1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning.

Proficient Level: Use teaching strategies based on knowledge of students’ physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics to improve student learning.

1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students.

What this standard means to me: Understanding our students is fundamental in order to be able to tailor our teaching to, and to build relationships with, them. This requires an understanding of all the various factors that come together to affect our students learning, and includes physical social, intellectual, and emotional development. Each student is different, and each student will be at different stages of development in each of these (and other) areas. Often we as teachers can even learn a great deal from our students and continue to develop ourselves from this. Regardless, a basic understanding of some of the theories and frameworks that exist for explaining and understanding the development of humans in these various areas is useful to help guide us to useful strategies we can implement with our students.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• During a staff meeting in my second placement I had the opportunity to participate in a professional development unit focused on student wellbeing, for which I got a certificate of participation.
• My work at the MLC has helped me gain alot of perspective on the emotional needs of students, amongst other things, as demonstrated in my post to the MLC slack channel.
• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which helped to broaden my understanding of the social and physical developmental risks involved with mental illness. I received an accreditation certificate, and wrote a reflection on the course.
• As one of the seminar tasks in the core C&M course, I reflected on two papers on Cognitive Load Theory and Zone of Proximal Development (Sweller and Chandler (1991) and Vygotsky (1978) respectively), popular (and practically useful) theories relating to the process of learning and teaching, and the development of knowledge in students.
• The handbook assignment for Student Teacher Interaction in the Classroom involved researching several developmental models (including those mentioned above) and summarising their key points concisely. This helped me place this knowledge in the broader context of competing and complementary theories, and to focus on understanding these theories all from the perspective of how they can be useful to improve my teaching.

1.2 Understand how students learn.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching.

Proficient Level: Structure teaching programs using research and collegial advice about how students learn.

1.2 Understand how students learn.

What this standard means to me: The process of learning is complex, is not fully understood, and is never quite the same for any two students. However there do exist important generalisations and understandings in the education field around how students learn (and environments under which they cannot learn), and these are important guidelines to be aware of when teaching.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• Several of the seminar tasks in the core C&M course related to this, including the readings and reflection on Zone of Proximal Development and Coginitive Load Theory mentioned in standard 1.1, but also the reflection and discussion of assessment OF/AS/FOR learning.

1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Proficient Level: Design and implement teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

What this standard means to me: Central to my philosophy of teaching is equity. The concept that any student, regardless of their cultural, religious, linguistic, socioeconomic background should have an equal opportunity to learn. This equitable philosophy is my own personal philosophy and morality, but is also codified in the Code of Ethics for teaching (see APST 7.1 below), and the state and federal Australian anti-discrimination legislation (see APST 7.2 below). Beyond the fact that it is literally illegal to disadvantage a student on the basis of their gender, age, cultural background or just about any other characteristic, this negative view of it is perhaps less than ideal. A better perspective can be to look at it from a perspective of strengths, taking anti-discrimination as a given, and looking at how students with diverse cultural, religious, linguistic and socioeconomic backgrounds can be a resource for teaching. Often students will have a far broader experience of their culture, religion, language, and living environments than we do as teachers, and incorporating their knowledge and expertise of their own backgrounds not only enriches their learning, and enriches their learning by making the activities more authentic, it is also an opportunity for us as teachers to learn both in general and about specific students as well as develop relationships with them, and for students to develop a sense of their own value and contribution to the class.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• My work at the MLC has helped me develop strategies to respond to students with diverse needs, as demonstrated in my post to the MLC slack channel although I should really reflect more on this as the volume of knowledge and capacities I have accumulated through working at the MLC over the last 7 years is not fully covered in my slack channel post.
• The Mental Health First Aid training I volunteered for also helped to broaden my understanding of the social and physical developmental risks involved with mental illness, but the instructor, a social worker in the lower socio-economic areas of Adelaide, also shared some insight on strategies to respond to students of different socio-economic backgrounds.
• I attended a webinar entitled "Understanding Aboriginality" which focused on building culturally safe learning environments. Some experts in the field offered useful tips on cultural sensitivity and on how to use students cultural diversity as a resource when teaching. I received an attendance certificate, and wrote a reflection highlighting the key points covered.

1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

Proficient Level: Design and implement effective teaching strategies that are responsive to the local community and cultural setting, linguistic background and histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

What this standard means to me: Similar to APST 1.3 above, as Australian teachers specifically, it is important to understand and incorporate strategies to be inclusive and supportive of our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, and our students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" and although the content of the course was not directly relevant to this standard, many of the other people attending the course had been teachers in the APY lands for many years, and during coffee breaks and such we would chat and they shared some of their experiences. In this way I gained alot of insight into how the cultural and linguistic background of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students can impact on which educational approaches can be successful and which can't, and I learnt several strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. I received an accreditation certificate, and more relevantly to this standard wrote a reflection on the course.
• I attended a webinar entitled "Understanding Aboriginality" which focused on building culturally safe learning environments. In this webinar, several experts provided some useful tips on cultural sensitivity and emphasised how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students cultural and linguistic backgrounds can be a powerful resource for teaching. I received an attendance certificate, and wrote a reflection highlighting the key points covered.
• As part of an assignment for the Master of Teaching program we had to suggest some modifications we would make to a unit plan to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives into it. In the future I would love the opportunity to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to do this in a way that is more meaningful, but for now what I did is reflect on how I would like to modify the indices unit I taught my year 10 maths class at BHS to incorporate some more awareness and knowledge about the state of Aboriginal employment in South Australia.

1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.

Proficient Level: Develop teaching activities that incorporate differentiated strategies to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.

1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.

