What are important teacher qualities?

Jordi, Kienan, Lori, Daniel and Nathan have each provided a top ten list of what they thought were important qualities for a teacher to have. I have collated their thoughts and grouped similiar qualities with the students explanations under each set of qualities. You will notice there are some repetitions, this represents the number of times this quality was mentioned.

Organised, Organised, Organised

Organisation is important because a teacher needs to be prepared for lessons and plan assignments and due dates in advance.

If a teacher is unorganised it makes it hard for a student to know where they should be with their class work and when assignments need to be completed.

All teachers should be organised and have a structured lesson plan otherwise their students are going to run a muck.

Being organised for the lessons so that they don’t have to go out of the class and leave the students alone.

This is important because the teacher needs to know what he/she is doing.

Helpful, Helpful, Helpful, Helpful

Needs to actually help the students when they need help.

They need to be always going around helping and giving hints on how we can improve.

If a student needs a lot of help you need to help them and use patience.

Don’t be neglectful and leave them to figure it out themselves.

I think that the best teacher is a helpful teacher.

When a teacher is prepared to help students it can allow them to achieve higher grades and be more successful throughout their schooling.

When a teacher is helpful it gives the student more respect for that teacher and more motivation to get the task completed.

 

Approachable, Getting along

It is extremely beneficial for students if they are comfortable with approaching their teacher and feel that they are able to talk to them about their school work
and gain feedback.

To make sure that the students listen to you by making sure that they don’t hate you.

Students don’t listen to someone that they don’t like, they listen to the teachers that they like and respect. Not someone that they don’t like and disrespect.

 

Respectful, Kind, Friendly, Encouraging

Respect is important for both teachers and students as it is important to feel respected by others around you.

No student likes a mean grumpy teacher that is the teacher students give the most grief to.

Always telling us what we are doing well and keeping us on task.

Always have a smile and ask you how you’re going.

 

Provides good feedback, Provides good feedback

Providing good feedback to students is a great quality as it help them to better their work and be more successful on assessment tasks.

Telling us how we are going and telling us which areas we can improve on.

 

Reflective

Reflecting on lessons and how topics have gone throughout a class can help a teacher make improvements either about the task set or the way that a
topic was approached to make it more beneficial or interesting for students.

 

Understanding, Understanding, Fair, Spend time with all students, Patient, Patient

When a teacher understands it relieves pressure from students if they are unable to get something completed on a specific date due to illness or other extra-curricular activities.

Teachers should be fair to all students they should never have a bias towards anyone.

When you have lots of students there are some that get left out. I think teachers should plan lessons so that all students get time to ask questions and get help with their work when they need it. Sometimes you need just that little bit more help than what the teacher gives and it’s important.

If a student is taking a long time to understand something don’t get frustrated with them. Take the time to make sure that they
are understanding and if they are taking a while sit there with them and explain it in a simple way so that they know what they are meant to be doing.

They need to understand how we learn best and what levels we are all at.

Teachers need to be patient and calm otherwise they will find themselves going off at students too frequently.

 

High expectations

It is good when a teacher has a high expectations of work that is submitted as it shows that they want you to do well and further our education.

If a teacher has high expectations of a student they are more likely to push the student to succeed the best of their potential.

 

Passionate, Passionate

If a teacher is not passionate about their work then they shouldn’t be there as they will not enjoy what they do and it will then make it difficult for students.

When a teacher is passionate in a subject it is a lot easier to relate and get an understanding of the concept where as if it was something that they didn’t care about or didn’t know much about it makes it a lot harder as a student to become engaged and interested in that specific topic.

 

Approachable, Likable

If the students don’t feel they can come and talk to you or don’t feel comfortable around you or are intimidated by you they aren’t going to enjoy your
lessons.

They need to be likeable so they get along with the students.

Needs to be easy going and not too strict.

 

Authorative, Confidence, Smart

Can’t be shy.

This is important becuase they need to be smart and trained in the field they are teaching.

When you’re speaking to a class you need to have confidence, if you do not the students won’t listen because they know that you don’t have confidence in speaking or yourself and they can sense it and will push.

Whilst teachers need to be approachable they also need to have a sense of authority, otherwise the students are going to walk all over them.

 

Humour, Humour, Humour

A teacher has to be able to joke around a bit.

Students like a teacher that can make a joke once in a while. It is good when you don’t have to be serious all the time and be working 24/7. When you laugh it helps you do work because for the time you are laughing it lets your brain have a rest from working.

