Reflective Journal

Day 1 18th November

Today was my first day of Community engagement at Sydney Secondary College.
The school was extremely welcoming and organised for my arrival. The head of
Support explained what I would be doing for the day and the coming weeks and
explained how the special needs unit works. There are junior and senior sections
and they are divided into mild support, moderate support and autism classes. All of
these classes have a teacher and a support officer to help the teacher. Over the two
weeks I will be experiencing all of these classes, starting with the junior moderate
support class today.
The positives today were the motivated and educated teachers. I got a real sense
that this was the best possible learning environment for these students. There were
only 5 students in the class today, usually there are 7.
However, I personally did find the experience confronting. My limited experience with
these students caused little things throughout the day to shock me and make me feel
uncomfortable. For example, when two of the students were kissing in class (this
was not condoned by the teacher).
Day 2 - 19th November
Today was sports day however due to wet weather the usual activities did not go
ahead. Again, I was in the junior moderate support class. Today the students were
more familiar with me so they were more outgoing and interacted with me more.
One of the most striking things about today was when the students had time on the
laptops. It was amazing to see that individuals who could not write a full sentence or
concentrate through 5 minutes could competently use the technology, access
information and concentrate through videos. I discussed this with the class teacher
and she agreed and told me that she often used technology for assessment for this
reason.
Day 3 20th November
Today I have moved from the moderate support class to the mild support class. It is
a very different experience. It reminds me much more of a typical primary class in
terms of activities and how the teachers relate to the students.
Over the past few days I have reflected on what I want to do as a teacher. In the
moderate support class I started in it seemed that the teacher was constantly being
challenged by the students (as well as challenging them back!). However, in the mild
support class I saw more that the teacher was just devoting their energy to
challenging the students. As a teacher I would like to challenge my students, not be
challenged by them.

Day 4 21st November

Today I am in the mild support class again.
One question that arouse for me over the past few days is how much content the
classes cover and therefore what syllabus/curriculum documents they use. I thought
that surely it would not be fitting to use the typical stage 4 syllabus documents.
Before I got a chance to ask this question, it was answered for me. The classes work
from a life skills syllabus which is very broad, allowing for different abilities to
participate and teachers freedom to adapt the outcomes. In accordance with this we
did travel training where students learn to read timetables and the skills involved in
using Sydneys public transport systems and practically travel on the transport. The
life skills curriculum sounds like a great idea and I look forward to seeing it in action
more during this engagement experience.
Day 5- 22nd November
One of the things I did today was a cooking lesson over two periods. When I first got
to the class I was curious about how the teacher would get these kids to complete
the task at hand. They were asked to cook fried rice and marinated chicken legs.
This was the first time Ive seen real lesson planning and teaching strategies in
practice. The teacher used a warning system where each child got three warnings
before their finished food product went to the staffroom for lunch. They also used
small group demonstrations rather than whole class demonstrations and they were
very aware of time management.
Day 6 25th November
Something that I noticed during my first week and continued into today was the way
in which the students treat each other. The mainstream students are completely
accepting of the support unit students. In the intergraded roll-call class called
Moomba the mainstream students are accepting of the extra attention the support
students need and are not thrown by them being there at all. Even when one of the
support students is drawing attention to themselves the mainstream students dont
look twice. This is a similar situation in the playground. This accepting attitude within
the school community is so positive and important; I wonder how they create such
open-minded and accepting students?
However, within the support classes this does not seem to continue. This is
especially true within the mild support class. One student is more evidently in need
of support than the others and the other students exclude him for this and sometimes
he chooses to exclude himself. Because it would be impossible to have a separate
class for every support level I think continuing the schools open-minded and
accepting attitude for the support students into the support classes themselves
would be extremely beneficial.

Day 7 26th November

A huge lesson I have learnt at Sydney Secondary College is the importance of
having a flexible, adaptable schedule. At first I thought there was a lack of
organisation and planning. I have seen activities, classes and learning opportunities
be missed quite a lot. For example, this morning the class was meant to have a
morning out which they do every fortnight but it did not go ahead because there was
one student without a permission slip. The next class was meant to be food
technology, when the class got to the room it was already occupied so after 10
minutes of walking around the school we ended up watching a childrens movie. For
students who already miss out on some experiences due to their conditions I found it
frustrating and disappointing to see them miss out on two experiences they had been
looking forward to purely because of lack of organisation, resources and passionate
teaching. However, these experiences were replaced by different learning
opportunities and the students are very flexible and understanding of this. Obviously
their needs to be room for unexpected circumstances within special education
classrooms. This has been a point of discovery for me. Its also made more obvious
the importance of consistency and planning to allow the students a rounded
education.
Day 8- 27th November
Today is the first day that I feel like Im truly comfortable in this environment, I know
my timetable and am beginning to feel more comfortable with the students. It also
seems like the students are beginning to get used to me being around and feeling
more confident in interacting with me! This is really positive, as it allows me to be
more involved in helping them with their class work and getting to know them better.
When I first started in this support unit some of the students were very wary of me,
they didnt even want to introduce themselves. However now they will stop and talk
to me in the halls, ask me questions and listen to me if I try to help them with their
schoolwork. Seeing this progress is really encouraging and makes me realise that I
have achieved something really positive and significant in my time here. Having the
students be more comfortable around me also gives me more of an opportunity to be
involved in their learning, teachers in these classes can always use an extra hand
and I am glad I have been able to provide them with one.
Day 9 28th November
Today I spent the day with the special needs supervisor and her class. She was
really good at getting me involved in the lessons. For maths the class was split into
small groups and one of the groups was mine to work with. During reading time each
student in the class read a chapter of their book out loud to me. Being so involved in
the lessons was really good because I realised how capable I am at teaching these
students.

I also spent a lot of time chatting with the special needs supervisor. During our
conversation I was able to learn about some of the students situations at home. I
learnt two students in the class were either swapped around into different foster
homes or living in refuges. Knowing this background on the students was really eye
opening for me. I dont think Ive ever even met a child in this situation. I think it
would be a difficult thing for an adult or adolescent to deal with regardless of what
else they have going on in their lives. However for a special needs student this would
surely be harder to understand and therefore more of a burden. I also learnt that for
students in this situation their schooling at Sydney Secondary College is the most
constant thing that they have. I think its great that the school is able to be there for
the students who really need it.
Day 10- 29th November
Today is my last day doing community engagement at Sydney Secondary College.
So many aspects of this experience have been totally new to me and I enjoyed every
one of them. Before my time here I had never worked in a high school, a public
school or with special needs students. I really enjoyed all these aspects of this
experience and it has taught me to have an open mind and attitude.
One of the lessons I went to today was music. This was my first music lesson and it
was quite an experience. I was the moderate disability class and they were
rehearsing for a performance they will be doing at the school assembly. They start
with a drum ensemble, which they do as a class. It is obvious that there has been a
lot of work to get them doing that so in time and as a class. A class song follows this
and one student is the lead singer. The lead singer then goes on to sing a song solo.
He is not a gifted singer and he isnt very clear in his pronunciation, however his
confidence and courage is inspiring. The music lesson was a very positive
experience for me, it was great seeing the students engaged and confident in such a
practical way. It was also great seeing them working towards a real life goal (the
school assembly).