Spending hours within various schools within the CLF has
been extremely beneficial in terms of my understanding on how each school has a
slightly differed ethos. Each ethos has
an impact on the teaching and learning within the school, I have found this
ethos is reflected within the environment of the school. Beneath the school
ethos becomes the individual teachers, this is essentially the atmosphere/ learning
environment the teacher implements/ encourages throughout the day
In one recent observation, I was extremely impressed with
the approach taken by the teacher: the teacher planned a group work activity
where the students had the freedom to be creative and make a dance/ sequence.
This teacher set objectives relating to personal skills, the teacher then
adopted a relaxed approach to let the students take a lead on their learning. Initially
the students messed around and didn’t work well together, the teacher remained
patient. When stopping the group, rather than telling them how to work together
they used clever questioning to encourage discussion on how they can make
progress with their routine. After 3
interventions/ discussions, the students were working effectively in teams and
therefore began developing the ‘creative routine’. The progress the students made was completely
student lead which I found intriguing, despite this being the school ethos, the
teacher had to comply with it and integrate this into his lesson.
I have also found
various teachers adopt different communication techniques especially in their tone
of voice, as well as their choice of language. I feel the way in which we communicate with
the students sets the tone for the lesson and can encourage a positive climate
for learning. Each teacher changes in the way in which they communicate. The
two most effective techniques I will attempt are-
·
One teacher was speak so quietly the students
need to be near on silent to hear, in this case students would peer behaviour
manage and ask their peers to be quiet during explanations.
·
One other teacher would always crouch down to
communicate with the students so they are at the same level, the teacher used
language the students understood which made the I feel made the students feel
equal within the class.
My ethos will continue and expand throughout this year as I experience
different situations and discover various skills and strategies, however, I
feel it’s important to recognise that regardless of my ethos I will need to be
flexible to adapt to suit the school.
