Activity 6 (towards end of placement) LINKS TO STANDARDS 1.2 6.2 6.4 7.

Reflect on and communicate your learning and your impact on student learning.
Review your daily reflections in your journal
Using your journal, reflect on how you have integrated the knowledge gained from your
academic study with your practice during professional experience.
Give a short presentation (of approximately 10-minutes duration) to a small group of
teachers in the school. This could include your Mentor Teacher or School Coordinator. In
your presentation:

 Explain how you have integrated knowledge gained from topics in your course
with your practice during professional experience.

One of my overarching goals for this year was to implement differentiation into my
teaching practices. I found that on my previous ‘professional experiences’ I did not have the
knowledge to implement any modifications to student work, help guide students who
struggled and appropriately challenge and stretch students who were more advanced.
Thus this year I have been able to integrate knowledge from the differentiation topic taken
this year to guide my lesson plans and ensure that I was planning based on student
interest, learner profile and readiness. This happened through a series of ‘pre-assessments’
in my first week, and in different ways for the different age groups and topics that I taught.
One particular assessment in which I integrated from the differentiation topic was for my
year 10 girls SHINE class. I modified the SHINE assessment and made it my own, in which
was a R.A.F.T (Role, Audience, Format and Topic) assessment. This style of assessment is
intended as a format to encourage students’ writing across the curriculum. The beneficial
feature of creating a R.A.F.T task for students is the flexibility in ways to design
differentiated R.A.F.T activities across curriculum areas and to allow students to work with
content in different ways.

Additional to this, I was able to implement my knowledge gained from my Curriculum

Specialisation Physical Education topic (senior/secondary). One major element in which
was integrated was the ‘Game Sense’ teaching pedagogy. I struggled with behaviour in one
class in particular and a good way to deal with this behavioural problem was to ensure all
students were being physically active in a game like scenario. The game sense pedagogy
encourages students to focus on decision-making and the tactical components of the game
through modified and/or small-sided games. In terms of the sports that were played
throughout the semester, this means that students can focus on the game as a whole
rather than the individual technical components, for example; shooting, passing and
dribbling. The game sense approach seemed to lead to increased enjoyment, interest and
a level of perceived competence.

Finally, another aspect from University topics in which I have integrated is from my ‘Health
Education’ (SHINE) class. I found it really beneficial to implement some of the ‘COP’
activities into my SHINE lessons to make it more enjoyable and to ‘mix’ things up. An
example was from the ‘Gender Equality’ lesson- I borrowed from another group’s
presentation and gave each student a pink card and a blue card. Students were then to hand
up with card they believed responded most closely with the statement given. ‘Barbies are
for girls’, ‘Footy is for boys’ etc. It was great to see what the students said and to base
conversations and discussions around this.

 What have you gained from your placement?

This placement has been by far the most beneficial placement yet. Although I have had
fantastic experiences in my previous placements, gained invaluable feedback and
connections, I feel that my learning had a long way to go. Being able to have an extra 4
weeks of full time teaching has allowed for this stretch of learning and to be able to be apart
of setting up a brand new class in a new semester. I have navigated and built strong
relationships with both students and staff, been able to experiment with a number of
different teaching strategies (some in which have worked well and others in which have
not!). On top of this I have gained valuable resources and assistance with my own resource
development from amazing teachers and staff. I have had the opportunity to moderate
internally and externally at the Quad Schools Moderation Day, which has proven to be
really valuable and helped in my ability to make and provide appropriate feedback for my
students. I have gained the knowledge of being able to see the differences in student
learning and behaviour and how to address these in the classroom and out of the
classroom in a Physical Education environment. And most importantly I have been able to
see and experience what it ’really’ takes to be a teacher (day to day responsibilities).

 What evidence do you have of your positive impact on students’ learning?

Throughout my placement I have had several positive impacts on student learning. One
example of this is based on the grades that some of my students have received in their
assessment tasks. Although there is a level of prior knowledge in which each of the students
acquire, students have shown positive outcomes from my lessons and furthermore in their
final assessments. Although it is important to add that not all students initially showed an
‘A’ or ‘B’ level, but after applying the feedback that I provided to them, students In turn
were able to achieve positive outcomes. This has been done through a series of student
data analysis.
At the end of the term I underwent different student feedback procedures, with all of my
classes. I tried verbal feedback, Google forms and TfEL Student Survey questions and was
really happy with the results in which I received. Google forms was my favourite format of
student feedback as it gave me immediate data feedback from what the students answered
in response to my lessons. Some examples of this have been provided below:
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 What are your strengths and professional learning goals aligned with specific focus
areas of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

