So it Begins My Life as a Teacher...:)

My first day of professional experience was overwhelming, exhausting but exhilarating. An interesting observation I made was that roll call was used as a learning experience and integrated into the terms unit of work ‘Who Am I’. Each student’s task was to investigate their cultural background, origin, roots and complete various activities. One of which was to say Hello during roll call in their native tongue. For example if their background is French the student would say ‘Bonjour’ , if the student is Australian or does not know their roots then they say ‘Hello’ in English. I found this a very beneficial task. It allows the students to investigate their own culture as well as learn about other cultures in the class promoting cultural diversity.

I observed a water bottle classroom management strategy. The students are aware of the water bottle policy. They are allowed water bottles, but the bottles must be placed at the back of the classroom and they are allowed to drink when they feel they are thirsty. This is useful as it is a whole class strategy, the students can manage themselves and there is less clutter and likelihood of spilling as all bottles are in one area.

I also noticed other strategies such as saying “bottoms on floor” , “eyes to me” and when asking students to do a creative writing task in silence the teacher gave a description of what she should hear – she should be able to hear birds outside, the wind and no voices in the classroom.

ICT was used in a science class – a video from TeacherTube http://www1.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?title=Living_and_Non_Living&video_id=176491  the smart board to reiterate the main concepts in a lesson. This was effective as the key concepts had been discussed, explained, questioned and drawn. Therefore by watching a video reinforcing the key concepts I felt was effective and engaging.

Reference

TeacherTube. (2010) Living and non-living, retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www1.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?title=Living_and_Non_Living&video_id=176491