ICT in the classroom

During my five school visits, I have seen ICT being used sometimes; however, after reading Transforming learning with ICT by Finger, Russell and Jamieson-Proctor, I have realised that it could be used more frequently and more effectively.

The use of ICT that I have witnessed in my classroom has been the use of the interactive whiteboard and the use of the computer for interactive maths games. Based on what I have seen, the interactive whiteboard has been used no differently then the standard whiteboard, as it has only been used to write on and to show basic slides. The students really enjoy writing on the board; however, they would benefit more from interactive activities where they manipulate the contents on the board. Personally, I think the interactive board can be limiting, as I have only ever seen one student being able to complete the task on the board as the rest of the class watch without doing any active learning themselves. Therefore, I would use the interactive board in small group activities such as  work stations in which students rotate between tasks. This maximises the use of the board as each student has a chance to be more actively involved with the board whilst other students are still actively working on other tasks.

I believe that ICT should be incorporated into the classroom as much as possible as it develops students ICT skills and relates their learning to the real world (Finger, Russell, Jamieson-Proctor, 2007).

I think that ICT should be used to further assist the student to achieve the learning outcome, not just for the sake of using it (Finger, Russell, Jamieson-Proctor, 2007). I think that teachers often just allow their students to work on the computer playing already developed games so that they can tick the box that they have incorporated ICT  into their teaching. On the other hand, effective teachers use ICT as a mindtool for their students by using ICT to enhance the students ability to think deeper, solve problems and create their own knowledge and skills (Finger, Russell, Jamieson-Proctor, 2007). The use of ICT in the classroom allows students to actively control their own learning rather then passively absorbing information provided by the teacher (Finger, Russell, Jamieson-Proctor, 2007).

When teachers use ICT effectively in their classrooms they are ensuring that they follow teaching standard 4 as they are using ICT to foster interest and support learning.

Finger, G., Russell, G., Jamieson-Proctor, R & Russell, N. (2007). Transforming learning with ICT:Making IT happen. Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education Australia.

Behaviour Management

One of the main things that I am worried about when teaching is behaviour management.

One of the problems that I continue to face when I am teaching is students refusing to do what I ask. When the students refuse to do as asked I don’t know what to do next, and usually I just let them get away with it, whilst I know that I shouldn’t, I don’t know what else to do.  After reading Existing Models of Behaviour Management by Bradshaw, Grainger and Konza, I have developed a few strategies that I think might help this situation including creating consequences for the misbeahaviour and most importantly ensuring that I follow through with these consequences.

Another problem that I continue to face is students talking when they are meant to be listening to their classmates. I find this really disrespectful and am continuously asking my students to stop doing this. After reading Existing Models of Behaviour Management, I have developed strategies to overcome this problem including creating and displaying a clear set of class agreements (rules) accompanied by consequences. Most importantly, I have discovered the importance of the use of positive language. For example, instead of constantly nagging the students to stop talking, I should ask them the question ‘What should you be doing?’, or ‘Listening thank You’ instead of ‘stop talking’. If the students continue to behave incorrectly after I have questioned them using positive words I should provide them with a choice such as ‘you either listen now or at lunchtime, it’s your choice’.

Another important discovery that I have made about behaviour management is to ensure that I don’t give attention to incorrect behaviour, but rather correct behaviour.

Another effective strategy for managing challenging behaviour is finding out what is causing the bahaviour and dealing with that problem.

After closely observing my teacher, I have found that one of the main reasons that the students are so well behaved for her is because she has developed routines for the students to follow. This has shown me the importance of developing my own class routines when I am teaching.

When implementing effective behaviour management strategies teachers are ensuring that they are following teaching standard four as they are managing challenging behaviour.

Knonza, D., Grainger, J. & Bradshaw, K. (2004). Existing Models of Behaviour Management. In Classroom Management: A Survival Guide, (pp79-100). Social Science Press.

Early Finishers

The main problem that I am facing when teaching, is managing students who complete their work very quickly. The class contains so many different ability levels that some students may finish the task before others have finished the first question. (and it is not a behavioural problem, it is ability levels). The range in the class is so mixed that students are finishing the work at a large range of different times.

Currently my supervising teacher has given her class tissue boxes to make for Mother’s Day, and this week they continued working on these once they had finished the task set. I found this to be extremely chaotic as some students would get distracted by the tissue boxes as they were sitting on their desks and work on their box before they had completed the task set. And even then, students were finishing their boxes at different times.

I dread hearing the words ‘I’m finished Miss’ and then I look around and see that some students aren’t even half way through the task. Therefore, I conducted research to find out some effective strategies to cater for early finishers. Ideally I aim to eliminate students commenting that they have finished and to create a routine in which students know what they can move onto when they are finished without having to bother anyone else in the class.

