Hannah Nicole Taylor
Collaboration with Colleagues
Feedback
Hannah is very focused on her ideas and works collaboratively with flexibility adjusting to the needs of the class as advised by the supervising teacher.
- Debbie Smit (Year 1 Mentor)
When students were asked to help organizing a Science day, Hannah stood up and offered her organizing skills. And she did a wonderful job: she prepared the experiments and formed a team around her to help making the day great and successful. Hannah made a checklist and a project plan so everyone knew when and what to do and even though it took a lot of energy, she enjoyed it and was very positive. I loved working with her: There was nearly nothing to do for me…. Hannah rules :)
- Hilly Boers (Year 1 Science Day Feedback)
Hannah collaborated with my grade level team and other teachers at various grade levels as well. She
was especially involved in our weekly collaboration time and shared ideas with the team.
-Caroline Starnes (Year 2 Mentor)
Hannah was indistinguishable from the professional (graduated) teaching collegial community. She never hesitated to offer support ,resources and ideas, even to teachers outside of her direct classroom environment. She brings a world of value, not only professionally, but around the lunch table as well.
- Jason Wilson & Martin Van Hooijdonk (Year 3 Mentors)
Whilst Hannah took the lead from the very beginning of her teaching practice she was always in consultation with her mentor teachers and other teachers in and around the school. The lines of communication were always open and all aspects of her planning were available to us as mentors and any other information or clarification we requested was always forthcoming. Hannah’s innovative approach to teaching not only took the needs of the learners into consideration but also looked for ways to assist the school and its teachers in developing its educational programs and how better to deliver these.
- Martin Van Hooijdonk (Year 4 Mentor)
Year 4
Experience & Self-Assessment
One of the most beneficial opportunities I have had while interning at ISTwente was the aspect of co-teaching. Most of the classes are taught by one teacher for two days in the week and another for the other three. This creates an interesting dynamic that allowed for great development of this competency. I found myself very engaged in the discussions and planning, as it provided deeper insight into the many benefits of co-teaching. Particularly, teaching with two international colleagues contributed different perspectives, methods, and ideas that I may not have considered previously.
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I was lucky enough to have the same mentors two years in a row. So, we already had a good working relationship. Though, this year the dynamic changed a little. Specifically, I was given more responsibilities and "ownership" of the teaching. However, this did not affect the significant amount of collaboration that occurred throughout my internship. In the months leading up to my internship, the content of the unit was planned with multiple feedback cycles and considerable collaboration among the three of us. During the unit, I would directly request feedback throughout a lesson to improve as the lesson went on. Further informal pedagogical discussion was also frequently occurring as each day progressed. This collaboration continued both outside of the classroom with other colleagues and across distance learning.
When planning the unit, I knew to keep the scheduling flexible but as the unit went on there were more and more obstacles. Including the necessity to plan in a collaborative musical between our Year 5/6 class and the Year 3/4 class. Since both classes' schedules were quite busy, it required immense communication and collaboration with the teacher of that class. We had several meeting to adjust the scheduling of both classes to find times the students could rehearse. Unfortunately, just as the scheduling was finalized we were forced to move to distance learning and the musical was cancelled.
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Once we moved to distance learning, my mentors and I were in constant communication through Whats-app and Google Meet. We would have one long meeting each week with several brief meetings after we had a group session with the students. This resulted in a successful transition of the gamified unit from a physical classroom to an online one.
Evidence of Development
Online Collaboration:
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Lesson Feedback:
Examples of Feedback from Mentors ZIP
Staff Meetings & Weekly Planning:
From the beginning of the internship to the end, we had weekly or bi-weekly staff meetings. Initially these were in person and were later done through Google Meet. As I was essentially the lead teacher of the class for those 9 weeks, I often had to contribute to the meeting on behalf of the class. Other times, I added my own knowledge and experiences to the conversation or offered my help.
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When we started with online learning, we decided to send home a weekly learning plan to help the parents keep their student organized. This required me to communicate and plan the schedule with the Music, Dutch, and EAL teachers even more so than I had needed to in the physical classroom. The result of several of those plans can be found below:
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Weekly Learning Plans ZIP
Reflection & Future Development
Before this internship started, I already felt comfortable with my working relationships with everyone at ISTwente. So, I was very excited to dive deeper into the role of a colleague this year. I was able to further develop my collaboration with colleagues in aspects ranging from planning an entire unit to adapting an entire school day into online learning with specialist teachers.
I plan to continue to initiate a fluid path of communication with and learn from my future colleagues. Though, I would like to have a bit more experience working with specialist support teachers and management.