Preparing for Placement (Transcript)
M1:My placement was at RMIT in the city and we had, well I had to teach English for VCAL students and they were a class of plumbers. So that in ... in itself was quite unusual and you know, the moment I found that out I thought okay, there's going to be some resistance to what I was going to teach. And so that was a bit of a challenge and also the whole environment was quite different from a normal high school setting. It was structured more like a TAFE and it had more of an adult learning environment. So we had 17 to 18 year olds in there and we also had mature age students so they could all be in the one class. So that was unusual and I had to think about how I would cater towards those different learning styles that different learners have. But also it was kind of a refuge for students who were kind of disengaged from normal high school settings.
M2: I think to start with the main thing is to really get yourself familiar with the PP documents, so know exactly what you have to do and also once you know that information, discuss that with your mentor so you have that sort of dialogue going from and early stage so you both know where you are. I would say then just every week sort of review what you've done, which doesn't take very long, just quickly review what you've done and make sure you are keeping up step by step. So I think if you do things gradually every week then you will keep on top of everything. I always find it's good say the first couple of days in a placement to observe in the school and like get to know your students basically, so when it comes to planning and find out what lessons you have to do, you can plan them for the students you have rather than plan them for anonymous children, anonymous students, so. I think that's a good first stage. Again, good to have dialogue with a mentor if that's possible and also just using the curriculum, using VELS and it's also good to get a sense of where the students are at in terms of aiming your lessons, so maybe ask your mentor for previous work the students have done or advice to where you should focus your lesson.
F1: Well I guess the first thing that I do is get in contact with the school straight away and I like to speak to the site coordinator and my mentor. If I can't speak to them over the phone then I will obviously email them. I've been to a remote placement as well so that was quite a difficult preparation because I didn't have the freedom, I'll usually drive past the school and have a look at where the school is, do a practice drive to see how long it takes me to get there and all that kind of thing. So knowing that I was going three hours away was a little more nerve-wracking because I didn't know anything about the school that I was going to. But initially I will speak to that mentor and site coordinator. I'll also make a list of the things that I want to achieve on this placement to take with me and then after about a week or so my mentor and I usually sit down and discuss what it is that I need to get done for university, what I want to get done for my own teaching experience and then the things that they expect me to do while I'm there.
F2: The first placement is in a child care centre which everyone shudders about and you think oh my goodness, how am I going to get through that because you don't, well I didn't go into this course and I know nobody else in my part of the course went into it thinking that they were going to work in a child care centre at the end of it. But the course also allows you to coordinate or administer a child care centre at the end should you decide that that's the way that you want to go. So it's a good experience. For a lot of the younger students they had ... that was their very first dealings with small children. I have four children so it was a little bit diff ... different for me and I really didn't want to have to do the babies room because I've done nappies. But it is a very good experience to have because you need to know where children have been and where they're coming from.
F3: First of all I communicated with my mentor which is a key, first thing that I did with the communication element with my mentor, with my community coordinator seeking for clarification if I didn't understand anything and asked a lot of questions, especially like terms that ... that teachers used and also because English is not my first language. So I asked more questions than usual. So like I said, communication, and in terms of the requirements. For example, because of its first year it's ... and it's mainly observation we had to like teach small groups. But I decided I would like to teach the whole class. I read a book and for example when I ... before I read a book for the kids I prepared the night before. I read the book, focusing on the right intonation because it was really important for me to make sense for the kids because I have a different accent. And, yeah, I ... I wanted the kids to understand me when I read the story and it went really well. They were really engaged and I loved it. I think the biggest challenge for me was the communication with the kids because I didn't always understand what they said to me. And I ... that was my focus on ... in that professional practice, I wanted to improve my communication skills, my spoken language skills with the kids. The relationship with the kids was really important for me because this is why I'm there. I'm here to help the kids so I need to understand what they want from me and how can I help them.
F4: I think enthusiasm goes a long way and being prepared to do anything. It's amazing how much ... even the admin side, you learn a lot from that. And, but just enthusiasm and just being prepared to go that extra length. You want to learn why you're there so you don't want to be taken advantage of and having to do photocopying and laminating the entire time. I can understand that. But, yeah, tackle ... tackle everything with some enthusiasm. I, sometimes I get a bit over-enthusiastic, but don't be disheartened. I was disillusioned after my first mentor and it's ... you got to get ... it's hard to get over but you have to, you have to step over the line because my next mentor was totally the opposite and a very committed teacher. And yeah, so there'll always be another mentor, hopefully a better one.