Professional Teaching Standards
This portfolio was organized around the Graduate Professional Standards of the National Professional Standards for Teachers.
The standards are developed by Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).
Presented below are some examples of how I achieve the standards, and supporting evidence from my final professional experience report.
Professional Knowledge...
1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability
In almost all classrooms today you will find a student with either a disability or special needs. For this reason I believe that an understanding of how to support students of all abilities is essential to successful teaching in a contemporary classroom. My tertiary education in special ed. in combination with part-time work and professional experience has given me a foundational understanding of supporting full participation of students with special needs. While this is knowledge will continue to develop and adapt, I believe that as a graduate teacher I am confident in my skills to differentiate my teaching and successfully support all students in my future classes.
Report - "Ben has been flexible in his approach and is able to adapt well to change. He observes how the class is feeling and caters for individual needs throughout the lesson and has developed effective teaching strategies based on his knowledge of the students...... Ben’s calm approach allows the students to feel at ease at the beginning of the lesson and throughout. He addresses the class with good voice projection and articulates what he is saying well. He uses effective verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student understanding, participation, engagement and achievement. His lessons are well structured and sequenced which engage the students and promote learning."
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
A large amount of my teaching studies has focused on developing a sound knowledge of curriculum, assessment, and reporting, therefore providing me with a solid foundation of curricular knowledge. With this knowledge also comes an understanding of the importance of formative assessment to guide future teaching based on student knowledge. Throughout my professional experience I taught and assessed in almost all areas of the curriculum, further strengthening my ability to effectively plan units that students fully engage in and learn from, and accompanying assessment pieces.
Report - "He has taught a wide range of curriculum learning areas including; Health and Physical Education, Numeracy, Literacy, ICT, Religion, History and has worked successfully with children with special needs..... He has been able to apply knowledge of the curriculum to design and implement assessment and reporting requirements."
Above is an example of the 3-2-1 exit card I used during my professional experience. The exit card gives students an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understandings, or lack there of, at the end of a lesson. Student responses are then used to further guide or differentiate lessons within the unit based on student needs. This is just an example of one type of formative assessment I regularly use each day.
Professional Practice...
3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs
As a graduate teacher I understand that it is imperative that I am able to successfully plan, structure and sequence units and lessons of work that fosters student learning through engaging activities. Organising high quality programs should enrich student learning, further contribute to the overall learning environment, and allow teacher focus to be on supporting all students. In addition to gaining experience by planning programs for my university courses, I also regularly engaged in discussions about best-practice planning with colleagues at schools prior to, throughout and after my professional experience.
Report - "Ben has planned well for his lessons. He has written in depth, well thought out lesson plans that directly relate to the Australian Curriculum. He has shown good organisational skills in preparation for each lesson and displayed initiative when seeking out his own resources and materials....... His lessons are well-structured and sequenced which engage the students and promote learning. He begins each lesson with a good introduction whereby he activates students prior knowledge, engages the students, revises what has been taught and introduces what will be taught. Ben uses open-ended questioning throughout the lesson and responds to the wants and needs of the students effectively. His lessons have been sequenced well and he sets explicit, challenging and achievable learning goals for all students and encourages problem solving and creative thinking."
Liason - "Ben’s final report reflects on what I saw during my observation visits. He confidently managed the class. Ben’s lesson plans were well prepared and catered for the needs of the individual students."
Click the button to the left to download a copy of a unit and lesson I planned to demonstrate my ability to differentiate lessons based on student readiness levels.
3.3 Use teaching strategies
As a graduate, the effective use of teaching strategies is particularly important to be successful in classroom teaching. As discussed in my professional experience report, I have embedded a range of strategies within my teaching approach to ensure that students are engaged learners. I appreciate the diversity within a contemporary classroom, and understand that different strategies work for different students; therefore an important part of my own development is adapting my strategies to suit diverse students and classrooms. An important component of implementing these effective strategies is having a good knowledge of all student-learning profiles in the class, which has been a personal focus of my professional experience.
