Welcome to my Portfolio

1. Welcome to my Portfolio Meeting the Northern Territory ( Element 6 ) and New South Wales ( Element 3 ) Professional Teaching Standards

2. GRADUATE TEACHERS PLAN PROGRAM ASSESS & REPORT FOR EFFECTIVE LEARNING

3. NT, 6.1: Graduate teachers use their developing knowledge of students, content and pedagogy to establish clear and achievable goals for their students. Planning: Teaching and Learning Goals NSW, 3.1.1: Demonstrate the capacity to identify and articulate clear and appropriate learning goals in lesson preparation. REFLECTION: When teaching a student or a classroom of students there are some imperative aspects to take into consideration in order to establish clear and achievable goals. That is I must question, Who am I teaching? What is it I wish to teach? When am I teaching? Where am I teaching? Why am I teaching? and how will I teach? These questions set the foundations of pedagogy and serves the establishment of achievable student and teaching goals. EDUCATION: plant the seed of today for tomorrow’s future.

4. “Knowledge of students, content and pedagogy are intertwined and are dependent on one another.”

5. KNOWLEDGE OF STUDENTS The High School setting, comprising of adolescents to young adults, from the ages of 12 to 18. My practical experience placement involved teaching science to year 8 and biology to year 11 students. Each year group had its own idiosyncrasies and behaviour management to deal with. YEAR 11 The year 11 class, comprising of 24 students with an absentee rate of 20%., faced a constant social issue. That is, recently new legislation commands all students will be unable to leave at the end of year 10 and must continue on to complete year 12 or at the age of 17 only if there is a paid job or a vocational apprenticeship to go to. Senior biology is considered to be under par compared to the more academic subjects of physics and chemistry, and it attracted students who just did not want to go to school. Knowing this aspect, my lesson planning at times deviated from the curriculum and served the purpose of engaging all students. This leads to less behaviour issues, enhanced student engagement and learning.

6. YEAR 8 A class of 28 students with very obvious cognitive disorders. The most common factors to deal with are impulsivity, apathy and lack of on task focus. To reflect upon this I wanted to give myself some time of exploration of what I can or cannot achieve with this group of students and also what are the students capable of. Moving through curriculum content is very slow. I often wonder these students with behavioural and cognitive problems are grouped into excessively large classes. These students are a delight when taught in a small groups, all they want is time and intimacy which is seemingly devoid in the mainstream high school setting. Lesson plans need to be simple with clear and precise instructions with an element of creativity. Creativity may involve power point presentations, drawing, and painting Pencils, pens, paper, paste and scissors all need to be provided. Most students do not bring their own stationery. I came out of my teaching session feeling the resemblance of a stretched out and frazzled octopus.

7. I have noticed, a small number of students in this year 8 science class are creative and fall into the category of visual and kinaesthetic learners who are very involved and eager to be involved in activities and enjoy a high degree of visually engaging materials. If these students needs were met and placed into a smaller class 10-12 pupils maximum, learning and teaching will prosper. Teaching the year 8 science class did take its toll !$#?@

8. Pedagogical practices and learning goals depend on who you are teaching. Having the knowledge of adolescent and child development provides the foundations of how teaching needs to be approached and certainly the attainment of learning goals. For example Piaget’s theory of cognitive development runs parallel with the maturation stages of the human brain. Teaching subject content involving higher ordered abstract thought processes ( formal operational ) to a student in concrete thought will be futile. ETP420 CHILD and ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT ASSIGNMENT 1.docx Social and cultural issues dictates how learning goals and teaching are approached. Our teaching philosophy is a driving force and at times can manifest itself as the “hidden curriculum”

9. I awoke suddenly and in my very own stillness and essence I realised when I teach, I become the student.

10. Teaching and Learning Programs NSW, 3.1.2: Plan and implement coherent lessons and lesson sequences that are designed to engage students and address learning outcomes. If it is beneficial to the student does learning need to be directly related to published curriculum outcomes? A very distinct contrast between the year 11 biology and the year 8 science class. The year 11 students were much more attentive and I could cover more content and in more depth, in addition had time to deviate from curriculum, such as philosophy and other areas of science. The year 8 science class, lack of on task focus and with cognitive disorders, lesson planning needed to be very simple and content covered was very simplified. A simple task of cutting out 8 planets, colour them in and to stick them on to a piece of butchers paper in correct order, was a significant task and all 50 mins of the lesson was utilised. For those who became bored or disinterested other simple tasks were provided, such as find-a-words relating to the current topic. KNOWING your students is not OPTIONAL it is ESSENTIAL.

11. Achieving learning outcomes, planning and implementing lessons plans largely rests upon the class you are teaching. There are many ways, many resources, intuition and imagination to achieving outcomes. For every student the journey is different, leading to an outcome. Many pathways to travel, leading to the outcome.

12. Lesson plans were dictated by outcomes and were from the Board of Studies NSW, Science year 7 to 10 syllabus. ( www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au ) Teaching and Learning Programs (3.1.2) is very closely related to Selection and Organisation of Content (3.1.3), the two items coexist.

