102605: Professional Practice and Community Engagement

Ebanie Bridges - 17505866

Self Reflection - Airds

What an amazing experience I had at Airds High School. Unfortunately Airds hasn’t got the
most positive reputation. In actual fact everyone I spoke to previously to doing my placement
there didn’t have one positive thing to say and similarly on my first day I realized that this
belief and attitude unfortunately spread within the school grounds between some of the
teachers and students. Being a school well known for its socio economic disadvantages,
large support unit and its high enrollment of Aboriginal and Pacific Islander students I knew I
was entering an environment that was unknown for myself, however I was excited for the
experience and my learning opportunities.
During my first week at Airds I mainly supported the teachers and students during math
classes, I observed how the teachers taught and how the students responded, I would go
around and aid students that needed help and further explanations. I was saddened to be met
with such a large amount of low confidence and self doubt from ALL students when I was
getting to know the students and how they learned. When I sat down next to the students to
ask if they needed help or understood the content there was not one student that didn’t
respond to me with words such as “I’m dumb Miss” or “I don’t know, I’m no good at maths” or
“it’s too hard Miss”. Majority of the time the students hadn’t even looked at the question or
what was going on to claim “its too hard”. It was clear that they were in a habit of just giving
up and labeling themselves as “too dumb” before even attempting a question or exercise.
After noticing this was a trend and also talking to some of the teachers, I felt that one of the
biggest attributes to this train of thought and lack of confidence from the students stemmed
from the teacher’s negativity towards the students learning ability and the low expectations
they had of the students. Hearing teachers say, “oh they just are not interested in learning” or
“they are not the brightest kids” made me realize that the students mirrored the teacher’s
thoughts and views. I felt that I had proven this observation valid when I designed and lead
some class activities. The principles I applied to make sure I engaged all students included;
believing in them, I didn’t allow them to give up, I showed them they can do it and I gave them
attainable goals and worked through questions with them encouraging deeper thinking that
would allow them to feel and experience success. I noticed that once the students felt
success in one question it made them want to try more. This was achieved through
appropriate levels of exercises to suit all learning abilities. If you feel success in something it
is human nature to want to continue to feel this no matter the content, therefore the students
were more than willing to do the work, and even got excited that “they learnt something
today”, and of course building genuine rapport. As I progressed through my 60 hours I
continued to build my students confidence and self efficacy when it came to learning and
themselves in general. I continued to learn about my students their cultures and their way of
learning and by the end of my hours I had a greater understanding of the community and built
solid relationships and mutual respect from all students throughout the school. After my hours
had finished I was reluctant to leave as I know I had a positive impact on many of the
students and they also unexpectedly impacted me and changed my views and certain
discourses. After leaving Airds I was adamant to do more for the students, so I organized with
the principal and some teachers to return in later weeks for a motivational seminar with
myself and two people that I knew who attended Airds, one who is a very successful boxer
with multiple world titles and the other being an Australian representative boxing coach, as
well as a successful local boxer who is of an aboriginal and Fijian background. We all went
down to the school and spent an hour with each grade over a day with the hope to inspire the
students. By having very successful people that were relatable, from the same background as
the students and involved in a sport that so many of the students enjoyed come in and tell
their stories of “struggle to success” taught the students valuable lessons and gave them
different perspectives of their future possibilities. The teachers loved it so much that we have
set up a boxing program for disengaged students to commence term 1 next year. What I
learnt in this environment was definitely an eye opener and invaluable to me. I will be
applying the same principals throughout my teaching career. I am thankful to of had this
learning opportunity.