Describe one critical learning incident or learning experience that stood out during your placement using the STAR model
S- Situation. Details of the context of the experience, including the issues/barriers encountered. T- Task. What was your role, what task/learning experience were you trying to conduct/facilitate? A- Actions. What did you or the mentor do in response to this situation that demonstrates your ability to be responsive? R- Result. What was the result that followed from your actions. How will you change it next time?
I encountered minor behavioural management issues (getting out of chairs to ask me for help, talking too loudly (task-based talk), calling out sometimes etc. This occurred during instructions and whilst completing tasks.
After speaking to my mentor we decided the behaviours would only escalate and to “nip it in the bud” early. This encouraged introducing my own behavioural expectations, call-and-response methods and classroom routines in the following lesson.
I assumed that implementing my teacher’s strategies/routines would be effective as at the start of the year I didn’t want to overload students with information and routines. However, implementing my own classroom expectations/rules and call-and-response strategies meant students were consistently on task, not calling out, “giving 5” on the mat and worked under set noise levels. I found it increased my positive reinforcements as I had more time to focus on students on-task working to expectations.
When beginning my Final Placement Experience, I will be sure to re-teach and introduce some behavioural routines, classroom expectations, noise level scale and call-and-response within the first few lessons/days to ensure students have a clear understanding of the expectations. I believe this is important because it completely changed the flow of my lessons as I wasn’t constantly disrupted or distracted by students with off-task behaviours, it allowed me to spend more time assisting students and monitoring their progress and capabilities.