What this standard means to me: Differentiation is crucial, and central to my understanding of teaching. Each student is different, and each student needs something different in order to learn. This thinking applies to students accorss a "full range of abilities", but goes much further than "ability". Students have different interests, different learning styles, and will be engaged by different teaching strategies. The primary way in which I approach differentiation in my teaching is through one-on-one interactions with students, which forms a core basis for my teaching practice. As such, differentiation is a natural and integral part of every lesson, through informal formative assessment through discussions with students, and tailored support given to each individual.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• My work at the MLC has served a massive role in developing my knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the needs of different students. The other day I was working a MLC shift and one of my fellow student teachers was observing me, and when we reflected on the experience, one of the key things that came out of it was the ability to rapidly switch mindset between talking to a third year pure maths student talking about topology and category theory, to a first year student struggling with rearranging an equation --- a valuable skill that I have not always had, but have managed to improve on dramatically over the years of working at the MLC. Maybe I should write a post about this explicitly, but for now I suppose my slack channel post will have to do as far as evidence of this goes. In the future I would like to refelct on my experiences in the maths learning center more, as I believe those experiences have alot to contribute to my teaching practice.
• The unit plans I constructed as part of the C&M courses, for both chemistry and maths, demonstrate some strategies for differentiation, allowing students who are bored to get ahead, while leaving time for me to spend more time with, and provide more resources for, the students who are struggling.
• When I began the probability topic with my year 10 maths classes at NMHS, I used a pre-test as a formative diagnostic assessment in which I had them self-assess using solutions to determine how much of the probability topic they could remember from previous years. I intended to use this assessment to determine how much detail I should go through the revision material, how quickly to move onto the new material, and which specific concepts I should spend more time on and explain in greater detail. However I got much more than that out of it. I identified different groups of students in the class who needed different things, and differences between the two classes of year 10s I was teaching. Specifically, one class had more than 7 international/ english as an additional language students, and needed more help understanding the english involved in worded questions, although once they understood what a question was asking they could answer it quite well. So for that class, I incorporated a focus on highlighting how to identify key terms in questions that would help in figuring out what the questions where asking, and I maintained this focus throughout the topic. Across both classes, I also identified groups of students who needed more extension activities, as those students had already mastered the basic skills and would otherwise be bored during the topic. So for those students, I prepared additional extension. Evidence for each of these points is presented in my reflections on week 4 with these classes.
• The activity I ran with my year 10 maths classes at NMHS during my very first lessons with them was a group based activity in which they needed a reasonable degree of social interaction and cooperation with each other. This went really well for many students, but certain students where very reluctant to participate and it was my assessment that their learning was being hindered by their reluctance to participate in social and group work. Ultimately I would have wanted to help them develop these social skills and confidence through carefully engaging them with the rest of the class in safe, low pressure environments and activities. However in the limited time I had with them I used this formative assessment to determine that it would beneficial to offer alternatives to group work for the time being as well --- to give them choice, and the option to learn according to their strengths. To this end, later on in the unit when I introduced another group activity I included alternative individual work they could do instead. For evidence of this, see the last section of my reflection on week 3 at NMHS, which is when I introduced this differentiation.
• At BHS I took the opportunity to try and take differentiation to a new level with the indices topic as I had the class for the whole topic and I had been given a lot of freedom from my mentor teacher about how to teach it. I tried alot of different things, all with a focus on differentiation, and some turned out more successful than others. For evidence and artefacts from this unit see my reflection on the indices topic. Some of the differentiation-focused choices I made when planning the unit included:
  • Providing a wide range of exercises to work on, ranging from very basic to very advanced, and allowing students some degre of self-assessment in terms of how quickly they thought they should accelerate through the material.
  • Providing a variety of different types of extension activities, allowing students to choose one that matched their personal interests.
  • Physically splitting the class up into groups to go work separately on different things, allowing me to go and provide one-on-one help to each group at a time, as each group where working on very different things at very different stages, and taking very differnt approaches.

1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of legislative requirements and teaching strategies that support participation and learning of students with disability.

Proficient Level: Design and implement teaching activities that support the participation and learning of students with disability and address relevant policy and legislative requirements.

1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability.

What this standard means to me: Similarly to APST 1.3 and APST 1.4 above, it important to ensure that each and every student has an equal opportunity to learn, but also that we as teachers take their backgrounds into account in our teaching to design lessons that will engage and include them.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• Students with disability is an area with which I have less experience than other areas. I have had a number of experiences and disucssions about dealing with students with autism spectrum disorder in the maths learning centre and in schools, even working with a non-verbal student once, but these experiences are very difficult for me to evidence for privacy and anonymity reasons. I suppose the exerpt from my final placement report from NMHS will have to do... A more comprehensive list of reflections and evidence relevant to this standard can be accessed here.

2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.

Proficient Level: Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities.

2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.

What this standard means to me: This is a fundamental one --- as teachers we need to know the content, and how to teach it, before we can teach in practice. Beyond that, we should have knowledge that goes beyond the content, so that we can put the content into context for our students. But most importantly is the "pedagogical content knowledge", or the knowledge about teaching strategies specificly tailored to teaching the content, because without that no amount of content knowledge will get through to the students.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• Being a maths and science teacher, I have a solid grounding of knowledge in these areas, having studied in these areas for over a decade, and worked as a professional mathematician and scientist for several years. I've also been involved in teaching this content at a university level for many years, both through the schools of Science and Mathematics, and also through the Maths Learning Centre at the University of Adelaide. For details, see my résum‌é: on the "About me" page of my e-portfolio.
• We have spent most of the C&M courses time on SACE, and have designed a unit plan in both chemistry and maths covering a variety of strategies for teaching this content.
• Through the MLC I helped teach some tutes for a course called "Create Communicate Connect", and this provided me an opportunity to reflect on the characteristics of students as they were learning and cross reference this to my understanding of some of the developmental theories, as well as how this kind of understanding can be used to inform pedagogical decisions and hence improve student engagement.
• Having such a solid foundation in content knowledge, I could focus almost entirely on learning pedagogy or "pedagogical content knowledge" on my placements, and boy did I. Observing other teachers teach the same content in wildly different ways, successfully, to very different groups of students was a fascinating learning experience for me. I don't even know where to begin in terms of evidencing this, as literally everything I did on both of my placements (at NMHS and BHS) involved learning pedagogical content knowledge.

2.2 Content selection and organisation.

Graduate Level: Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.

Proficient Level: Organise content into coherent, well-sequenced learning and teaching programs.

2.2 Content selection and organisation.

What this standard means to me: It is important to be organised, and to be able to organise content into a teaching sequence. If we try to teach a sequence of seemingly unrelated content our students will become disengaged, disinterested, and confused. But a well sequenced unit, with content that leads from one lesson to the next and has an overarching theme to link it all together, will allow our students to start making connections between different concepts covered in the same unit, and those connections are the key to understanding. A series of unconnected facts are not useful or meaningful. A web of interconnected facts each with an underlying meaning and understanding associated to it, can be applied to the real world in a useful way.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• This was the focus of the C&M courses, culminating in making unit plans for both chemistry and maths.
• In my first placement at NMHS I was struggling to be organised and honestly my lessons where not the best examples of well sequenced plans. On my second placement at BHS on the other hand, I managed to plan and deliver several effective units of work:
  • In my year 10 maths class I delivered three units of work: a statistics unit, a unit on indices, and finally a unit on mostly quadratics with some extention into polynomials and other functions.
  • In my stage 1 general maths class I planned and delivered one entire unit of work (trigonometry), and started the next (networks).
  • In my stage 1 chemistry class I planned and delivered the entire acids and bases unit.

2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting.

Graduate Level: Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans.

Proficient Level: Design and implement learning and teaching programs using knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements.

2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting.

