Tess SweeneyProfessional Portfolio

ContentsMy Journey so far

My Teaching philosophy

Teaching experience

My engaging classroom

Victorian Essential Learning Standards

Numeracy

Literacy

E-potential

My Planning and Organisation

Assessment

Reporting

Professional Development

Teamwork

Interaction with students

Work related experience

TAC-Q

International placement

My goals for 2010

Joining the teaching profession

My Journey so far…INTERESTS

SCHOOL RELATED

EXPERIENCE

VOLUNTEER WORK

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

SKILLS

BEACHI love water sports and

particularly enjoy being by the beach. I enjoy surfing and

swimming.

FITNESSI enjoy attending the

gym. It believe it is very important to

keep your mind and body healthy and

alertTRAVELLING

I enjoy travelling and experiencing

different cultures.

Australian Education Union AEU

SCHOOLS AFFECTED BY BUSHFIRESJoined group at University after the

February bushfires that helped collect resources for schools affected.

Also visited some of the school affected and assisted in the

classrooms.

YWCAWhile studying

abroad volunteered at a women's

refuge. My responsibilities were preparing

healthy sufficient snacks for the

children.

PD WEEK COMMITTEECollaboratively organised a

professional development week for teaching students at Deakin

University

Victorian Independent

Education Union VIEU

ICT in Education VictoriaICTEV

Primary English Teaching

Association E-LIT

ANAPHALATICS TRAINING

I lived, studied and did a teaching

practicum abroad for a

semester

TAC QTeenage Adventure Camps

Queensland is an organisation that runs camps for teenagers

with disabilities and life threatening illness. I volunteered on the camp for 4 years and my

responsibilities including showering, feeding and ensuring

general wellbeing of the teenagers.

TRY YOUTHWorking as a leader at local primary

school holiday program activities included art and craft activities and

excursions with the group.

I believe it is a teachers

responsibility to find meaningful ways of connecting learning

with real world situations.

I believe that all students are capable of

learning and it is the teachers responsibility to ensure all children have opportunity to learn, using various

strategies.

LEVEL 2 FIRST AID TRAINING

LEVEL 1 AUSLAN

I have 3 sisters and I am a non identical

twin

Volunteering time to help out at Hughesdale Primary School.

This photo is of the last night of TAC-Q. The leaders wear fancy dress and make it a really special and fun night for the campers. I am in the middle with 2 other leaders in our fairy costumes we made!

My Teaching PhilosophyEducation is one of the most important gifts we can

give children today, and a good education should be a basic human right not something only for the

privileged.

It is important for students to feel comfortable in their learning environment. As teachers we must make ourselves available and

approachable to students if the require assistance.

As a teacher I believe the best way to help students

learn is getting to know their strengths, weaknesses,

likes and dislikes.

The purpose of today's schools is educating the youth of today to be the

leaders of tomorrow. Students need to be

educated from a worldly perspective to learn from mistakes made in the past

and move forward confidently.

It is important that I help students become lifelong

learners. It is also important that as a teacher I find

meaningful ways of connecting learning to real life

tasks.Students need to be respected as

individuals. In order for students to learn effectively their differences need

to be considered and respected.

All students are capable of learning and it is the teachers responsibility to ensure all children have opportunity to learn, using various strategies.

Teaching ExperienceMurrumbeena

P.SMalvern P.S Rossville

Elementary School(U.S.A.)

Coatesville P.S

Cheltenham East P.S

Brunswick EastP.S

HighvaleP.S

Hughesdale P.S

1st year observing

6 days observation

in a prep class

2nd year first semester.

6 days observation

in a prep classroom

2nd year second

semester.International placement at

an Elementary

school in Indiana, USA.

1 half day each week of the semester.

3rd year first semester10 days

teaching on average 1 lesson per

day.

3rd year first semester10 days

teaching on average 2

lessons per day. Taught

24 lessons in total.

3rd year first semesterWorked

weekly with prep students

teaching science.

3rd year second

semester 10 days

taught 24 lessons in

total.

4th year return for 3

blocks during the year.

Completed 45 days in

total-on final placement

teach for 10 days

consecutively.

My Engaging Classroom"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think." -- Socrates

Engaging + Challenging + Safe=Positive learning Environment

I am aware that all students learn differently. Multiple intelligences enables teachers to cater for a range of student abilities. If I am aware of students preferred learning styles and interests I can design learning activities that are meaningful and effective.

Body Movement: You like to move, dance, wiggle, walk, and swim. You are likely good at sports, and you have good fine motor skills. You may enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together. Incorporating body movement into your learning will help you process and retain information better.

I am aware of my own strengths and can identify areas of development as an emerging member of the profession.

