I Conquer!

Lesson Planning Template – Woah!

I have never used one quite as confusing and time consuming as the one provided for our professional experience and therefore the assessment task. Hence I am finding that I obviously have to fill it all out – But I keep finding myself repeating what I have already written and the content being majority of what I have already stated.

Anyway – these are the things we must do as a student teacher although much like a blog post I read which stimulated this post – I have to agree that once I have completed my degree – I will be dropping back to a much more basic lesson planning template 🙂

EDP4140 – Dramaaaaaaaa

Hello,

I know this isn’t about ICT but I was wondering if anyone else was having trouble understanding the assessment requirements for the EDP4140 final assessment task. To me, the information is not displayed clearly and I even have trouble understanding the forum responses as they are basically restating the assessment details.

Is anyone else having this trouble?

Maybe we could try and organise a time to get together to work through it as a group or something?

Let me know – would love to hear some tips or anything that anyone can give me 🙂

#blogOUT

Connect.ed

Better late then never! haha took me a while to get through all the modules as I am quite busy at the moment like the rest of us are 🙂

Glad I finally got through it all though and I think the resource was really valuable. I will definitely be taking to my classroom some of the information that was presented.

Cybersmart Certificate

I also found this YouTube video really interesting if any of you feel like some interesting facts that are also quite scary really…

Cyber Crime in 2014

Enjoy everyone 🙂

And have a super fun weekend while I am cooped up at work (good time to be paid to do some uni though haha fingers crossed it doesnt get too busy!!)

ICT Reflection

Sooooo… here’s where I’m at with the ICT side of things.

Have I used it in most lessons – YES

Have I ‘enhanced’ student learning in every lesson – NO

I am having great difficulty doing anything too out of the ordinary due to the reluctance and scepticism of my amazing mentor teacher. She is fantastic at her job and extremely experienced, but definitely likes things done the óld fashioned’ way.

I have been able to use the IWB to engage students and I have had access to the computer labs on 3 occasions where I have been able to lead some really good ICT lessons, but besides that, I have been using the dreaded…wait for it… worksheets and writing passages… haha strangely enough, the way my mentor engages the students with this type of learning is extremely interested to observe and I have picked up a lot of tips and skills in how to engage students in ‘not so interesting’ lessons. As they always say, having a wide variety and diversity of mentor teachers makes for the best learning experience. I am not sure if they always say that… but it sounds good to me! haha

Hope everyone else is having a good time and learning lots! 

Two Thirds #sadface

Well, I am officially exhausted haha I am really enjoying the challenges and experiences that I am having through my prac. Most of all I feel as though I have been able to teach my mentor teacher a thing or two about ICT which is something I never thought happen!

I was reading through one of the blogs I enjoy reading a lot and read her most recent post – ‘Prac and Development’ blog which then lead me to ‘here’ and ‘here’ as Caitlin labels it… (Talk about collaborative learning!!)

After reading through all the blogs I have really enjoyed identifying the diverse learning environments and experiences we are all having. I know personally my challenges have been convinving my mentor of the importance of ICT in the classroom as she is an extreme non-believer but it has been a super fun road to take with her – But one of the blogs I read above talks about how much her and her mentor enjoy using the IWB for student interaction and stimulus as opposed to worksheets which can be extremely boring for students.

So much reflection to be done 🙂

Thanks for all your interesting reads people!

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun!

Good Morning Everyone 🙂

Well its a beautiful Sunday morning and I am stuck in my brothers hotel working for him while he jet sets off all over Europe … BUT alas the return to prac tomorrow for day 6 which I am looking forward too..

I have only really used ICT effectively in one of my lessons and definitely finding it challenging with my extremely ‘old school’ teacher to let me do my ‘new school’ ways but we are slowly getting there and she is an incredible teacher so I am learning a lot.