Students always get along well with teachers that they can laugh with.

It is important to have a sense of humour and not be so serious all the time.

 

Flexible, Open to change

Teachers need to be flexible as all students are going to be different and teachers need to adapt accordingly.

If something is not working or technology has been updated you need to be able to change with it. If the way you have planned your lessons aren’t working with the students you need to revise it and change it so that you can spend time with all the students so that they can get their work done.

 

Persistence

You need to have persistence because if there is a troubled student or someone that takes longer in understanding you can’t get frustrated or angry because the student will know. You need to work and just take the time to help people out.

 

Communication, Communication

Speaking to us about our work and not just giving us a sheet and telling to complete it.

Needs to be able to communicate and explain things.

Explaining ‘New Contexts’ at a C level

A few things about the Australian Curriculum have generated healthy discussion but certainly non more so (at PBAS at least) than the wording around students achieving a C grade. If you are not sure of the terminology you are supposed to use to determine grades then here it is:

A

High level capacity to apply knowledge, skills and understandings in new contexts. Deep understanding of concepts and key ideas and connections between them outstanding development of skills. Comprehensive knowledge of content.

B

Strong capacity to apply knowledge, skills and understandings in new contexts. Some depth of understanding of concepts and key ideas high level development of skills. Thorough knowledge of content.

C

Capacity to apply knowledge, skills and understandings in new contexts. Sound understanding of concepts and key ideas sound development of skills. Adequate knowledge of content.

D

Capacity to apply knowledge, skills and understandings in familiar contexts. Some understanding of concepts and key ideas some development of skills. Basic knowledge of content.

E

Beginning capacity to apply knowledge, skills and understandings in a familiar context. Beginning understanding of concepts and key ideas. Initial development of skills limited knowledge of content.

The term ‘new context’ has been used at a C level. This wording has not been a part of our grading structure before and has prompted some people to make blanket emotional statements like, ‘no child in South Australia will achieve above a D grade because they cannot apply their learning in a new context’. As a teacher I don’t understand why this would be the case. As part of good teaching we often get students to apply knowledge at a different time to when it was originally learnt and in a different context. It happens all the time in Physical Education. For example students develop the fundamental motor skill throwing and then apply that skill to bowling in cricket or pitching in softball. Both are very different contexts and therefore require the student to demonstrate the capacity to apply knowledge, skills and understandings in new contexts. Transference of skills happens all the time in our classrooms. We just have to recognise when this happens as part of our assessment of students.

The flyer passed on to us by Denise (email 7.6.12 ‘Explaining ‘new contexts’ at ‘C’ level in the DECD Reporting Resource’) gives some examples of what ‘new context’ means. Here are two of those examples:

In Year 5 science, for instance, students are asked to classify substances according to their observable properties and behaviours. If the original learning occurred in relation to natural substances, the ability to apply classification processes to manufactured substances would constitute applying this learning ‘in new contexts’.

‘In Year 1 mathematics, students are asked to continue simple patterns involving numbers and objects. If the original learning occurred in the mathematics classroom with manipulatives, the ability to apply patterning processes in music will constitute applying learning in a new context.’

I would be interested to hear from staff whether or not these examples help with the question can I give a ‘D’ or a ‘C’ for the students understanding of a particular concept.

 

Socrative – Find out what your students know

This tool is excellent and I  will be using it in the next week or two with my stage 1 PE students. This Web tool/app allows for exactly the same type of feedback that the Activote devices provide with the IWB’s. Socrative allows you to preprepare quizzes or make up questions on the spot to find out instantly where your students are with a particular topic and use as another way of formatively assessing your students. Questions can be asked in the following formats – true/false, multiple choice and short answer questions.

To use this tool you need a wireless network, laptop or other device such as a smart phone, iPad, iPod that can connect to the wireless system you are using. For the year 11 and 12 students who always have access to laptops or certainly more so than other year levels this tool would be excellent. The teacher requires a device and so does each student participating (although I think multiple students can access one device if you don’t mind students taking it in turns). Another plus for this tool is that it does not require students to set up an account and therefore have to remember a username and password. Students connect with the teacher through a number that represents that teachers classroom (teacher provides the number to the students). Although Socrative requires students to have a device of some description it is a much easier process than the Activote devices provided by Promethean IWB’s.

Socrative also has apps for the iPhone and iPad (teacher app and student app both free). I could see this web tool working brilliantly in any class from year 1/2 up with iPads due to their ease of use.

