Organisation: Department of Education
Job Title: Graduate Teacher
Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of initiatives in student learning including the
Principles of Learning and Teaching P-12 and the Assessment and Reporting Advice and the
ability to implement curriculum programs consistent with their intent
As a student teacher, I have developed a strong understanding of a range of modern initiatives in
student learning, as well as the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT) and assessment and
reporting. During my Master of Teaching studies, I undertook research on self-reflection in relation
to classroom management and trialled a range of classroom management ideas within classes at
different levels. Essentially, I used and reported on my own behaviour, the students behaviour and
how one impacted on the other either positively or negatively. Through this process, I learnt a lot
about my own teaching capacity, but also developed a strong knowledge of a range of teaching
techniques.
During my placement at Toongabbie Primary School, the prep class I was in had lost their Teacher
as she was admitted to hospital. I essentially took over the class, with the Principal (my new
mentor teacher) observing from the back of the class. The children were quite unsettled without
their usual teacher and were finding it hard to concentrate and focus. Because of this, I designed
my lessons so that they spent a relatively short amount of time on each individual task. This gave
them the opportunity to focus for short periods, and then move onto something else before
focussing again. This approach was quite successful in the class and we were able to progress like
that for some time.
During my placement at Traralgon, I developed my skills in communicating to my group of 5/6s
through being more explicit about their tasks and what we were trying to achieve for each unit. I
ensured they understood their role, the length of the lesson and how they were going to achieve
that successfully. This approach gained a positive result with the class, who were more able to
focus and get the work done in a timely manner.
Part of the PoLT is ensuring the learning environment is supportive and productive and includes
students’ backgrounds, perspective and interests. I have demonstrated my understanding of this
through building rapport with students and providing them the constructive positive feedback.
During my placement at Traralgon, there was a diverse population of students from a range of
cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and I made a concerted effort to ensure all children felt
included. I would ask students about their backgrounds, families and when appropriate, how some
of them came to live in Australia. Through getting to know students, I was then able to provide
them with content that was meaningful to them. This approach also formed part of ensuring that
learning connected with their communities beyond the classroom.
Another unit I was involved with which gave students an insight into communities, was a unit on
social media impact which the 5/6s were working on. I was particularly interested in the insights of
these students who have grown up with technology, and how they could see the impact of social
media on themselves, but also on their parents and society as a whole. These lessons enabled and
encouraged students into deeper levels of thinking and application within the real world.
During my lesson planning with the 5/6 class at Traralgon, I taught students every day for their
maths components including a unit on geometry. To understand students current knowledge, I
pre-tested their skills in this area and used the results of that testing to plan appropriate and
differentiated lessons. Grouping the students in similar capacity groups gave students more
motivation and ensured all students could have an input into their groups activities at that time.
Within my placement at Heyfield, I was teaching one student in the 3/4 class who had an
intellectual disability. I needed to differentiate the content to ensure this student felt included and
was progressing, whilst not feeling overwhelmed with the work. At one time we were studying the
My Place text and during watching the film, students were asked to focus on the differences
between concepts in the film. My students with an intellectual disability was also required to
watch the film, however was focussing on much simpler concepts within, ensuring he was able to
complete the task successfully.
I have been involved on numerous occasions with the assessment of students at a range of levels
and have provided details on this in criteria 3.
Demonstrated understanding of how students learn and effective classroom teaching strategies
and the capacity to work with colleagues to continually improve teaching and learning
There is a range of ways students learn and incorporating these into the teaching program can
ensure all students benefit and can achieve their potential. For example, during my placement at
Heyfield, the 3/4 students were choosing from a range of learning and literacy tools to give a
response to a text. Providing a range of visual and non-visual components for example can ensure
a better response from students. Catering for a range of learning styles such as kinaesthetic
learners is important in the lesson planning stages and this was part of my planning within the
geometry unit at Traralgon.
I learnt a great deal in my placements about catering for different learners through the
organisation of group activities and how to rotate students through the tasks. I learnt about giving
students the right amount of time to spend on each activity and how to create group activities so
they can support each other in their learning. One example of this was in a class focusing on using
expressive language to make a sentence a more interesting one to read or say. Groups of students
sat and worked together, incorporating a range of language and ideas which contributed to the
completion of the task. Students then took this and worked independently to add their own ideas
to improve the text.
My use of classroom strategies around classroom management and ensuring everybody is
included and supported within the classroom has given my students every opportunity to
progress. I have set learning goals for the children in my care, using my observations of their
learning and their daily activities and provide open ended learning opportunities so that the
children can explore the environment they are in. I have had experience in using scaffolding
techniques during writing, particularly at prep level when they’re developing their writing in
sounding out words and working independently.
I have demonstrated working with colleagues through communicating with them in relation to
situations to ensure that I have the information to do my job effectively and provide for the
children in my care. Within a team teaching environment, I have learned how to work together
through communication and working with each other’s strengths. I have engaged in professional
conversations with my mentor teachers, but also with teachers outside of this to learn and
develop my skills further.
In attending all staff meetings throughout my placements, I have demonstrated a willingness to be
involved and work together and this was further developed through coming together with other
teachers and moderating some literacy work from across the same level. I am very keen to learn
and develop my skills further from those more experienced than I, and contributing to the
discussion relating to my teaching and the learning direction of the school.