1- Know the students and how they learn: Throughout my placement I have had the
opportunity to find out how my students learn best. By undergoing several forms of
pre-assessments, I was able to implement various teaching strategies to suit the
students in my class (standard 1.5).
- Carousel Brainstorm (year 11 English)
 - Think, pair, share (year 10 PE)
- Observational pre-assessment in (year 8 PE)

2- Know the content and how to teach it: I found that although I have base knowledge
for teaching my subject areas, I made sure that I researched and taught myself the
content in which I was not entirely confident with to ensure that my students were
able to get the most out of my lessons. I made sure to ask different staff members
for ideas and strategies along with research to find out how best to deliver the
content for different subject areas (Standard 2.1). Another one of my strengths
aligned with standard 2 is my ability to include ICT into my content to make the
activities more engaging for a variety of students. There are so many different online
forums and websites that can be used in all subject areas, and I enjoyed
experimenting with these (Standard 2.6).
3- Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning: After discussions with my
mentors and getting to know my students it was clear which students needed that
appropriate stretch of challenge in my lessons, therefore I was able to then establish
challenging learning goals for students with varying readiness levels. Another one of
my strengths is my ability to plan and implement sequential lesson plans that are
engaging and stimulating for students. (Standard 3.1, 3.2). As a PE, Health and
English teacher I needed to implement a range of teaching strategies to suit the
different environment, in which also meant I had to implement various
classroom/out of classroom communication strategies.
4- Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments: Managing
challenging behaviours was certainly of area I worked hard in throughout my
placement, and although I have plenty of room for further improvement I feel like I
have come a long way and was able to manage a challenging environment in my PE
class. This links in with my ability to maintain student safety, which was an added
aspect of my role as a teacher in this classroom. As mentioned, I have room for
growth- however I was able to implement different strategies in order to keep the
students who were vulnerable to hazardous behaviour safe. (Standard 4.3, 4.4).
5- Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning: In all my classes I took on
the role of assessment (both formative and summative) to assess student learning.
In both my year 11 English classes I provided draft feedback on my students essays
with comments alongside their work and I also provided feedback on their final
grade/ report. (Standard 5.1, 5.2)
6- Engage in professional learning: At any opportunity available, I attended workshops
and meetings in which I thought may have benefited/improved my practice. I also
took it upon myself to talk to other teachers in the school to help guide my teaching
and for different perspectives and ideas. Having four different mentors meant that I
was able to seek and apply constructive feedback from all these teachers to improve
my practices.
7- Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community:
At the beginning of the year I was involved with the acquaintance night with my year
8 home group and their home group teacher. This was a great way to see how
parent teacher nights work and also a good opportunity to meet with parents. On
top of this I have been able to contact home for students who have been absent in
my class however shown attendance throughout the day. I have also been able to
 meet the parents of the students in my volleyball team and discuss any questions
and queries in which have evolved.

 After the presentation, lead a short discussion to seek feedback about how you
could improve your teaching and your impact on student learning.

Mentor/University Liaison Comment:

Hannah explained numerous areas of growth throughout her placement. Hannah has
developed excellent relationships with students and peers. She has used these relationships
to get to know students and how they learn then tailor her teaching programs to their
needs. She has worked hard to incorporate appropriate differentiation into her teaching to
cater for the full range of ability from students with learning difficulties and disabilities to
gifted and talented students and was conscious this is an area of continual development
throughout her career. Hannah has continually developed her subject knowledge and
wider educational issues such as assessment and moderation.

Hannah discussed her increased range of teaching strategies and greater awareness of
pedagogical approaches to teaching and their impact on student outcomes. She highlighted
a development in her behavioural and classroom management strategies. Hannah is aware
of and has used the Colleges policies and procedures around this area as well as her own
strategies to manage low level disruption. However, she went on to explain how she felt
this was an area where further development within her own learning goals. Hannah also
discussed her growth in the area of feedback assessment and reporting and how she had
improved on her ability to question students in order to ascertain their level of knowledge
and understanding. Hannah talked about the improvement student work displayed within
her English class after her drafting process and the level to which students had responded to
feedback.

Hannah talked about her Professional Development opportunities within her placement and
how they have impacted on her practice. An example of this was the School Partnership
moderation process where Hannah had the opportunity to explain her assessment process,
and grade justification and compare this to the work at 3 other High School sites. Being
involved within this continual Professional Development has assisted in Hannah’s
development and she explained the need to be a reflective practitioner and evaluate
student outcomes, learning programs and her teaching methodologies.

Signed: