Personal Statement
I am a recent Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Teaching graduate from the University of Adelaide. I am passionate about education; I believe that by providing a high standard of education we can work to illuminate disadvantage and poverty. Although we may be a long way from achieving this goal, it has played a large part in my decision to become a teacher. During my time away from study I have worked in many different environments. For example: retail, hospitality, and clerical work. I have gained many useful skills working in these areas, most importantly my ability to relate to different types of people and adapt quickly when circumstances change. Both of these skills have proven to be invaluable in the classroom, as they have helped me to create a sense of community, trust and an overall positive classroom culture.
I place a great deal of emphasis on relationships, not only between students and teachers but between school staff, parents, students and the wider community. Strong positive relationships are necessary to bond the school together and help it to work in harmony. I recently completed my first teaching practicum at an all-girls school in the eastern suburbs and I saw firsthand just how important these relationships were to the successful operation of a school. While all connections made within the school community are important I would like to focus on two specific relationships: the relationship between colleagues and the relationship between teachers and students. The first relationship I formed was with my mentor teacher. We had a strong rapport with one another that hinged on mutual respect and trust. This is crucial not only for the faculty but also for professional development. We were able to talk openly about ways to improve our teaching practice. This successful working relationship had a positive, unexpected by product - students were able to observe the way in which we interacted and respected one another. Accordingly, they too gave their respect and trust willingly. I suspect that it would have been much more challenging to build a relationship with my students without the obvious support and guidance from my mentor teacher. This leads me to the importance of the relationship between teacher and student. Positive classroom culture depends on this connection. Student learning and engagement increases in classrooms where they feel happy, valued and safe. I found that those students with whom I had a strong bond tended to achieve success more often and produce more work. I believe that this is in large part because they felt at ease to ask questions and tell me when they didn’t understand something.
The primary goal of a teacher is to facilitate student learning. During my time at the University of Adelaide I have learnt many different approaches to increase and scaffold student learning, for example the importance of classroom differentiation according to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. However, during my teaching practicum I learnt two new methods that now make up an important part of my teaching approach. I will refer to these as ‘discovery learning’ and ‘visible learning’. Discovery learning is designed to encourage higher order thinking. The idea is that students learn by finding patterns and rules. This works especially well in language classes. Rather than simply teaching a grammar rule you provide students with the tools to discover the grammar point and express it in their own words. Visible learning relates to lesson aims and goals. At the beginning of every lesson my teacher encouraged me to begin the class by outlining the lesson’s goals; essentially providing students with a clear and visible learning path. I found both of these techniques to be extremely useful for encouraging student engagement and holding their attention.
It is important that teachers have a sound understanding of their subjects and curriculum. During my Bachelor of Arts I revelled in the opportunity to study my passions. Accordingly, I majored in History and minored in French. Last year I completed an exchange in Grenoble, France. My goal was to immerse myself in the language, hopefully making me a better and more confident French teacher. I am now able to apply everything I know to the meet the requirements of SACE and ACARA. While on teaching practicum I was required to design a unit of study for my year 10 French class. I had to ensure that the learning tasks covered the learning requirements outlined by ACARA. I am familiar with both the F-10 and 7-10 sequences. I have also had experience applying assessment tasks to cover both the communicating and understanding strands of SACE. In our unit on festivals and celebrations, assessment tasks were centred around a class birthday party. Students had to negotiate the theme of the party and the purchase of a birthday present on an online discussion board, perform a role play where they looked for an outfit for the party, 'shop’ online using French fashion labels, make an advertisement for a costume hire shop, and write a recount of the party in the last lesson of the unit. These assessment tasks encompassed many of the different strands outlined by ACARA (socializing, systems of language, informing, language variation and change, creating, role of language and culture, and finally, translating).
Finally, I recognise that safe working practices are necessary for the school to operate and provide a safe environment for both staff and students. Accordingly, I work to implement safe work policies and practices as outlined by DECD and by the school. The first step to achieving this is by simply reading the schools safety policy. My school had an extensive and detailed policy that accounted for almost any possible situation. It covered simple everyday problems, for example, what to do if you see that footpath has become damaged, to more serious problems and how to prevent them, for example, how to carry out a risk analysis for excursions. Throughout my teacher training I have also completed many important workshops which have given me the skills to continue to work in a safe and mindful manner, for example, First Aid and mandatory reporting training.
