Professional Experience Office

School of Education
Telephone: 8201 3330
Fax: 8201 2568

Professional Experience Report 2014

Early Childhood Education
Year 3 Undergraduate & Year 1 Master of Teaching

Pre service teacher name

Ashlee Noble

Student No.

2095008

Site

Belair Primary School

Year level(s) taught

1/2

Site mentor teacher

Subject

N/A

Site coordinator

Susan Copeland

University liaison

Josie Evans

25 day (30 days Master of Teaching) placement

Site Context

Pre-Service Teacher - Statement

Write a brief statement about the site you

Belair Primary school caters for students Reception

have worked in during your placement.

to year 7. There are just over 550 students with in

the school. Students are provided with a high
education based on the Australian Curriculum and
the International Baccalaureate program(IB). The IB
program allows students to understand and embrace
connections between the real world and their
schooling.

To make these connections students are

encouraged to be inquirers, thinkers,communicators

and risk takers so that they can be knowledgeable,
principled,caring, open minded, balanced and
reflective. Belair thoroughly implements the IB
program, as well as addresses the Australian
Curriculum with the IB in the classroom. The school
community has worked together and created nature
play area around the school, encouraging students
to explore and inquire during play breaks.
Pre-Service Teacher - Summary Statements
Professional Relationships

Comments

PROFESSIONAL & COLLEGIAL LEARNING

As Belair Primary is an IB school I had to actively

Teachers actively engage in personal and

engage in learning the basics of the IB program.

collegial learning within the professional

Learning the basics of this helped me to understand

community

their inquiry based projects. While I was at the

school the year 1/2 class were focusing on how
significant places connect people over time. The
class I worked
in also worked with the class next door often so we
often worked cooperatively as colleagues to prepare
and deliver lesson between the two classrooms. The
school encourages buddy classes to work together
and enhance learning. Our buddy class also had a
pre-service teaching working in it, so we were able
to work cooperatively to deliver a lesson for the
year 1/2 students to work with the year 4/5
students to produce a piece of maths based art

LEARNER RESPECT

Building respectful relationships with the students

Teachers foster trusting and respectful

was important. These relationships were vial as you

relationships with all learners

need the children to enjoy and feel trusted in the

classroom everyday they come. I built these
relationships within the first couple weeks. When
the class was listening to my instructions, I made
sure I stopped the children that were talking and
ignoring me. This meant they knew not to talk while
I was talking. This promoted that listening was
something I respected. I often also assisted a
couple children to help achieve success in their
work. It was important to build these relationships
as without my support these children
would be left behind in the work and lose trust in
the fact that I was there to help them success.

PARENT/CAREGIVER & COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

I was able to create relationships with

Teachers work effectively with

parents/caregivers before and after school when

parents/caregivers and the wider

children were dropped off and picked up from the

community

classroom. I also got the opportunity to talk to

parents on our class excursion. During the student
led conferences I was able to talk to parents about
their child and some of the work they have been
doing in the classroom. Talking to some of the
parents during this time allowed me to have the
confidence in what I was teaching. It reassured me
that my lessons were beneficial to the children and
I had

the support of the parents.

Professional Knowledge

Comments

LEARNING PROCESSES

One learning process I found worked well was

Teachers know about learning processes and how walking the children through the activity step by
to teach and implement

step. Going through the work made the children feel

supported
and knew what they had to do. I would have always
gone through my lesson plan first so I knew exactly
what I needed to tell the children. During my time
at Belair
Primary I went to a Teaching for effective learning
(TfEL) training day, where we were given an
overview of the framework. This framework could
help with future employment, learning ways to teach
and implementing strategies for effective learning.
My mentor teacher taught me how assessment and
feedback is an important part of the learning
process. Not only does it let us as the educators
know where the child is at but it also encourages
the child and makes them feel like doing the work
wasnt for nothing.

LEARNING CONTENT

First I needed to know what content to teach so I

Teachers know the content they teach

would look through the Australian curriculum for

the relevant year level and subject. For example I
was teaching a unit on fractions. As I had both
year 1 and 2 students I need to look at both year
levels in the curriculum. I would then plan at the
year 2 level as many of the year 1 students were
capable of learning that content.

Research and

planning would help me understand the content

before I would teach it to the class. Planning was
every important in knowing what the content was as
for example without the planning I would have not
known that you really do need to start with the
basics first. I had a good understanding of the
content as I didnt just look online. I used
teacher reference books and found that talking to
my mentor teacher and other teachers helped as they
have taught the content before so they have a good
understanding of it.
LEARNER CONTEXT

With my fractions unit I started with a computer

Teachers know about learner contexts and

game that allowed me to see what the students

diversity

prior knowledge was and I could then build on that.

I was able to then build on this knowledge each
lesson. For example we started by halving shapes
then moving on to quartering shape and then eights.
Each time we worked through what the student
already knew. To quarter a shape you first need to
half it. Talking with my mentor teacher about each
child was important to get an understanding of the
diversity in the class. From this I was able to
employ different strategies in the way I delivered
a lesson. One example is rather than myself just
explaining everything to the children then letting
them go off and complete a task; I found they
learnt more when I involved them in the
explaining of the task. Asking them what they think
we might be doing or what is this particular
fraction.