The research that I found from existing teachers suggests that the first step should be carefully planning lessons by creating differentiated learning tasks  to cater to the different abilities in the classroom.  The existing teachers recognise that once this has been done, students will still finish their work at different times and suggest some of the following methods, which I personally am eager to try:

• Challenge booklet: Each student is given a booklet to keep under their desks and when they finish the task they work through their booklet.
• Writing an open ended weekley challenge on the board.
• Peer teaching: When students have finished they assist a peer who may be finiding the activity difficult.
• When I am finished box: Students can choose an activity from the finished box.

Catering for early finishers ensures that teachers are following teaching standards 1 and 3, as they are catering to all students by planning for and implementing effective teaching and learning.

Catering for early finishers is a challenging task; howver, it is essential as it  maximises learning and limits behaviour issues.

The information provided in this blog has been informed by the websites:

http://www.k-3teacherresources.com/early-finishers-1.html

http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/showthread.php?+=63173

The Cooperative Classroom

Cooperative learning should be used as much as possible in the classroom as it builds students social skills whilst focusing on academic content (Gordon & Butterfield, 2003). When executed correctly, cooperative learning tasks can result in the development of social skills that students need to function successfully in society such as communication and conflict resolution and can produce higher learning results then what would have been achieved individually. However, when executed incorrectly cooperative learning can produce no benefits.

After five school visits, I am yet to witness any effective cooperative learning. I believe that too often group work is mistaken for cooperative learning. The cooperative learning that I have seen has only required students to complete individual tasks within a group situation. Not once have I seen students working together to achieve a common goal.

When teaching,  I will implement effective cooperative learning activities as often as possible, as I believe that it develops students social skills dramatically and produces higher rates of learning, as students learn from each other. I can make cooperative learning activities effective by ensuring that the task set requires students to work together to achieve a common goal. To do this, it is essential that the task contains individual accountability (Gordon & Butterfield, 2003). When the task has individual accountability it requires all students to contribute in order to complete the task successfully.  A good way to ensure that the task has individual accountability is to give each student in the group a different role. All students must execute their role successfully in order for the whole group to complete the task. To increase the effectiveness of the task, teachers should explain what each role in the group looks like, sounds like and feels like through the use of a Y-Chart. This ensures that all students known what they must do in each role. Students should have ample practice at each role to ensure that they develop a variety of social skills.

Cooperative learning tasks can be challenging for some students, especially students with fears of social interaction. For this reason, I believe that it is essential to use extensive amounts of cooperative learning tasks from the moment a child starts school to ensure that social skills begin to be developed from a young age. The more students practice cooperative tasks, the better they will become at them.

Using cooperative learning in the classroom contributes to teaching standards 3 and 4 as it contributes to effective teaching and learning as well as the development of a safe and supportive learning environment.

The information presented in this blog has been influenced by:

Arthur, M., Gordon, C. & Butterfield, N. (2003).  The impact of curriculum and instruction. In Classroom Management: Creating Positive Learning Environments, (pp43-54). Thomas: Southbank, Victoria.

Questioning in the Classroom

The study of questioning made me consider how I use questions when I am teaching. Before the study, I believed that my questioning techniques were very good and that I provided my students with questions to develop their learning well. After looking closely at my questioning techniques during my practical experience I discovered that my questioning skills are actually quite poor. I found that I ask questions that only require my students to use the lower order thinking skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy such as remember and understand. I very rarely ask my students questions that require them to apply or analyse their knowledge and cannot think of any circumstance when I have asked my students questions that require them to evaluate or design. This informs me that my questions are not challenging my students, as they are not requiring them to think deeply. I believe that there should be a mixture of  lower and higher order questions to ensure that my students succeed as well providing challenges for my students and extending their knowledge.

I find that when I am teaching on prac, it is so easy to ask lower order questions as they are the first questions that come to my mind. To ensure that I incorporate effective higher order questions in my teaching I need to plan the questions that I am going to ask before hand. I also need to know the answers that I am expecting from my students and the answers that I would like my students to produce. For example, I was teaching my Year 3 class a lesson on the topic of The Australian Government. My knowledge on this topic is extremely limited and I hadn’t prepared the answers to the questions that I was going to ask. Therefore, my students responses were very limited. As I hadn’t prepared any answers, I excepted the students answers that they provided. If i had have planned the answers before the class I could have probed my students to get them to think deeper and with my assistance produce a better answer.

Therefore the main things that I will work on when questioning in the classroom are:

• Developing higher order questions.
• Preparing questions and answers before the lesson.

Using effective questioning techniques ensures that teachers are following teaching standard 3 as they  are planning and implementing effective teaching and learning.

The information provided in this blog has been informed by:

Barry, K. & King, L. (1998). Developing instructional skills. In Beginning Teaching and Beyond, (3rd ed.), (pp144-167). Social Science Press.