HOW DO I USE THIS INFORMATION?

From my ideas going into this practicum and the changes in them after
only two weeks, I am becoming aware of the elaborate entanglement of jobs
a teacher must do. Teachers are statisticians, public relations wizards,
instructors, assessors, administrators, entertainers, confidantes, and the list
goes on. How do you balance all of these jobs? How do you keep up with
your paperwork yet ensure you are giving your all to your students? How do
you retain that passion that seems to be missing in so many teachers? After
my first two weeks, I will never say that a teacher should do more, because I
acknowledge that they are already doing so much. But what I do want to
examine is how one could calibrate all these jobs into a fine harmony so that
you can remain passionate and keep students learning at the forefront. I
have chosen to look at two things that came up within all of the descriptions
of a good teacher: student-teacher relationships, and knowledge of effective
practices. Now good student teacher relationships could come under
effective practices, and so could most things. As such, instead of using the
umbrella term of effective practices I will address some key subcategories
such as: knowing your students, planning, groupings, assessment, and
cultural responsiveness. These are all skills that I have chosen as some of the
most important to promoting student learning. I will address humour and
adaptiveness in Part C.
BEGIN BY GETTING TO KNOW YOUR STUDENTS
For a teacher to know how to teach their students they also have to be
learners. They need to learn how to connect with their students, not just to
figure out what to teach, but also to look into the styles that will work for
their learners. How do you plan for a diverse range of students when you
dont even know the students themselves? To me, knowing the students
includes knowing their levels and their learning styles but it goes beyond
that so a teacher knows what motivates the students and how to help them
apply what they are learning into their real life. I feel like the most successful
teachers have a genuine interest in their students and a natural curiosity to
figure out ways to help them. Personally, I will have a caveat making sure I
develop learning-focused relationships and not friendships. I feel like
teachers in New Zealand are so lucky because they have the opportunity to
create their own classroom curriculum with guidance from national and
school curricula. In getting to know their class, teachers have the ability to
figure out where the greatest learning needs are and how much collaboration

with students is possible. They can assess what is relevant to study and the
best ways to teach it for their class at hand. In reflecting upon this, I am
beginning to recognize the enormous role that planning plays in a classroom.

THEN ASK YOURSELF, FOR WHOM AM I PLANNING?

I originally thought that planning was just the lesson plan that I saw my
mentor teacher handing in weekly to management. The weekly plan I am
talking about has five parts: a weekly overview, a numeracy plan, a reading
plan, a writing plan, and any extra information. Each section has its own
WALTS and overviews of daily lessons. The weekly plan is based around a
subjects unit plan, which the junior team makes collaboratively using the
achievement objectives from the NZC. The other formal planning I witnessed
involved creating a class description for management at Hamilton West. This
describes the ethnic groupings of the class, lists students with health, social
or psychological concerns, identifies students working above and below
expectations, labels ESOL students, as well lists the priority learners. This is
effective planning for the students general education, but it is lacking in
finding out key identities of students such as their emotional or social state,
or what inspires them. Another problem with this description list was that I
got the distinct feeling that the teacher did not see it as an exercise to help
her plan or provide learning opportunities, but as another box to tick for
management. There were things left out like how one of the ESOL students is
a new refugee. A girl who doesnt speak to adults is completely missing from
the list of children with social or psychological concerns. Another way in
which planning has become management-centred and not learner-centred
was discovered while discussing lesson plans with another teacher. I was told
that she would much rather write a two-day plan at a time in more detail but
because she had to hand in weekly plans to the principals she just did it their
way, to the detriment of her students. I worry that teachers are sometimes
forgetting whom the plans are actually for and the learning goals they are
meant to assist. I am also concerned that some of the fill in the blanks

planning is taking away from time that could be spent getting resources and
being creative and innovative in planning.

EFFECTIVE GROUPINGS ARE GROWTH-BASED NOT SKILL-BASED

Through diagnostic testing and getting to know students, teachers
begin to assess and plan for the different levels in their class. With this
knowledge they are able to start establishing links between the students and
new concepts for learning. In our classroom students are mostly grouped by
ability for lessons. This makes for simpler and separate group planning but
new research shows that it is not always beneficial to students. The main
problems with grouping according to ability are its effects on self-belief and
its lack of challenges and opportunities to scaffold learning for lower level
students (McGee & Taylor, 2008). I have seen how skill-based groupings can
be a detriment to students with already low self esteem. There is one
student who I noticed has been affected the most by being grouped by
ability. Please see Video 1 for a further exploration of this student. A better
way to further student learning is not to differentiate learning activities by
levels, but create activities in which all students can take part. McGee and
Taylor (2008) recommend creating a range of learning experiences and
activities with a range of levels within them so that there is more student
ownership over learning. Flexible groupings also give students the ability and
motivation to go up in levels. If planning is creating learning opportunities,
then plans should connect students with what is important to them and give
them the tools to self-assess, not put them in a box. I understand that
flexible groupings could seem to involve more work for teachers, but seeing
as they are planning for 5+ different levels anyway, wouldnt their efforts be
just as useful creating flexible learning experiences and improving their
classroom community? I hope to know my students well enough to create a
variety of flexible lessons that motivate all of them to achieve difficult goals
and do not make them feel helpless or disengaged.

AM I ASSESSING (MOSTLY) TO IMPROVE LEARNING?