Report - "Ben has a calm, passionate, consistent approach to his teaching...... He uses effective verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student understanding, participation, engagement and achievement........... He observes how the class is feeling and caters for individual needs throughout the lesson and has developed effective teaching strategies based on his knowledge of the students....... He is consistent with his expectations and has a good relationship with his students."
Understanding the student learning profiles, the classroom layout was a teaching strategy I used to successfully support my lessons. As you can see from the image, the desk arrangements and large floor space were arranged to encourage group work and investigations, which was a large focus of many of my units. The seating arrangement was also used to sit students requiring special needs, and behavioural issues, closer to the front and next to students considered role models.
3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs
It is important for not only recent graduates, but for all teachers to be reflective professionals. A major part of being successfully reflective is having the capacity to evaluate all aspects of teaching, including; planning, explicit teaching, student support, classroom management and even behavioural management. I believe that the best way to be reflective is by evaluating my teaching through both personally ascertained and external evidence. Supporting this belief, throughout my professional experience I consistently reflected upon feedback sought from other teaching colleagues, staff members, my mentor and a personal journal where I routinely recorded lesson summaries.
Report - "Ben has continually assessed his own personal teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from staff and students to assist his planning....... He seeks advice from colleagues to identify and plan professional learning needs and contributes to collegial discussions and applies constructive feedback from colleagues to improve professional knowledge and practice."
School Principal - "Ben has been responsive to feedback and has clearly demonstrated a desire to adapt, modify and improve."
4.3 Manage challenging behaviour
I believe that the most effective behavioural management requires several contributing factors. Experience has revealed to me that the classroom environment established early in the year strongly influences student behaviour and can prevent many behavioural issues. Firstly, it is important to foster an inclusive and supportive setting so that students are positively engrossed in their learning. Another important component of the classroom environment is to develop consistent routines and student-designed guidelines, that all students understand. When behavioural issues do arise it is important to have effective strategies that students can respond to and learn from. While these strategies may need to be differentiated between students, the most successful way to implement effective strategies is to develop respectful relationships with students and to understand their individual profiles.
Report - "Ben has used a range of strategies to manage student behavior. During his time at Stella Maris Ben has built positive student/teacher relationships and set clear expectations for the students to follow. He has endeavored to maintain consistency with the expectations set in term 1 and used a range of effective strategies to get the students attention and give constructive feedback....... In addition to using existing management strategies, Ben has taken it upon himself to use a range of personal strategies when dealing with any behavioral issues that have arisen, such as; using PECS break cards and extrinsic motivators for individual students."
These photographs are an example of the PECS system I was using with a few students during my professional experience. Some of the students had dfficulties in maintaining engagement on tasks, or for students with ASD who benefit from having a visual way to communicate their emotions. The break cards were exchanged with for a small break in the sensory "Chill-out zone".
Professional Engagement...
6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice
I am of firm belief that teachers can gain a great amount of educational knowledge from fully immersing themselves in the school community. Engaging with colleagues offers important feedback that can be used to enrich educational approaches to better teach students. As mentioned in my report, throughout my professional experience I always drew on the knowledge and feedback offered by my teaching colleagues. By spending time with various teachers, I was also exposed to different classroom teaching styles and classroom dynamics, which is experience that I can use to shape my own personal teaching approach.
Report - "Ben has continually assessed his own personal teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from staff and students to assist his planning....... He seeks advice from colleagues to identify and plan professional learning needs and contributes to collegial discussions and applies constructive feedback from colleagues to improve professional knowledge and practice."
To the right is an example of a movie invitation I sent out to the school community. During my professional experience our class created a movie based on a novel we were reading for English, and decided it would be fun to host a movie night for family and friends as a way to involve parents in what we had been learning during the term. A theatre was set-up and a red carpet was rolled out. On the night about 160 family members came to see our movie, which helped establish great partnerships between myself and parents.