EDFX 207/277 Community Engagement

Assessment Task 2: Reflecting on the Experience

Name of Pre-Service Teacher: Rebecca Loomes Student ID:

S00154579

Community Engagement Placement(s): Atherton Gardens Homework club and Sacred Heart
School Fitzroy
Final Due date: 23rd.October 2015
Submission: To be posted onto the LEO unit
This task requires you to reflect on your Community Engagement Placement (CEP) and its impact on:
1. Your understanding of engaging with community
2. Your development as a teacher.
In completing your Reflecting on the Experience you should draw on your approved proposal for
Community Engagement Placement both Attachments 1 & 2 together with your wiki postings
1. Your understanding of engaging with community
Complete the chart below by rating each statement taken from the unit outlines description and learning
outcomes. The rating is from 1 5 with 1 representing strong agreement and 5 representing strong
disagreement. You must add an explanatory comment (this is not optional). You may wish to give an
example here too.
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To what extent has your

placement (s)

Explanatory comment

Assisted you to understand and value

diversity in its many forms therefore
enabling you to cater for diversity
more effectively

This was a really strong aspect for me

during my placement. As majority of
students were from another country,
many could speak two languages and
had different overseas experiences.
Often the students told me about their
home life in Australia and how it was
different. I found that my ability to
understand the lives of these students
did help me to understand diversity
and making sure that they are included
in society. I feel now after undertaking
this placement I will definitely be able
to ensure exclusion and catering to
diversity more effectively as it is
important to value all of Australias
diverse cultures in the classroom.

Enhanced the development of your

understanding of the contextual
factors that impact on the way in
which people live their lives

These students lives are impacted by

their housing, the ability to attend
school, parents income and their
families. Through conversations I had
with students, I found that most
students attend the programs offered
around the school such as homework
club and cubbies. Many younger
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students that I spoke to had many

younger siblings and would often help
their parents look after them after
school. Some students often were late
to school or miss days at school. The
students very much lived in the
community of Fitzroy and the
surrounding gardens and didnt travel
far out from Fitzroy. Many students
were able to pursue interests such as
Basketball in Collingwood which in
order to get their they traveled by tram
by themselves. This was eye opening
for me that they were able to travel by
themselves and provided me with the
understanding of how these students
lives were very different.
Enhanced your critical examination,
promoted reflective practices and
challenged established beliefs

This placement gave me many

opportunities to reflect as often after
the physical education class I would
reflect and think about how the next
lesson could be ran better as their were
8 consecutive physical education
classes and many lessons were very
similar. Being apart of Sacred Heart
School did challenge my beliefs as just
about all students were from another
country and spoke more than one
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language. They would often speak to

the reception staff in Vietnamese rather
than English. I would also personally
reflect after each of my tutoring
sessions about how the student was
learning as I wanted to ensure that my
grade 1 students was gaining the most
from the sessions to help build his
confidence and his learning. This
enabled me to make adjustments to my
teaching to support him.
Encouraged open and flexible
thinking, and responsiveness to
change

This placement did encourage open

and flexible thinking, as I was able to
open my own mind to the differences in
students ability and their interests. The
students really enjoyed basketball as
they all had access to facilities during
after school hours to the local
basketball courts. Due to this the
students undertook many lessons
learning correct technique to play
basketball as this was shown to be
many of their interests. Flexible
thinking was really important during
this placement, as when lessons dont
work out how they were intended they
need to be modified to avoid students
loosing interest. When students werent
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happy with the outcome of a game

using flexible and responsive thinking
was required to attend to the whole
class.
Enabled you to listen to the voices of
marginalised people and, through
reflection, allow such experiences to
impact on your personal and
professional lives as engaged citizens

Most of the students at Sacred Heart

School live in the housing commission
in Fitzroy. I was able to listen to what
the students were saying to improve
the games to make them more
enjoyable for the students such as
making the skill based games more
achievable for some students or more
challenging. These experiences
impacted me as a professional as
during my time spent at Sacred Heart
School I was able to see how diversity
was valued through the school and
staff members. During the physical
education sessions visual examples of
the skill before the class would practice
it as it provided an example for all
students in the class with very different
language abilities.

Provided opportunities for you to

contribute to the life of the
community through the sharing of
personal expertise and time

This was a really strong part of my

placement as during physical education
lessons at Sacred Heart School I was
able to assist school and students on a
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excursion, helping ensure students

were learning the correct technique of
a skill during basketball of tennis,
providing demonstrations to students
of how a skill is performed or used in a
game and sharing ideas for warm up
games. During a tutoring session at
Atherton Gardens homework club I was
able to provide my own expertise in
assisting with mathematics, literacy,
reading and Religious Education.

2. Your development as a teacher

In the following chart identify two changes in your views about learning or your intentions for teaching
because of your participation in your Community Engagement Placement(s). Summarise using the data
from your wiki postings. Feel free to add copies of any creative entries which you may have previously
posted.
My views
about
(identify the
issue or
aspect of
teaching and
learning)

Before my
involvement in
this Community
Engagement
Placement I
thought

1. An
important

Prior to my
placement I didnt

After my
involvement I
think

Give evidence
and indicate from
which source
(e.g. wiki posting,
reflective journal
entry)

Significance of
outcome/achievement
for you

I think that
building trusting

In my online Wiki
posting number

For me this experience

has given me the
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aspect is the
importance
of building
teacher
student
relationships
through
communicati
on.

realise how
important building
relationships with
students were as
previously on
other placements
I have built
relationships with
the students
through getting to
know them.
However I never
thought about the
impact these
could have to
affect a students
learning.

relationships with
students are
extremely
valuable. Through
getting to know
the students and
their likes and
their dislikes in
how and what
they like to learn
ensures that you
can gain full
participation of
every student.

