7. Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community
Evidence 1
Also connects with standards 3.5, 3.7
Also connects with standards
Engaging with both parents/carers and colleagues, as well as the wider community is a vital part of teaching. I embed a variety of strategies throughout my practice to engage with these stakeholders. Whilst undertaking my final professional experience placement, I used a variety of these strategies to develop professional relationships within the school community. At the commencement of my placement, I sent out a letter to the families of the students in my class, introducing myself and discussing the outline for the placement block (See letter 1). I believe that reaching out to the school community supports the development of relationships and builds trust between families and staff. At the end of my final placement, I sent out a letter to demonstrate all of the learning activities and topics that had been addressed over the course of my placement (See letter 2). It was important to write this letter with both my mentor teacher and school principal, which helped with engaging with my colleagues and the families of my students in my class.
Evidence 2
Also connects with standards 2.6, 3.3, 3.7, 5.2
While undertaking my third year placement, I was introduced to the communicative tablet application, SeeSaw. This platform allows students, families and teachers to communicate and share their learning with one another. SeeSaw has a variety of creative tools that students can use to display their pieces of work and learning. For confidentiality, families can only see their own child/ren's work and are able to leave comments and feedback. This application is easy to use - and is extremely time saving for teachers. It provides a simple platform for reflection, assessment and feedback for all students. I believe that becoming a teacher in the 21st century, it is imperative to utilise the abundance of technology that is available, to not only effectively manage time, but to incorporate our ever-changing technological society into our teaching. This will empower the students we teach, and develop technologically advanced citizens. In my teaching future, I endeavour to implement this program heavily within all learning areas in order to develop strong communicative relationships with the families of students, as well as provide a platform for my students to build a repertoire of their work to visually see their learning and development across the course of the school year.
Evidence 3
Evidence 3
Also connects with standards 3.5, 3.7
While undertaking my introductory days for my final placement in Term 1 2018, I was invited to sit in on an Individualised Educational Plan (IEP) meeting. The attendees at the meeting included my mentor teacher, myself and the student's mother and father. The aim was to develop a variety of goals for the student, in relation to the curriculum. Involving the parents in this process allowed for clear communication across two of the most important settings in this child's life and also provided parents with a say about what they believe their child should learn to become a functioning member of society in the future.
Evidence 4
Also connects with standards 3.5, 3.7, 4.5
Both my third and final year placements highlighted the importance of daily communication with parents. My third year placement took a more technological approach when communicating with parents. They created a private Facebook group for all the parents and carers of all the students in the class. While undertaking my placement, I was added to the group. I made a post in the group introducing myself. I noticed that using Facebook as a form of communication is extremely beneficial, as it is easily accessible and readily checked. Additionally, this class had the SeeSaw platform set up. Overall, I had two viable forms of communication with parents. Moreover, during my final year placement, I used take home diaries and folders as a means of daily communication.
Example of a posting on the class' private facebook group.
Class private facebook group