Blog
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5 tips for your teaching internship
When I was a pre-service teacher, I was sent to a range of schools including a public and private high school for my practicums (In Sydney, we call them ‘pracs’), and a college which operated alongside TAFE NSW for my internship. In my first year out, I was fortunate to have landed a full-time temporary position at the public high school where I did my second prac. Here are my tips for getting the most out of your time on prac.
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Redesign your Bedroom Project
I am convinced more than ever that inquiry and project based learning is aligned with the direction of future-focused education. Projects, big or small, encourage students to seek solutions to real problems. Having taken the top and bottom academically streamed classes through a design project, I am satisfied that with differentiation all students are able to engage in this unit. The unit of work had four components: 3x Floor Plans, Sample Board, Cushion Design and Model. (As the cushion sewing component of the unit of work was completed by another teacher, I will not be discussing it).
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Service Learning: Geode Bath Bombs
Last Friday, our Year 9 girls participated in a grade wide service learning day where they design posters, create games or interactive activities or a saleable item to raise money and create awareness about this disease in the school community. As part of the NSW syllabus (Stage 5 Living World), students are to recognise how society influences the focus of scientific research.
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3 Distance Speed Time Experiments
Motion- the first bridge between mathematics and physics. My Year 10 classes and I finished Term 1 off by beginning our exploration into the physical phenomena of motion. In a school with a high English as An Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) student population such as ours, I find it extremely satisfying to be able to use mathematics, the universal language of the universe, to communicate our observations and ideas in the classroom.
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Electrolysis of Water EXPERIMENT
The students love this one! It is classic chemistry experiment that is an easy crowd pleaser. First, students are introduced to the concept of decomposition, i.e. AB → A + B. Electrolysis of water is a satisfying experiment because it visually demonstrates the chemical components of water.
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Teachers We Don’t Forget
Recently, a peer posted on a private alumni Facebook group about the passing of a lecturer we had during university. When asked about this lecturer, I can confidently say that my peers and I would describe him as an absolutely fantastic teacher who was caring and inspiring. As a Mathematics major and Biology minor, I found his course, Differential Equations and Biomaths, invigorating and captivating.
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Effective Science Education involves Addressing Misconceptions
Engagement is one of the key indicators for any educator that effective learning is taking place. But how do we engage our students in learning and how do we know that they are actually learning?
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Establishing Classroom Routines
According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, up to 50% of all Aussie teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching. Early career teacher attrition rates are an ongoing issue and some reasons for premature leaving, as stated in a document by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), include high work load, lack of support from leadership and lack of ongoing employment. What can be done? According to the same document, factors that improve teacher retention are supportive school environments, job security and adequate preparation for teaching practices and procedures. Now, the last factor is within our power to improve so let’s begin there.…
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Fostering Student Feedback
Receiving verbal feedback from students on my teaching is a hit or miss. Helpful comments are purposeful and direct. Comments such as these have led me to adjust my instructional processes such as slowing down my pace, enlarging the font on my PowerPoints and provide more time for students to do activities etc. Though mostly, I am unable to use comments made by students as they are too vague (e.g. “I like the PowerPoint”) or simply out of my domain of control (e.g. “I don’t like this, I have to use too much of my brain”). Of course, I might be able to squeeze some more out of the students, but it is,…
