The provocation "how will I control my students" is one that stood out strongly to me, when first reading the Nine Provocations. For years I have worked in childcare of various ages, ranging from newborns to primary school. As such I have a lot of experience in creating controlled environments for children, one where they respect any authority I have, so for most of the time they have freedom to make decisions or choose what or who they want to play with without any problems. However, feeling confident in being an authority over young children does make me question whether I will be able to adjust to being an authority over students who, at the start of my career, may not be that much younger than myself. I feel on one level I am at a disadvantage as I am used to dealing with much younger children, wherein different techniques are used to enforce the rules of the centre or school and I hold an inherent authority simply by being an adult, whereas in a Secondary School environment, it is not unreasonable to think students may question my authority based on my age.
However, I also feel I am at an advantage as I have a lot of experience in dealing with people and children as individuals with individual needs, as is obviously cruicial in early childhood and remains of great importance in Secondary School. I also have developed my way of controlling a group of young people, such as in primary after school care, while managing to treat the children as equals, rather than patronizing them, as skill that seems crucial in relating to students in Secondary School. I feel that developing a positive relationship with the students based on mutual respect and an understanding from the students that I will be strict on behaviour until the students prove that they will not abuse a freer approach to discipline will be crucial to controlling the students. While they respect me and my authority, there should be no need to actively have to control them in the first place.
b) Tell the story of, and describe, a learning environment that worked particularly well for you. (This doesn't have to be connected to formal learning, though it could be. It can be about any experience of deep and successful personal learning for you.)
An experience that springs to mind when thinking about a deeply successful learning environment was when I completed an Outward Bound course in Year Nine. We were allowed to pair up with one other friend, and then placed in groups with students from our year that we did not know, and then sent out to the Blue Mountains to camp and hike for ten days with that group and two Outward Bound leaders. The leaders were there merely to supervise and would not help us with cooking or directions etc. This experience was extremely challenging on everyone in the group as we were walking for around twelve hours every day with heavy packs through the rain, most of us never having done anything like it before.
What it taught me was the internal strength inside myself and my ability to survive and even conquer things I did not think I could. This learning environment also made everyone in the group support and help each other as much as possible. While at the time, I did not realise the importance and reason we were doing this, when it was over it was intensely satisfying and I felt very proud of myself for completing it. The real power of this learning environment has really been felt over subsequent years, as it has led me to embrace moments of adversity, to try and help and aid others in every day life as we did on that trip, and to appreciate challenges in the moment, as well as when they are over, as important life hurdles.
It gave me a lessoned fear for the hard things in life that I would have had to gained some other way. As a future teacher it has also made me realise the importance of constantly challenging students and making them realise they are capable of more than perhaps they think.
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