School ofPractice

Professional Education
3

102095 Secondary PP3 Self Reflection Form

Pre-service Teacher Details

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

Sam Higginson 18934292
Pre-service Teacher Phone Number: 0424129125 Pre-service Teacher Email Address:
18934292@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: Placement Phone Number:

Pittwater High School 9999 4035
Placement Address: Placement Email Address:
1668 Pittwater Road, Mona Vale NSW 2103 pittwater-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Contact Person:
Daniel Burton, 0410791652, daniel.burton1@det.nsw.edu.au

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.

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?
Self Reflection

The placement I undertook at Pittwater High School was an extremely beneficial experience. I spent
most of my time in the CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts) faculty, assisting students in both junior and
elective music and drama. I worked with individual students, some of whom had learning disabilities, and
also worked with students in small groups as they completed performance and composition activities
(AITSL Standard 1.3). This has provided an insight into different teaching styles including how to manage
the classroom environment, and differentiate tasks to suit the diverse needs of students within the
classroom.
One teacher I worked with, focused on the importance of setting high expectations. She reinforced this
a few times a lesson, however, the medium varied. Sometimes she would emphasise her expectations of
behaviour in classroom, especially if certain students were misbehaving. For example, to a small group she
said “I expect you to quietly listen and respect the other students in the class as they perform.” On the
other side, she also stated her expectations of the students completing high quality work, whilst also
considering the ability of each individual student. This addresses the AITSL Standards 1.5, 2.2 and 3.1, and I
feel that if I can establish my own expectations of the students when I begin teaching, the students will be
able to thrive and achieve a lot more throughout their education and future.
Additionally, whilst working with the students I noticed the significant difference of maturity and
attitude between the age groups. I found that the students’ actions could be grouped into the stages
outlined by NESA (Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6). Whether or not this was planned or a coincidence it was
interesting to see. The younger students, year 7 and 8, appeared to require more structure and discipline.
The year 9 and 10 students had similar needs however often seemed more rebellious and mischievous.
They wanted more respect and not to treated like little kids. Whilst the year 11 and 12 students took more
responsibility of their own actions, and wanted to be treated like adults. I realised that when talking to
students, I had to change my body language and language style so I could effectively communicate with
them.
Before I started, I was interested to see how technology would be used and managed in the classroom.
Pittwater is a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) School, so every student is required to have an electronic
device, either a tablet/iPad or laptop. The school also used GoogleClassroom as a tool to submit class work
and assignments, and engage in class discussions. Whilst I had only briefly heard of GoogleClassroom, it
was great to see how effective it can be in distributing class content and marking assignments. I will
hopefully be able to use this tool as I start teaching or a similar learning management system such as
Schoology.
Whilst the use of technology in schools can have some great advantages, I also noticed that it can
come with several challenges. On many occasions, at least one student was playing or trying to play a
game on their device, however, the teachers were quite effective in stopping this. Before the teachers
would describe a task, they would ask the students to close their device or have it face down. This would
ensure that the students were listening and not distracted. As the classwork was being completed, the
teacher would use proximity by roaming around the room to ensure the students stayed on task.
Throughout classes I would assist the teachers by ensuring that students remained focus on the class task
and I know that using proximity will be essential tool for my future teaching career as technology is
becoming forever present in our schools and society.
Throughout my time at Pittwater I worked with many different students. The musical knowledge and
musical ability of students differed greatly, especially in years 7 and 8 so I strived to use my musical
knowledge to help students with their composition assessments. We discussed the 12-Bar Blues and the
chords that make up that the progression, and then went on to identify the notes that make up each
chord. I also listened to several performances from, however, gave some constructive criticism to the year
12 students as they prepared for their HSC. I used my experiences as a performer and the knowledge I
gained from my studies to try and help the students improve their performances. I believe that the
relatively small age gap and real world stories I described allowed me to connect the students and listen to
the feedback I offered.
 Overall, I have gained a lot from working at Pittwater High School. I engaged with many different
teachers, observing how they manage their classroom, how students interact with each other, and how
technology is used in schools. I feel that the knowledge I have gained from this experience is critical for my
development as a beginning music teacher and I will endeavour to use these skills throughout my future
teaching career.

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