After 4 weeks of periodical teaching Year 7s and Year 11s, one thing that I’ve truly come to appreciate is the professional relationship with my mentor.
Initially, I was reluctant to take risks. However, with her encouragement, I’ve tried different things with varying amounts of success. I’ve had a couple of difficult moments, particularly with Year 7s, which I’ve jokingly called my ‘Hiroshima’.
Had I not tried, I wouldn’t have learnt so conspicuously about what works and what doesn’t work. Combined with the astute observations of my mentor, I’ve also learnt what I could’ve done differently.
For example, I tried to do a YouTube video with the Year 7s in one lesson, and I paused the video in select moments to allow them to copy down answers. Unfortunately, this stop-start process actually backfired and caused the students to become more disengaged. So, my mentor asked me to reflect on why the lesson fell flat, and it dawned on me that a fourteen year old struggles to shift their attention readily from stimulus-to-stimulus. So, when I had the chance to do an activity with the same group I got them to view the stimulus with their unbroken attention.
It worked. They were far more engaged with the material.
Lesson learnt? Take the fall as a teacher – you will learn something valuable every time you do.