Culture and Identity Exploration
Meeting Strands: 1.1 PHYSICAL, SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS: 1.2 UNDERSTAND HOW STUDENTS LEARN 1.3 STUDENTS WITH DIVERSE LINGUISTIC, CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUNDS 1.4 STRATEGIes FOR TEACHING ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS 1.5 DIFFERENTIATE TEACHING TO MEET THE SPECIFIC LEARNING NEEDS OF STUDENTS ACROSS THE FULL RANGE OF ABILITIES 2.4UNDERSTAND AND RESPECT ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE TO PROMOTE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN INDIGENOUS AND NON-INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: DEMONSTRATE BROAD KNOWLEDGE OF, UNDERSTANDING OF AND RESPECT FOR ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER HISTORIES, CULTURES AND LANGUAGES. I established and extended my relationships with students and families through a geography unit which centred the student’s cultures and origins as the focus. I began this unit level after I recognised a need within the classroom to explore the student’s cultures and explore differences in a respectful manner. The students were using each other’s differences (such as skin tones and differing accents) to put each other down and negatively impact each other. A note was sent home to families respectfully outlining the learning happening in the classroom and the purpose for the unit as well as requesting information on their families’ origins and connections that they would appreciate us exploring the culture. The responses lead us on an exploration around the world including Vietnam, Kenya, England, Australia, The Noongar Aboriginal community, Portugal and Europe. Before beginning the unit and exploring the individual places of the globe, I started by thoroughly researching each location, talking with the families and gathering as much information as possible. My primary goal was to avoid giving any false or misleading information as well as ensuring I was not stereotypical or tokenistic in my lessons. With the information, I gathered I then began devising learning experiences that were both independent and encouraged self-exploration as well as group explorations that encouraged questioning, discovery and sharing of thoughts, ideas and previous experiences. In this unit, I set up several experiences that encouraged students to explore the varying cultures within the room as well as their own culture and bring a respectful understanding of others. The experiences included daily flag explorations, an identity board featuring each child, multi-cultural small world play (using laminated photographs of the students to make the small world more relatable), google map explorations of the various places in the world and exploration activities of traditional foods/animals/customs that are embedded within the student’s cultures. The results of the unit were outstanding with students often meeting at the identity board to discuss with peers their connecting countries and those of others. A personal moment of achievement came when a child who was struggling with understanding her culture. The child was of Canadian and Aboriginal descent. The child was struggling with having parents of two different ethnicities and what ‘category’ the child fit into. We began by exploring the child’s Noongar culture, Aboriginal heritage and how the child is a proud Aboriginal person. The child was dancing around the room singing “I am a Noongar person! I am a proud Aboriginal’. I shared this moment with the child’s mother who began to cry and thank me for embracing her child’s culture. The mother expressed to me her child’s struggle with having two different heritages and how important her Aboriginal culture is in the home. I continued the unit by moving to Canada the next day. As a class, we began exploring the Canadian culture including traditional foods, popular activities, the flag and its meaning as well as exploring Canada on Google maps. By the end of the unit, the child was taking peers to the identity board and showing her connections to Australia, Canada and how the child is also an Aboriginal. Again, I shared the experience with her mother. It was overwhelming to hear the thanks from the family and see the direct effect that culture has not only in the classroom but expanding out into the families and play as well. The unit also pointed out that people have different coloured skin, accents and features. Within this, we discussed why these differences occur and what they mean. It was fascinating to see students play out their understandings in the small world setting of what cultures is and means. By the end of the unit, it was moving to see the students discussing parts of the world and recognising each other with respect for these differences. Phrases such as "this is ____ flag, she use to live here" would often lead conversations. It was outstanding to see the students recognising not only their own culture but those of their peers also. After the unit, comments about the skin and accent of others was not used for harmful purposes but as a factual statement explaining differences. I am confident to say that this unit achieved and exceeded its learning purposes. In my future teaching I would start this unit as early as possible. I feel that to truly get to do justice to the students cultures then more time and more fruitful activities are needed. |
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Using the Western Australian Curriculum
