Week 1: Reflection

Here are a couple of the major points I have learnt thus far:

** Never overestimate the power of positive reinforcement
-- I need to work on this. Often I am so focused on the flow of the lesson and what I need to do next that I forget to praise students.

** Establish good behaviour management strategies with each class.
-- This strategy is different depending on the students and year level.

** With younger students (yr8 &yr9) you really need to be explicit.
-- For example, when asking students to analyse a picture, tell them to "go for detail. Try to make your list as long as possible. Write like a shopping list - dot points not full sentences." or "You can talk to the person sitting next to you on two conditions (1) that you are discussing the work (2) that you are not disrupting other students."

** When asking students questions as a group, restate what the student has said, so that the whole class understands what the correct answer is.
-- This is another thing I need to work on -- interaction with students during classroom discussion.