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11/04/2016 - Day One - Professional Placement - Berserker Street State School

Today was my first day of professional placement at Berserker Street State School. I was/
am quite excited to be completing my professional placement at Berserker alongside
Bridget Walker and the other professionals that work there.
My class that i am co-teaching in is a composite class that comprises of approximately 20
Year 2 and 3 students.
I spent most of the day interacting with the students and observing the routines and
lessons. From the first lesson of the day, English, it become very obvious and apparent of
the different levels the students are at and the differentiation that will have to go into the
planning of the lessons. I also noticed the importance of scaffolding not only in teaching
but for this class in particular.
From my observations i also noticed that for a few select students that their behaviour
changed dependent on what lesson/activity they completed. I found that if these few
students felt that they knew the work that they would work quietly/ productively. If they
didn't feel that they knew the work, it was near impossible to get them back on task and to
stop disrupting those around them. With some strong persuasion and assistance the off
task students were back on track in no time.
One strong statement that i heard Bridget say to the students today that i will hold with me
forever in my teaching career is when after completing a rounding up, rounding down task
for maths and marking with the class as a whole was; Did you find success today? i
thought that this was a great motivational question to ask the class. Most professionals
that i have witnessed have usually asked the class how many questions did you get right
today? Which for some students can be unmotivational and deflating. This has opened my
eyes to a whole new concept of success. People have different levels and expectations of
success and i found it refreshing today to hear students, that didn't necessarily have as
high of marks as others, happy with their achievements from the activity.

success
skss/
noun
noun: success; plural noun: successes
1 1. the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.
In non-contact time today Bridget and i sat down and had a look at the unit plans for this
semester and redesigned the weekly timetable. I learnt today how quickly plans can
change due to uncontrollable events to the teacher. This has opened my eyes to how
resilient and flexible you have to be as a teacher.
I have really enjoyed my first day at Berserker Street State School and looking forward to
my second day and rest of term.