Welcome

"Logic will take you from A to B. 

Imagination will take you everywhere"

- Albert Einstein.

Welcome to my teaching portfolio for the unit EDN292 Professional Internship, at Murdoch University.

This year I have studied the Graduate Diploma of Education at Murdoch, which has been a eye-opening, challenging, and rewarding experience. This e-portfolio chronicles both my journey, and my endeavour to meet the National Professional Standards for teachers.

Enjoy reading, and please feel free to leave me feedback.

Jennifer Morgan.

Evidence for Standard 7

Supervising teacher at the Massed Choir Festival

Evidence for Standard 6

Professional learning.

Entry 5: Professional Engagement - Standards 6 and 7

Standard 6: Engage in professional learning.

6.2: Engage in professional learning and improve practice.

Over the course of my professional internship, I attended many professional development sessions which were put on by the school, and occasionally special visitors. I found this to be a very beneficial experience, and aimed to implement a lot of the things discussed into my practice. I noticed that the professional environment was very focused on improvement, latest research, sustainability, and professional learning- the teaching staff also made sure to include the student teachers into this, which was very beneficial.

Professional development sessions attended included a seminar on sustainability, and creating worm farms for a school, a lecture on positive teaching strategies, as well as the session previously mentioned on intermediate skills for using Notebook on the smartboard.

Evidence I have included to demonstrate my achievement of this standard includes the certificate that I received for attending the professional development session on using Notebook software on the smartboard.

My practice was something that I tried to constantly evaluate, and was able to do so with the feedback and advice from both my mentor teacher and supervisor.  I aim to improve my practice, and engage in professional learning over the next six months. Professional learning seminars I wish to attend include ‘ABC of Two-Way Literacy and Learning’ which looks at improving the learning outcomes of Aboriginal students and implementing cultural and linguistic understandings. 

In the next three months I also wish to attend professional development sessions specific to the Australian Curriculum in Science. There are three sessions related to this, which cover all across the various year levels. While I did complete a science program during my professional internship, I would like to see how the National Curriculum holds science, as well as gaining understanding into other issues such as safety and health of students while completing practical science activities.

Standard 7: Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community.

7.4- Understand the role of professionals and community representatives in broadening teachers’ professional knowledge and practice.

Having completed my professional internship in a highly collaborative and supportive environment, I found myself engaging with colleagues, community and professional learning on a regular basis. Working in the year six level, I also was working with two other prac teachers, who were team teaching in the other year 6 classrooms. As a result, a lot of our programs and learning experiences were as a result of collaboration.  I found this to be extremely beneficial, not for providing that extra support as teachers, but also for the students as there was a consistency and fairness across all three year six classrooms. There was also the benefit of shared resources and ideas.

Over the six weeks, one of my goals was not only to build positive relationships with my students, but also within the school community. I believe I have achieved this- and have benefited from forming professional relationships with a number of the staff at the school. These relationships were very beneficial for me, as not only was I able to receive professional advice and ideas, but I was also given opportunities to see these other teachers working with my class, and the kinds of teaching tools and strategies that they used with them.

I developed a close working relationship not only with my mentor teacher throughout this process, but also with the teacher working next door. This was useful, as I was able to extend the support I received while I was working, and also discuss a range of things about my class (who the teacher worked with as well).

After a short time of working with my class, I began to notice that my students loved to sing, and some of them were very talented. My students took opportunities to perform in a number of ways.  Quite a few students were members of the school choir. As a result of this, and my working relationship with the music teacher I was asked to attend and help supervise a music excursion, where the choir students were performing with 200 other students from various schools in a mass choir festival. 

This was a fantastic experience where I was able not only to interact with other teachers from various schools, but also see my students perform in something they were passionate about. As a result of attending the rehearsal, I also went to watch the performance the next Saturday night, which was attended by a variety of the school teachers, as well as the school principle. I enjoyed being involved in this experience, and felt it help me develop my working relationships with students and teachers in the school further.

In relation to engaging with parents and carers, I was given the responsibility of organising and attending the parent open night in my classroom. A task which I found quite daunting at first, I quickly was able to enjoy presenting the work that my students had completed over the term with pride.  Several school projects were set up for viewing in displays, including moon colonies that the students had constructed, and kites they had designed and made. In addition, student workbooks were placed out for viewing, presentations and photos they had taken and made were also displayed on computers, and advertising they had created were displayed. The open night provided me with a good opportunity not only to display student work, but also to discuss student progress with parents, and get their feedback on their child’s learning.

