PROFESSIONAL TEACHING FRAMEWORK: FAEZA

Professional relationships are built on respect. A vital part of ensuring successful relationships with students, colleagues and parents and carers is to ensure that efficient, clear and regular communication is maintained. As an educator in an LSU I have a communication folder system connecting home and school. Students do a daily reflection journal letting family know about their day at school and there is a teacher and parent section to enable daily clear communication. The folder enables the easy transfer of excursion or other notes and payments between home and school. I venture to maintain regular phone calls between home and school to discuss issues and celebrate success. 

 

As a teacher, I have had an opportunity to  co-teach with the K to 2 LSU team next door as well as main stream teachers. We do our social skills, physical education and life skills programs together. Collaborative and respectful partnerships are at the core of ensuring that a supportive work environment is maintained and this impacts on positive learning outcomes for students.

 

I have also had an opportunity to collaborate with a small school wide team in a Professional Learning Community where by we are doing a case study on the impacts of diffrentiation on student learning for structured writing tasks. We use ICT to seek, make sense of and share information and also using a google apps platform to collaborate as a PLC team. 

 

Working with support staff provides an opportunity to collaboratively build an envirnmnet that is safe, supportive and conducive to learning. I have ventured to build a positive professional relationship with our LSA and we work in tandem to best meet each students individual needs.

 

I aim to create an environment of trust, care and respect in the classroom through polite clear and explicit communication with all my students. By understanding the backgrounds, identities, needs and interests of my students allows me to implement programs that create a sense of belonging as I embed these in curriculum and pedagogy.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While on placement at a special needs school, I was involved in managing the daily communication folders, an example of which is on the right. In addition, I have made an effort to always talk to and build positive relationships with parents and carers of students, which have included families from diverse cultures, disabilities, faiths and socio economic backgrounds. I am well aware that students carry diverse 'baggage' from home and it is necessary to bridge the home school divide so as to foster a sense of belonging. When selecting resources and creating projects and worksheets, I make it a point to reflect the diversity of the class in terms of ability levels and cultural backgrounds as shown below. In every placement, I have ventured to establish cooperative, respectful and collaborative relationships with my mentor teachers and the support staff including learning support assistants, physios and OTs. Respectful and collaborative partnerships are essential in maintaining a positive and supportive teaching and learning environment.