Educational Setting
During my teaching practicum I was able to experience two different educational environments, and they were both unique and extremely different. This was a wonderful opportunity to gain exposure to a range of teaching styles, school settings and students.
I was placed at Baden Powell P-9 College in Tarneit during my first year of teaching rounds including my ACP. My method that year was mathematics, but I taught a variety of lessons over the course of the year. Baden Powell College was a large, relatively new school in a rapidly growing area of the Western suburbs, with a high proportion of cultural and socioeconomic diversity. The primary school model (one teacher for all core subjects) was used in the year seven and eight classes, which were combined and taught in open plan classrooms. I was assigned a mentor teacher in charge of one year seven/eight class in a ‘pod’ of four classes. The four teachers ideally worked closely together alongside a lead teacher to develop complementary lessons and keep the classes at roughly the same place in the wider curriculum. The teachers used pre and post testing to assess student ability levels, and students moved between teachers for different subjects depending on test results. There was a strong emphasis on teacher participation in internal PD, and teachers worked closely with Western Metropolitan Region literacy and numeracy coaches that regularly visited the school.
My second placement was in the Victoria University Adult VCE centre at the Nicholson campus. Again there were a high proportion of students from culturally diverse backgrounds, as well as many ESL students. There were much greater issues with language difficulties as a barrier to understanding but on the whole the students were motivated to be at school and participated willingly if not always enthusiastically. The teachers had a lot of personal freedom to teach how they chose, but were constrained by lack of funding and resources as well as the pressures of the VCE requirements.
My third placement in the second semester of 2012 was back at Baden Powell College with the same mentor. My mentor had a year eight class including many of the students I had taught the previous year. During this second placement I was able to teach both mathematics and humanities (known as ABS). Other than the students being split into single year level groups there was little difference from the arrangement the previous year, detailed above.
I was placed at Baden Powell P-9 College in Tarneit during my first year of teaching rounds including my ACP. My method that year was mathematics, but I taught a variety of lessons over the course of the year. Baden Powell College was a large, relatively new school in a rapidly growing area of the Western suburbs, with a high proportion of cultural and socioeconomic diversity. The primary school model (one teacher for all core subjects) was used in the year seven and eight classes, which were combined and taught in open plan classrooms. I was assigned a mentor teacher in charge of one year seven/eight class in a ‘pod’ of four classes. The four teachers ideally worked closely together alongside a lead teacher to develop complementary lessons and keep the classes at roughly the same place in the wider curriculum. The teachers used pre and post testing to assess student ability levels, and students moved between teachers for different subjects depending on test results. There was a strong emphasis on teacher participation in internal PD, and teachers worked closely with Western Metropolitan Region literacy and numeracy coaches that regularly visited the school.
My second placement was in the Victoria University Adult VCE centre at the Nicholson campus. Again there were a high proportion of students from culturally diverse backgrounds, as well as many ESL students. There were much greater issues with language difficulties as a barrier to understanding but on the whole the students were motivated to be at school and participated willingly if not always enthusiastically. The teachers had a lot of personal freedom to teach how they chose, but were constrained by lack of funding and resources as well as the pressures of the VCE requirements.
My third placement in the second semester of 2012 was back at Baden Powell College with the same mentor. My mentor had a year eight class including many of the students I had taught the previous year. During this second placement I was able to teach both mathematics and humanities (known as ABS). Other than the students being split into single year level groups there was little difference from the arrangement the previous year, detailed above.