What this standard means to me: The first and most clear meaning of this standard is that formal summative assessment (and reporting) should be used to gain information on the pre-existing knowledge of students when designing learning sequences to build on their prior knowledge. This is valid, and an important component of designing learning sequences. However I think this standard can be interpreted more broadly than simply applying to formal summative assessments, and that informal formative assessments such as observations of students behaviour in the class and discussions with the students that reveal some of their interests outside of school should also be incorporated into the design of learning sequences with those students. Both sides are very important components to designing a successful learning sequence, in my view.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• Similarly to standards 2.1 and 2.2 above, designing learning sequences and lesson plans, particularly based around curriculum, was the focus of the C&M courses. The unit plans we constructed (in both chemistry and maths) were mapped to the SACE curriculum, and we constructed assessment tasks based around the SACE requirements as well for both (a SAT for chemistry, and an investigation for maths), which were part of those unit plans.
• The activity I ran with my year 10 maths classes at NMHS during my very first lessons with them was a group based activity in which they needed a reasonable degree of social interaction and cooperation with each other. This went really well for many students, but certain students where very reluctant to participate and it was my assessment that their learning was being hindered by their relucance to participate in social and group work. Ultimately I would have wanted to help them develop these social skills and confidence through carefully engaging them with the rest of the class in safe, low pressure environments and activities. However in the limited time I had with them I used this formative assessment to determine that it would beneficial to offer alternatives to group work for the time being as well --- to give them choice, and the option to learn according to their strengths. To this end, later on in the unit when I introduced another group activity I included alternative individual work they could do instead. For evidence of this, see the last section of my reflection on week 3 at NMHS, which is when I introduced this differentiation.
• When I began the probability topic with my year 10 maths classes at NMHS, I used a pre-test as a formative diagnostic assessment in which I had them self-assess using solutions to determine how much of the probability topic they could remember from previous years. I used this assessment to determine how much detail I should go through the revision material, how quickly to move onto the new material, and which specific concepts I should spend more time on and explain in greater detail. Specifically, there where two major modifications to my teaching plan I incorporated as a result of this assessment: for some students, particularly international and english as an additional language students, I incorporated a focus on highlighting how to identify key terms in questions that would help in figuring out what the questions where asking, and I maintained this focus throughout the topic. THe second modification I made was incorporating more extension activities for those students who had already mastered the basic skills and would otherwise be bored during the topic. Evidence for each of these points is presented in my reflections on week 4 with these classes.
• In my year 10 science class, I marked their inertia practical reports and from this assessment item I identified some key gaps the students had in their knowledge, both around variables (dependant, independant, constant), and graphs. So the following week, when introducing them to their next practical, I modified my teaching plan to include additional time and explanations of these concepts before moving forward, and emphasised applying these concepts in the next practical to help them solidify their understanding. In terms of variables I went through this with the whole class as most of them had struggled with it, but with graphs it was a select group of 4 or 5 students who seem to just have had that gap in their knowledge, so while the class was beginning to work on writing up their prac reports for the next prac I took those students aside and ran a mini-tutorial for them on constructing graphs to give them some extra support, which they responded very well too. This is shown in my reflections on that week with the class.

2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages

Proficient Level: Provide opportunities for students to develop understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.

2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians.

What this standard means to me: This is in my view very important, but unfortunately I have only had limited opportunities to engage with it. Promoting reconciliation is a admirable and necessary movement as part of not only acknowledging some of the tragic past and present atrocities, but also doing something about it to move forward in a positive direction from there. I look forward to more opportunities to contribute towards this in the future.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• I attended a webinar entitled "Understanding Aboriginality" which focused on building culturally safe learning environments. I received an attendance certificate, and wrote a reflection highlighting the key points covered.
• As part of an assignment for the Master of Teaching program we had to suggest some modifications we would make to a unit plan to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives into it. In the future I would love the opportunity to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to do this in a way that is more meaningful, but for now what I did is reflect on how I would like to modify the indices unit I taught my year 10 maths class at BHS to incorporate some more awareness and knowledge about the state of Aboriginal employment in South Australia.

2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies.

Graduate Level: Know and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas.

Proficient Level: Apply knowledge and understanding of effective teaching strategies to support students’ literacy and numeracy achievement.

2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies.

What this standard means to me: It is our responsibility as teachers to ensure that we provide each of our students with basic literacy and numeracy skills, regardless of what subject area we teach. These are fundamental skills our students need in order to be successful in whatever they pursue, and it is important that we know and apply strategies for engaging our students in developing their literacy and numeracy in our classrooms.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• During a staff meeting in my second placement I had the opportunity to participate in a professional development unit focused literacy and numeracy strategies, for which I got a certificate of participation.
• I reflected on this in one of the ICT tasks in the core C&M course.
• Later on in the term at BHS we had another student free day, and this time we ran professional development workshops for all staff with a numeracy focus. I was placed in the maths faculty, and I volunteered to run one of the workshops on probability. So I did that, and it was very successful, I had several teachers approach me in the following week thanking me for my contribution and saying that they learnt alot in my workshop.

2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Graduate Level: Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students.

Proficient Level: Use effective teaching strategies to integrate ICT into learning and teaching programs to make selected content relevant and meaningful.

2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

What this standard means to me: As people seem to be saying more and more lately, we are living in a world of ever increasing connectedness and globalisation, and ICT forms the backbone of our modern 21st century society.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• The entire ICT integration component of the core C&M course was dedicated to this. One component that particularly resonated with me was the task on Gamification. I got a certificate for completing the course as well.
• I've also been engaged in teaching strategies using ICT since day one. One of the examples I am more proud of than most is the video tutorial series of flipped lessons I prepared for my year 10s as an extension alternative method for completing their statistics assignments. See my reflection on the statistics unit as a whole.

3.1 Establish challenging learning goals.

Graduate Level: Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics.

Proficient Level: Set explicit, challenging and achievable learning goals for all students.

3.1 Establish challenging learning goals.

What this standard means to me: Students need to be challenged, but they also need to experience a sense of success. Obviously the difficulty of a task has to be such that the students can successfully complete it, but if the difficulty is too low they will not feel a sense of accomplishment for completing it, because it was not difficult for them. It is also not solely a question of difficulty level, as different students have different strengths and weaknesses, different interests, and different backgrounds and prior knowledge. A task that is easy for one student might be hard for another, while another task could be the other way around for the same two students. As teachers, it is important for us to know our students and their capabilities, and to set challenging goals accordingly with appropriate differentiation included.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• The unit plans I made as part of the Master of Teaching coursework program, both for chemistry and maths, demonstrate this. In those unit plans I balanced difficulty in such a way that there should be challenging goals for students of varying abilities. This was not only included into the unit plan designs as a whole, but more specifically in the chemistry SAT, and in the inclusion of optional additional content into the maths lesson plan in the form of a short video.
• I had an interesting experience with my year 10 science class during week 3 of my placement at NMHS in which I repeatedly misjudged the difficulty level required for the class, and learnt alot about my students in the process. Interestingly, this process of me "misjudging the difficulty level required" actually resulted in some suprisingly good differentiation, where in the lesson where I gave the class work that was "too hard", a few certain students thrived, while in the following lesson when I gave them work that was "too easy", a completely non-overlapping group of students thrived. Unfortunately in both lessons there were a good number of students disengaged, but this was an experience I learnt alot from and that I would use to inform my planning later on in my second placement.
• I took what I learnt in my year 10 science class at NMHS, and I applied it very effectively in my year 10 maths class at BHS to the topic of indices. I set some extremely challenging questions, as there were students in the class that needed it, but I made them optional and in some cases hid them amongst a larger body of easier work. That way the students who where being challenged by the easier work spent time working through those, while the students who needed the extension zoomed through the easier work and spent their time on the more difficult questions. In this way I managed to both set challenging learning goals and also differentiated and it was a great success. Ultimately I set a very challenging question in the test at the end of the unit, and everybody did very well on it, with no students achieving below the standard. See some of the student responses in that test at the end of my reflection on the unit.

3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs.

Graduate Level: Plan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies.

Proficient Level: Plan and implement well-structured learning and teaching programs or lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning.

3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs.

