Day Seventeen

One of my goals during this placement is to understand what personal, social and cultural factors in relation to multiculturalism have influence on teachers and learners. This goal flows from Graduating Teacher Standard three that states how teachers must understand how contextual factors influence teaching and learning. Over the course of this placement I have continually been made aware of the lives that some of my students live. Today after a number of conversations and circumstances I reflected on this factor. One boy brought his mother into school with him today to apologise and put right an issue that had been making him feel guilty all week. The incident happened last week and the students guilt has built till today were he told his mother about what he had done. This really made me think about how as a teacher I so often may have no idea at all about what is going on in a students life and home. It makes me think how careful, considerate and loving I need to be towards my students. But in order to teach effectively this judgements have to be made so many times throughout the day. Which therefore makes the process even harder. I think that this ‘judgement’ will come better over time when a relationship is built and students are able to trust their teacher more. Another situation which made me think about this was during my reading lesson I had one boy who just couldn’t focus and I kept trying to tell him to read and do his work. I thought he was definitely tired but found out at the end of the lesson that he was really not very well. He was then sent to the sick bay at morning tea and went home. This highlighted to me again how important and difficult it is for a teacher to continually be making judgements, and conclusions from observing and talking to students. This is an area that I know I am not proficient with yet but will come with experience.