The Dream Class for a Relief Teacher

I have moved interstate and resumed the role of housewife as I wait on my registration to be
approved. Now that things have calmed down, I can resume the blogging. As my reflections are somewhat limited without teaching time, the next sequel of posts will be based on reflections on my teaching inspired by my reading.

Today's post is focused on lesson one in 'Create Your Dream Classroom' by Linda Kardamis. She finishes her first chapter asking the reader to describe their dream classroom and list what would be the same or different in comparison to their present classroom. While not having read any further, I would imagine that this is to be used as a 'goal' to reflect upon in future lessons.

At this stage, I plan on remaining as a casual teacher for a while. As such, my dream class is often changing. While I love organised, minimalist classrooms where I can pick up the planning and enable the children to continue with their present learning paths, this isn't within my control. As such, I will focus on classroom environment, culture and lessons, which I can more easily influence, especially when returning to classes repeatedly.

While in a class, I would like to see the children engaged in their learning and develop a hunger for more learning. The children are curious and self-motivated due to the intrinsic desire to their interest in their learning. When lessons conclude, the children tell me that it was fun and they want to know more. Children persevere through challenges, because they perceive the learning goal as worthwhile and are invested in the learning. Children are prepared to take learning risks, because they know that they are safe to do so within the environment and culture of the classroom.

The culture within a classroom is one of respect. Children support each other in both their strengths and weaknesses, recognising that everyone has them. Children who are experts within a subject area take on a teaching role, rather than a proud mocking one. I am respected as a teacher and the children feel respected by me. We are able to communicate openly with each other and problem solve due to the trust that is developed between us. Behaviour issues are recognised as a weakness, just as children who struggle with maths. Both myself and students support the 'misbehaving' student, discussing the cause of problems and enabling them to behave appropriately.

Lessons are interactive and inquiry-based whenever possible. Students use the library and ICT to research, experiment with manipulatives, re-enact, and create. Their learning is demonstrated in a variety of ways.

Assessment is varied, authentic and naturally integrated into the lesson. Children don't label assessments as tests or stressful, because it is a natural outworking of their discoveries. Assessments may take the form of a presentation, creation of a text, a piece of art, teacher notes following a conversation, interviews, movie files, or yet another form as appropriate to the lesson and outcomes. These assessments will be recorded in a clear manner in order to be presented to their regular teacher. Rather than simply piling assessments, they will be clipped together in order to retain the order and present the material in the neatest way possible for the teacher.

Marking will also take multiple forms. In cases where students are either independently marking or assisting, they will be reminded of the focus (i.e. spelling, sentence structure or ideas). Whenever possible, students will reflect upon their own work and note what they like about the work and how they could further strengthen such work in the future. Peer assessments may also play a role and guidelines will be in place to ensure feedback is constructive and respectful. In the case of worksheets (as sometimes left by teachers to complete), we will mark these together as a class whenever possible and discuss the most difficult problems together.

While I could continue to dream, I am afraid I would end up with a very detailed book. As such, I will leave it for now on these major points to reflect upon and implement. At this stage, I see that I have made a good start in many of these areas and improvement will be focused on providing more variety and becoming familiar with my new students once settling into the new schools in QLD. However, my plans are still quite lacking in real student-guided inquiry lessons due to the difficult time restraints of a one-day placement. As such, it will be a major goal to expand upon these and find ways to work around the time restraints.

This has all got me quite excited and motivated, so excuse me while I go expand my lesson repertoire.

What are your dreams for your classroom? What can you change or improve to help you achieve these dreams?