“The programme provides you with the opportunity to have that person challenge your present practice and provoke your thinking.” Rho Espenido
With 40 years’ experience as a teacher and teacher education advisor and mentor, he says that practicum placements in classrooms help teachers work out their strengths and weaknesses. “Those practicums are where you really fine-tune yourself as a teacher. In the three-year BEd programme, you’d have lots of different practicums – so you work with all kinds of learners. You might work with some intermediate-aged kids, and then younger children in a play-based learning environment. Really it’s an opportunity for them to see if they can practice what they preach.” In-class practicum placements during initial teacher education provide the opportunity for student teachers to integrate theory and practice in context. “When our new PCTs start their careers with reduced practicum experiences,” explains Rick, “they must think, ‘it’s actually me. Now I’m suddenly in front of 25-30 learners and I’ve got to manage all these kids’. “The first thing that comes to mind is classroom management – if you can’t manage the classroom, it’s difficult to teach anything,” he says.
Mentors have your back
Rick says that primary school teachers have to be jacks of all trades, which can be daunting and exhausting for PCTs. This means that as an EIM mentor, he may look at a range of aspects of the teacher’s role in the school setting. He has supported PCTs with elements of planning, classroom management and support systems within and outside the school. Support systems are crucial for beginning teachers, says Rick, and he is full of admiration for the current crop of PCTs coping in a Covid-19 pandemic environment.
Tailored for you
Jillian says that all of the EIM mentors across New Zealand seek to support and enhance what each school/ centre values and does to support teacher learning in their context, and so they are keen to work collaboratively and flexibly with both the PCTs and their work-based mentor teachers. EIM mentors bring a wide range of experience and skills to their role. They apply educative mentoring strategies in line with the Teaching Council’s Guidelines for Mentoring and Induction and Mentor Teachers and are knowledgeable about Professional Growth Cycle approaches. The EIM team is available to help PCTs make links between theory and practice by supporting goal setting, observing teaching and providing feedback. The team is very aware of the continued impact of Covid-19 on PCTs in 2021 and so any time of the year is a good time to enrol.
For more information and to enrol, visit www.auckland. ac.nz. Rho Espenido is a first-year early learning teacher in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland.
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Education Gazette
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