Australian Teaching

My last week at Fitzroy High School has been bittersweet. As the practicum comes to an end, I am excited to be going home, finishing my degree, and applying for my certificate. However, it is sad that I am leaving Melbourne, and most importantly Fitzroy High School. It is hard to come across a staff and school where everyone is on the same team and is so friendly and welcoming. I hope that one day I can return to Melbourne and be a part of the Fitzroy staff.

Pop Can Crusher Lab

This week started off with finally having the year ten students back from their work experience, therefore I was able to teach my “Look How Cool Science is”, lesson. It was defiantly a different experience teaching year ten students, who are much older than my year six and sevens. I started the lesson by doing some demonstrations, followed by a lab, which students conducted. The lab was a pop can crusher lab, demonstrating the pressure exerted by air. After I followed the lesson by an explosion, which I got a little bit of a reaction out of the students. Lastly, I ended the lesson with allowing students to make their own slime, which they were able to take home. Overall the lesson went very well, however I noticed that with older students, when you think a lesson will take a long while, it actually doesn’t. Older students lack the energy that my younger students have, and they tend to be less disruptive.

On Tuesday, I brought supplies into the school, and during one f our spare blocks, I used the home economics room to bake cupcakes for the tea party we were having on Wednesday with the year 12 physics class. I have found that it has been very easy and satisfying to make connections with the year 12 students. I feel as though I can talk to them on a friend bases, yet also maintain the teacher student relationship when needed.

Materials for Cool Science Lesson

The tea party went very well. I had cupcakes, as well as the Maple Cookies I had brought from Canada. The students brought snacks and treats and we talked about the formal they had on Friday, and what their plans were for next year. I shared my experiences in university and how I came about to being a teacher. We ended the tea party with them teaching me more Australian phrases and I teaching them Canadian ones (although we don’t have many).

The rest of the week flew by, as it was my last week, as well for the students the last week before their two weeks winter holidays. This teaching experience has been one that I will cherish and remember. Being in a high school was very rewarding and I felt as though I learned a lot, which I can take back and use in any teaching scenario that I may be put in, in the near future (hopefully). Secondly and more importantly, teaching in a different country exposed me to a different education system. I learned how the Australian education system and curriculum functions, I learned new techniques used by Australian teachers to engage and teach students, and best of all, I became embedded and exposed to different culture, language and way of life.

I can’t express how happy, and fortunate I was to be able to partake in this practicum placement, and can say, I defiantly look forward to coming back to Australia to teach for a year or two, while I travel and see all the places and towns it has to offer. I have met great people along the way, and living in a hostel, and teaching in a high school has all resulted in great friendships.

My second week in Melbourne has been much easier and more awake. As I cross roads and look to find my way around the city, the places are starting to look very familiar, and I am becoming a professional at taking the trams to get me to the destinations I need. As the weather gets cooler, it has become evident that Melbourne weather is much similar to Vancouver. Lets just say it has a mind of its own. It rains followed by the sun shining, and once in a while a hailstorm. It is surely unpredictable. The coffee in Melbourne is the greatest coffee I have ever had. I can for sure say Melbourne is the coffee capital of the world.

After work snack

At Fitzroy, I started Monday morning, by partaking in a woodworking class. Here if a teacher is away, they usually find internal coverage. Monday morning, we had a free block; therefore we were assigned to the woodworking class. It was great to observe one of the many electives offered by the school. The students were all doing a very good job on their projects. Some were working on bookshelves, skateboards and jewelry boxes. It is amazing to see how creative kids can be if we give them the freedom and option too. The rest of Monday consisted of me running around, preparing, and talking to the lab technicians about my “Cool Science Day”, for the year 10 students next week. I also did trial runs of all the demos, to make sure they work, before I present it to the kids.

