Student Stories:
Excerpt from Agnes Lutow's Reflections on participating in the Summer 2007 Australia Study Tour
The Australia Tour 2007 was by far the most amazing adventure I had gone on in my life. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and I'm so glad I got to participate. Not only was it a great way to learn more about the sustainable school systems, but also we built networking connections for the future. The fact that we got to teach in a classroom for 3 weeks was remarkable, not to mention rewarding in many aspects. We got to learn and even try new teaching methods as well as share some of our own teaching methods with the other teachers at the schools.
Besides all the interaction with the students that we did, I loved interacting with the teachers. I built connections to which I am still communicating with to this day and I intend to for as long as I can. These connections are very beneficial in many ways; not only is it a great way to pass new information you encountered but also if you need teaching advice it is another person you can turn to, to get a different perspective. The more connections a person makes through out their life, the more information they can get a topic they are struggling with. You can get advice from many people and figure out which way would work best for, or you can combine everyone's advice and make a creation of your own.
I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone else who is interested in becoming a teacher. It is a great way to open your mind to different ways of teaching the same subject matter. I know I will keep in mind everything I observed and absorbed on this trip to help me with my future classroom. Not only did I learn about Australia's culture, but also I got to see teachers teach in a different way. I will cherish this experience forever; I can honestly say that this was the best trip and adventure I have ever been on. I saw many things that I probably would not ever get to see in my life and I got to test the waters of teaching in a class all by myself as well as learned many things I can incorporate in my future classroom.
Excerpts from Audrey Mittan's Reflection paper on the
June 2007 Australia Study Tour
My field experience at Nullawarre and District Primary school was an experience I doubt I will ever forget. I was welcomed into the community of students and staff and discovered a different attitude towards education, students, and learning that was very refreshing. I feel that this field experience gave me a taste of student teaching that I would not have received through normal methods course field experience hours. I was totally immersed in the school, all day, every day, and was treated like another staff member. I really gained a lot insight into how to plan my lessons as I helped and observed my teacher teach different subjects. I learned how much work and planning go into a major project/lesson and its instructional design in order to produce the desired product from your students. This field experience brought a whole new dimension to writing lesson plans and helped me understand the goals and practical use of projects I had done for previous education classes. In short, I gained a lot of insight into differences in educational systems, how science can be engaging and applicable, how schools function, and how I function as a teacher.
To begin, my cooperating teacher, Sam Ellis, and my school, Nullawarre District & Primary were simply fantastic and had some great and unique characteristics from which I benefited such as its rural population, small size, and technological capacity and integration. First of all, I have mostly worked in large, diverse suburban schools. Nullawarre was a school of 43 students, all of whom were Caucasian and almost all of whom lived on farms. Nullawarre gave me a chance to work with a completely different population and gave me experience in relating to different students from different backgrounds. I learned a lot about differences in school settings and how rural schools have very different priorities and often different problems from urban or suburban schools.
Secondly, Nullawarre had two classes: grades prep through two and grades three through six. I taught the nineteen students in grades three through six. Not only did this experience give me the benefit of teaching four different grade levels, including one that is typically at middle school level in the United States, but it helped me design lessons for multiple ability and grade levels. I had to create a lesson that could benefit all four grades and make the appropriate modifications so that all students could learn. This experience made me feel more prepared for inclusive classrooms where I will be asked to teach lessons to multiple ability levels and will need to make the necessary modifications to challenge all students.
Finally, another unique characteristic of Nullawarre that was very beneficial was its use of technology. Each classroom had at least six computers (all with internet access) and a smart board. There were enough computers in the school for every student in one of the classes to work on a computer at the same time. My classroom used a smart board almost completely in place of a blackboard or white board and I was able to observe different teachers and specialists use it for classroom management, attendance, multimedia (such as videos), and multiple subjects such as science, French, math, language arts, reading, and SOSE (Study Of Science and Environment). My cooperating teacher was very versed with technology, used the smart board with ease, and encouraged me to incorporate technology into my lesson. Nullawarre's students were extremely well versed in technology, creating power-points, and using the smart board. This demonstrated to me just how capable students as young as eight can be with technology and how much it can aid in their learning if it is consistently integrated into their curriculum. Due to Nullawarre's technological prowess, I was able to practice using a smart board in my lesson and developed an interactive power-point so that students could highlight critical features and write on the power-point itself using the smart board. I also had my students use the computer and internet to research information on energy sources to create a power-point or website to be presented to the class on the smart board. Thus, Nullawarre gave me experience in using different forms of multimedia and integrating them into my lessons.
As far as what I learned about science education, I believe the most prominent thing I took away from this course was an understanding and appreciation for sustainability and environmental education. After reading up on sustainable schools and visiting CERES and sustainable schools in Melbourne, I was interested in incorporating environmental issues and sustainability into my lesson at Nullawarre. I really like the practicality of sustainability and environmental education. I feel that Australia takes a more practical approach to science education where they teach information that is applicable to students' daily lives. In fact, at Nullawarre, instead of "science" I taught "SOSE" (Study Of Science and Environment), an integrated curriculum that applies science to economics, politics, and other social sciences. Again, I feel that this sort of curriculum really helped the students form an understanding of how science affects us and our world, bringing it much closer to home and making it much more engaging. When I teach science in the future I will definitely incorporate sustainability into my curriculum as well as integrate it into other core subject areas.