To further improve my teaching practices, I have enrolled myself in a First Nations Professional Development course through the Australian Education Union. An area that I need to build on in my teaching is education about Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Islander people. Once I am better educated about their culture, I hope to integrate their knowledge (past, present and future) into my Science teaching. This professional development course will share teaching experiences using Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resources in classrooms which I hope to use in my teaching. This course has also been mapped against the following Australia Professional Standards for Teachers (Standard 1.4 and 2.4).

The recent COVID-19 pandemic radically disrupted every aspect of life, including education, and left schools clamoring for systems and structures that ensure a continuation of learning for all students. Remote learning was implemented as a result of lockdowns/quarantines in schools and universities which posed its own challenges due to access and capacity. This lead to development of hybrid learning; a mix of different educational models such as partial opening, synchronous and separated and rotational. The hybrid educational model might become the 'new normal' as educational systems rethink they way content is delivered to students.

Hence, I enrolled myself in the hybrid learning professional development course with Microsoft Educator. A hybrid learning model is a mix of all educational models that creates a learner-centered experience. The hybrid model combines the best of in-school and remote learning, with digital engagement to meet the diverse needs of students.

During my time at Blackfriars, I had a number of students who had adjusted learning plans or who were registered with the NCCD. Hence, I enrolled myself in this course to improve my ability to support these students and to ensure they are given the same opportunities for education and success as other students. This e-learning course improved my understanding NCCD levels of adjustment and categories of disability. It gave me the confidence in understanding the NCCD model by providing real-life examples for me to work through. It linked key content within the NCCD portal including levels of adjustment and category of disability tools, evidential requirements and, resources and information about the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) (1992) and the Disability Standards for Education (DSE) (2005).

The SACE Strategic Planning Webinar emphasised building deep understanding and skillful action – going away from rote learning and recalling within students. Students need to be an active participant in their own learning which is crucial for how they learn in and out of school. We as teachers need to promote life-long learning within our students and to show them that learning does not stop after leaving the classroom. The webinar also talked about promoting human connectiveness within students and to give them a sense of belonging. Sense of belonging largely impacts self-efficacy, behavioural engagement and perceived learning environment which I hope to integrate within my teaching.

As I was given the opportunity to plan the year 10 science unit on Forces and Motion, I set up regular meetings with the Head of Science to. I was able to successfully collaborate and receive constructive feedback of practicals and activities I had planned to do. In the meeting abive, we focused on the flow of the unit and key areas we wanted to emphasize on when teaching. I shared with him my ideas I had for the unit and new practical activities I had found. He gave me a clear idea of how to plan the unit successfully which implemented in my unit plans.

As I did not have access to SEQTA, I planned my lessons on Microsoft Word which I then sent to my mentor to be uploaded onto SEQTA. Attached above is an example of a lesson plan I created with detailed feedback from my mentor. Her feedback included ways to properly structure homework sections as to not confuse the students. I also needed to be clearer with my expectations of the students and revise the amount of work I was setting for them. I have also attached the revised version of the lesson plan after implementing the feedback obtained from my mentor.

In my classes, I had several students on adjusted learning plans. Attached is a summary of adjustments I had made to support their learning in class. After beginning the e-learning course on NCCD (which took me some time to complete), I decided to outline the adjustments I had made for my students thus far to identify areas that I needed to improve in. Thus, I created more comprehensive strategies to create a more positive learning experience for them. These strategies proved useful as the students seemed to be more engaged in classes and showed an improvement in grades for their assessments. Also attached is an extract of the grades obtained by 2 of my students who were on adjusted learning plans in Year 8. After implementing the strategies outlined in the document, it can be seen that their grades progressively increased over the term. Student 1 went form low C's to high B's whereas Student 2 went from high B's to high A's. Student 2 however did not sit for the test due to personal reasons.

To further enhance my knowledge on the need for continued professional learning, I research the benefits of professional learning and its applications. From my research, I gathered that effective professional learning aims to develop key values to becoming an effective teacher. Effective professional learning can improve teacher knowledge, skills and has the power to shift attitudes, behaviours and everyday interactions. I have also outlined the impact of professional learning in the document above.