Teachers supporting teachers: SERIES 2 EPISODE 11 - Overcoming the shock of remote placement
Teachers supporting teachers: SERIES 2 EPISODE 11 -
Overcoming the shock of remote placement
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is a message that comes through this episode as we start to think about how we engage with remote learning as pre-service teachers undertaking professional experience placements in this way.
Kelsey and Kathryn are final year Masters of Education (Primary) students from Swinburne University of Technology about the enter into their final ready to teach professional experience placement. In this episode they join me to share their tips, tricks and insights into how they navigated their previous remote and flexible placement. Their sharing offers great insights especially for those who have not experienced this way of working as yet or have done so and are looking to extend possibilities and approaches.
We reflect about the shock of undertaking placement in a remote and flexible mode, decoding what’s involved and how they processed this in this episode. Kelsey and Kathryn share some beautiful mantras that I think you will find helpful:
Learn to let go and realise you can’t control everything.
Planning is great but think about what you are planning for and how you do this.
Work together and reach out.
Be prepared and know what you need to address.
Talk to your mentor and find out as much as you can about the schools, the students, how your mentor is working in the remote space, what is expected, what platforms are used, how leaning is undertaken, etc.
Embrace flexibility…and you often don’t know what is going to happen, with unexpected moments occurring.
Be calm about the unexpected.
You are not alone.
Be open to this new experience and what you can learn about teaching, yourself, working with others, how to support students, etc.
Take it day by day.
Realise it is not just you who is experiencing this moment in time.
Building a relationship with your mentor is crucial, and often an area that as pre-srvice teachers can be a stress point. As we explore this, throughout the episode we hear about the ways you can approach this utilising technology, building rapport, making connections, and finding ways that allow for regular feedback and connections to be development and maintained. Kathryn highlights utilising the technology that we are all using at the moment - video. Ask for a video chat to connect visually and support the creation of a rapport as mentor and PST. Be respectful of time as well, and negotiate how this can look for you both throughout this placement where incidental moments of connection do look different. Kelsey provides great tips for utilising the video connection already set up for teaching time, holding on at the end once the students have left to connect, reflect, communicate, and ask questions. We also talk through different platforms that are ideal to help connections and communication.
Remote learning has us consider what classroom management looks like, a hot topic for many pre-service teachers. Kelsey and Kathryn reveal some of the reality of what this looks like during remote teaching, and encourage us to think about the development of a community of practice underpinned by support and regular check-ins. We also discuss time, who else in the room, access to wifi, energy, etiquette, and videos being on so the class can all see one another. And a key reminder that personal and professional spaces, and personal and school is blurred, where we need to be considerate of what is possible while acknowleding for everyone this looks different.
Throughout the episode we also unpack different approaches to utilising platforms and the home space. We focus on found objects within the home to support learning and how we can engage the family and spaces inside and around the home as well.
As we all navigate remote and flexible learning, Kathryn and Kelsey provide insights into what happens when COVID-19 regulations change and we move from remote back to a version of face-to-face during a placement. We discuss relationships, connections, and what happens when students get to meet you in real life.
One of the most beautiful conclusions to an episode is shared here, with Kelsey and Kathryn sharing what was their most rewarding experience. This is a beautiful example of an appreciation activity called ‘3 blessings’ where we notice three things that have happened that we would usually take for granted. I hope you enjoy hearing their insights of their celebrations, plus insights shared throughout the episode.