I will follow the discipline procedures in place at my school.

http://thsw.edublogs.org/

This is a blog I created to share and reflect with my peers effective classroom management strategies.

Catering for ALL students

I use a range of teaching approaches which foster independent and cooperative learning and cater for different learning needs of the classroom.

I establish clear expectations of behaviour for a safe learning environment.

I am aware of classroom management challenges and develop appropriate professional responses to them.

Kim Crane, Hughesdale Primary School

Deborah Ash, Cheltenham East Primary School

“I hear I forget. I see I remember.I do I understand.”

Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS)

I know how to integrate learning and student understanding across a number of content areas.

I have a critical understanding of the content, processes and skills that I teach

I am familiar with curriculum statements, frameworks and assessment structures commonly used in schools.

SCIENCE Level 2 Unit of work integrated across 2 strands of VELS

Kathy Wills, Highvale Primary School

Deborah Ash, Cheltenham East Primary School

“She has reasonable knowledge of the curriculum areas and successfully integrated domains when planning.”

INQUIRY BASED Unit of work on Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Numeracy

=

1

2

3

=

I regard all students as capable of learning and demonstrate an understanding of equity.

Open ended activities are useful when teaching math because they allow students of varying levels to work on the same question at their own speed. They are a great tool for peer learning as students share their different strategies and ideas they used to solve the problem.

This is a Dartboard I created to use in my grade 3 classroom when doing place value

+÷

Lesson plan of one of my favourite

maths lesson.

Literacy

BA

C

This is a weekly planner I developed for my grade 3 class during writing time. The outcome was a narrative about a day in the life of an aboriginal child.

Lesson plan of my favourite Literacy lesson.

This is a writing sample of one of my students finished information reports. Students were given the opportunity to research something relating to water that they were interested in.

I establish clear and challenging and achievable learning goals for students as individuals and groups.

This is a web based activity I created and published using

Microsoft Power point

This is PowerPoint presentation I developed demonstrating Future education

and the importance of technology

This is a web quest I designed using Microsoft word

Click here to view a blog I created on classroom management.http://thsw.edublogs.org/

e-potentialI believe technology is a very useful tool in today's classroom. Technology is not meant to replace the role of the teacher, instead it is meant to act as an aid to the teachers instruction. Using technology as a tool in the classroom creates an engaging environment that encourages student learning.

Educational software programs allow students to explore environments and situations they would not be exposed to in a normal classroom setting.

Implementing software in the classroom will benefit my students throughout their life. We are living in society surrounded by technology and it is important students have familiarized themselves with devices available.

We need to think about how we can use these in our classroom…

We also need to keep in mind that with the rapid technological advances things taught today in 2 years time may no longer be relevant.

Students in a classroom I did some volunteer work with using computers to do a research assignment on Antarctica

I design lesson plans which integrate a range of activities, resources and materials to support learning, including the use of ICT and other technologies.

“Many of her lessons included use of the Interactive Whiteboard.”Kim Crane, Hughesdale Primary School

I am confident in my ability to use and implement technology such as interactive whiteboards, digital cameras and computer programs into the classroom. I enjoy using technology and made it a focus on my most recent teaching round to ensure I integrated technology appropriately into my lessons.

Each lesson I teach has a focus and objective that is explicit to the students interests and point of need.

I find checklists an effective way of keeping track of work students have completed.

This is a weekly plan I developed for each days reading rotations. The plan was used by all level 3 teachers.

Daily Planner

My Planning & Organisation

Weekly planner

Kim Crane, Hughesdale Primary School

Kim Crane, Hughesdale Primary School

My AssessmentAssessment is the ongoing process of gathering, analysing and reflecting on evidence

to make informed and consistent judgments to improve future student learning.

I believe it is important that a wide variety of assessment techniques should be used in the classroom to ensure that every child is given the opportunity to show what they know.

This is an assessment rubric I designed to assess students portfolio poetry piece.

This is an example of a self assessment activity I had my students complete. They had to write a letter to me explaining what they were good at and what they needed to improve in relation to fractions.

These are some of the different strategies I have used to evaluate student learning.

Anecdotal evidence I took while teaching a sequence of lessons on fractions. Helped identify students abilities.

Familiar with assessment and reporting processes. I worked with my supervising teacher at Hughesdale primary school to assess information reports and match them against relevant progression points.

Self assessment

Pre test results against progression points enabled me to see where to focus my teaching. Post test results allowed me to reflect on student learning by comparing the results with the pre tests.

I evaluate student responses and work samples, using a variety of strategies and tools to make appropriate assessments of learning and plan for future learning activities.

Assessment AS learning

Assessment OF Learning

Assessment FOR learning

ReportingReporting is the process of communicating information about student achievement and progress teachers gain from the assessment process. The process of reporting supports teaching and learning by providing feedback to students, parents and teachers.

