Week+7


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"Who are your students and how do you know?"__** Week 7's lecture by Professor Tanya Fitzgerald touched on one of the most important things we as future teachers need to understand, and that is our students. All to often in everyday life we make assumptions about people by the way they dress, the car they drive, their education and their ethnicity without even 'knowing' them. I will shamefully put my hand up and admit that I have been guilty of this in the past. The old saying of 'you can't judge a book by its cover' is so true and it is important that we are able to come up with questions and strategies for ourselves to be able to identify and understand our students, so that we do not pigeon hole them. We have to create environments where each individual can learn and feel comfortable. We have to become role models and model behaviours that will have a flow on effect to how the students view/treat each other as well. In essence we will do more than just teach! Tanya spoke about some of the students who teachers can typically make assumptions about including migrants, children from refugee backgrounds, children with chronic illnesses and children who move around families. Just because someone comes from a different background to our own does that mean we should treat them any differently? **NO!** Just because a student has learning difficulties does that mean that we give up on them? **NO!** We need to celebrate the knowledge and experiences of each individual and continue to build on them. I really liked some of the whole class activities that were suggested in the lecture about getting to know and understand your students, with my favourite being to spin a classroom web. This is where the students write down things about themselves, things they like, places they have been etc and they can see who they are connected to. It aids in giving the students a sense of place and belonging within the class whilst also giving the teacher extra information to help understand the students more.

In conclusion I invite all of us to remember the last slide of the lecture:
 * Celebrate individuals
 * Cultivate inclusiveness
 * Plan for **all** learning needs
 * Create boundaries
 * **DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS!**

Amy McLean 28/04/09

Brent Plowright 29/04/2009

Great reflection Amy!

I couldn't agree more with the points you made about treating students differently. Students should definitely all be treated equally, but we must not let that get in the way of catering our teaching for different ability levels. A lot has been said throughout the course thus far that has focused on ensuring we do not let the students that are lower ability in certain areas fall even further behind their peers, and rightfully so. However what we must remember also is that our higher ability students can not be ignored, and they need as much attention and time as the lower ability students. I believe that our job as teachers is to give the students we teach the tools to further progress. So we should concentrate on all our students equally and whether they are of high, middle or low ability we must give each the instruments to extend themselves and their learning.

Something I found incredibly interesting, and after reading through the resources on LMS it makes total sense, is that some gifted students can also have learning disabilities. I guess you could say that this is a perfect, an extreme case perhaps, but still a perfect example of Gardner's multiple intelligences. If a child has a low ability in literacy and maths but shows incredible ability in art or ICT should they still be considered for a school run gifted program? Well this quote taken from TALENT ED website sums it up perfectly I think:

"Encourage these children to excel in the areas in which they are capable. Do not punish them for failure in one area by not allowing them to go to art class, the science fair, an athletic competition, or the gifted program." (p.18)

Williams, K. (1988) The learning-disabled gifted: An unmet challenge. The Gifted Child Today, 11 (3), 17-18. accessed on the TALENT ED website []

Bec 29/04/2009 Great reflections guys,

Getting to know your students is so important. As suggested in the lecture there are many different activities available to do this. Create a class slide show- with each individuals interests, family information and favourites. You may even decide to get a blow up ball and throw it around the room and whichever student it lands on has the opportunity to share information about themselves. As we all know kids love talking about themselves! You may simply choose to get to know your your students through oberving their interactions or encourage circle time which is where the students sit in a circle and listen to each other without commenting or discouraging anyone. Today, teachers do more than just teach, they model professional and social behaviour to those who choose to embark on a journey through school. They need to earn respect in the classroom and encourage the kids to be open and contribute to their learning.  It's integral to get to know the children and enrich their learning by celebrating their work. So ask yourselves How do you teach? Why do you teach? What clues do you have to get to know your kids?

Jake 29/04/09

Fantastic work guys! I agree very much that all students should be equal and that it shouldn't matter if they have a disability whether it be health or learning, if they are in our classroom they deserve our respect just like any other student. This just means that we need to be able to adapt our teaching methods to make sure they cater for everyone in the class. I agree with Brent that sometimes we may focus on the students who may be struggling in some areas with focus groups and that we can't lose sight of those who are excelling. I have had experience with a child that has autism and was informed that the way these students think is that their minds are like computers and will be able to "run" some programs but not others. If we relate this back to the classroom, as Brent again touched on, they will excel in some areas e.g. maths and ICT, but not so in others; English and drama. What we as future teachers must be aware of and keep reminding ourselves is that each student is different and all will need to be helped in thier own way. We must be passionate about every child in our class rooms and collectively celebrate their achievements to make sure they all have the best possible chance when developing their education and values!

ONLINE RESOURCES
[|Professor John Smyth - University of Ballarat in Victoria Social Justice issues] [|Culture and Power in Education - Professor Michael Apple] [|Students with Disabilities - Dept. of Education][|Students with Disabilities] [|Inclusive Schools are Effective Schools] [|Victorian Association for Gifted and Talented Children Inc] [|TALENT ED]

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Names: Brent Plowright Rebecca Beed Amy Mclean Jake Gordon