Week One Reflection

What were some positive aspects?

Overall, I am very pleased with my first week of practicum at Highgate Primary School. I feel
comfortable within the school community and interacting with staff from all areas, including
administration, junior and senior school teachers as well as other school staff members,
particularly as I have been volunteering at the school for over a year and have gotten to develop
professional relationships with many school staff members.
In turn, this has facilitated with my teaching within the classroom. I feel comfortable asking not
only my mentor teachers for input and guidance within the planning process, but also other
teachers and education assistants in the school community for guidance and resources. In terms
of teaching within the classroom, I am starting to develop a positive relationship with the
students and am slowly starting to learn about them as an individual and how I can then support
their learning in the most effective way.
The students display positive feedback to the lessons I have taught so far and demonstrate this by
regularly coming to me to tell me of their own personal experiences and thoughts that are related
to the lesson itself. I love seeing the enthusiasm they display within the lessons and the ability to
incorporate new knowledge that they have acquired from the previous teaching day to the present
lesson. I also implemented new attention signals that the students seem to really enjoy and is
very effective in managing the classroom. I also feel I am gaining more confidence in my ability
to ensure student participation and create a classroom where students are supportive of each
other's learning.
What were some areas that I need to improve in?
The environment of a good classroom focuses on so many aspects that go beyond just teaching
and learning the curriculum content. It facilitates the development of friendships, understandings
and general 'growing up' period of a child that is so fundamental to their development. Because
of this, I identify conflict resolution and to reach positive outcomes for all students involved to
be a main area of improvement for myself as a pre-service teacher. After randomly grouping
students together to work on a classroom activity, I found that as I was not yet aware of the
group dynamics and relationships between the students, that this could be a barrier to effective
learning for the students.
The students do not show misbehaviour that causes concern, but some students' inability to
remain focused and on-task can affect their learning. I need to familiarise myself with behaviour
management policies at the school and use their behaviour chart more effectively and
consistently to manage student behaviour. As I spent this week getting to know all my students
individually, I think I need to develop a better 'teacher presence' and set the boundaries between
being the students' teacher and being their friend. I found that we often got distracted and 'carried

away' by engaging in conversation for longer than needed during lessons as the students all
wanted to give their opinion on the subject, so monitoring this will be something I want to focus
on.
As I go into my second week of practice, I am gaining more knowledge about individual
students' abilities. I have not yet been able to differentiate my lessons as I have been unsure of
different students' academic and social development, but differentiation is an area that I must
work towards.
How does this inform me for my future lessons and teaching practice?
Finishing my first week has provided me with much valuable insight and information into my
own classroom culture and my students. Knowing the interactions between teachers and students
as well as between students themselves will provide me with guidance as to how to best plan
lessons to cater for the students' needs as they develop academically and socially themselves and
with each other. Having this knowledge will help me to differentiate tasks better, as well as pace
my lessons better so that students stay engaged and find learning valuable for them.
In terms of assessment, I want to develop a procedure that is effective for monitoring student
progress in different learning areas and how to record this in ways that will inform my planning
and teaching.