Reflecting on my experience

~ Rachael's Learning Space ~ 1 Comment

I have chosen to reflect on my experience this semester with my 5 key learning points.

1. WordPress
I have had a lot of struggle over the semester understanding wordpress. But each week as i fiddled with it and edited and changed things around i think that I finally have gotten the hang of how it works and how a blog can be a beneficial learning tool.

2. Reflecting and collaborating
Through this unit I have understood the aspect of reflecting on my learning and experiences and how posting these reflections where others can comment on them and collaborate with me can be beneficial to all of us. Learning from each other and listening to others ideas.

3. The liminal space
I had never even heard of the liminal space before this unit. I think that it is a really interesting concept that everyone goes through. I really enjoyed (well not enjoyed), thought it was interesting to research the Syrian crisis and their liminal space that they live in. Gaining another perspective of the world and how I can help.

4. Building Confidence and Using technology
I have learnt so much about how to use technology and the online space to help me in my studies and in the future with my teaching. I have learnt how to use google docs and all about web 2.0 technologies and really understood the idea of sharing ideas and receiving feedback/comments on them.

5. Learning Spaces
Ultimately this unit has been about learning spaces. How each individual learning space is important and how each of those work together to help promote learning.

Each of these points and more have helped to shape me this semester and I know they will be useful for my future teaching endeavours.

The Future of Refugees

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We often find that refugee students have set high goals for themselves when it comes to careers. They often are very interested in their education and getting a high paying job that benefits society. The Syrian refugees have lived through things and seen things that most of us here in Australia have never seen and probably never will see. This gives them an opportunity to educate us about their life and their culture and we can collaborate and combine our two cultures together to create a safer place for everyone.

With the right education and training any refugee has the opportunity to become a doctor or a teacher, they have the opportunity to have their say. Share their stories with the world and educate everyone on the disaster that happened to them and how this can be avoided. They could be the ones to change the world.

Educating the Refugees

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I think that to help give the Syrian refugees a better education, it would be a good idea for those who educate in the area the Syrians will be placed (if you already educate in a Syrian community or nearby) to learn arabic as that is the language that many Syrians speak. This way it is more welcoming for the students, something familiar to them. But also it allows for easier communication and would allow the students to improve their english as well if things could be explained to them in both languages.
Accompanying this I think that schools could try and implement some of the resources that schools may have used in Syria. These students are already living in a foreign place, surrounded by foreign things everywhere they turn, it would be comforting to see some things that are familiar to them.

I believe that when future teachers such as myself are being trained, we should be educated on the different cultures of the students that we may come across in our teaching careers and how to deal with them. Often I find myself on a placement and there are a few students from an African or European culture and it can be hard to connect with them. I find it especially hard to connect with their parents, who often don’t speak very good English and have a very different view of education than what I had been brought up on. I think it is important that we are educated on these kinds of people as well as those who are special needs so we can begin the year with an understanding of our students and how to work with them to achieve their goals.

Educating Refugees in Australia

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One of the biggest questions posed about Australia accepting thousands of Syrian refugees is their education. Many of those accepted will be families with children who will need to be educated. On top of this many of the people coming will not speak english and will need to be taught how to speak english so that they can fit seamlessly into society and communicate with their community.
Currently Australia has the AMEP (adult migrant english program) where migrants are given a starting point of learning basic english. However, this program does not educate to the level of being able to attend a mainstream school. The struggle of placing them in mainstream school is that they have lost so many years of schooling due the five years their country has been in war and they have not attended school. The question is to place them in classes of their age groups or of their abilities.
Another problem these youth face is the need for a job to support their families or themselves. They may feel the pressure to not go to school in order to get a job and earn money.
Many of the public schools do not have the resources needed to support these Syrian refugee students, along with many schools already have an enrolment that is excessive for the space and resources. Then there is always going to be the problem of discrimination and racism. As much as we wish that everyone could be accepting of these people, there are always going to be some that are unhappy about the refugees coming here and can be quite hostile towards them, deterring the students from coming to school.
Because of their situation, their families might not be in the position to support their child’s schooling endeavours.

All of these things are going to be a challenge when the Syrian refugees arrive and we need to try and accommodate them as best we can.

Syrian Refugees in Australia

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Many Syrians have fled their country due to the unsafe conditions that they were living in. Many of these people are stranded, having nowhere to go. Australia has agreed to accept 12000 extra refugees from Syria and Iraq. Many Australians are opening up their homes to these families through the Australian Homestay Network. Some of the refugees accepted will be english speaking and some will not. They will be dispersed evenly throughout the country and placed in existing Syrian communities or in a community where there is work offered for them. They will live in Australia on  permanent basis and will have access to the services that we all have access to.

