Domain: Professional Engagement
Standard six: Engage in professional learning. Standard seven: Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community.
Reflective Commentary
On this journey of teaching I have been commended for my rapport with staff and students. I regard this as one of my professional strengths. It was of great importance for me to get to know who and where the different staff were located in the school I was placed in, this was of great help when I required assistance from the school gardener for my “Poet-Tree” as well as the time my student forgot their lunch and I had to address the canteen manager. I was interested to watch the specialist teachers in action and spent some of my “DOTT” time attending their classes, it was a great way to watch the student/specialist role interaction as well as pick up bits of that curriculum (LOTE) that I was not familiar with. I have been asked to share my IPod knowledge with a year five teacher and consequently I have been asked to go into that class in early December this year to facilitate the literacy lesson I did with my students.
I feel my business background will help me deal with some of the parent situations I witnessed, should I be placed in a similar situation. I have been keen to reflect on each of my lessons and while do not have many written mentor teacher comments, we were always able to have a dialogue on the pros and cons. Leaving me to adjust the format or pace of that lesson for next time. Which is reflective in my final report.
I have a strong affinity with being organized and this has showed through in my planning and introduction to various resources into the classroom.
On my first week of the Professional Internship I was faced with the prospect that I would not have an IWB, a blackboard or a whiteboard, as my class was one of the last to be receiving the IWB in this school. So for the first week I used butcher paper and a small moveable white board. The second week we were up and running with the IWB, however both my mentor teacher and I had not received any professional learning on this or the “Smartboard” software that accompanied it. By the end of the first day, I was showing PowerPoint and having the students to use it interactively.
As with all technology, you have to just jump in and learn on the go, my ethos being “ learn it, know it, show it.” I was able to share my learning with both teachers in my classroom and we gave each other confidence to try out new lessons. I do require more training on the IWB, that is specific to the school I get placed at, as this is a big part of my lessons and I want to use it to the best of its ability, not just as a projector for my laptop. From what I have been exposed to so far. the maths programs that are available on Smarboard are very well placed to help teach the Australian Curriculum.
I am keen to go gain knowledge and was fortunate to attend professional knowledge sessions at this school, in particular the duty of care session run by the principal and attended by all new staff. I was also able to attend what this school called “POD” meetings, which were block meetings for year levels, it was a great way to see how the block budget was split and how the teachers completed their ordering of resources, as well as discuss students term reward sessions. These POD meetings also were fed from the top down and important strategies were worked on by the GIRN and then each teacher would go back and work on them with the their own students. The Monthly staff meetings were both a discussion and learning experience, each time the agenda was set and some professional learning by either the “TAGS” or “GIRL” or “GIRN” would break us into small groups to work on mini lessons that was then expected to be taught to your class and reported back on next time. I felt this in-house training added to the success of the staff relationships and for a new comer like me it was a great supportive way of learning before I had to teach my students.
The professional learning I attended with the One World Centre in the school holidays just prior to the placement put me in a great position to be able to teach the Immigration part of the SOSE curriculum.That is an area I wish to engage in as often as possible as they offer so many global perspectives on education and as we are very isolated here in Perth, I believe it is a great way for teachers to be aware of what else is out there in resource land that we can utilize to increase the value in our lessons.
Action Plan
Through out my career I plan to keep an online journal of reflections to help me adjust my planning and keep a record of just how far I have come. I will seek out professional learning from the department as well as being well read and well resourced in my student’s curriculum. Learning from my colleagues is a huge part of what I will be concentrating on in the first few years and being able to have those mentoring discussions with more experienced staff is something I will pursue to build relationships. I am aware of the many online professional development units the department has available and I plan to get started on some of those as soon as I have a placement. There are some aspects of administration that I was not privy to while a student teacher (Integras) and that is an area I will been keen to understand as soon as my placement has been confirmed. Professional learning is ongoing for any career, however as we are currently in state of dramatic change within Education Australia wide, I believe as a graduate I am able to position myself ready for many professional development days both within the workplace and during my holidays.
