Personal Reflection
EPT218 Practicum- 2017
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During my time at Young Public School, I undertook the teaching, planning and programming for lessons. I also engaged in parent teacher information nights, staff professional development, curriculum development and faculty meetings. There was also the opportunity to engage in active supervision at the school swimming carnival. The following statistics relate to the 2016 data which appears on the My Schools website and within the school plan. Young Public School, with enrolment of approximately 570 students has an Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) of 982, below the Australian average of 1000. Further, Young Public School has 34% of children in the bottom quarter and 13% in the top quarter as compared to the national average. Other significant student populations include indigenous (9%) and LBOTE (8%) students. The school hosts 21 mainstream classrooms and 2 support units. The school hinges practices on a Positive Learning Framework (Bannister, Hanson, Maloney, & Dudas, 2015), including a whole school merit system and Thinking Of Others (T.O.O.) structure to promote positive and meaningful engagement between staff, students’ and the community (School plan 2015 – 2017, 2015; "Young Public School, Young | School profile - 2016 | My School”, 2017). Additionally, parent surveys provide a tangible way for parents and caregivers to communicate positive and constructive feedback to the school faculties. During the practicum, I was primarily placed in a stage 2 year 4 class, comprised of 28 students. I taught at a 50% load, with remaining time used to observe, mentor, and provide feedback on students. Additionally, I had the opportunity to reflect and interact in a kindergarten session and observe and assist in a literacy and numeracy block in a support class. The experience was incredibly rewarding, with my focus on developing rapport with students and collegial staff, and classroom behavior management. My favourite teaching experience, although there were many, would have to be the lesson I developed to teach inference. During this, I set up a mock crime scene, created Digital resources, and worksheets. Other lessons I enjoyed was creating an About Me Math challenge. Another great encounter was facilitating the creation of StoryBirds and being able to read and provide meaningful feedback to students. Throughout lessons, I created PowerPoints to demonstrate expected behaviours and intending learning outcomes. I During the experience, I had an extraordinary mentor teacher, who provided me with feedback on my teaching and behavior management. Since the practicum experience, I have stayed on doing voluntary mentoring with 3 students. Involvement at Young Public School has reiterated the importance of developing meaningful professional teaching and student relationships, as I believe these aspects were fundamental in the overall success I felt I achieved through this placement.
School plan 2015 – 2017. (2015). Young Public School. Retrieved from http://www.young-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/documents
Young Public School, Young | School profile - 2016 | My School. (2017). Myschool.edu.au. Retrieved 30 March 2017, from https://myschool.edu.au/SchoolProfile/Index/106020/YoungPublicSchool/42653/2016
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Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you'll always remember. (2017). Storybird. Retrieved 30 March 2017, from https://storybird.com/
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Bannister, S., Hanson, J., Maloney, C., & Dudas, R. (2015). Practical Framework for Fostering a Positive Learning Environment. PEDIATRICS, 136(1), 6-9.