My Story - Volunteering at a primary school"
I am very fortunate that the school I volunteer in trusted me to assist teachers in three different Years in a single day.
In a normal class, a teacher can only use one method (teaching style) to teach the students. However, when the class teacher assigned me to help small groups each are generally of the same competence level, I can use different techniques to help them understand better.
In my opinion the problem is not about the class size, but the student mix. It does not matter how a young teacher is mentored, they will still be frustrated because the one-size-fits-all method will not achieve an optimal outcome. It is sad that the system got rid of streaming, and therefore the end result is that the overall performance is just average. That my be what Australian culture is about - chopping down the tall poppies!
How can a young teacher deal with a student rolling on the floor crying, or the student keeps saying she is a failure? How can a young teacher cope with naughty or mischievous students who cannot be punished or reprimanded? How can a young teacher just use generic words to describe exact nature of the students' behaviour or the actual performance of the students in the "report card"?
It is not just the young teachers having problems. In fact many experienced teachers are as stressed and frustrated when they write the individual reports.
Thank you for reading.
In a normal class, a teacher can only use one method (teaching style) to teach the students. However, when the class teacher assigned me to help small groups each are generally of the same competence level, I can use different techniques to help them understand better.
In my opinion the problem is not about the class size, but the student mix. It does not matter how a young teacher is mentored, they will still be frustrated because the one-size-fits-all method will not achieve an optimal outcome. It is sad that the system got rid of streaming, and therefore the end result is that the overall performance is just average. That my be what Australian culture is about - chopping down the tall poppies!
How can a young teacher deal with a student rolling on the floor crying, or the student keeps saying she is a failure? How can a young teacher cope with naughty or mischievous students who cannot be punished or reprimanded? How can a young teacher just use generic words to describe exact nature of the students' behaviour or the actual performance of the students in the "report card"?
It is not just the young teachers having problems. In fact many experienced teachers are as stressed and frustrated when they write the individual reports.
Thank you for reading.
