Orientation Days – Professional Teacher training

Overview

Day 1 and 2

Orientation days are usually designed to help students familiarize themselves with the course, with each others, and with the teachers. 

The first day started with getting to know students and teachers. The introduction was done in pairs and each pair then introduced each other to the rest of the group. 

We moved on to discuss shortly about Finnish education system and who are the students that join professional teacher education. Professional teacher education is also known in some parts of the world as vocational education or pedagogical studies.  

Day 1 also covered the structure of the studies and the process of the studies. Competence is the main focus of this study and it was focused a lot during orientation days. We discussed methods of demonstrating competence which included and not limited to certificates, reports, videos, interview, testimonials, blog writing/reflection, teaching, workshops, articles, publications, writing books etc. The competence will be reported and demonstrated through reflective blog writing. 

We covered a bit about reflection, analyzed examples of reflections written by previous students and discussed them in the groups and in class. 

The second and final day of orientation started with the overview from the day 1 and we continued to discuss about writing a blog. The major focus was on personal study plan PSP. There is a competency display form that all the students need to fill and show competency in different fields. This form and blog post reflections will go together. 

Another important part of the day covered the courses and competencies that we need to show to finish the studies and get the diploma. These were shown from the websites that the school have. We will be using Peppi system to work on PSP and for online meetings we will use adobe connect. 

We were divided into groups and were given a small task to start the thinking process of showing competence and presenting it. Each group will have a subject for every online meeting hereafter. The members of the group will teach in each online session. This way, everybody in every online class will be practicing teaching and getting feedback. 

Finally,  we made our blogs online using free or paid content management systems. These blogs serve the purpose of writing reflection and overview. Blog posts should be written at least after every session. But there is no limitation on to how many blog posts need to be written. It is up to us that if we need to write something or show some new competence we write a blog, fill in the PSP form and notify our teachers. 

Reflection

Introduction in pairs and chose a competence example task

I have studied facilitation. As a facilitator I understand the importance of getting to know your own team. Therefore, I always look forward to be part of these sessions. 

I have learned to be helpful, to  listen to each other, build upon the ideas of each other, and let everyone give their input and suggestions. I know it is very important to let everyone share. For this reason, everyone is satisfied with their performance and the outcomes of the results is acceptable to everyone. I did the same in the small tasks. I listened to everyone and even asked questions to the members who were just listening so that they can also participate and give ideas. If one person out of five is not sharing, it means that the outcome is 20% less. This is not acceptable for me. 

I want everyone to participate so that when the result is ready everyone is satisfied with it. This way, everyone will own the results and share equal responsibility. 

How will I continue from here? It is very simple, listen to everyone without judgement, especially in the initial idea phase. Discuss and bring the ideas down to specific ideas and come up with the results that we are all aiming for. 

PSP

This is a bit tricky. I know that tutors want us to be independent and find all the answers to the questions by ourselves. This is fine with me but the meeting is in less than a week and I do not know where to find relevant information or articles to start with. This could have been done during orientation. I mean provide us with example articles so we can orient ourselves to be able to answer few of the PSP form questions. In the long term, I know I will be able to familiarize myself with different competencies;however, this week I am feeling the pressure as I do not know much about teaching, rules and regulations, planning, assessments and all sorts of teaching related activities. 

I am hopeful that I will learn and practice these skills in the coming year.