What this standard means to me: Similar to APST 2.2 above<\a> it is important to organise content into a meaningful teaching sequence. If we try to teach a sequence of seemingly unrelated content our students will become disengaged, disinterested, and confused. But a well sequenced unit, with content that leads from one lesson to the next and has an overarching theme to link it all together, will allow our students to start making connections between different concepts covered in the same unit, and those connections are the key to understanding. A series of unconnected facts are not useful or meaningful. A web of interconnected facts each with an underlying meaning and understanding associated to it, can be applied to the real world in a useful way.

• Unit plans, both for chemistry and maths, completed as part of the coursework component of the Master of Teaching program go towards this standard.
• As do each of the units I taught during placement. In particular, the units I planned and delivered at BHS are particularly good examples of this:
  • In my year 10 maths class: a statistics unit, a unit on indices, and finally a unit on mostly quadratics with some extension into polynomials and other functions.
  • In my stage 1 general maths class I planned and delivered one entire unit of work (trigonometry), and started the next (networks).
  • In my stage 1 chemistry class I planned and delivered the entire acids and bases unit.

3.3 Use teaching strategies.

Graduate Level: Include a range of teaching strategies.

Proficient Level: Select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.

3.3 Use teaching strategies.

What this standard means to me: No one teaching strategy rules them all. Each topic is different, and lends itself to the use of different strategies. Each student is different, and will benifit from the use of different teaching strategies. Even different groups of the same students will have different social dynamics and benefit from different teaching strategies. As teachers, it is our role to be capable of implementing a variety of different teaching strategies, and to be able to judge which strategy or combination of strategies will be effective in a particular scenario, covering a particular topic, with a particular group of students.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• This is covered by the varied design of my unit plans, both for chemistry and maths.
• It is also demonstrated through how I varied my approach in the STiC simulations in order to find a teaching strategy that seemed to work,
• Through my reflections on the delivery of the CCC tutes, and
• Finally, and most importantly, through my use of various teaching strategies, including direct instruction ("chalk and talk"), small-group work, individual one-on-one feedback, online interactives, and more on teaching placement. See for example,
  • In my year 10 maths class at BHS: a statistics unit, a unit on indices, and finally a unit on mostly quadratics with some extension into polynomials and other functions.
  • In my stage 1 general maths class at BHS.
  • In my stage 1 chemistry class at BHS.
  • In my year 10 maths class at NMHS.
  • In my year 10 science class at NMHS.

3.4 Select and use resources.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.

Proficient Level: Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning.

3.4 Select and use resources.

What this standard means to me:

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• Similarly to the rest of standard 3 so far, this is reflected in my unit plans, both for chemistry and maths. However more specifically, in chemistry we did a task specifically on resource selection.
• Selection and use of resources is a key part in teaching any unit, and so evidence of my ability to do this is present in all of the teaching I have done on placement, see for example:
  • In my year 10 maths class at BHS: a statistics unit in which one of the particularly neat things I did was I made a video tutorial series of flipped lessons as an extension alternative method for completing their statistics assignments. Also see the unit on indices, and finally the unit on mostly quadratics with some extension into polynomials and other functions.
  • In my stage 1 general maths class at BHS.
  • In my stage 1 chemistry class at BHS.
  • In my year 10 maths class at NMHS.
  • In my year 10 science class at NMHS.

3.5 Use effective classroom communication.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement.

Proficient Level: Use effective verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student understanding, participation, engagement and achievement.

3.5 Use effective classroom communication.

What this standard means to me: Effective classroom communication is crucial so that students understand instructions, and have access to the content. Effective classroom communication is quite a wide topic, and covers verbal communication in the classroom, direct instruction and delivery of information verbally is often a cornerstone of teaching. In that context, it is essential to have quiet in the room so that every student can hear and to speak clearly and be heard, or you could disadvantage or confuse students who don't understand or know what is expected of them. Effective classroom communication goes beyond just verbal instruction however, and applies also to clarity of written instructions (either on a board at the front of the classroom, on a tasksheet, assignment, or test, but also to other resources such as flipped classroom videos, slides, notes, or websites. Clear and effective classroom communication is critical to ensure students understand what is expected of them, but also so they have access to the content and communication barriers between them and understanding are not added on top of any other barriers that might exist otherwise.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• During the coursework component of the Master of Teaching program we discussed strategies for effective communication in the STiC handbook assignment, and to some degree demonstrated our ability to use these strategies through the STiC simulations.
• My delivery of the CCC tutes could also be thought to contribute towards evidence of my ability to communicate in a classroom, and my work at the MLC (which is somewhat reflected in my slack post but I should really document further) also contributes to this.
• Much more importantly, is the time I have actually spent in the classroom, communicating, on placement. At NMHS I improved rapidly on my classroom communication with the help of feedback from my mentor teacher. I worked on improving my voice projection, and also on being insistent on waiting for silence before speaking. This insistence on waiting for silence initially seemed like a subtle little thing, but turned out to be a really vital component of both behaviour management and good classroom communication practice for me all the way through both my placements and continues to be one of the core concepts I continually remind myself of to ensure I continue to do, and has been very effective at improving my classroom communication, and behaviour management. These where things that I initially developed at NMHS in both of my year 10 maths classes and also my year 10 science class, but that carried through into all of my classes at BHS as by the time I left NMHS I had grown more comfortable with the techniques and implementing them in the classroom, and I had begun to appreciate their importance more. Effective classroom communication goes much beyond these verbal techniques of course, throughout those classes there are multiple examples of whiteboard work I put up (clear writing contributes to this standard as well), and other communication media as well, such as the videos I produced for them, slides, instructions written on tasksheets, assignments, and tests, etc. evidence for all these things is available through the links above.

3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate broad knowledge of strategies that can be used to evaluate teaching programs to improve student learning.

Proficient Level: Evaluate personal teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from students and student assessment data, to inform planning.

3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs.

What this standard means to me: Continual improvement of teaching programs is a fundamental component of teaching. Each time you deliver a teaching program as a teacher, you should be tailoring it to your unique group of students, and improving on the last time that program was delivered as well as updating it to incorporate more recent, relevant, information, examples, and context. Evaluating the effectiveness of a teaching program, and identifying it's shortcomings as key points on which to improve is a fundamental component to this improvement process, and relates heavily on assessment of student learning which is covered in more detail in APST 5.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• There was a student free day during which I attended an eastern secondary schools network moderation day. I received a certificate for participating in the moderation and surrounding discussions, and wrote a reflection on the experience afterwards.
• The development of unit plans for teaching is a continuous improvement process, one is never done, it can always be modified and improved. As such, I included a "TODO list" with my chemistry unit plan, evaluating where I think it could be further developed if I had additional time to work on it. This was actually a natural evolution of the process by which I constructed the unit plan, in that during construction I had a living TODO list of items with priorities, and I did as many of them as I could by the due date (which in a practical teaching context would be the time you start teaching the unit), and the submitted TODO list is simply whatever was still on the list at that point. In practice, I would continue working on the unit for the next time I taught it, and it would continually improve.
• Several of the units I delivered on placement I did not construct from scratch, but rather took existing units and modified and improved them. In particular an example of this was that I was fortunate enough to teach the same topic in both my teaching placements: year 10 statistics, and this gave me the opportunity to modify and improve on the way I taught it from the first time (at NMHS) to the second time (at BHS).

