What is teacher centred and student centred learning?

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/goalsmethods/learncentpop.html

Unsupportive Mentors

Below is a useful site which may provide some insight into your option and what you can do if your support staff or mentor isn't providing you with the guidance you require.

Strategies for Dealing with an Unsupportive Coworker

http://blogs.scholastic.com/.a/6a00e54faaf86b88330153901efdc0970b-200wi

Aboriginal Liaison Officer

The role of the Aboriginal Liaison Officer (ALO) is to assist the Principal in developing effective relationships between your school and the local Aboriginal communities, so as to “close the gap” on Aboriginal disadvantage (Redfern Jarjum College 2012). Other duties of the ALO will generally include; 

- developing consultation and communication strategies that engage the local Aboriginal communities;

- developing and implementing strategies that address the needs of Aboriginal communities;

- assisting the school and the Aboriginal communities to develop, review and implement relevant programs, engaging with the communities in a way that generations long term loyalty and commitment to the school, through value added services and programs;

- assisting in volunteer activities and events that promote the recruitment of volunteers;

-responsibility for the appearance of students and modelling appropriate dress and manner.

Working with Aboriginal Communities - PDF

Reference

Red Jarjum College, 2012, ‘Role Description – Aboriginal Liaison Officer’, URL: http://www.rjc.nsw.edu.au/?page_id=999 (accessed 23/10/2012). 

Image: http://www.inmycommunity.com.au/_uploads/ArticleFeed/resized_d374247aCC_300_300_FitSquare.JPG

How to Access the DEC Website

The NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC) website can be accessed by clicking on or typing the following link below into your web browser tool-bar: http://www.dec.nsw.gov.au/.

On the DEC website you will find information for students, parents and teachers. The information available on the DEC website for students ‘is written for students by students’ and this includes information for primary, high school, and TAFE students (NSW DEC 2012).  

The information for parents covers a range of information regarding their child’s ‘key transitions from preschool through to high school and beyond’ (NSW DEC 2012). 

http://www.dec.nsw.gov.au

Furthermore, the DEC website offers teachers an extensive range of services designed to assist in developing the skills of their workforce  and customised training for professional development (NSW DET 2012).

As the following screen capture illustrates the DEC website offers loads of information on the services that the DEC provide. In addition to this the DEC also provides an extensive list of important policies and procedures.

The DEC website provides a comprehensive list of all of the Department of Education (DET) policies and procedures (NSW DEC 2012). Follow the links below to access some of the relevant policies and procedures that are currently in place in NSW schools and will be helpful for you Amy. 

Aboriginal Education and Training Policy

Accreditation of New Scheme Teachers in NSW Government Schools Policy

Assisted School Travel Program for School Students with Disability

Assisting Students with Learning Difficulties

Beginning Teachers Support Policy

Bullying: Preventing and Responding to Student Bullying in Schools Policy

Allegations against Employees in the Area of Child Protection

Complaints Handling Policy

Gifted and Talented Policy

Multicultural Education Policy

School Attendance Policy

Student Welfare Policy

To access a full A-Z list of Department policies and procedures click the following link:

https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policiesinter/atoz/search.do?level=Schools 

Planning an Assembly Item

In the same way as you would when planning a lesson, decide on your learning objectives. Keep them few and simple. You'll have at most 10 minutes to fill, and you'll have to spend some time giving out information. 
What you choose is less important than the ways in which you help your pupils build a positive group identity, and in making the values and purposes of the school their own. Assemblies, are important in supporting the social, moral and spiritual growth of your pupils.

Use music to set the mood, turning it off is a clear signal to even the largest groups that you're about to begin. Don't be afraid to use new technologies - a laptop and a portable projector can produce images that everyone in a large hall can see, and can let you share content from any medium.


Think About:

Assembly rooms are bigger than classrooms. Will everyone be able to hear you? What about lines of sight - will everyone be able to see you? If you have visual aids, are they big enough to be visible from a distance?

Eye contact is especially important when you're working with large groups, so pick three or four pupils in different parts of the room, and make eye contact with each of them in turn. You'll look engaged with the audience.

Aim to involve your audience. If the core of your item is a story, begin by asking questions to help pupils focus on its subject, and remember that stories are better told than read.

Master the bones of the story then improvise around that structure. What you say will sound more personal and convincing. Remember to speak more slowly than usual, too. Give your words time to sink in.



Make pupils work. If one of your learning objectives is to get them to examine and to change their views on an issue, begin by taking a vote to establish what they think before your presentation, and take another after it.

Use your tutor group or class to research and deliver their own presentation, perhaps as a short play or interview. It's a good use of tutorial time, and will involve the performers in real learning.