Conducting parent teacher interviews enabled me to strengthen my knowledge of the reporting process.

This is a lesson plan where students had struggled with an aspect of fractions from the previous day. I made sure I included time at the beginning of the lesson to reflect and discuss the lesson to help clear up some of the misconceptions of my students.

I am aware of the importance of providing feedback. It is important students know where they are making progress and what they need to improve.

I am aware of tools and practices for assessing recording and reporting student learning progress to parents and other stakeholders.

Familiar with report cards

Expected level of achievement

Student achievement this year

Student achievement 12 months ago

Professional developmentDate Topic Presenter

22nd April Behaviour Management Alan Marshall

28th April Classroom Management Glen Pearsal

29th April Parent teacher relationships Heather Carr

6th May Legal Liability James Rankin

13th May Working with hearing impaired students

3rd June Discussion with Principles Sheryl Chard

18th May (Hawker Brownlow Conference) -Achieving disABILITY Awareness in Every School-Going beyond the labels-Tools for Engagement-The Secrets of Total Participation-Green Light Classrooms-Strategies that Accelerate Student Learning

-Toby Karten-Eric Jensen-Rich Allen

25th May (Primary Science Conference) -New Discoveries and best practice in teaching science-Investigating frogs at Ecolinc-Connected?-The Real Fibre Challenge: International year of natural fibres

-Cathy Cavedon & Julie Evans-Suzanne Clark & Nicole Mason-Kerry Rowett-Natasha Ziebell

9th June First Aid Level 2 Mark Bravelli

10th June Interactive Whiteboards Catherine Loosley

11th June The teachers role-communicating effectively Ross Dean

11th June Early Literacy Lorraine Wilson

Attending professional development sessions demonstrates my commitment to continue professional learning.

TeamworkTeaching requires a lot of teamwork to achieve results. I have been given many opportunities to be part of teams and have found working in teams to be a very rewarding experience.

Schools affected by bushfiresWorking with other likeminded students at Deakin University to develop resources for schools devastated by the 2009 Black Saturday fires. Also teams of students went up to the schools and assisted in classrooms at schools affected by the bushfires to give classroom teachers an opportunity to catch up on testing. I visited Toolangi Primary School.

-Member of the Deakin University Professional Development week committee.A group of about 30 members organized a week of P.D.’s for over 300 students. The committee was divided into smaller teams each responsible for organizing a certain aspect of the week. I was in the catering group. We were responsible for getting organisations to cater the P.D’s, ensuring there was enough food for people attending the P.D’s, the food arriving on time and to the correct location.

-Purdue Service Learning ProjectAs part of an assignment, we were divided into groups according to interests. As a group we had to complete a Service learning project. Being placed in groups instead of being able to choose meant that their were some conflicts that arose that required everyone's effort to pull together and resolve in order to produce the assignment. Our Service Learning project was done in cooperation with the greater Lafayette YWCA and we decided to prepare healthier snacks for children. Our goal was to teach children to get themselves healthier alternative to the convenient packet of chips.

-Teenage Adventure Camps-QueenslandWorking with a number of other volunteers to ensure teenagers with life threatening illnesses are given a week on camp filled with fun activities. The week is all about the teenagers and 24 hour attention needs to be given to several of the campers. Volunteers need to work together to make sure campers especially those wheelchair bound are able to enjoy the week.

-Supervising Teachers-While on teaching rounds working with my supervising teachers to ensure desired outcomes are achieved.

After completing Service learning there is generally a celebration where groups present what they achieved. This is my group with our poster and a display with healthy snacks we prepared at the YWCA as well as copies of the recipe books we developed.

This is me presenting to my peers and local community organisations our achievements with the project

I can work purposefully and cooperatively with colleagues.

Interaction with studentsThis is a photo of me and some of the teenagers I cared for on TAC-Q.

I demonstrate empathy and positive regard for and rapport with students.

I model exemplary behaviour for positive interactions with others.

Kim Crane, Hughesdale Primary School

Kim Crane, Hughesdale Primary School

Andrea Quinn, Malvern Primary School

Tess’ individual and small group rapport was a definite strength and she used every opportunity to be involved with the children. It is obvious she enjoys working with children and she really enjoyed this age group. She has been a wonderful asset to our classroom and the children have thoroughly enjoyed having her in the classroom.

Work Related ExperienceI have been employed at Murrumbeena Primary School Before and After school care program since 2001 after I completed community service there as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award.

This is an example of the activities I help run at the holiday program.

TRY Youth

Murrumbeena Primary SchoolBefore & After School Care

MURRUMBEENA PRIMARY SCHOOLOUT OF SCHOOL HOURS CARE

RESPONSIBILITIES:1. To assist with the serving of afternoon snack and

refreshments offered to all children2. Ensure all children remain within the designated

area of the school grounds and are kept under supervision at all times.

