I was recently asked by a reader if I could give my tips for surviving teaching placement, practicum, teaching experience. Having gone through the experience myself and having watched two sets of student teachers come into our school, I'm not too far removed but I also get the benefit of seeing part of the other... Continue Reading →
How forgetting about ‘the teaching’ helped my students and I learn
New Zealand Graduating Teacher Standard 4.c "Graduating teachers demonstrate high expectations of all learners, focus on learning and recognise and value diversity" Graduating teachers focus on the learning. It seems like such a simple idea, you can talk about it, read it but actually doing it? That took me a long time. For my first... Continue Reading →
Weekly Reflection: Onwards to the ‘real world’
This week marked the end of student teaching for me. I still have another two months left of lectures, assignments and exams left until the end of my course but the practical part of the course now over. It feels surreal that in the classroom I've been assessed as exceeding the Graduating Teacher Standards but... Continue Reading →
How to make the most of… Visiting Lecturer Assessments
I'm shamelessly stealing @krivett1 series of posts How to make the most of .... and doing a series on topics relevant to student teachers. My first will be on Visiting Lecturer Assessments if only because I've just finished my last observations and the experience is fresh in my head. So without further ado, Visiting Lecturers. They come to... Continue Reading →
Weekly reflection: the worst possible week to get sick
After ending last week on a high I was super duper excited to get back into the classroom for week five, I planned up a storm over the weekend and was feeling excited about what lay ahead. And then I woke up on Monday morning feeling absolutely awful. Despite thinking I merely had a cold which I... Continue Reading →
Weekly reflection: putting bad days in prespective
August 22 is a bad day. 2 years ago this date was the worst day. I didn't know when I took that picture, which I'm sure most readers will recognize as the Twelve Apostles, that I was just a few hours away from what would be the first of many hospital admissions, blood tests, IV lines and instances... Continue Reading →
Weekly reflection: Making the most of teachable moments
New Zealand Graduating Teacher Standard 4.a Graduating teachers draw upon content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge when planning, teaching and evaluating. One problem I've been mulling over for the last few months is making the most of teachable moments. I know that there are moments when teachers need to, in the words of my former eduction... Continue Reading →
E-practice: stop moaning and just do it!
After writing my 'Dear Teacher Education Providers can you enter the 21st century' post I had a real mixture of emotions. On one hand the post seemed to strike a real chord amongst the twitterverse and bought a lot traffic to the blog which was pretty cool, but on the other I felt somewhat uncomfortable about... Continue Reading →
Dear Teacher Education Providers – Can you enter the 21st century please?
New Zealand graduating teacher standard 4.d "Graduating teachers demonstrate proficiency in oral and written language (Māori and/or English), in numeracy and in ICT relevant to their professional role." Dear Teacher Education providers Yesterday I received my pack for Teaching Experience 2 containing a wonderful array of informational booklets, multi-coloured forms for myself, my associate teacher... Continue Reading →
Weekly Reflection – In need of a holiday NOW!
26 days until the end of semester... I'm just going to come right and say it, I need a holiday. You might very well say that I just had school holidays. But in all honesty I didn't have much of a chance to rest and relax as I was unit planning and assignment writing. Now... Continue Reading →
Teaching the Teacher 