What time is it? PLACEMENT TIME?!

[fireheart]

Holy crap, I have teacher placement starting not next week, but the week after. (25th June)

I am going to a Waldorf/Steiner school, at my request.

I kinda feel like I'm going to school for the first time, except that instead of ensuring that my lunchbox is all packed and my shoelaces are tied, I'll be making sure that I have enough chalk and ensuring that my basket is packed tight. (So I can keep all my stuff together, I have a basket with books and resources, as well as my handbag for everything else)

[HYHYBT]

Crossing fingers, arms, legs, and eyes for you. (Sorry, I tried, but the toes just won't do it.)

[Pixilated]

Crossed toes are pretty uncomfortable.

Congratulations, HYHYBT!

[fireheart]

thanks for that.

I'm trying to make a liner for my basket at the moment, since it's a cheap-ass wicker one I picked up this afternoon. My "chalk" basket is a little seagrass one which will probably be lined with felt or something cheap since afterward, it'll become my basket for my whiteboard markers. The material I picked up is this cool "rainbow" material

The added bonus is that the school has a rule about trying to keep packaging minimal (in terms of food) so my snacks and lunch all need to be healthy. There's also no on-site canteen, so I have to bring in my own lunch and meat pies and whatnot appear to be frowned upon.

[fireheart]

So I start placement on Tuesday. Yeowch, the time has flown by.

There seems to be quite a number of websites in Australia that sell Steiner-related products and whatnot. (and for some strange reason, about half of them are Queensland based...any Qld'ers care to comment? ) Some of the products are things like toys and crafting implements (i.e. weaving materials, knitting needles, wooden play toys, creepy faceless dolls ), while the art and craft supplies are nothing short of amazing.

The pencils that the students use are durable and won't break. On top of that, the colours are amazing. They're a little bit thicker and triangular, but I spotted the Class I'm with using them without any problem. Somehow, thickness seems to be related to durability. (they are used pretty much from Classes 1-7). The chalk that the teachers use is a mix of normal and this special chalk/pastel type stuff that comes in square blocks and comes out quite vividly on the board. (more used for the drawings that go into their main lesson book). I am forking out for a set of the chalk as a classroom resource and also a little "tote pack" which consists of a set of the pencils, a little journal (about A5 size), some scissors and a sharpener, all of which come in this "roll"-type thing that keeps it all together. Thought it'd be a nice little gift.

[Mishi]

We're all hippies up here!

Seriously though, I'm not sure why there are so many QLD-based companies selling Steiner stuff, but I think it's pretty cool.

So you're enjoying your placement?

[fireheart]

We're all hippies up here!

Seriously though, I'm not sure why there are so many QLD-based companies selling Steiner stuff, but I think it's pretty cool.

So you're enjoying your placement?

I don't start until Tuesday.

I've been to the school twice already (once for a meet n greet and induction of sorts, and the other was to get one of my 5 planning days out of the way since the school has a student free day tomorrow for Parent-Teacher interviews (which I can't partake in for privacy reasons) and I know where I'll be, i know the teacher and I know the students I'll be with.

I've also met some of the staff, but not all of them yet. I know the Class 3 and 4 teachers (even though I was only with Class 3 for a half day and Class 4 as part of the tour) as well as my own Class teacher and one of the Teacher-Librarians.
In fact, the Teacher-Librarian also handles a lot of the Special Needs-type stuff at the school I'm going to and has invited me to have a chat with her. (my own degree is in Special Education, but I'm pre-service not post-service)

Over the next 4 days or so, I'm actually going to spend as much time with the students in my class as possible for a few reasons (this includes observing and partaking in their specialist lessons):

1) It gives me a chance to introduce myself to the other members of staff who I haven't met yet. (Some of them take homegroups and the main lesson for the high school as well as their specialist field)

2) It gives me a chance to see just exactly what the students get up to (I still have no idea WTF Bothmer Gymnastics is exactly, but it seems to replace Eurhythmy)

3) It also allows for me to bond with the students a bit better. Because the students stay with the same teacher from Class 1-7, they all sort of know one another fairly well and I don't know much about them. (basically, the class and the teacher are one unit, the only thing that changes between Classes is the room)

In the classes that I can't participate in for whatever reason, I'm going to use the time to start planning my OWN lessons. (which will be the main lesson and probably their English lesson, Arts lesson (depending on the art) and if I get the OK from the teachers, to also have a go at conducting the choir lesson )

ETA: If anyone is interested in the art supplies that are used in Steiner schools, PM me and I'll pass on the link to the website that I found. So far it's THE most reliable one I've found as it stocks just about everything I need and is the only one I could find that sells the chalk. Although it's expensive, but durable. I made up a wishlist of all the stuff I want to buy on there...all up my wishlist is about $270 worth of stuff . (that's including the chalk and the tote pack I wanted)

[Mishi]

Whoops, I mis-read that!
Good luck! I love the idea of Steiner schools and I wish that there was one a bit closer to us.