13. NEWS FLASH TRANSFORMATION during year 8 astronaut training. Normally boisterous and chatty during lessons, a 100% transformation while viewing a DVD on rocket science with a work sheet. All students totally engaged. The next stage ( over 2 lessons ), students were given a sequence of questions to research on school laptops. Topics were history of moon exploration, and astronaut training and living without gravity. Simple and structured lesson plan with outcomes achieved – research skills, knowledge gained, engagement and a history lesson.

14. Selection and Organisation of Content NSW, 3.1.3: Select and organise subject / content in logical, sequential and structured ways to address student learning outcomes. ETP410 Assignment 1 FINAL.docx Using the year 8 example, and commencing a new topic; Models, Theories and Laws; Structures. Stage 4, outcome 4.6: A student identifies and describes energy changes and the action of forces in common situations. 4.6.8: ELECTROSTATIC FORCE – describe ways in which objects acquire an electrostatic charge; identify everyday situations where the effects of electrostatic forces can be observed; and describe the behaviour of charges when they are brought close to each other.

15. The theory is needed to appreciate and understand the associated practical work covered in this unit. The theory component is structured from the basics, from atomic structure with a student to label diagram, with note taking and pausing to ask questions to ensure student comprehension. STATIC ELECTRICITY.docx The lesson plan structured into a sequence of lessons with some accompanied experimental practical activities in order to enhance learning and furthering student engagement. Time frame of 5 x 50 minute lessons.

16. NT 6.2: Graduate teachers plan and document the use of a range of activities, resources and materials to provide meaningful learning opportunities for students. NSW 3.1.4: Demonstrate knowledge of a range of appropriate and engaging resources and materials and resources. YEAR 11 Using a kaleidoscope of appropriate activities and resources I have provided meaningful learning opportunities for a diverse group of students. During the time of teaching year 11 biology, I utilised many resources from already prepared overheads, photocopy sheets and homework sheets. Most resources were created by me and the following are examples. ECOSYSTEM - EARTH.pptx , ATP.docx, BIOMASS.docx, CELLULAR RESPIRATION.docx , HUMAN INTERVENTIONS and IMPACT ON ECOLOGY.docx, PHOTOSYNTHESIS.pptx I went as far as providing every student with a National Geographic magazines to read in class, ( from my personal home book shelf ) and a BBC DVD on Plants by Richard Attenborough.

17. YEAR 8 I have provided a resource handout titled “A family of Nine’ relating to the solar system ..\Pictures\MP Navigator EX\2012_06_11\IMG.pdf , a very simplistic work sheet, further student engagement was captured by asking students to read questions and to write the answers on the whiteboard. This worksheet enabled me to determine literacy and numeracy skills. A cut out and colouring in work sheet of the solar system, ..\Pictures\MP Navigator EX\2012_06_11\IMG_0002.pdfto paste on a large sheet of paper. An extremely simple activity that filled in a 40 minute lesson. Other materials used were a large poster of the solar system and smaller laminated fact sheets I myself created. ..\Pictures\MP Navigator EX\2012_06_11\IMG_0003.pdf I have created a hands on project for the class to collaborate with; the creation of a large scale solar system to pinned up on the walls in the science laboratory. Planet Jupiter is about 60 cm in diameter with all other planets included to a very crude scale. G:\year 8 solar system.pptx I attempted to teach astrology and constellations !

18. NT 6.4: Graduate teachers can select, document and implement the approved curriculum to assess student learning effectively, to provide feedback to students and to inform further planning of teaching and learning. NSW 3.1.5: Demonstrate knowledge and use of a range of strategies to assess student achievement of learning outcomes. There are many strategies that may be utilised to assess student learning, some examples are: - observing student behaviour and engagement - taking class role to check for absenteeism - observing student attitudes - asking questions to a student or in a collaborative environment. - group discussions. - assignments and homework tasks - revision tests - open book exams - accessing previous results and from other faculties, also the NAPLAN results ETP425 Assessment and Reporting Assignment 2.docx

19. Feedback may be in the form of a gesture or body language. This may be negative or positive feedback. Ideally a student needs positive feedback with construction. A smile goes a long way. A smile or a gesture signifying approval boosts student self esteem. A standardised norm referenced formative assessment of x/100 or x% is only of value when ranking students. Portfolios are excellent, they portray many facets of a student’s work over a period of time. A single standardised test is unable to capture this. No single assessment procedure is 100% at assessing all of a student’s capabilities as there are many ways to express knowledge. Any feedback must be ego boosting or beneficial for the student. EXCELLENT WORK

20. ASSESSMENT FORMS FORM A: The Challenging Nature of Teaching: Teaching and Learning 1,2 and 3 FORM B1: In-school task Rubric, Teaching and Learning 2: Applying Development Principles to Practice FORM B2: In-school task Rubric: Presentation of a Mini Portfolio – Assessment and Reporting FORM C: Overall Professional Experience Evaluation Record Teaching and Learning 1, 2 and 3 ..\Pictures\MP Navigator EX\assessment