Welcome to my Portfolio

Welcome to my ePortfolio, demonstrating my capabilities against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

Hi everyone,

This is a wonderful interactive session. Resources used throughout are available on the course StudyDesk within this week’s industry presentation folder. What did you glean from this presentation?

Kylie Stafford brings energy and passion to this week’s presentation. There is so much to take out of it. I have not had the opportunity to chunk the video into smaller digestible bits as yet, so just watch in your own timings and come back to it when you feel like it.

Kylie’s approach is all about de-escalation and building positive relationships.

The statistics presented by Kim Kelleway are staggering and disturbing. You are statistically likely to have a students in your classes that have been or are being sexually abused, most commonly by someone they know well. This presentation alerts us to the characteristics of of those students most likely to be targeted and to the approaches predators utilise to undertake this abuse. Kim identified four key messages that teachers can instil in their students to help them protect themselves against such abuse and help them come forward and report should the worst happen.

What are you thoughts on Kim’s message? What do you take away from the presentation that you feel you can implement as a teacher or parent?

This session gives you an overview of working within the Department of Education and looks at some of the support structures you can expect should you begin your career with DoE. There is quite a lot to take in, but Suzie King talks about those community things you need to be comfortable in your first teaching job.

For you, what are those essentials. What or who do you need to be near? What services or activities will you need to have access to? Over the next 6-12 months, you may be in a position where you will be offered a teaching position. What things will help you decide to take the job or not?

This week, Melissa Kinnear, Special Education Teacher at Middle Ridge State School and highly experienced teacher, provides us with a research based insight into what to do and what not to do with your teacher aide. As a beginning teacher, I know I really struggled with making the most of this valuable resource.

What have been some of your experiences on placement, as a parent, or as a teacher aide? What effective or ineffective approaches have you seen?

Teachers are held to a higher standard of behaviour than most other professionals due to the fact that they work closely with a extremely vulnerable group of people….children and adolescents. There are a number of key areas that teachers need to be aware of in relation to The Code and also with respect to the use of social media.

What did you find surprising or challenging in relation to what was presented in this session?

I thought this was a great little session. There was a great deal packed into it, but I took a great deal away, particularly in terms of the resume layout. The simplicity of it really resonated with me. What little gems did you come away with?

I can very clearly remember my first year as a teacher in Far North Queensland in the early 1990’s. As it was so very far away from my home here in Toowoomba and such a very different community to what I was accustom to, it took me a great deal of time to settle in.

Thankfully, the class I had were beautiful (if not challenging) and I was very much able to throw myself into the teaching aspect of my life. I was also lucky to have a principal who made efforts to include me in the community in a variety of ways.

But it was very isolating and very lonely. I did not cope very well with this aspect of existence and struggled at times personally. For you, what are the key things that you can do to help you support yourself as a beginning teacher? What are your concerns? Share your ideas about what you think your first year will look like.

In this week’s presentation, my friend and colleague, Mark Butlin, discusses some of the key aspects of the law that teachers need to be aware of.

During my career, I was very lucky not to have had any legal proceedings brought against me or any of my teachers. This does not, however, mean that things did not take place that could have led to such proceedings, particularly in terms of injury to students or supervision matters.

What particularly concerns you in relation to legal matters and being a teacher? Do you have any key concerns?