I place a great deal of emphasis on relationships, not only between students and teachers but between school staff, parents, students and the wider community. Strong positive relationships are necessary to bond the school together and help it to work in harmony. I recently completed my first teaching practicum at an all-girls school in the eastern suburbs and I saw firsthand just how important these relationships were to the successful operation of a school. While all connections made within the school community are important I would like to focus on two specific relationships: the relationship between colleagues and the relationship between teachers and students. The first relationship I formed was with my mentor teacher. We had a strong rapport with one another that hinged on mutual respect and trust. This is crucial not only for the faculty but also for professional development. We were able to talk openly about ways to improve our teaching practice. This successful working relationship had a positive, unexpected by product - students were able to observe the way in which we interacted and respected one another. Accordingly, they too gave their respect and trust willingly. I suspect that it would have been much more challenging to build a relationship with my students without the obvious support and guidance from my mentor teacher. This leads me to the importance of the relationship between teacher and student. Positive classroom culture depends on this connection. Student learning and engagement increases in classrooms where they feel happy, valued and safe. I found that those students with whom I had a strong bond tended to achieve success more often and produce more work. I believe that this is in large part because they felt at ease to ask questions and tell me when they didn’t understand something.
The primary goal of a teacher is to facilitate student learning. During my time at the University of Adelaide I have learnt many different approaches to increase and scaffold student learning, for example the importance of classroom differentiation according to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. However, during my teaching practicum I learnt two new methods that now make up an important part of my teaching approach. I will refer to these as ‘discovery learning’ and ‘visible learning’. Discovery learning is designed to encourage higher order thinking. The idea is that students learn by finding patterns and rules. This works especially well in language classes. Rather than simply teaching a grammar rule you provide students with the tools to discover the grammar point and express it in their own words. Visible learning relates to lesson aims and goals. At the beginning of every lesson my teacher encouraged me to begin the class by outlining the lesson’s goals; essentially providing students with a clear and visible learning path. I found both of these techniques to be extremely useful for encouraging student engagement and holding their attention.
It is important that teachers have a sound understanding of their subjects and curriculum. During my Bachelor of Arts I revelled in the opportunity to study my passions. Accordingly, I majored in History and minored in French. Last year I completed an exchange in Grenoble, France. My goal was to immerse myself in the language, hopefully making me a better and more confident French teacher. I am now able to apply everything I know to the meet the requirements of SACE and ACARA. While on teaching practicum I was required to design a unit of study for my year 10 French class. I had to ensure that the learning tasks covered the learning requirements outlined by ACARA. I am familiar with both the F-10 and 7-10 sequences. I have also had experience applying assessment tasks to cover both the communicating and understanding strands of SACE. In our unit on festivals and celebrations, assessment tasks were centred around a class birthday party. Students had to negotiate the theme of the party and the purchase of a birthday present on an online discussion board, perform a role play where they looked for an outfit for the party, 'shop’ online using French fashion labels, make an advertisement for a costume hire shop, and write a recount of the party in the last lesson of the unit. These assessment tasks encompassed many of the different strands outlined by ACARA (socializing, systems of language, informing, language variation and change, creating, role of language and culture, and finally, translating).
Finally, I recognise that safe working practices are necessary for the school to operate and provide a safe environment for both staff and students. Accordingly, I work to implement safe work policies and practices as outlined by DECD and by the school. The first step to achieving this is by simply reading the schools safety policy. My school had an extensive and detailed policy that accounted for almost any possible situation. It covered simple everyday problems, for example, what to do if you see that footpath has become damaged, to more serious problems and how to prevent them, for example, how to carry out a risk analysis for excursions. Throughout my teacher training I have also completed many important workshops which have given me the skills to continue to work in a safe and mindful manner, for example, First Aid and mandatory reporting training.