Evidence I have included to demonstrate my achievement of this standard include photos that I took throughout the professional internship. One photograph is of the students performing at the Massed Choir Festival, which involved students from many local primary schools. The other photographs show some of the displays of work that were set up for parents to see on parent night.

Areas I would like to improve in this standard include constant reporting to parents, and parent interviews, as well as further involvement in the school community. In order to improve my practice in these areas I plan on reading the various guidelines and documents provided by The Department of Education in their websites, before I start teaching on an official capacity.  In the future I would also like to look at the possibility of running writing workshops for students who are interested in creative writing, or those who need literacy extension.  

Evidence for Standard 5

Good Owls: The behaviour reward system I created, which operates on the 'Beat the teacher' model.

Feedback on a student's work depicting how the water cycle would operate at Hogwarts School of Wizardry

Feedback on a student's work, which depicts how the water cycle would operate in 'The Hunger Games'.

	0	1	2	3	4
Poem used proper language and features.
Uses drafting and editing when writing.

 Poetry assessment: Rubric.

0

1

2

3

4

Poem used proper language and features.

Uses drafting and editing when writing.

Entry 4: Professional Practice- Standard 5

Standard 5: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning.

5.2: Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and supportive feedback to students about their learning.

Throughout the process of completing my professional internship, I was highly conscious of the need to provide students in depth, and timely feedback on their learning. Assessment and reporting is an area which I knew I needed to improve, and from constant work and awareness of this area, I believe I have achieved this standard.

During the course of the professional internship, I was able to notice what aspects of my programs, and particularly lessons, worked and what aspects needed adjustment. Consequently I was able to adapt my programs to be more suitable for the students and their learning. In the same way, students need to be able to have immediate feedback on how they are doing, so they know where they need to make adjustments, and so they can also understand when they have been successful, and why.

In all of my programs, I endeavoured to provide students with comprehensive and timely feedback, so they could gauge where they were at with their learning. With programs such as poetry, and maths, which were focusing on similar skills week to week this was particularly important as the feedback enabled students to track their progress and continually work at developing their skills.

The first piece of evidence that I have included to demonstrate my achievement of this standard include a rubric which I used to give students feedback on their poetry. Poetry writing took place during the last session of the day every Wednesday. Before the students started writing their poem, we would look at some examples of poems on the smart board, and I would model writing a poem of the particular form we were studying, with input from the class.

There were some interesting results in relation to the achievement of learning outcomes for this program. A good majority of the class were successful in replicating the language and structural features of the poems, but only a small percentage demonstrated high achievement in using drafting and editing successfully- and even those who demonstrated highly did fully achieve this outcome. As a result, the constant feedback for students using the rubric was very useful, as both myself and the students were able to get that updated feedback on whether the outcome was being achieved, and whether their editing skills were improving. Once this weakness had been identified, I was also able to modify my teaching practices, to focus on developing this skill more.

The second piece of evidence I have included to demonstrate my achievement of this outcome is my feedback on some student work. I have included this, as the particular students were not only high achievers, but fast workers. While some may say that students such as these do not require as much feedback and positive reinforcement, I disagree as all students deserve to know whether they are doing well, or lacking in certain areas.


The third piece of evidence I have included is a picture of the reward system I created for use in my classroom. It operates off the 'beat the teacher' model, but with some difference. With this reward system students were able to get daily feedback on their behaviour and work ethic.

In the future I would aim to implement a more constant, and complex system of providing feedback, whereas students would be able to access a file or document pertaining to their current achievement in all learning areas. I believe this process would allow the classroom environment to be open, and both the students and myself as a teacher to be accountable for each student’s learning. I plan to implement this by participating in the ‘Graduate Teacher Professional Learning Program’ over the course of the first six months of my career.

Evidence for Standard 4

Engaged learning: Students dissecting hearts.

Engaged learning: Students dissecting hearts.

Engaged learning: Students dissecting hearts.

A student testing material in the class to see whether it is a conductor or insulator.

Students making electrical circuits.

Entry 3: Professional Practice- Standard 4

Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments.

4.1 Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.

