Professional Internship Portfolio

1 | P a g e T o m a s D e v e r e u x P I P o r t f o l i o

Entry 5: Professional Engagement
Standards 6 and 7
(Engage in professional learning) (Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the
community) These final two Standards are part of professional engagement and the need for
ongoing professional development to continually update knowledge and practice. This can be
targeted to professional needs but also to school and/or system priorities. The ever-changing nature
of the society that students are growing up in, means that teachers work is always changing and
evolving too. Engaging with the school community is also important as it helps teachers to build
effective relationships with other staff and also with parents/carers of students.
Reflective commentary:

I was lucky enough to get not only one but two professional development days whilst on my
placement. One was a major teachers conference that included 6 of the schools from the
surrounding districts, and included an informative session on managing the school-life balance. The
second was held at the school and involved discussing information for the upcoming school review,
given its Independent Public School status. Both days provided me with great experiences, as I
hadnt been a part of a professional development day at all, let alone a district wide conference (I
was informed they only come around every few years).

The teachers conference was particularly interesting. The presentation on work-life balance looked
at additional activities teachers do around the school and community, and in other parts of our
lives. She spoke about the importance of finding a good balance between work and rest and making
sure that you make the most of your DOTT time so you dont end up spending all your nights or
weekends working. I found this particularly good advice as there is a high burn out rate among new
teachers and I found the workload with marking, lesson preparation and preparing materials, finding
videos etc exhausting- and I didnt even have a full load most of the time.

Having said that, I think that as new teachers we have not yet learnt the most efficient ways to
manage our time and will often get bogged down with things, which can lead to feelings of being
overwhelmed. In many cases we simply need to use our time in a smarter way.

Reflecting on our practice is another important part of professional development. There is always
room for improvement in any given career, in any given area, there will always be something to
learn. Even the experts in their field are still making and learning from their mistakes. Its not a
problem to make mistakes, but it is critical that we learn from them. I found reflecting at the end of
each day about how my lessons had gone, and what I learned was a really important part of my prac
(see Appendix 5: daily reflection)

Over my placement I was getting feedback from my mentor teachers, supervisors, and other
teachers who were doing relief at different periods (written, verbally, informally, and formally).
I appreciated their constructive feedback and took note of their comments and tried to improve my
performance. My mentor teachers praised me on the fact that I was always willing to take on advice,
and especially the fact that I made an active effort to change and better my performance. (See
appendix 5: feedback sheet from mentor teacher)


Along with the two main PD days I also attended staff meetings, team meetings, and was in constant
talks with my mentor teachers to make sure that the lessons and activities I had planned were
Professional Internship Portfolio
2 | P a g e T o m a s D e v e r e u x P I P o r t f o l i o

appropriate. The team meetings were interesting because rather than the large staff meetings, these
were meetings between the teachers of only Year 2 groups and contained more detailed information
about individual year groups. It was good to see how all the Year 2 teachers collaborated together,
to talk about different tasks they had planned, different tests they were using and sharing
resources. I also learnt about how teachers between the same year level meet up and share work
samples to ensure they are all marking and giving the same grades to similar pieces of work.

In regards to standard 7 I tried to engage in a professional manner. After all, after I become a
qualified teacher I will be hoping to get work there and at nearby schools and its obviously
important to show them that I am a professional and take the job seriously. There are simple things
that all combine to make a professional educator; things like being neatly dressed, always being
prepared, always being early to school, etc.

Standard 7.1 is meet professional ethics and responsibilities, and I had the chance to display these
qualities while on our excursion to the zoo. I was in charge of a group of students and was required
to constantly supervise and look after them, manage time, and coordinate with the other teachers
and parent helpers. Being in control of all these factors ensured that the group stayed safe and had
a fun day.

Another strength of mine was being able to build relationships with my mentor teachers, our EAs,
other teachers around the school, parents, and I even made a friend of the cleaner (I was often in
the classroom long after the students had gone home and would have a chat with him). I was more
than happy to listen to any concerns or answer questions from parents, was happy to hear advice
from other teachers or just have a chat about their weekend or plans for the holidays. Building these
relationships with parents and the whole school community is what makes the school a better place
for the students and also a better place for us as Teachers. As a result of positive relationships with
the parents I was able to ask them for help with bringing in old artefacts and tools for our in-class
history museum. They were all very supportive and you could tell that the students felt proud to
have their parents in the class, present for the assembly, or were able to share a special artifact with
the class (See Appendix 5: photo of school assembly).

Documentation of evidence:
5.1 Daily reflection.
5.2 Feedback sheet from mentor teacher.
5.3 Photo of school assembly from school website.

Action Plan:
I believe that I need to continue to engage in professional development days as often as I can, as I
know there will always be new and better ways of doing things. The Graduate Teacher Professional
Learning Program is something that I want to get involved in as I think it would be incredibly helpful
to be able to work with other teachers at the same level as me. It would allow for discussion about
situations that Im sure many of us would be new to, and it would be a great collaborative tool.

I think its important to constantly reflect on my practice and development as a teacher, trying to
notice when something doesnt go well, but also to take some positives out of it and try to come up
with a new, better way to approach it next time.

Trying to find a mentor teacher will also help me to become a better teaching professional. I will look
for someone that I can go to for advice on different things. I have friends and cousins who are
teachers and I will try and spend time discussing things that they have done with their classes and
trying to use this new information to help my teaching improve.
Professional Internship Portfolio
3 | P a g e T o m a s D e v e r e u x P I P o r t f o l i o


In terms of my own classroom and building relationships I would want to make my class a welcoming
place for parents, as well as students, so that they know they can approach me and ask me
things. This will hopefully lead to them being happy to help with special events, work on childrens
behaviour, and involve themselves in their childrens learning and development (eg. reading at
home). Having the parents on my side will make my life as a teacher easier, but will also yield better
results for students, and a more pleasant learning environment for the students.

As part of my future professional development I am keen to attend some PD days on behaviour
management as I know that this is one of my weaker areas. I feel that it would only take a little push
in the right direction to gain a lot more confidence in my behaviour management, and that learning
some new methods would be a great step towards becoming a more complete teacher.