3.7 Engage parents/carers in the educative process.

Graduate Level: Describe a broad range of strategies for involving parents/carers in the educative process.

Proficient Level: Plan for appropriate and contextually relevant opportunities for parents/ carers to be involved in their children’s learning.

3.7 Engage parents/carers in the educative process.

What this standard means to me: As discussed in more detail in APST 7.3, it is important to recognise the fundamental role that parents/ carers play in our student's lives outside of school. As such, engaging parents/ carers in the educative process is crucial to achieving successful educational outcomes. Parents/ carers will often also have a vested interest in the outcomes of our students, and so will want to be informed and included in the educational process. Including them can therefore contribute towards developing productive and positive relationships with the parents/ carers which can only further benefit our students, both directly and indirectly by giving us as teachers additional avenues to pursue in incorporating relevant and meaningful content for our students.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• I have some limited experience with this through private tutoring, which I haven't documented here (although maybe I should).
• At BHS I was involved in the course counseling day where our year 10 and 11s came in for individual interviews with their parents/ carers to discuss subject choices for the following year. However due to privacy issues surrounding individual students and the need for anonymity evidencing this is tricky, I'll see if I can get an email from a mentor teacher or something but for now I don't have any direct evidence of this.
• Aside from those things, and a few emails between me and parents which I also am hesistant to include for privacy/ anonymity reasons, the only other experience/ evidence I can offer towards this standard is my use of Daymap. Both at NMHS and at BHS, parents/ carers had access to Daymap and would often check students assessment results and read feedback, or check for homework assigned, etc. The following posts include some anonymised samples of my reporting the results of formal summative assessments and providing feedback to students and simultaneously parents/carers via Daymap:
  • The statistics directed investigation my year 10 maths class at BHS did.
  • The indices skills and applications task my year 10 maths class at BHS did.
  • The trigonometry test my year 11 general maths class at BHS did.
  • I also reported results and provided feedback in a very similar manner for a year 10 science practical report and a year 10 statistics directed investigation at NMHS but I forgot to collect images of the Daymap postings so I don't have direct evidence of those.

4.1 Support student participation.

Graduate Level: Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.

Proficient Level: Establish and implement inclusive and positive interactions to engage and support all students in classroom activities.

4.1 Support student participation.

What this standard means to me: Student engagement and participation in classroom activities is fundamental to achieving good outcomes. Getting good student engagement and participation in practice however, can be complicated. There are alot of factors that can impact on students participating, and some of these we should as teachers be doing everything we can to avoid. In particular, students feeling uncomfortable, anxious, or concerned that their participation might be met with criticism or other negative responses. It is important to develop a classroom culture of respect, and to create an environment in which students can feel comfortable sharing their views and opinions and contributing to group discussions, participate in activities, and otherwise engage with lessons. In practice, this can be challenging but it is none-the-less important we do everything we can as teachers to overcome barriers students might have preventing them from engaging in class. This will be different for each student, and so addressing it will often require an individualised understanding of each student which is no small task, but it is possibly one of the most valuble things in which we can invest our time and effort as teachers.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• The Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC) training covered strategies for supporting inclusion and engagement in classroom activities, beyond the training itself the way the instructors went about engaging us was in itself a demonstration of best practice. See my certificate directly, or for a more indepth reflection on the training see my reflection here.
• I attended a webinar entitled "Understanding Aboriginality" which focused on building culturally safe learning environments. I received an attendance certificate, and wrote a reflection highlighting the key points covered.

4.2 Manage classroom activities.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions.

Proficient Level: Establish and maintain orderly and workable routines to create an environment where student time is spent on learning tasks.

4.2 Manage classroom activities.

What this standard means to me: Related to APST 3.5 in terms of providing clear instructions to students, it is then also important to follow through and manage the classrooms activities once they have received those instructions to ensure a productive and safe working environment for the students. This might involve reminding students of the task at hand, preventing or minimising distractions, or intervening with behaviour management strategies.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard: One of the key strategies I used in almost every class was to leave clear instructions on the board at the front of the class, and then walk around the class and use proximity and one-on-one conversations to manage the classroom, evidence of this and other classroom management techniques that I implemented on my two placements can be found:

• In several units of work I delivered to my year 10 maths class at BHS: a statistics unit, a unit on indices, and a unit mostly on quadratics.
• In my stage 1 general maths class at BHS.
• In my stage 1 chemistry class at BHS.
• In my year 10 maths class at NMHS.
• In my year 10 science class at NMHS.

4.3 Manage challenging behaviour.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate knowledge of practical approaches to manage challenging behaviour.

Proficient Level: Manage challenging behaviour by establishing and negotiating clear expectations with students and address discipline issues promptly, fairly and respectfully.

4.3 Manage challenging behaviour.

What this standard means to me: Challenging behaviour happens. There is no avoiding it, unfortunately. In principle, we should be doing everything we can as teachers to prevent it from occurring in the first place, by building a culture of respect and a safe learning environment, and in particular by building relationships with our students. But even under the best circumstances, having done all of the above, challenging behaviour will still occur, and it is important to be able to implement effective and appropriate strategies for managing it.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• The handbook assignment for Student Teacher Interaction in the Classroom involved summarising a list of behaviour management techniques useful in various situations.
• I managed a fair amount of challenging behaviour in my classes at NMHS, and although providing direct evidence of this is tricky. I have alot of feedback from my mentor on this which would constitute good evidence, but I would need to go through it and anonymise it all thoroughly because currently all the students invovled are referred to by name. I should go back and do this at some point.

4.4 Maintain student safety.

Graduate Level: Describe strategies that support students’ well- being and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements.

Proficient Level: Ensure students’ well-being and safety within school by implementing school and/ or system, curriculum and legislative requirements.

4.4 Maintain student safety.

What this standard means to me: Maintaining student safety is paramount. If students are not safe in your classroom, something is going seriously wrong.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• The Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC) training covered strategies for, as the name would naturally suggest, keeping students safe. See my certificate directly, or for a more indepth reflection on the training see my reflection here.
• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which I learnt more about the mental health issues young people experience, and how to better respond to and support them. I received an accreditation certificate, and wrote a reflection on the course.

4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching.

Proficient Level: Incorporate strategies to promote the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching.

4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically.

What this standard means to me: In this modern internet age, an awareness of cybersafety and the responsible and ethical use of ICT is crucial. The world our students will live in, and the world we live in right now, is an incredibly interconnected world and use of ICT forms a fundamental component of our day to day lives. This opens many doors and opportunities both in education, and in our day to day lives, but it also involves a whole new set of ethical responsibilities and dangers that we need to consider and remain well informed and aware of.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• The Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC) training covered strategies for, as the name would naturally suggest, keeping students safe. However one of the specific focuses was cybersafety and educating students on the responsible and ethical use of ICT. See my certificate directly, or for a more indepth reflection on the training see my reflection here.
• The entire ICT integration component of the core C&M course relates to this. One component that is particularly relevant was the task on Online Communication, in which we discussed the concept of a Digital Duty of Care. I got a certificate for completing the course as well.

5.1 Assess student learning.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.

Proficient Level: Develop, select and use informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative assessment strategies to assess student learning.

