My Teaching Journal

From the beginning of this unit of work, I was quite excited about the prospect of teaching EALD students
but was worried about taking time off from teaching my own students and the logistics of it all. I wondered
whether I would be able to teach my own students, observe my mentor teacher, write my reflections and
then write up lessons plans, teach EALD students, organise resources and reflect on those as well. I
desperately wanted to complete my practicum successfully, but I also didn’t want my own students to feel
neglected in anyway.

Upon arranging a meeting and speaking with my mentor teacher Augustine, I was put at ease immediately,
as she was very approachable and answered all my questions. Pointing out that it was all about being
organised and that she had to do this as well. I felt better as I am quite organised and manage my time
quite well. Even though I have been teaching for a number of years, I was a little anxious at being
observed whilst teaching EALD students specifically however, Augustine proved to be very understanding
and provided me with constructive and immediate feedback after each and every lesson which put me at
ease.

The observations were very important to me and the way I would structure my lessons. I learned a lot
during the observations. My mentor teacher Augustine taught at a very slow pace and broke down the
language and the content for the students in every lesson. She also used concrete materials often. As a
stage 3 teacher I knew I had to alter and modify how I normally teach to suit EAL/D students. This included
establishing a positive rapport with the students by taking an interest in the student’s cultural background,
communicating acceptance, respect and caring for all students. Allowing students to have a sense of
belonging and control by establishing classroom rules and routines together, by creating a sense of
community by speaking and listening to the students and promoting an environment where all students help
each other. In addition it is important to be nice but firm so that the students feel comfortable (Weekly task
7B).

Whole class teaching is very useful when I am introducing a new concept to all the students in the class.
This approach encourages all the students to contribute to the lesson and allows me to observe their
contributions and understanding. As a teacher I enjoy implementing whole class teaching as it maximises
student learning through guided activities that allow me to scaffold the learning experiences and meet
lesson objectives (Weekly task 7B).

There have been no major discipline problems in my cooperating teachers’ class, all the student’s respect
her and seem to be happy in the classroom. However when observing my cooperating teacher with her
kindergarten EAL/D students on one occasion, I noticed a few minor behaviour problems during the lesson,
particularly when my cooperating teacher was explaining a concept to the students or having a class
discussion. Two boys would start to fidget and lose focus. She dealt with this by snapping her fingers or
calling out the child’s name in a stern voice accompanied by direct eye contact, which prompted the
fidgeting to stop (weekly task 7B).
In a culturally diverse classroom some issues that might arise could be students offending each other.
Miscommunication due to the language barrier. Not understanding different cultural backgrounds and their
learning styles and the teaching techniques, teaching style and class grouping. A teacher can respond to
these issues by using several strategies to minimise issues that might arise in the classroom due to cultural
differences. The teacher can set up a friendship network within the classroom to ensure students are
learning in a positive environment. Encourage respect and understanding for the cultural diversity in the
classroom by providing culturally rich learning tasks that include movies, books, recipes and artwork
(weekly task 7B).

During my practicum experience I interviewed an experienced teacher Maria Niahos who has been
teaching for over 25 years and is currently on Stage 3 Year 6 and found out what kinds of classroom
management problems she sometimes encounters and how she deals with them.

Speaking out at inappropriate times/calling out

Arguing with each other
Leaving their desk without permission
Talking during lesson to each other
Distracting/disturbing each other

These classroom management problems are sometimes encountered and are dealt with using the
classroom rules poster, which is placed as a visual on the back wall. Each disruption has a consequence,
which includes time out, staying in at recess to complete work or joining the teacher on playground duty
and missing out on some play time. The teacher also uses a reward system which consists of a reward
chart for acceptable behaviour, the students receive a tick next to their name and once they have achieved
5 ticks they receive a blue card.

In addition to this, there are table points which consist of marble points. When the students remain on task
and complete pair and group work satisfactorily they receive two marbles and at the end of the term, the
table with the most table points receive a prize (weekly task 7B).

27th August 2018

The very first lesson was a little scary as I have taught stage 3 students for several years now, and not only
was it my first lesson teaching Kindergarten students, but students who struggled with the English
language, so this was a new challenge for me.

As I asked the students to sit on the mat in front of me and introduced myself, I noticed that several
students were initially unsettled and started asking to go to the toilet. The difference between year 5 and 6
students and kindergarten struck me immediately. The kindergarten students wanted to go to the toilet as
soon as they came in from lunch and were allowed to by the teacher because they are in kindergarten,
whereas the students in years 5 and 6 would not ask straight after lunch, nor would they be allowed to go.