[fireheart]

Check your inbox Mishi, I've PM'd you the link.

Strangely enough, unlike Montessori schools where you HAVE to have done a special course to be a Montessori teacher, Steiner schools don't require that-in fact, the teacher I'm with has only done a BEd (teaching degree). You can if you really want to, but you don't have to.

For me, the purpose of going to this school is threefold:

1) For my health and sanity over the four weeks, so I'm not so overwhelmed and stressed. The school is very calm and relaxing and in the classroom, while the students can act up, you can tell that they have a HUGE amount of respect for the teachers.

2) To come in with an open mind and learn more about WHAT Steiner education actually is, rather than relying on the horror stories and all that on the net, as well as dismissing it as a "hippie school."

3) To take some of the methodologies from the Steiner school and see if some of those things might help kids with special needs or even in my own classroom and sort of come in with some fresh ideas.

ETA: So I revised my wishlist a little bit: $320.

[fireheart]

I know that I am inclined to get some questions about what exactly Steiner/Waldorf education IS, as well as how it differs from a mainstream educational method. So I'll try and sum it up as briefly as possible:

-Steiner education was founded in the 20's by Rudolf Steiner in Germany. His educational method is centred around the stages of child development defined by a philosophy/belief system known as anthroposopy. The philosophy is NOT taught to children, nor are teachers required to exclusively practice it in everyday life.

-Children enter the educational system a little differently, with a lot of Steiner schools running from K-12. Kindergarten in a Steiner school runs up until around age 7, although in some cases, it may be earlier. Primary/elementary schools runs from age 7 or so right up until age 14, where the classes are simply labelled "Class One", "Class Two", "Class Three" and so on. High school occurs from age 14 and up. (Class Eight-Class Twelve) The Steiner schools that DON'T run up until Class 12 may therefore have some dropouts after Class Six.

-In the primary school years, the teacher and the students form one unit and stay together, only changing classrooms each year. The classrooms are generally (but not always) built to accomodate the ideals that are taught to each students year level (for example, the Kindergarten area is built as more of a fairytale setting, while Class Three is built more like a farmhouse)

-Imaginative play and creativity form a HUGE part of Waldorf education, with children at the lower year levels learning through games, songs and stories. (For example, learning the alphabet may be done through stories about each individual letter i.e. the letter V being a valley, the letter M being mountains and so on) Music and art form a huge part of the curriculum from Kindy-Class 12.

-Some aspects and activities that are part of the curriculum are things that you wouldn't always see in a mainstream school, including gardening, circus skills, eurhythmy, bothmer gymnastics (have yet to see what the latter involves), knitting, weaving, felting and so on.

-The school is NOT religious, it is spiritual, so the students celebrate festivals for each of the seasons, as well as other festivals relating to the Class or the general region. (For instance, the school I'm at celebrates Autumn, Winter and Spring Festivals, as well as the Almond Blossom festival which is a local community event, while Class 3 celebrates Jewish festivals even though the kids aren't Jewish). Each of the major world religions is studied to some degree from a historical and cultural viewpoint, rather than a religious one and they are spread out across the curriculum. (The class I'm with will be studying the foundation of Christianity and Islam and the class I WAS with were studying the history of the Jews)

-For 2 hours every morning, the classes all undertake what's known as a "Main Lesson", which consists of either English/Literacy, Maths/Numeracy, History/Geography or Science. This is one topic that is studied in depth for up to 3-4 weeks at a time and the kids get really immersed in it. For example, if they're covering say Science and the topic in question is Acoustics and Optics, the kids might conduct some experiments before then making a musical instrument. Everything is recorded in a "Main Lesson" book, which isn't marked, but the kids have a record of what they have learned-it's kind of like making their own textbook. The whole process isn't entirely rote learning however for instance, the teacher I'm with might write some questions down as a guide for the students and they are required to answer them, by writing the answers in story form.

-In terms of recess and lunchtime, while there is an emphasis on healthy food (one of the things I heavily agree with), free play is also encouraged. Kids are allowed to build cubbyhouses, climb trees (with supervision) and the play equipment might be encouraged for them to be more active: in fact, one of the upper primary playgrounds has a Parkour course for the kids.

