Degree Specific Skills

Degree Specific Skills	Explanation	Evidence
Professional Knowledge	This domain encompasses many degree specific skills I have acquired while completing the Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) with CQUniversity. Professional knowledge is the knowledge an educator needs to create engaging learning experiences catering for the learners’ needs in a stimulating, challenging and positive environment. Examples of these are: ·          Knowledge of Curriculum, Essential Learnings and Content Descriptions ·          Planning learning experiences and term/unit overviews. ·          Organising ·          Scaffolding ·          Backward Planning ·          ICT – Information Communication Technology ·          Assessing – Formative and Summative ·          Reporting on student achievements ·          Reflection on program	While completing the BLM at CQU I have developed a deep understanding of the professional knowledge. This was accomplished through completing the many assessment tasks exploring and dissecting the Consulting ACARA documents and the Essential Learnings. I used backward planning to develop and implement Learning Management Plans (LMP) and Learning Experience Plans (LEP) which scaffold the learning journey to the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO) on the curriculum documents. Designing summative assessment tasks with criteria sheets. Also collaborative planning with peers/year level team, HoCs, support teachers, administration and behaviour management teachers.
Supportive Environment	A supportive environment relates to the environment which is created for the learners to learn in. This is not just the classroom but it is also the school and community environment. It involves many different skills. For example: ·          Communication skills ·          Building a rapport ·          Networks and partnerships ·          Developing professional relationships ·          Working in a team with other teachers, Admin, Learning support, parents, etc. ·          Open-door classroom ·          Profile learners ·          Behaviour management ·          Reward –praising appropriate behaviour ·          Dimension 1	Since finishing high school I have taken part in many different sporting groups and many different roles within them. In water polo I have gone from being a player representative to official, coach, referee and coaching coordinator to president of the local club. Within these roles I have developed excellent communication and team work skills. I have been able to develop professional relationships and built a rapport with the players, parents and officials. While on a professional experience within a school setting I have also had these opportunities and succeeded in developing a supportive environment. In providing a supportive learning environment in the classroom I differentiate ILOs to cater for all learners including gifted and talented and learning support students; ability level and mixed ability groupings; oral, aural and kinaesthetic learners’. I am also actively involved in extra curricula activities, providing support, friendship and care for my students. My behaviour management practices focus on being firm, fair and supportive. Treating my students as individuals, with specific strengths and weaknesses whilst upholding clear and high expectations.
Pedagogy	Pedagogy is defined as the art and science of teaching. The professional knowledge is about what is taught; it is about how the curriculum is taught, the strategies used etc. Some of the skills underlying Pedagogy are: ·          Creativeness ·          Life-long learning ·          Strategies for teaching ·          Understanding of how learners learn ·          Dimensions of Learning ·          Profiling Learners	Throughout my time at CQU I have been working with the pedagogical framework the Dimensions of Learning. This framework has become the essence to my teaching strategies. While dimension 1 links with a supportive classroom dimension 2 provides strategies for acquiring and integrating knowledge, dimension 3 for extending and refining knowledge and dimension4 using knowledge meaningfully (Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J., 1997). Understanding how learners learn.  Profiling my learners during my teaching ‘pracs’ include PROBE, PM reading benchmarks, Number Facts assessments, Reading Inventory Profiles, Multiple Intelligences Profile and so on.