2014 - Upper Primary Teaching (Full Year)
Background Context
Throughout 2014 I taught year 6/7, year 6 and year 7 classes at an urban primary school full time. This included teaching a year 7 science class, within a collaborative team of four science classes, a year 6 maths, reading and spelling class, and a home split 6/7 class for all other subjects. I completed the SWITCH transition program during this time, which enables me to teach science to secondary students, and I worked with a Department of Education Graduate Advocate Mentor, who coached my teaching in class for over 20 hours. I was also a member of the science committee at the school due to my science background, and I provided significant input to the implementation of a whole school science week.
Reflective Commentary
2014 was my first fully independent experience as a graduate teacher, and it was invaluable in my professional development. As a double graduating year with the year 7 grade transitioning to high school, this was an extremely demanding time for upper primary teachers, and our school made the decision to make all of our classes split 6/7 classes, so as not to disadvantage any of our students. Although this generally worked very well, the implications of having 7 split 6/7 classes in terms of timetabling was significant! We also year leveled for several specific subjects as discussed above, and this culminated in a need for me to report to parents on over 50 children! Although this was a very demanding year, it was a critical step in my growth to become a proficient educator.