Graduate Level: Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities. 

My understanding of this focus area is that it is important to provide learning experiences that support inclusive participation and engagement because this is beneficial to children's learning and understanding of concepts. As a teacher, I need to ensure I have a variety of strategies to support children's participation to maximise their learning.

The two evidence pieces come from my fourth year professional experience. The first evidence piece includes observations and notes that my supervising teacher completed which include strategies I used to foster participation and engagement. These strategies include pop sticks when questioning, students discussing questions with a partner at group times, providing written instructions on small whiteboards for students to refer back to during lessons, using ICT for engagement, providing open ended learning experiences, modifying tasks, using wait time when asking questions and working with small groups. These strategies were implemented to ensure all children were contributing, engaging and participating in active learning which creates a higher level of understanding.

The second evidence piece is a lesson plan for English with a focus on comprehension. The lesson plan highlights the strategies I used to support the children's participation in learning tasks. The strategies I used in the lesson include pop sticks when asking questions, the children discussing a question with the person next to them, working with a small group of children to support their understanding, each child using whiteboards to record information and modifying the task for the child with cerebral palsy. These evidence pieces demonstrate my understanding of supporting student participation and engagement and what this looks like in practice with the strategies implemented which were effective.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions.

My understanding of this focus area is that it is essential teachers know how to manage and organise classroom activities and provide students with clear directions. This allows lessons to flow smoothly and promotes an environment which has consistent routines and effective transitions that do not take up large amounts of time.

These three evidence pieces come from my fourth year professional experience. The first evidence piece includes observation notes completed on one of my lessons by my supervising teacher. The observation shows me using strategies for directions such as projecting my voice, giving clear and concise instructions, counting down from 10 and using visual reminders. It shows me using strategies for organising classroom activities which include implementing effective transitions, explicitly demonstrating tasks, using attention grabbing ideas, asking students to help collect resources and staggering children when they move off to work.

The second evidence piece is an excerpt from my written report and it states that I have excellent classroom management skills with effective strategies which include scaffolding and visual prompts. The third evidence piece includes photos which show the use of visual strategies to ensure all children in the class were aware of the timetable for each day as well as their jobs for the week.

These strategies were implemented to ensure all children were aware of what was going on, to support how the classroom was run and to maximise learning time. These three evidence pieces demonstrate that I understand how to give clear directions and organise classroom activities effectively.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate knowledge of practical approaches to managing challenging behaviours. 

My understanding of this focus area is that it is important to have strategies and tools to help with managing challenging behaviours. When working with children, there are always going to be students who have behaviours that are challenging and it is essential that teachers can respond in an appropriate way (Larrivee 2018, p. 355).

The first evidence piece is an evaluation completed after a Mathematics lesson during my third year professional experience. There was a situation which required me to deal with challenging behaviour and my supervising teacher commented on my effective strategies of sending the child to the calming/sensory corner and staying calm but giving firm instructions.  It was important to stay calm when intervening because it prevented the situation from escalating and creating more negative emotions (Jones and Jones (2010, p. 299).

The second evidence piece includes excerpts of an assignment from the course Managing Learning Environments (EDUC 3007) completed in the third year of my degree. The evidence demonstrates my understanding about the different kinds of challenging behaviours and intervention strategies that can be used because the research demonstrates the theory I have learnt. Some of the strategies presented in the assignment include using I-messages, stating expectations, asking children to move from where they are sitting/working, teaching children about breathing techniques and giving clear and specific directives. 

These evidence pieces demonstrate my understanding of strategies that can be used when dealing with challenging behaviour because I have had experience when teaching and completed research throughout my degree.  

Reference:
Jones, VF & Jones, LS 2010, ‘Responding to violations of rules and procedures’ in Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (9^th ed.), NJ: Merrill, Upper Saddle, pp. 297-328.

Larrivee, B 2018, Conflict and stress management strategies, Authentic classroom management: creating a learning community and building reflective practice, 3^rd edn, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ, pp. 320-371.

Graduate Level: Describe strategies that support students' wellbeing and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements. 

My understanding of this focus area is that is important for teachers to implement wellbeing practices with links to the Australian Curriculum, abide by the school/system policies and uphold the responding to abuse and neglect legislation requirements. It is important for teachers to help children develop self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills and make responsible decisions which all impact their wellbeing (Littlefield, Cavanagh, Knapp, & O'Grady 2017, p. 5). This links to children’s healthy individual development, as well as creating safe and inclusive classroom environments (Littlefield, Cavanagh, Knapp, & O'Grady 2017, p. 5).

The first evidence piece was completed during my third year professional experience and is a lesson evaluation. The evidence highlights the strategies I used to provide a safe physical environment for the children. The second and third evidence pieces come from my fourth year professional experience. They include excerpts of written feedback from my supervising teacher and part of a weekly plan which demonstrates me implementing experiences which cater for children's wellbeing. The fourth evidence piece is my Responding to Abuse and Neglect training certificate. This highlights my understanding about meeting legislative requirements for children's physical safety and wellbeing.

These evidence pieces demonstrate me meeting this focus area because I have used a variety of strategies to support children's physical safety and overall welbeing. These strategies include adequate supervision, creating a safe physical environment, completing a risk assessment, implementing videos about social interactions, emotions and feelings into the daily curriculum, reading stories and having conversations about inclusion and differences, implementing yoga to calm children after lunch and upholding the legislative RAN training requirements.

Reference:
(Reading taken from 'managing the learning environment' tab in this course)
Littlefield, L, Cavanagh, S, Knapp, K & O'Grady, L 2017, 'Kids matter: building the capacity of Australian primary schools and early childhood services to foster children's social and emotional skills and promote children's mental health' in E Frydenberg, AJ Martin & RJ Collies (eds) 'Social and Emotional Learning in Australia and the Asia Pacific', Springer Nature, Singapore, pp. 293-311.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support safe use of ICT in learning and teaching.

My understanding of this focus area is that ICT is being incorporated into the classroom environment more regularly and it is essential for teachers to ensure devices and material are safe, responsible and ethical. Teachers need to ensure that ICT in the classroom is used purely for educational purposes.   

These evidence pieces come from my third year professional experience and the first piece is a lesson plan which involved the children using tablets to access mathematical activities based around problem solving. Because I was working with younger children, the focus was on working with ICT safely and explicitly demonstrating the correct/safe way to use the tablets and be aware of the issues surrounding ICT. This evidence shows that I discusses safe conduct of the computers, the policies, who the children can talk to if they find/see something inappropriate and the ICT agreement they signed at the start of the year.

The second evidence piece is the ICT agreement the children had to abide and sign at the start of the year. I had to ensure I was aware of the teaching strategies used by the school and implement them safely during lessons.  These evidence pieces demonstrate me meeting this standard because my lesson plan shows discussed using ICT safety with children. The evidence states that I used a program which locks the tablets to only the set tasks the children were working on. This was to ensure the children were using technology appropriately and to extend their learning and knowledge of mathematical problem solving.