Reflection of A Remote Aboriginal Community School – Burringurrah.

I learnt so much about teaching in a remote community and

am appreciative of being allowed to have this experience.
Even though Burringurrah (or Mount Augustus) was quite
spectacular, the
fondest memory for
me will be that of
the students I
taught. These
students are
different from the metropolitan students; they are proud and sensitive to what you say and how you speak to
them, and this required me to refer to the mentor teacher for his recommendations on how to manage
occurrences when they happened (eg. hanging their heads and shutting down when they felt shamed).

Engaging the students in authentic lessons was the aim before we set out. However, after the first lesson I
needed to revamp all the lesson plans in order to differentiate extensively for the students. The activities in
the first lesson were too difficult for some of the students to undertake, even with help. Their numeracy and
literacy skills were very low. I used some of the activities from the pre-planned lessons in a simplified version
and highlighted the exact language I needed to emphasise with the students, in order to be consistent with
the terminology. The simpler version of the plan made it easier for me to follow what I needed to do and
teach. It was essential that I identified the lesson focus first
before planning the activities. I did this nightly after reflecting
what the students had learnt that day. This made me realise that
you need to adapt plans to suit the students’ needs in order for
the lesson to be beneficial to students’ learning.

The school had ample ICT however the computers ran slowly. I did
manage to show a few video clips relating to probability topic. This
helped the students to reinforce the terminology and ideas, and
engage them visually with the concept, which was new to them. If
I was the classroom teacher I would investigate apps for use on the IPads to help the students consolidate
their learning. The students’ basic computer skills were poor, probably due to the haphazard internet coverage
limiting the time they can access and use the technology.

Using manipulatives, such as: The Washing Line; the Mathematician’s Hat and The Apples, all of which I’d
borrowed from the university, immediately engaged the students, and also gave me an indication of their levels
of numeracy and where to differentiate for the next lesson. I needed to
differentiate the activities that I wanted the students to complete in order to
accommodate to their various levels of learning. The activities needed to be in
their zones of proximity in order for them to progress. The students needed
manipulatives to gain understanding of the concept. I also made visual
representation in conjunction with the concept term for the students with low
literacy skills.

The lessons were in sequence from the Probability terminology, to colour

visualisation and then to numerical representation. I was happily surprised that
some of the students grasped the mathematical concept of probability using
colour and number and the other students have been exposed to the idea.
 Reflection of A Remote Aboriginal Community School – Burringurrah.

The students like to move and be active rather than sitting at their desks, however they do need some time to
achieve success on their own and practise what they have learnt. This aspect of the lesson took longer for
some students to complete than others. The mentor teacher suggested the use of a timer or a reminder for
when you wanted the task completed. This highlighted the need to have extra, engaging subject-related
activities on hand, to cater for the students who finished early, to consolidate their learning.

The students are itinerant and I had to plan for new unknown students and students that had been absent for
previous lessons. The lesson plan needed to emphasise what we had previously learnt to accommodate these
students and to reinforce the concept to the other students. If I was teaching the class for a longer period I
would have to go over the concept more explicitly for the students to gain full understanding. However, some
students did seem to grasp the concept because later in the week when they went to
shoot baskets I asked them “was it possible,
impossible or certain to get the shot?” They said
“certain” and when they missed I said it had only
been “possible”. They said they will be “certain”
this time. There was a need to show the students
the mathematics they were learning in real
situations like this. In the final week I showed the students how to
use tally marks, with chalk on the ground to keep a basketball score,
as it was here that they could use the mathematics that they were
learning that week.

I trialled letting the students have a quick play with the dice before starting the game but this quickly
escalated into unwanted behaviour. The mentor teacher suggested that I needed to be more attentive to
student behaviour as this could escalate to a community issue; something that hadn’t occurred to me and
taught me to be more mindful in the future.

I improved transitioning through activities by highlighting in the lesson plan exactly what I wanted the
students to be doing and what I was going to say (eg. Come to the mat; “Wait till I’ve finished the instructions
then…” etc.) After discussing this with the other teachers they said that after I gain more experience the
mechanics of teaching becomes easier and I would not have to document so much into the lesson plan.

Assessment Strategies
I began the remote experience with the no mentor teacher so I was unable to look at the students’ past
assessments. The itinerant nature of the students meant that there were new students daily and also high
absenteeism in the time that I taught. The first lesson revealed that some students had very low to little
literacy or numeracy skills. This meant I had to revise my lessons to accommodate these students, with
the other students in the class, in order to assess whether all students were learning the concepts I was
teaching. The number of students in the class was very small, five to nine students, and this meant that it
was easier to spend more time with each student. This aided in informally assessing if the student was
gaining an understanding of the concept being taught. I used a checklist and notes to records this
information.
As I got to know the students it became apparent that I could judge their understanding by having
conversations with them (eg. when playing the Mathamagician’s game I asked “I wonder which would be
the best spinner for Ashley to use?” and “Why would that help him?”) rather than by directly questioning
what they had learnt (eg. “Can you tell me of something that happened where you had an even chance?”)
I would need to reflect on these answers and use a checklist to remember who had understood the idea.
 Reflection of A Remote Aboriginal Community School – Burringurrah.

I wanted the students to learn by doing activities but I wanted a formal way of getting them to show me
what they were learning. After feedback and consultation with the Principal, I changed the presentation
of the lesson to do the activity with the whole class first (eg. ‘Four in the Box’ activity). This helped the
less numerate to visually understand the concept being taught. I then gave them different level colouring
worksheets which were structured at a low medium and high level. This gave me formative feedback of
the students understanding.

Three lessons only gave the students a taste of the big idea of Probability. (Gal, 2004). If I was to teach
this class for longer I would have planned to give the students more lessons to practice doing activities
that would give them further grounding on this abstract concept. I would also integrate this concept in
other areas of the curriculum (eg. Physical Education – “is it possible, impossible or certain to get this
goal?” or Literacy – Composing texts etc.) (Australian Curiculum)
 Reflection of A Remote Aboriginal Community School – Burringurrah.

References
Australian Curiculum. (n.d.). Australia. Retrieved from //v7-
5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/mathematics/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#level2

Gal, I. (2004). Towards "Probability Literacey" for all citizens: Building blocks and instructional dilemmas. In G. A.
Jones (Ed.), Exploring probability in schools: Challenges for teaching and Learning (pp. 43-70). Iddo Gal:
Kluwer Acedemic Publishers. Retrieved from
www.researchgate.net/profile/Iddo_Gal/publication/227065116_Towards_Probability_Literacy_for_all_Cit
izens_Building_Blocks_and_Instructional_Dilemmas/links/00b49535754b27a246000000/Towards-
Probability-Literacy-for-all-Citizens-Building-Blocks-and-I