Professional Engagement
Working with other professional colleagues comes hand in hand when entering into the teaching workplace. Teachers work together to enhance learning outcomes for students and do so with student’s interests in minds. If teachers are about to collaborate their work they can develop lessons that cater to the student’s needs and help them achieve their full potential while improving the school curriculum.
My final year placement at St.Francis of Assisi sets a great example of teachers collaborating and developing the best possible topics for the students. They attend meetings on a weekly basis to reflect on the positives and negatives of previous topics while arranging new and interesting topics for students that are interesting, engaging and fun. Being a grade 5 class focus on VELS level 4 and develop topics. The school will send teachers on Personal Development days as a group to enhance their teaching skills on different topics. The school will also arrange meetings that touch on different areas for improvements. One of the meetings I attended that was very informative was on homework. The school was looking to find out different ways it could improve in homework for students in every year level. They were using technology and that seemed to have too many problems so they reverted back to homework booklets. It was interesting to see that amount of different ideas that teachers had and the different points of views of everyone. They worked well to come to a fair conclusion that had the students learning outcomes in mind. When teachers work together they are able to gain a greater perspective on other teaching matters.
In an article entitled ‘The benefits of teacher collaboration’ by Roger Goddard it states “teachers’ collaborative school improvement practices are related to student achievement.” Meaning that if teachers are working effectively together it has a big impact of students learning. Students will be able to work with each other knowing that the topic they are completing is being taught the same way or very similar to other classes. In the same article Goddard surveyed 452 teachers in 47 elementary schools to determine which worked collectively to influence decisions to school improvement, curriculum and instruction, and professional development. He found a positive relationship between teacher collaboration and differences among schools in mathematics and reading achievement. This just proves that work effectively with other professional colleagues can enhance the learning outcomes of students in a positive way.
Roger Goddard continues to state in the article ‘The benefits of teacher collaboration’ that ‘Schools and teachers benefit in a variety of ways when teachers work together.' Students will not be the only ones who benefit from positive teacher collaboration. Teachers will benefit also with new ideas, different strategies and with the confidence of knowing you can ask for another colleagues’ option or assistance. My time on placement has shown me first hand how teachers benefit from positive working relationships. In year 1 and 4 I attended school camps and was able to develop relationships with all the teachers at the camp, which assist me. I gained a greater knowledge with teaching strategies, how to handle particular situations and felt comfortable with all working with all teachers. In my second year placement I was involved in team teaching collaboration. This was an amazing experience. I was able to witness when teachers work together to achieve a common goal, which is student improvement and development, team members share responsibility for planning, teaching, assessing and evaluating programs or units of work. The teachers at Campbellfield Heights developed an incredible working relationship. All the teachers knew and understood what was expected of them and were working to achieve the same goal which included focus on student learning, identify, respect and value each team member’s knowledge and experience, make a joint commitment to plan together, define roles and responsibilities of each team member, discuss issues carefully to ensure full understanding, share differing values and cultural understandings, be prepared to learn and deal with problems constructively,
I believe that when I am out in the workforce I will be looking to work effectively with all the teachers and non-teaching staff that are in the school. I will attend meetings and Personal Development days with an open mind and willingness to learn as much as I can about any topic. I want to be able to learn new teaching theories and development them with mine own beliefs to ensure students and school improvements. In the mean time I will be use my mentor teacher now, who has over 30 years experience, to learn new teaching methods while developing my own.
My final year placement at St.Francis of Assisi sets a great example of teachers collaborating and developing the best possible topics for the students. They attend meetings on a weekly basis to reflect on the positives and negatives of previous topics while arranging new and interesting topics for students that are interesting, engaging and fun. Being a grade 5 class focus on VELS level 4 and develop topics. The school will send teachers on Personal Development days as a group to enhance their teaching skills on different topics. The school will also arrange meetings that touch on different areas for improvements. One of the meetings I attended that was very informative was on homework. The school was looking to find out different ways it could improve in homework for students in every year level. They were using technology and that seemed to have too many problems so they reverted back to homework booklets. It was interesting to see that amount of different ideas that teachers had and the different points of views of everyone. They worked well to come to a fair conclusion that had the students learning outcomes in mind. When teachers work together they are able to gain a greater perspective on other teaching matters.
In an article entitled ‘The benefits of teacher collaboration’ by Roger Goddard it states “teachers’ collaborative school improvement practices are related to student achievement.” Meaning that if teachers are working effectively together it has a big impact of students learning. Students will be able to work with each other knowing that the topic they are completing is being taught the same way or very similar to other classes. In the same article Goddard surveyed 452 teachers in 47 elementary schools to determine which worked collectively to influence decisions to school improvement, curriculum and instruction, and professional development. He found a positive relationship between teacher collaboration and differences among schools in mathematics and reading achievement. This just proves that work effectively with other professional colleagues can enhance the learning outcomes of students in a positive way.
Roger Goddard continues to state in the article ‘The benefits of teacher collaboration’ that ‘Schools and teachers benefit in a variety of ways when teachers work together.' Students will not be the only ones who benefit from positive teacher collaboration. Teachers will benefit also with new ideas, different strategies and with the confidence of knowing you can ask for another colleagues’ option or assistance. My time on placement has shown me first hand how teachers benefit from positive working relationships. In year 1 and 4 I attended school camps and was able to develop relationships with all the teachers at the camp, which assist me. I gained a greater knowledge with teaching strategies, how to handle particular situations and felt comfortable with all working with all teachers. In my second year placement I was involved in team teaching collaboration. This was an amazing experience. I was able to witness when teachers work together to achieve a common goal, which is student improvement and development, team members share responsibility for planning, teaching, assessing and evaluating programs or units of work. The teachers at Campbellfield Heights developed an incredible working relationship. All the teachers knew and understood what was expected of them and were working to achieve the same goal which included focus on student learning, identify, respect and value each team member’s knowledge and experience, make a joint commitment to plan together, define roles and responsibilities of each team member, discuss issues carefully to ensure full understanding, share differing values and cultural understandings, be prepared to learn and deal with problems constructively,
I believe that when I am out in the workforce I will be looking to work effectively with all the teachers and non-teaching staff that are in the school. I will attend meetings and Personal Development days with an open mind and willingness to learn as much as I can about any topic. I want to be able to learn new teaching theories and development them with mine own beliefs to ensure students and school improvements. In the mean time I will be use my mentor teacher now, who has over 30 years experience, to learn new teaching methods while developing my own.