Professional Internship Portfolio

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Entry 2: Professional Practice
Standard 3
(Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning)
Following on from the first two standards which deal with professional knowledge (knowing your
students and the curriculum content), the third standard is about professional practice: specifically
planning and implementing effective teaching. I touched on planning and links to the curriculum in
Entry 1 (providing evidence of planning in Appendices 1.3 and 1.5). To be an effective teacher being
prepared is of the upmost importance, with planning for the unexpected a very necessary skill to
develop. In this placement I have learnt the real value of having one page daily plans as well as
weekly and term plans, together with unit of work plans and individual lesson plans: each has their
place in being prepared and organized. This standard is also about implementing effective teaching
(effective communication, partnerships with parents, selecting and using resources). Another part
of this standard is implementing your plans and strategies. I am a strong believer and user of
technology in the classroom. As technology continues to evolve, we must adapt our practice and find
the best way to use ICT to help our students learn, giving them access to a more meaningful and
relevant education.

Reflective commentary:
My mentor teachers use a themed approach to their overall planning. They explained that the
more you can link subjects together, the more meaningful it will be to the students. This is why it is
important to use cross curricular activities where ever possible. Term 1 had focused on a
multicultural theme and together we had decided on an overall theme for this term, which was
Australia. Activities in a number of areas were linked to this (particularly reading, literacy, art, and
preparation for our class assembly). I introduced the theme with the students using a brainstorming
activity to determine what students already knew about Australia, and what they wanted to find out,
then discussed different ways of incorporating the theme into my plans with my mentor teachers.
As evidenced in my planning for my units of work in Appendix 1, I made sure to align my planning
with the descriptors in the Australian Curriculum.

In English we were learning about narratives and narrative writing as well as reading and writing
information reports. I decided that we would look at different reports of Australian animals and that
they would write and illustrate their own one as a final task. For the narratives I chose Aboriginal
Dreamtime stories. I partly chose these because at one of the staff meetings I was at, the teachers
were given red flags information (things that students had done poorly on in the previous NAPLAN
tests) that indicated that students needed to improve their ability to analyse folktales, improving
comprehension and interpretation of meaning. I saw this as an opportunity to work on narratives
and also to work on folktales, while keeping it under the Australia theme.

Standard 3.1 is about establishing challenging learning goals for students. For my History unit
(technology in the past), I not only incorporated a large number of old fashioned tools (things like a
typewriter, feather quill and ink, rotary beater, old iron), to make the learning more meaningful and
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real for the students, but I also challenged them to talk to parents and grandparents and find
interesting things to bring into class to show and tell their classmates about.

Another part of effective teaching is using excursions, incursions, and special props to your
advantage. These things will greatly improve motivation for students and I believe they learn a lot
through hands-on activities. Times where they can see what is happening with their own eyes and
can be a part of the learning process rather than just listening to how things are, bring learning alive.

I was lucky enough to help organize and be a part of many special events. These events are
important in generating students positive feelings towards school and the learning process, but they
are also a lot of work to organize and plan for. During my time at the school I was a part of: a zoo
excursion, a science incursion, an international luncheon and concert, a dance concert, another
science incursion by the Water Corporation, and we even had our class present an assembly. All of
these special events required a large amount of preparation and also a large amount of in class
time. The assembly item in particular surprised me, with the huge amounts of time that were spent
practicing and preparing for a forty minute assembly. Many of these events also allowed for
providing appropriate and contextually relevant opportunities for parents/carers to be involved in
their childrens learning: something that the parents, students and staff all appreciated and found
rewarding (see appendix 2: photos of international luncheon, where families shared insights into
their culture through food and dress).

Standard 3.4 is about selecting and using resources, including ICT, and I felt this was an area of
strength in my teaching. This was also commented on positively in my final report. My lesson plans
provide evidence of links that I used. A particularly good link was used in History with a specially
produced video from the Australian Museum, looking at a typewriter. I then found an old typewriter
that students could actually type on which made the learning real and experiential. Another was a
fun video that incorporated a song and dance about flip, slide, turn to reinforce maths concepts. In
the Aboriginal Dreamtime program I used a number of videos including cartoon type stories as well
as Aboriginal story tellers. I was also responsible for all the ICT links for our school assembly items.

Documentation of evidence:
2.1 Photos of international luncheon
2.1 Example of a daily work plan
See also Units of work in Appendix 1.

Action Plan:
During my placements I havent had as much time to prepare as I would have liked, due to only
being told our Year levels and schools a few weeks in advance, and with work commitments and the
like its often not until we get to the schools that we get a feel for the class and learn what they are
working on at the time. This means we are already in the teaching process without having much
time for planning. However during this placement I really did make an effort to plan out some
interesting and engaging units of work for the students. When Im a graduate teacher with my own
class I will aim to plan a bit further ahead of time and as the year goes on always be checking my
plans to make sure that everything is moving along smoothly in the right sequence, making changes
as they are needed. I have formed some good habits with regard to having daily plans which I will
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take into the future with me. The Australian Curriculum website is a great resource in helping to set
appropriate learning goals, sequence lesson plans, and look at what and how to assess learning.