Apart from that initial disruption, the students responded well to the lesson and actively participated in the
activities. All the students interacted during class discussions about their families and were eager to share
stories about how many people they had in their family. As the lesson progressed my nerves settled and I
felt better about the direction of the lesson and how I implemented it, but found that I had to work hard to
alter my tone to suit teaching younger students. I had to work harder to effectively communicate with
kindergarten EALD students. I knew that I had to rely more on body language, gestures, break down the
language and slow down to effectively teach EALD students. After the first lesson, this became my
personal goal.
29th August 2018

In this lesson with kindergarten Augustine asked me to focus on the letter N with the students. I wrote up a
lesson plan and found worksheets that I thought would work well in the lesson. I was more nervous this
lesson as there was another teacher in the room, so I had two teachers in there observing me (the second
teacher unintentionally). Knowing some of these students quite well because my class and the class some
of these students were from were buddies, I knew their behaviour could be quite disruptive and they were
often quite distracted. I had to ensure I was up to managing their behaviour and effectively running a lesson
that was engaging, structured and met the intended outcomes.

I focused a lot on my lesson, its content, its sequence, and overestimated the student’s ability to follow
instructions and found that my expectations were unfortunately not realistic. I gave instructions once and
twice and expected them to be followed (as a stage 3 teacher this is often the case) however kindergarten
students are very different. Throughout the lesson I was reminding students not to talk over each other, or
myself but to wait to speak.

After the lesson during the oral feedback, I voiced my concerns about the students talking out of turn to
Augustine, she told me that there were factors in some cultures that found it acceptable for children to talk
over the top of each other at home and even though they were in a school setting and knew the behaviour
expected and the classroom rules they had to adhere to, they still had the potential to misbehave. Apart
from that, the lesson went well and Augustine was pleased with its structure and delivery however she did
tell me that the lesson needed more front loading to build on student understanding.

3rd September 2018

This lesson was on Grandpa Green which the year 2 students had been working on previously with
Augustine. To prepare for this lesson, I had to visit the classroom and speak with Augustine about the
student’s prior knowledge and where to take this lesson. I had a look at the students’ workbooks, studied
the book myself and made notes on the language in it and how to use that in my lesson. I

These students I did not know well and my concern was how they would react with a different teacher in
their classroom. I asked myself “would they misbehave more?” “Would they engage with the lesson?” I
came to the conclusion that I needed to build a rapport with these students to maximise learning in a
positive environment using instructions Scrivener (2012, pp. 37-41) suggested, such as being welcoming,
treating each student as an individual, being culturally sensitive, and also being myself or my possible
selves rather than “the teacher”.

This was an interesting lesson and quite enjoyable, I was very happy with the student’s response to sharing
why they made their sculptures with their peers. The students showcased their sculptures and what part of
the Grandpa Green story they chose it from and why they liked that topiary. Their oral language skills were
OK and they managed to describe their sculptures orally quite well. I created a word bank of their
responses on the whiteboard while listening to their sharing.
When it came to the part of the lesson which involved the student’s writing a descriptive paragraph about
their sculptures, I was quite surprised at how hard it was to get them to use the descriptive language in their
writing. In hindsight, I realise that I should have modeled two or three different descriptive sentences on
the whiteboard and discussed them with the students as I quickly came to the realisation that most of the
students were not capable of writing independently. I could have at the very least modeled a couple of
sentence starters for students to use, as these are always effective tools in writing (APPL920).

Apart from the abovementioned aspects of my lesson that I could have improved on, the lesson went well.
I helped the students with their writing and they all enjoyed drawing and colouring in their sculpture. I was
pleased with how the student’s responded to me and my lesson. At the conclusion of the lesson, as I was
about the leave, one of the students asked me if I was coming back, this question put a smile on my face
and reminded me why I have always enjoyed teaching.

4th September 2018

I was very excited to run this lesson because these were the same students that I taught in my first lesson
and was curious to see how they would respond to me. I wondered, ‘would they be happy to see me?”
“Would they get too comfortable and be disruptive?” or “would they engage more in the lesson?” As a
teacher and one that is being observed and critiqued so to speak, I wanted my lesson to be successful and
above reproach.

As I welcomed the students into the classroom, they all seemed happy to see me and I felt the same.
Again, the students reactions and enthusiasm is very different to the students in years 5 and 6 and the
difference is something I welcomed and enjoyed. As with the first lesson, this was about family and this
lesson was a follow up on Grandparents, in particular grandmothers. I read the picture book ‘Our Grandma’
and as I did, the students all engaged with the illustrations depicting all the different hobbies grandma had.
The students discussed their grandmothers and their role in the family. Some students shared that their
grandmothers jogged, rode a bike, made dinner and swam. Two students however, did not have
grandmothers and did not connect with the text; however I then talked about grandfathers and how they
impact the family. I gave them an example of my grandfather (he’s not longer with us but they didn’t need to
know that, and are too young to do the maths) and what he did for me and my family and what his hobbies
are. I then encouraged these two students to share what their grandfathers did as a hobby for fun, and they
willingly shared their grandfathers’ likes, such as watching NRL or growing vegetables in the backyard.