Incontestably, effective practices are different for different students as
they all have diverse experiences, styles, and knowledge. This means a
teacher needs to be a patchwork quilt of praxis and of assessment. For if
there is such an array of learning styles, then how can we as teachers expect
to determine how much learning is done with only one form of assessment? I
have witnessed a math PAT test being done where students could not even
read the questions. I have done on the spot spelling tests with students who
freeze as though in the line of fire when writing words, ones they had written
in a different setting moments before. These forms of assessment never
seem to help bridge the gaps of what students should to learn, they simply
let them know what they can and cant do while reinforcing content-based
knowledge. In an article on the promotion of self-regulated learning through
good work habits, Como (2012) encourages teachers to assist student
learning through formative assessment. Examples of this would be
encouraging evaluative questions, talking to learn, setting goals,
summarizing and reviewing, as well as doing peer-review with positive
written statements. In fostering these skills, a teacher can have an extremely
positive influence on students academic achievement. Before this year I
would not have seen these as forms of assessment, as I only really knew of
summative and interim assessment, the likes of which the PAT test and
spelling test were. But upon reading Absolums (2006) Clarity in the
Classroom, I have come to understand and esteem formative assessment as
one of the most effective teaching practices for both teachers and learners. I
wish I had read it before doing a diagnostic reading probe on a year 3
student. Please see video 2 for what I would have done differently. If

promoting learning is the primary job of a teacher, then assessment should

be a tool that promotes active learning and involves the student selfassessing as well as being able to recognise their next steps. Formative
assessment should include many different approaches and actively engage
students.

KNOWING DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLES AND ACTING ACCORDINGLY

By gleaning the distinct ways in which students learn, teachers can
accommodate for the styles of students to help them. They can also stretch
student learning with exposure to other approaches. Here is where a
profound knowledge of different teaching practices becomes so important. In
order to help students, you must be able to work in a variety of ways to
adapt for different learning styles. Drawing from Gardners theory of multiple
intelligences, Guild (1998) lists teaching about style, teaching to style,
diagnostic-prescriptive teaching, and using an intentional variety of styles as
ways in which teachers can help different students. Something I have noted
in my journals during my practicum is the way in which lessons are
presented in our classroom. Every lesson begins with students sitting on the
mat with the teacher sitting in front of them. For the most part directions are
given orally. Very rarely are instructions written out, pictures provided, or
tangible props used. As this is a very active class, I often notice a lack of
focus and attention. This oral instruction became a further concern for me on
the second day of class, upon learning that a student, Rawiri, had a cochlear
implant. Please see video 3 for my further reflections. The single teaching
style came in great contrast during Graham Prices lecture where I was
struck by his promotion of provocations and starting lessons with the arousal
of curiosity in students; be it with an artifact, questions, change in

environment, or auditory shock (G. Price, Personal Communication, Feb. 17,

2016). I feel like these would be ideal in inspiring a rowdy and curious class,
not to mention be very positive behaviour management strategies.

HONOURING THE TREATY

If I am examining the dispositions and work of a teacher in New
Zealand with a focus on priority learners, it would be a disservice to only look
at the mainstream curriculum and not the Maori curriculum. A good teacher
should always be aware of their own worldview, recognize their own
shortcomings, and work to remedy any cracks in their methods. In looking at
a translation of Te Marautanga O Aotearoa I was struck by the philosophies
and principles that complement teaching as it is regarded today. The focus
on teacher-learner relationships, the value placed on family involvement,
differentiated assessment, and sustainability are all emphasised. They are in
the New Zealand Curriculum as well but not as holistically or as practically
laid out as in Te Marautanga, nor as community focused. From the
introduction of Western pedagogies in New Zealand there has been an
emphasis on behaviour modification, scapegoating of whanau and Maori
communities, and a promotion of Western curriculum content (Hemara,
2000). This is still seen today. I support the Maori right to their own
curriculum but I also wish to incorporate contemporary Maori teaching and
learning styles into mainstream schools, or at least into my classroom. This is
just a start in respecting the partnership, protection and participation

outlined in the Treaty of Waitangi. I hope that my lessons do not marginalize

but promote the knowledge and mana of Maori culture in a mainstream
academic setting. Some of the practices that can achieve this include
students having more opportunities to wananga, actively practicing ako,
exposure to the natural world, group learning to promote social talents, and
increasing the relevance of lessons to reflect our communities. This last
practice really struck home with me as my class missed a wonderful
opportunity to learn about the Treaty of Waitangi after the public holiday.
Using indigenous methodologies and history is no easy feat, especially for an
expatriate Canadian, but I agree with Gibb who says that if a teacher plans
effectively for their students, they are affirming that their personal teaching
capabilities can make a difference and can lead to the success of students
(Gibbs, 2006). To me that should mean ALL students. I have high self-efficacy
in that I do believe my efforts count in my classroom.

HOW DO I STAY MOTIVATED FACED WITH MULTIPLE DEMANDS?

Reflecting on relationships with learners and effective teaching
practices, I once again have to stress the competing demands on teachers.
This doesn't only involve the variety of different work they must do, or the
skills they must have or the people they must consider. It goes deeply into
the competing demands extended into the minutiae of each. In the example
of assessment, the pull on a teacher is tripartite: assessment to help
students learn more, for themselves to self-evaluate and figure out where to
go next, and for schools, parents, and the government to monitor learning
(Absolum, 2006). Teachers are constantly being pulled by different factions
and have to navigate through all of them to get back to the main point of
motivating and promoting learning in the classroom. How can I do it? Is a
growth mindset all I need? I will explore this further, so please read on in part
C!