School ofPractice

Professional Education
3

102095 Secondary PP3 Self Reflection Form

Pre-service Teacher Details

Pre-service Teacher Name: Jacqueline Therese Pre-service Teacher ID: 17883304

Bryson

Pre-service Teacher Phone Number: 0466823902 Pre-service Teacher Email Address:

17883304@student.westernsydney.edu.au

Placement Name: Arthur Phillip High School: SLSO Placement Phone Number: (02) 9635 8638

Placement Address: Macquarie Street, Parramatta Placement Email Address:

NSW 2150 wendy.minnis@det.nsw.edu.au

Contact Person: Mrs Wendy Minnis

AITSL Standards

The criteria for pre-service teacher reflection focus, the first, second, third and sixth standards.
 1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of
abilities
 2.2 Content selection and organisation
 3.1 Establish challenging learning goals
 6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice

I completed the sixty hours of my professional practice three, volunteering as a school learning and
support officer (SLSO) at Arthur Phillip High School in Parramatta. I wanted to complete my
professional practice three at this school because I had previously researched about the school, the
programs and demographic of the students and decided that I would gain valuable skills,
knowledge and understanding about how to work with students with diverse, linguistic, cultural,
religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. The demographic of the school consists of a high
proportion of students from refugee and English as a second language backgrounds. Both my first
and second professional practices were based in the Blue Mountains and lower Western Sydney
and I did not get the opportunity on those placements to experience teaching students from a
variety of backgrounds and how to differentiate teaching to meet the specific needs of students
from refugee and ESL student backgrounds. This placement gave me the opportunity to observe
and participate in a variety of classes such as a Reading and Writing program and a Maths program
with year seven and eight, junior and senior ESL classes and wellbeing programs designed to cater
to the students’ literacy, numeracy and social emotional learning in a safe, and positive learning
environment.

What surprised me the most about being an SLSO at Arthur Phillip High School was that when I first
started assisting students with their classwork, I would think I would be explaining the instructions
of a task or how to complete an activity clearly, but it would not be explicit enough for the students
to understand. I realised from being in this position that when I am teaching in front of the
classroom, how important it is to ensure that students know exactly what they are supposed to be
doing and to check constantly that students understand the task I have given. I gained valuable
skills and insight into how students learn by assisting them individually and that with lower ability
students, it is beneficial to explain the activity in smaller, structured steps rather than explain the
instructions all at once because this can cause cognitive overload and stress on the particular
students. Towards the end of my professional practice, I felt confident in my ability to break down
tasks and instructions for the students that I was working with and gained a clear, concise voice
when instructing students and providing them help in the classroom.

Another aspect of this professional practice that I learned about was about the role of a head
teacher in the Learning and Support Team (LaST) staffroom. I assisted the head teacher and my
supervisor with administration tasks throughout my placement, including data entry, transitioning
students from year six to year seven next year, how to assign literacy and numeracy tests to
students, and the filing process for students applying for disability provisions for exams, tests and
class support. I did not realise how much administration and paperwork head teachers of faculties
and in particular LaST, have on a daily basis. Learning these administration skills were valuable to
me if I ever want to consider being a head teacher further on in my career and the types of
processes that need to be put through for students with disability provisions and the types of
support that are available to them in school.

One of the goals that I set for myself for this professional practice was to learn more about the
Support unit and the life skills curriculum for students not in mainstream classes. I have only ever
experienced mainstream classes through my own schooling and both my professional practices so I
was eager to learn about what the classes were like in the Support Unit at the school and how to
work with students to cater to their specific learning needs. I observed and participated in a year
seven to ten support class in Science and English and I learned how different the environment was
and how much patience, energy and positive relationships the teachers had with their students.
The classes were much smaller and the students did not get through as much content as some of
the mainstream classes, but there was a lot of discussion and I had the opportunity to get to know
the students quite well and really enjoyed helping the students and working with the teachers in
class.

I believe that the students I worked with at Arthur Phillip learned how to communicate their ideas
and insights into their learning with me, and how to build a rapport with another person. I know
that I gained those valuable experiences from the students and these experiences will shape my
practice as a classroom teacher because I will ensure to provide explicit instruction, how important
it is to build positive and genuine relationships with your students and if I am fortunate enough to
have an SLSO helping me with my students in the classroom, to acknowledge them, work with
them and value their skills and resources to best cater to the needs of the students in my
classroom.