Virtual Schoolbags

Thomson’s notion of the ‘virtual schoolbag’ is an important one for educators to know, and proposes that each child carries to school with them a virtual school bag filled with skills and knowledge unique to them and learned throughout experiences within their home and community (Thomson, 2002, p. 1). The degree to which students are able to access and apply these skills at school and make use of their resources affects the level to which they are able to engage with learning, and can therefore have significant impact on their academic success (Thomson, 2002, p.7). Students that are not able to access their virtual schoolbag, or whose skills and knowledge are deemed irrelevant within mainstream Australian education are at risk of being alienated from the curriculum (Ewing, 2013, p. 86). The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) recognises that all students need to be able to actively participate in the curriculum, and supports

A supportive learning environment should be purposeful and task orientated, where the tutor emphasises the need to progress steadily. This can be done by starting lessons promptly, creating a smooth flow to the lesson, involving pupils and monitoring their progression and organisation. A positive effort should be made to ensure pupils have or build on self-respect and esteem by setting realistic opportunities for success and helpful support and encouragement whenever difficulties arise.

The social and emotional development of children from 5 to sixteen plays a crucial part in in the impact and quality of the child’s lives these influence the development of the child in various ways which is why it is important for a Teaching Assistant to recognise these factors so they can help the child continue learning and use the skills already instilled in them. By treating each child as their own person you learn that they are all different and develop at their own pace but in order to do this you must see the child developing and to show support to both the teacher and child you are able to better the child’s learning experiences and embrace their own developmental skills.

During this final paper, there will be a number of topics discussed. These topics will cover how I personally found a better understanding of my customized learning theory. First, I will go over the Learning Theory and its’ importance. Secondly, I will give a description of an effective teacher and learning environment. Next, I will discuss the different learning characteristics. Finally, I then will give my personal reflection on all the different things I was able to learn during this course. All of these four sections helped build a better understanding on how to be a more effective educator. Most importantly, I gained a better understanding how to build better rapport with students who have all different learning styles and ways of thinking. While managing a classroom, it is highly important to make lessons that will be appealing to the students that you are teaching interest. This will increase engagement and academic learning.

By administering an Interest Inventory at the beginning of the school year, the teacher receives precise feedback from each of their students. The completed Interest Inventories are all filled with the likes and dislikes of each individual student. These can now be used as guides that the teacher can use to modify lessons by incorporating activities into them that the students enjoy. It is important to include activities that the students enjoy in each lesson. By doing so, the students will pay better attention to the lesson and grasp more of the concepts that the teacher is trying to convey to them.

A child's life plays a significant part in their academic achievement. Apart from the school bag that carries text books, stationary box and lunch box, each student carries a virtual schoolbag, filled with what they have learnt at home from parents and other members, with their neighbourhood, and from the culture and society in which they live (13, p1). A child born in a family with high SES, with tertiary qualified parents, may have the pride of carrying a virtual schoolbag with positives attitudes about education, such as reading and mathematical skills, versatility with computer, the internet and sports. On the other hand, a student from a low SES may have a totally different set of experiences that may have a negative impact in their school

O'Donnell, A., Dobozy, E., Bartlett, B., Nagel, M., Spooner-Lane, R., & Youssef-Shalala, A. (2016). EducationalPsychology (2nd ed.). Brisbane, QLD: John Wiley &

It is important to me that students develop a belief in themselves that they can do it and that they can develop independence in their learning. It is important to me that they can develop social skills that enable to them to develop friendships with their peers and to make positive behaviour

As a result of this type of evidence the Federal Government and the department of education (DEET) have developed a set of Australian curriculum standards that are aimed at educating students about positive social interaction and socialization as a whole. (Australiancurriculumeduau, 2015)

Through this representation, students and families feel accepted and appreciated. This in turn leads to family involvement in the student’s education. Family involvement often brings about feelings of acceptance and appreciation for the student, when in turn leads to student motivation. “The circumstances in which children are raised and the involvement of their parents in their early education play a role in shaping academic mindset and motivation” (Usher & Kober, 2012). Families feel more comfortable communicating with teachers who can understand and relate to their backgrounds. Additionally, teachers can learn a lot about the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and home life. The result is that teachers can create a proper learning environment that is based on differentiation, and increase the student’s

Self-motivation is essential for students to partake in an active and responsible role in their education.  Self-motivation allows students to perform at their best and to learn without any sense of limitation.  With this, students will find a reason to work — and as a result, they will give their best to every assignment.  In addition, students will take an initiative to participate in class. Studies made by Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura state that, “activities will not continue unless they are enjoyable—or unless people are motivated by extrinsic rewards” (602).  Motivated students

According to the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority [QCAA] (2018), student diversity such as students with a disability, different cultural or language backgrounds or low socio-economic factors, must all have an equal opportunity to learn. Without accurate knowledge of diverse needs, teachers may not be able to meet student needs, creating learning implications for students and others around them (QCAA, 2018). The Australian Curriculum is designed to be flexible to allow teachers to cater for all students (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2018). The language of literacy and numeracy are considered the core areas of education between grade one and two (ACARA, 2018). A play-based approach is commonly incorporated into schools for learning suitable to all students including activities such as reading, sounding out and spelling words, measuring, counting, and describing shapes and objects (Early Years Learning Framework for Australia [EYLF], 2018). As Piaget (1964) recommends, identifying a child’s cognitive ability is crucial for a teacher to be able to plan effective

To do this a series of resources were to be produced and used to achieve the goals of the study. The resources created were to help students achieve a level of autonomy and self-awareness and thus needed to be accessible to pupils with minimal input from the class teacher. In order to do this the study needed to be flexible and adaptable in order to ensure that the study would be completed in an accurate and useful manner. The decision was taken at the commencement of the study to use a topical and real-life background for the students taking part in the intervention in order to engender a sense of purpose and desire to learn in the pupils because this would encourage the autonomy and self-awareness needed for the case study to succeed. Furthermore, the cultivation of an interest in what is being studied has been found to be one of the more important aspects of motivating and engaging students with learning. Szklarski found in his 2011 study that pupils are more likely to take responsibility for and complete learning if they are interested and actively engaged in the learning arguing that “The results show that interest is a central motivational component in self-regulated learning” (Szklarski, 2011, p.44). Szklarski’s findings demonstrate that for this case study to be successful I needed to make sure that pupils were interested in what they were learning about as well as understanding why

This week’s readings were about determinants of learning as well as the developmental stages, gender, cultural, and socioeconomic aspects of the person receiving the education. When educating others, an assessment of their readiness to learn, needs, and style of learning is key when designing an educational plan (Bastable, 2013). Teaching approaches and activities can be individualized when an overall picture of the learner’s affective, psychomotor, and cognitive ability to

In order to develop strong relationships with my students, colleagues, and parents, I plan to do a variety of little things to yield big results. The relationship that teachers have with students is vital to the classroom environment. In “You’ve Got to Reach Them to Teach Them,” Mary Kim Schrek writes that “the human encounter between teacher and student is often a more powerful teaching tool than the academic content, the grade, the data analysis, and the hours spent picking apart the curriculum” (Schrek, 2011, p. 5). In order to establish such relationships, I plan to follow a four-step procedure that I read about in an article by Nina Sears on the National Education Association’s website. Sears’ article suggests that a teacher “get to know their students, individualize the curriculum, watch what they say, and keep trying to reach students” (Sears, 2014). As an attempt to get to know my students, I will create a little survey on the first day of school for each student to fill out; questions would include asking my students what their favorite color is or what type of books they like to read. By doing this, I will learn about my students’ likes and dislikes and how to use their answer in the curriculum.