Who am I as a Teacher?

A speech written to accompany a Prezi presentation as part of my 2017 contract application process.

1 Introduction - Prezi Slide 1

Good Morning and thank you for your time. My name is Rachel Harlen, for those of you who
dont know me, I am a Mature Aged, First year teacher. I have been banding the term, Old
First Year and Im actually quite proud of this moniker. I believe that as a mature aged
graduate I bring a lot of experience, compassion, skill and knowledge to a school.
Im very driven to deliver my absolute best as I fought hard for my degree and Teaching is
something that is more than just a passion for me.
I think as a mother and with my maturity, I have a deep understanding of the privilege that it is
to teach and also the importance of the associated responsibilities. I come from an early
childhood background, which I believe has enable me to have a more holistic and inclusive
view of the students in my classroom.
I grew up in Roma, where I was Christened and Confirmed in the beautiful Anglican Church
there. We were luckily enough to grow up across the road from Father Gary Harch, he attended
family dinners, BBQs and birthdays and once a fortnight my brother and I fought over whos
turn it was to mow his lawn
So that makes me a non-Catholic teacher teaching in a catholic school, and while there are some
significant differences between the two denominations, the core values of; one true God,
Stewardship, Honesty, Respect, Kindness, Compassion and living like Jesus are fundamental to
both the Anglican and Catholic faiths.
These values are ones that I personally hold in high regard and promote and model within my
classroom.
There are lots of metaphors for teaching and learning, the most common being those comparing
teachers to Gardeners, nurturing and promoting growth and development. While I relate to
these metaphors, I personally believe that my style of teaching is a bit more dynamic.

I believe that Teaching is like Directing a community theatre production. A group of

hardworking individuals with varied skills and abilities, with a dedicated and passionate leader,
working towards an exciting goal.
Quality teachers, like directors; have to be organised, innovative and imaginative. They have to
be flexible and allow for improvisation and importantly, they have to make opportunities for
peer collaboration and open discussion.

2 Know your Students - Prezi Slide 2

The first consideration that both Teachers and Directors have is to their players. My personal
belief is that a teacher must have a thorough and importantly, a holistic understanding of their
students to be an effective teacher. I do this by developing mutual relationships with my
students that are built on respect and understanding and by valuing the students and their
contributions they make to our class.
I spent a lot time at the beginning of this year getting to know my students in order to uncover
their hidden talents. I did this through a variety of means; surveys, review of standardized
testing, open ended writing prompts, role play and also by sharing my passions and goals. And
I did this because I truly believe that effective student-teacher relationships must be respectful.
You have to know, understand and respect your students to be able to teach them well.
Children, like adults want to be respected and they want to be heard. Often a simple Thank
you for telling me that James. does wonders for a child.
So how does this knowledge allow me to be a better teacher?
Firstly, the Diagnostic and Formative testing provided me with a foundation in which to begin
my planning. Very early on it was evident that my class as a cohort had a significant lack of
confidence when it came to mathematics and many of them expressed great concern over their
abilities in this area.
So, I knew that as well as teaching the content, I would have to show the students that
Mathematics was achievable, that it could be fun and that I would need to provide them with

chances to succeed in Mathematics, in order to build their confidence and ultimately their
abilities.
I created a bit of a catch phrase; If you can add and subtract and you can multiply and divide
you can do anything! I related this back to money, to area to time and fractions and the fact
that these four processes were the fundamental basics of mathematics.
I reinforce this regularly, I also use a lot of manipulatives and games to introduce and reinforce
concepts throughout my math lessons.

3 Peer Instruction Prezi Slide 3

Throughout my university studies I associated strongly with Socio-Cultural and Social
Constructivism perspectives that value interactions in learning. I am a big believer in peer
interactions for learning because this is what happens in real life.
How does a child learn to climb a tree or the rules to playground soccer? Its not from an adult
feeding them this information its from their own discovery and from their peers so why not
carry this into the classroom.
As an effective educator, I am very careful about how this type of peer learning is scaffolded
and enacted within the classroom.
In the first few weeks I tried a couple of times to use group work and paired work experiences
within various subjects and I admit it was a disaster. I thought, and also remember saying, this
is never going to work I am never going to be able to put these student into groupsever!
However, after reflecting on what didnt work and going back to the diagnostic and formative
information, I prepared large multi-level groupings, carefully taking into account student
personalities, that remained consistent across all subjects. We also, as a class, determined roles
and responsibilities for everyone in these groups.
I then experimented with various small group and pairing options and quickly realized that there
was much greater room for freedom of choice for the students in these smaller pairings.

And I believe that the peer learning opportunities I provide within my classroom are a success,
now. On any given day you will see my students around the room in small or large groups
working together towards a common goal.
After I had the how figured out, I re-evaluated my what and why. What do I want the
children to understand and discover and what skills, strategies and processes do I need to teach
in order to aid them in their discovery and learning?