Tuesday morning we started the day at a university or as Australians say it “Uni”, in the city. They had provided an information session about how students can apply to different courses at university, and what they need to consider. It was followed by a bit of a gallery walk where students could check out the different universities. It was a great and informative session to learn about how the post secondary education system works. It reminded me of my grade 12 year, when I was nervous about applying to university and figuring out my future. I shared with some students that even though everyone knew I would be a teacher, I had several different career ideas, before I followed through with teaching. I found it very interesting, that unlike North America, applying to universities outside of the sate is not very common in Australia. Most of the students apply to universities in the state they are living, and usually live at home. This is also because there are number of big universities available in one state, and students are generally happy staying in their own city.

Getting Chemicals Ready

Woodworking Classroom

While the year ten students are still on work experience this week, we had some extra sessions to cover for other teachers. The rest of our classes were physics 11, 12 and business management 12. In physics 11, the teacher makes videos of lessons, with examples. This gives the students independence to watch the videos and go at their own pace learning the materials. It creates differentiated learning. The school provides laptops to the year 11 and 12 students, so if students don’t have their own electronic device, they can use the schools to watch the videos. After they have watched a video, the teacher provides questions, and makes himself available for students to be in charge of their own learning, and be successful. The videos are very helpful, and a great tool for promoting self -regulation. The videos take a lot of time and effort to make, however I believe that it is a great learning tool for students.

A Fitzroy Classroom

As the days go by, I am becoming more accustomed to the language, which is very different even though it is English, and as well as the education system. Working with an older age group is extremely different. The number of highly motivated students increases, especially in a physics class, however you still have students that need the extra help with self-regulation, as well as encouragement. I look forward to teaching a lesson, as well as conducting a lab with the year ten students upon their return to school after their two-week work experience.

My first week at Fitzroy high school has been an extremely new and unique learning experience. Although the students and staff speak English, and their curriculum is very similar to the BC curriculum, there are so many different styles, techniques, terms, and subjects that prove I am in fact in a different country.

Fitzroy High School

The teacher I work with teaches science 10 and physics 11 and 12. Upon my arrival, I soon learned that after students have finished grade 6, they enter high school, and once in high school it is not called grade but rather year. Therefore I mainly work with year 10, 11 and 12 students.

The first couple of days, the classes were very small, and we had many prep blocks. This was due to the fact that the year 10 students were on a two-week work experience. Students organize this work experience for themselves and can go to any different work site and grasp an understanding of the different types of work available. On one of the days, I was able to go around the city visiting several students at their work experience sites. I visited childcare centers, mechanic shops, and a architecture company. This program is a requirement component of the year ten curriculums. The same idea is carried out in the year nine curriculums, however in year nine, instead of work experience, once a week, students go off into the community to complete numerous hours of community service. These programs are a great way to get students be active and part of their community, outside of the classroom. These are requirements by the state of Victoria and are a part of the curriculum.

Outside School Grounds

Furthermore, I learned about the different process that takes place when students are applying to university. Similar to the SATs, Australian students partake in SAC tests at the end of their year 12 courses. This score counts as 50% of the score that they apply to university with. The other 50% comes from their classroom work and their classroom teachers. In their year 11 and 12, the focus is heavily on academics, however they also provide opportunities for students who wish to work in trades, to leave school and get the necessary skills that will allow them to be successful in the trades industry. The school provides opportunities for students, outside of academics.

Chemistry Demo

Being in a secondary school provides many different opportunities with conducting laboratory experiments. The school is fully equipped with access to chemicals and laboratory materials. Being a chemistry graduate, I was extremely keen to partake in conducting chemistry demonstrations and labs. I talked to the year 12 chemistry teachers and she invited me to test out the demonstrations that she was going to conduct for her class on Friday. We tested out the reactions, and I was invited to be a demonstrator for her chemistry 12 class onFriday. It was an extremely different experience teaching older students. One of the differences between the grade sixes and twelve’s was the energy level. The grade twelve’s energy level was much lower than the grade sixes which I was used to.

This week was a learning week. I learned a lot about the school itself, as well as how the education system works in Australia. Next week I look forward to taking over some of the year 10 science classes and doing my chemistry demos.