Tom Dawson - Young, enthusiastic Business and Japanese specialist

Professional Knowledge
My philosophy for teaching is based on a realistic, practical approach to
prepare students for life after school. I engage in firm but fair relationships
with students driven by humour. I readily alter my approach when working
with different year level cohorts and work well with young adult learners
especially. I encourage students to build independence and trust in their
own abilities and make their own decisions by using a mixture of Choice
Theory and Positive Behaviour Management strategies.
As a previous VET/TAFE student, I recognise students have many
different pathways for further education and I support students to choose
and follow their own career path. On my first prac, for example, I
supported the VET Fitness students by providing them with firsthand,
practical lessons based on current industry trends and procedures to
supplement their student workbook materials. Similarly, the Business
students engaged better with examples from my personal experiences
running my own business, as well as working for small-large companies.
Recognising that the best learning outcomes occur when students are
engaged, my lessons are flexible and differentiated for everyone to
succeed. I achieve this by providing numerous opportunities for extension
for high-achievers and scaffolded material for students with disabilities
and/or learning difficulties. On my first prac I created a range of threetiered quizzes so each student could choose the most challenging quiz
based on their own ability or level.
Using real-world examples and news topics maintains relevance and
context for students. The RBA released the new $5 note while I was
teaching Year 10 Commerce, so even though we werent studying money,
we spent some time discussing the currency change and its impacts.
Similarly, a story on a Japanese boy getting abandoned in a forest
became a top news article in Australia, so we discussed it in Year 11
Japanese, with reference to Japanese traits of gaman and saving face.
I follow up with absent students to ensure they have class materials and
make myself available for pastoral care, subject-specific tutoring,
lunchtime help, emails, drafting process, etc. One Year 9 benefited from
catch up handouts for Japanese, as he had missed 90% of lesson time
and was struggling to understand class content. I also modified an
assessment task for a student who was going overseas for a funeral to
ensure she still met SACE requirements for Stage 1 assessment.
Professional Practice
Thorough understanding of Australian and SACE curricula enables me to
quickly and creatively design lessons and unit plans to create an engaging
study environment. On both teaching pracs I drove the development and
modification of performance standards and assessment tasks to better
align with the AC. For AC in particular, I develop assessments that focus
on building competence across a variety of sub-strands at once, rather
than assessing each skill in isolation, ensuring core competencies such
as Intercultural Learning are present throughout topics. For example, I
created a Japanese task focusing on reflections of ICL, creativity and the
role of language before even considering whether the task would be
reading and responding, written, oral, listening, role play, a letter, etc.
Foreign Language Learners in particular need a highly encouraging,
supportive classroom environment to meet the high standards set by
SACE and AC for Japanese. My teaching meets this aim by keeping
language learning fun and engaging - students learn best when they are
engaged and inspired. Using an engaging variety of multi-modal teaching
tools supports different learning styles. For example, cutting out Japanese
song lyrics to practise listening skills, or passing a hot potato plush
Japanese character around the classroom to develop conversation skills.

Educational research (by Hattie,

eg) shows that timely and
targeted teacher feedback has
the greatest effect on improving
student outcomes. Therefore I
promptly mark and return tasks
with thorough, diligent feedback
to rubrics at all times to maximise
these positive learning outcomes.
On both pracs I gave individual
and whole class feedback (oral
and written) in a positive,
constructive
manner,
with
suggested solutions to issues
encountered by the whole class.
Delivering the feedback in this
way to my Stage 1 Business
students led to marked improvement for their subsequent business report.
My strong computer skills enable me to devise creative, innovative lessons
using ICTs to make learning more engaging, practical and accessible. I
have demonstrated this by trialling a variety of Flipped Classroom
pedagogies, websites such as PollEverywhere, Quizlet and Vivia, and a
huge suite of mobile/tablet Japanese apps. Regular maintenance of
Workspace/Moodle course pages means lesson, topic and assessment
details are available anytime, anywhere, and allows me to counteract issues
associated with low attendance and homework/task confusion. Students on
my prac quickly learnt to check the class Moodle every day or lesson to
access either the core or supplementary materials.
I maintain safe, supportive environments by setting clear mutually-agreed
upon expectations for classroom behaviour and establishing clear
boundaries with adherence to site behaviour management policy. I
understand and recognise my responsibilities as a Mandatory Notifier, and
promote safe IT practices. I fulfil my responsibilities under WHS&W and risk
management.
Professional Learning
Frequent collaboration with peers expands my teaching ability markedly. I
enjoy any chance to improve my practice and enthusiastically participate in
faculty, school and cross-campus meetings, events and professional
learning opportunities. I regularly collaborate within and across faculties to
share and develop new class materials and learn new pedagogies. My
collegial nature was commended on both pracs for ensuring consistency
across the faculty for shared classes and assessment tasks; at Pembroke I
would often brainstorm and compile lesson ideas with the faculty.
I maintain a wide network of colleagues, both at my current school and
throughout the state and country. I am an active member of the Japanese
Language Teachers Association of SA, and attended our annual conference
and networking dinner earlier this year. My commitment to reflect and
improve my practice is evidenced by my subscription to social media
Japanese accounts, reading academic texts on Foreign Language
Learning, discussions with colleagues, and collating all of these new
pedagogies and resources electronically through a ScoopIT page.
Given the essential role families play in a childs education, I endeavour to
keep close contact with parents and caregivers to foster greater learning
outcomes, for example, posting students task feedback to the schools
online marksbook (visible to parents). I embed myself in the school
community by attending public events such as concerts, fundraisers, etc. At
my first prac I supported the community by donating to the school's St
Vincent de Paul winter appeal and participating in the Biggest Morning Tea.