Critical Incident 2

I sat down with the student and as they spoke I knew this was going to be a sensitive issue so I tried to tap into the 'reflection-on-action' mode. I wanted to be there for the student…

I excused myself from the class and took the student with me (told the teacher I was team teaching with that I needed to leave for a bit). We went to an empty classroom and it was there that I was told what happened. It was a safeguarding issue. A serious one, which is why I am not going to go into detail but I checked with the student and was also informed by the tutor that the college is aware of the situation and are setting up counselling for the learner. I tried to be a supportive, caring and objective. I asked about the learner's well being and support they will receive. That was the most I could do.

Reflection-in-Action

Having broken down 'Magazine' into more manageable subjects for learners, I decided to use the lesson to check on learners' progression and support them individually.

Aims & Objectives
I begun by introducing the aims and objectives of the lesson and to my delight, the students thanked me and got on with their work.

Support
I went around the class to individual learners to check where they were with their work. I checked what they had done and gave them feedback on ways in which they could improve their work. I also asked them questions to get them to think about what they were producing. I told them to put themselves in the 'consumers' shoes', which will help them look at their work from different lenses. (A little like Brookfield:1995)

Task
I gave each learner a time frame to semi-/complete their advertisements/magazine covers/DVD cover/film festival flyer but I ran into a problem...

Reflection-in-action
Having went around the class. I noticed that most of their work was incomplete or needed a lot of improvement so I decided, on a whim, to run to the staff room and grab their 'reflective journals.' (College requirement, which students seem to dislike) I decided to get all learners to write:

1) What they did in the lesson
2) What they still need to do (list)
3) What they need for Friday

I checked their journals to make sure the level of reflection was adequate. I also decided that from now on learners are required to:

1) Start of the lesson: Write in their journals - What they are suppose to do/gain from the lesson
2) End of the lesson: Write in their journals - What they learnt and what they still need to complete

Doing this would ensure:

> Learners are aware of their progression
> Their journals are being followed through, checked and written in
> Learning is being checked

I shared this idea with learners and on a whole got good feedback.

I decided after going around the class, to set up a 2 hour intensive class on Friday on constructing cosmetic/perfume adverts for their magazine.

Critical Incident 1

Just when I was moaning about not being able to think of a critical incident I can discuss…

After speaking to a teacher about the incident, I was told that I have to email their tutor and the head of department:

"Potential Bullying Dear all,

Yesterday a student approached me about an incident.
Student 1 had distanced herself from the class, which gave me the impression that something was wrong. I asked her if something was wrong but she seemed reserved so I did not pursue the matter. 

Later on in the evening student 2 urged student 1 to approach me about what seems to be potential bullying. I was told by student 1, that herself, student 3, student 4 and (possibly) student 5 were discussing the ambiguity of a student’s sexuality (student 6). This seemed to have escalated and according to student 1, student 3 and student 4 in particular ‘ganged up’ on her and told student 7 (friends with student 6) that student 1 was being derrogative towards student 6. Student 1 added that student 7 and student 6 approached her about the matter. Student 1 said she tried to explain herself and apologised. According to student 1, it was during this explanation that she got punched in the face by both student 7 and student 6. I told student 1 to talk to another teacher but she refused. There seems to be tension within the class, which needs to be resolved…"

I learnt from this experience about 'safeguarding' and 'referrals' in more detail. In this instance, I was told that as a teacher, I must be able to record, in detail, and document any situations and problems. The college has something called a 'promonitor', which allows teachers to document anything important about their students. This information is guarded and is only used for teaching purposes. I don't have access to this but in these situations, I must be able to make an objective decision about whether its a safeguarding issue or something for referral.

Student' Eyes

In an attempt to incorporate plenaries, I used the traffic light method by cutting green, orange and red pieces of card into squares.

These cards were supposed to be used to rate and give feedback to each learner's film festival flyer. Sadly, by the end of the lesson one of the students was crying...

I underestimated the connotation of the colour 'red' which was held up at her work by her peers. The learner took it as an attack on her work. I felt so bad! I explained the relevance of the task and why I introduced it. Thankfully, the learner understood why I chose this method and ended up, with other students, giving me feedback on the whole lesson, which I was grateful for. Their feedback:

> They liked timed tasks because they worked better under pressure and ended up producing more.  

