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CPD, early years, education, globalteachermovement, india, keystageone, learning, lrtt, primary, professional developement, reflection, student, teacher, teachers, teaching, transition
After my Indian adventure, I was very excited to get back to teaching. The amazing teachers that I has worked with over the summer, inspired me as a teacher. The children that I observed taught me so much about my teaching as well. And working with so other UK teachers closely taught me about education, teaching and leadership. That’s it, I’m going to go back with all these lessons and I am going to apply them in my setting.
Easier said than done but I’m giving it a good go. One of the main lessons I took away from India with me was the level of independence. All of the children that I observed, in Pre-school, Reception, Year One and above had independent, problem solving skills and resilience that meant they were able to access their education and take responsibility. As a Year One teacher, I have always started to introduce independence to the children I work with but now I have seen what young children are capable of my expectations are much higher.
Yes they are young, and this is new to them so I am not expecting miracles over night. However over the course of the year I intend to increase their independence and encourage them to begin to take responsibility for their own learning. I feel this goes hand in hand with all of the work we have done and continue to do on Growth Mindset.
Week one is over and the shock of coming back to routine is starting to settle. The children in my class have started their transition into Year One and myself and my team are grounding those high expectations.
Another lesson that struck me was the use of resources. We are very lucky that we have all number of resources for every subject at our finger tips however this is very different to what I observed in India. Resources were extremely limited, but this did not prevent learning. Of course I will continue to use resources, it would be a waste not do. I am however, going to consider carefully the resources that I use and encourage the children to independently select resources that they feel will support their learning rather than giving everything to them.
I am looking forward to this year with my class, already their individual characters are starting to shine through and I’m sure we will have a fun year. On top of everything though, the lessons bought home from India will continue to inspire and adapt my teaching and I’m sure the children will also benefit from the experience I had this summer.
LRTT (limited resources teacher training – http://www.lrtt.org.uk )