-This is more for Australians, but the kids do not (always) wear a uniform at Steiner schools. (one school in my state has a mainstream program and a Steiner program together, due to safety guidelines, the kids all wear uniform regardless) They have a dress code, which adheres to general safety guidelines as well as discouraging kids from wearing tops or pants with logos or images on them (patterns and the like are fine as long as the pattern is small), or following certain fashion trends. There are a few rules that differ between schools, such as how much black can students wear (if any), how much fluoro can students wear (generally none) and so on.

-Parents are generally discouraged from letting their kids watch television or interact with computers and the like, more so at the younger year levels. The reasons why can vary, from ensuring that the kids get a good nights sleep or come to school fresh and ready to learn, rather than being distracted, through to the belief that TV's can harm a child's development. (this is not the place to debate it) The guideline about how much TV the kids are encouraged to watch varies between schools, with some schools discouraging TV watching altogether and some schools stating "no more than an hour, half an hour".

-Sort of following on from that, again, computer use is discouraged at the younger year levels, with computer use not being introduced on a regular basis until Class 8. Libraries can and will use search computers and there are computers present in the staff rooms and whatnot, so it's not like the school is completely technophobic .

-The schools are not huge on testing kids, rather because the teacher stays with the kids from Classes 1-7 (where possible), the teacher is able to keep track of the students as they progress and address various literacy and numeracy difficulties when needed. In Australia, the NAPLAN has never been compulsory and parents can opt to exempt their kid for various reasons, in the case of Waldorf schools, there is a higher rate of parents exempting their children. The kids that DO sit the tests are told that they have a "special job" to do when in front of their peers and all the kids from Class 3, 5, 7 and 9 who do take the tests will sit the tests in the one room. Generally, the kids still meet the benchmarks of their mainstream peers.

-At least in Australia, where we are going through the process of a National Curriculum across all state schools (which I am slowly learning my way through), Steiner/waldorf schools have their own version of a National Curriculum, which is required by all schools, has already been implemented and is required to display links between the Steiner and Mainstream curriculum. The ONLY thing that Steiner kids are exempt from are the IT-related aspects.

I think that's all I can think of for now...if anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[fireheart]

Whew, I found out a LOT yesterday. Here's a short summary of what I'll be doing this week and then doing after the holidays:

-This week I'll get a chance to see two different class plays, one each for Classes Five and Seven. Then I'll be helping with our own play, which is an adaption of The Hobbit. (and the teacher is reading that to the class)

-I also get a chance to see and participate in as many specialist classes as possible, which gives me a chance to bond with the students and also meet the staff members I haven't met yet.

After the school holidays

-Because of the nature of the Main Lesson topic after the holidays, my mentor teacher feels uncomfortable with me taking said topic, so we've agreed to co-share it in some aspects (the topic is on sound, light/vision and heat). She will be letting me take the rest of the Main Lesson on Ancient Rome after that though.

-The students do what are known as "Practice Lessons" each week in Literacy and Numeracy, so after the holidays, I will be slowly taking over that role. At first I will be taking 1 literacy, 1 numeracy and then working up to 2-3 practice lessons a week.

-I also get the opportunity to do a class excursion (HOPEFULLY) during next term, which ties back to the topic for the Main Lesson.

-From around the second week onwards, I will also be leading the verses for each day. The kids do three verses: 2-4 morning verses (one is one they do all year, the others they do according to the seasons), a verse before they eat (sort of like grace, but more acknowledging basic ingredients) and a verse at the end of the day.

-And finally, I get to do a craft activity with the kids on Friday afternoon, which I will either be running ONLY over the four weeks or I'll be starting and then handing over to Jodie at the end of the four weeks. I am thinking of having the kids do mosaics, albeit small ones. (Since they are studying Ancient Rome as their main English and history topic)

[fireheart]

And I blew it. BIG TIME.

So yesterday we had two class plays (long story short, each class puts a play on for the other classes). For the second play, I was "left" by myself in a sense. (I say that because the teacher I was meant to be with was actually involved in the play and nobody gave me an idea on who I need to defer "to") And a few of the students thought it would be hilarious to disrespect me by wearing hats or hoods and then backchatting.

I totally lost my cool, yelled at them repeatedly. The Class Five teacher had to set them straight. And then afterwards, I yelled at them AGAIN when they were with the Japanese teacher. Uh-oh. (The Japanese teacher set them straight)

In the car on the way home, I felt awful and I cried.