One thing I was very adamant about during the course of my professional internship was the need for all students to feel like they were involved in their learning and in the classroom. There were a number of ways in which this was achieved.

A small way in which students all got the change to feel involved and responsible in classroom activities, was a classroom roster duty. Each week, different students would get the opportunity to be responsible for different aspects of maintaining the classroom. Duties included looking after the bag rack, making sure the computers and smartboard were turned on and off at different points in the day, monitors had the responsibility of handing out sheets and returning work, and floor monitors had the responsibility of making sure students tidied the floor and classroom before they left at the end of the day. This is just one way that students were constantly involved in classroom activities.

Being a very visual, and hands on person myself, I found great enjoyment in creating interactive, hands on learning experiences for my students. There are a few examples I will discuss to demonstrate this. As mentioned previously, my students learnt about electrical circuits for their science. There were a number of inclusive and hands on activities during this program, which included the students replicating an electrical circuit, by walking along ‘wire’ as electrons, constantly taking ‘energy’ (which in this case were small plastic tokens) from a battery (a student holding a container), and dispensing it into the ‘light bulb’ (a student holding a decorated container, as seen in the evidence from standard 1). During this program, students also got create their own electrical circuits, and test materials in the classroom to determine whether they were insulators or conductors.

My health program for the professional internship was focused on the circulatory system, in particular the heart. For the introductory lessons, students recreated the circulatory system, demonstrating how de-oxygenated blood moves through the heart, receives oxygen from the lungs, and is pumped to the rest of the body, before the cycle begins again. I found this was a much more effective way to engage the students in the topic, rather than telling them the process, or showing them a video. By being involved in the process, they were able to increase their level of recall, as well as engagement.

 Later on in the program, students also got the chance to dissect hearts. This was naturally a very hands on activity, and the students were very engaged. This was a highly positive, and inclusive activity as students were able to physically see and touch the aspects of the heart they had been learning about.

Evidence I have included to demonstrate my achievement of this standard, are various photographs I took throughout these learning activities mentioned, as they show students being actively involved in their learning, and having a positive experience. I would like to continue my development in this area, and perhaps identify other strategies to support inclusive student participation, in a long term setting, where I would be able to see the long term benefits that this kind of education could have on students who have less inclination to participate.

Entry 2: Evidence.

1.  

      Pictured below are the reading, and reading extension activities for one week of my program:

      Reading Week Five

      What is a glossary? Does it have a specific purpose? Look through the glossary finding the words you are unfamiliar with. Try and predict what these words mean, writing down your answer and any reasons why you think this. Once everyone in your group has done this, discuss your answers as a group.

      Brainstorm the different ways we use water at home and in our community. Is there anything that the book taught you about water? Create a “did you know sheet” for other students to read, about the different uses of water.

      Choose an animal that lives in water. What are some of the water issues that would affect this animal? Write a letter to a human from the perspective of your water animal about the water issues that affect you, and how humans can help stop this. (You will need to do some planning first).

      Look through the graphics of the book. Which one was your favourite? The most visually informative? Did any graphics confuse you? Give detailed reasons for your choices.    Extension:  Pick one of these pictures, and write your own caption for it.

      You have just gotten a job in a publishing house, and this book has come across your desk.  Your task is to write a blurb for the book, which will help the readers understand what it is about. You will also need to redesign the cover, so it is both eye catching and informative.

      Find all the key words and main issues in the book. Once you have done this, use this to create an informative rap about water.

      Reading extension activities

      Using the concepts and words from your word web, write an interview transcript with the author of your book. Show both your questions, and the author’s answers.

      Make a 3d cube.  On each face, with pictures and explanations, summarise one chapter

      Research leading technologies for using less water.  Present your information in an interesting way (PowerPoint, poster, mobile).

      Write up a plan of action for our school to save water. Present your information in an interesting way.

Entry 2: Professional Practice - Standard 3

Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning.

3.1 Establish challenging learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics.

After the first few weeks of teaching my professional internship classroom, I was able to gauge the range of abilities my students possessed, and how this was distributed amongst the students in the classroom. The high achievers were also incredibly fast and efficient workers, meaning that they always required some sort of extension for the tasks they were assigned, and one that would significantly challenge them.