The reading of the picture book and the connections the student’s made to self went very well, but the
worksheet provided did not really link with the text. The worksheet was pre organised by the teacher who
assists Augustine and it wasn’t a worksheet I would have chosen. The picture book focused on
grandmothers, their characteristics and how they impact the lives of their loved ones. The sequencing
activity was on how people change and grow and I felt that I could have used a better worksheet to
supplement the student’s learning.
6th September 2018

This year 5 cohort consisted of students from the stage I usually teach, so they knew me and I knew them,
so I knew they struggled in all aspects of English and regretted not integrating ICT to further engage and
enhance their learning. Showing the front cover and asking the students what they thought the book was
going to be about elicited positive sharing of knowledge and lively conversation. The student’s were all
familiar with Ned Kelly, they knew he was an outlaw which was a good start and they enjoyed the reading
of the picture book.

In preparation for this lesson I copied an image from the picture book and glued it onto butcher paper. I
had the students work in groups and brainstorm adjectives to describe what was happening in that image.
The lesson went well and the students were all engaged in the learning but not all students had time to turn
their descriptive language into a paragraph. I know that lack of time was a factor and that was because the
class discussion went on for longer than anticipated, however to me that was the best part of the lesson
and I did not want to cut their enthusiastic discussion short. Britton (1983) observed "Reading and writing
float on a sea of talk" (p. 11). Providing students with the opportunity to participate in class discussions lead
to increased skills in reading and writing.

It was a shame that I did not provide students with the opportunity to watch a BTN segment on Ned Kelly
first, as students enjoy and need the visuals, or use the interactive whiteboard. The lesson went well but it
could have gone better.

7th September 2018

I was much more prepared for this lesson with these students and enjoyed it immensely. As part of the
Geography unit of work, the year 5 students were learning about natural disasters - floods and their impact
on people and places. I wrote up the lesson plan, included a BTN segment on floods, a picture book, made
3 copies of 1 image from the picture book and glued it on butcher paper for them to work on. This time I
also made an A3 copy of the image, stuck it on the whiteboard so the students had a large image to focus
on.

This time I was aware of time and did not expect students to be able to discuss the book, predict what was
happening in the image, share all this and also write a paragraph. So I omitted the paragraph writing and
slowed down my lesson so that students would have time to process and respond during the class
discussion and brainstorm in pairs during the predicting phase of the lesson.

Watching the BTN segment on Floods was a success and Augustine was quite pleased with the lesson.
She nodded my way and smiled constantly as the students made connections to self and to world by
sharing stories of Floods that occurred in areas and other countries where their extended families live.

Following up from that was reading the picture book Floods, the students enjoyed this as well and were
constantly asking questions and responding to questions. They were focused and engaged. During the
discussion I created a word bank of their responses on the board and they used this during their
brainstorming session with their partners to predict what was happening in the image.

At the end of the lesson the students went home and I stayed back to chat with Augustine and get some
feedback. Augustine was very happy with the whole lesson especially the BTN segment during the
introduction phase. Lesson number 6 and I was at last feeling a lot more confident. As a teacher you walk
away from a lesson knowing whether it went well or not, just like exam time, by the end you know whether
you’ve passed or failed. I walked away lighter, happier and a lot more confident in slowing down and
teaching EALD students and that’s due to the fantastic feedback I was getting after each lesson.
10th September 2018

This lesson was the follow up from the previous year 2 lesson in which students had to write 3 sentences to
describe their topiary. The students were responding to me a lot better and looked to me with all questions,
when in the past they turned to Augustine and asked her questions. I felt that they took me seriously and
accepted that I was their teacher for that hour.

As a class we revisited the previous lesson and I explained to students that today they were going to finish
off their sentences and edit their own work. They were to check spelling, grammar and punctuation (I
obviously helped them). I had the day before spoken with their neighbour, the kindergarten class next door
and organised for kindergarten to visit so that the year 2 students could show case their sculptures. I told
the year 2 students that kindergarten (KC) was going to visit us because they were really excited about the
sculptures that they made, this caused A LOT of excitement. The students could not wait to show off their
work.