Demonstrated capacity to monitor and assess student learning data and to use this data to
inform teaching for improved student learning
My teacher training and practical experience has provided me with the opportunity to develop my
knowledge about assessment within the classroom and its ability to improve teaching and learning
experiences for children within the learning environment. The assessment of students and their
abilities is fundamental to my planning for children’s future learning within the classroom.
During my various placements I have not only planned for and delivered formative and summative
assessments in different forms, I have also used the related data from these assessments to assist
in my planning of future sessions. As mentioned earlier, within a unit teaching geometry, I pre-
tested students to get an understanding of their knowledge, before planning and delivering the
unit accordingly. Providing opportunities for the class to de-brief and summarise what they had
learnt at the end of each individual lesson allowed me to understand what they gained from the
lesson and which areas I might need to reiterate at a later stage. By using these strategies to
monitor individual student’s ability to complete set tasks, it gave me an insight into where the
learning journey will go next based on this information.
In my most recent placement at Toongabbie Primary School, I was involved in a session where we
were moderating writing samples from the different classes and I learnt a great deal about
moderation and writing at different levels.
During lessons, I have implemented the strategy of providing feedback and reflection to make sure
students are meeting their learning goals along with questioning during literacy sessions.
Observational aspects of assessment are also important in determining a child’s progress and
social interactions as well as their academic and more formal results.
Overall, I have knowledge and have had experience in using the following forms of both formative
and summative assessment strategies:
– Observations
– Feedback and reflection
– Formal testing and re-testing
– Rubrics
– Moderation
Within my placement teaching 3/4s at Heyfield, I worked on an Indigenous studies unit with the
class where their teacher gave me a rubric in order to cross reference their learning in this area.
This unit was an integrated unit including social studies and reading levels and provided awesome
learning opportunities for students whilst allowing us to measure their reading capacities at the
same time.
Demonstrated high level written and verbal communication skills and high level interpersonal
skills including a capacity to develop constructive relationships with students, parents and other
staff
I possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills and am able to adapt my
communication style to students, parents and colleagues. My communication with students is
open and based on respect, including my respect for them and in turn, their respect for me. I
believe in treated people the way you would like to be treated and for me, this means being
respectful of all people including children in my class.
I have had some exposure to parents, particularly in my prep placement at Toongabbie. I worked
with parents who were attending reading sessions with the children and helping out in the
classroom. During this role, the class teacher was a CRT teacher as their teacher was away. This
created some unease in some parents and they would often ask me questions about the teacher. I
needed to reinforce to these parents in an appropriate way that I was not the person to ask about
these issues and that the parents would need to speak with the teacher, or with the Principal if
they had some issues that needed dealing with. This was accepted by most parents, some of which
were complementary about my integrity in this scenario.
In addition, I have communicated with parents in encouraging them to read with or to their
children at home to reinforce their learning at school, and reiterating that it is OK for their preps
to use pictures to figure out the story. I believe that communication with families of the children
with in my care is extremely important in order to provide an environment that is effective for the
child’s learning journey. I believe the involvement of parents within the classroom is important
and encouraging parents to participate in the learning program would allow students, time to
share their learning journey with their parent in the school environment.
Within all of my placements, I have demonstrated the ability to build constructive and positive
relationships with colleagues. I am able to remain professional in conversations and learn and
develop my skills through questioning, being positive and ensuring I take opportunities for
learning that arise. During my last two placements, I frequently asked staff about issues I was
having and how they might deal with the situation to get some ideas on improving my skills.
Particularly, there was one child who was finding it difficult to settle and was therefore being quite
disruptive in the classroom. At the time, I felt like I was always moving him away from the group
and being quite negative. I consulted the Principal who was my mentor teacher and other staff
members on the matter and they made some excellent suggestions based around positive praise,
asking the student what effect the behaviour was having on others and giving him more positive
attention and support. Some of these suggestions made a big difference in both mine and the
child’s behaviour from then on.
With students in the classroom, I try to be as human as possible as I believe this give children a
real and approachable teacher, which in turn benefits everyone. Letting students know that you
care about them and their lives and they can talk to you if they want to is a powerful scenario
where they feed safe and supported.
Demonstrated commitment and capacity to actively contribute to a broad range of school
activities and a capacity to reflect on, evaluate and improve professional knowledge and
practice
During my placements I have attended numerous sport days and whole school activities outside of
the classroom. I enjoy being able to interact with students outside of the classroom and find it
easy to build rapport with them in this environment. I have been involved in invited parents into
the classroom when teaching grade 5/6s at Traralgon, where students demonstrated their work to
parents on social media impact.
I am keen to be more involved in whole school activities and think it would be great to implement
a kitchen garden with the students to support healthy eating within the school environment.
My ability to reflect on, evaluate and improve my professional knowledge and practice has been
demonstrated within the reflective research project I completed whilst on my placements. This
project made me look at each aspect of my own behaviour in the classroom and how that
impacted the students. By being disciplined about journaling my experiences after each session, I
was able to pick up patterns of behaviour, which I then could work on improving the next time
around. I found that at the beginning of this time, I was not explaining myself explicitly enough to
the students and as a result, they didn’t always have a clear idea of what was required of them.
Having identified this, I put in considerable effort and thought into how best to be clear, concise
and practical in my instruction and this made a significant and positive impact on student
outcomes. The students were then able to work more independently and were less disruptive than
previously.
This powerful process is something I will go back to once I have a class of my own as I believe it
demonstrates areas of improvement I can focus on as my skills develop further.