Imagine being sent to a country where you don’t speak the language, you don’t know where or who you are living with, you aren’t sure if you will get a job or what it might be. Wouldn’t you be nervous and scared. These Syrian refugees are currently in a liminal space of not knowing if they will be chosen to come across to us and then the ones that do get picked and come over will begin a new liminal space of not knowing about Australia and how things are run here. These people will have to quickly adapt to our lifestyle and start working to get money to provide for their families. the students will have to be educated. The refugees might be wondering what kind of reception they will get from the Australians, knowing that some may be more welcoming than others. The Syrian refugees are living in a state of unknown, a liminal state. I know that if this were me I would be terrified but also very thankful for the opportunity.

My digital footprint

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I have been thinking about my digital footprint lately. Although I have quite a strong online presence, through the use of twitter, tumblr, facebook and youtube mostly. I do not really have a professional online presence.
I think that this subject has opened my eyes a lot to using technology in a professional manner and not just a social manner. Teachers can use things such as youtube to play videos for their students and learn from others. We can use twitter to interact with each other and share our thoughts, we can use things such as google docs to share information and resources with each other without ever having to meet. The online environment is a great place to learn from others and also offer your own knowledge and guidance so that we can all work collaboratively to achieve our goals.

Week 9

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This week we learnt about the liminal space.
‘The word liminal comes from the latin word limens, meaning threshold’.
My understanding of the liminal space has come to be a place of unknowing. A place where a person or people are living in uncertainty, where they have questions and they aren’t sure of things. We all live in liminal spaces, some are more severe than others. For example my one of my liminal spaces would be the impending four week placement I have coming up, I still don’t know the school where I will be placed or the year level I will be teaching. This makes it hard for me to prepare and has me stressing out a little. A literally space for someone else might be moving to another country. Recently my sister received word that she would be interning for 3 months in Sweden, a place she has never been before. She has many things to consider, such as the different climate in Sweden. She comes from the Gold Coast, Queensland where generally it is warm all year round. She is now moving to sweden for three months in the middle of winter, she has to plan what clothing she has to take and what she will need to buy to prepare. She needs to consider her living arrangements whilst over there, funding and many other things.

Where do I learn?

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Here is a slideshow of pictures of the spaces in which I do most of my learning.

https://animoto.com/play/Y0eDJPxTt1krG4oE8k0eyA

I love to be comfortable so the couch and bed are often places i will sit and do my work. I also like to have noise in the background so having the t.v on or playing some music is always helpful for me. Otherwise I tend to place myself somewhere where there is lots of noise, like in the kitchen where the rest of my family are or at uni where i would rather sit in the cafeteria than the library.

I often do my reflecting in strange places such as the shower. I do it when i get time to myself, like before I go to sleep or on the train home or when I am driving around, whenever I am not working I am reflecting on my day.

Teachers without borders

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Teachers without borders is a great organisation that aims to help teachers, who are already all around the world, to connect with each other and information. This can allow the teachers to better provide for their students so that they can achieve whatever they would like to. Teachers without borders provides resources to teachers who may be living in war torn countries or in disadvantaged countries where resources aren’t as available as they are here. This is providing children with better education so that they have the opportunity to live the best life.

I hope as a teacher that i inspire children to strive to achieve and i provide them with the foundations to do so. As teachers we can educate our students about the liminal space and we can motivate students to strive for greatness and to continue moving forward and changing.

The Liminal Space – Refugees

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Calais’s Syrian Refugees

These people are living within a liminal space because they are stuck, unsure of where they are supposed to go to. They are stuck waiting at the port, trying to find a safe place to go. I imagine these people are feeling very scared and vulnerable. They hold the hope of getting to the UK, a safe place where they will then begin to live in another liminal space where they must adapt to the lifestyle and culture.

Zaatari Refugee Camp

The people who are part of the Zaatari refugee camp are living in a liminal space. This is because also they would be thankful for a safe place to stay, the refugee camp was meant to be temporary and has now become a permanent place for them. The refugees would be living in a state of confusion of what is going to happen next and anxiety about their situation and would probably begin to question if this place is the best place for them to stay in regards to their future and their safety.

Syrian Refugees in Australia

Syrian refugees living in Australia are living in a liminal space because they are basically living in the unknown. They have had to come from one country to another where they wouldn’t have much knowledge on the culture or lifestyle of the people. They would be living with strangers, unknown to them when they would be able to go out and get their own place of residence. These people must adapt to our lifestyles and get a job in possibly an unknown field to them. I think that this would be really hard to adapt to so much change so quickly and the not knowing how long things are going to last would really stress me out, however it must be better than living back home in fear for your life.