Relate the subject of your assembly to pupils' own experience - take news items as your starting point, or situations from soap opera (or, even better, from The Simpsons). Help them take what they know and encourage them to think about it, and reflect on their own experience


Finally, remember that pupils will be going off to lessons after you've finished with them, so don't over-excite them. Your colleagues won't thank you if they have to spend too much of the lesson to calm them down. End your assembly with a couple of minutes for reflection.

Ideas for Assembly Items

Assembly tips

• Keep it simple. There is plenty of time for all-singing, all-dancing extravaganzas once you have found your feet.

• Encourage children to brainstorm when you are planning your class assembly. Even young children will come up with exciting and fresh ideas.

• Child-generated props, masks and costumes add to the fun.

• Involve parents. Does your school usually invite parents to class assemblies? It may be a nice idea to record the assembly on video. The children will love to watch themselves performing, and working parents will appreciate the opportunity to see the assembly, although some schools and local authorities have policies that would preclude this.

• Ensure that every child has a part to play. No one must feel left out.

• Don't get too stressed about it. Assemblies should not interfere with classroom time.

The Gruffelo Class Item

Make sure your class behaves

Assemblies are unfortunately rife with opportunities for enterprising individuals to create havoc. Make sure your class understands that you expect them to file in and out calmly, and praise those who do, as well as children who have been particularly co-operative.

Position your children carefully. Separate any noisy cliques and friendship groups. Position any who can be disruptive at the end of the line and sit within calming distance. A touch on the shoulder and a stern look are often enough to quieten a child. If not, you are close enough to remove offenders quietly.

Adam Hills Advance Australia Fair - Assembly Idea

Documents

Exploring Assemblies

Planning a School Assembly

This weeks assembly theme - poster

Script - The Contest of the Fairies

Reference:

Taken from TES Editorial, 2012 Advice to help you handle your first assembly TSL Education Ltd. Cited 20.10.2012. URL: http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/news/advice-help-you-handle-your-first-assembly/45539

Image: http://www.draw3d.com/mkSchoolAssembly50.gif

How to develop interpersonal communication skills in the workplace

In order for a professionally organised and managed workplace, one must develop effective communication skills. Competent interpersonal skills consist of knowledge and understanding about communicating with fellow team members. We must visualise ourselves on an interpersonal skills continuum where we are constantly self-assessing our social composure and disclosure to evaluate the effectiveness of our verbal and nonverbal responses within our workplace; and to improve where necessary.

The following skills are required to communicate effectively:

1.     Refer to the person you are talking to by name. People are complimented when they know that you are making the conversation personal.  It also enables you to store this personal information into your long term memory. For example, when someone introduces themselves, reply with “hello, nice to meet you (insert name).” as next time, you shall be able to refer to them in a much more interpersonal way.

2.     Make messages specific and complete. When speaking, include all of the necessary information the receiver needs to comprehend your message. Repeating your message more than once and using other skills such as pictures and nonverbal cues will help transcend your message across.

3.     “Own statements” involve using first person singular pronouns such as: I, my, me. Ownership means taking responsibility for the ideas and feeling that you express. Be descriptive. Describe your feelings by saying: “I feel angry when…”, “I feel disappointed because…”

4.     After you have disclosed a message, you must continually ask for feedback to become aware how the receiver is interpreting and processing your message. Listen with an open mind, accepting that you have plenty to learn. If you ever have any doubts, ask the receiver questions.

5.     Avoid jumping to conclusions about what your team member is saying. Listen to the whole message or reply before you make a comment. If you ever have any doubts, ask the receiver questions or paraphrase their message to clarify the information they have just given you. Your team member will appreciate that you are listening to what they are saying.

6.     Try to control your defensiveness when communicating to team members at all times. Fear of hurting your feelings or being confronted by defensive behavior makes people hesitant to socialise and communicate with you. If you do find yourself becoming defensive, practice stress management techniques such as deep breathing and exhaling slowly.

7.     The reading of a person’s body language, such as their facial expressions, gestures and posture, is one of the most significant skills of communication. Nonverbal communication not only portrays how a person is feeling but also how they are coping with their emotion. Being able to identify the following clues may ease the process of finding the right time to confront a fellow team member. For example, a person may appear angry when: they have frowning eyebrows and mouth, clenched fists, flailing arms, slamming doors and stamping feet (Bolten 1997).

8.     Just because a team member gives you feedback, doesn’t mean their feedback is right. Check with other members to receive a different perspective of the matter and to determine the reliability of the feedback.

