International Practicum 2019 - Wynnum West State School

A photo of me and one of my Cooperating Teachers (CTs), Mrs Krasch.
I was given a Grade 1 class - 1HK 

CTs: Mrs Jenny Hughes and Mrs Tanya Kraschnesfski

The class rules that 1HK set for themselves.

The arrangement of the classroom.

The back of the classroom.

I have been attached to a grade 1 class throughout my 5 weeks in Wynnum West State School. They have two grade 1 classes which are pupils of age 5 to 7 years old. I have been assigned to 1HK where the class is made up of 20 pupils with different profile.  I was attached to two Cooperating Teachers (CTs), Mrs Krasch and Mrs Hughes. There are a few special needs pupils like Global Development Delay (GDD), Hearing Impairment and Autism in my class. It has been such an eye-opening experience doing my assisted teaching with 1HK. For someone who had no prior experience teaching in a real classroom, this experience was enriching and eventful. The observation I did for the first two weeks in the classroom helped me a lot in my final three weeks there. It is important that you know the profile of your class very well - their learning style, conduct, and attitude towards learning. This is key in ensuring that you will be able to manage the class and conduct lessons as smooth as possible. This is also important especially when you have a diversified class and you want to ensure an inclusive classroom. 

For the grade 1s, the syllabus is quite similar to Singapore education in terms of the content and topics that are being covered in the school. However, what differs would be the subjects that they learn at grade 1. They have Science and Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) subjects as part of their curriculum. Nevertheless, the content taught in these subjects are quite basic and manageable for the pupils to comprehend. Most importantly, at this level, teachers need to do a lot of scaffolding with the pupils when teaching a new topic or concept. The school follow the Curriculum Into Classroom (C2C) lesson framework when introducing new topic/concept to the pupils. Teachers will modify wherever needed and necessary so as to cater to the pupils' learning needs. From here, teachers will be able to plan the appropriate teaching materials like the resources needed to teach and worksheets for pupils to do as part of their summative  assessment. In addition, the teachers in school uses the "I do, We do and You do" framework to conduct their daily lessons. This is a familiar teaching framework to me because I have been using this framework when crafting my lesson plans thus far. This approach enables teachers to prepare their teaching materials properly and ensure effective learning experience for the pupils during their teaching. My class consists of kinesthetic and visual learners hence a lot of visual representations and hands on activities being conducted to spur and sustain their motivation level during class. Below are photos of the lessons that I managed to capture throughout the 5 weeks: 

New characters that they pupils came up with during one of the English lessons (Willy the Champ)

which they will later use it as part of their assessment.

The pupils have technology as part of their curriculum where they are given the Ipads to use. 

They get to access to the applications available in the Ipad like educational games.

This was an art lesson where the kids painted rocks as a gift for Mother's Day celebration.

This is one of the Maths lesson where my CT decided to use the internet as part of her lesson. 

They pupils get to take turns to use the interactive whiteboard to participate in the activity

This is another art lesson which was carried out outdoor, they had to observe the landscape scenery in the school on that day and paint what they saw on the paper. Landscapes was the recent topic they learnt for Science.

My CT decided to draw the number line as seen in the photo as part of their Maths lesson. 

She used this method to get the pupils to visualise and comprehend the concept of adding and subtracting in a more effective way.

This was taken during their computer lab lesson. The pupils are also assessed in this subject where the teachers will assess them based on their motor skills ability to use the computer appropriately.

This was during my last week there where my CTs were starting on their assessment. We had a rotational activity plan for two three days. 

1. Maths worksheet

2. Computer/Ipad

3. English Assessment

4. Game (Maths concentration) 

The pupils are grouped according to their learning abilities, Low Progress, Middle Progress and High Progress. Activities and worksheets crafted were catered to their groups. Out of the four "stations" that they have to rotate for the two days, one of the "station" was the English assessment that my CT carried out while I managed the other groups. 

It has been such a great five weeks doing my assisted teaching in Wynnum West State School. The teachers have been so helpful in guiding me with the school curriculum and classroom strategies that allow me to experience real classroom situation. My CTs also get me involved in the lesson planning and exchange views on how to carry out lessons for the class so that every pupil is involved in the learning. The opportunities given have provide me with important points and areas that I ought to take note in the future when I start my journey as a teacher. These takeaways will definitely be useful for me to use and apply accordingly when I have my own class in the future. In addition to that, the school culture is very positive and inclusive where the staffs are always trying their best to help the pupils to have a conducive and effective learning experience in school. The experience here has constantly remind me of my teaching philosophy and purpose as a teacher, which I feel is useful because it affirms me of my purpose in teaching. This have helped me to overcome the days where it was quite overwhelming yet I managed to pull through due to my purpose in teaching and for that, I am very thankful for this experience. Also, everyone was very warm and welcoming throughout our attachment there. I would definitely recommend Wynnum West State School to my juniors to consider as their international practicum in the future.