I realise not everyone has access to laptops on a regular basis but you could use Socrative to run a quick test of your students knowledge in a computing suite or borrow 6-8 laptops and have them set up in your classroom permanently for a day so that you could get different students to do short assessment tasks for you during the day.

Check out the video below to see how Socrative works.

Learning Design Part 3

Click on the diagram to enlarge.

 

The information below is taken from the Leaders Resource – Getting Started developed by the Teaching and Learning Services team DECD.

 

This is my third post on Learning Design. The first part of Learning Design is about What is the intended learning and why is it important? This requires teachers to have a good understanding of the content and aims of the curriculum they are required to use (the Australian Curriculum or SACSA). I won’t talk about this in this post as we are having these discussions about the Australian Curriculum while all staff should be very familiar with SACSA.

The second part of Learning Design is about What knowledge do students bring to their learning? How do we find out where students are at and what do we do if students are not where we think they should be? Do we push on? Or do we stop and make sure students understand? Below are a few ways in which we can test prior knowledge.

Ways to find out what students know:

Physical representations – In groups imagine being a (insert topic/idea/concept here). How can your group physically show this. Make a model.

Visual representations – Draw one or more (insert concept/idea here).

Analogy prompt – The (insert concept here)  are/is like ……………….. because ………………..

Traffic lights – (Insert statement based on concept here) AGREE (green), DISAGREE (red), NOT SURE (orange)

ABCD cards to check out misconceptions – example  –  When water freezes there is a decrease in (a) temperature (b) state (c) volume (d) substance. I think that the answer is…………. I think that because…………………………….. I figured this out by……………………..

Written tests

Questioning – individually or as a group

Group discussion – will allow teachers to get a feel for where the group is at, not necessarily individual students.

Using Activote devices with Promethean IWB’s

Use small whiteboards one per student (A4 size) – ask questions and have students write down answers and hold them up. Gives the teacher a chance to get an overview of student knowledge instantly.

 

View this short video of Dr. Thelma Perso talking about the importance of finding out what students already know and how this might inform the next step in your teaching.

Dr. Thelma Perso

 


Dylan Wiliam – The Classroom Experiment

This is a two part series called The Classroom Experiment. Each video is an hour. I realise this is a large amount of time and that the end of term 2 is not the best time to watch them. However I highly recommend these videos. So if you do choose to watch them you can probably count them towards your time for week 10 term 4. You may wish to download the videos from You Tube and watch them in smaller chunks over a longer period of time. Perhaps through term 3?

One of the purposes of this blog is to share educational theory and research. I think that these two videos are a valuable and give the opportunity to view practical educational ideas (at least one of which is being implemented already at PBAS by Ed – coloured cups).

In this two-part series education expert Professor Dylan Wiliam sets up an experimental school classroom. For one term, he takes over a Year 8 class to test simple ideas that he believes could improve the quality of our children’s education. The concepts and ideas presented have implications from R-12.

Some of the concepts/issues in the experiment include:

  • No hands up – names on lollipop sticks.
  • Coloured cups.
  • Use of mini white boards (1 per student) – everyones in the spotlight/instant student response system (low tech version).
  • Removing grades from work. To help students focus on the comments on their work. High achieving students struggled with this. Whay do we need to give students grades?
  • Student feedback to teachers. Student observers.
  • Daily exercise – 10 minutes in the morning to prepare students for learning.
  • The second episode shows some good stuff about high achieving girls and making mistakes and their struggle with this.
  • Secret Student – improving student behaviour through peer pressure. The class earns points through positive behaviour. A Secret Student is picked each day (students don’t know who). The Secret Student for that day is the only one that can earn the points through behaving in a positive way.

The videos can also be found on the Pedagogy page under TfEL Domain 2.

Episode 1

Episode 2

R-6 Reports Parent Review

Today I met with five parents who sat with me and discussed reporting at PBAS for R-6 students. Here are the slides that we went through as part of our discussion. I have added in the data produced by the discussion so staff can have a look at it. Some of the comments made by the parents are in relation to reporting formats that they viewed today. R-6 staff will get to have a look at these reporting formats in a staff meeting which will help make some of the comments clearer. Primary staff will need to meet early term 3 to discuss this parent feedback and look at developing a new reporting format for PBAS. This new format could end up being a slight modification of our current report or a totally new format altogether.

