SID: 17877275

School ofPractice
Professional Education
3

102605 Professional Practice Community Engagement - Reflection

Pre-service Teacher Details

Pre-service Teacher Name: Pre-service Teacher ID:

Mehnaaz Khan 17877275
Pre-service Teacher Phone Number: Pre-service Teacher Email Address:
0433661593 17877275@student.westernsydney.edu.au

Placement Details: If you haven’t complete 60 hours face to face you must provide a detailed statement of
how your experience meets the outcomes for Professional Practice 3. Attach evidence.

Placement Name: Hoxton Park High School Placement Phone Number: 9607 4222

Placement Address: 40 Wilson Road Placement Email Address:

Hinchinbrook 2168 hoxtonpark-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Contact Person:
Carol Campbell

Describe in 500-800 WORDS any features and benefits of the setting you attended. Consider number of
students, location details, age of students, types of educational programs offered and any other salient
aspects of the experience. Consider how this experience will contribute to your development as a beginning
teacher. (Remember theses can also be used in your Weebly so think carefully about your learning)

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

Subsidiary questions:
What surprised you about your learning in your community setting?
What research about communities did you engage with before you commenced?
Why were you surprised about your learning?
What goals did you set for yourself in your service learning activities?
In what ways were you communicating with your community participants?
What do you believe the participants in your service learning project learned?
What did you learn? How will the experience shape you as a teacher in a classroom?
How would you help someone else learn what you discovered?

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I volunteered as a faculty assistant at a local high school that has students from diverse backgrounds,

different cultural background, various religious backgrounds and socio-economic backgrounds. This gave

me an opportunity to be amongst these students, helping them out with their work and assisting during

lessons. The high school is located in a low SES area attracting students from close vicinity. For a lot of

students, English is their second language hence creating problems in school work. I was able to observe

classes in the beginning and asked the teachers if they needed any hand within class lessons. This was a

great opportunity for me to get up close with these students. I assisted the teacher and sat with students

during their worktime and helped them out.

In a particular class for which I prepared a lesson, I found out that two kids were autistic. Taking that into

consideration I changed the format of the lesson to a more involving and engaging one along with lots of

visual aid. One of the students came up to me and told me ‘miss you are okay’. The class teacher informed

me that he had meant it as a compliment after the lesson which he enjoyed. The one thing that I found

surprising was the lack of respect students have for their teachers. Some students referred to the teachers on

a first name basis which I found odd.

Before I joined the school, I had done my own research about the number of students and the area the

school was located in. This helped me gain a more prospective insight into the students. The staff members

usually talked if they had a rough day and if there was a problematic student, they came up with strategies

to deal with that. This was a time for all in the staffroom to reflect on their practices. I communicated with

my community participants on a daily basis.

As a teacher, I now know that making the lesson interesting is a key aspect of engagement. I have also

learnt respect must be earned and not demanded. What I can teach other preservice teachers is that lesson

planning has to catered around interests. The class with the autistic students (I observed them for 3 lessons)
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was really misbehaving and kept disrupting the lesson but the visual aids helped them because a change was

visible (they stopped misbehaving and actually paid attention). During my time at the school, I hope that

other teachers have learnt that lessons can be taught in an interesting way (not just the traditional way)

which motivates and engages students.

Having done my HSC twenty years ago, it was a wonderful experience to be in a classroom with

smartboards. During my time there were overhead projectors, teachers were respected and there was just

one traditional way of learning. But having seen a change myself in the use of visual aids, I must admit the

students that had been misbehaving settled down. I believe that they misbehave only when they cannot

understand the lesson or when they find it boring.

This has been a wonderful experience for me. It gave me a chance to experience school life as a teacher

would. I got to talk to other colleagues about their experiences in regards to teaching, which turned out to be

very insightful. This experience helped me gain insightful knowledge into students and teachers. As a pre-

service teacher I too will be a teacher soon and I will use my experience from this school to help me

become a better teacher.

This form is to be completed and submitted to the notes/docs section of your profile within InPlace.

Students who do not submit on time (TBA on vUWS announcements) will receive an FNS.