School of Education

Professional Practice 3
102605 Secondary PP Community Engagement
Self Reflection Form

Pre-service Teacher Details

Pre-service Teacher Name: Jinane Jomaa Pre-service Teacher ID: 18369595

Pre-service Teacher Phone Number: Pre-service Teacher Email Address:

0410654754 18369595@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 CE. Attach evidence.

Placement Name: Bass High School Placement Phone Number: 02 9726 3644
Tutoring Program

Placement Address: Hume Highway & Arundle Placement Email Address:

Road, Bass Hill, NSW, 2197, Australia azar@basshigh.nsw.edu.au

Contact Person:
Elie Azar

Describe in about 500 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?
What goals did you set for yourself in your service learning activities?
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?
Check Due Date accompanied by your Timesheet and signed Report.
Submissions after due date will receive an N grade. At the following HECS census date, if
the work is still incomplete, this will become an AF grade. This is University policy.
The AF grade can be changed when you complete the work. You must also keep a hard or
electronic copy of your assignment.
 Submit this form online via InPlace. Your PPCE Report written by the Contract
Person, is mailed by them or delivered by you to the PP office in the SOE.

Professional Practice and Community Engagement was the first practical that I undertook in

my Master of Teaching. For my first practical experience I set myself the goal and expectation that I

would participate in all activities that I can and try to gain as much experience as possible. With this

expectation in mind, the most thing that did surprise me was the lack of work available for me to do in

the Senior Learning Centre. Students had just completed their trial examinations and were completely

burned out and were only interested in working on some assessments individually or just lightly

chatting. Some students did need some help in applying to University and were interested to hear about

the university experience. I was happy to go through the process with them, and the conversations I

had with those students allowed me to observe students’ attitudes towards university and try to

eliminate some negative misconceptions (e.g. students thought there was no support at university).

However, due to the lack of student need for any assistance in the centre, my supervisor

arranged a few other activities for me to be a part of. I was able to observe a few classes and provide

some assistance for the students in those classes. Considering it was my first time in classes for a long

time, it was interesting to see the varying approaches of teachers in the classroom and how they played

out for the students. I observed several classes where teachers had textbook questions on the board,

and for the whole lesson students just had to answer them. These lessons every time were chaotic, and

many students had trouble understanding basic concepts. It was a great feeling being able to help the

students struggling, and even though I only saw them for a short-period of time, I was able to make

them comfortable asking me for help. Considering I was just observing the class most of the time, it

was easy for me to spot students who were struggling or disengaged, and I noticed that teachers can

easily be unaware of those students. In one class, which was solely a Kahoot Quiz Lesson, one group

of students in Year 8 had no idea how to use the calculator and were consistently getting the wrong

answers. It was interesting to see that those students did not ask for help, and even when I first

approached them they refused to listen to any help and continually said ‘we don’t know’ ‘we’ll just

guess’. However, I continued to approach them until they allowed me to help them and they were able

to complete more questions. This really opened my eye to the fact that many students do not like to or
are incapable of seeking help, and this is something that as a teacher I must be aware of and work to

eliminate (e.g. by addressing all students, if students get incorrect answers don’t just say incorrect but

work to see where the gaps are and provide feedback to help students correct their answers etc.)

For the last few days I also participated in the After-School Homework Centre. In this centre, I

mainly assisted a few students who had a lot of trouble with the English Language and writing out an

essay and speech. Although my KLA is in mathematics, I tried as much as I can to help the students

with basic writing skills. I realised the students had troubles with structuring, organising their ideas,

paraphrasing and understanding the question. I helped the students structure their thoughts, and

demonstrated how to paraphrase, and provided them with a chance to work on these aspects

individually. To be honest, when helping one student with paraphrasing and essay writing, I almost

gave up, thinking this student may never be able to do it. However, after coming back to the student

and seeing how she was able to construct a sentence on her own, I internally reprimanded myself for

being negative. I realised that as a teacher, I can never give up on a student, and must always have

hope in them if they are to truly progress.

I was also lucky to be able to observe and work with students on a Numeracy Program which a

teacher had developed and designed to find gaps in students basic understanding of mathematical

concepts. The coordinating teacher administers a short 5 question NAPLAN quiz during class to an

individual student and then works through the students reasoning for their answers. I was able to

administer the quiz to two students and work through with them. I think it is a great program and I was

lucky to be able to see it in practice, so I can relate it to my future teaching career if needed. I was also

able to observe a Year 7 NAPLAN Online trial, which the school was undertaking as practice for

upcoming NAPLAN Online exams in following years. On my final day, I was able to participate in

preparation for a careers expo. I had a lovely chat with the careers advisor who informed us about

engaging students in work-related opportunities.

Overall, this practical has allowed me to have various experiences and be exposed to a wide

variety of staff and the different operations that occur in school settings inside and outside the

classroom. This will be very valuable for my future career as I now have practices and programs that I
can refer to in my teaching career which I have observed as successful or not so successful. I realised

that working outside classroom settings and programs can help teachers to locate the gaps in the

teaching and classroom structure. This understanding has been already helpful whilst I am currently

planning lessons for Secondary Professional Practice 1, trying to consider the needs of different

students, trying to include all students in the learning process and developing or using activities which

are relevant and engaging for students.