students with a very teacher centered approach, where today Learning Managers now engage students in their lessons and make the lessons meaningful to the students. Learning Managers today evaluate their own style of teaching regularly and this allows them to reflect on who they are as a Learning Manager and how they can apply this when teaching their students.

My belief of teaching is knowing and planning your lessons before you teach them thoroughly. It is imperative you have an outcome for each lesson and that you include various teaching styles through out the lesson to cater to all students needs. You must always create a positive learning environment for the students as this will allow for learning to occur. Use class discussion during lessons and create lessons that students can relate to (make it real). KJ