Teach Survive Thrive- Beginning Teachers Roadshow (IEU PD Course)

Just last week (June 10), I attended a Professional Development Session organised by the Independent Education Union (NSW) at their headquarters in Ultimo.

It was themed as: Teach Survive Thrive.The presenter was Glen Pearsall, who has worked extensively with schools right around the country. In the two hour session, he focused on classroom management and engaging students in their learning.

It did look at many of the issues that were covered in the course that I did just a few weeks ago at the Centre for Professional Learning, and the evening for me really allowed me to consolidate what I had learned several weeks ago, as well as enjoying another perspective and learning some new strategies especially keeping students on task and positive reinforcement of student behaviour

It was also a smaller group with about 20 present. Last month I was amongst 180 participants.

The course is free for IEU members and is highly recommended. Click here to find out more.

Classroom Management Through Effective Teaching - May 15 2014

The Centre for Professional Learning offers a free professional development course to members of the NSW Teachers Federation.

I attended last the session at Surry Hills back on May 15 and personally I was not left disappointed by it. For any teacher starting, you'll be amazed at how you can make your teaching more interesting, engaging and yet manage a classroom more effectively and covers all aspects of teaching, whether its programming, planning a lesson and understanding the needs of your students.

I enjoyed listening to some of the strategies that teachers have applied effectively in their practice, whether they were a facilitator or merely attending the sessions.

If there was something that I got out of it most, I think looking at the relationship with your programming and lesson planning and effective classroom management. They explained the linkage quite well.

More information can be found by clicking on this link.

Technology & Classroom behavior: Do they cause kids to misbehave? (Part II)

I have taken some time to sit and reflect on how we as teachers should deal with those in the classroom that engage in inappropriate use of technology.

During the past few days, I had the chance to look over at two technology policies of two schools that I am employed at casually at the moment along with their consequences.

I have also been challenged by the limited number of articles on the topic as well. I hope at some point soon that there is some research out there to guide me.

At this stage, I feel that punishment within the “pastoral” or “welfare” policy is fair provided that the behavior is covered by policy. For example, acts of cyber bullying can be dealt with under the policy because bullying involving the use of technology is the same if the bullying was to occur physically or emotionally. Cyber bullying does cause the same effects.

Obviously if a student fails to comply with instructions with their use in the classroom e.g. no music again it should be dealt with because the student has not complied with instructions.

The only time a student should be denied access to technology is if there is serious misuse of it e.g. accessing sites of pornographic and/or offensive nature. If we look at workplace expectations, serious disciplinary action can be taken if one misuses technology. In many instances it has led to loss of employment. 

If school is about preparing our youth for the workplace then we need to foster appropriate workplace practices and develop an understanding of possible consequences. It may mean that a student may loss access to technology for their learning but sometimes students need to learn the “hard way” of separating right from wrong. Access to technology is a privilege, not a right.  

Since discipline is about helping students correct their behavior – I feel that students should also be required to receive support from support staff such as counselors who can guide the student in addressing their issue. Sometimes it does go deeper and that may help the student long term as it may fix other problems affecting them at their stage of life. 

It is still an area that needs to be looked it further. As this blog entry and the previous one showsmI am glad that I have curiosity about it, which is great.

Technology & Classroom behavior: Do they cause kids to misbehave?

Being a casual teacher, this is an interesting question that I want to take some time to reflect on. Obviously the use of laptops allow for greater teaching and learning opportunities in the classroom on so many fronts whether it may be in the presentation of information or making the use of the world wide web to research for information.

As a casual teacher, I try and encourage the students to use the laptops for their learning. With many youngsters wired up to technology, it is fair that if they enjoy the technology, that should be utilized to allow them to learn. As teachers, we do need to focus on student interests if they are to learn effectively. Obviously there are some who want to opt for more traditional means of learning and I try and accommodate that too.

However I find that using the laptops in the classroom can cause students to disengage from learning and end up off task. This is a common issue that has been raised with colleagues that I work at in the various schools that I am employed at. This becomes more challenging if you are a casual teacher.

For instance, some will end up surfing the web, visiting websites not related to learning. They will listen to music from youtube and/or have music stored on their laptops, some of which contain offensive content.

Gaming has emerged as another challenge. Some have downloaded games or simply can access a website that contains games.

I have found that the only way to control the class is to effectively stand at the back of the room where the screens can be seen and moving around regularly. At the front of the room, you cannot see them so there is little point in remaining down the front at all and ensuring that they remain on task.

Then some will want to test my expectations relating to appropriate use of laptops and that of the school’s e.g. play music aloud or simply not comply with instructions even though those expectations were firmly provided.

Taking away the computers from the students may be a short term solution but then the student cannot learn. A few years ago when training as a teacher and even in my first year of casual teaching, I did that and at the end of the day the situation is not really resolved. If the task requires internet research, to sit there and doing nothing will not work. They do not learn at all and miss out on learning the information and communication skills that they will need as part of curriculum requirements.

Will conventional punishments such as a “work” detention (where the student stays back to finish the work) work? Maybe that is the effective way. If a student wastes their learning time doing recreational activities on the computer, maybe sacrificing some of that time after school might do the job. In the workplace, if we waste our time, don’t we have to make up for the time lost at some point, either directly (staying back at our desk) or doing it in our own leisure time.

I plan to answer this further in my next blog post.