> They thought it was good that I introduced the purpose of the lesson as it made it structured and they knew what they were doing.  

> They liked it that I broke down the exercises through PowerPoint and visual aids

> They enjoyed giving and receiving feedback

As a result, I decided to implement these factors into future lessons. I also decided to completely get rid of the red cards when rating work or giving feedback and reiterate what each card indicates. Instead I will use the orange and green cards for learners to indicate whether they understand the topic or what they need to be doing

Workshop

Task:

As a follow up of my mentor’s lesson (car advert), learners were required to start creating their own car adverts.

CSG Workshop:

On Friday, I have a 1 hour workshop and sometimes top up lessons to ensure learners are able to get extra support or a form of scaffolding.  This session was made compulsory as a result of the learners’ pitches on their magazine ideas. They were behind with the developments of their ideas so this class was used to get them back on track.

Class Management:

Most learners were doing their work but naturally there were others who required a little more pushing. Two learners did not want to be present and argued they would do the work at home. I addressed this by highlighting they were given weeks to do their work at home, evidently nothing was produced and for this reason, I have had to introduce this session. It worked! Another learner wanted to leave early; I told this student she could leave if she produces a car advert. In the end I had to address her again because she had done the least amount of work, I highlighted this but sat with her and reiterated the task. I wanted to be able to address resistance by incorporating my managerial skills. I think I tapped into them well and managed to do it whilst keeping a balance between humour and discipline.

Addressing Whole Group:

I think I need to work on this because I find myself having to repeat things. Also, it helps with delivering instructions and information collectively. I will implement this by gathering all learners to one side to ensure that I have all their attentions.

Learners:

This session allowed me to learn more about the students’ preferred way of learning and previous knowledge of work. I found that one of the students I usually struggle with when it comes to delivering written pieces of work, excelled in the practical. In the future, I will need to try to incorporate colours and visual examples into demonstrating written work to differentiate. I also found that some of the learners had good knowledge in Photoshop, which I may use to promote peer to peer learning.

Task 5: Recording & Reporting on Learner Progress and Achievement

Record keeping is an essential part of teaching. Gravells says: “Records must be maintained throughout to satisfy your organisation, the regulatory authorities and Awarding Organisation.” (2011: 10) According to Tummons (2007), some key concepts of assessment are: fairness, validity, reliability, sufficiency, authenticity and currency. Another important principle is known as VACSR: valid, authentic, current, sufficient and reliable. (Gravells: 2011) Following these principles of assessment ensures compliance with regulations, qualification requirements assessment validity and reliability. Additionally, it is a legal requirement to keep accurate records on learners as internal and external auditors such as OFSTED may use them “to quality assure performances at organisational level against national standards, to justify appropriate use of public funds.” (Wilson: 2008: 338)

These records can also be used to assist teaching performance in delivering the subject and future lesson planning. (Wilson: 2008) For students who may not be performing well, teaching and learning strategies can be reassessed to check if they are meeting learners’ needs. In other cases assessment records can also be used to pin point any learning difficulties that a student may have such as dyslexia or dyspraxia. Once pin pointed the learner can be referred to a specialist and given special assessment requirements. Records must be kept in order to monitor learners’ progression as well as evidence of the teacher’s observation of the learners’ performance. This can be done through initial or diagnostic assessments such ILP, which is also apart of self-assessment. Other records include tracking grades, progression reports, tutorial reviews and feedback.

On BTEC Media course, the teacher keeps a digitised record of all the learners’ grades to monitor their progression. This also helps the teacher monitor: a) feedback b) progression c) student grades d) whether they have met the deadline e) marking process. Looking at the key, we can see that learners are given the opportunity to improve their work. Feedback is given to the students on their work, which is kept by the teacher. Any improvements that are made by the learners must be highlighted on the word document to indicate that the work has been rectified. The teacher shares this with me, which helps with when I support students, as I am aware of their developmental needs. For example, some of the year 2 students were having difficulty with constructing an essay, which was highlighted by their progression reports from other teachers. Knowing this enabled me to prepare a lesson on essay structure and I gave them hand outs (Glossary of Instruction Words and Sentence Starters) to support them. Significantly, the education system is dominated by meritocracy. For this reason grades are constantly emphasised and learners tend to concentrate on this rather than their feedback. Is this always true?

