3rd Year Undergraduate or 1st Year MTeach

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE REPORT 2016

Student ID
Pre-service Teacher Mikaela Sawyer 2135819

School Loxton High School

Name: Learning Area: Year Level
Gabriel Pallas Mathematics 8
Mentor Teacher(s)
Name: Learning Area: Year Level
Aaron Kempe Maths/ HPE 8/9

School Co-ordinator Tara Deren

Liaison Coordinator
University Wendy Featherston Zoe Christopher

Teaching Days 5 introductory days + 20 day block: 25 days

CONTEXT Please add brief context statements about the school and class:
School sector; size and composition of campus (R-12, Area, Primary); particular
features or unique characteristics; index of disadvantage.
School

Loxton High School – a 8-12 public school in the Riverland, SA, with an enrolment of around 580
students.

Class (including children with special needs)

2 x Year 8 Mathematics classes, 1 Year 9 Mathematics class, and 1 Year 9 PE Class. These are all
mixed ability groups with a range of student backgrounds.
ASSESSMENT AGAINST THE AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS
Please place an ‘X’ at the point along each continuum that best represents the development of the pre-service teacher
towards each of the standards at this time.

PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE

Standard 1 Know students and how they learn

I I I .
Complete Novice Emerging Graduate

Standard 2 Know the content and how to teach it

I I  I .
Complete Novice Emerging Graduate

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning

I I  I .
Complete Novice Emerging Graduate

Standard 4 Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments

I I I  .
Complete Novice Emerging Graduate

Standard 5 Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning

I I  I .
Complete Novice Emerging Graduate

PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT

Standard 6 Engage in professional learning

I I I  .
Complete Novice Emerging Graduate

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

I I I  .
Complete Novice Emerging Graduate
SUMMARY STATEMENTS (You may choose to comment on both personal and professional characteristics)
School Coordinator/Principal
Mikaela demonstrated a professional attitude towards teaching and showed a strong ability to build
relationships with students, staff and colleagues. From all accounts she was a co-operative, organised
and effective teacher in this practicum and we have no doubt that Mikaela will be a highly successful
teacher in the future.

Name: Tara Deren Date: 1/9/2016

University Liaison
Mikaela was outstanding. She was highly motivated and took every opportunity to hone her teaching
skills. She was enthusiastic and the students showed great respect for her. She was reflective and
willing to listen to feedback. I witnessed her making changes to her approach to build engagement
and participation. It was clear that she had built very good working relationships with her colleagues.
The students said they appreciated her friendly, enthusiastic approach and were impressed with
how she explained concepts in a variety of ways. They thought she was always well prepared and
her expectations were fair.

Name: Wendy Featherston Date: 7/9/2016

SUMMARY STATEMENT(S) (May be used as a referee statement)
Mentor: Gabriel Pallas
Learning Area: Mathematics
RE: Mikaela Sawyer

Professional Knowledge

Mikaela displayed an excellent overall knowledge of her subject area. She reflected on her lessons
with colleagues and willingly sought advice and modified teaching strategies and learning activities
when necessary. She catered for students in her classroom by being flexible with students and
negotiated with them when necessary.

Professional Practice
Mikaela thoroughly planned topics of work for all her classes. She used a variety of resources to help
in the learning process including utilisation of the knowledge of her colleagues. She utilised the
technologyavailable to her, using an electronic white board for her lessons.
Mikaela set a good tone in her classroom that was conducive to worthwhile learning. She fostered an
atmosphere which was not only supportive, but that also encouraged risk-taking by all the student in
the class. She used a variety of assessment techniques that were inclusive of all students. These
included both formative and summative assessment tasks which included work sheets, homework,
tests, and a folio task. She marked all the assessments tasks she set and provided feedback on
student progress.
Professional Engagement
Mikaela developed good working relationships with her peers by her friendly and sincere nature. She
attended staff meetings and mathematics faculty meetings. Mikaela acted professionally in all that
she did and treated students with the utmost respect.

Written by: Gabriel Pallas Date: 26/8/2016

Mentor: Aaron Kempe

Learning Area: HPE/Mathematics
RE: Mikaela Sawyer

Professional Knowledge
Mikaela has a great understanding of content and uses multiple modes of delivery. She
understands how to integrate assessment pieces and adjust them to suit the needs of the class and
individual students. She employs the use of technology as a valuable teaching medium. Her high
level of organisation allowed for quality delivery of content and high student engagement.

Professional Practice
Mikaela is able to plan and sequence learning in a logical manner. She is an effective
communicator, both with the whole class and 1-on-1 with students, particularly in maths, and is able
to manage behaviours competently. Her units continually challenge students in a range of different
ways. She determines appropriate learning activities and demands the use of higher order thinking
from her classes. She has also created and implemented her own assessment pieces that further
nurture multifaceted, critical and diverse thinking. Her safe classroom environment and supportive
nature encouraged wide student participation and persistence. Her diagnostic and formative
assessments were well constructed and were also great learning episodes for the students. She
also used them as effective resources to further differentiate future activities.

Professional Engagement
Mikaela readily involved herself in the school community and engaged with a number of different
professionals over a range of different learning areas. She critiques and analyses both her own
lessons and those of others and seeks advice on areas for improvement. She takes on feedback
readily, and adjusts her practices accordingly. Mikaela will make a fine educator in the future.

Written by: Aaron Kempe Date: 26/08/2016

 SUMMARY ASSESSMENT (To be agreed by the School Coordinator and the University Liaison)

In our opinion Mikaela Sawyer

(Please click on appropriate box below)

☒ has, on balance, attained the level of ‘emerging’ against the Flinders standards for pre-service
teachers and is ready to progress to the final professional experience.

☐ has not attained the overall level of ‘emerging’ against the Flinders standards for pre-service
teachers and is not ready to undertake the final professional experience.

NOTES FOR COMPLETING THIS REPORT

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.

Please keep an electronic copy of this report and submit the report to the University Liaison.
Please DO NOT give a copy of this to the student as the report needs to be certified by the University

If this is not possible then please email it directly to: clare.salt@flinders.edu.au