Secondary Professional Practice 2 Reflection

“Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice”. During my final Secondary

Professional Practice Practicum, there has been an array of key learning moments that have

transformed my thinking and informed my teaching practice over the 30-day period. My

experience has grown, and therefore shaped the way I view teaching and learning for myself

and my students. Some of these moments were turning points in my learning and teaching

career which allowed myself to experiment with different strategies and find the right fit

that worked for my classes, and that I felt most comfortable with.

The first experience begins right at the very start of commencing a class. On my observation

days leading up to commencing my final practicum, I observed that my mentoring supervisor

was extremely good at settling all her classes, in particular her year 7 and 8 classes. She

established authority by standing at the front and centre of the room. With just her posture,

body language, and facial expressions she would wait for the class to get out their things,

stop the chatting, give her their full attention and when she asked them to be seated, they

did so without disruption. When I began teaching the year 7 and 8 classes this is something I

found really challenging at first. The students would come in just from recess or lunch or on

a Monday morning excited to chat about the happenings of their free time. Instructions

were not being conveyed clearly by myself due to the large abundance of chatter and

distractions going on during the commencement of content during the lesson. My mentor

offered me some advice on how to exert my authority through body language without

having to raise my voice or fight with the students to stop. As the lessons went on I

established through room positioning, body posture and facial expressions authority can be

asserted without verbal communication which was done through standing front and centee
in the middle of the classroom in front of the student’s desks. Once settled a welcoming

greeting such as “Good morning year 7/8” was effective followed by allowing the students to

be seated. The settling routine allowed the students to self- regulate their own behaviour in

order to be given the instructions to be seated (Korinek & DeFur, 2016). This was a great

settling practice that I will take and use in my future teachings.

The second learning experience that I found extremely significant was the early building of

rapport with students. This is an essential component which assisted me greatly, especially

the second time around when teaching. Knowing names is the key. Compared to my last

practicum I found it a lot easier to remember my students’ names this time around. I think

the reasoning for this was because I knew how important it is to learn names as quickly as

possible to gain reciprocal respect and begin building rapport (Hennegan, Heybach,

Barshinger, & Wilson, 2018). A simple gesture like calling a student by their first name really

resinates positively with students, as students appreciate and respond better when their

personal name is being used to address them individually, to gain their attention or to

provide feedback such as “that was a very well thought out answer Phillip, well done” and

“Liam can you please stop talking as I cannot hear Tiana speak” instead of using generic

terminology such as “guys stop talking”, “boys in the back”, “girls over there”. I found a really

interesting strategy that worked well that assisted me in learning names quickly. This

technique was, for the first two weeks I bought posted notes to class and got the students to

write their name onto them and a picture or word of something they really liked or

interested them with a black permanent marker. This took place while the roll was being

marked. Following the students being settled and the roll marked, the students placed their

posted note on their desk facing towards me, so I could read them allowing me to associate

their name with one of their interests. One student in year 7 wrote their name “Allah” and
drew a picture of a PlayStation remote. This allowed me to one; refer to him by his name

and two; spark a conversation with him about what PlayStation games he liked to play.

The last experience that transformed my teaching experience was the opportunity to work

closely with two children with diagnosed ADHD within my year 7 class. This experience was

something I was not so familiar with prior. By having two students in my classroom with

ADHD it allowed me to implement my knowledge from the unit Inclusive Education Theory

Policy and Practice. During my time with year 7, I had the opportunity to utilise a variety of

differentiation strategies and incorporate Universal Design for Learning (Lieberman, 2017).

These two students displayed a number of difficult behaviours such as anger outbursts,

noncompliance, defiant behaviours, argumentative behaviours and hyper activity during the

learning tasks and experiences due to an overload of cognitive information (Coyne, Pisha,

Dalton, Zeph, & Smith, 2010).

I was able to differentiate learning tasks and activities without excluding these students.

Differentiated strategies included extensive scaffolding such as breaking down questions or

activities into small parts using the Chunk It method (Loreman, Deppeler, & Harvey, 2011).

This method allowed the students to focus and absorb the information efficiently without

over stimulation (Glass, Meyer, & Rose, 2013). Further, the incorporation of information

technologies such as the use of ICT was embedded which in turn sparked interest and

enhanced engagement. Instead of the students writing the notes off the board students

were given the option to type them and show me their progress. This also worked well with

concept maps, instead of drawing the concept maps they had the opportunity to work

collaboratively with the person next to them to design an online concept map using

Mindmup and Popplet (Molenaar, Chiu, Sleegars, & Van Boxtel, 2011). Working
collaboratively in small groups further worked well with my year 7 class and the two

students that needed the additional support. I worked with my mentor to group students

together based on their strengths, weaknesses and interests to create the perfect dynamic. I

found that students strengths outweighed the other group members weaknesses and

students brought different knowledge to the group activities and different viewpoints were

communicated.

Positive reinforcement and verbal encouragement are extremely important as it enhanced

the student’s self-confidence when answering questions and sharing their responses with,

and in front of the class., I have learnt that the types of questions to ask are really important

in order to give positive reinforcement and verbal praise to not only students with a

additional needs but all students. Even if students are on the wrong track, a slight change in

direction, and the re-phrasing of the same question, then leads the students towards a new

idea that therefore will direct the student to a more appropriate answer.
 Reference List

Coyne, P., Pisha, B., Dalton, B., Zeph, L. A., & Smith, N. C. (2010). Literacy by Design.

Remedial and Special Education, 33(3), 162-172. doi:10.1177/0741932510381651

Glass, D., Meyer, A., & Rose, D. (2013). Universal Design for Learning and the Arts. Harvard

Educational Review, 83(1), 98-119. doi:10.17763/haer.83.1.33102p26478p54pw

Hennegan, J. M. (2018). Building respect, rapport, and care in the classroom: Case studies of

upper elementary teachers and their students (Order No. 10791262). Available from

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2054405727).

Korinek, L., & DeFur, S. H. (2016). Supporting Student Self-Regulation to Access the General

Education Curriculum. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 48(5), 232-242.

doi:10.1177/0040059915626134

Lieberman, L. J. (2017). The Need for Universal Design for Learning. Journal of Physical

Education, Recreation & Dance, 88(3), 5-7. doi:10.1080/07303084.2016.1271257

Loreman, T., Deppeler, J. M., & Harvey, D. (2011). Inclusive education: Supporting diversity

in the classroom. Crows Nest, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin.

Molenaar, I., Chiu, M. M., Sleegers, P., & Van Boxtel, C. (2011). Scaffolding of small groups’

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Collaborative Learning, 6(4), 601-624. doi:10.1007/s11412-011-9130-z