Teaching Tidbits and other fun information!

Hi!

Over the past few days I have observed some interesting behavioral management techniques and other teaching tactics in my classroom that I thought I would share with all of you!

Behavioral Management Techniques:

1. Head, Shoulders, Nose, etcà say and touch that body part and have students copy

2. Picking up pieces of rubbishà students have to pick up a certain number of pieces of rubbish and put in bin before they can go outside for lunch

3. Get little spot rugs or shape rugs and put them on the floor and these can become designated spots for certain studentsà can move them closer to front or farther away from other students (use as you see fit)

Teaching Tactics to Make Learning Fun:

1. Get a shape outline (i.e. star, airplane, Christmas tree) and give students a list of words to write following the outline…. It is a great way to get them practicing writing the words without feeling like they are doing work.

2. Dice Gameà way to test speed knowledge for sumsà take two large die and place them togetherà Students have to add up the two numbers and write the answerà only leave the die up for 3 seconds

3. Shape Knowledgeà write the name of the shape and students have to write the number of sides

4. M100W (Magic 100 Words)à use old Chinese boxes to hold the words

I also had the opportunity to talk to some other student interns about their teaching program, which is much different than ours-- again I thought you might be interested!

At lunch today I had to opportunity to chat with two other local student interns who are working on getting their teaching degrees as well. I still don’t completely understand exactly how their program works but it seems much different than what we have in the US. Most people pursuing a teacher degree in Australia will have an undergraduate bachelor’s degree in another area and then will be doing a 1 or 2 year teaching degree track. What I wanted to comment on is that even when these student interns are done their program, they do not have their full teacher’s license. Each person has a provisional license and then they are assigned a mentor when they get a job at a school and after a year if the principle and the mentor think that they are capable they will be given their full license. I think that this is a great way to provide first-year teachers with guidance and ensure that they are working hard and earning their positions within a school.

Finally, I had a chance to talk to my CT about students with special needs in Australia and thought I'd pass along what I learned!

I also had a chance to chat with my CT about students with learning disabilities. I noticed from the two schools I visited as part of the preliminary classes before my prac and from Northcote that there really are no students with moderate/severe physical or mental learning disabilities in the schools and I was wondering why this was so. My CT told me that there are two types of Special schools where students with mental and physical disabilities can go and usually if a student has an IQ below 50, or has a severe handicap that is where parents will send there students. Likewise, she said that if a student has a physical disability, such as being in a wheelchair, the parents will most likely send them to the school that is the most handicap accessible. From our conversation, it sounds like there is not as much push among Australian families to mainstream students with moderate/severe disabilities and there are no laws mandating that all schools must meet certain accessibility codes. That being said, however, my CT’s son has Aspergers and her nephew has autism and she said that both received mainstream education. She said her son was given all sorts of intervention at school and her nephew actually went to a special school for a few days of the week and then the mainstream school for a few days (where he had an aid). So, it looks like there are intervention options available should a student with a learning disability attend a mainstream school.