Needless to say, today I was pulled aside and told how to do things correctly should that ever happen again. On top of that, I also received a phone call from the supervisor who is due to assess me in a few weeks. We discussed the situation AGAIN (very awkward) and we then explained it and what had happened. She then assured me that someone ELSE had done the same thing last year with the SAME class and that Class Six (my year level) is one of the trickiest classes to manage. (bear in mind that the students stay with the same teacher, so the student teacher last year had my students as Class Five, not Class Six). Also that my teacher was somewhat strict.

I'm not angry or upset at being told off. I'm just taking it in my stride and learning from it. As a result though, due to that incident, I realised that I need some more time to have a breather and that spending ALL of the NIT lessons with the kids this week is not helping me build relationships. So as a result, even though it will be expected come Term 3, I am spending tomorrow's NIT lessons with my mentor teacher or in the library (with the exception of Bothmer since I have not seen it and I am curious to learn more). If it's alright with the school principal, I may even spend some time with the learning support staff learning from them as well. (NIT=Non Instruction Time, basically specialist lessons the kids receive. Because of the nature of the school, the kids have more NIT lessons than most children, with them having NIT in Bothmer, PE, Art, Music, Recorder, Technology, Gardening and Library)

The school is definitely helping me think about resources though and trying to incorporate an environment where EVERYTHING is done for a particular reason, not just to look good. (for instance, the class studies Ancient Rome because the children at that age are becoming more familiar with a high degree of order and form) There is this puzzle in the library that I absolutely love though:



the idea is that with that particular puzzle, the children are encouraged to be more creative and think for themselves by forming individual patterns. There is an infinite selection of ideas. For me, I am also seeing practice of motor skills and the formation of patterns.

Only time will tell.

[fireheart]

Today was the last day of term and was interesting in some aspects. Here's a few things I found out over the last 2 days:

-Bothmer is more about developing their bodily rhythms and co-ordination and is not as spiritual as opposed to eurhythmy. The school DID have a eurhythmy teacher, but he/she left and on top of that, the students were getting bored with it by around Class 8-9. So the decision was made to re-introduce it in the lower year levels.

-I got given the OK to maximise my placement in terms of visiting other classes, spending time with the learning support staff and whatnot provided that I am not disturbing the children and I negotiate first.

[42_42_42]

I don't think anyone who is in the teaching profession has never had a moment (or two or six...) where they've lost their cool and yelled, especially when you're still learning and figuring all this stuff out. The people teaching you how to teach know that. It's all just part of your learning process, really. My first year in eduction, I taught 7th grade language arts and I was a provisional licensee, which meant I had NO training in teaching. I was thrown in in the 3rd week of school to sink or swim. I yelled. A LOT that year. I also decided that middle school (ages 11-14) was NOT for me. Later on I worked in elementary grades as a substitute and I did much better at that. Right now I'm working with college students and last semester I still kind of lost it and snapped at a whining student that "this is college, suck it up" (not verbatim, but jist of what I said).

Things *will* get better!

[fireheart]

Things *will* get better!

Thanks.

They have. The last two days were a LOT better as I was told to back off a little bit and take things a bit slower. It worked: by the end of the day the kids loved me-mostly. It would've been an issue at a mainstream school anyway, but because of the nature of the school it was an even bigger issue. (we also discussed that part of the problem was that I had been present when my mentor teacher was disciplining several of the boys for disrespecting their music teacher and had therefore got the wrong idea)

Because they are working on the class play at the moment, I volunteered to work with them even after my placement was over since the time allocated for play practice is when I don't have a class. The rule with that sort of thing is that provided you don't have a class on, you are allowed to help with extra-curricular activities.

I also brought forward my suggestion to the teacher about a craft project that ties in with their new main lesson in Week 4. Because their new main lesson will be on Ancient Rome, I asked about doing mosaics. She loved it.

ETA: I also got to see a Bothmer lesson in practice. The kids didn't like the teacher, but a lot of them LOVED the class. The idea of Bothmer is more about helping their co-ordination, rhythm and balance (rhythm in this aspect refers to the rhythm of everyday life, encouraging them to slow down a bit more and balance is more referring to them being able to balance the new challenges in their life with what they already have). So they'll do exercises involving patterns over staves and throwing the staves at one another to a certain command (for instance, if a student has a stave in his hands, "short" refers to passing it between his/her hands, while "long" requires the student to throw it to their partner. The same exercise might be repeated on the ground with everyone having their sticks in a circle end-to-end, in this case "Short" being a jump over their stave and "long" being a jump/leap to the next stave)