4 Classroom Content Prezi Slide 4

Backwards design and planning is something that resonates very strongly with me. Knowing
what you want the students to achieve and then determining how you are going to get there.
Its seems like such a simple process and I enjoy the flexibility of Backwards Design as it
allows you to be creative and inventive and personalize your teaching to your students. Rather
than using a limiting, one size fits all approach.
Teaching a combination of the Australian and Catholic curriculums allow for dynamic,
interesting and socially conscious learning. By using backwards design with the combination of
these curriculums, it also allows me as a teacher to focus on what the students in my room can
do and not what they cannot.
This shift in focus also takes me as a teacher from directing or instructing learning; to
facilitating exploration and investigation.
It also allows me to design learning experiences and projects that relate the curriculums back to
the students world. To make those vital connections between prior knowledge, understanding
and experiences and current concepts that are being explored.
Also, by focusing on what children can currently achieve and what you want them to achieve, it
becomes very easy to determine learning intentions for the whole class but also individual
student.

Learning Intentions are something that I have gradually included more are more into my
planning, teaching and learning. Particularly when we are beginning a new topic or difficult
concept.
I try to ensure that the intention is printed and included in the students workbooks, this way it
allows the students more responsibility for their own learning and there is a visual reminder that
they can return too.
Determining learning intentions also assists those students who require learning support, as
School Officers and members of the Learning Support team can refer to this when determining
strategies to assist the childs learning.

5 Modifications and Adjustments - Prezi Slide 5

Educators have a number of skills and strategies available to them to cater for adjustments that
occur daily in the classroom. These skills and strategies may need extension in order to assist
students that require formal adjustments or modification to the learning program.
Some of the strategies that I utilise regularly are; priority seating, providing choice, open-ended
tasks, specialized Teacher Aide or Classroom Teacher assistance, extensions to time frames,
variations and pacing of teaching and especially collaborative learning.
I love my highlighter and as a Teacher it is such as underappreciated resource, especially for
adjustments within the classroom. It can quickly highlight key words in texts, allow for
adjustments of task and work sheets by highlighting certain tasks, and draw attention to
important steps in project completion.
As with any adjustment or modification, the important thing is choosing the right strategy for
the selected group or individual student.

6 Engage professionally - Prezi Slide 6

If we go back to my metaphor of teaching is like directing a community theatre production one
of the most important factors a director has to consider is that of their audience.

Early childhood and Primary educators in particular understand that learning has begun long
before a child enters their classrooms. Parents, families and communities are a childs first and
most important teacher.
Respectful, reciprocal and professional relationships are built upon shared understandings and
goals for the children in my care. Children are not isolated beings, before children enter
educational settings they have been active members and participants in family, cultural and
community groups.
Mr Michael Darvall, the father of one of my students, was a wonderful example of the
enrichment students receive from these relationships. Michael is a Geologist and spoke to the
4R students about rock formations as an extension to our Whats beneath out feet? Science
unit. Michael lead the students on a wonderful discovery journey around our school
investigating the different types of rocks that are found throughout the school and focused on
the connection to these and the local and regional rock formations.
To ensure effective and open communication between home and school I have made myself
available to parents through various means however, one of the most successful is Class Dojo.
This system is an informal, non-threatening way for parents and carers to keep with what is
happening in our classroom. It is also a fantastic platform to share our achievements as a class.
One of the reasons I believe this platform is so successful is that it is a very user friendly
interface. Parents with limited information technology abilities are able to easily send and
receive messages and follow the achievements of the class through posts I add.
Technology and ICT integration into my classroom is another aspect that I pride myself on. I
am also very grateful to work at a school that has such a high regard for the successful
integration of ICTs into the classroom.
As a confident and efficient user of ICTs I hope to transfer these beliefs and abilities into my
classroom. I feel that it is essential that the incorporation of ICTs is a seamless and integral
aspect of the classroom and not just as an extension or a reward for achievement in mainstream
learning.

ICTs allow many opportunities for informal peer learning, whereby children are drawn to each
other by shared interests and shared learning goals.
Students, not only working in collaboration with ICTs but also with each other, have an
increased interest, involvement and enjoyment of classroom tasks, promoting teamwork,
communication and Interpersonal skills.

7 Where to next year? - Prezi Slide 7

Science is a passion of mine and I am excited by the opportunities that STEM brings to schools.
The students I am teaching in 2016 with be entering vastly different workplaces than those that
currently exist.
It has been proven that STEM education, when introduced in Primary schools by passionate,
effective teachers has a significant impact on the achievements of students and school overall.
Should I have the opportunity to complete another contract with SSPS, I would love the
opportunity to start a STEM discovery team. Particularly focusing on the Science, Engineering
and Mathematics focus areas of STEM.
The reason for this is I believe that SSPS currently offers wonderful opportunities for students
to engage with Technology through programs offered by the Library, and initiates such as the
Robotics club.
But what a wonderful opportunity it would be to have time for students to explore open ended
thinking and get really hands on with Science experiments with, not only students from their
own grades, but students from across the school.
To be able to participate in collaborative projects purely for engagement, fun and maybe a little
bit of learning!
Thank you for your time today.
Rachel Harlen September, 2016.