Week7

__Week 7__ - How Well Do You Know Your Students?

“It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognise each other, to learn to see the other & honour him/her for what he/she is.” -Hermann Hesse

The brilliance of this quote goes to show how great the lecture was on Monday. The topic this week was obviously very essential and relevant for us soon-to-be teachers: the importance of not assuming, but actually getting to know your students. Just as Greg does, Tanya’s lecture was especially useful for us all because of the many personal anecdotes and real-life examples she gave for her important points. She provided tips and strategies for getting to know and thus earning the respect of students, even by something as simple but imperative as ensuring you pronounce a student’s name correctly. This is connected with a large focus of the lecture, the importance of dealing appropriately with the mixed backgrounds and cultures of students in a classroom and school, an aim also advocated by the Inclusive & Effective school programs that were part of this week’s reading. Tanya emphasised the need to encourage openness among the students about their backgrounds in order to decrease any degree of novelty, difference or potential exclusion among the students themselves. In relation to the reading this week, locating, identifying and naturalising difference can also be related to other types of diversity among students, such as giftedness. One website ( [] ) emphasised the need for students to explore and celebrate their differences and similarities with each other, because “[t]hrough finding an affiliation with others, gifted students learn to accept themselves as individuals rather than hide their giftedness to gain acceptance”. This fits in well with Tanya’s contention to openly express individualities in the classroom, to see different cultures and belief systems as part of the student body as a positive and enriching thing. However, an important thing issue tied to this is the equal importance of maintaining and respecting the privacy of the student and their family at all times. Still, while keeping this in mind, a good teacher strives to get to know their students, with the aim to better understand them and thereby provide adequate learning opportunities. As well as actively meeting the students’ families, some other most basic examples mentioned in the lecture were letting the children introduce themselves to you, for example via a personal slideshow made at the beginning of the year, or simply asking your students what they think makes a good teacher. Hopefully by keeping these valuable issues and tactics in mind, we will become the best kinds of teachers ourselves in the future and earn the respect of our students. It seems it is the little things that make all the difference, such as not assuming you know everything about a student just by looking at them, but instead really getting to know them properly, even down to their locker numbers! Author: Biana Alvarez Harris

The presentation given by Professor Tanya Fitzgerald was a highly inspirational and thought-provoking insight into the reality of modern-day classrooms and the diversity that exists within them. In every-day situations adults, much the same as children, feel content when something is remembered or appreciated about them from someone that they are in contact with. As for a teacher and student relationship, the rapport that exists between a teacher and their students is essentially based on a level of trust, respect and knowledge about the student which is developed in the early stages of this relationship. To help with this initial process Williams has made suggestions of activities that could be used in the classroom environment. To find the article titled "Getting to Know Your Students; Using Activities, Icebreakers, & Multiple Intelligence Surveys to Learn What Students Needs", search for the website [|http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747026.]

Author: Angela Partridge

Professor Tanya Fitzgerald’s lecture was an excellent insight into the modern-day classroom and the diverse natures of their inhabitants. It is vital to get to know your students on a more personal level. As Angela has put so well we all like to be thought of as individuals and feel happy when someone shows an interest in us. Professor Fitzgerald gave us a number of tips to get to know our students and gain their respect, doing the little things like remembering birthdays and pronouncing someone’s name correctly can have a dramatic effect on how a student feels about you as a teacher and more importantly a person. This week’s readings provided further support for Dr Fitzgerald’s views, for example Inclusive & Effective school programs, which also state that we should embrace the differences in individuals and encourage openness about our back grounds, which in a multicultural society is very important. We may find we have more in common that we thought. Author: Nick Power

Whether you are Grade Prep or a Grade six or Dip Ed student it is always important to feel that you are valued in your class or tutorial. The dominant role the teacher plays in the life of Primary school children in particular makes it especially important that they feel they are being seen as individual. Remembering simple details about the pupil such as their name, siblings and hobbies will go a long way to establishing trust and a productive learning environment.

The effective and inclusive school model as described by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development opened my eyes to the diversity I could expect in a classroom. Due to the area I grew up in I instinctively think of diversity in terms of people from different cultures. This document opened my eyes to the diversity in the classroom in particular with regards children with disabilities. I think back to my childhood experiences and through my eyes at the time it seemed as if there was a one size fits all approach to education regardless of individual needs. The need to develop individual approaches for each student seems a little daunting at the moment but I am sure will become second nature with experience. I have immediately started to visualise potential issues of having children with physical disabilities or learning disorders in classrooms where you are attempting to run task boards and teaching groups. I found Tanya’s lecture to be reassuring about the fact that these issues are surmountable and can actually enhance the classroom experience. Author: Beth McMullin