The source of the slide show below is Slideshare. This site is blocked so the slides don’t show up at school unless you unblock the site first. Requires you to go to Slideshare and unblock and come back to this page and it should work or just view at home.

Closing the Class Divide

On April the 18th Ed posted a link to the Insight program on class struggle in relation to education. The program discussed the divide that exists between schools creating an uneven playing field when it comes to everyone being able to access a high level education. This was a really interesting program and if you haven’t watched it but would like to click here to go to Ed’s post.

Just today in the Advertiser Keith Bartley (DECD chief executive) has come out and said that after 1 year in the job how surprised he is with the inequalities that exists within Australia’s education system.

“My surprise was that in a land of opportunities that actually some of the differences were more deeply entrenched than I’d expected them to be and that Australia hadn’t really been able to come to grips with those differences.” Keith Bartley.

The following (in bold) are how Keith Bartley thinks South Australia can close the gap between the most advantaged and the least advantaged children in our school system.

1. More schools will act as community hubs with family and health services associated with them.

2. Expanding children’s centres to increase numbers and reach. Intervention at the earliest possible age to support parents and parents to be.

3. Changing teaching practices to be more learner centred as opposed to being content driven. This sounds similar to the Finish model but counter to having a content driven curriculum like the Australian Curriculum.

4. Based on the Gonski review look at how much program based funding can be put into mainstream funding that follows student based need. Where program funding remains, take away the restraints and allow schools to develop their own methods to improve outcomes. “What Gonski is Saying is that resources need to be mainstreamed, they need to be there all the time rather than being dropped in.”  Keith Bartley. Again this sounds similar to the Finish model in that teachers and schools are trusted to provide the best outcomes for their students not the state.

5. Schools will use local initiatives to work with each other to fill educational and service gaps that may exists. Again the concept of collaboration and not competition is a strong component of the Finish educational system.

Hope I haven’t bored you too much but thought it important to know some of the thoughts of our chief executive on education in South Australia.

 

The information in this post has been taken from ‘Close our Class Divide’ by Sheradyn Holderhead, The Advertiser 22.5.12.

 

 

 

TfEL/Australian Curriculum Meeting Week 5

Wednesday Admin meeting 3:20-3:45pm in Kim’s room.

Wednesday TfEL/AC meeting directly after @ 3:45 – 4:45pm

 

TfEL/AC Meeting

Just a reminder from week 2 term 2 post:

Please note the following changes to our structure in terms of who is working with who and on what.

This term sees the following:

  • R-6 staff working on AC maths
  • Tanya, Allan and Ed working on 7-10 AC maths
  • All other secondary staff working on the TfEL process. Same staff as term 1 with the addition of Justin and Nick.

TfEL Staff

Same staff as term 1 with the addition of Justin and Nick. It would be good for this group to meet in the staffroom. I have copies of the resources lists from the TfEL DVD which will be useful for those staff who have made some decisions about the one or two elements they would like to improve. It would also be good to meet as a group to see where staff are at and any issues that may be occurring.

R-6 Staff

Meet in Paul’s room.

After quick discussion with Paul, Angela and Jackie this group might look at the following:

  • Angela and Valmai share some of the information they received from Lisa Jane O Connor.
  • Maths proficiencies (unpack these and have some discussion).

8-10 maths – Tanya, Allan and Ed

Will need to make a decision about where you want to work.

I have some suggestions/resources for you to use as you see fit. As a group you may wish to discuss your own concerns and issues around the 8-10 maths curriculum. The resources that you may want to use are:

1. The year level and content descriptions and achievement standards – What does our program look like now? How is the Australian Curriculum different to current programs? Do I understand the Achievement Standards and what they are for? Look at the work samples on the AC website?

2. The Achievement Standards  – R-10 in maths. Copies of the Achievement Standards only (no content). Do they make a logical progression?

3. The maths scope and sequence tables.

Ed has the copies of these resources.

Arts Connected Toolkit

This site provides information about visual elements and principles of art. Information is provided about line, colour, space, shape, balance, movement & rhythm. There are also two videos which show professional artists creating original art works using the principles covered in the toolkit section of the site. The site also provides an Encyclopedia which is an in-depth guide to learning more about the building blocks  of composition. Here you’ll see many examples of works of art that illustrate  the visual elements and principles. Looks like an easy to use and informative site for helping to teach students about art.

Click here to visit ArtsConnected

Don’t forget to visit the Curriculum page on this site for web resources associated with subject areas including the Arts Connected Toolkit.