My aim throughout teaching the programs I had devised was to help students understand the concepts, through completing engaging, and challenging activities. Reflection after introductory lessons sometimes found that a task either had not been challenging enough for some students, or had been very difficult for others. As a result of this, I strived to find tasks that were flexible, so they could be simplified for those who needed it to be, and extended for those who needed a challenge. Areas which this applied in particular were with literacy and numeracy I found.

In particular, I found this came into effect quite significantly during my reading program, where students read different information texts about water each week, and had to complete a range of tasks based on this reading.  Each week the students were required to complete new tasks, linked to each of the strands of reading outlined in the WA Curriculum Framework. The range of abilities of the students in my class became during clear during these sessions, as some would finish their tasks very early in the week, while some took longer to complete the tasks, at a less detailed level. For those who completed early and well, I also devised a list of extension activities each week, set to challenge them.

During the last week of the term, the challenge was for students to create their own marketing campaign designed to encourage people to drink recycled water. Many students completed this task, and found it to be engaging and rewarding. The results showed a lot of my student’s innovativeness, and creativity, and I was very pleased to have given them the chance to demonstrate themselves in this manner.

Evidence I have used to demonstrate my achievement of this standard is a sample of both the regular reading activities, and extension activities assigned for one week. Over the next few months I would like to further develop these skills and my knowledge of the variety of ways in which learning can be adjusted for all learning levels, so each student is able to achieve to the best of their ability.

3.4 Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT that engage students in their learning.

I was very aware during my internship, that students require a range of different activities and resources in order to benefit the best from their learning. This is due to the variety of ways that students learn.

With this in mind, I endeavoured to structure my learning programs in a way that would give students access to a range of resources. The smartboard was very useful for this purpose, as it enabled me to show students various websites dedicated to the topic being discussed, as well as a variety of images, videos, and interactive games.

Through the use of these various resources, students were not only to access a range of information, but also absorb this information in a variety of ways. Students who were visual learners would have benefited greatly from the videos that were watched, as well as several class demonstrations, while students who were kinaesthetic learners would have benefited from the hands on activities that occurred, as well as interacting with educational games on the smartboard.

Students also had access to computer workstations throughout the term, enabling them to research information they were unsure about, with my permission, or to use the computer programs to improve the standard of their work. Through the use of these computers, students not only learnt some key ICT skills about navigating through Microsoft programs, but they were also able to develop some key research skills, which will be of use as they move towards high school, and the use of ICT becomes more embedded in schools.

Evidence I have used to demonstrate my achievement of this standard includes part of a powerpoint presentation I developed to introduce the technology project I began with my students on designing, making and flying kites. This presentation made use of the smartboard to show students examples of the aerodynamics of flight, as well as various examples of flight designs that were able to fly.

Over the next few months I plan to develop my range of resources, not only to include ICT related strategies and tools (including further development into the use of ipads, and augmented reality in the classroom) but also increasing the amount of useful teaching resources I own, and will be able to use for my programming, and with my students.

Entry 1: Evidence for Standard 2.

 Using ICT to extend curriculum: A certificate from the Smart Notebook skills professional development session I attended, which looked at intermediate skills for using the Notebook program on smartboards.

Using the smartboard: A student presenting her advertisement on recycled water for a reading task.

Using computer workstations: Students pictured are creating a photo story
about their excursion to Mundaring Weir, using photo story software.

Entry 1: Evidence for Standard 1.

Differentiated Instruction: Students recreating an electrical circuit. In this picture,
students are electrons walking from the battery, to the lightbulb pictured, and dispensing energy.

Differentiated tasks: This is a work sample of a student who extended a poetry task, by writing their poem from the perspective of a book character, in this case Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.

Entry 1: Professional Knowledge - Standards 1 and 2

Standard 1: Know students and how they learn

1.5    Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet  the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.

While having had a few encounters with having to differentiate teaching for students, this is something that really came into practice during the professional internship. I have learnt that there are a variety of ways to differentiate teaching within the classroom, and that these methods will not all work with the same children. Differentiation can firstly occur within the actual planning of programs. Whether this is in relation to simply adjusting a program for particular students, or creating an IEP, is irrelevant, as both of these count as differentiated teaching.

Another way to differentiate teaching for students is to differentiate instruction. The reasoning behind this is that not all students learn in the same way, meaning that some need to write information to absorb it, some need to see or hear it, or some need to actually participate in the process and have a hands on approach. I was very mindful of this not only throughout the year, but particularly during my professional internship, so I always endeavoured to provide a range of learning experiences for my students that would fit into all of these categories.

