PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

As a teacher:

Plan, assess and report for quality learning:

As a teacher I have had the opportunity to plan using outcomes based on the Australian curriculum, align the assessments to these outcomes and use the most appropriate pedagogic strategies to meet student needs and achieve these outcomes. In addition to planning term scope and sequences as well as weekly key learning areas programs, I map my programming to ensure that outcomes have been met and that key data had been collected at the appropriate time so as to assist in the reporting process.

Create inclusive, supportive & challenging environment: As a teacher I aim to maintain a respectful, safe and supportive environment through the four school values of caring, learning, positive attitude and respect. We breakdown these concepts daily in class and align them with our class expectations. We have visual reminders and work mainly through positive reinforement. Consistency is maintained and the schools follow through procedures and restorative practices implemented if needed.

As a preservice teacher:

While in a year four mainstream class, as I assessed a student ability to trade when doing subtraction, I realised that the student had major gaps in their understanding of the concept. For the next lesson, I ensured that concrete materials were used to cosolidate the concept and that video demostrations with MAB's were watched as another means of understanding the concept of trading. In this instance, formative assessment provided information that required a restructure of pedagogic approaches for the next lesson so as to ensure that quality learning took place and that conceptual knowledge was built so as to foster meaning making.

Plan, assess and report for quality learning

During professional practice in a year six main stream class, I had the opportunity to plan, implement, assess and report a mini unit of science. I had to assess the whole class based on criteria that was part of the project, give feedback to the student, record all the marks in the teachers data collection folder and provide feedback to teacher on the progress of student outcomes. The results went towards the end of semsester report and the project artefacts were part of the student portfolios and thus formed summative assessments.

While in a special needs setting, I was involved in establishing a functional behaviour assessment which involved collecting data, analysing it and creating an intervention plan for a student with challenging behaviour so as to reduce social and curricular barriers that were being faced by the student and those around him.

Create inclusive, supportive & challenging environment.

During all my placements, it was a priority to develop a positive relationship with the students and maintain an inclusive and supportive environment. In all the cases, I familiaried myself with the school values and class charters and embedded the associated language as I taught. I learnt class routines as soon as possible as the efficient running of systems ensures that optimum time is focused on student engagement and learning. I believe in maintaining expectations of respectful behaviour and genuinely modeling these myself, for instance, I always sought consent from a student before doing a pre writing hand massage in a high needs setting, even though the students were non verbal. I believe in ensuring that every person in the class should have a sense of belonging and ownership as this not only resonates with my sense of social justice but also makes for an inviting learning environment. Over time I have developed a repertoir of strategies to maintain focus and manage behaviour and have put effort in knowing individual students so as to be aware of what strategy would best suit at a particular time. It is just as important to ensure that students are not bored but are challenged to adopt new learning and skills as well as critical thinking and deep inquiry skills as these make for an engaging environment, particularly for middle school students. It is important to cater for diversity and balance achivebility of goals with scaffolded extention of learning. I believe children have an innate sense of judging if a teacher really cares and developing positive relationships and warm welcoming class climate is a vital cog in the learning process.

Creating a respectful environment: Seeking permission before hand exercises.

Engage through a range of strategies, technologies, resources and activities

When students are engaged in learning, they become self motivated, more independent and less prone to giving up if things do not work out. Knowing what motivates students is vital as learning experiences can be embedded with themes and concepts that engage. Students in the middle school years are often motivated by projects that have real life meaningful relevance, such as a financial literacy project that requires the planning and purchase of water tanks and ethical implications such as a design brief that I created to make bird feeder for an endangered specied of parrots which also engaged creative and innovative thinking. In the special needs context, students often have a special interest which can reduce barriers to curriculum for instance it can be embedded in writing: 'On the weekend I watched Star wars and it was about...'. Using ICT to access and reduce the barriers to curriculum is vital in the contemporary context and I have developed a range of techniques and skills that will allow me to use the most appropriate technological tool to deliver content and support pedagogy.

Encourage independence and taking responsibility for own learning

Encouraging independence is one of the core focus areas, in particular in the special needs context. It is thus vital to explicitly teach and practice hidden skills in various settings so that they are transferred to different contexts. These hidden skills which can be applied using alternative and augmentative technology include communication skills, social skills, group work, anxiety management, organisational skills, foundation physical skills like grasping and pulling yourself up. As independence builds, scaffolds are reduced and reinforecment faded. To ensure that students take reponsibility for own leanring, a supportive environment with clear expectations will foster life long learning. In addition, it is vital to ensure that concepts are clearly understood and the task is enough of a challenge but achieveable and well scaffolded. I have created a five week unit on using music for movement and physical education in the context of a Year three Autism unit. The final objective of the unit was to have the students take responsibility of their own learning and independently perform 'Rhythm Sticks' at a school asssembly. In my work context, this program led to an eventual assembly performance. Clicking on the image of the first page of the unit plan below will take you to a blog post with the whole unit plan detailing how students were encouraged to take reponsibility for own learning and how independence was fostered through carefully planned scaffolds.