School of Education

Professional Practice 3
102095 Secondary PP3 Self Reflection Form

Pre-service Teacher Details

Pre-service Teacher Name: Emily Willett Pre-service Teacher ID: xxxx

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

xxxxxxxx xxxx

Placement Details: If you havent 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:

Navigate Resettlement- SydWest xxxx
Multicultural Services
Placement Address: Placement Email Address:
xxxxx
Contact Person:
xxxxx

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?
Due Date 2H: XXXXXX 2016 accompanied with your Timesheet and signed
Report.
Submissions after 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 PP3 Report written by the Contract
Person, is mailed by them or delivered by you to the PP3 assignment box in the
SOE.

During my time at SydWest Multicultural Services I was engaged in a variety of activities with
students from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Most of the families connected to SydWest have only
been in the country for a limited time. The project consisted of helping with homework and assessment
tasks, as well as running activities and games for the students to help them to recognise their strengths
and their aspirations and how to achieve all they want without the resources that most students their
age would have- namely, the experience of family and friends and the connections that comes with
living in a country since birth. As such the navigating resettlement project aims to help students
recognise their aspirations and helps provide resources and opportunities that they may require to help
meet their goals.

At the beginning of the project, I was unsure about what to expect when dealing with refugee and
migrant children. I did not know the level of English they would have, what they would be feeling or
what they would want to be doing. I was surprised to see the high level of English all students had. It
was also very interesting and inspiring to see the expectations that these students had for themselves
and what they wished to achieve. Many had very high expectations academically as they wished to
enter into medicine and law after high school. This type of work is very demanding and requires a high
level of self-discipline and motivation. I believe that this is a significant contrast to the way that some
people perceive these students and even teachers who develop a deficit discourse about minority
students. As a result, this was a very enlightening experience for me as it has demonstrated that this
deficit discourse is simply not accurate and when I am a teacher in a school I need to challenge this
discourse by recognising the potential within these students and to always have high expectations of
them and what they can achieve.

The time spent working with the girls at Blacktown Girls High was used for completing their
homework and assessment tasks. I was able to help students who required assistance both in my own
KLA history but also in other subjects. This was helpful for me as I began to learn skills to
differentiate the work for these students who required extra assistance (1.5) as well as helped me to
develop my teaching skills for working with students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and
socio-economic backgrounds (1.3) which are key for being able to meet Standard One- Know the
students and how they learn. During this time in the project, I am hoping that the students have begun
to consider their aspirations and what they wish to achieve here in Australia. I hope that this project
has helped them recognise some of the pathways they have available to them and the help that is
available to them should they require further information. It is important that students consider the
skills and strengths that they already have. Many of these students can speak at least two languages
and often they speak more than two. This type of knowledge is invaluable in todays society and is a
significant advantage for these students both for the workforce but also for their future in general.

I think this project demonstrated the importance of standard 7, Engage professionally with colleagues,
parent/carers and the community. I believe this project provided a great example of the importance of
the wider community and its impact on student learning. Standard 7.4 is to engage with professional
teaching networks and broader communities. Teachers at Blacktown Girls High have recognised the
diversity of the students within the school and engaged with the broader community, specifically Syd
West Multicultural Services who has been able to provide students with the opportunity to participate
in an after school homework club. These types of services should not be underestimated as they have
provided students with extra assistance necessary for them to achieve but also a wealth of other social
resources that these students can use to navigate life in their new community.

It was also a good opportunity to work with my pre-service teacher peers which enabled us to share our
knowledge and ideas about working with refugee and migrant students but also to develop activities for the
students that could be used for their time at SydWest. One activity in particular took a lot of careful
consideration and preparation. This activity highlighted the difficulty that teachers can face in trying to meet
Standard 3- particularly 3.3.1 Setting learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of
varying abilities and characteristics. However, this was also a great opportunity for us to consider standard
6- especially 6.3.1 Seek and apply constructive feedback from supervisors and teachers to improve teaching
practices. During this time, we were given feedback on our activity both from our two coordinators which
we had to consider and implement. However, the feedback also came from each other as we shared ideas
and criticised based on our previous experiences and knowledge. It was valuable to receive this feedback
from other pre-service teachers as I could learn not only from my own past experiences but from others as
well.