Other ways I embedded differentiated teaching into my practice, was to actually differentiate individual tasks. There was quite a range of abilities in my classroom, so as I got to know the students I realised that some tasks were too difficult for particular students, and the same tasks could be too easy for other students.  As a result my each task would be simplified for those students who would have more difficulty, and extended for those who needed more of a challenge.

The first piece of evidence I have included to demonstrate my ability to provide differentiated teaching includes a photographs of one way I used differentiated instruction when teaching my students about electrical circuits. The second piece of evidence is a student work sample- the particular student was given an extension in during our poetry lesson, where they had to write another poem from the perspective of a character who they like from either television or a book.

Ways which I would like to improve, and implement differentiated teaching more efficiently in the future would include finding clear methods to adapt all tasks, as well as being able to quickly identify students who may require an IEP or significant adjustments to their learning. I would also like to improve my ability to extend tasks even further, particularly for students who are gifted and need significant extension. If there are any professional development courses that arise relating to this over the next few months, I plan to attend. If not, there is a great amount of literature on the topic which I wish to look at.


Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it.

2.6    Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students.

ICT was not something that was used very often when I attended school myself. With the rapid changes in technology that have occurred over the past ten years, the benefits of using smartboards, laptops and more recently, iPads in the classroom have been advertised widely. Having had some experience using smartboards and some other forms of ICT in my lessons while completing other placements, I was extremely pleased to find that my professional internship classroom had both student computer desks, as well as a large smartboard placed centrally in the classroom.

During the course of the professional internship, I endeavoured to utilise teaching strategies which involved ICT, particularly the use of the smartboard as well as the computer stations. Using the smartboard helped me not only to differentiate instruction, but also enabled me to engage students in a very practical way- particularly as the smartboard was in a central location in the classroom.

Ways in which I used the smartboard to expand the curriculum learning opportunities included engaging the students with interactive games, to either test or gauge the students on certain aspects of content.  In particular this was used on a regular basis for language lessons such as the use of similies, metaphors, and adjectival phrases in grammar. Grammar was taught two times a week- the first lesson involved students working from their unit grammar book. For the second lesson students would be tested on their understanding through the use of interactive games on the smartboard, as well as other hands on and written activities.

Other ways in which content was extended, and teaching strategies were diversified using the smartboard, included playing videos to students about certain concepts that were being introduced in a lesson. I found that introducing topics in this manner, not only engaged students from the outset, but also helped them have a clear understanding of where the lesson was heading. Of course there are risks that are accompanied with the use of ICT in the classroom, so the importance of checking websites and videos I was planning on using in the class at home first became clear.

Throughout the professional internship I endeavoured to implement the use of ICT into my learning sequence through the use of the student computer stations. Consequently students received multiple opportunities to conduct research, write assignments, and create presentations on the computers. While this did create another aspect that I would need to closely monitor during lessons, particularly as students were searching on the internet, I believe this was beneficial for their learning, and also in increasing their own technological skills.

The first piece of evidence I have used to demonstrate how ICT was used to extend the curriculum is a photo of students using computer workstations for a task. Their task was to create a photo story using photo story software of their excursion to Mundaring Weir. They were required to pick 30 photos from a class photo folder, which included photos taken on the excursion. Once they had picked the photographs, they had to sequence them, as well as add text and effects.

The second piece of evidence shows students presenting an advertising campaign that they created for reading to the class. The task involved students creating their own advertising campaigns to endorse drinking recycled water. The picture included is of students who chose to create a tv advertisement for their campaign.

The third piece of evidence included is a certificate I received for attending a professional development session on using Notebook on the smart board to enhance learning experiences, at an intermediate level. The professional development session was run by Hayley Oldfield from the company Electroboard.

In the future, I would like to utilise ICT to an even greater extent, as I believe it provides countless opportunities to engage students, make learning relevant, and extend content and curriculum. Ways in which I would like to utilise ICT include with the use of blogs, and twitter (particularly for class discussions, lesson summaries, or for writing class poems), real time classroom polls, video blogs particular if were able to communicate with schools from around the world, as well as augmented reality. I believe that technology provides us with the tools to continually develop learning, and make it meaningful.