My Professional Community

My Professional Community

As a frontline teacher I see the following as my Professional Community - with me at the centre.

 

 

The most important relationship that I build is the one between me and my class. Each of the remaining groups are supportive of both the class and myself and we work together to ensure the learners are supported.

 

New Windsor School Students include my class but I also have a relationship with the rest of the student body. So I work on building a relationship with the student body so they know they can approach me for support when they need it. 

Theories that underpin my practice.

 

It is my view that my class sees themselves as a day family. We will have times that are good, interesting, challenging and rewarding. As the class and I spend 6 hours a day together we talked about honesty and integrity and what that looks like. This led to us being able to discuss about how over time we would fall out with each other, make other friendships - at times forgetting about existing ones and how we might be mean to each other. This social construct is very important to me as it is reflective of Vygotsky's Cultural-Historical Theory of cognitive development.

 

Vygotsky's theory made several assumptions such as; complex mental activities begin as social activities, conversations with adults assist in the child's development, challenging tasks promote cognitive development and play is important.

 

In my class each and every child is treated as an individual who has their own challenges that the child and I work closely together to identify their learning needs. Once we identify these needs then to go about trying to make sure that these needs are achieved.

 

 

 

To enable me to carry out this challenge I have had to change the way I deliver the curriculum. Mainly due to how my learning has progressed through this year and a want to place the learner at the forefront of my practice.

 

Schoen (2008) writes, Vygotskyian theory suggests that teachers should organise classroom learning experiences to include both individual activities - to be completed on their own and complex problems that can be worked on in groups. The collective learning attained during working within a group grows the individual skills and knowledge that they may tap into in a similar learning situation when working by themselves. This supports Vygotsky's belief that 'higher mental function occurs in collaboration with other before it exists within the individual.' (Schoen, 2008, p.37) 

 

I have focused this piece on the student as being at the centre of my drive to help the student grow through their learning. I try to provide authentic learning opportunities where the individual can grow through collaboration or through their internal motivation to push out their personal learning boundaries.

 

References

 

Schoen, L., T. (2008) Constructing high quality learning environments for twenty first century learners. Teaching and Learning: International Best Practice. [pp. 25-50] Retrieved from  http://www.academia.edu/173355/Constructing_High_Quality_Learning_Environments_for_Twenty_First_Century_Learners_A_Sociocultural_Constructivist_Perspective