3. Ensure that children observe school and playground rules. Always inform the Co-ordinator or Assistant Co-ordinator of any problems.

4. With other staff of OSHC provide a safe, happy and caring environment for the children, and maintain good communication with the Co-ordinator and Assistant Co-ordinator

5. Notify the Co-ordinator of any change to your roster within 48 hours.

TRY Youth Vacation Care provides care for children who are at primary school, over the school holidays. The program offers in house and excursion days. I am a leader at TRY youth and that involves helping to run the holiday program at Murrumbeena Primary School.

WORK RELATED EXPERIENCETAC-Q Teenage Adventure Camps QLD

http://www.tacq.org.au/

TAC-Q is a non for profit charity that runs adventure camps for teenagers with life threatening illnesses. I have been privileged enough to volunteer on 4 of the TAC-Q camps and have found the weeks at camp the most rewarding experiences of my life.

This is a picture of me and camper Nathan, (right) who I have cared for at all 4 TAC-Q camps and his friend Billy who came on his first camp last year.

Volunteers at TAC-Q have the responsibility •to be reliable and dependable•To be committed with the support they provide•To use reasonable judgment in any situation•To be accountable for his/her action•To uphold privacy and confidentiality in regards to the person•To provide feedback, suggestions and recommendations•To communicate with the person if they are unhappy about something relating to their work•To respect all people they come in contact with•To seek guidance and direction in areas they are uncertain•To seek support and reassurance if the position is stressful•To respect and observe the rights and responsibilities of the person they are working with•To ensure equipment is treated with respect and care•To ensure work equipment is treated with respect and care•To ensure they have acted accordingly in an emergency situation by contacting the relevant people•Understanding the campers vulnerabilities and proactively prevent placing them in any situation of abuse and neglect.

Wheelchair dancing at the camp disco

This is a picture of myself and the campers I cared for last year along with 2 other volunteers.

This is a copy of a letter I received from a child I cared for at camp and his parents.

Background

As a volunteer on camp I understood the professional behaviour and ethical conduct that was expected from me. As well as the duty of care for my campers.

This is a article I wrote in the TAC-Q newsletter after my first camp. The newsletter is sent to families and community groups who are involved with the camp. It also demonstrates my ability to communicate not only with school aged children but also their parents.

International PlacementPURDUE UNIVERSITYThis is a picture of Purdue University grounds

At Purdue I achieved academic honors.

I believe the education experiences you receive when travelling are priceless, so in my second year at Deakin

University I decided to embark on a semester of studying abroad. I was accepted at Purdue University, Indiana, USA.

I found travelling opens up your mind to so many things that you

are unable to experience at home.

Immersing yourself in another country and learning about

different cultures from around the world are lessons that

teachers can bring back to their own classrooms.

Involved in Service learning Assignment which enabled me to

volunteer at YWCA .Making a Web quest

-Visiting an elementary school When studying at Purdue I did practicum at

Rossville Elementary school 1 half day a week.

Exploring a curriculum other then VELS

Developing web pages

Studying at Purdue University allowed me to take part in a number of learning experiences that I would not have had if I had not decided to study abroad including:

My goals for 2010• My main goal for next year is to be employed at a primary school where

professionally I will be able to learn and grow as a new member of the teaching profession and where I am supported by my colleagues and the wider school community.

• I hope to establish a safe and supportive learning environment that myself and my students look forward to being part of each day

• As a teacher my most important goal is to ensure I impact every student I teach in at least 1 positive way.

• I will strive to be a teacher who students remember for years after they have left school because they were inspired and motivated by something I said or did for them.

• I hope to obtain my Auswim next year and continue learning Auslan. • I am enthusiastic about beginning my teaching journey next year and will involve

myself in extra curricular activities my school offers its students.• I look forward to establishing myself in a school community as an effective

classroom teacher and a valuable member of the teaching staff.

Joining the teaching professionI am excited about becoming a member of the teaching profession. I have joined a few professional associations including the

-AEU -VIEU-ICTEV-e-LIT

WHAT CAN I BRING TO YOUR SCHOOL…•PD week committee•Netball coaching•Camps (TAC-Q)•Manager responsible for training junior staff members•Try Youth•Murrumbeena BSC and ASC•Teamwork

Being a member of professional associations enables me to contribute to a professional learning community in a school and the wider community.

After each lesson I try and write a reflection about the positives that came from the lesson and the things that could improve for next time. I find it really important that I am continually reflecting and learning from my on experiences.

Kim Crane, Hughesdale Primary School

Kathy Wills, Highvale Primary School

Deborah Ash, Cheltenham East Primary School

Kathy Wills, Highvale Primary School