WEEK+3

 Week 3 - 16/3/09  Key Words: Teacher Identities: Becoming a Teacher, Assisting Children in their Identity work: VELS Personal Learning Today’s lecture was based around the necessity for primary school teachers hold and exert a vast range of knowledge, views and theories on a broad range of topics which can include ethics, culture, religion, society and the physical world. An interesting point was raised in that, a secondary school teacher needs to acquire specialized knowledge in just one or two fields, where a primary school teacher must cover everything. To me this sounded rather overwhelming. I learnt that I am going to need legitimate theory from sources to back up the formal subjects I teach, but then will also need to exude influence realizing to ethics and morals. I believe that theories one believes in must be exemplified in everyday life.  This got me thinking about what exactly are the limits, expectations and responsibility of a primary school teacher. If a child in my class comes to school without lunch a few times in a week, is it my responsibility to do something about it? Where is the line drawn? (Jessica Mitchell)

 As a teacher, I need to find out what the challenges are. Teachers are resposible in shaping the classroom. The video clip about Jaime Escalante has inspired me a lot. I realise how important it is to communicate and present ourselves. Like Jamie, even though he speaks English with an accent which students may find it difficult to fully understand him, he still can make his students succeed. The way that Jamie communicates is so strong, with his idea of "Don't quit. Don't give up." I agree with Jamie that teachers are the one who touches students' lives. The boundaries in classroom have also been discussed in the lecture. I believe it is an very important issue about boundaries, because it does affect students' behaviours. The way that I present myself in the classroom also has a big impact on students' learning. With the view of content, I know the very first thing is to be passionate about the subjects. I must have a view, it doesn't need to be right. Teachers cannot teach absolute everything, but we have to choose what is relevant to the class. Besides, it is important of what my view of the world is. Change is everywhere from place to place. That's why it is essential to relate this change in classroom teaching. At the end of the lecture, the limits of teaching responsibities have been mentioned. This made me think a lot about how I should draw my boundaries in the classroom with the students. I believe there are more to learn about being a responsible teacher.** (Christy, Man Man Hung)
 * __Week 3 Lecture__

 __ ** Week 3 Reading W.Ayers(2001) Beginning: The Challenge of Teachin g** __ The image of teaching often appears as boredom and routine or even worse. However, this pattern may be able to emerge depending on the ways we teach in the future, and that is going to be a challenge of teaching. In the beginning of the reading, Ayers gave us some of his classroom experiences, which have inspired me a lot. He spent time and effort in exploring differences in his classroom. When some of his students got bullied or humiliated, Ayers tried to build on their strengths and abilities, in order to get them valued by everyone else. Ayers also mentioned that teaching was not mainly instruction and performing. Instead, they are the least of it, teaching include a more splendorous range of actions. It’s almost about everything. Teachers are a large presence in students’ lives. I totally agree with that, and I guess that is one of the reasons why I want to be a teacher, to shape students’ lives and touch the future.

Being a teacher is my passion, it is not about wages or society status. Teachers sometimes work in difficult situations, long working hours, high responsibilities, bad structure schools, uncertainty…etc. Nonetheless, I believe anyone who wants to be a teacher should be able to answer the question “Why Teaching?” For me, I want to be a teacher because that is my dream. I am passionate in moulding students. I want to have a positive impact in their lives; I want to make my students happy. Therefore, I know that teaching will not be easy, with lots of challenges, but I will not give up. Instead, I will keep on learning and building on my experiences, and become a better outstanding teacher.

There are 12 Myths about teaching in the reading. I find them really interesting. One says how teachers act strict like a “bad cop” in order to gain students’ respect. Another says good teacher are always fun, good performers, always know the materials…etc. Some of the myths sound very realistic and somehow true. Still, some of them are very wrong. Teacher need not always to be fun, like the reading says, being fun sometimes may ruin the classroom management. I guess teachers should choose the right occasion of when we can be fun. Also, the world is complex and it is changing, teachers may therefore have questions that cannot answer. I guess it is okay, as long as we teachers keep on exploring in knowledge and life.

Individual differences have been discussed later on in the reading. We are all human beings and yet, we all have unique thoughts, needs, and any other things. Therefore, different students will have different pace in learning and they all need to be cared by us. There is a phrase in the reading that I absolutely agree on, “Teaching is primarily a matter of love.” Without love, there will not be a good teaching. Finally, teaching is a hope for better future. Even though the reward cannot be seen now, nonetheless I believe my life will make a difference.

(Christy, Man Man Hung)

Week 3 The reading -"Beginning - The Challenge of teaching" also captured my attention, as she spoke about the attitudes of others towards the idea that anyone would choose to be a teacher! I guess I feel that way towards my previous profession, and that is one reason I'm changing professions! Teaching is not for everyone. Each person out there in the big wide world is searching for their purpose in life, some find it and some don't. I feel I am far more suited to teaching and life has lead me on a journey where everything I enjoyed seemed to have an element of teaching in it. It lead me to make the decision that I must be meant to be doing teaching. This leads on to what we discussed in our workshop. What kind of teacher do I want to be? This workshop brought together the idea of our own identity as a teacher. We were asked to think about what sort of teacher we'd like to be! Who we aspire to be like! The lecturer was very inspiring to listen to. I think he makes a fine example! The question sheet helped me to assess my own thoughts on many issues and will be invaluable to have when it comes time for placements. Key words are good reminders to stay in the boundaries we set for ourselves in the world as a teacher. A couple of key words that I've come across quite regularly has been "positively challenge" or intellectually challenge. These appeared during my research project into the ESL (English as a second language) learner. It is one of the major factors teachers felt affected the ESL learner. They suggest thay teachers don't lower their expectations or goals when teaching ESL learners or it effects the outcomes of the ESL learner in a negative way. This can also relate to mainstream children. (Anita Dinon 28/3/2009)

Week 3 What sort of teacher am I going to be? What moral and ethical values am I bringing to a classroom? Where did these values come from? To what extent will my life experiences influence how I teach?

We each have an opinion of the world that is our own reality. It is different for everyone. The lenses through which we view the world are impacted by our life experience, our up brining and family / social conditioning. As an adult I have had more life experiences and opportunities to develop an understanding of //my// world. It is important to remember that I am bringing my considered knowledge and values in to the classroom. A child in my classroom will be strongly influenced by their home and family environments. They will be just beginning to explore their world and their place in it.

As primary school teachers, we are very influential in a child’s life. They will learn and integrate everything we are teaching; our prepared lessons, but also how we treat people, how we interact and our values. Children develop a sense of who they are largely from the people in their lives. Primary school teachers are very influential in a child’s development of a sense of who they are.

In the tutorial this week, we discussed the issues of what sort of teacher we want to be. This will be influenced by who we are, our experiences and values. We participated in a **think, pair, share** activity and developed a list of attributes we hoped to bring to a classroom.

The think pair share was a helpful strategy to allow quiet space to reflect before exploring ideas with our peers, then broadening the discussion to include the whole group.

//Where are the boundaries?//

The second issue that came up for me this week was boundaries. To what extent are we responsible for our students and their learning?  While there will never be a definitive answer to this issue, I struggle with where the boundaries are and where  my responsibility ends.  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">There seems to be an ever changing balance between professional responsibility, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">legal obligations and duty of care. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Teachers are not their students parents, but I find it difficult to find the balance.

Sonia McAlary 28/03/2009 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;">