04/05/2016 - Day Sixteen - Professional Placement - Berserker Street State

School
This morning I finished off my maths lesson on quadrilaterals, polygons and two
dimensional shapes. My mentor teacher withdrew the year twos from the class and I
was left to revise the year three students. I noticed how different the dynamics of the
class was with only the year three students and how much quicker the lesson pace
was. It made me realize just how much differentiation I was doing in yesterdays
lesson to accommodate to all year levels in the class and how much this slows down
the lesson pace and is dependent on how much content can be taught.
This afternoon I experienced taking the class, for the last final session, by myself
without my mentor teacher present. I felt confident and it hit me how much I had
grown in the last three weeks. We continued on with the Mothers Day activity the
class had been set and then followed through with Virtues. I believe that my own
teaching style is starting to show and understand that I still have a lot to learn. I
believe that I will continue to learn every day in my career as a teacher and am
happy for this to add to my personal growth and professional development.
After school this afternoon there was a half an hour professional development
session on for staff that wanted to attend. It is based on the concept/text Teach like a
Champion. I found this session really valuable and am going to borrow the book out
of the library to read to help extend my professional knowledge.
The chapter that we worked on in the session this afternoon was Chapter 12
Building Character and Trust The techniques covered in this chapter were;
o Technique 58 Positive Framing: Give students to do better work while
motivating and inspiring them by using positive tone to deliver constructive
feedback.
o Technique 59 Precise Praise: Make your positive reinforcement strategic.
Differentiate between acknowledgment and praise.
o Technique 60 Warm/Strict: Be both warm and strict at the same time to send
a message of high expectations, caring and respect.
o Technique 61 Emotional Constancy: Manage your emotions to consistently
promote students learning and achievement.
o Technique 62 Joy factor: Celebrate the work of learning as you go.
Some information that I will take away from this professional development session
and try to use in my own teaching strategies is;

Positive Framing: Guide students to do better work while motivating and

inspiring them by using positive tone to deliver constructive feedback. People
are motivated by the positive far more than by the negative. Seeking success
and happiness will spur stronger action than seeking to avoid punishment.
Positive Framing, then, is about framing your interactions. Use positive
framing to correct and guide behaviour by following the six rules that follow;
1. Live in the Now In public that is, in front of your class or
while your lesson is underway avoid harping on what students
can no longer fix. Talk about what should or even must happen
next. If necessary, you can do this firmly and forcefully, but you
should focus corrective interactions on the things students
should do to succeed from this point forward.
2. Assume the best We often assume intentionality behind a
mistake. Our words imply that you did it on purpose or, worse,
you were selfish, deliberately disrespectful, or lazy. Especially
clear examples might be Stop trying to disrupt class! Why wont
you use the feedback I gave you on the first draft? or Just a
minute, class; some people seem to think they dont have to
push in their chairs when we line up. Such statements attribute
ill intention to what could be the result of distraction, lack of
practice, or genuine misunderstanding. What if the student was
trying to give you feedback, or just plain forgot about the chair?
You should comment on the behaviour and not the child. E.g.
You are being rude! should be replaced with Your behaviour at
the moment is rude.
3. Allow Plausible Anonymity: As with assuming the best, you
can still administer many consequences while preserving
anonymity: Some people didnt manage to follow directions the
whole way, so lets try that again.
4. Narrate the Positive and Build Momentum
5. Challenge: Kids love to be challenged.
6. Talk expectations and aspirations: When you ask students to
do something or better, you are helping them become the people
they wish to be or to achieve enough to have their choice of
dreams.
Precise Praise: Make your positive reinforcement strategic. Differentiate
between acknowledgment and praise.

Corrective Content
Response to an
insufficient sentence

Positive Content
Response to a worthy
sentence

Positive Tone
Positive Framing Good
start. Let me see you
write it one more time
using the words of a
scientist!
Precise Praise
Nice. Not only did you
use mitosis, but you said
the cells divide via
mitosis.

Negative Tone
Criticism (often nagging
or deflating) You still
havent used the technical
terminology.
Sarcasm
Hey, look. You can use
scientific vocabulary
when you want to.

Rules of thumb for precise praise:

o Reinforce Actions, Not traits
o Offer Objective-Aligned Praise
o Differentiate Acknowledgement from Praise
o Modulate your delivery
Warm/Strict: Be both warm and strict at the same time to send a message of
high expectations, caring and respect.
Emotional Constancy: Manage your emotions to consistently promote
student learning and achievement. Below are some tips for maintaining your
emotional constancy;
o Walk Slowly
o Criticize behaviour s rather than people
o Take your relationship out of it
o Avoid globalizing
Joy Factor: Celebrate the work of learning as you go. Ways you can include
the joy factor into classrooms;
o Fun and Games
o Us (and them)
o Drama, song and dance
o Humor
o Suspense and Surprise