As we know there's key selection criteria and interview questions relating to the implementation of whole-school initiatives.
This isn't something that's easy for CRTs to show experience in and therefore discuss in a personal and enthusiastic way in interviews. Especially when they only work as a "technical CRT" in daily hire work instead of also taking on contract work or having been full-time in the past. Still... when the opportunity presents itself...
How did it all come about?
So I've had a position in a special development school for two terms as an Art teacher. I'm not art trained but I was able to get the position, mostly because the school had decided to cancel art as they found it very difficult to hold onto art teachers. It was only two terms and then definitely over and all that was really expected of the person who got the job was to ride it out to the end of the year when art would be replaced with another specialist area. This made it a little uninviting to art specialists and I ended up not having to compete against them for the position.
One of the advantages of specialist positions like this is that virtually the whole school comes through your door. It's something I didn't really think about at the time but it was kind of the first piece of the puzzle.
A couple of the students were particularly difficult to engage in anything but preferred activities (it is a special development school and these things happen). One in particular just wanted a big sheet of paper, some paint and a roller every class and the other only wanted a big sheet of paper, some paint and brushes to make dots with and things to stamp with. Give either student anything else to do and you just couldn't keep them at their table for more than 5 minutes. I was looking for a gateway to help these students move beyond this and broaden their horizons a little.
In the end I chose to go with giving them an opportunity to experience purpose in what they were doing. What I began doing is using the big sheets they were making, which they were never interested in keeping (though I did make sure a couple were saved), and using them as resources in other projects for their class. I began by explaining to them that today they were making coloured sheets that other students would cut up to use in their work. I was just trying to prepare them so they didn't get upset if they saw their work being "destroyed" but something fantastic happened.
Both students became a little more conscientious about how they put colours on the page. Not always of course, but sometimes. Where normally they would fill a page and just want another every time, I'd now occasionally catch them looking at a full page and purposefully changing it. It's a small win to be sure but a win never the less.
Then there's something a lot of art teachers end up doing, specialty cards. In this case it was Christmas cards. Other specialty cards had been done in class but for christmas cards I was asked to do them in art by a number of teachers. One of my teaching ethics is that inclusion is a very big deal for me and I had two students who weren't going to be making Christmas cards because it involved more than a roller or stamping. So I went to the fallback position of using their sheets to use as resources to use in making cards.
I had them use all greens or all browns on a sheet for example and these were used to cut into shapes to make Christmas trees rather than using store-bought coloured paper. By the end of the project each of these students also had a couple of cards that, while they didn't make them, they had contributed to. Both were incredibly proud of these cards and, I must admit, they had a right to be.
I have to admit that the cards turned out looking absolutely fantastic. They by far exceeded the expectations of everyone involved including myself and the ES staff who came with the students to the room. The students all had very good reason to feel a sense of accomplishment from what they had produced.
Then there was a chance comment and a flashback. As many are aware, I am a Teacher but I also work for the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority delivering PD for the MoneySmart Teaching program. One of the ES staff said "wow, those are good enough to sell" and visions of one of the MoneySmart modules we like to talk about in the presentations filled my head. It's a particularly successful module on fundraising that has been successfully implemented right down to preps. Of course I was only sort of thinking pie in the sky and didn't really expect it to happen.
Over the course of a week however more and more people started saying "wow, we could/should sell these". So, it ended up with me in the Prins office discussing the possibility and, well, the school had it's concert the other night and we sold 169 of them. There's also a shoebox in the office that has to be periodically refreshed as teachers and parents buy them 10 at a time.
The cards!
Most of these cards are 100% the work of students and are also a collective effort. Students of varying ability levels undertook different tasks like the example above. The two students made paper resources to be used in the cards. We used punches from Officeworks for some of the shapes and this was often done by students with motor skill issues. High needs students for example, who may be wheelchair bound and have very limited movement will have had ES staff help them get the paper in the stamper for them to punch. They also used stampers to put "Merry Christmas from Belvoir Special School" on the back of every card. There was something for everyone to do in order to be included in the project.
Stars using stock created by the roller student.
More stars - hand cut from stock made using coloured
bubble blowing on white paper.
Painted Doilies cut into trees using sequins and stars as ornaments.
Presents using scissor-cut squares and hand-tied bows.
Our "Made by Belvoir Students" sticker.
The benefit for my interviews.
Of course now I can discuss the implementation of whole school programs from a personal perspective and display experience at having done it. I have pictures of the finished results and when it's all over I'll have monetary facts and figures. That's not really all it will do for me though.
This sort of came about by accident and the story above shows how I use reflective practice in my classrooms. It involves two challenging students who need heavy differentiation or individual programs but by reflecting on the situation and being a little inventive I was able to begin to implement a class structure that offered them an avenue to be included in what the class was doing rather just being off at a table on their own doing their own thing.
It also shows how I am able to utilise the flexible and open-to-change nature that every CRT must learn to have in a classroom setting for the benefit of students. I didn't set out to create a fund raising activity but by being open to change and paying attention to possibilities as they presented themselves I was able to capitalise on the situation and offer better outcomes for my students without compromising on the curriculum.
I also made a mistake. I only made Christmas cards... Nothing with just "happy holidays" on them or reasonably blank for families to create their own holiday message for the cover... Christmas is a big thing in my family and I made the mistake of thinking personally instead of professionally. I found myself making an apology or two and accepting responsibility for my insensitivity to the needs of their family and their ability to equally enjoy the product of the students of the school. This, of course, allows me to show how I am fully capable of using mistakes as learning experiences and also capable of dealing with, and being sensitive to, parents of students when issues arise.
It also allows me to shoe-horn in the fact that I also work for the VCAA as a presenter of professional development for the MoneySmart Teaching program. More importantly it's not saying "I have this feather in my cap", instead it's showing how that experience is used in my reflective practice as a benefit to my classroom teaching.
So what am I saying here?
Of course I ended up being able to do this through an unpredictable chain of events that isn't likely to present itself to a significant number of CRTs. The story is not going to be directly applicable to very many CRTs at all, if any. The idea behind it though is a solid one and will be of benefit to many of us.
Sometimes, for those of us looking to move on to contract of full-time work, we want to apply for a position or run into an interview question that stumps us. We can, of course, then go on to study up on those areas so we are able to discuss them in a technical capacity.
We can also choose positions that are in the right time of year for us to be immersed in the full effect of assessment and performance. We can choose a contract in a school where we know we will be involved in class presentations. We can choose contracts in schools that we know will be having a play, concert or sports carnival while we are there and help with gaining experience of these things. Which contracts we get can have a large effect on our interview performance of the future. By choosing to apply for contracts that offer experiences that are not normally available to those engaged in daily CRT or up to 30-day block work we can expand our experiences. We can begin to address those KSC or questions that used to stump us from more than a technical perspective.
This allows us to use contract work as a gateway to a very wide range of experiences if we choose wisely and keep an eye out for opportunities to present themselves. We can expose ourselves to a wide variety of experiences that, after some reflection, allow us to move beyond the technical and show practical and personal examples of who we are as Teachers to address those KSCs we previously struggled with and to excel when those left-field questions get fired at us in interviews.
A bit late I know but happy job hunting everyone!
Regards,
Mel.
No comments:
Post a Comment