Professional Practice

Comments

PLANNING AND TEACHING

Before teaching the class I would write a detailed

Teachers plan and implement teaching

lesson plan so I knew what I was doing. This would

strategies for successful learning experiences include what I needed to prepare, the link to the
curriculum, step by step of how I would like the
lesson to go and the outcomes for the lesson. I
understood that all the students learnt in
different ways. While
teaching an adverb lesson I took this understanding
and made the lesson more of a practical lesson
rather than writing or worksheets. As a class we
went outside and actually demonstrated what the
adverb would look like. In planning this lesson I
looked at how the children may behave differently
being outside the classroom. I needed to make sure
I still had the control of the class outside. I
also looked at how doing a practical lesson might
help some of the children understand what an adverb
is. If the children had of just written some
adverbs in their books, it probably would have gone
over the top of their heads.
FEEDBACK AND REPORTING

I gave the children continuous feedback for their

Teachers assess and report learning outcomes

work and behaviour. Throughout the fraction unit I

would mark and comment on the work. I was able to
help gather evidence of the childrens ability to
understand fraction, for my mentor teacher to write
in their reports at end of term. Taking the
handwriting lessons I was able to give the children
positive feedback when I could see they had really
tried their best and a bit of encouragement to
those who just rushed or not tried their best. If I
had the class on the carpet and one person was
misbehaving I let them know I wasnt happy with
their behaviour and once the class moved on to
their work, I would talk to the child and ask them
why they thought I wasnt happy and how we could
change this in the future.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

The learning environment was already well set up

Teachers create a safe, challenging and

and established. I continued to maintain the

supportive environment

environment in the classroom. We would change a

timetable on the wall every morning so the children
knew what they doing and when. The classroom had
lots of space so during reading and creative play
times the children can use the floor space to
spread out and relax. During spelling as a class we
would brain storm their words. Their words would
have a particular sound in them so I would have a
poster hanging at the front of the room. The poster
was there to help the children know what the sound
looked
like. Setting the environment up like this helped
the children to succeed.

Mentor teacher: Summary Statement

Ashlee participated in the teaching practicum with interest and showed excellent growth.

She has a clear and friendly manner with the children and demonstrated she was flexible
and eager to learn. Ashlee engaged in professional learning by attending training and
development on Teaching for Effective Learning (TfEL), Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency
and Expanded Vocabulary (CAF), Digital Team Meetings, Year Level Meetings and Staff
Meetings. Ashlee accessed her University Library to locate resources which would support
her lessons and the concepts she was covering. She would participate in professional
dialogue with her new learning and after reflection would action the feedback given to
improve her teaching. As Ashlee grew in confidence she established a rapport with the
children and was supportive of the different learning needs within the classroom. Over
the four week practicum she saw the importance of differentiating the curriculum so all
the children were successful.
Ashlee worked collaboratively with another pre-service teacher to develop a buddy lesson
with a Year 4/5 class. She worked independently to create valuable tasks which focussed
on inquiring into Significant features in the local community. Some of these
samples of work were placed in the childrens Portfolio books to send home. Ashlee
used ACARA to plan and programme English and Mathematics and was able to use formative
assessment to guide her planning. She made visual resources to support the delivery of
her lessons. At times Ashlee used the interactive whiteboard to engage learners.
I hope Ashlee continues to grow in confidence and wish her success in her career. Lisen
Carlmark - Mentor
University Liaison: Summary statement
I visited Ashlee twice during the period of her placement. From the first visit to the
date of my second visit, I observed a positive growth in her confidence, development and
understanding of the requirements of teaching in a classroom environment. She was able
to articulate her understandings of ACARA and how it is implemented in the lessons and
lesson plans the students at their various levels. This was also demonstrated in the
practical delivery of the lessons I observed.
School Coordinator: Final Comments (optional)
Throughout her time at Belair Primary School, Ashlee established good relationships with
the students in her class. She displayed a positive manner with the students. She
demonstrated an understanding of the elements of a good lesson and used reflection and
discussion with her mentor teacher as a tool to continue to build on these skills of
teaching.
She established good relationships with the staff and attended staff meetings and other
professional development workshops.
It has been a pleasure having Ashlee as part of the staff during her practicum this
year. I wish her every success for the future in her teaching career. Susan Copeland Principal
School Coordinator:
The pre-service teacher may wish to submit this report with an application for

employment. Please

avoid the use of acronyms as student reports are often viewed by interstate and international
employers who are not always familiar with South Australian nomenclature
Name of School Mentor Teacher(s):

Date: 25.09.2014

Name of School coordinator: Susan

Copeland Date: 25.09.2014

Consideration has been given to the complexities and degree of challenge of the professional
experience context in evaluating the pre-service teacher's ability to meet the assessment criteria
for the professional experience.
In our opinion, the pre-service teacher -

HAS demonstrated competency in the professional standards indicated in this report,and is ready to
undertake Professional Experience Final Year

SATISFACTORY

University Liaison
Name of

University

Report ID: 001192

Liaison: Josie Evans Date: 28.09.2014