Reflections on Professional Experience

In faith based education the ability to be able to teach students according to the principles set forth by Jesus makes for a more spiritually centering experience and it is for this reason that I had what could only be described as a beautiful and inspiring professional experience. Catholic education is something special, it is a high quality holistic education which nurtures students and educates them to become well informed, highly skilled members of the community with a commitment to social justice and social consciousness. It is also the foundation in which full development of the person is valued  - intellectually, spiritually physically, morally and emotionally. And that is what I saw which was emanated by the principal, teachers and students at St Francis de Sales Catholic Primary School this semester.

Being part of the staff at St Francis de Sales even for those three weeks was a enlightening and enriching experience for me. To start with my mentor Mrs D, has to be one of the most patient, knowledgeable and nurturing people that I know. It was an honour to be in her class and to watch her teach as well as receive a wealth of wonderful advice about pedagogy and the early years. She had a way and commitment to the children that you could only have if you truly loved your job and it wasn't uncommon for many of the children that she had taught in earlier grades to run up and give her a big hug or ask advice when they saw her. If that is not touching a life forever in the most wonderful way possible, I don't know what is. I would be honoured to be half the teacher that she is. Then there was Mr P, Mr P is the principal and he has the most hilarious sense of humour but beautiful relationship with his staff, that it was hard not to be envious. As I said to him on several occasions I just wanted to bottle up ambient mood at his school and take it with me. How lucky the school is to have him.

As far as the development of my ICT related skills at this prac, I was supported and had the opportunity to try out a number of different approaches in my own pedagogical practices, learning very quickly about what worked and what didn't and through reflective practice finding ways to improve from lesson to lesson. But I have to say, that the highlight of my professional experience apart from teaching the beautiful children was being able to set up and conduct a professional development afternoon on teaching the principal and teachers how to use iPads. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to share what I knew with people who I now consider are my peers - even though I was extremely nervous. So overall my professional experience was wonderful and I am thoroughly looking forward to returning to St Francis de Sales later in the year. How was your professional experience?

The Technology Integration Planning Model

The TIP Model

Over the duration of the EDC3100 course we have be introduced to a number of models to assist with planning and implementing ICT rich lessons within the classroom and the Technology Integration Planning Model (or TIP model) is one of these. The TIP model specifically addresses the planning behind integrating technology into the classroom through five phases, these phases are;

• Determine the relative advantage.
• Decide on objectives.
• Design integration strategies.
• Prepare the instructional environment.
• Evaluate and revise integration strategies.

As a teacher you need to decide the skills you want your students to learn from technology-integrated lessons and design a way to assess how well students retained the information and how effectively the activity was carried out and the TIP model provides a basis to reflect on this at each phase. As stated by educator Mike if the integration of ICT is not being used to enhance the learning experience in some way, but is merely a substitution for existing techniques, then opportunities to improve the learning experience are lost.
 

Teaching and Social Media

 

"Your a teacher, you shouldn't blog"

Hmm these are the opening lines of a thought provoking article about teachers using social media particularly blogging. Well if you are reading this, then it is obvious to me that you know that I blog. Yes I put my thought out there for the world to read and react in whatever way they choose. My experience of blogging so far has been overall quite positive but I have to admit there have been days when people have decided to target my blog and have left me in tears. So why do it? Well (a) because if I don't I will fail my ICT course ;) and (b) because used in the appropriate manner blogs can be a fantastic part of a teachers toolkit. Personally, social media has led to allowed me to maintain some of the best professional relationships I have had, allowing me to link with visionaries, crowdsourcing information, and discuss the best education practices. Social media is certainly a popular topic amongst my fellow educators and I found a wonderful post about the role of social media in our lives at Kinder Bytes by Janine Allman who has reflected on the roll it has played in her life. What has your social media/blogging experience been like?