STANDARD 6: ENGAGE IN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice
6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice
Seek and apply constructive feedback from supervisors and teachers to improve teaching practices.
Reflective statement
Carter (2018) affirms that working with others to plan, teach and learn in an educational environment, professional relationships and the quality of learning and teaching are improved. Throughout my placement, my mentor teacher and I designated specific opportunities to plan and communicate. We would typically have a short Zoom call each morning before homeroom to discuss the plan for the day, and would meet on a Thursday or Friday afternoon to recap on the week. We would also remain on the Google Meet for a few minutes after students had left to reflect upon how the lesson went and share any other information relevant to my placement.
Professional learning and development platform Torch (2021) emphasises the importance of being receptive to mentor feedback, regardless of whether it is positive or constructive. They also encourage taking an active role as a mentee, rather than viewing yourself as a passive recipient. During placement, I made sure to actively seek out feedback from my mentor teacher about what I did well and what I could improve upon. For example, when my second maths lesson didn’t go quite to plan I asked Leah what she would do in the next lesson to follow up. I used her recommendation of simplifying the expected outcome and making a link to literacy in order to modify and improve my lesson plan for the following morning. During future placements, I will continue to seek feedback from my mentors and apply this to improve my professional practice.
References
Torch. (2021, April 9). A cheat sheet for getting the most from your mentor. Torch https://torch.io/blog/a-cheat-sheet-for-getting-the-most-from-your-mentor/
Carter, C. (2018). The importance of relationships. In E. Irving, & C, Carter. The child in focus : Learning and teaching in early childhood education (pp. 387-418). Oxford University Press.
