WEEK7

** Images: [] WEEK7 Summary Lecture April 27th 2009- Eileen Gomes Week # 7 This week’s lecture was lectured by Tanya Fitzgerald. She gave a wonderful lecture regarding the students we will be teaching and how our classrooms should be structures. She made us understand that all students have different qualities, ethnic backgrounds, uniqueness and creative minds. Teachers are key personals that will help the child-like mind to develop. Teachers have so much to offer. They have their academic knowledge, their practices and their experiences to bring to the schools. Teachers do more than teach, they: ·  Model social behaviour and expectations ·  Are the role models for those in their classrooms and schools ·  Must earn respect ·  <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Set boundaries <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;">· <span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; color: black; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Make a difference in the lives of those with whom they come into contact She also informed us of the students that find it hard to cope with school, the curriculum, teachers and their peers. Disrupted schooling entitles: <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;">· <span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; color: black; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Migrant children <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;">· <span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; color: black; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Children from refugee backgrounds <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;">· <span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; color: black; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Children with chronic illness <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;">· <span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; color: black; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Children kept at home by their caregivers <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;">· <span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; color: black; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Children who move around families <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;">· <span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; color: black; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Children who have been removed from schools

We as teachers need to acknowledge those students who find it difficult in the classroom and encourage them to open their thoughts, ideas, feelings and opinions. This way they can feel comfortable in a classroom environment and around their peers. Welcoming all different ages, cultures and abilities is the best part of being a teacher because from those experiences, teachers develop a close bond and continue to also learn.

Summary of the Workshop-- Week 7 Author: Haining Lu**

The workshop today was focusing on the decisive role that teacher is playing in student's learning and growing process as well as the necessity and some effective approaches of understanding who our students are.

After the wounderful lecture give by Professor Tanya Fitzgerald on "who are yours students?", Ms. Rochelle went on talking about the importance of teachers, drawing upon her own teaching experience. There were some quotes on the whiteboard which I found to be worth memorising. It says:" As a teacher, I can be a tool of torture; or I can be an instrument of inspiration." Teacher's influence on a student can be dramatical, but it can also be subtle and slow. It certainly makes a difference in students' education when their teacher treat them with respect and high but reasonable expectations.

Then, we played one game that we could apply on our own future students to get to know each them. A sheet of paper with questions in cells were distributed among us and we were required to find one person in our class who had done those things or who possessed those skills to sign each cell. It is a fast and fun way for the students to know each other and alos for the teacher to know about the students. The questions can be shallow, can be deep, can be easy, can be thought-provoking, depending on the purpose of the activity. We did it within a short amount of time by talking to many different classmates. I suspect if we are applying this game in real class, we could arrange more time for the talking and interacting among the students so that the atomosphere is more relaxing and hopefully students would feel more comfortable in doing it.

Apart from this game, we were introduced to many other games for the some sort of purpose. Those include "Imagining yourself to be a kind of food/animal/colour/place/song etc., what would you be?; "Create a montage of self in e.g. body outline/name/my world in a form that suits"; weekly journal entry with teacher response etc. All these activities were designed to be creative and interesting to engage students and know about them.

I enjoyed both the lecture and the workshop today. As teachers, to know and understand the students we are dealing with is the very first step of teaching and educating. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> ** General Comments on Week7 Author: Akie Yoshida **

<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; msobidifontsize: 12.0pt;">As my team mentioned above, this week’s lecture was about diversity of students and the importance of knowing and understanding those students. The lecturer repeatedly appealed not to make assumptions on students, for example, a students whose parents are not under employment is not able to achieve higher goals or behave badly because of the poor family background,etc. In some points, these assumptions could be true in a general view. Teachers, however, need to do all the best to flourish children’s wonderful future. Having assumptions before carefully looking at their potential would be huge obstacle to both teachers and children. <span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; msobidifontsize: 12.0pt;">Although I understand that making assumption is wrong idea in school context, I sometimes have them subconsciously. To break these wrong assumptions it was a great idea to play a game that can help students to know each other. I think these activities are more efficient if it is carried at the beginning of a new semester.