This lesson was also better than the first one, I felt calmer and happier and this translated into my lesson. It
was mostly about slowing down. The students edited their sentences and as a class we positioned their
sculptures on a big table in the middle of the classroom and waited patiently for the kindergarten visit. Once
the kindergarten class came in, excitement broke out. The kindergarten teacher and myself arranged the
students around the sculptures, while the year 2 students described what they made and how they made
them.

Lesson 7 and I was very happy. The students oral skills were enhanced, their writing was developing and
their engagement and enjoyment evident while learning took place.
17th September 2018

By this point in my practice teaching I learned that I really enjoyed teaching year 2 students. I enjoyed their
enthusiasm of all tasks and most of the students’ determination to learn. The students settled as they
normally did in front of me on the mat and we discussed what we had for lunch as an ice breaker. The
students liked sharing what they had in their lunch boxes and I saw them visibly relax.

I showed them the picture book ‘The Night Gardener’ and a few of the student’s made connections with the
Grandpa Green picture book immediately when they saw the front cover. The reading went really well and
most students were engaged. Unfortunately Bobby was distracted and kept fidgeting during the reading.
He would tap Andrew on the shoulder and talk to him. I had to speak to him a couple of times and then
ended up separating him and Andrew. I noticed that Bobby is often distracted and does not focus for any
period of time without prompting and made a mental note to speak to Augustine about his behaviour. I
wanted to know whether he was like this as a rule or whether he found the lessons boring.

Ultimately the reading of the picture book went very well and instigated a lively class discussion about the
different types of topiary that the night gardener made. The students were fascinated and enjoyed looking
at the images. At the end of the reading I showed them the worksheet, and explained they had to create
their own topiary on the bare tree I provided and write three sentences describing their favourite topiary.

I was happy with the lesson and at the end when the students went home I sat with Augustine and asked
her what she thought of the lesson and of Bobby’s behaviour. I felt better after speaking with her, she
really liked the lesson and the students response to me. She told me that Bobby always behaved in that
way and was actually better behaved with me. His reading and writing skills were not that bad, but he had
to always be reminded to stay on task.
19th September 2018

The Letter J lesson, phonics aren’t always fun to teach and not always fun to learn. They can be a little
boring for the students so I thought I would turn part of the lesson into a treasure hunt. I brought in to
school several items beginning with the letter J and hid them around the classroom. First, I said hello to the
kindergarteners and then started making sounds. The students had to identify the sound I was making.
They worked out pretty quickly that I was making the J sound, then the students had to come up with words
starting with J. Two students, Jaclyn and Charlie came up with words that started with the soft G (giraffe,
George). I explained to them that the sound they made started with the soft G sound that sounded like J
but they were spelled with a G. The students came up with words that start with J and I wrote their
responses on the board.

In hindsight I could have organised a more structured activity rather than a treasure hunt. The students’
enthusiasm as they searched for the objects starting with J was very evident and very loud. They enjoyed
the game immensely and forgot to use their inside voices. They laughed and screamed but found the
objects. Once they all found objects, they brought them and sat on the mat in front of the classroom. They
told me what they found and what letter and sound that object started with. Oh well... they were a little loud
but they learned and enjoyed every minute of it. The positive interactions they shared with each other as
they showed off what they found and the language they used when speaking to each other was enough for
me to work out that sometimes it’s Ok for students to make some noise.

Now it was time for the students to complete the J worksheet. I modelled it first by completing one as a
class and then gave them theirs to complete at their desks. The lesson went very well, but there’s always
room for improvement and I could have used a simpler worksheet that didn’t encompass so many different
aspects of writing in one lesson. Lesson number 9 and Augustine is happy and so am I.

21st September 2018

This lesson with year 5 students was a follow up from the previous lesson on Floods by Jackie French.
This lesson focused on the heroes of the story and what made them heroes. The students enjoyed the
reading of the book, and didn’t mind that I had read it to them before. Again this generated a productive
class discussion about heroes while we went through the book and its images.

The students brainstormed characteristics of heroes and wrote a paragraph about their favourite hero and
why they were their hero, Even though the lesson went very well, I reflected silently on whether I could
have made it more hands on by dressing up as a super hero or wearing a cape. I could have had students’
role play aspects of the story. I decided to mention this to Augustine at the end of the lesson. Augustine
agreed that EALD students do benefit greatly by using concrete materials and games but told me I worry
too much and that the students were completely on task and enjoyed the lesson. She said the lesson went
very well.

I thanked Augustine for everything she had done. The observations helped shape my lessons and I
enjoyed the experience immensely. Her constructive feedback was essential and improved my lessons. I
cannot wait to become a full time EALD teacher.