BED 150

Assignment Part B

Richard Clifford
Student ID: 32541011

URL:
http://richardclifford.weebly.com

Professional Experience Portfolio (50%) Site address (link) and your name.
Richard Clifford (32541011)
http://richardclifford.weebly.com
_____________________________________
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION

COMMENTS

PART A (20%)
Required components for both the Primary
and Secondary Professional experiences:
Lesson Plans (4)
Observation Sheets (one set for primary and
one set for seconday):
Questioning
Management and
Schools as text
Evaluation Form/Final report (2)
Lesson Critiques (At least 2)

PART B (30%)
Essay Tell the story of your Professional
experience and reflect on your choice of
Primary or Secondary Teaching.
Frame your story using the unit outcomes
(Unit Information).
Correct essay conventions are required as are
in text referencing and standard writing
conventions. (500 words)
Tutor

Richard Clifford
32541011
Part B

TOTAL MARK for

Observations
and Essay
/50

Having completed the required practical component for BED 150 I

can confidently say that I was right in my choosing of a career path
in high school education. This essay will discuss that to be a
teacher, one must accept the role of not only being the presenter of
information, but also a person who understands the dynamics and
variations of a diverse class, that the range of ability and needs of
students within a class can be large, and how this experience gave
me insight into the function of Australian schools in todays society.
I believe being a primary teacher requires you to know your
students on a more personal level, leading you to take on roles that
may seem unrelated to teaching. My high school mentor seemed to
have fewer obligations, concerning herself with mainly teaching
content and simple class management. However I witnessed my
primary mentor teacher making sure every child had lunch every
day, having to ring one childs parents after having no lunch for
consecutive days, address a behavioural issues impacting the class
that occurred outside of school, and was even party to a discussion
involving the Department of Child Protection. These efforts werent
reflected in my highs school mentors role at all; with her telling a
student to simply leave the room after having enough of his
behaviour.

All

this

made

me

acknowledge

the

variation

in

responsibilities between teachers roles and that the responsibilities

of primary school teaching, through their constant daily interaction
with their students, develop more in depth relationships resulting in
the need to accept these dynamic roles and responsibilities.
The diversity in ability and needs between students was also
something I observed to a larger extent in my primary placement.
During one of the primary teachers year 6 lessons I was to
individually test students reading outside. This allowed me to see
the range of reading ability within the class, with some students

being able to read harder words such as hypocritical, psychology,

phlegm etc. perfectly and others unable to pronounce simple
words like,
Richard Clifford
32541011
Part B
stationary, excitement and experiment. As well as this, during
my micro maths lesson it was also very evident that mathematics
skills within the class were varied. Unfortunately being placed in
Technology and Design at high school only really allowed me to see
students needs vary in relation to how comfortable or efficient they
were on certain machines or a computer program.
Schools functions vary, and my two placement schools reflected
this, although there are fundamentals that were apparent in both,
these included having a duty of care over their student, and the
obligation to provide the facilities for a safe and inviting learning
environment. My high school was a specialist school of the arts, with
95% of its students having been chosen after an intense selection
process. This opened my eyes to the fact that a schools function
can be to provide support, and facilitate progress in areas other
than academia, which I feel, is more reflective of todays society.
During my placement I observed the responsibilities of both primary
and high school teachers, how diverse a class can be in academic
ability and the need to accommodate your lessons to suit everyone.
I saw how a schools function, as well as teach academic content,
can vary from encouraging and facilitating progress in dance,
drama, soccer, or music, to reminding children, and some parents,
about the necessities of life. These last two weeks were a fantastic
experience that solidified my choice of high school education.