Week 2

Description
What happened? What is the event or
situation that is being examined?
(writing in first person is acceptable;
identify age/class level of students; do
not identify school, Supervising
Teacher(s),or individual students)
Interpretation
Why is this event or situation critical to
you? What is most important /
interesting / useful / relevant about the
event/situation? How can it be
explained with theory? Why did this
event/situation happen in the way it
did? What was impacting on the
event/situation?
(referencing from textbooks/academic
research is appropriate here)
Outcome
What have you learned from this?
What major insights has this incident
brought about for you? What does this
mean for your future as a pre-service
teacher? What goal(s) can be set as a
way of developing your professional
knowledge, practice, and engagement
as a result of your interpretation of this
event/situation?
References

On Tuesday afternoon another PST and myself created a Mathematics

running game and took the Grade 4s outside to play. This was a significant
event because whilst outside we needed to have full behavioral control and
have clear expectations of how the students were to behave whilst not only
outside but with us as their teachers in charge. As this was also a fun and
rewarding experience for the students it was important that we respected and
acknowledged the students achievements in getting to do such an activity.
This was an important event because much of the days before was leading up
to this event, it was impotent that we knew the childrens names and if they
had any needs or requirements when outside. It was also important that the
students were comfortable and confident in our abilities too. As stated by Wolk
(2003), Strong teacher-student relationships not only reduce discipline
problems, but they also connect behaviour and decision making to the
curriculum. Which is significant this term for the students Multi-Domain
problems. Once we had played the game once we asked the students for any
input in how the game was running and if they would like to make any
changes, as Wolk (2003) suggests by allowing a student to have a voice
youre creating a social and emotion connection with the students to get inside
their head and the fact that you care makes them see you differently.
This was a significant turning point for both myself and the other PST as the
students acted differently to us from that point on. They respected us and
understood what we expected of them and that positive behaviour from them
would result in rewards for them. It is important from now that I continue to
have a presence in and out of the classroom as this will set the expectations
of how the children not only treat myself as their teacher but as a human
being.

Wolk, S. (2003). Hearts and minds. Educational Leadership, 61(1), 14--18.