QCT standards

As a pre-service teacher, my knowledge and application of the ten professional standards has increased through study, exposure to a school environment, professional discourse with my peers, and personal reflection. Now, at the cusp of becoming a qualified teacher, I can see the qualities that these standards attempt to bring out, and how they help build a firm foundation for an aspiring teacher. Below are my thoughts and reflections on the Queensland College of Teacher’s professional standards:

In my mind this is the primary standard. Planning, coordination, delivery, student rapport, and flexibility all coalesce to provide an engaging learning environment for students. Engaged students not only have a greater willingness to learn, but are able to embed their knowledge more deeply.

Through developing a WebQuest for year 12 IPT on the school’s internet access policy, I was able to create a scenario and inspire the students to thoroughly investigate what goes into making a successful school policy. This entailed individual research, debating on behalf of their chosen perspective, and collaborating toward a mutually beneficial set of recommendations to be presented to the school’s policy makers. 

The ability for students to communicate effectively is critical throughout their schooling, beyond into the workplace, and for the rest of their life. Effective communication skills, whether developed through literacy or numeracy, allows the free flow of knowledge between parties. By maintaining high quality communication skills, students are better prepared for future work environments and can more capable of contributing back to society through sharing their experiences.     

During my internship I have developed, implemented and marked an assessment piece based on the history of animation. This assessment item led year 10 Multimedia Arts students through researching, summarising and composing a detailed report into a particular part of animation history. Students chose known companies, such as Disney or Pixar, and presented timelines, significant events and an evaluation of their contribution to the animation industry.   

My goal for each lesson is to inspire a fascination of learning something new. While lining up and preparing to enter the room I regularly request the students tell me an interesting fact to gain entry to the room. The reason (revealed to the students after 3-4 lessons) is that they have an opportunity to teach me something new. I want to learn too.

As a fan of Artificial Intelligence during my undergraduate years, I have been lucky enough the cover that subject with the year 12 IPT class during my internship. The topic lends itself well to vigorous debate about exactly what is “intelligence”, or for that matter, “humanity”. During one of my sessions, the supervising teacher gave me these kind words as feedback:

“An interesting lesson Tony. The students weren’t necessarily doing a great deal, but the discussions were meaningful and interesting. Your own knowledge was clearly deep, and the students obviously value and appreciate your knowledge. An effective way to start this part of the unit, and you maintained the audience’s interest. Good that you put it into the context of their learning and assessment.”

Through the course of my studies I have been exposed to profiling classes, assessing individual learning styles and difficulties, and using that knowledge to adapt my teaching style to suit the needs of the students in the classroom. While teaching a difficult group of maths students, it was revealed that they get scared of the textbook and cannot adequately follow board work. By presenting each learnable fact on a separate worksheet, the students achieved a greater level of success.

During my placements I had opportunities to develop and implement assessment pieces, but only recently in the internship have I been able to experience the responsibility of marking and assessing student work. I’m a firm advocate of providing timely, succinct feedback to students and have encouraged the year 10 MMA students to submit their draft assessment electronically. This allowed me to mark-up the document using Microsoft Word’s commenting system and have a faster turnaround time. Through the use of these techniques, the drafts were able to be returned to give direction for the final submission.

In my role as a youth co-ordinator for the local parish, I take great pleasure in giving direction and guidance to teenagers as we tackle life issues. In the classroom there have been a number of opportunities where these skills have come in handy, of which the most memorable was a roleplay over award wages for year 10 maths. Students chose their desired occupation before researching what the award rate was for that job. Their mathematics skills helped them read and calculate the award wages, but their discussion about whether they were happy with the nominal wage given allowed exploration into what makes a job “worth it”.

As a devoted Christian teaching in a Christian school, it is important to draw inspiration from the foundation of my faith when developing my classroom management plan. It has at its core the message of Christ; to see the best in my students, to treat them with respect and humility, to care for their wellbeing, to be a servant.

My classroom management plan predominantly consists of a classroom covenant to establish expectations and shared responsibilities between the teacher and students. Instead of having a set of class rules, a covenant highlights that the classroom is a partnership; a mutually agreed and beneficial arrangement for both parties. Each line in the covenant indicates what is expected from your own actions and attitudes to receive the treatment stated from the opposite party. This covenant has met some success in providing a safe, supportive environment in the more boisterous classes.

As a member of a school council for St Johns Lutheran School, I am able to contribute significantly to the wellbeing of school life for all families and have fostered positive relationships through working bees, school functions and fetes.  

During my time at St Luke’s, I have set up a co-curricular activity of competitive computer games as a sport. The aim was able to bring students who were otherwise not engaged in any Wednesday afternoon sport into an environment where they could experience competitive success, teamwork, and the desire to excel. I received comments from parents that they were pleased their children could engage in something they were passionate about.  

As a professional contractor I have developed skills that allow me to communicate effectively with peers, people in authority and people I have responsibility for. These skills have served me well in collaborating with my mentor teacher and other staff members at St Luke’s. I am an active participant in the maths and science departmental meetings and can contribute significantly on matters regarding the use of technology. 

After hearing several teachers request a space for student uploads and student collaboration, I have implemented a school Moodle server (a freeware learning management system) to help address these issues. 

Through the course of my study, the largest impact on my life has been the establishment of my own Personal Learning Network.  I have always been interested in learning and learning gains, but by putting in place a set of tools (such as “Google reader” and “Delicious”) to constantly feed me something to think about, I have been able to transform my knowledge of different areas of interest and now feel more in touch with the world. The biggest area has been in teaching, for which a Personal Learning Network has been particularly appropriate. I have also run in-house professional development to help lead other toward this path.