In my placement, teachers have been encouraged to incorporate AFL in the way they mark work. This means, students will get their work back with detailed feedback and no grade. This stems around the idea that if there is no grade, students will pay more attention to their feedback and developmental needs. I have found that this works to an extent. Whilst I agree that the education system is dominated by meritocracy, I think a small part of it motivates students and gives them a goal to work towards.

Reflective Log ILP – Direct Entry 1

I will be discussing my strengths and developmental needs. Learning is an ongoing process and plays a significant role in the development of an individual. For this reason, I will first of all look at ways of enhancing some of my strengths through theory that I can use in my classes. I will also look at ways in which I can use theory to help me improve in the areas I am not confident in.

 Strengths

Active learning is key in creating engaging lessons. I think that an important part of this is to try being creative and imaginative with lesson planning. This also plays an important role in catering to different needs and attention levels of students. Using various teaching methods and encouraging creativity, can give learners the opportunity to view the process of learning in a different way. I have been trying to do this through trying to incorporate and link learning styles and assessment methods.

Making connections between learning and vocation is very important in motivating students. There are occasions when students do not see the point of doing a piece of work. In these cases I tend to highlight the skills that are being learnt and how this relates to the world of work. An example of this is when students were put in groups for video production. I had to highlight to a group that this mirrored teamwork, individual responsibility and ownership of learning in the form of training at the workplace. I also like to let my learners know that I have worked as a part of a management team so they know that I have experience in the area.

Praise is very important in motivating my learners. I try to make an effort to let learners know what they have done well and what they can develop on. I also thank and praise students when they actively participate, which may encourage other learners to take part.

Being dyslexic, I like to be methodological in everything I do because I can get lost easily if I am not. In order to stay on track I will need to create detailed lesson plans and incorporate preliminaries.  

Development needs

I am concerned at times that I am too friendly or nice to students. I am worried that it will affect my ability to discipline some students. They might take it is a weakness or think I am lenient. I have decided to approach the situation gently by creating boundaries through things like the way I dress, the language I use and the way I offer support. Gravells points out: “the way you dress, act, respond to questions, offer support…” (2008: 98) plays a part in being professional.

I need to constantly remind myself not to have high expectations especially because students have different levels of understanding. I need to make sure my expectations are realistic and achievable for students. In order to do this, I will need to make sure I understand the needs of my students through initial assessments and checking previous knowledge of learners. Francis and Gould (2009: 69) say: “These will provide an indication of the level of skills or knowledge already achieved… likelihood of success if the learner is accepted onto the course.  A judgment can also be made as to the level if the course…” A more formal way of doing this would be through diagnostic assessment. This strategy identifies and assesses learners’ capabilities and needs, which highlights their learning styles and any support they may require to progress. (Wilson: 2008)

Although this is not a major concern, I think I need to pay a little more attention to the way I communicate with my body actions. E.g. getting down to a students’ level when I help them or not crossing my arms, which tends to make people look closed. According to Gravells (2008), teachers do not always realise or pay attention to their body language (facial expressions, eye contact, posture and appearance). This is important because body language is a form of communication and as teachers we not only need to pay attention to ours but to what our students are saying through theirs.

Although I praise students, I think I need to be wary about the way I give feedback. Having worked in retail I have learnt to be quiet blunt. With students I need to be careful that I am honest but sensitive. This also depends on the learner; I have found that learners are diverse in the way they react to certain forms of feedback. Keeping this in mind, I will need to look at the way I feedback and it benefit to the learner and how it will help them improve.

References

Francis. A and Gould. J (2009) Achieving your PTTLS Award SAGE Publications LTD

Gravells. A (2008) ‘Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector.’ Learning Matters LTD

Wilson. L (2008) Practical Teaching A Guide to PTTLS & CTTLS. Cenage Learning EMEA