5.1 Assess student learning.

What this standard means to me: Assessment serves many important roles in teaching and learning, and this concept has been an overarching theme for my whole Master of Teaching program right from one of the initial assignments to reflect on this fact, right up to recognising the importance of assessment in my placements. In my practice I rely heavily on formative, informal, and diagnostic assessments to tailor my teaching to the level of the students and differentiate between the needs of different students. However, I also recognise the importance of formal summative assessment in its role in reporting, but also in its role in motivating students due to its role in reporting.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• Aside from the initial assignment mentioned above, there were several other assignments that directly addressed the issue of the role of assessment as part of the coursework for the Master of Teaching program. Specifically, a discussion/ comparison of assessment of vs. as vs. for learning, and an assignment on getting feedback using ICT.
• When I began the probability topic with my year 10 maths class, I used a pre-test as a formative diagnostic assessment in which I had them self-assess using solutions to determine how much of the probability topic they could remember from previous years. I used this assessment to determine how much detail I should go through the revision material, how quickly to move onto the new material, and which specific concepts I should spend more time on and explain in greater detail. See my reflections in this post, which contains numerous items of evidence.
• I've also delivered, marked (with the help of internal moderation with my mentor teachers), and reported on several formal summative assessment items, including:
  • Year 10 Movies Task (Statistics)
  • Year 10 Inertia Practical Report (Laws of Motion)
  • Stage 1 SACE General Maths Trigonometry Test, described in this reflection covering my whole experience with the class.
  • Year 10 Memory Game Task (Statistics), described in this reflection covering the entire unit
  • Year 10 Index Laws Test, described in this reflection covering the entire unit

5.2 Provide feedback to students on their learning.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning.

Proficient Level: Provide timely, effective and appropriate feedback to students about their achievement relative to their learning goals.

5.2 Provide feedback to students on their learning.

What this standard means to me: Providing feedback to students is crucial for their learning, and this core point just keeps coming up everywhere you look, notably in the famous work of Hattie but also elsewhere. The importance of feedback spans just about every aspect of education and can be crucial for many different reasons in many different contexts. This standard focuses on providing feedback to students on their learning. Primarily feedback is important to students to help them know where they are with their learning, build confidence and self-efficacy, and guide them to pursue certain lines of inquiry and abandon others. In all these contexts, the feedback being timely is particularly crucial. Lack of confidence and self-efficacy combined with long wait time for feedback can lead to disengagement, distraction, disinterest, or even worse frustration, anger, self-hatred, and in extreme cases can even contribute to mental health concerns and the development of an aversion to learning/ studying due to these negative associations. Delays in guidance can lead to students investing alot of time and effort pursuing lines of inquiry that end up feeling like dead ends to the students, which can also lead to feelings of frustration, anger, etc. Beyond this it also makes for inefficient use of class time for learning, and can impact on acheivment results and thereby link back to confidence and self-efficacy. For these reasons, and many more, it is fundamentally crucial to ensure that as teachers we are providing students with timely, and carefully considered feedback consistently and regularly. The issues surrounding the reasons for the importance of feedback are numerous, complex, and highly inter-connected, but the conclusions drawn from a consideration of these issues is always clear: clear and timely feedback is crucial for not only student learning, but also student wellbeing.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• I have, on numerous occasions, provided formal written feedback to students on summative assessment items. For examples of feedback (all anonymised), see the following assessment items that I delivered, marked (with the help of internal moderation with my mentor teachers), and reported on:
  • Stage 1 SACE General Maths Trigonometry Test, described in this reflection covering my whole experience with the class.
  • Year 10 Memory Game Task (Statistics), described in this reflection covering the entire unit
  • Year 10 Index Laws Test, described in this reflection covering the entire unit
• Although feedback on formal summative assessment tasks such those listed above is important, much more important in my opinion is ongoing feedback on informal formative assessments, and this is one of my key focuses as a teacher. I do this by interacting with students on a one-on-one basis regularly, aiming to interact with every individual student at least once every lesson, often multiple times. In these interactions I provide feedback on informal formative assessments made either verbally or by going through written work-in-progress and providing guidance and/or encouragement as needed. This process is ongoing, and is simply a product of how I conduct classes, so it is tricky to provide direct evidence of it without taking video of my in class (good idea actually, but I haven't done that as of right now). This is well reflected in feedback from my mentor teachers observing the lessons however, which is still good evidence for this. For specific reference to this see the feedback given to me by my mentor teachers shown above.

5.3 Make consistent and comparable judgements.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.

Proficient Level: Understand and participate in assessment moderation activities to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.

5.3 Make consistent and comparable judgements.

What this standard means to me: The importance of making consistent and comparable judgements should go without saying. I don't think it is necessary to go into much detail on why: one student gets a better grade than another for the same work, it is unfair. Ensuring that we are making consistent and comparable judgements can be difficult however, and this is where processes such as moderation become very important. Even with only good will, we all have inherent bias that is not malicious or bad intentioned, but can none-the-less impact on our students negatively. For this reason it is crucial to engage in moderation processes in an attempt to benchmark our assessments against other teachers, both to make our assessments as objective as possible, consistent accross the school (and wider), and also to balance out and raise our own awareness of these biases.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• There was a student free day during my placement, and I took this opportunity to go along with my mentor teacher to attend an eastern secondary schools network moderation day. I received a certificate for participating in the moderation and surrounding discussions, and wrote a reflection on the experience afterwards.
• As part of the coursework component of the Master of Teaching program I also participated in several mock moderation activities that where actually very beneficial in terms of better understanding the moderation process, and benchmarking my expectations for the standard of work from different students. These included:
  • The senior mathematics curriculum and methodology assignment to grade a set of SATS, for which I made a modified SACE performance standards rubric inspired by the one Glen Arthur gave us in the chemistry curriculum methodology course.
  • Both the senior mathematics and chemistry curriculum and methodology courses ran formative moderation activities as well, which I haven't written reflections on.
• I've also engaged in internal moderation of every formal summative assessment item I delivered on practicum, these included:
  • Year 10 Movies Task (Statistics)
  • Year 10 Inertia Practical Report (Laws of Motion)
  • Stage 1 SACE General Maths Trigonometry Test, described in this reflection covering my whole experience with the class.
  • Year 10 Memory Game Task (Statistics), described in this reflection covering the entire unit
  • Year 10 Index Laws Test, described in this reflection covering the entire unit

5.4 Interpret student data.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice.

Proficient Level: Use student assessment data to analyse and evaluate student understanding of subject/content, identifying interventions and modifying teaching practice.