9.     If you are being bullied or harassed by a fellow team member, tell the person face to face how their behaviour is impacting your work and what feelings their behaviour evokes. If the team member’s actions still persists, document all confrontations and report privately to the school principal.

10.  If you are approached by a negative person and they ask for help, provide advice or ideas for how the coworker can address the reason for their negativity. Be sure that you set limits so the team member’s negativity does not overpower your energy and positive outlook. Walk away or tell them you would prefer to move onto more positive subjects.

Reference list

Bolten, R. (1997). People Skills: How to assert yourself, listen to others and resolve conflicts, Simon and Schuster, Australia

Healthfield, S. M. (2012). 10 Tips for Dealing with Difficult People at Work: Dealing with difficult coworkers, bosses and friends at work, last accessed: 28/09/2012, http://humanresources.about.com/od/difficultpeople/tp/dealing_difficult.htm

Robinson, M. (2006). How to Improve Your Interpersonal Communication Skills, last accessed: 28/09/2012, http://voices.yahoo.com/how-improve-interpersonal-communication-skills-55208.html

Image:http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TvPjvzPadK4/UCQhMrihYI/AAAAAAAARAo/OskBdocFYW0/s1600/Communicating.jpg

The importance in the school philosophy

Through working as a united learning community, our purpose is to produce optimistic, resilient lifelong learners with skills for future success as responsible citizens in the 21st century.

Park Hill Public School, 2012

The importance of a philosophy in education is that is defines the purpose and focus of an educational institution (Thompson 2007). When parents are choosing the appropriate school for their children to attend or teachers are finding the school that best suits their own beliefs in education, reading the school philosophy will provide an overall picture of how the staff define what subjects are taught and how they are taught, and more importantly the values and attitudes of the teaching and learning process.

Below is a philosophy checklist created by Cornell University Graduate School (2010) of information you must include in both your personal and school philosophy:

• Teaching values, beliefs, and goals
• Provides a set of criteria and/or standards to judge the quality of your teaching
• Provides evidence of your teaching effectiveness
• Explanation of the desired learning styles (inquiry based, student directed, problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork)
• Educational purpose and learning goals for students
• Effective teaching methods
• student-teaching roles and responsibilities
• student-teacher interactions
• inclusiveness
• Effective methods for assessing students’ learning
• Effective methods for the assessment of teaching

Answer these questions to get started:

• The purpose of education is to________.
• Why do you want to teach your subject?
• Students learn best by______________.
• When you are teaching your subject, what are your goals?
• The most effective methods for teaching are___________.
• I know this because__________________.
• The most important aspects of my teaching are______________.

Writing guidelines:

• There is no required content, set format, or right or wrong way to write a teaching statement. That is why writing one can be challenging. 
• Make the length suit the context. Generally, they are 1–2 pages.
• Use present tense and the first person, in most cases.
• Avoid technical terms and use broadly understood language and concepts, in most cases. Write with the audience in mind. Have someone from your field guide you on discipline-specific jargon and issues to include or exclude.
• Include teaching strategies and methods to help people “see” you in the classroom. Include specific examples of your teaching strategies, assignments, discussions, etc. Help them to visualize the learning environment you create and the exchanges between you and your students.

Reference List

Cornell University Graduate School. (2011). Teaching Philosophy Statement, last accessed: 29/09/2012, http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/career-development/put-your-qualifications-writing/teaching-philosophy-statement

Thompson, A.C. (2007). A philosophy of education, last accessed: 29/09/2012, http://www.acthompson.net/PhilEd.htm

Image: http://edutopia-ntbootcamp.wikispaces.com/file/view/Wordle_Philosophy.jpg/240112525/705x348/Wordle_Philosophy.jpg

Roles and Responsibilities of Staff

Principal

Overall, the task of the principal is to maintain and manage the whole school (NSW Department of Education 2009). They have a collective responsibility for the students, teachers and other roles within the school (CYPMH 2012; NSW DEC 2009).

In the past, the principal was seen as mainly an educational leader – where their main role was to lead and manage the planning, delivery, evaluation and improvement of education within their school (Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development 2009). Nowadays however, the responsibilities of the principal tend to lean more towards a managerial role in the school. As a result, they now are in charge of establishing, managing and dealing with the financial issues within the school, as well as managing the school property (CYPMH, 2009; NSW DEC, 2009). The principal is  also accountable for the school development within the guidelines and policies developed by the government. In addition, the principal must also ensure the welfare of both staff and students (NSW DEC, 2009).