Meeting Standards: 1.1 PHYSICAL, SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS 2.1 CONTENT AND TEACHING STRATEGIES OF THE TEACHING AREA 2.2 CONTENT SELECTION AND ORGANISATION 2.4UNDERSTAND AND RESPECT ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE TO PROMOTE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN INDIGENOUS AND NON-INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS 2.5 LITERACY AND NUMERACY STRATEGIES 2.6 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 4.5 USE ICT SAFELY, RESPONSIBLY AND ETHICALLY A curriculum based achievement that I developed was based on technology in the classroom. The school was in a low-socioeconomic area where students have limited access to iPads and computers in home life. As a school, it was agreed that the students would begin using computers in years one and up, the students would start using computers more regularly to relieve stress from the students when NAPLAN online became compulsory. As a staff, it was agreed that students would focus on logging on and off, various computer programs, typing and basic computer literacy skills. I contributed to this staff meeting by noting that an expected pre-primary level includes the ability to internet search, select a picture, copy and paste into a document. By providing this information, I highlighted a baseline of what is required in the first year of mandated schooling. I decided to integrate this into my curriculum (pre-primary) so that the students were being exposed to and were involved in the schools developing goals. I began by carefully researching the primary ICT curriculum and highlighted the areas that I found my students were not yet displaying competencies for. I devised a unit that was used during literacy blocks and was centred on fairy tale texts (the classroom literacy focus at the time). I worked with small groups of students as we explored the difference between hardware and software, the mouse, keyboard and screen. Once the students were confident in identifying the different components we moved to recognising symbols on the computer (windows, word and chrome symbols) and how to access them. The students were then taught how to open the internet, type using a keyboard (copying from a whiteboard) and selecting 'go'. At this point I found one of my weakest students was considerably more confident in recognising letters on a keyboard then anything tried before (which was later used in his IEP). After this, the students selected a picture while we discussed safe choices and how to stay safe online. These were then copied, pasted into a word document and printed for students to take home to share their achievements with their families. The last component of the unit was logging off the computers. As the unit ended the most apparent changes were the fact that students were independently navigating the computers including accessing the internet and finding the classroom pinned games. Students were also confident in logging off and would do so at the end of each day on a rotation system. One child who would never use the computers before this unit began using the commuters out of choice after the unit ended which was a highlight of learning for me. In my future teaching more would need to be done with ICT. I can expand this to the smart board, iPads, cameras and many other ICT instruments. In addition to the program i feel this would need to be continuously put into the curriculum with a more meaningful dedication rather than just for NAPLAN purposes. |
Setting Goals
Meeting Strands: 3.1 ESTABLISH CHALLENGING LEARNING GOALS 3.3 USE TEACHING STRATEGIES 3.4 SELECT AND USE RESOURCES Situation: The students are moving on to a new semester and therefore a whole class new writing challenge. This term will focus on writing on a set of 3 lines (set by Diana Rigg) and ruling up. In addition to this, the students will receive new individualised learning goals. Action: I will mark the learning goals in their learning journals. The writing goals are set by those expected by the end of Pre-Primary. As the students achieve them, they are ticked off, and an asterisk is placed in their working towards goal. I have also recorded them into my assessment tracking book to be aware of each of their learning goals. Outcome: The new learning goals at the front of their books allows me to be able to see their learning goals at each writing session. I then use the goals to further their writing, e.g. for students working on finger spaces; then using finger spaces is the focus. SAO TWO Meeting Strands: 3.5 USE EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION 3.6 EVALUATE AND IMPROVE TEACHING PROGRAMS 3.7 ENGAGE PARENTS/CARERS IN THE EDUCATIVE PROCESS 7.3 ENGAGE WITH THE PARENTS/CARERS Situation: Term 3 allowed for multiple opportunities to invite parents both into the room and have communication about events of the classroom. Action: I constructed, edited and sent out notes to the families for varying events occurring. Each opportunity invited parents into the classroom to assist. The events that required formal parent communication included: Cooking: Making porridge in conjunction with the 'Talk For Writing' program (wavier for allergies). Excursion: In week 10 I had organised an outing to the local library and park. A note was required giving information to parents. No permission form was needed as at the beginning of the year the students to go on small excursions and incursions throughout the year. Fathers Day: I had the opportunity to run the fathers day afternoon. The event required sending out an informational note to parents as well as a form to receive numbers of family members attending, the relationship of the family member and to ensure everyone's varying family structures are supported. Outcome: I was able to effectively communicate with parents ensuring that all families were provided with the necessary documents and information for participation. In return, I was able to receive several feedback sheets to demonstrate this two-way communication. I was also able to keep track of who had and had not returned their information, and I was able to follow this up accordingly. Different ways I would alter this in the future would include having them translate into other languages for families who speak English as a second language. |