5.4 Interpret student data.

What this standard means to me: One of the most important reasons for student assessment data is it's use to tailor our teaching to the students. If our teaching is not pitched at an appropriate level for our students, or it is not structured in a way that is suitable for our students, it will not be effective. We need to know what existing knowledge our students have that we can build on, what learning strategies our students prefer, and what contexts and interests will engage them. Student assessment data is one of the key sources of information we as teachers need to use in order to help us develop an understanding of our students for all these reasons. That being said, for all the discussion of the importance of collecting valid data (see APST 5.3 above), it is also important when interpreting student assessment data to "take it with a grain of salt". A student could have been sick one day, or they could have been doing an online assessment and their interpret cut out, in many scenarios we don't know the circumstances a student came from, and so it is important to maintain an open mind and not make any premature judgments of students based on assessment results alone. To me, this standard also applies to interpreting other student data beyond only formal summative assessments. Other important ways to collect information from our students includes asking them questions, and observing their reactions to different types of lessons. Observing student work and discussions between students during class time, discussions with students other teachers, parents/carers and other community members. These are all valuable sources of student data, which as teachers we should interpret in order to construct relevant, authentic, learning experiences for our students.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• During a staff meeting in my second placement I had the opportunity to help prepare some graphs of student achievement data over the past 4 years at the school to highlight trends and spark discussion amongst staff. During the same staff meeting, I also had the opportunity to participate in a professional development unit focused literacy and numeracy strategies, for which I got a certificate of participation. I also wrote a short reflection on my contribution to this analysis of student data.
• The activity I ran with my year 10 maths classes at NMHS during my very first lessons with them was a group based activity in which they needed a reasonable degree of social interaction and cooperation with each other. This went really well for many students, but certain students where very reluctant to participate and it was my assessment that their learning was being hindered by their relucance to participate in social and group work. Ultimately I would have wanted to help them develop these social skills and confidence through carefully engaging them with the rest of the class in safe, low pressure environments and activities. However in the limited time I had with them I used this formative assessment to determine that it would beneficial to offer alternatives to group work for the time being as well --- to give them choice, and the option to learn according to their strengths. To this end, later on in the unit when I introduced another group activity I included alternative individual work they could do instead. For evidence of this, see the last section of my reflection on week 3 at NMHS, which is when I introduced this differentiation.
• When I began the probability topic with my year 10 maths classes at NMHS, I used a pre-test as a formative diagnostic assessment in which I had them self-assess using solutions to determine how much of the probability topic they could remember from previous years. I used this assessment to determine how much detail I should go through the revision material, how quickly to move onto the new material, and which specific concepts I should spend more time on and explain in greater detail. Specifically, there where two major modifications to my teaching plan I incorporated as a result of this assessment: for some students, particularly international and english as an additional language students, I incorporated a focus on highlighting how to identify key terms in questions that would help in figuring out what the questions where asking, and I maintained this focus throughout the topic. THe second modification I made was incorporating more extension activities for those students who had already mastered the basic skills and would otherwise be bored during the topic. Evidence for each of these points is presented in my reflections on week 4 with these classes.
• In my year 10 science class, I marked their inertia practical reports and from this assessment item I identified some key gaps the students had in their knowledge, both around variables (dependant, independant, constant), and graphs. So the following week, when introducing them to their next practical, I modified my teaching plan to include additional time and explanations of these concepts before moving forward, and emphasised applying these concepts in the next practical to help them solidify their understanding. In terms of variables I went through this with the whole class as most of them had struggled with it, but with graphs it was a select group of 4 or 5 students who seem to just have had that gap in their knowledge, so while the class was beginning to work on writing up their prac reports for the next prac I took those students aside and ran a mini-tutorial for them on constructing graphs to give them some extra support, which they responded very well too. This is shown in my reflections on that week with the class.

5.5 Report on student achievement.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate understanding of a range of strategies for reporting to students and parents/carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement.

Proficient Level: Report clearly, accurately and respectfully to students and parents/carers about student achievement, making use of accurate and reliable records.

5.5 Report on student achievement.

What this standard means to me: Reporting is important for an number of reasons, principally for accountability, but also for many reasons similar to the reasons feedback is important (see APST 5.2 above). Stakeholders, including parents/carers, schools, and even policy-makers including national and state government, all have a vested interest in education, each for their own reasons. As teachers, we are held accountable to each of these stakeholders, and reporting is an important part of being transparent and accountable in our professional contribution. Unfortunately there are alot of subtleties, and often conflicting interests, involved in reporting, but as always my philosophy is that our primary responsibility as teachers should be to our students and their wellbeing. From this perspective, the overarching concern we should hold mind when addressing the various needs of stakeholders in reporting is the impact on our students. Particularly students with confidence and self-efficacy issues, reporting can impact on their decisions to pursue subjects such as mathematics or science to higher year levels, and can impact on their feelings of self worth. Often such effects can be damped by individual discussions with students, but they should always be kept in mind.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• I have, on numerous occasions, reported jointly to students and parents the results of formal summative assessment items through Daymap. These are three examples where I provide anonymised samples of this reporting as evidence:
  • Stage 1 SACE General Maths Trigonometry Test, described in this reflection covering my whole experience with the class.
  • Year 10 Memory Game Task (Statistics), described in this reflection covering the entire unit
  • Year 10 Index Laws Test, described in this reflection covering the entire unit

6.1 Identify and plan professional learning needs.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate an understanding of the role of the National Professional Standards for Teachers in identifying professional learning needs.

Proficient Level: Use the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and advice from colleagues to identify and plan professional learning needs.

6.1 Identify and plan professional learning needs.

What this standard means to me: It is important to celebrate our strengths, but more than that, to recognise and acknowledge our weaknesses, and take action to address those weaknesses and continually work to improve. This is true of everybody, but as teachers in the position of responsibility that we are placed, it is particularly so. Our weaknesses can affect our students, and impact on their learning, and so it is important for us to work to minimise any such negative effects we might have on our students. Beyond that though, it is even more important to "lead by example" in demonstrating to our students (and colleagues) that it is ok to not be an expert at something, and that it is important to recognise our weaknesses and work on them. We should demonstrate with our actions that one does not need to be, and should not be, embarrassed or ashamed to have shortcomings but rather celebrate it as an opportunity to improve and learn.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• This APST list and Self-Review Audit is precisely addressing this standard. In my view, the primary purpose of the APST are to help teachers identify their weaknesses and plan their professional learning to improve on their shortcomings.

6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice.

Graduate Level: Understand the relevant and appropriate sources of professional learning for teachers.

Proficient Level: Participate in learning to update knowledge and practice, targeted to professional needs and school and/or system priorities.

6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice.

What this standard means to me: Much as it is important to recognise our shortcomings as teachers and plan to improve ( APST 6.1 above), it is just as important to follow through with that plan and to actually engage in professional learning and realise that improvement.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• There was a student free day during which I attended an eastern secondary schools network moderation day. I received a certificate for participating in the moderation and surrounding discussions, and wrote a reflection on the experience afterwards.
• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which I learnt more about the mental health issues young people experience, and how to better respond and support them through their experiences. I received an accreditation certificate, and wrote a reflection on the course.
• I attended a webinar entitled "Understanding Aboriginality" which focused on building culturally safe learning environments. I received an attendance certificate, and wrote a reflection highlighting the key points covered.

6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice.

Graduate Level: Seek and apply constructive feedback from supervisors and teachers to improve teaching practices.

Proficient Level: Contribute to collegial discussions and apply constructive feedback from colleagues to improve professional knowledge and practice.

6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice.

