Week five

I am slightly late with my reflections for this week as submission of the proposal took priority. The main focus of the lectures and workshops were to assist each other with our proposals.

I was very positive about my proposal and after talking to Sall’ee I know I am heading in the right direction. It became apparent to me that a few of my colleagues were a bit off the mark of what they needed to achieve for the written proposal. As I had a better understanding of what the intent was I felt it necessary to assist them during the workshop. I have noticed that the negativity that has occurred during this semester has made me more focussed to assist others in understanding what is required from them as a professional educator. I need to make sure thought that I do not force my opinions onto people as this can be seen as arrogant and condescending to many. I feel it is good that I can turn around negativity to a positive.

Project progress

I have submitted the surveys to the teachers of the focus years this week and am waiting for their responses. Hopefully I will receive some qualitative data to build the student surveys from.

I had a very useful discussion with one of the year five teachers this week that assisted me in organising my thoughts. He inquired as to what the actual project focus was and what the timeline of the project is (six weeks). He asked me questions such as; how long are you going to have with the students per week? How much can you do in that time? What students do you think you will get a response from?
These questions alerted me to the fact that I have a total of twelve hours spread over six weeks with the students. How much can I truly teach in that time? Not every thing on my concept map I have made. As the year five teacher commented “do something small really well, not something big badly”. I need to focus on a particular software application or tool that will improve the student’s skills. It needs to be useful and exciting and relevant to them. They need to be able to implement it and use it in their everyday lives and lessons. I now have a more refined focus for the project.