In this section, I will provide evidence of the development in my professional practice in the areas of:
1. Planning and assessment
2. Creating a positive learning environment
3. Engagement strategies
1. Planning and conducting assessment
I have designed and conducted a range of effective assessment tasks catered toward learning needs of students. This includes experiences such as:
Authentic learning task for the New Arrivals Program (What the world Eats?)
Among the learning activities that I conducted with my class, a prominent example of meaningful learning was one that created a context borrowed from real-life when studying the topic of 'food around the world' for humanities.
Students were to:
- Compare what people ate around the world
- Plan groceries and meals for a week with a $250 budget (Coles brochures were used)
- Evaluate their meal plans (review)
Thoughts: Students were clearly engaged in this activity because it was authentic and they were able to draw on their real-life experience. Giving them the space to be creative and plan their own meals worked effectively as well. Finally, reflecting on their choices made it relevant to real life because they had to think about the decisions they have made and why they made it. Overall, I found that the students really enjoyed the activity.
2. Positive learning environment
This idea of knowing and connecting with my students resonates very strongly with me because I believe in the saying that 'people don't care how much you know unless they know how much you care'- John C. Maxwell. As a result, a list of practices I am committed to included:
As a result, I received positive feedback both from my supervising teaching and from students and have included a few of them here below.
Teacher's comments:
Student's feedback:
Thoughts: Having those practical strategies in place helps me to quickly engage and connect with students. I know that at the end of my teaching experiences I had built a rapport with students and was so grateful to be a part of their learning. Students also mentioned that they appreciated that I took the time to talk to them. That meant a lot to me.
3. Engagement strategies
Engagement has been a big focus of my teaching because I believe that an engaged student is connected to their learning. As a result, students who are interested and see the relevance in their work are driven to learn. I have made my teaching engaging by:
- Year 8 Geography- Google Earth Lesson Plan
In this lesson, I personalized the learning by getting students to first find their houses using google earth. After that, they took a tour around the world while answering some questions on the handout. I have attached the handouts here.
I also decided to explore the use of ICT tools in teaching by taking on an elective unit at Deakin. Evidence of my learning is in the blog for that unit which is located here: myteachingblog. (Click on link to access). Some of the programs I have explored and become comfortable with include:
- Edublogs (blogs)
- Prezis (presentations)
- Audacity (audio recordings)
- Animoto (slideshows)
- Picasa (photo editing)
- Diggo (bookmarking)
- Edmodo (social networking)
You will be able to find my thoughts on and demonstrations of my usage of those programs on my blog. Enjoy!
1. Planning and assessment
2. Creating a positive learning environment
3. Engagement strategies
1. Planning and conducting assessment
I have designed and conducted a range of effective assessment tasks catered toward learning needs of students. This includes experiences such as:
- Assessing 50 personal projects of Year 10 students according to the IB curriculum at Mater Christi College. Click here for examples.
- Designing relevant units and assessment tasks for VCE, VELS, IB and the New Arrivals Program. (example below)
- Conducting a range of assessment and moderation with teachers including oral and written, formative and summative tasks. Click here for examples.
Authentic learning task for the New Arrivals Program (What the world Eats?)
Among the learning activities that I conducted with my class, a prominent example of meaningful learning was one that created a context borrowed from real-life when studying the topic of 'food around the world' for humanities. Students were to:
- Compare what people ate around the world
- Plan groceries and meals for a week with a $250 budget (Coles brochures were used)
- Evaluate their meal plans (review)
Thoughts: Students were clearly engaged in this activity because it was authentic and they were able to draw on their real-life experience. Giving them the space to be creative and plan their own meals worked effectively as well. Finally, reflecting on their choices made it relevant to real life because they had to think about the decisions they have made and why they made it. Overall, I found that the students really enjoyed the activity.
2. Positive learning environment
This idea of knowing and connecting with my students resonates very strongly with me because I believe in the saying that 'people don't care how much you know unless they know how much you care'- John C. Maxwell. As a result, a list of practices I am committed to included:- learning and using my student's names quickly
- talking to students in between classes, during yard duty, asking them how they are
- taking every chance to notice students' strengths and comment on them
- being honest and setting class expectations that value respect and responsibility
As a result, I received positive feedback both from my supervising teaching and from students and have included a few of them here below.
Teacher's comments:
Student's feedback:
Thoughts: Having those practical strategies in place helps me to quickly engage and connect with students. I know that at the end of my teaching experiences I had built a rapport with students and was so grateful to be a part of their learning. Students also mentioned that they appreciated that I took the time to talk to them. That meant a lot to me. 3. Engagement strategies
- Using ICT to enhance learning
- Drawing on student's funds of knowledge/ virtual backpacks (Moll and Thompson)
- Year 8 Geography- Google Earth Lesson Plan
In this lesson, I personalized the learning by getting students to first find their houses using google earth. After that, they took a tour around the world while answering some questions on the handout. I have attached the handouts here.
I also decided to explore the use of ICT tools in teaching by taking on an elective unit at Deakin. Evidence of my learning is in the blog for that unit which is located here: myteachingblog. (Click on link to access). Some of the programs I have explored and become comfortable with include:
- Prezis (presentations)
- Audacity (audio recordings)
- Animoto (slideshows)
- Picasa (photo editing)
- Diggo (bookmarking)
- Edmodo (social networking)
You will be able to find my thoughts on and demonstrations of my usage of those programs on my blog. Enjoy!