What this standard means to me: Professional learning courses are a way to improve our practice as teachers ( APST 6.2 above), but often some of the greatest improvements can (and should) come from engaging with our colleagues. Often this can occur as a part of professional learning courses, as there are often opportunities to engage with colleagues, and said colleagues will likely be in a similar mindset of trying to learn and this can result in very productive learning from each other as a consequence. But engagement with colleagues goes beyond official professional learning courses, and should also be a part of day-to-day work as a teacher. We should be constantly talking to our colleagues about how to improve our practice, and learning from each other. Personally, this is natural to me, and this is often how I learn and grow the best. It is a crucial component of putting our professional learning needs into practice.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• There was a student free day during which I attended an eastern secondary schools network moderation day. I received a certificate for participating in the moderation and surrounding discussions, and wrote a reflection on the experience afterwards.
• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which I engaged with both the instructor but also the other teachers undergoing the course who where mostly very experienced teachers, and I learnt allot through this engagement with them. I received an accreditation certificate, and more relevant to this standard, wrote a reflection on the course.

6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning.

Graduate Level: Demonstrate an understanding of the rationale for continued professional learning and the implications for improved student learning.

Proficient Level: Undertake professional learning programs designed to address identified student learning needs.

6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning.

What this standard means to me: Professional learning should be a neverending cycle. It begins with first identifying our weaknesses and shortcomings as teachers, and planning our professional learning needs accordingly ( APST 6.1 above). Secondly, we then need to engage in that professional learning ( APST 6.2 and APST 6.3 above). Third, we need to put our learning into practice, which is the ultimate goal and purpose, beyond simple self-improvement, to impact on our students and their learning in a more positive way. Once we have done that, we need to go back to the first step and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies we have put into practice in our classroom, and identify further professional learning/ development we might need (and around and around we go). This standard relates to the third step of applying professional learning into practice to impact on our students in a positive way. This is the ultimate goal and although each step in the process is equally important, this is the one by which our success at engaging with professional learning can truely be measured by.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• There was a student free day during which I attended an eastern secondary schools network moderation day. I received a certificate for participating in the moderation and surrounding discussions, and wrote a reflection on the experience afterwards.
• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which I learnt more about the mental health issues young people experience, and how to better respond and support them through their experiences. I received an accreditation certificate, and wrote a reflection on the course. Later on in my second placement, I had opportunities to apply what I had learnt to support the mental health of students.

7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities.

Graduate Level: Understand and apply the key principles described in codes of ethics and conduct for the teaching profession.

Proficient Level: Meet codes of ethics and conduct established by regulatory authorities, systems and schools.

7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities.

What this standard means to me: As teachers we hold a position of responsibility. We have responsibilities to our students, to their parents and families, to the community more broadly, and to the teaching profession itself. My sense of morality leads me to appreciate the importance of each of these responsibilities, and although personally the one that resonates with me the most strongly is my responsibility to my students, I also recognise the importance of each of the responsibilities above that every teacher has. Beyond just morality however, these responsibilities have been codified explicitly in the Code of Ethics as published by the Teachers Registration Board of South Australia, making it not only a question of morality, but one of ethics. Similarly, although it is primarily my sense of morality that drives me to uphold and respect these responsibilities, I also recognise the importance of the ethics associated with them, and my personal moral judgement aligns to the Code of Ethics completely.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• The three core values articulated in the Code of Ethics align very closely with my own personal core values, as is surprisingly well reflected in the first draft of my personal statement, which I wrote long before I had read the Code of Ethics.
• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which I learnt more about the mental health issues young people experience, and how to better respond to and support them. I received an accreditation certificate, and wrote a reflection on the course. I believe that as teachers we have an ethical responsibility to support our student's wellbeing in every way we can, and mental health support is a critical component of that.

7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements.

Graduate Level: Understand the relevant legislative, administrative and organisational policies and processes required for teachers according to school stage.

Proficient Level: Understand the implications of and comply with relevant legislative, administrative, organisational and professional requirements, policies and processes.

7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements.

What this standard means to me: With the roles and responsibilities of a teacher being as important as they are, it is only natural that teachers must comply with rigorous legislative, administrative, and organisational requirements. The legislation is there primarily to keep people safe, which is essential. The administration is unavoidable due to the behemoth of a machine that education is, and so it is important to recognise and adhere to the administrative requirements in order to be "oil in the machine" rather than any alternative, particularly because of the importance to our society that this particular machine (the educational system) has. Organisations as entities are a crucial component of the education system, and must operate as a single whole. As such it is important to meet the organisational requirements as well, to be part of the team and act in conjunction with your relevant organisation in order to satisfy its crucial role in our society and provide the best care and education possible to it's students.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• I am First Aid Trained.
• I have undergone DCSI Screening.
• I have completed RAN Training.
• I have undergone LANTITE Testing.
• I have completed KS:CPC Training.
• I have complied with the University of Adelaide Code of Conduct.
• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which I learnt more about the mental health issues young people experience, and how to better respond to and support them. I received an accreditation certificate, and wrote a reflection on the course. As teachers we have a Duty of Care for students under our supervision. This extends beyond caring for their physical safety and to caring for their mental health as well.

7.3 Engage with the parents/carers.

Graduate Level: Understand strategies for working effectively, sensitively and confidentially with parents/carers

Proficient Level: Establish and maintain respectful collaborative relationships with parents/ carers regarding their children’s learning and wellbeing.

7.3 Engage with the parents/carers.

What this standard means to me: As teachers our primary responsibility should be to our students. It is important to recognise the massive role that parents/ carers play in our student's lives outside of school. As such, engaging with parents/ carers productively and respectfully is a crucial and fundamental component of our responsibilities as teachers to care about our students.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which I learnt more about the mental health issues young people experience, and how to better respond to and support them. I received an accreditation certificate, and wrote a reflection on the course. One of the other people undergoing the course with me was a parent trying to learn how to better support their child. Discussions with them helped me better understand the importance of, and strategies for working together with parents/ carers to support student's wellbeing.

7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities.

Graduate Level: Understand the role of external professionals and community representatives in broadening teachers’ professional knowledge and practice.

Proficient Level: Participate in professional and community networks and forums to broaden knowledge and improve practice.

7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities.

What this standard means to me: There exist teachers out there with enormous amounts of experience and expertise, knowledge and pedagogy from which we could learn and that by learning, we can benefit our students. As such, it is important for us as teachers to acknowledge that we do not know everything, and to learn from others by engaging with professional teachers through the various networks that exist to facilitate this. Even beyond teaching networks, the broader community also has enormous value that as teachers we should tap into. The broader community can not only contribute to our knowledge and understanding of our students, their backgrounds, cultures, and context, but can also help engage them by bringing that context into the classroom to make the content more relatable to the students, more authentic. Beyond that, bringing knowledge and examples of the broader community into the classroom is also important because of the opportunity to expose our students to cultures, knowledge, and contexts beyond their own that they might not otherwise be exposed too.

Relevant experiences, qualifications, and evidence of meeting this standard:

• There was a student free day during which I attended an eastern secondary schools network moderation day. I received a certificate for participating in the moderation and surrounding discussions, and wrote a reflection on the experience afterwards.
• I attended a two-day course titled "Youth Mental Health First Aid" during which I engaged with both the instructor but also the other teachers undergoing the course who where mostly very experienced teachers, and I learnt allot through this engagement with them. I received an accreditation certificate, and more relevant to this standard, wrote a reflection on the course.
• I attended a webinar entitled "Understanding Aboriginality" which focused on building culturally safe learning environments. I received an attendance certificate, and wrote a reflection highlighting the key points covered.