School Community

My first and final teaching placements provided me with opportunities to engage with the wider school community. Firstly, the lead-in days were essential to my understanding of a teacher’s role and responsibility while in a school setting. The lead-in days provided me with the opportunity to become more familiar with the school environment, and develop professional relationships with my mentors, colleagues, other staff, and students. Furthermore, the lead-in days were essential to my learning of the official school policies and procedures, as it was required of me to follow school expectations and protocols, such as attending the required staff meetings. An essential part of being able to quickly understand the school policies, procedures and guidelines required effective communication with my mentors, colleagues, and other staff. As a result, this led to me observing a wide variety of different subjects across different learning areas, and I was also encouraged to attend parent-teacher interviews, where I was able to engage with parents about their child’s learning progress, which was an opportunity to further develop my teaching skills, knowledge and experience outside of the classroom context, and in the context of the broader school community.

To ensure that my second placement began positively, I contacted the school, and this led to the arrangement of my first lead-in day visit. The school provided me with a timetable for my first lead-in day, and I ensured that I met the expectations as outlined by the school. The following lead-in days provided me with the knowledge and understanding of the schools setting, policies, procedures, and protocols. Therefore, I actively upheld these expectations as asked and instructed,  but when I was not sure about any school policy or procedure, I would discuss it with my mentors or a colleague.

• I attended all the required lead-in days in an effort to settle into the school community.
• I made use of the school’s policy and procedural standards for the purpose of behaviour management.
• I ensured that I attended the required staff meetings in an effort to engage with the school community, which helped build professional relationships with other staff, and this led to many invitations to observe their classes.
• I attended the parent-teacher interview day to engage with the broader community.

Attending the lead-in days helped me settle into the school community in a number of ways,  for example, I was able to see different areas of the school i.e. different faculty buildings; I was able to begin establishing professional relationships within the school community i.e. my mentors, colleagues, staff and students. The most common discussion between myself and my mentors was regarding behaviour management policies and procedures, as this was important for my teaching practice. Through the attendance  of staff meetings I was able to learn more about the school community, and I was able to engage with colleagues from different faculties, and as a result I was able to observe teaching in a range of learning areas, which contributed to the broadening of my pedagogical knowledge, as I was able to incorporate come of what I observed into my own teaching practice. Through the attendance of staff meetings I was able to learn more about the school community, and I was able to engage with colleagues from different faculties, and as a result I was able to observe teaching in a range of learning areas, which contributed to the broadening of my pedagogical knowledge, as I was able to incorporate some of what I observed into my own teaching practice. Through my attendance of the parent-teacher interview day, I was able to interact with parents/caregivers, which was a new experience for me. Hence, by participating in the parent teacher-interview day, I was able to broaden the scope of my teaching experience and connect with the wider school community in a professional manner.

• Observation timetable for first lead-in day (final placement)

CUE_Observation timetable for first lead-in day_annotated.pdf

• Engagement with the school community (Final Placement Report Comments)

CUE_Final Placement Report Feedback_engagement with the school community_annotated.pdf

• Knowledge and understanding of behaviour management policies and procedures (Final Placement Report Comment)

CUE_Final placement feedback report_school policy_annotated.pdf

• Parent-teacher interview journal note

CUE_Learning Journal Entry about Parent-Teacher Interviews_annotated.pdf

I believe the lead-in days were important because they helped me settle into the school community. Becoming familiar with the school layout helped me navigate around the school easier, and so, I was able to move between classes for teaching or observation quickly and easily. By attending regular staff meetings, I was able to get a sense of the true demands and diversity within the teaching profession, and I believe this contributed to positive engagement with colleagues. I believe that getting to know my mentors, colleagues and the school staff helped facilitate my professional growth and development. As by establishing a professional relationship with them, I was able to ask questions, or for feedback and observe a diverse range of lessons from teachers across different faculties. By engaging with my mentors and observing other teachers while they taught in their own teaching areas, I was able to gain an invaluable amount of knowledge and feedback for the benefit of my own teaching practice. Lastly, by being introduced to the students of the classes that I taught during my lead-in days, I was able to interact with them and support their learning, and so, when I actually taught the class, the good rapport that had been built during my lead-in days helped to facilitate the establishment of a positive learning environment. Furthermore, by learning about behaviour management policy and procedure during my lead-in days, I was able to correctly manage student behaviour according to the principle of logical consequences, which resulted in students generally accepting the consequences for their behaviour and amending them. This also contributed to a positive learning environment.