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Social Support
Meeting Standards: 4.1 SUPPORT STUDENT PARTICIPATION 4.2 MANAGE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 4.3 MANAGE CHALLENGING BEHAVIOUR 4.4 MAINTAIN STUDENT SAFETY Socially I supported the students through a range of social stories and extension programs. The program used social stories, small world play and dramatic/role play to work through negative emotions and requires students to support each other as a group to build individual resilience. I initiated the program when I noticed that within the room, students were struggling socially. The noted behaviours were rough play, tantrums and ‘dobbing’ causing disagreements. For some students, a lack of understanding of the appropriate social play and social skills was causing them to struggle. The unit focused on collaboration, using verbal communication to resolve issues, resilience, positive attitudes, relationships, problem solving and self-regulation. The program began each day with a social story dedicated to a targeted behaviour. Once I had finished reading the story, I lead the students in an open discussion about the meaning of the book, and we took turns connecting the purpose to real-world experiences. The students and I then worked on a collaborated classroom agreement (class rule) that we would support each other with reaching. As the day, week and term went on, the students were encouraged to solve problems with peers before seeking my assistance. If the issue could not be resolved then I would bring the students together and model appropriate problem-solving communication with the students. After two weeks of intensely focusing on social behaviours, I began to see the students displaying their developing positive social skills. Throughout the room, I could witness and hear students encouraging each other with taught phrases including “it’s okay we can bounce back together” and “if you are mad we can find a resolution together”. Students were also displaying physical strategies which I noted most in the students who were at the beginning of the term the most likely to physically lash out or become extremely emotional. These children were now using the positive phrases followed by moving their things to another area or using a stop gesture with their hands and saying “you are upsetting me and I do not like it. I want you to stop ____”. I found that by the end of the term tantrums were replaced with conversations focused on ‘bouncing back’, the rough play was replaced with students ‘taking five to revive’ and dobbing saw a significant decrease in the classroom as students were talking through things before seeking assistance both in and out of the classroom. In future years if I was to repeat or redo the activities I would want to do more individualised one on one workings with the students. I would make more time for social stories and spend more time reading with individualised students to really relate it to them on a more in-depth unit. I would hope to connect it more to the identity wall also. |
Assessment Collection
Meeting Strands: 3.2 PLAN, STRUCTURE AND SEQUENCE LEARNING PROGRAMS 5.1 ASSESS STUDENT LEARNING 5.2 PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS ON THEIR LEARNING 5.3 MAKE CONSISTENT AND COMPARABLE JUDGEMENTS 5.4 INTERPRET STUDENT DATA 5.5 REPORT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Situation: The term began, and while I was aware of students levels from a briefing with my mentor, I required work samples and assessments to see any regressions, new concepts and developments. I was accessing over five learning areas as well as reading and writing, and as I began assessing the students in various methods, I required a way to collect, compare, interpret and report on the work samples. The results needed to be organised, individualised and easily read. Action: I composed a series of recording sheets. The sheets were alphabetised and titled according to subject area. After the initial page creation, a single column was added each time according to the subject concept and filled in accordingly. After each test/work sample was completed and recorded, it was filed in a master file. I created the file with each students having an individualised section. Each student had a file divider marking their division and had a detailed write up of each student. The write up included strengths, weaknesses, and important details of the students (e.g. English as a second language). As the term progressed when they met a new learning goal or a new learning goal was noted, then a small posted note was written, dated and stuck to their page for progress tracking. Outcome: I was able to track students learning with detailed precision. The assessment lists allowed me to make whole class comparisons and interpretations. I was able to use this information to inform my teaching and review the content taught. I noted at times where I had not done the concept justice and others that as a class, the students were ready to move forward. For the assessment file, I was able to ensure I had accurate records of the students learning. When giving a hand over to the mentor teacher, I was able to use this file to give detailed overviews of the student progress. I was able to use these files to show growth/regression or lack of progression for students. In future: My file was incredibly full by the end of the term. I would get another file in future just as I constantly risked losing all works when needing to file/view a students profile. I would use this method again as I found it so incredibly useful to report information, track progression and inform myself about how each student was going. I found this a great