6, I discuss that
through getting
to know students
and build
relationships with
them I was able
to understand
what they
enjoyed about
physical
education as well
as what sports
they enjoyed.
This information
provides the
teacher with
knowledge about
what areas of
physical
education can be
of focus
throughout the PE
sessions. As at
Sacred Heart
School students
mostly enjoyed
basketball
(playing in a

opportunity to value
the importance of
teacher student
relationships and not
to take them for
granted. I think in the
future this knowledge
will be valuable to me
if I have students in
my classes that dont
enjoy writing or
reading but through
using their interests it
may encourage
students to enjoy the
tasks that they are
given. As well as
motivate students
rather than further
demotivating them
about leaning.

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team or with their

friends), which
was made a focus
sport to help
students refine
gross motor skills.
2. An
important
aspect is
changing
lessons and
or the focus
of lesson to
suit the
needs of the
students and
the class.

Prior to placement
I had thought this
was important but
now I feel that I
value this skill.
This is something
I had thought
about before and
have done on
previous
placements
however I had
never seen the
impact it can
have on a whole
group of students
then just an
individual. I think
that this is a very
important skill to
have.

After my
placement I feel
that I now have
an invested value
in this skill after
observing this on
placement, for
such simple
things like
students working
together and
getting along it
made such a
difference to the
students
attitudes towards
each other and
made the
teaching of the
class run
smoother.

In my online post
in week 4 I talked
about that the
focus of the
games were
changed to teach
students about
becoming better
about good
sportsmanship
(accepting defeat
and being kind to
others when they
won). In my
online wiki
posting number 7
I discussed how
over the last few
weeks students
had improved in
the area and
were having

This has given me the

opportunity to value
the use of changing
lessons and foci within
lessons to suit the
needs of the students.
After observing this
happen over weeks it
really did help the
students to improve.
As well as making the
PE class more
enjoyable for
students. This is
something that I will
be able to implement
in my teaching as
often lessons dont go
to plan or even if I
have students that
need tasks to help
them work together. I
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much better
sportsmanship
and were not
discouraging
other students
with their
victories. This
ensured that the
lessons ran a lot
smoother and
that students
were participating
in the games
even if they were
not happy with
the outcome.
Which unlike
previously they
would not
participate and
simply volunteer
themselves to sit
out. From this
experience
students were
able to work in a
team more
efficiently to

have confidence in
myself to be able to
implement this into
my classroom.

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share ideas and

strategies which
gave students
more
opportunities to
engage within the
tasks.

Summing up the experience:

Looking back to your first wiki posting about anticipating the Community Engagement Placement(s)
experience, how would you describe your experience overall? What were the highlights and challenges?
What advice would you offer others undertaking Community Engagement Placement(s) in the future?
Overall I would describe this experience as amazing. Looking back to my first wiki posting the 70 hours I
have undertaken was highly achievable and being able to complete hours at more than one placement
gave much more variability and diversity for me to learn in this environment. This placement at Sacred
Heart Primary gave me opportunities to build an improve students knowledge and understanding of
physical activity as I was able to demonstrate and assist students to use the correct skill when developing
skills to play basketball. From this placement I was able to learn from the teachers about how they were
implementing and programing physical education activity into the educational lives of the students. I was
able to develop this partnership by getting to know the students and what they liked about school. The
homework support program at Atherton gardens was also was also such a valuable experience. Having the
opportunity to work one on one with students is such a great opportunity as I felt that I was able to be
encouraging and motivating to assist the student. I was able to understand how this student learns and
tailor my teaching to suit the needs of the student, so that he could gain the most from the tutoring
sessions. This program helped me to build my own confidence in teaching as over the twelve weeks I was
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able to see the partnership between myself and the student develop as he became confident in himself
and his learning.
The highlights during this placement was being able to help a grade 1 student with their homework as
each week I could see more of his confidence and his ability to complete his homework all by himself. I felt
that for this student this was an achievement for him and it was very rewarding to see him more
achievements each week. Through the 12 weeks his ability to communicate with me progressed greatly as
he would start to talk rather than nod or shake his head. Through encouraging him to communicate his
ability to learn and complete his homework more and more independently started to become evident. For
this student I felt that this had really assisted him to become a better learner. I also loved being apart of
Sacred Heart Schools physical education program, as these skills are still really important for students. For
me this was a highlight to as I was able to help them improve their techniques and skills in basketball and
tennis. Over the seven weeks that I was there I was able to see so many improvements in all the students
participating in the sessions, which I think gave them more confidence in their abilities.
The challenges for me in homework club was getting the grade one student I was tutoring to talk and
explain his thoughts when it came to his answers as he was very shy. I used encouragement for him to
communicate with me as well as asking questions that were open ended so he couldnt just nod or shake
his head. Another challenge was during the physical education classes at Sacred Heart School was getting
some students to cooperate and work together. This was something that was worked on and developed
throughout the seven weeks I was there and being able to see the improvements of the activities put in
place to help students really assisted in teaching the class to work together. For future community
engagement students I would advise them to enjoy it and take all the opportunities they can with unit. As I
have found it to be such an incredible experience to work with such inspiring people who do their best to
ensure the lives of these students is to their highest achievements and provide them with so many other
opportunities that may not be offered. I would also encourage other students to try and choose a
placement that they would enjoy as I feel that I have learnt so much from my experiences through
community engagement that are valuable to my teaching and learning.
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