Deputy/Assistant Principal

The role of the deputy and assistant principal is to organise the daily school routine, deal with both staff and student welfare and also oversee the teaching and learning curriculums operating within the school (CYPMH, 2012; NSW DEC 2009). The variable between the role of deputy principal and assistant principal is that the assistant principal teaches and the deputy does not (CYPMH 2010). Regardless, this position lies directly beneath the principal and holds the role of contributing to the overall management of the school whilst reporting to the principal (VDEECD, 2009). Their responsibilities include dealing with discipline beyond the classroom, making decisions in regards to short term replacement teachers, selecting and assigning staff to positions of responsibility and the allocation of resources (VDEECD 2009). They also have a role in developing and managing the school code of conduct and the management of programs to improve knowledge and skills of teaching staff (VDEECD 2009).

Classroom Teacher

Classroom teachers act primarily to develop the skills, knowledge, understanding, values and attitudes of students, as well as maintaining the welfare of them (CYPMH, 2012; NSW DEC, 2009). According to the NSW DEC (2009), classroom teachers are the most important person in the school for students as they are the main benefactors in their education.

All classroom teachers have the role of developing a program in which to teach and develop student outcomes (VDEECD, 2009). In addition, a classroom teacher must also develop their quality as a teacher through professional development opportunities as well as personal reflection (VDEECD 2009). Classroom teachers will also be required to take on additional duties and will be required to work collaboratively with their colleagues to promote cohesion within the school (VDEECD 2009).

Teachers fall into three categories: graduate, accomplished and expert (VDEECD 2009). As the classroom teacher develops, their contribution to the school extends past the classroom (VDEECD 2009; Boston, 2000). Graduate teachers are mainly responsible for their own classes, as well as assisting and participating in school development and the organisation of co-curricular activities (VDEECD 2009). The accomplished teacher is accountable for the effective and efficient delivery of their programs (VEECD 2009). They may have the responsibility of supervising and training one or more student teachers, assisting with daily school management, managing a learning area or year level, assisting and supervising programs or activities and managing the organisation and coordination of events  (VEECD 2009). The expert teacher, in addition to the roles undertaken by the accomplished teacher, must act to mentor and assist in the development of the knowledge base of school staff in regards to teaching practice (VEECD 2009). They may be required to also manage a team of teachers in the development, implementation and evaluation of curriculum programs and policies within the school (VEECD 2009).

New Scheme Teachers

New scheme teachers fall under the category of teachers who have never been employed to teach in NSW before October 1, 2004 or who have been employed as a teacher during the last five years (NSW DEC 2012).

- Additional Teaching Staff

Support Teacher/Learning Assistance (STLA)

The role of STLA is to provide students with learning difficulties the extra support necessary in maximising their learning (CYPMH, 2012), as well as allowing for better classroom management for the classroom teacher (NSW DEC 2009).

The Librarian

The librarian is active member of the teaching and learning process and is crucial in preparing relevant resources that can assist teachers and students (NSW DEC, 2009).

English as a Second Language Teacher (ESL Teacher)

This position provides support in the development of English for students from a non-English speaking background (CYPMH, 2012). Depending on the school, often one on one teaching occurs in and outside of the classroom.

Aboriginal Research Teacher

The role of a Aboriginal research teacher is to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes for Aboriginal students by team teaching, working with particular groups of students and through the development of appropriate resources in consultation with the local Aboriginal community (NSW DEC 2009)

Learning Support Officers

School Learning Support Officers assist all teaching staff to implement quality learning outcomes for students with disabilities in regular classes (NSW DET 2012).

Integration Aides

Integration aides provide support to both students with special needs and to the teachers of these students. In some cases students are so highly dependent on integration aides to provide a high level of support that without assistance of integration aides these children would not unable to attend the school (CRC St Albans 2012).

Reference List 

Catholic Regional College St Albans (CRC St Albans) 2010, ‘Integration Aide’, Accessed: 27 September, 2012 URL: http://www.crcstalbans.catholic.edu.au

Central Coast Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Service (CYPMH) 2012, ‘Who's Who in Primary School? For Parents’, Accessed: 27 September, 2012 URL:http://www.ycentral.com.au/filelibrary/Who__s_who_in_primary_school.pdf

NSW Department of Education and Communities (NSW DEC) 2009, ‘Staff in Primary and Infants Schools’, Accessed: 27 September 2012 URL:http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/gotoschool/a-z/is_ps_staff.php  

Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (VDEECD) 2009, Human Resources: roles of responsibilities principal and teacher class,  Accessed: September 27 2012

URL:http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/hr/empconditions/Roles_and_responsibilities-TS.pdf

Image: http://www.ourladyofstannes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/cartoon-team.png