way to be able to show parents students works and also use this file to engage professionally with my mentor about students. I would also colour code the notes so that I could look and easily see the learning goals and important notes/regression. The assessment sheets were incredibly helpful for being able to look across all the concepts and see what the students achieved, exceeded or required additional support. I designed the recording sheet based on a consultation with the other Pre-Primary teacher was using. If I were to use this method again, however (and more then likely I would) I would use different symbols, preferably an A-E and some specialised pictorial codes for tracking. I found the use of symbols to be confusing, harder to read and sometimes misleading as they are not universally recognised and that required me to spend more time decoding what was happening. |
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Reflective and Collaborative Critiques
Meeting Strands: 6.1 IDENTIFY AND PLAN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NEEDS 6.2 ENGAGE IN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND IMPROVE PRACTICE 6.3 ENGAGE WITH COLLEAGUES AND IMPROVE PRACTICE 6.4 APPLY PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING Situation: My goal in my final practicum was to be the best teacher I could be. I wanted to reflect in a variety of ways and with a variety of opinions and perspectives. I wanted to ensure I was critical to extend my teaching. Action: I used a variety of methods including a journal reflective diary that was detailed and very honest about the day. I use my mentor's feedback and written comments as well as recordings of my teaching sessions to reflect appropriately and accurately. When relief teachers were present, I had them also critique and provide feedback as I found this as an excellent opportunity for fresh perspectives. After the day I would take the time to sit with my mentor and discuss the techniques used and what needs to be adapted, strengths, weaknesses and ask questions. From these conversations, I would make new goals for myself as a teacher. Outcome: I found that through these critical reflections, my teaching became more fluent and patient. Often I found that I was more critical on myself then what my mentor was. I feel this reflected significantly in my journal entries. I wanted to push my teaching to the next level, and I could see the change happening in these reflections, the challenges were moving from necessary to more critical and advanced issues as I didn't need to focus on mat management, noise levels or anything of the sort. My recordings allowed me to see perspectives I couldn't see while teaching. I could see students doing things I didn't see during my teaching, and it gave me a new perspective on the 'sneakiest' behaviours. As I became more and more aware of these behaviours, I was able to implement strategies (moving into circles, more questioning, moving seating positions) to help combat these. In my future recordings, I could see the behaviours no longer being an issue. In future: In future I know I will have fewer opportunities to collaborate in the close, personal way I was able to on this prac. I aim to engage in as many peer reviews as possible (especially in my first five years) to ensure I am still pushing myself to be the best teacher I can. I also aim to record many more of my lessons so that I can reflect critically both during and after my lessons. I will be able to use these to share with others (within confidentiality terms) when I am unsure. I will be able to use the perspectives of others to inform my teaching and continue to strive for my best teaching self. |
Professional Developments
7.1 MEET PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND RESPONSIBILITIES 7.2 COMPLY WITH LEGISLATIVE, ADMINISTRATIVE AND ORGANISATIONAL REQUIREMENTS 7.4 ENGAGE WITH PROFESSIONAL TEACHING NETWORKS AND BROADER COMMUNITIES Situation: Beginning a new term with my new prac school included a professional development day. I provided another opportunity to go to a professional development day that specialised in Early Childhood Learning (Early Years Learning Framework implementation). I was given access to multiple journal entries, articles, data collections and documents to expand my learning professionally. Action: I took the opportunity to view, engage and read each piece of professional learning that I could participate in. I actively engaged in the professional developments ensuring to ask questions, seek clarifications and provide input where possible (and appropriate). I kept a detailed diary of the professional learning that I could later use in my current and future teaching points. Outcome: I used the professional developments to influence my teaching. I came with the mindset that attending a professional development is one thing but taking it on and implementing it is another. I devised new learning assessments based on the articles read about the expectations of students. I recreated my 'Talk For Writing' programs to incorporate for new strategies learnt through readings from Pie Mccormack. In terms of the professional developments I attended, I chose to focus on Technologies implementation in the classroom. In future: In my future developments (besides the graduate modules) I would like to focus on the following areas: - Talk for writing: Implementing talk for writing and using this fluently in the classroom. - Additional needs schools: I would like to upskill in additional needs so that I can be diverse and provide a supportive environment. - Children's mental health. These areas are chosen because I feel I still have an especially deep void to explore and improve my teaching and my practices. I feel these areas are particularly important given the current state of classrooms. |