Professional Development

Classroom Canada PD Week came at a good time for me: just as I'm transitioning into a new role with increased responsibility.

There were two workshop sessions, both offered by the massively entertaining and knowledgeable Sophie Walker. Sophie started off as an English and Drama teacher in Melbourne, and through various twists and turns, wound up as an Advisory Support Teacher in London (specializing in young children with Autism). For those of you following along at home, Sophie's job is pretty darned close to what I want to do. And they're paying for her to get her Masters degree, which is also in my plan. So it occurs to me that I must talk to her and figure out a path for getting there. Luckily, she works with some of the children at my school, including one I support. I'll be seeing her again in a couple of weeks.

The workshops themselves were pretty basic overviews. One was a survival guide to teaching in the UK and the other was on Special Educational Needs (SEN). We got some pretty good resources out of them, including a bunch of sites for downloading teaching materials. Seeing as I'm not actually a teacher, I didn't think I'd have much use for those, but then I had my first day at the new school...

I have very much been given ownership over this child's development. She does spend a good chunk of the day integrated in with the class, but I pull her out several times a day to work on phonics, numeracy, handwriting, and motor skills... and it's up to me to decide which activities we do. Enter handy resource websites. Thank you, Sophie.

I have a feeling I'm going to start using this blog more and more for talking about the various strategies I'm trying. One of the first things I want to do is convert her physical exercise routine (she has a series of exercises she does every day to build strength and balance) into something more interesting and fun (à la creative yoga). As it stands, her workout dissolves very quickly into silliness. I think she might get more out of it if the silliness were built right in.

In addition to my one-to-one student, I also work with a few other children in the class who have special needs that aren't severe enough to warrant being "statemented" (which means the government allocates extra funds for providing them with one-to-one support). One of them, a boy with autism, joins us for our afternoon tutoring sessions. A couple of others sit with us in class so I can help them all complete their work. And in my "downtime," I do whatever the teacher asks (distributing books, photocopying, etc.).

The teacher expects a lot, not just from me but from her class. The result seems to be quite positive. The students pupils are remarkably well-behaved and are learning things well beyond what you would normally expect from children their age in Canada. I'm hoping I'll pick up a lot of great strategies by working there.

The only part that is a little strange for me is that it's a faith school (Church of England). Prayer is built into their daily school life. I'm not religious so it's a bit awkward in that I'm not sure whether I should be praying with them. It takes me back to my days in Catholic school, when I used to refuse to sing in mass, and would throw bibles on the floor when I was feeling particularly rebellious. Thankfully, I'm a little more mature now and can probably handle it with more dignity this time around ;)

Anyway, I still have one more week before I start there full-time. This week, I'm booked for three days at the school where that boy tried to hook me up with his father, and where I witnessed the maths class that was completely out of control. I liked that school. Never boring, and lots of break time. But it's starting to look like I won't ever be going back to the hospital school, and that breaks my heart just a little.