Reflecting on the first week, it went SO quickly I cant believe I am one third through the PE already… its crazy. I have met my goals of learning all of the students names (it helps that I taught some of them on a previous PE haha) but also, really think I am become a lot more confident in my planning and teaching of lessons. It is a nice feeling to have to rush back to my lesson plan to see where I am up to or where I am going with the lesson and being confident enough to simply ‘know’ what is coming next and going with it 🙂

Super cool to finally see all the years (part-time feels like a lifetime) of uni paying off and my confidence and knowledge growing.

Hope everyone else is feeling as chuffed as I am… whilst still dealing with the daily struggles and challenges!

Have fun!

#blogOUT

To Plan or Not To Plan… #thatisthequestion

Hello fellow prac students!!

Like Kelli, my prac teacher does not really believe in pre-planning due to her extensive experience in the classroom. Her classes run smoothly and all the students repond really well to her learning experiences.. but it is making it slightly harder for my own personal planning requirements… LOVING the easy going feeling of the classroom though and the students are mostly calm and respectful toward her.

In saying this, the class achieves quite low grades as a whole, although there are some extremely high students. This is probably one of the lowest classes I have worked with before so I am enjoying the challenge of working with the low students in assisting them to complete their work.

Today, we spent 5 hours in a ‘whole year level’ planning session with a curriculum coach which was ABSOLUTELY priceless for my university studies. Such a great opportunity to be able to see what we are learning actually put into practice for an entire unit (planning for sem. 3). Great day but definitely extremely exhausted now!!

Have a good Friday everyone 🙂

#blogOUT

Assessment Time and Prac #thestruggleisreal

Hey Peers!

Hope you are all enjoying your prac experience and your mentor is super lovely like mine…

The trouble I am facing at the moment is that due to class report cards being due in week 7 (2 week from now), there is a lot of assessment happening and not much teaching. My mentor is having me conduct the assessment tasks although I am finding this slightly difficult as I have not been there for the unit to know exactly what is expected of them and what their ability levels are.

Anyway.. just wondering if anyone else was experiences these challenges…

Also, my mentor is super old school which I am really enjoying seeing the ‘old fashioned’ way of teaching that has been modified slightly with all the educational developments although am also finding it challenge to incorporate ICT into my lessons as there is extremely limited resources in the school context I am at, as well as my mentor not really using the devices that are available as she herself is not extemely competent with them.

Arghhhh the usually stress and drama of PE so I’m not whinging – and I am loving being back in the classroom – just the usual struggle of working out how to complete my assessment item to the highest standard.

Enjoy your 3 weeks 🙂

#blogOUT

#relax #justdoit

So my dearest darling mother told me the other day… “you need to learn to relax more and stress less”… So… due to her amazingly kind soul… she taught me how to crochet………

RELAXING!!!!! I THINK NOT!

The stupid wool keeps falling off the stupid hook BUT I must admit I am absolutely ADDICTED to it… I am loving the progress and it is definitely an effective way to switch the brain off … The rug might end up VERY big if I keep going at this rate… haha

This got me thinking.. there are probably some students out there that don’t have parents to teach them how to crochet… or tell them to relax… so I wanted to add in some tips that I have researched about how to reduce stress and relax 🙂

’10 Relaxation Techniques That Zap Stress Fast’ 

AND ALSO –

‘Learn how to crochet for beginners’

Hope you all had an awesome first day at Prac and all your mentor teachers are a wealth of knowledge 🙂

Good night!

#blogOUT

Woah Woah Woah – Hold the phone.

<– This made me laugh – thought I would share 🙂

Holy Dooley – Is it just me or is this course really getting away from everyone? I feel like I am always a step or two behind – and thank god for those ‘reminder’ emails that give you an update as to your progress… because I’ll be honest – finding the time to ‘blog’ in the last few weeks has not been easy… hence why I am a bit behind schedule…

I think I have my head around the assessment task and it doesn’t seem TOO demanding – maybe just more time consuming although I appreciate that at least the a lot of the content is required for our PE anyway.

I also haven’t finished the content for the past few weeks so I am hoping to catch up with that over the next few days 🙂

WISH ME LUCK!!!