Justin's Insights

Week 2: Reflecting on week 1 and first day back for week 2, I feel a sense of conflict between my expectations and the reality of where the students are at. I also feel a sense of confusion at having so many ideas for what I hope the students will enjoy and engage with that I have difficulty knowing where to start or what to start with. Today I felt as though the biggest issue i have is encouraging or teaching students to think critically and to reflect on their effort - to get them to want to push themselves to improve and be better. It is part of our Growth Mindset approach to learning and development as people. I am not sure if we are getting this right in terms of how we deliver the message to our students. I’m thinking something like “Solo Taxonomy” ties into the Growth Mindset focus and perhaps we have to spend more time unpacking this. When things are not going well I find I fall into a thought process that goes something like this. Start to question student...

This year I am venturing into unchartered territory on my journey as an educator. I am team teaching in an open environment with 55 students ranging from year 6 - 8. I am participating in an eFellowship where I am looking at innovative ways to engage and teach students. All of this is very new and as such I thought it would be interesting to share my reflections with an authentic audience in the hope that by doing so it will provide me the forum to be honest with myself so that I can improve my practice. If anybody should come across my blog, please feel free to provide some constructive feedback/feedforward, what ever you prefer to refer to it as. Week 1: What has gone well - team teaching going very well Share similar philosophies - growing people, understand and value the importance of community, empowering students communicate well, no ego’s and willing to learn off each other and recognise each other's strengths What can go better - team plannin...